Hampton Institute Student Arizona Swayney Blankenship
This photograph, probably taken in the 1890s or early 1900s, shows Arizona Swayney, a Cherokee student at making a basket. To the right of the photograph are several finished rivercane baskets.
Swayney attended Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in Virginia, a school founded in 1868 to educate African American freedmen.
In 1877, the school began a program for American Indians, and over 1,300 Indian students from 65 tribes attended in the following 50 years.
Arizona Swayney (Blankenship) attended Hampton Institute from 1896 until 1903. She returned as a faculty member from 1904 to 1906 to teach basketry, pottery, and lacemaking.
The name of the photographer is unknown.
Source: Repository Museum of the Cherokee People Southern Appalachian Digital Collections - Western Carolina WCU - Cherokee Traditions - Contributor
Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of American Ethnology