Pat Courtney Gold

Fiber artist and basket weaver

What is Pat Courtney Gold known for?

Pat Courtney Gold (born in the Warm Springs Reservation, Oregon) was an alumni of Madras High School, graduating in 1957. Born on January 22,1939, she lived until July 11, 2022. Gold was a Wasco Native fiber artist and esteemed basket weaver from Oregon's Columbia River area.

Prior to her career in basket weaving, she graduated with a Bachelor's in Mathematics and Physics from Whitman College and worked as a mathematician-computer specialist. She carved out a special place for herself in the world of fiber art, harvesting traditional plant fibers like dogbane, cattail, sedge grass, red cedar bark, and tree roots for her work.

Her art often echoed the natural world along the Columbia River, blending conventional motifs like condors and sturgeons with contemporary figures such as airplanes. She also transformed into an environmental and cultural educator, sharing knowledge of her ancestral heritage and basketry skills.

Gold's art has gained recognition worldwide, and her works have been displayed in renowned museums such as the High Desert Museum, the Royal British Columbia Museum, the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University, and the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. She was also featured in a 2007 episode of the PBS series Craft in America.

In her personal life, Gold was born and raised on the Warm Springs Reservation in central Oregon. Early in her life, she was exposed to the artistry surrounding her, with her mother being an adept beadworker. They would often visit local art museums where their ancestors' baskets were on display. She initially worked as a mathematician for 17 years before deciding to pursue the art and culture of her people, primarily focusing on their traditional weaving techniques.

In 1991, she began studying the creation of "sally bags," flexible cylindrical baskets traditionally made by the Wasco-Wishram people through the Oregon Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program. She subsequently became one of the leading experts and teachers in this style.

She has penned articles like "The Long Narrows: The Forgotten Geographic and Cultural Wonder" which was published in the Oregon Historical Quarterly in Winter 2007.

Gold's contribution to her field and her community didn't go unnoticed. She received an Oregon Governor's Arts Award in 2001, a Community Spirit Award in 2003, and a Cultural Capital Fellowship in 2004 from the First People's Fund. Her crowning achievement was when she received the National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2007. This is the highest honor given in the folk and traditional arts by the United States government.