Eleanor Chickaway

Eleanor Chickaway of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians is one of the living masters of the Choctaw basket making tradition. Throughout her childhood, Chickaway watched her grandmothers weave baskets, and her mother taught her how to weave them herself when she was in her mid-twenties.

Choctaw basketry includes a wide variety of utilitarian and decorative forms and primarily uses river cane or swamp cane that is harvested and dyed using natural pigments. Chickaway uses vibrant colors and complex weave structures to create beautiful patterns that are products of both tradition and creativity.

As one of very few living practitioners of Choctaw basketry, she has used her expertise to pass this tradition to others. In 2020, she taught Dorian Thompson, a member of the Tennessee Choctaw community, through the Tennessee Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program of the Tennessee Arts Commission. Although baskets are still needed in their pageants and festivals, there were no living Tennessee Choctaw basket makers after several older tradition-bearers passed away. By passing on her basket making techniques, including harvesting and preparing river cane, Chickaway returned this vital craft to the Tennessee community.

Chickaway has been honored for her basket making at the state and national levels. She was a recipient of a Mississippi Governor’s Arts Award in 1993, and in 2006, she participated in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival program, “Carriers of Culture: Living Native Basket Traditions.” At the 82nd National Folk Festival, Chickaway will demonstrate basket making alongside her daughter, Shaya Hicks, a traditional Choctaw beadwork artist.