Community Collaboration and the Making of the “Bok Abaiya: Practiced Hands and the Arts of Choctaw Basketry” Exhibit

After stopping for directions at the mercantile store in Wright City, a young Carolyn Bradshaw and her husband Ron arrived in front of a small house belonging to Laura and Wilsie Willie, two Choctaw rivercane basket makers. Although the pair of sisters-in-law only spoke Choctaw, they understood that Carolyn wanted to purchase rivercane baskets from them. The first basket that Carolyn bought from the duo was an elbow basket, a type of basket that she had not seen before. This moment in 1976 marked the beginning of a relationship that resulted in a large collection of rivercane baskets created by both Laura and Wilsie. Under Carolyn’s care for many years, this collection is now the largest known collection of rivercane baskets made by the two Oklahoma Choctaw women. Some of these exquisite pieces from Carolyn’s personal collection will be shown at the Choctaw Cultural Center in a new temporary exhibit, “Bok Abaiya: Practiced Hands and the Arts of Choctaw Basketry.” This month, we are sharing some stories from working with our community, who have helped to bring together the new exhibit that opens on July 22, 2023.

In December 2022, Iti Fabvssa wrote about the Choctaw baskets held at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C. and how our community has been able to learn from those old baskets. After reading the article, tribal member Carolyn Bradshaw reached out to Historic Preservation and shared that she had a collection of Choctaw baskets. After a visit to her home, we were shocked to find such a large Choctaw rivercane basket collection in such pristine condition. Carolyn, who has been interested in baskets since she was a young girl, began collecting baskets in college. With her husband Ron, a Cherokee citizen who was also interested in Native arts, Carolyn would attend the annual Cherokee National Holiday and make friends with the basket makers and buy from them. Carolyn recalled how a Cherokee basket maker once told her that it was good that she was buying baskets because their daughters were not going to be basket makers and that there would not be any more baskets. This stayed with Carolyn and instilled in her the importance of Native basketry.

Since she was Choctaw, Carolyn also wanted to collect Choctaw baskets. This led her to ask someone where she might purchase some; they suggested she go to Wright City. After their first meeting with Laura and Wilsie, Carolyn and her husband returned periodically, driving from their home in Tulsa to Wright City to purchase baskets from the two women. Carolyn never knew what kind of basket she might get until she got there. Despite the language barrier, the three ladies found a way to communicate as the delicious smell of beans cooking on the stove filled the house in the background. Over the years, Carolyn amassed a large collection of baskets made by the two. Her experiences working as a curator at the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa taught her how to best care for the baskets. She even mentioned how she would worry about the baskets whenever she and her family went away on vacation since she could not afford to leave the air conditioner on to ensure that they were stored at a consistent temperature, as is the standard in museums.

Rivercane baskets, once kept in Choctaw homes due to their use in daily life for generations, are now difficult to find. Many of the existing baskets are held at museums all over the world, which presents a different set of challenges when it comes to borrowing and bringing them to display at the Choctaw Cultural Center. Not only is rivercane hard to find and there are only a few Oklahoma basket makers who work with rivercane, but not many older baskets survived into the present. While some rivercane baskets can be found tucked away in the corners of houses, Choctaw people often used their rivercane baskets until they broke. Sifter baskets, which helped to separate corn used in dishes like tanchi labona, were among the most frequently used; several such baskets in museum collections have broken parts due to use. In the home of Laura and Wilsie Willie, rivercane baskets used to fill their kitchen and front room. But the pieces they made did not stick around long due to people’s interest in their baskets. Selling baskets quickly became a way for the two to make a living. Community members and collectors alike were interested in their baskets, so they had a steady stream of customers.

Laura Willie (formerly Williams) was the daughter of rivercane basket maker Fannie Battiest Wesley. In the early 1900s, Fannie and her family moved to Choctaw territory from Louisiana. Fannie brought with her the knowledge of Choctaw rivercane basketry that had been developed by hundreds of generations of Choctaw people. She taught her daughters, Laura and Elsie, how to make rivercane baskets. The two would make baskets throughout their lives and teach their own respective daughters, Rose Billy and Eveline Steele. Laura even taught her sister-in-law Wilsie, whom she lived with, how to make these baskets. Together, they would collect cane from stands near water and then strip the cane and weave baskets in their yard. Today, the granddaughters of Fannie Battiest Wesley, Eveline and Rose have carried on the tradition of basketmaking by continuing to make and weave baskets as well as teaching the new generation of Choctaw basket makers. Both will have their baskets on view in the upcoming exhibit.

During our visit to Carolyn’s home, she gave us a photograph that she had taken of Laura and Wilsie during one of her visits to Wright City. She mentioned that she wanted the descendants of the women to have the photograph. Later on, while collaborating on the exhibit with Laura’s daughter Rose Billy, we gave her that photograph of her mother and aunt, which she was happy to have. In the process of putting together this exhibit, Carolyn also decided to donate the baskets she loaned to the Cultural Center’s permanent collection. This donation and her conversations with the Historic Preservation and Cultural Center staff have greatly grown the Center’s basketry collection as well as our knowledge of Oklahoma Choctaw basketry history.

By working with the Choctaw community to create the upcoming Choctaw basketry exhibit at the Choctaw Cultural Center, we have learned so much about Oklahoma Choctaw rivercane basket makers and how they have shaped the knowledge of our community today. Without them, other basket makers, and those whose names have been lost to history, we would not have the history and knowledge of Choctaw basketry that they worked throughout their lives to teach to the next generation. With the help of community members like Carolyn, Rose, Eveline, and the many other people who have contributed to the new exhibit, we are working to revitalize the traditional art of Choctaw rivercane basketry as well as innovate the form with different materials and mediums. We hope that if you have stories about Choctaw basketry and/or other Choctaw arts and culture, you would like to share them too.

The Choctaw Cultural Center’s “Bok Abaiya: Practiced Hands and the Arts of Choctaw Basketry” exhibit opens on July 22, 2023, and closes on March 30, 2024. In this exhibition, visitors can view over 50 Choctaw baskets, 14 artworks by Choctaw artists, and various other items related to Choctaw basket weaving. For more on the exhibit, visit the Choctaw Cultural Center website.