Fish Basket
Cherokee
Eastern Band of Cherokee
Southeast
about 1906
Oak splints
Overall: 6 1/2 × 8 1/2 in. (16.5 × 21.6 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Bequest of Frank C. and Clara G. Churchill
46.17.9552
Geography
Place Made: Cherokee, United States, North America
Period
20th century
Object Name
Basket
Research Area
Native American
Native American: Southeast
Not on view
Label
Woven from oak splints, this porous basket has a tapered opening. When a Cherokee fisherman submerged this basket into a stream or river, fish swam into the basket but could not escape. The Cherokee also arranged stones in rivers to create fishing weirs, which funneled the river into a v-shape. At the narrowest point, fishermen tethered several baskets together to quickly gather many fish.
From the 2023 exhibition Liquidity: Art, Commodities, and Water, curated by Michael Hartman, Jonathan Little Cohen Associate Curator of American Art
Course History
First Year Student Enrichment Program - Cultures, Identities and Belongings, Francine A'Ness, Summer 2023
Anthropology 55.01, Anthropology of Global Health, Anne Sosin, Fall 2023
Anthropology 55.01, Anthropology of Global Health, Anne Sosin, Fall 2023
Art History 40.01, American Art and Identity, Mary Coffey, Fall 2023
Creative Writing 10.02, Writing and Reading Fiction, Katherine Crouch, Fall 2023
Geography 11.01, Qualitative Methods, Emma Colven, Fall 2023
Geography 2.01, Introduction to Human Geography, Coleen Fox, Fall 2023
Geography 31.01, Postcolonial Geographies, Erin Collins, Fall 2023
English 30.01, African and African American Studies 34.01, Early Black American LIterature, Michael Chaney, Winter 2024
Writing 5.06, Image and Text, Becky Clark, Winter 2024
Writing 5.07, Image and Text, Becky Clark, Winter 2024
Exhibition History
Liquidity: Art, Commodities, and Water, Israel Sack Gallery and the Rush Family Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, December 14, 2023-June 16, 2024.
Provenance
Unknown maker, Cherokee, North Carolina; sold to Clara G. Corser Turner Churchill (1851-1945) and Frank Carroll Churchill (1850-1912), Cherokee, North Carolina, 1906; bequeathed to present collection, 1946.
This record is part of an active database that includes information from historic documentation that may not have been recently reviewed. Information may be inaccurate or incomplete. We also acknowledge some language and imagery may be offensive, violent, or discriminatory. These records reflect the institution’s history or the views of artists or scholars, past and present. Our collections research is ongoing.
We welcome questions, feedback, and suggestions for improvement. Please contact us at: Hood.Collections@dartmouth.edu