North House Folk School

ᎺᎵ ᏔᎻᏏᏂ Mary W. Thompson is an esteemed river cane and white oak basket maker, potter, veteran, entrepreneur, and enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI). She expresses her appreciation for her ancestry and culture through her art and woven creations. The daughter of Geraldine W. Walkingstick and mother to ᏎᎳᏂ ᏔᎻᏏᏂ Sarah Thompson, Mary W. Thompson is the link to three generations of river cane basket makers, teaching the double weave technique.  For over thirty years Thompson has engaged in this art form at every level, including harvesting of the raw materials, gathering of natural dyes and carving handles and rims. She also enjoys making traditional-style Cherokee pottery by molding and firing various clays, carving wooden stamp paddles to be used for embellishment. Many of her designs have carried over to contemporary art forms creating art on fabric for clothing and upholstery fabric patterns.  Her clothing designs and looks have been featured at the KaNaNeSgi Fashion Show annually. She also enjoys shell carving, matting and picture framing and gardening.

Thompson's work has received numerous awards and her rivercane double woven baskets with lids have been commissioned and are part of the permanent collection of the University of South Alabama, Mobile. She is the recent recipient of a prestigious Arrowmont 2021 Appalachian Craft and Culture Fellow and the South Arts 2021 Folk & Traditional Arts Master Artist Fellowship. She is the consulting Artist on the art installation ‘The Basket,’ which remains on display at the Center for Craft in Asheville NC.  Her 1800’s reproduction ‘Fire Pot’ is on display in a gallery designed by Chris Cornelius at the Milwaukee Art Museum.  She is the 2023 recipient of the First Peoples Fund Community Spirit award.  Her art installation ‘Critters in the Cane Patch’ was unveiled at the opening of the new CIHA Tsali Care facility in 2024.  In 2025 her art was displayed in the Mars Landing exhibition and A Tale of Two Cities exhibit in New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts.

Her work has been published in the National Basketry Organization’s Tradition & Innovation in Basketry Today, All Things Considered, and WNC Mountain Living Magazine. Mary has also taught basketry at the Cherokee Central School,  Arrowmont School of Arts & Crafts in Gatlinburg Tennessee, Sequoyah Museum in Vonore, Tennessee, Chattanooga Discovery Museum and at the Museum of the Cherokee People, Cherokee, North Carolina and hosts students, educators and other artists at her work studio in the Big Cove Community.

A veteran of the United States Air Force, Mary was elected and served four terms representing her community in the legislative branch of the EBCI. A mom, gardener, potter, and basket weaver, she continues to volunteer in the community and serves on several national and local boards.