Main content
Global cultures 1980–now
Course: Global cultures 1980–now > Unit 1
Lesson 15: Assemblage and materiality- A body in clay, a work by Magdalene Anyango N. Odundo
- Nick Cave's "Soundsuits"
- El Anatsui, Untitled
- El Anatsui, Old Man’s Cloth
- El Anatsui, Old Man's Cloth
- Mickalene Thomas on Her Materials and Artistic Influences
- Zheng Chongbin on "I Look for the Sky"
- An Interview with Artist Ogawa Machiko
- Shan Goshorn, Sealed Fate: Treaty of New Echota Protest Basket
- Jeffrey Gibson, I’m Not Perfect
- Richard Zane Smith, Wyandotte Feast pot
- Marilyn Spoon, Bandolier Bag
- Rina Banerjee, commerce out of the Earth
© 2023 Khan AcademyTerms of usePrivacy PolicyCookie Notice
Shan Goshorn, Sealed Fate: Treaty of New Echota Protest Basket
Shan Goshorn, an Eastern Band Cherokee artist, innovatively used historical documents and images to create baskets, continuing the tradition of Cherokee basket weaving. Her baskets, featuring the Treaty of New Echota and Cherokee signatures protesting it, educate about the painful history of Cherokee removal. The double weave technique and symbolic designs add depth to her work. Created by Smarthistory.
Video transcript
(gentle piano music) - [Narrator] We've just
opened a lidded basket by the artist, Shan Goshorn. - [Presenter] Shan Goshorn was an artist and a Eastern Band Cherokee citizen. She found her hook as an artist
in the creation of baskets but she didn't make
baskets the way our peoples traditionally did with
river cane or white oak. She would find these
historical documents or images, photographs that are important
to her work and her activism and use those as splints
to create these baskets. And in doing this, she was both continuing the tradition of our basket weaving but also using this to bring people in. - [Narrator] She mentions how
when she put these baskets on display in exhibitions, she noticed that people
found them non-threatening because for some people they see baskets as purely utilitarian, as objects that don't have
a rich complex meaning with different readings. But for many native
people's baskets are texts, they weave stories into the baskets. And so, she describes how
she was delighted to find that baskets were a way for
broaching painful topics that she wanted people
to learn more about. So, if we're looking at
the base of the basket, we see archival materials that she's used in this very saturated black ink. But if we look on the inside of the basket we see different types of writing. It's in a different ink,
and this is for two reasons. These are different texts
that she has woven together. But this is also because
it's a double weave basket. - [Presenter] A double weave
basket is one of the styles of baskets that Cherokee people created. It's a very technically
challenging thing to do. You essentially make
your first basket inside, and then as you're weaving your way up you flip over and then
you create the outside. And traditionally we would
use river cane from back home. So, Shan is continuing this tradition using some of the exact
same weaving patterns that our Cherokee people use. She's just using a different medium. And the outside of this
basket is in English and it is the text from
the Treaty of New Echota. And the inside is in
our Cherokee syllabary and it's the signatures of
over 13,000 Cherokee citizens who were protesting that
treaty as a false treaty that ultimately led to our removal from our ancestral homelands. - [Narrator] Shan was using
baskets like this as a way to educate people who
might not know the history of what led to the removal
of Cherokee peoples from their lands. - [Presenter] In 1835, several states were calling for our removal
and Principal Chief John Ross was in talks with President
Andrew Jackson and the Congress about how we could resolve this situation. And we'd been given a deal
previously by Congress in a certain appraisal of our land, which of course was not
appropriate or accurate. And instead of worrying
we would lose everything, smaller faction of Cherokees
wanted to take this deal. And so, there was a US Indian agent named Reverend Schermerhorn who came down to visit this group and they took it upon
themselves to sign a treaty that would effectively seed
our lands to the US government in exchange for lands
west of the Mississippi. And the problem with that is they were not elected officials. They did not have the
authority to sign a document. And other leaders put together a couple of different councils to protest and gather over 13,000
signatures from Cherokee citizens denouncing this act and saying, "This is not a legal document." And Congress ended up voting on it and we lost that by one vote. So, this false treaty,
the Treaty of New Echota is what lost us our homelands. - [Narrator] And so, those
signatures protesting against the Echota Treaty are
the ones on the inside. And we see that Shan has
woven this lovely design in light blue splints. And as your eye moves up
to the edge of the basket, this is where we see the
Echota Treaty beginning. If we look at the lid we see that there's another
design motif on the top that's in a light orange. - [Presenter] We had 16,000
people walk the Trail of Tears. And during this removal,
4,000 people died. So, one in four Cherokees died. The pattern that we see
on top of this basket is called "Man in a Coffin", which calls back that loss and trauma. Baskets have always been a way
for women in our communities to have a voice and agency. We use baskets in the
home for our daily needs. Baskets are used in ceremony. They give us a place in ceremonial life. They were revered objects
that were very highly traded and being able to see this
continued in a new form shows our resilience and ability to adapt to new situations, new
times, new materials. (lively piano music)