Shawna Morton Cain is a direct descendant of Alabama, Tennessee and Old Settler Cherokees forcibly removed to Indian Territory in the early 1800’s.  Residing in the old Flint District of the Cherokee Nation, Shawna and her family have chosen to continue cultural traditions, especially those closely tied to the surrounding natural woodland environment.  Currently pursuing graduate studies in anthropology and ethnobiology, Shawna is able to study Cherokee plant life and language within her tribal community where she relies on elders and traditionalists as repositories of cultural practices, language and knowledge.  Through basketry Shawna understands her identity as a Cherokee, “When I am walking around the woods and creeks knowing that I come from people who walked these same places for the same reasons, that’s when I feel right and who I really am as a Cherokee.” 

            Weaving since she was 10 years of age, Shawna continues to learn the “old ways” of basketry, implementing traditional practices into contemporary basketry.  Shawna began entering her baskets and weavings in professional art shows in 1995 and has received numerous awards across the country.  Awarded the title of “Living Treasure” for her work in traditional basketry by the Cherokee Nation in 2006, Cain continues to represent the Cherokee Nation as a master basket weaver and cultural plant specialist. 

Shawna is currently working with Oklahoma Cherokees as a “Living Treasure”—traditional artisan, cultural resource liaison, educator and advocate of ecological and environmental issues that directly concern the tribal government and local Cherokees. Her current research focuses on the inclusion of the Native perspective as one that requires equivalent input and analyses from Native and Western scholarship.  Shawna’s familiarity and interaction with rural Cherokees and specific cultural practices tied closely to native interaction with the land and environment has proven core to her interests in pursuing a unique balance as a student of Cherokee culture.  “I believe that my Native teachers from my own community are just as integral to my graduate studies as my university teachers.  Each provide me with a strong foundation to better understand our people’s history, traditional knowledge systems and forms of expression.”  Her current research funded by the Ford Foundation, American Philosophical Society and the Environmental Protection Agency involves studying the cultural practices and on-going interaction between rural Cherokees and their woodland environment as well as the ecological and environmental impacts of modern society upon indigenous peoples, specifically rurally isolated and marginalized Cherokees.

            As a traditional Cherokee basket weaver, Shawna continues to teach basketry to youth and adults in her community and across the country.  Providing students with a hands-on experience of ancient basket weaving techniques, she also teaches Cherokee history, values and traditions that are integral to the philosophy of utility and artistic expression through basketry.