Western Mountains Chapter: October Meeting & Program

Speaker: Bryan Whitmore, Graduate Student, Department of Biology, Frostburg State University

Whitmore will discuss adaptations made regarding plants used for Cherokee Basketry as the forests of the Appalachian Mountains change. Traditionally, Cherokee used rivercane to make baskets but with increasing demand for baskets for the tourist trade and decreasing availability of rivercane the art form transition to including new materials including white oak and Japanese honeysuckle. Natural plant dyes were made from bloodroot, yellowroot, black walnut, and butternut. A previously sustainable method of stripping bark from butternut trees from dyes has become detrimental to the trees due to butternut canker disease. The program will focus on decade-long projects that have focused on methods to increasing the sustainability of these resources specifically for Cherokee artisans on the Qualla Boundary of Western North Carolina.

This free program will begin promptly at 7:00 pm; the public is welcome to attend. 

Registration is not required.