Cherokee basket weaver
Bessie Russell and her apprentice Tyler Fletcher gather buckbrush, a native
shrub related to the honeysuckle family. (Courtesy photo)


By Shawna Cain
Cherokee National Treasure

Buckbrush (Symphoricarpos orbiculatus) is a sprawling native shrub related to the honeysuckle family that stands from 2 feet to 4 feet tall and can be found throughout the southern United States growing in clusters among rocky woodlands, woodland openings and borders. 

Most easily identified in the fall by its unique purplish red berries, buckbrush is known by many names, including coralberry, birds-eye bush and Indian currant. Devil’s shoestring is also a common name for this plant due to the fast-growing vines that shoot horizontally from the bottom of the plant and through underbrush that can become easily tangled and trip hikers passing by the shrub. 

The berries are a valuable food source throughout the winter months for birds, including robins and bobwhites. White-tailed deer also consider the berry buds a prized food source in the winter months and is likely the explanation for its most common name, buckbrush. 

Buckbrush has been utilized as a source for basketry before Europeans reached the continent, with evidence of coiled basketry made from vines of the buckbrush shrub by Native Americans throughout the Southern regions of what is now the United States. Buckbrush basketry has historic significance among the Cherokee and some of the finest examples have been produced by traditional basket weavers acknowledged as Cherokee National Treasures, including Ella Mae Blackbear, Mary Foreman, Stella Livers, Sally Lacey, Jennie Sapp, Maxine Stick, Anna Huckaby, Eunice O’Field, Thelma Forrest, Lena Blackbird, Mildred Justice Ketcher, Bessie Russell, Rosie Chewey, Marie Proctor, Katherine Kelley and Kathy Vanbuskirk. 

Bessie Russell, renowned Cherokee National Treasure and basket weaver advises, “As soon as the weather gets colder and all the snakes are gone, sometimes after the first frost, is a good time to go and gather buckbrush. November and December is about the time I start looking to gather it.” 

She is one of few Cherokee basket weavers still actively carrying on the tradition of buckbrush basketry. “People don’t like to work with buckbrush so much anymore because it is so hard to process and weave. It has a strong vine that you really have to work, and it’s not easy to do,” Russell said. 

While buckbrush basketry was thriving, especially in Delaware County, in the 1980s, many Cherokee basket weavers have moved away from this plant due to a lack of accessibility and experience working with the laborious process involved in preparing the vines for weaving. 

The Cherokee Native Art and Plant Society is working diligently with Cherokee National Treasures such as Russell to revive the culturally significant art form of buckbrush basketry to ensure that future generations understand and acknowledge the importance of preserving such cultural traditions. Through CNAPS, Russell is mentoring Tyler Fletcher, an eighth grader from Stilwell, Okla. She is teaching him the natural processes of gathering, preparing and weaving buckbrush into traditional Cherokee double-wall baskets. 

“It is so important that we teach our kids about these plants and how to use them, when to gather them so they can carry on our Cherokee knowledge after we are gone,” she said.