Giving art a hand

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Giving art a hand

By Sarah Kucharski • Staff Writer

David Cozzo, director of the Revitalization of Traditional Cherokee Artisan Resources project, stands on a small stage in the Mountain Heritage Center at Western Carolina University in front of a crowd of about 15 middle-aged audience members.

Holding up a hand-woven basket about the size of a Christmas popcorn tin, he marvels at the amount of time and effort required to make such a piece.

“It takes a lot to make one of these baskets,” Cozzo says.

The basket — valued at $900 to $1,200 — is made from rivercane, a native plant similar to bamboo that grows throughout the Southeast. Like bamboo, rivercane grows in moist soil, most often near creeks; however, the plant is smaller both in height and in diameter, growing 6 to 8 feet tall and the width of a man’s finger, and is a darker green in color.

“After you’ve worked with it a little while you can recognize it,” said Cherokee artisan Davy Arch.

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To make a basket about the size of the one Cozzo holds would require approximately 100 cane stalks. But due to artisans’ highly selective process of harvesting cane to work with, and a decreasing rivercane population region-wide, finding the resources to continue such native crafts is has become more difficult.

“It’s down to 2 percent of its natural territory,” Arch said.

Rivercane once was used as an all-purpose material — its shoots were eaten, its stalks used for cattle forage, housebuilding, blowgun and arrow making, splints from its outer hull used in chair caning and basket making — by all native tribes in the South. Cane breaks could be managed as long-term crops growing from a single rhizome, that spread easily, maturing after about four years and dying back only after blooming every decade or so.

But as European settlers brought over foreign diseases, wiping out native populations and thereby emptying villages, unmanaged rivercane crops spread, growing so thick as to become near forests.

“Now at once opens a view, perhaps, the most extensive canebrake that is to be seen on the face of the whole earth... The canes are 10 feet in height, and as thick as an ordinary walking-staff; they grow so close together, there is no penetrating them without previously cutting a road,” wrote explorer William Bartram in the Travels of William Bartram, published in 1791.

That once prolific growth has been counteracted over the years.

“So much of it has gone the way of the bulldozer, development and tourism,” said Eve Miranda, executive director of the Appalachian Heritage Alliance, which works as a resource agency connecting heritage preservation programs with those bearing similar interests.

Consequently, the Revitalization of Traditional Cherokee Artisan Resources project (RTCAR) — funded by the Cherokee Preservation Foundation and operated through the Cherokee Studies program at Western Carolina University — is working to preserve and protect the uniqueness of Cherokee traditional art and natural resources for future generations.

Cultural significance

While rivercane was used throughout the Southeast, from Pennsylvania to Northern Florida and as far west as Texas, the plant carries particular weight in Cherokee culture.

“It is what the Cherokee consider their signature material,” Cozzo said.

Today, the plant’s usage is less utilitarian and more artisan-based, as basketry is its primary medium. Basketmaking begins with selection of cane.

“Usually I look for the color of the cane first,” Arch said.

Mature cane is a darker green, and color is one of the few indicators of a canebreak’s age, as cane grows its full height in its first year, Arch said. Cane is best harvested at four years of age or older. Straight canes, with long sections between joints, are best.

“The longer the section, the better the product,” Arch said.

In each canebreak, selecting quality cane is largely a matter of opinion — often severely limiting the quantity cut.

“I just remember being in there for four hours and coming out with 16 pieces of cane,” said artisan Charles Taylor of his first harvesting experience as a child.

The cane is quartered and then its outer layer peeled off to make strips for weaving. Dying cane is harder than dying other traditional weaving materials such as white oak, as it is less porous and does not take dye as well.

The difficulty of making rivercane baskets weeds out many potential artisans, contributing to the medium’s loss. Within the Cherokee community there exist only 20-30 rivercane basketmakers, versus 100 to 200 white oak basketmakers, Arch said.

Consequently, the issue becomes double-edged — it’s not just about preserving rivercane to continue the art, but teaching the art to preserve the heritage.

