Fish Basket

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

ANTH 05, Introduction to Archaeology, Nathaniel Kitchel, Summer 2019

First Year Student Enrichment Program - Cultures, Identities and Belongings, Francine A'Ness, Summer 2023

Exhibition History

Liquidity: Art, Commodities, and Water, Israel Sack Gallery and the Rush Family Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, July 29, 2023-June 16, 2024.

Provenance

Unknown maker, Cherokee, North Carolina; acquired by Clara G. Corser Turner Churchill (1851-1945) and Frank Carroll Churchill (1850-1912), Cherokee, North Carolina, 1906; bequeathed to present collection, 1946.

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Subject