This was originally published on Jan. 14, 2024

LITTLETON, Maine – There is an ancestral rhythm to the pounding of the ash tree as the basket maker works. Without those who pound the ash, there would be no traditional baskets.

And as Mi’kmaq Nation Vice Chief Richard Silliboy pounds the heartwood of the ash tree with the back of an ax inside his Littleton studio, he is preserving the art of his people.

When Silliboy, 76, went out into the community to survey the basketmakers while working for the Mi’kmaq Nation, he realized that only a few were able to go out and get their own wood and most were buying the wooden splints for weaving.

“I realized that It’s a dying art and there are only a few families up here who know how to get the wood,” he said. “If these few families pass away, who i

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