Shiwaya Peck

Shasta Cascade Native American Visual/Craft/Material Arts

Shiwaya Peck, a member of the Maidu tribe of modern-day Plumas County, has been weaving baskets for nearly sixty years.  She learned as a child from her grandmother, Nellie Peck, and her aunt, the renowned weaver and elder Lily Baker.

As a master artist in ACTA’s Apprenticeship Program in 2014, Shiwaya worked closely with her apprentice Valerie Edwards to develop her skills in the traditional construction and processes of Yamani Maidu burden baskets.  Burden baskets were traditionally used for storage, gathering roots, berries, food, and ethnobotanicals.