The association of root-runner basket forms in America would show a
number of instances of use of a “Rod” as a one rod foundation for coiled
baskets occurring originally in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and on the
plains.[1] This technologically simple form of basket building material
has implications bearing upon the age and area theory that challenges
attention on a wider scale. Apart from the coiling process, a single rod
construction appears in the Southeast in wicker work. What conclusions a
broader study of single rod basketry (to which class the root runner
series belongs) in any of its constructional forms, whether in coiling
or wicker work, would lead to is quite beyond the purpose of this
article.
It is the intent of the writer to record a simple phase of basketry
technique in the southern middle Atlantic slope and the northern part of
the south and southeast area, as it applies to the Cherokee of the North
Carolina highlands and of Oklahoma. In these areal habitats the two
subdivisions of the tribe make use of three diverse plant types, the use
of which in basketry construction in some districts does not overlap or
coincide. In Carolina an earlier root-runner style has either passed out
of memory or never existed among the Cherokee Indians, but came in later
through acculturative changes. As far as has been ascertained, all fine
root runner fibers used in the making of Indian baskets belong to two
family groups, the botanical names of which are Caprifoliceae and
Crataegus.
To the first family group belong:
Japanese Honeysuckle (Lonicera Japonica)
A vine introduced into America from Asia around 1906.[2]
Buckbrush (Symphoricarpos Orbiculatus)
Also called Indian Currant and Coral Berry.
To the second family belong:
Wild Hawthorne (Crataegus Crus Galli)
The Yuki Indians of California made a basket out of the stems of a
native honeysuckle (Lonicera Interrupta). It, however does not
have fine root runners.[3]