Terrol Dew Johnson
Encyclopedia
Terrol Dew Johnson is a contemporary Tohono O'odham
basket
weaver and health advocate, promoting traditional foods to prevent diabetes.
. Johnson began weaving at the age of ten. “It was the only thing I was good at,” the artist has been quoted as saying, “I’ve always been touchy-feely and good with my hands –I could do this with my hands, and it was fun!” His parents actively encouraged his interest in basketry, particularly his mother, Betty Ann Pancho.
, devil’s claw
, and gourd
s. He is most known for his gourd baskets, in which pieces of the gourd are cut away and the negative space is filled with finely woven bear grass.
Johnson has won major top awards at Santa Fe Indian Market
, O’odham Tash (the Tohono O'odham annual festival held in February), the Heard Museum Indian Market
, and the Southwest Museum
’s Indian Art Fair.
s, mesquite
beans, cholla
(cactus) buds, chia seeds, squashes, acorns, and saguaro cactus fruit and syrup.
TOCA has received widespread recognition. For his efforts with TOCA, Johnson was named one of the top 10 community leaders in 1999 by the Do Something
organization. The US President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities gave TOCA the Coming Up Taller Award in 2001. In 2002 both Johnson and Reader won the Ford Foundation
's Leadership for a Changing World Award.
Tohono O'odham
The Tohono O'odham are a group of Native American people who reside primarily in the Sonoran Desert of the southeastern Arizona and northwest Mexico...
basket
Basket
A basket is a container which is traditionally constructed from stiff fibres, which can be made from a range of materials, including wood splints, runners, and cane. While most baskets are made from plant materials, other materials such as horsehair, baleen, or metal wire can be used. Baskets are...
weaver and health advocate, promoting traditional foods to prevent diabetes.
Background
Terrol Dew Johnson is Tohono O'dham from Sells, ArizonaSells, Arizona
Sells is a census-designated place in Pima County, Arizona, United States. The population was 2,799 at the 2000 census. It is the capital of the Tohono O'odham Nation and the home of several of their tribal businesses, such as Tohono O'Odham Ki:Ki Association...
. Johnson began weaving at the age of ten. “It was the only thing I was good at,” the artist has been quoted as saying, “I’ve always been touchy-feely and good with my hands –I could do this with my hands, and it was fun!” His parents actively encouraged his interest in basketry, particularly his mother, Betty Ann Pancho.
Basketry
He uses plant materials traditional to his tribe in his work but in experimental in his weaves and techniques. One of his pieces is, Quilt Basket: a virtuoso display of different weaving techniques, suspended from a single branch. The materials he uses include bear grass, yuccaYucca
Yucca is a genus of perennial shrubs and trees in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Agavoideae. Its 40-50 species are notable for their rosettes of evergreen, tough, sword-shaped leaves and large terminal panicles of white or whitish flowers. They are native to the hot and dry parts of North...
, devil’s claw
Proboscidea (genus)
Proboscidea is a genus of flowering plant in the family Martyniaceae, some of whose species are known as devil's claw, devil's horn, ram's horn, or unicorn plant. The plants produce long, hooked seed pods. The hooks catch on the feet of animals, and as the animals walk, the pods are ground or...
, and gourd
Gourd
A gourd is a plant of the family Cucurbitaceae. Gourd is occasionally used to describe crops like cucumbers, squash, luffas, and melons. The term 'gourd' however, can more specifically, refer to the plants of the two Cucurbitaceae genera Lagenaria and Cucurbita or also to their hollow dried out shell...
s. He is most known for his gourd baskets, in which pieces of the gourd are cut away and the negative space is filled with finely woven bear grass.
Johnson has won major top awards at Santa Fe Indian Market
Santa Fe Indian Market
Santa Fe Indian Market is an annual art market held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA over two days on the weekend after the third Thursday in August and draws an estimated 100,000 people to the city from around the world. The Market was first held in 1922 as the Indian Fair and was sponsored by the...
, O’odham Tash (the Tohono O'odham annual festival held in February), the Heard Museum Indian Market
Heard Museum
The Heard Museum of Native Cultures and Art is a museum located in Phoenix, Arizona, USA. There is also the Heard Museum North Scottsdale branch in Scottsdale and the Heard Museum West branch in Surprise....
, and the Southwest Museum
Southwest Museum
The Southwest Museum of the American Indian is a museum, library, and archive located in the Mt. Washington area of Los Angeles, California. It is part of the Autry National Center. Its collections deal mainly with the American Indian...
’s Indian Art Fair.
Tohono O'odham Community Action
With his business partner Tristan Reader, Terrol Johnson founded Tohono O’odham Community Action or TOCA in 1996. The nonprofit community development organization operates a basketry cooperative and as well as farming and selling native foods. The Tohono O'odham tribe has the highest rate of adult-onset diabetes of any ethnic group in the world. TOCA's Tohono O'odham Community Food System provided traditional desert foods to tribal members as a way of combating the disease and promoting health and sustainability. Foods provided by TOCA include tepary beanTepary bean
Phaseolus acutifolius, the Tepary bean, is native to the southwestern United States and Mexico and has been grown there by the native peoples since pre-Columbian times. It is more drought-resistant than the common bean and is grown in desert and semi-desert conditions from Arizona through Mexico...
s, mesquite
Mesquite
Mesquite is a leguminous plant of the Prosopis genus found in northern Mexico through the Sonoran Desert and Chihuahuan Deserts, and up into the Southwestern United States as far north as southern Kansas, west to the Colorado Desert in California,and east to the eastern fifth of Texas, where...
beans, cholla
Cylindropuntia
Cylindropuntia is a genus of cacti , containing the chollas. They were formerly treated as a subgenus of Opuntia but have now been separated based on their cylindrical stems and the presence of papery epidermal sheaths on the spines...
(cactus) buds, chia seeds, squashes, acorns, and saguaro cactus fruit and syrup.
TOCA has received widespread recognition. For his efforts with TOCA, Johnson was named one of the top 10 community leaders in 1999 by the Do Something
Do Something
Do Something is a non-profit organization that motivates young people to take action around social changes through national campaigns and grants for projects that make an impact. The organization's CEO is Nancy Lublin, who founded Dress for Success in 1996.-History:The organization was co-founded...
organization. The US President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities gave TOCA the Coming Up Taller Award in 2001. In 2002 both Johnson and Reader won the Ford Foundation
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....
's Leadership for a Changing World Award.