Artists from the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians recently were able to harvest river cane needed for baskets through the revival of a 60-year-old agreement by staffers with the Revitalization of Traditional Cherokee Artisan Resources, an initiative operated through Western Carolina University’s Cherokee studies program.

RTCAR (pronounced “Are Tee Car”) was established in 2004 to help ensure that craft materials are available to Cherokee artists, including basket-makers, potters, wood and stone carvers, weavers and metalworkers, by addressing the dwindling supply of materials such as river cane, clay, dye plants, white oak and carving stone. RTCAR also supports projects that promote Cherokee craft through education and exhibitions. The two-person RTCAR office, located on U.S. 19 near Bryson City, receives its funding from the Cherokee Preservation Foundation, and to date has distributed $1.2 million in grants, including $180,000 for projects through WCU.

Typically RTCAR indentifies and then funds nonprofit organizations connected to the sustainable natural resources needed to create traditional Cherokee art. In this case, however, David Cozzo, project director, and Beth Johnson, community development specialist, turned to an existing river cane harvesting agreement between the Eastern Band and a Kentucky festival. A 1948 “cane treaty” created by organizers of the Daniel Boone Festival in Barbourville, Ky., guaranteed Eastern Cherokee access to “cane for as many baskets as they can make.” The festival, still in existence, now includes music, craft demonstrations, competitions and a parade.

After learning of the cane treaty, Johnson and Cozzo contacted organizers of the annual event. This past spring, the RTCAR staffers, along with Tom Hatley (WCU’s former Sequoyah Distinguished Professor of Cherokee Studies) joined Bill Frazier, a program director for the Daniel Boone Festival, to scout potentially promising cane stands in the Cumberland River area.

River cane is the only genus of bamboo native to the United States, and it used to be in plentiful supply along area rivers. Cherokee basket-makers also will work with honeysuckle, maple and white oak, but river cane is the most traditional of basketry materials, and artists crave mature, tall, straight cane with a large diameter and no offshoots. As in Western North Carolina, river cane in the Cumberland River area has diminished over the years for a number of reasons, including development and agriculture. However, said Johnson, “We found some on property that belonged to the city, and other stands that were on privately owned farmland.”

RTCAR led a caravan on Oct. 1 to Barbourville to harvest one of the canebrakes. Eastern Band members Lucille Lossiah, Betty Maney (shown harvesting cane, above right), Geraldine Walkingstick, John Ed Walkingstick and Roscoe Youngdeer all participated, and Johnson and Cozzo cut cane for weavers from Cherokee High School. The group returned with several bundles and anticipates future harvests in the area. Maney returned to Barbourville for this year’s festival, Oct. 5-11, to hold basket-weaving demonstrations. She and Principal Chief Michell Hicks both participated in a ceremonial signing of the cane treaty. 

RTCAR is in the process of developing harvesting agreements with individual landowners in the region, Johnson said. “Kentucky was kind of the start of that,” she said. “It’s so complicated because every piece of property is different.”

For more information about RTCAR, call (828) 554-6856 or visit www.rtcar.org.

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Last modified Thursday, Nov. 6, 2008.