THE first article of dress of primitive people was not a woven stuff, but nevertheless weaving, like pottery, begins in plaiting and basketry, and is an ancient art. The first clothing, a necessity of climate, was made of skins of animals where they could be obtained, and where they could not primitive man walked in a state of nature. His desire for clothing was one purely of comfort; modesty, as we define it, was unknown. Modesty, so far as it relates to concealment of the body, is the child of climate and fashion. A Breton peasant girl does not mind if her legs are seen, but she is shocked if caught with her hair down or without her cap; one of our own ladies thinks nothing of exhibiting her bare shoulders and bosom at the opera under gaslight, but she would not do it in daylight. On the beach it would also be improper, but there she is not troubled if her lower extremities are seen. In some of the milder climates to-day clothing is scanty, while with the Eskimo in the Far North it is composed of warm furs. Cold was responsible for the first clothing, and is to-day responsible for a good deal of it. The idea of utilising feathers and broad leaves as well as skins would soon occur to a people, especially if they found it difficult to secure the skins, and with these some kind of a string was necessary to hold them together, and if no sinew or thong was at hand the want would be supplied by twisted grass or bark, and this twisted grass or bark then came itself to be combined in the form of mats for sleeping on or covering sticks to produce a shelter. This was plaiting, and it is the first step to basketry and weaving. Many of the simpler arts are native in the brain of man, and the expression of them at the proper time is as easy and natural as it is for a birdling to fly, a kitten to catch a mouse, or a baby to walk for the first time. It is, like sight, or thought, or articulate speech, a direct and unconscious result of the innate composition of mankind. It is impossible to tell why a spider builds a web of even proportions instead of one that is irregular, or when it acquired the skill to perform its feat of engineering, or why it builds a web at all, and does not, like a cat and some species of spiders, rely on springing upon its prey. The spider does this the world round because it is a spider, and because its prey also has, the world round, its own habits. So with man. Everywhere he learned to plait mats, make wicker-work and pottery, and a thousand other things simply because he was everywhere the same man. If you examine articles of primitive manufacture from various parts of the globe, you will find them all practically alike, because the men who made them were practically alike and their wants and surroundings were practically alike. They plaited together strips of bark or twisted grasses, or rushes, because they had to have them, and they went on finding out the properties of the materials that compose the world just as they are doing to-day, till they made cloth and made it on a machine. Primitive fabrics were everywhere about the same, and when the loom was invented it was and is, where still used in its primitive form, very much the same. That in use to-day by the Navajos is much like that used by the Orientals. The Navajos are probably not the inventors of it, but borrowed the idea from the Pueblos, or at least derived it through a mixture of Pueblo blood. Their cousins, the Apaches, do not weave, and they are probably better representatives of the original Athapascan stock than the Navajos.

The Mexican loom was similar to that of the Navajos, and it is probable that some of the tribes of the Mississippi valley were acquainted with one built on a like pattern. The product of these primitive looms was also much alike in its character; some of the Oriental rugs that we see now strongly resemble the blankets of the Mexicans or Navajos.

This is because weaving is a simple art; and until the invention of the Jacquard principle complex patterns were produced only by great labour, as all the different colours had to be adjusted by hand, which is still the case in many fine products like the Turkish rugs or the shawls of Cashmere.

The primitive products of the loom were square in shape, and when used as garments they were not cut to a pattern or altered, but were worn as they came from the loom. To make a dress, it was only necessary to fasten two of these mats or blankets together, just as the Moki women do now. This combination was then slipped over the head, with one corner on the right shoulder and one under the left, and a belt around the waist. This was the costume complete. There was no fitting the fabric to the body.

