Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

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Amanda Smoker

  • wcu_cherokee_traditions-516.jp2
  • In this 1986 photograph, Cherokee basket weaver Amanda Elaine Smoker (1916-2010) uses a pocketknife to finish off a white oak basket. This photograph is from a series that documents white oak basket weaving by Smoker, a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Smoker lived all of her life in Snowbird, a Cherokee community located 50 miles west of the Qualla Boundary, in Graham County, North Carolina. Learning to make baskets from her mother, she made white oak baskets and dyed with natural dyes. She produced baskets until the 1980s, when her health prevented her from weaving. She attended local schools and was an avid reader. She was photographed here as part of the Fading Voices, a project that included oral histories and photographs.