Early Cherokee Art History

Double-weave basketry is unique to Cherokees.

The Catawba tribes influenced Cherokee ceramics.

Cherokee has no word for "art."

Early Cherokees wove or twined textiles from buffalo and opossum fur.

Cherokees used to dye hides monochromatically used bear grease as a binding agent.

Sequoyah, inventor of the Cherokee syllabary, was also a renowned silversmith.

Before European beads were available - in the 14th and 15th centuries - Cherokees made wampum from quahog shells.

Seven-stemmed pipes are a 20th century development, invented for the tourist trade.

Etowah Mound was a major center of Cherokee artistic production before contact.

Cecil Dick is known as the "Father of Cherokee Painting."