Thread, cord, twine, and rope were made by the Menominees chiefly out of the “inner bark of the young sprouts of basswood. The bark is removed in sheets and boiled in water to which a large quantity of lye from wood ashes has been added. This softens the fibre and permits the worker to manipulate it without breaking. The shoulder-blade of a deer or other large animal is then nailed or otherwise fastened to an upright post, and through it a hole about an inch in diameter is drilled; through this hole bunches of the boiled bark are pulled backward and forward, from right to left, to remove from it all splinters or other hard fragments. After the fibre has become soft and pliable, bunches of it are hung up in hanks, to be twisted as desired. The manner of making cord or twine, such as is used in weaving mats and for almost all household purposes, is by holding in the left hand the fibre as it is pulled from the hank, and separating it into two parts, which are laid across the thigh. The palm of the right hand is then rolled forward over both so as to tightly twist the pair of strands, when they are permitted to unite and twist into a cord. The twisted end being pushed a little to the right, the next continuous portions of the united strands also are twisted to form a single cord. The same process is followed in all fibre-twisting, even to the finest nettle thread.”[99] In the matter of thread some fine results were obtained by various Amerinds. Holmes says: “The finest threads with which I am acquainted are perhaps not as fine as our number ten ordinary spool-cotton thread, but we are not justified in assuming that more refined work was not done.”[100] Sage-brush, yucca, and other plants were used for making thread and cord.

In order to weave, it is first necessary to reduce your fibre, or wool, or cotton, to more or less even threads or yarn. The Amerind way of doing this was the same, practically, wherever spinning and weaving were attempted, from Central America northward. The spindle is a round, slender, pointed stick, a foot to about fifteen inches long, put through a disc, generally of flat, hard wood, four to six inches in diameter, which acts as a flywheel to keep up the momentum. It is the simplest form of top. The operator holds the wool or cotton, previously prepared, in his or her lap, and attaching one end of it to the top arm of the spindle, above the disc, gives the spindle a twirl, either by the thumb and forefinger or by a dexterous sweep of the palm of the hand along the thigh. The fibre, or wool, that was attached to the arm of it winds round till it reaches the tip, where it clings and takes on the rotary motion of the stick to which it is fast, being twisted thereby into yarn. It continues to spin with the spindle for some seconds, about fifteen or twenty, and when the momentum slackens below the necessary speed, the yarn thus far made is wound on the spindle and it is started afresh, with more wool paid out to the twisting. The operation is repeated over and over till the spindle is full, and it is surprising to see how rapidly it can be done. I have only seen this performed amongst the Moki, but the descriptions from other places show it to be done in about the same way everywhere. In the Mexican region the spindle-discs were made of pottery. In Nicaragua both wood and terra cotta were employed, and it is likely that wood was also used by some part of the people in Mexico and other places where the terra-cotta discs are now found.

Weaving was not confined to the Pueblo and Mexican country when the whites first came to the continent, but was in vogue amongst many different tribes, who used various substances in the manufacture of rugs and blankets. Cotton amongst Southern and South-western tribes was a favourite material, and in other places hemp, and the hair of animals, and birds’ feathers were used. The Kwakiutls of the North-west coast “made blankets of mountain-goat wool, dog’s hair, feathers, or a mixture of both.”[101] And the tribes of Puget Sound and the Straits of Fuca “attained considerable skill in manufacturing a species of blanket from a mixture of the wool of the mountain sheep and the hair of a particular kind of dog, though in this art they never equalled the more northern tribes.”[102] It is extremely probable that some of the Pueblos, before the introduction of the sheep of Europe, used the hair or wool of a mountain sheep or goat for weaving, and it is possible that they had to some extent domesticated that animal or some similar one; at least they may have kept it imprisoned for its wool in much the same way that they now keep eagles for their feathers. Fray Marcos relates that one of the natives he met with in 1540 told him that the people of Totonteac made cloth, much like the garment he had on, from the hair of certain small animals. These animals have usually been supposed to have been dogs, but as the Northern Amerinds used mountain-goat’s wool, it is possible that the Pueblos, who were in advance of them in all that pertains to weaving, had not only succeeded in weaving such hair or wool garments, but had conceived the idea of holding the animals in captivity. It has been supposed by some that they had an animal of the vicuna kind. Terra-cotta images have been found in the Salado ruins of Arizona that are difficult to identify, and are believed by some zoölogists who have seen them to represent “a creature allied to the South-American Camellidæ.”[103]

“It has been surmised that such animals continued to be domesticated by the sedentary Indians of Arizona and New Mexico down to historic days and became extinct only when the more serviceable European sheep was introduced by the Spaniards.... Fossil bones of an animal of this family have been found in the South-west; but its bones were not identified in the Salado ruins.”[103]

