burden basket

plural burden baskets

1. A basket fitted with a strap or straps to allow it to be carried on the back with the carrier's arms free.

   A cedar-root burden basket of her own weaving was slung across the woman's back, steadied by a woven pack strap worn across the chest. Women of some tribes wore the strap across their foreheads, pushing their heads forward against the burden's weight.

   1942, Emily Carr, “East and West”, in The Book of Small, Toronto, Ont.: Oxford University Press, →OCLC

   1 more example

   2007, Dennis Slifer, Kokopelli: The Magic, Mirth, and Mischief of an Ancient Symbol, Gibbs Smith, Chapter 3, p. 109, […] the hump on some figures' backs may sometimes represent a burden basket, which was employed throughout northern Mexico, and at Hopi was used along with a supporting forehead strap.

   Synonyms: carrying basket