Basket Bridge
Original Airdate: September 18, 2004
Aired: NPR’s Studio 360, Museum, Tribe, Lonewolf

Tucson, Arizona is celebrating one local tribe’s artwork with a new
overpass over a 6-lane highway. The bridge is designed with
traditional patterns of coyote tracks and lizards used by Tohono
O’Odam basketweavers. But, the designer of Tucson’s new bridge isn’t a
basket weaver, or Tohono O’Odam. Rosemary Lonewolf is a Tewa Indian
potter from New Mexico and she took on the Tucson project because she
was sick of seeing tacky appropriations of Indian symbols. Ann
Hepperman and Kara Oehler of KNAU produced our story.