The Pai Utes made a garment of rabbit-skins which was very warm. The skins were twisted and attached one to another end and end, making a sort of fur rope, and this rope was tied in parallel lines, forming a kind of large cloak which was most serviceable in winter. Flax, or a plant closely allied to it, also grew wild all over Arizona and New Mexico, and was used for garments. The bark of the sagebrush was used to make cord and mats. Yucca also furnished a supply of valuable fibre. Cotton was grown by many of the Pueblos and is still cultivated by the Mokis, who manufacture a sacred blanket from it that is sought after at good prices by the Pueblos of other districts. It is a finely woven white blanket, with a broad red stripe transversely at each end. It is worn by women in the ceremonials. The Mokis are good weavers, using a loom similar to that employed by the Navajos. The Moki loom is generally set up in the kiva[104] where often there are permanent attachments for it, and there the men, who do all the weaving among this tribe, patiently execute their plans. Most of the Moki blankets are of low colours and simple design, dark blue being, with black, the favourite tint. The usual material is the wool of the European sheep, which has flourished among the Pueblos ever since it was introduced by the Spaniards. The sheep are herded on the plains during the day and at night are driven up the talus of the cliffs to corrals that lie just below the plateau on which the villages are built. The Navajos living in the surrounding country have far larger flocks than those of the Moki, and weave only wool. In fact, there are amongst the Navajos more than a million and a half head of sheep and goats. Most of the wool from these they usually sell to dealers at four or five cents a pound and then purchase for their blanket-work at high prices Germantown wools of brilliant colours, which colours they cannot obtain with their own dyes, though the colours they do secure are far more artistic. Formerly, to get the brilliant red of which they are so fond, they would buy a Mexican cloth, called bayeta, a sort of flannel, and ravel it, to reweave it in their blankets. The women do most of the weaving amongst the Navajos. The colours are usually bright, though the every-day serviceable blanket is of dark blue and white or black and white, or of the natural grey of the wool. The greater gaudiness of much of the Navajo work has given it a reputation of superiority to that of the Pueblo, which, in my opinion, is not wholly correct. Washington Matthews,[105] who has so carefully studied the subject, states that there is a constant deterioration in Pueblo weaving, which may be true in general, but hardly applies to the Moki. I have a sample of Moki work which, so far as weaving skill is concerned, is as fine as any Navajo work I have ever seen. The Moki do not turn out as much as the Navajo, because they are a far smaller tribe; and their product is dark, as a rule, in colour, as they use their own dyes, but its texture, and especially the texture of the sacred cotton blankets, is extremely fine, even finer and better as an example of weaving skill than many Navajo blankets. “In some Pueblos,” says Matthews, “the skill of the loom has been almost forgotten.”

The Navajo loom is set up anywhere and a shelter of boughs built over it. As the rainfall is light in the Navajo country, it is not necessary to provide permanent shelters. The loom is worth a careful description, and as I do not know of any better, or indeed so good as that given by Matthews, it is here quoted entire: “Two posts, a a, are set firmly in the ground; to these are lashed two cross pieces or braces, b c, the whole forming the frame of the loom. Sometimes two slender trees, growing at a convenient distance from one another, are made to answer for the posts, d is a horizontal pole, which I call the supplementary yarn-beam, attached to the upper brace, b, by means of a rope, e e, spirally applied, f is the upper beam of the loom. As it is analogous to the yarn-beam of our looms, I will call it by this name, although once only have I seen the warp wound around it. It lies parallel to the pole, d, about two or three inches below it, and is attached to the latter by a number of loops, g g. A spiral cord wound around the yarn-beam holds the upper border cord, h h, which, in turn, secures the upper end of the warp, i i. The lower beam of the loom is shown at k. I will call this the cloth beam, although the finished web is never wound around it; it is tied firmly to the lower brace, c, of the frame, and to it is secured the lower border cord of the blanket. The original distance between the two beams is the length of the blanket. Lying between the threads of the warp is depicted a broad, thin, oaken stick, l, which I will call the batten. A set of healds attached to a heald-rod, m, are shown above the batten. These healds are made of cord or yarn; they include alternate threads of the warp, and serve when drawn forward to open the lower shed. The upper shed is kept patent by a stout rod, n (having no healds attached), which I name the shed-rod. Their substitute for the reed of our looms is a wooden fork, which will be designated as the reed-fork.”[106]

