Cherokee Basketry

A tradition that dates back almost ten thousand years, basketry is an integral aspect of Cherokee culture. In the mountains of Western North Carolina, stunning baskets are still made from rivercane, white oak and honeysuckle and dyed with roots and bark. Cherokee Basketry describes the craft’s forms, functions and methods and records the tradition’s celebrated makers. This complex art, passed down from mothers to daughters, is a thread that bonds modern Native Americans to ancestors and traditional ways of life. Anna Fariello, associate professor at Western Carolina University, reveals that baskets hold much more than food and clothing. Woven with the stories of those who produce and use them, these masterpieces remain a powerful testament to creativity and imagination.

Author Biography

Anna Fariello is currently an associate research professor at Western Carolina University, where she is building the Craft Revival digital collection and directing From the Hands of our Elders, a project to document twentieth-century Cherokee arts. She is a former research fellow at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art and Archives of American Art in Washington, D.C., and former field researcher for the Smithsonian Folklife Center. She is co-author of the textbook Objects and Meaning: New Perspectives on Art and Craft and was visual art editor for the Encyclopedia of Appalachia.