Grass Basket
Agnes Thompson recalls growing up on Atka Island, watching her mother weave baskets and thinking how beautiful her mother's baskets were. Although her mother, Olean Prokopeuff, grew up on Atka Island, she married a man from Attu and learned the classical Attu style of basket making. It wasn't until Anges became an adult, that she learned the craft through practice, and occasional laughter from her observing mother. She recalls "watching over Mom's shoulder and getting down on the floor to look up to see what her fingers were doing. She would never slow down to tell me exactly what she was doing." After beginning with a piece that her mother had started, repeatedly weaving and reweaving until she got it right, Agnes finished a month's work and her first small basket.