Basket: white oak, fruit

This undated white oak fruit basket was made by Cherokee basket weaver Minda Hill Sequoyah Wolfe (1897-1983). Baskets of this shape and size were often used as serving pieces, to store or serve fruit or nuts. The white oak used in this basket was dyed with walnut and blood root to achieve the brown and orange colors that are woven into the basket. The basket is rib construction. Wolfe was part an active basket weaving family. Her sister, Alice Sequoyah Walkingstick demonstrated basketry at the Oconaluftee Indian Village. Wolfe taught five daughters to weave: Dinah Wolfe, Lillian Crowe, Annie James, Katie Panther, and Ollie Crowe