EVA SALAZAR KUMEYAAY BIOGRAPHY

EVA SALAZAR, a Kumeyaay Indian from San Jose de la Zorra, Baja California, spent her childhood learning how to make Kumeyaay baskets from her Aunt Celia Silva and mother.  They taught her the coiled basketweaving techniques that the Indigenous California peoples have used for thousands of years for storage, winnowing, cooking, and serving acorn mush.

Today, Eva Salazar makes her Kumeyaay Indian coiled baskets mostly from juncus, a sharp tipped reed known for its toughness. She will typically dye it with black walnut or elderberry and rusty metal before weaving it into her coiled Native American designs. 

In addition to juncus, Eva uses different natural materials in her various types of Kumeyaay basket designs to establish her tribal patterns in the weaving, including wild deergrass, willow, sumac, and yucca.

Not all of Eva's weaving involves basketry, however. She occasionally makes traditional Native American Indian dolls, agave fiber nets, willow bark skirts, and acorn-shell necklaces.

Eva Salazar currently lives in the San Diego area and looks after her lovely family of five children and extended family members.

In addition to weaving daily, Eva Salazar devotes her time to a wide range of support activities, including learning the Kumeyaay language. Eva had hoped to soon speak with her grandmother, Emilia Vega, of the San Jose de la Zorra Kumeyaay band, in their Kumeyaay native language, but Emilia passed on last June at 80 years before Eva could fulfill her dream.

Eva Salazar also teaches basket making several nights per week at local Indian reservations and colleges in an effort to pass on her Kumeyaay traditional basket making skills to others and hopes that others will learn the fine yet practical art of making juncus baskets in the tradition of the Mission Indians of Alta and Baja California.

A supply of Eva Salazar's Kumeyaay artwork, masterpiece basketry and authentic California Native American Indian ethnographic crafts can be purchased from her California Indian store Shumup Ko Hup in Old Town, San Diego.

Eva accepts commissioned orders for fine custom basketry, dolls and other traditional California Yuman artwork, and is available for modeling, cultural exhibition, and teaching.

KUMEYAAY DOCUMENTARIES Indigenous tribes of California Native American Indian documentary series features the Kumeyaay traditional coiled basketry of the San Jose de la Zorra Kumeyaay Indian village, Baja California, Mexico. Also, the Kumeyaay-Paipai traditional clay pottery and basketweavers of Santa Catarina Indigenous community, Baja California, Mexico. KUMEYAAY.INFO showcases the professional photography and journalistic documentation of village inhabitants Indigenous lifestyles, environmental portratis, habitations and pictures of their traditional California Native American arts and crafts.