Why did basket makers make baskets?

Basket weaving was not carried out by all native American groups - only those with access to the required materials. They included the plaited baskets of the Cherokee, Chitimacha, Creek, Nootka and Hopi; twined baskets made by the Tlingit and other northwest coast tribes and by the Pomo and other Califorian groups; and coiled baskets made by the Ojibwe, Navajo, Hopi, Apache, Pima, Pomo, Papago, Yavapai, Havasupai, Chemehuevi, Paiute, Washo, Miwok, Maidu, Yokuts and Mono. Plains tribes occasionally made small bowl-shaped baskets.

In most cases these were utilitarian containers and storage baskets, often with lids provided; some were for washing Indian corn (maize) and others were made waterproof with resin to serve as cooking pots or for fetching water from a stream. The Plains bowls were almost always for use in "dice" games.

Basketry was also used for hats on the northwest coast, for masks among the Cherokee and for cradleboards by the Hupa. Women of the south-western tribes such as the Paiute used huge cone-shaped baskets with chest straps for gathering seeds, nuts and berries and small basket-woven fans for knocking seeds from plants (see link below for an image):