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Published October 06, 2008 09:39 am - Arts and crafts displays offer up traditional flavor By RENEE FITE Special Writer TAHLEQUAH DAILY PRESS — Greeted by flute music floating on the air and canvas tent tops of artisans dotting the grounds of the Cherokee Square, weekend visitors to Tahlequah may have had a hard time deciding where to go first.
Hand-crafted, woven, carved and beaded pieces were displayed on tables and shelves, some with the stripes of native blankets blowing in the breeze. Beautiful jams, relishes and barbecue sauce, homemade meat and fruit pies and other food vendors generated fragrant aromas to smell and samples to taste. The Tahlequah Arts and Crafts Festival and Cherokee Art on the Square brought Henry Smoke from Sallisaw, with his carved walkingsticks of sassafras and other woods. Looking up from under his black cowboy hat with beaded hatband, he stopped carving on an eagle head. “I just finished a wolf head,” he said with a smile, reaching for a finished piece. “I’ll paint it and polish it; it’ll look pretty.” Then he gestured to a walkingstick with a diamond-shaped design, leaning against a tree. A closer look revealed he created the designs by carving different layers in the sassafras wood. Another unique piece is curved around, with a snake carved in it. “Honey-suckle vine shaped this piece of wood, curving it around and around like this,” he said, moving his hand in a circular motion around it. “See the snake?” Green wood is easier to carve, he said, because seasoned wood gets hard. Smoke has been carving 45 years. He used to watch his grandpa, who was also a blacksmith, do carving. His work includes dancing tortoise-shell rattles with sassafras sticks; a decorative peace pipe that has a hole all the way through and can really work; stick ball sticks; mini drums; and leather seals with a bow in the design. Although his pieces sell in stores and museums, he enjoys getting out to fairs and festivals. “I like to go out and see people, have fun with them,” he said, “and to see something, how they make it, all the hard work. People make it different ways.” Looking around at his creations, he said, “My daughters make jewelry and do all the beadwork.” 
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