Cherokee Traditions: From the Hands of our Elders
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Arts And Crafts: Peace Pipe 2

Peace Pipe 2 pattern
Peace Pipe 2 pattern

This lidded basket was made by Lottie Queen Stamper, one of Cherokee's best-known basket weavers. The basket and lid are rectangular, one fitting inside the other. Walnut hulls were used to dye the rivercane and to achieve the dark brown color on the bottom half; bloodroot was used to give the top its orange color. The design in the basket is a version of the traditional Cherokee Peace Pipe design, with the "pipes" running in bands horizontally around the basket. This is possibly the last basket Lottie Stamper ever made. Born in the Soco community to Levi and Mary Queen, Lottie first learned how to make white oak and pine needle baskets from her mother. She married into a family that taught her how to make baskets from rivercane. In 1935, at the age of 28, she started making cane baskets. In 1937 she began teaching basketmaking at the Cherokee School. Over her teaching career, she taught hundreds of girls to weave baskets.


 

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