In another interview from the Indian and Pioneers Volume 94 page 358:

This is the tenth page of an interview with

Mary Frances Wood in 1937:

"When I married and moved back into the hill country near the present town of Hulbert, I found there among the full blood Cherokees a really different life being pursued than while living at Muskogee. In some homes were the spinning wheels and looms with which they spun their thread from cotton and wove it into cloth. They raised corn and ground it in a mortar for no grist mill was nearer than a place south of Tahlequah. Their meats were mostly wild game of all kinds. Many meals were prepared on open fires while others were cooked in the fireplace. I cooked both ways and finally in 1891 we secured a cook stove at Tahlequah.

The furniture in the homes was homemade from willow and split hickory limbs. Many had no beds but slept on the floor.

The cooking utensils were iron pots and skillets; few had dishes but many meals were eaten out of the vessels in which it was cooked. We used cow horns for cups and deer horns for forks. Spoons were made from pieces of wood, whittled out and fashioned to the present day spoon.

Church was held in the school houses during the winter and under brush arbors during the summer. The first arbor meeting I attended was near the site of the present water tower of Fort Gibson. The preacher laid his Bible on a log cut from the truck of a tree and the people sat on logs that were rolled into place for seats. The place was lighted with grease lamps hung around at points under the arbor.

Disease broke out one fall; it was claimed to have been spread by a band of gypsies coming to Fort Gibson in 1900. It was a sore mouth epidemic and it could not be cured by Doctor Brooks, then located at Fort Gibson; this disease would run into a fever and many died.

Cherokee Art and Crafts

Riddles, coarse and fine, were made from split hickory saplings and skinned cane. The hickory was bent to form a hoop and then woven with cane making the mesh desired. Riddles were used for sieves to sift their meal.

Chairs of all kinds were made from split hickory saplings and water willow poles and branches. Baskets of all kinds were made from strips of bark from hickory nut trees, cane and willow bark.

Vases, cups, saucers, plates, pots, miniature statues of horses, cows, and wild animals were made from clay. Many made beads from clay and red berries. Mats and even blankets were made from hemp weed and from the bark of sumac bushes.

Cow hides, deer hides and the hides of other animals of like nature were tanned and worked into moccasins, leggings, caps and coats. The hair from a cow skin or a deerskin was removed with a drip lye solution from ashes, then stretched and with red oak bark solution covering the hide for a few days (the solution brought out all blood and fluid); the hide was wiped and rolled until all moisture was gone, leaving the hide pliable and easy to work with as it was now leather.

Soap was made from ashes and fat of oxen, cows, hogs and goats. Ashes were stored in a hopper and before soap making time water was poured on the ashes and was caught as it dripped through and was called drip lye. To the drip lye was added fats and boiled down to soap.

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