[Illustration: Root Runner Basket]
The Cherokee Indians of North Carolina used Japanese honeysuckle in
basket weaving as early as 1880, when it was introduced by a Cherokee
woman named Arizona Blankenship who had been educated at Hampton
Institute, Virginia. It is interesting to note that the Cherokee Agency
Indian School was founded at Cherokee, North Carolina, that same year.
In January, 1943, Dr. Speck made an extensive trip into the hill country
around Cherokee, North Carolina, visiting the old conservative Cherokee
Indians of that region. He learned from the old people that honeysuckle
basket weaving was not an original Cherokee Indian art. Making inquiry
into their history of basket weaving, he could find no evidence of their
use of hawthorne (Crataegus) although it is native to that state, or any
historical evidence of the use of any other fine root runners. It is
possible, of course, that the Hawthorne runners could have been used by
other Indian bands in other parts of the state but so far it is not
known, notwithstanding the fact Dr. Speck has spent many years of study
of Cherokee Indian basketry in North Carolina.[5] Cane and oak splints
were used chiefly by the Cherokee in basket weaving and the use of
Japanese honeysuckle was undoubtedly a later addition to their culture.
An illustration of one of the earliest known types of honeysuckle weave
is shown in the Cherokee of North Carolina plate. This basket has no
foundation to support the fine root runner fibers although most of their
baskets made of honeysuckle runners do have foundations of oak splints.
As far as is known no double weaving of fine root runner baskets was
done by the Cherokee of this state.