The Chippewa and Potawatomi use the bark and wood of black ash trees in southwest Michigan — the same tree that the Seneca and Onondaga Iroquois harvest in upstate New York.

Navajo basketmakers in New Mexico and Arizona harvest sumac for their colorful flat vessels.

People of the Haida Nation in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska collect red and yellow cedar.

Cherokees in Oklahoma weave with buckbrush and honeysuckle.

Native people have long used materials from their homelands to make containers. While pottery crafted from regional clay consistently captures the attention of collectors, basketry has not always enjoyed a prominent spot among artisans.

That's all changed now. This year's Best of Show at Indian Market went to a basketweaver from the Passamaquoddy tribe in Maine.

Jeremy Frey brought seven pieces to the market, and had sold all of them before 9:30 a.m. The buyer of his prize-winning basket — a collector from Arizona — waited by Frey's booth all night Friday to secure it, standing there even through a terrific thunderstorm that dumped more than an inch of water on the city.

Frey, 32, also won Best of Show for a basket at this year's Heard Museum Guild Indian Fair & Market in Arizona.

It's obvious to him that there is a resurgence of the art form's popularity.

"There are a lot of young people weaving baskets back home," Frey said. "I don't know what it is, but it's great to be a part of that."

"I knew a basket could win Best of Show. Sure enough, one did, but not mine," said Loa Ryan, who on Lincoln Avenue displayed her red and yellow cedar baskets from the Tsimshian Nation. "I believe it is coming back. Now, whether we can keep the interest of the young is another problem. I was raised where we stored our food in these baskets. It was more of a lifestyle for us."

In the booth right next to Frey's, a Haida basketmaker had only two pieces remaining on her table just before 10 a.m.

"We were kind of nervous about the stock market and how it would affect us, but no one has even mentioned it," said Diane Douglas-Willard, who lives near Seattle and was one of a half-dozen basketweavers from the same region whose booths were located near one another.

A few blocks away in Cathedral Park, another contingent of artists from the Pacific Northwest had settled in. About 80 people traveled with the Sealaska Native Corporation and the Sealaska Heritage Institute, including dancers, storytellers and artists.

Holly Churchill's family has been part of the basket renaissance among the Haida people. She learned from her grandmother and from her mother, who taught uncountable others the traditional methods for collecting cedar and shaping it into baskets. Douglas-Willard, for example, learned from Dolores Churchill.

"She took it upon herself to teach anyone and everyone who wanted to learn. She thought it was how people could get to know Haida and she just thought that it would be a friendlier world if everyone made baskets," Churchill said of her mother. "What connects us as human beings, as gatherers, are the vessels that we need to learn how to harvest and store."

The large group of artists from the Northwest was joined by artists from the First Nations in Canada, who were welcomed to the market for the fist time this year. Previously, only those with tribal memberships in United States-based groups could participate. Historically, two-thirds of participating vendors are from New Mexico's 19 pueblos.

Collector Shari Ross saw something special in Churchill's work: authenticity. She handed over four $100 bills to purchase a small women's work basket.

"A lot of weavers are doing contemporary baskets with waxed linen. I really wanted something made with the materials they have been using forever," she said. "I have a big collection, I just don't have any Native American Alaska art."

Contact Julie Ann Grimm at 986-3017 or jgrimm@sfnewmexican.com.