Helen Bradley Smith

Helen Bradley Smith

Basket makers

Basket making

Basketwork

Cherokee baskets

Cherokee women

Handicraft

Manners and customs

Helen Bradley Smith (1922-2007) was a Cherokee basket weaver who was proficient in white oak, honeysuckle, and rivercane basketry, including the double weave technique. She also did pottery, beadwork, and finger weaving. Growing up in the Big Cove community on the Qualla Boundary, lands owned by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, she began making baskets when she was 15 or 16 years old. Her mother was basket weaver Eva Bradley; her daughter is Carol Smith Welch. In this photograph Smith is shown splitting white oak splits to be used in basket construction. White oak must first be quartered and split and then trimmed to a desired width and thickness in preparation for weaving. Note the thin strips on the ground that will also be made into weavers.

Davis, Hester A.

Photograph Collection

Hunter Library Digital Collections, Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, NC 28723

1956

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/

jpg;

photographs

StillImage

11058

https://southernappalachiandigitalcollections.org/object/11058

2009-02-12

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Qualla Boundary

Appalachian Region, Southern

3.5" x 3.5"(dimension)

Cherokee Traditions