Lidded "point" basket by Passamaquoddy basket maker Jeremy Frey, six inches wide and five inches high, of traditional black ash with woven top ring.

Jeremy Frey is a Passamaquoddy basket weaver in Maine who comes from a long line of native weavers. He specializes in ash fancy baskets, a traditional form of Wabanaki weaving. His work has been featured in the Changing Hands exhibit at the Museum of Art and Design in New York City, and his pieces are in the Smithsonian, as well as many other prominent museums around the country.

In addition to many Best of Basketry awards, Jeremy won Best of Show at the Santa Fe Indian Market and at the Heard Museum Market in Phoenix in 2011. This is only the second time that someone has won both shows in the same year and the first time a basket weaver has achieved this honor at the Santa Fe Indian Market in its more than 90-year history.

Countless hours go into one of these Native baskets. Jeremy scours the forests for suitable black ash trees, brings the 300-pound logs home, pounds them for many hours to separate the tree rings to create the splints, sizes and sometimes dyes the splints, makes wooden molds around which the baskets are woven and then weaves the basket.

The emerald ash borer from Asia is destroying the black ash trees traditionally used by Native basket makers. Because of predictions that all the usable ash trees will be gone within ten years, Jeremy has begun to experiment with other materials in order to be prepared for the loss of the black ash.