Native American caner weaves magic

By Steve Sanders, countyreporter@laurelleadercall.com

August 30, 2007 11:51 am

— James Lewis, a native American Choctaw living in Ellisville, showed South Jones High School art students Wednesday the art of weaving cane baskets. Born on the Choctaw Indian Reservation near Philadelphia, Lewis moved to Jones County at the age of two.
Weaving baskets using the reed from swamp cane is a tradition in the family. Lewis said one of the exhibits at the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians Museum in Philadelphia features a picture of his grandmother and some of her hand-woven baskets. He has two of his grandmother’s baskets at home.
“This is an example of using what you have in nature,” Sharon Howard, South Jones art teacher, told one of her classes Wednesday morning. “That is something that is missing from our society today. We are a throw-away society.” Lewis demonstrated his talent in all of Howard’s classes throughout the day.
Lewis said he gathers his cane from swampy areas in various parts of Jones County, including near Pachuta. He said he and his family would take their home-woven baskets to town when they would buy and trade for groceries and other items such as flour and sugar and use the baskets to transport the items back home.

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