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 undestanding of our own tribally-specific painting traditions.