All the Navajo and Pueblo weaving is the same on both sides. Most of it is straight weaving, but there is a good deal of diagonal work. This is true also of the Moki. The diagonal weaving produces a diamond figure that is very pretty, but I have never seen it used in any of the finest Navajo work. As to the designs, Matthews says that “in the finer blankets of intricate pattern, out of thousands which I have examined, I do not remember to have ever seen two exactly alike.”[106] Doubtless while some of these designs, or even many, are drawn from Pueblo sources as noticed, the weaver introduces original features and often invents new patterns. The blankets are woven, as a rule, in two ways, the tight method for protection against rain, and the loose method for protection against cold. The loose, soft blanket is worn under one of the harder ones in wet or windy weather.[107] The Navajos also weave garters and long sashes. The garters are similar to the sashes, only smaller. They are used to hold leggings in place. Small blankets are made to put under the saddle, and these are often very fine in texture as well as in pattern. Similar ones are made for children.

“Previously to the seventeenth century,” says Bandelier, “the aboriginal dress consisted largely of cotton sheets, or rather simple wrappers, tied either around the neck or on the shoulder, or converted into sleeveless jackets.” Of the fibre of the yucca, the Zuñi Indians made skirts and kilts; of rabbit-skins very heavy blankets were made. The northern Puebloans, of New Mexico, nearer to a game region, dressed in buckskin in preference to anything else. But still, even when cotton was unobtainable for whole garments, they sought to secure cotton scarfs and girdles woven in bright colours, which were used for belts as well as for garters, etc. The dress was more simple than that of to-day. Leggings of buckskin were worn in winter only, and then mostly by the northern Pueblos. The moccasin, or tegua, protected the feet. It is explicitly stated that while the uppers of this shoe without heel were of deerskin, the soles were frequently of buffalo hide.”[108] The moccasin of the South-west is generally soled with rawhide of some kind, the sole being slightly turned up all round.

Another material for garments was feathers. These were utilised all over the continent, to a greater or less degree, by various tribes, but it was the Mexicans who carried the work in this line to perfection. “Nothing could be more picturesque,” says Prescott, “than the aspect of these Indian battalions with the naked bodies of the common soldiers gaudily painted, the fantastic helmets of the chiefs glittering with gold and precious stones, and the glowing panoplies of feather-work, which decorated their persons.... The common file wore no covering except a girdle round the loins. Their bodies were painted with appropriate colours of the chieftain whose banner they followed. The feather-mail of the higher class of warriors exhibited also a similar selection of colours for the like object, in the same manner as the colour of the tartan indicates the peculiar clan of the Highlander. The caciques and principal warriors were clothed in a quilted cotton tunic, two inches thick, which, fitting close to the body, protected also the thighs and the shoulders. Over this the wealthier Indians wore cuirasses of thin gold plate or silver. Their legs were defended by leathern boots or sandals, trimmed with gold. But the most brilliant part of their costume was a rich mantle of the plumaje, or feather-work, embroidered with curious art, and furnishing some resemblance to the gorgeous surcoat worn by the European knight over his armour in the Middle Ages. This graceful and picturesque dress was surmounted by a fantastic head-piece made of wood or leather, representing the head of some wild animal, and frequently displaying a formidable array of teeth. With this covering the warrior’s head was enveloped, producing a most grotesque and hideous effect. From the crown floated a splendid panache of the richly variegated plumage of the tropics, indicating, by its form and colours, the rank and family of the wearer. To complete their defensive armour, they carried shields or targets, made sometimes of wood covered with leather, but more usually of a light frame of reeds quilted with cotton, which were preferred as tougher and less liable to fracture than the former. They had other bucklers, in which the cotton was covered with an elastic substance, enabling them to be shut up in a more compact form, like a fan or umbrella. These shields were decorated with showy ornaments, according to the taste or wealth of the wearer, and fringed with a beautiful pendant of feather-work.... Such was the costume of the Tlascalan warrior, and, indeed, of that great family of nations generally who occupied the plateau of Anahuac.[109]... They were particularly struck with the costume of the higher classes, who wore fine embroidered mantles, resembling the graceful albornoz, or Moorish cloak, in their texture and fashion.[110]... Here they were met by several hundred Aztec chiefs, who came out to announce the approach of Montezuma, and to welcome the Spaniards to his capital. They were dressed in the fanciful gala costume of the country, with the maxtlatl, or cotton sash, around their loins, and a broad mantle of the same material, or of the brilliant feather-embroidery, flowing gracefully down their shoulders. On their necks and arms they displayed collars and bracelets of turquoise mosaic, with which delicate plumage was curiously mingled, while their ears, under-lips, and occasionally their noses, were garnished with pendants formed of precious stones, or crescents of fine gold[111].... Montezuma wore the girdle and ample square cloak, tilmatli,[112] of his nation. It was made of the finest cotton, with the embroidered ends gathered in a knot around his neck. His feet were defended by sandals having soles of gold, and the leathern thongs which bound them to his ankles were embossed with the same metal. Both the cloak and sandals were sprinkled with pearls and precious stones, among which the emerald and the chalchivitl—a green stone of higher estimation than any other among the Aztecs—were conspicuous. On his head he wore no other ornament than a panache of plumes of the royal green which floated down his back, the badge of military, rather than of regal rank.”[113]

