Yes, it is surely a Oklahoma Cherokee basket; Or my captions, as written

Fellow basketry enthusiasts may have seen the traveling exhibition Rooted, Revived, and Reinvented: Basketry in America. Happily for our musuem the exhibition includes a Sea Island basket from the collections of the Mathers Museum of World Cultures. Finding its way into the world now is the exhibition’s catalogue. I saw it for the first time yesterday. Basketry people will certainly aspire to obtain a copy. It has fresh essays and beautifully printed color images. Do not let me note here discourage you if it is on your wish list. (I note in particular Jon Kay’s chapter on oak rod basketry from Brown County, Indiana which gets a lot of valuable information into print for the first time.)

The book has lots of merits, but, the production process was probably of the sort that is more common to commercial publishers and less common at university presses. I did not have a chance to review the page proofs for my chapter (“Native American Basketry from the Multicultural South: Craft, Labor, and Heritage”) and that usually has consequences. I do not propose to track the backstory on the text as a whole here, but I do want to share the text of my original image captions because they provide information that scholars and community basket makers will probably want and because in one case a significant error was introduced in the editing.

The error concerns Figure 8. The basket in this figure is a small buckbrush basket collected by William C. Sturteveant in Northeast Oklahoma. We do not know the maker for this basket, but it is certainly a basket made by a Cherokee person in the territory of the Cherokee Nation in present-day Oklahoma. In being simplified, my “Cherokee Nation” and “Eastern Oklahoma” was transformed into Eastern Band Cherokee, which is a misrepresentation.

Below is a picture of the basket in question along with the original text of my captions, which provide catalog numbers or temporary inventory numbers and collection details where available. The chapter in question is:

Figure 8, Basket, 20th Century, Unknown Craftsperson Cherokee Nation, Eastern Oklahoma, Buckbrush, National Museum of Natural History, WCS-528, William C. Sturtevant Collection

Figures

Figure 1
Double-woven Basket and Lid, ca. 1973
Rowena Bradley (1922-2003)
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians
Qualla Boundary, North Carolina
River Cane
Mathers Museum of World Cultures 1973-19-0011

Figure 2
Single-woven Gathering Basket, ca. 1958
Unknown Craftsperson
Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians
Philadelphia, Mississippi
River Cane
National Museum of Natural History WCS-580
William C. Sturtevant Collection

Figure 3
Fruit Basket, ca. 1973
Julia Taylor (1902-1991)
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians
Qualla Boundary, North Carolina
White Oak
Mathers Museum of World Cultures 1973-19-0006

Figure 4
Riddle Basket, ca. 1950
Unknown Craftsperson
Seminole Tribe of Florida or Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida
Southern Florida
Palmetto
Mathers Museum of World Cultures 1984-06-0016
Gift of Hilda J. Davis

Figure 5
Tray, ca. 1950
Unknown Craftsperson
Seminole Tribe of Florida or Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida
Southern Florida
Sweetgrass, palmetto fiber, cotton or cotton blend embroidery thread
Mathers Museum of World Cultures 1984-06-0006
Gift of Hilda J. Davis

Figure 6
Basket and Lid, ca. 1950
Unknown Craftsperson
Seminole Tribe of Florida or Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida
Southern Florida
Sweetgrass, palmetto fiber, cotton or cotton-blend fabric, glass beads, cardboard,
Mathers Museum of World Cultures 1984-06-0001
Gift of Hilda J. Davis

Figure 7
Chicken Effigy Basket, 20th Century
Rose Jackson-Pierite
Choctaw-Biloxi
Louisiana
Pine needles, raffia
National Museum of Natural History WCS-T6
William C. Sturtevant Collection

Figure 8
Basket, 20th Century
Unknown Craftsperson
Cherokee Nation
Eastern  Oklahoma
Buckbrush
National Museum of Natural History WCS-528
William C. Sturtevant Collection

Figure 9
Vase-Shaped Basket, ca. 1973
Lucy N. George
Honeysuckle, white oak
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians
Qualla Boundary, North Carolina
River Cane
Mathers Museum of World Cultures 1973-19-0008

Figure 10
Hamper, ca. 1958
Unknown Craftsperson
Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians
Conehatta, Mississippi
River Cane
National Museum of Natural History WCS580
William C. Sturtevant Collection