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The forced relocation of fifteen thousand Cherokee to Oklahoma nearly two centuries ago left them in a foreign landscape. Coping with loss and new economic challenges, the Cherokee united under a new constitution and exploited the Victorian affinity for decorative crafts. Cherokee women had always created patterned baskets for everyday use and trade, and soon their practical work became lucrative items of beauty. Adapting the tradition to the new land, the industrious weavers transformed Oklahoma's vast natural resources into art that aided their survival. The Civil War found the Cherokee again in jeopardy, but resilient, they persevered and still thrive today. Author and Cherokee citizen Karen Coody Cooper presents the story of this beautiful legacy.
About the author
Karen Coody Cooper, now living in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, was born in Tulsa in 1946 as Karen Korliss Rollins, and grew up in Collinsville. Her grandmother Callie Coody was enrolled as a child on the Dawes Roll and became a hardworking farm wife near Texanna, Oklahoma, close to her allotment in the former Canadian District of the Cherokee Nation. Callie's grandfather was a son of Jane Ross, elder sister of John Ross, Principal Chief of the Cherokee before Removal and throughout the Civil War in Indian Territory. Cooper chose a museum career and retired from the National Museum of the American Indian in 2007, the same year her first book, Spirited Encounters: American Indians Protest Museum Policies and Practices, was published by AltaMira Press. She also wrote Cherokee Wampum: War and Peace Belts 1730 to Present and Woodchuck Meets Algonquian Cousins, published by soddenbank press. Her poetry volume, Fault Lines: Vulnerable Landscapes, was named the 2010 Best Book of Poetry by the Oklahoma Writers Federation.
