The Cherokee Indians of North Carolina used Japanese honeysuckle in basket weaving as early as 1880, when it was introduced by a Cherokee woman named Arizona Blankenship who had been educated at Hampton Institute, Virginia. It is interesting to note that the Cherokee Agency Indian School was founded at Cherokee, North Carolina, that same year.

In January, 1943, Dr. Speck made an extensive trip into the hill country around Cherokee, North Carolina, visiting the old conservative Cherokee Indians of that region. He learned from the old people that honeysuckle basket weaving was not an original Cherokee Indian art. Making inquiry into their history of basket weaving, he could find no evidence of their use of hawthorne (Crataegus) although it is native to that state, or any historical evidence of the use of any other fine root runners. It is possible, of course, that the Hawthorne runners could have been used by other Indian bands in other parts of the state but so far it is not known, notwithstanding the fact Dr. Speck has spent many years of study of Cherokee Indian basketry in North Carolina.[5] Cane and oak splints were used chiefly by the Cherokee in basket weaving and the use of Japanese honeysuckle was undoubtedly a later addition to their culture. An illustration of one of the earliest known types of honeysuckle weave is shown in the Cherokee of North Carolina plate. This basket has no foundation to support the fine root runner fibers although most of their baskets made of honeysuckle runners do have foundations of oak splints. As far as is known no double weaving of fine root runner baskets was done by the Cherokee of this state.