These quotations from Prescott will give an idea of the costume of the Mexicans, and of the beautiful feather-work which formed so important a part of it. Though the language of Prescott may somewhat exaggerate the quality and beauty of the Mexican garments, we know from what the Mexicans and Pueblos manufactured afterward that much skill must have been displayed in these various fabrics. The cloak of cotton was probably no more a cloak or mantle than the blankets woven by the Pueblos and Navajos to-day; that is, it was a square of cloth worn about the shoulders. If one should describe the Pueblo in Prescott’s delightful language, we should think him and his houses and garments far finer than they really are. To describe a breech-cloth as a girdle round the loins; to speak of blankets as mantles and robes; moccasins as sandals, and otherwise gild description, makes pleasant reading, but is liable to convey erroneous impressions. Prescott’s lack of general knowledge of Amerind customs gave him a free rein and his poetical temperament finished the picture.

Montezuma wore on his head “a panache of plumes, ... the badge of military, rather than of regal rank.” And this is exactly what Montezuma was, a war-chief. But Prescott drew his material from the Spaniards, and where he describes what they saw, he is not, in all probability, far from the mark, although his language may be sometimes rather flowery. The feather-work was one of the remarkable products of the Aztecs. In an ornamental way it is still practised in Mexico, and the birds and other objects made from feathers exhibit a wonderful skill. Mantles of fur are mentioned as being used by the Aztecs, but these were probably constructed in much the same manner as the rabbit-skin robes of the Moki and the Pai Ute, that is, by twisting the skins into ropes and then tying them together. The cotton weaving was done on a loom similar to that now in use by the Navajos and the Pueblos. The feather-work was probably made in much the same way as that of Peru, specimens of which have been preserved in the tombs. The figure on page 137 shows the way the Peruvians attached the feathers to the cloth underground, but in many cases the feathers were woven in with the warp and woof, instead of being attached to the surface in this way. This use of feathers was not confined to any particular locality, but, like almost all the arts in use on the continent, was widely distributed. Turkey feathers were used in Virginia for this work, and in Louisiana the same bird was called upon. “The feather mantles,” writes Du Pratz in his history of Louisiana, “are made on a frame similar to that on which the peruke makers work hair; they spread the feathers in the same manner and fasten them on old fish-nets or old mantles of mulberry bark. They are placed, spread in this manner, one over the other and on both sides; for this purpose small turkey feathers are used; women who have feathers of swans or India ducks, which are white, make these feather mantles for women of high rank.”[114] Feather mantles of fine quality were also made by the Lenapé.

Almost every Amerind tribe could make thread, cord, nets, mats, and some kind of woven stuff. The Mexicans, Mayas, and other tribes of the Central region excelled in these things, but the Pueblos, and Navajos, as we have seen, execute in modern times some admirable fabrics, which the Pueblos also constructed before the advent of the whites.

