Cherokee Painting

“Women found multiple uses for red mulberry. In addition to relying on the fruit for food, they wove the bark into floor and wall coverings. In 1715, a group of women made “a large carpet” of mulberry bark for Queen Anne and “twelve small ones for her Counsellours.” ... Such “very handsome” carpets, wrote Adair, were painted with “images of those birds and beasts they are acquainted with” or depictions “of themselves, acting in their social, and marital stations.” (Hill 9)

This quote by Irish trader James Adair is a glimpse into a tradition of aboriginal Cherokee painting that is all but lost today. Although large numbers of Cherokees paint, our current painting techniques are borrowed from Europe or other tribes. I am hoping through research and experimentation to glean some understanding of our own tribally-specific painting traditions.

Before the 20th century, Cherokees traditionally painted their bodies, woven textiles, their houses, pottery (especially through negative painting - use beeswax or bear grease as a resist, then covering the pot with a pigmented clay slip, then firing), and possibly wooden carvings and hide. Written descriptions of monochromatic hide painting exist (cleaning a deer hide, then using dye and bear grease to color it red, purple, brown, or black) and Philip Georg Friedrich von Reck painted 18th century Yuchi Indians with hides painted in geometric designs of red and black.

Pigments and dyes used by early Cherokee and other southeast tribes include minerals such as galena (lead) for white; hematite for black, purple, and red (it changes colors when heated). Iron oxide in clay made a commonly used red slip. Vegetable dyes are still widely used in basketry: bloodroot, Sanguinaria canadensis, or "puccoon" for red. Walnut makes a rich brown for textiles or basketry. Pokeberry makes a nice purple or black. Yellowroot or goldenseal makes yellow. Berries made very fugitive reds and purples.

What's more challenging to determine are the binders used in paints. Bear grease was definitely used as a binder in painting bodies and hides. Pine pitch might have been used. Other interesting possibilities include fish glue, rabbit skin glue, walnut oil, render animal fat, etc. Since these are not ideal or archival binders, it's difficult to find out information about painting with animal fats.

In the late 19th century and early 20th century, Cherokee mission schools and Indian boarding schools more often than not had art programs. Information is scant, but the American Philosophical Society has in its archives, drawings by Eastern Cherokee traditionalist Will West Long – doodles in his notebooks from Carlisle Indian School – that date back to the 19th century.

Hill, Sarah H. Weaving New Worlds: Southeastern Cherokee Women and Their Basketry. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997. ISBN 0-8078-4650-3.