“No one focuses on that kind of information anymore,” Arch said, explaining how the increase of affordable housing and modern conveniences, while nice, have destroyed the concept of generations living together under one roof. “The information we got from casual contact has been omitted from a lot of young people’s lives.”

Artists’ supply

Rivercane is not the only Cherokee resource threatened by increasing development and privatization of lands. Plants such as bloodroot, yellow root, butternut and black walnut, which are used for native dyes, white oak, which is used for basketweaving, and stones and clays for carving and pottery also are being depleted.

The RTCAR project also addresses these resources, helping to provide artisans like Louise Goings with the materials needed to continue her family’s work.

“My mom had eight children, and all of us have made baskets at one time,” said Goings, who has demonstrated basketry with her mother at the Festival of American Folk-life at the Smithsonian Institution and at the Natural History Museum of the Smithsonian.

One of Goings sons now makes baskets and two of his three children do too. The entire family works with white oak.

“What the basketmakers need is a certain quality of white oak,” Cozzo said.

A usable white oak tree must grow straight and tall, with no branches for the first six feet from the ground up. The trees are cut into splints, which are hand-planed to be smooth. The longer the splint, the bigger the basket.

After splints are made, they can be dyed using native materials.

“We gather our dyes from bloodroot and different parts of the walnut tree and we still do a little bit of the butternut dying and a little bit of the yellowroot dyeing,” Goings said. “When we dye it we just use a large washtub like they used long ago.”

The splints are put in a washtub of water, which is boiled for about eight hours with approximately a grocery bag full of dye materials and a bit of baking soda to help the color fast. After dyeing, the splints are dried, then woven.

“The weaving’s not the hard part of the basket,” Goings said with a laugh. “Anybody can weave.”

Goings gets most of her material from an independent retailer who sells to several Cherokee artists. While a middleman of sorts, the retailer helps bridge the gap between the harvest and the product.

“It’s not like in the old days,” Goings said. “You know in the old days people didn’t care if you went on their land and cut a tree down.”

What’s being done

The RTCAR project, in conjunction with the Appalachian Heritage Alliance, is helping to pair artisans with landowners who are willing to grow resources on their land to be used for native crafts.

“We have anywhere from those that own a couple acres to those that own hundreds of acres that are willing to allow land for planting,” Miranda said.

The AHA works mostly in Cherokee, Clay and Graham counties, plus the Qualla Boundary, to help re-establish artisan resources. It also has made contacts in Jackson and Macon counties.

The idea of using natural products and helping to prevent native plants from becoming extinct is what developed Macon County resident Valli Prebor’s interest in offering her land for rivercane growth.

“It’s also not a real used piece that I had cleared out because I had planned on having my garden there,” Prebor said. The land ended up being too wet for vegetables, but hopefully just right for rivercane. “If it really liked the spot, I think it might get an acre.”

Cherokee County Agricultural Extension Agent Keith Wood also has gotten hooked in with AHA to help restore rivercane along the stream that runs through his personal property in Murphy.

“It’s native to the area and it does well in holding the soil,” Wood said.

In addition to providing great erosion protection, the rivercane also serves as cover for chipmunks, rabbits, songbirds and snakes.

“Anything that needs to hide,” Wood said.

Adding to the science of rivercane is Rob Young, an associate professor in Western Carolina University’s Geosciences and Natural Resources Management department. Young is teaming up with fellow researchers to locate cane breaks throughout the region and find better ways to help restore the plant, as little is known about why rivercane grows where it does and about its genetic and biological makeup.

The idea is to use satellite imagery to analyze rivercane from the air, get a spectral reading and then use that reading to help locate other cane breaks without having to search for them by foot.

“We will primarily serve as a sort of data or an information clearing house for folks who are doing cane work,” Young said.

For more information about the Revitalization of Traditional Cherokee Artisan Resources project visit www.rtcar.org. To learn more about native art classes contact the Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual at 828.497.3103 or visit www.cherokeeheritagetrails.org. And to report a cane break or get involved with the Appalachain Heritage Alliance call 828.321.9030 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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