“The Mexicans had also,” says Prescott, “the art of spinning a fine thread of the hair of the rabbit and other animals, which they wove into a delicate web that took a permanent dye.... The women, as in other parts of the country, seemed to go about as freely as the men. They wore several skirts or petticoats of different lengths, with highly ornamented borders, and sometimes over them loose flowing robes, which reached to the ankles. These, also, were made of cotton; for the wealthier classes, of a fine texture, prettily embroidered. No veils were worn here (Mexico) as in some other parts of Anahuac, where they were made of the aloe thread, or of the light web of hair above noticed.”[115] Biart[116] says the women wore “a piece of cloth cueitl, which they wrapped around their bodies, and which descended a little below the knee; over this skirt they wore a sleeveless chemise called huepilli.”

The Mayas and other Amerinds of the Central region used woven cloths similar to those of the Aztecs. Of the dress of the modern Amerinds of Nicaragua, Squier says: “It is exceedingly simple. On ordinary occasions the women wear only a white or flowered skirt fastened round the waist, leaving the upper part of the person entirely exposed, or but partially covered by a handkerchief fastened around the neck. In Masaya and some other places, a square piece of cloth of native manufacture, and precisely the same style and pattern with that used for the same purpose before the Discovery, supplies the place of a skirt. It is fastened in some incomprehensible way without aid of strings or pins and falls from the hips a little below the knees.... The men wear a kind of cotton drawers, fastened above the hips, but frequently reaching no lower than the knees. Sandals supply the place of shoes, but for the most part both sexes go with bare feet.”[117] The costume of the women of Louisiana as depicted by Du Pratz in an illustration in his history, is almost, if not quite identical with the costume of the women of Nicaragua.

Fine dressing was not confined to the Mexicans. Other Amerinds gave some attention to their personal appearance as well as the tribes of Mexico. In the following description by a Miss Powell, who visited an Iroquois council on Buffalo Creek, in 1785, of Captain David, if the worthy Captain had been described as a “lord,” and Miss Powell had been less skeptical about his ablutions, he might easily have ranked with some of the “lords” of Anahuac who are so conspicuous in the charming works of Prescott. Miss Powell declared, “that the Prince of Wales did not bow with more grace than ‘Captain David.’ He spoke English with propriety. His person was as tall and fine as it was possible to imagine; his features handsome and regular, with a countenance of much softness; his complexion not disagreeably dark, and, said Miss Powell, ‘I really believe he washes his face.’... His hair was shaved off, except a little on top of his head, which, with his ears, was painted a glowing red. Around his head was a fillet of silver from which two strips of black velvet, covered with silver beads and brooches, hung over the left temple. A ‘foxtail feather’ in his scalp-lock and a black one behind each ear waved and nodded as he walked, while a pair of immense silver ear-rings hung down to his shoulders. He wore a calico shirt, the neck and shoulders thickly covered with silver brooches, the sleeves confined above the elbows with broad silver bracelets engraved with the arms of England, while four smaller ones adorned his wrists. Around his waist was a dark scarf lined with scarlet which hung to his feet, while his costume was completed by neatly fitting blue cloth leggins, fastened with an ornamental garter below the knee.”[118] This elegant gentleman belonged to no vanished or mysterious race; he was a modern Iroquois. Undoubtedly his ancestors had, many of them, with the means at their command, dressed with equal splendour, and we may wonder what kind of a description of them we would have had from the romantic Spaniards if they had happened to meet with them. Even this well-balanced American lady was considerably overcome, for she says: “Captain David made the finest appearance I ever saw in my life.” About this same time, or to be accurate, in 1776, Father Escalante met with Amerinds in Utah whose dress was very different. “Their dress,” he says, “manifests great poverty; the most decent which they wear is a coat or shirt of deerskin, and big moccasins of the same in winter; they have dresses made of hare and rabbit skin.”[119] In the latter we recognise the same twisted skin garments that are still used, or were a few years ago, by the Pai Utes and the Mokis. In central Georgia in Soto’s time the women wore a kind of shawl, “for covering, wearing one about the body from the waist downward, and another over the shoulder with the right arm left free.”[120] Spinning and weaving were long supposed, by those who had not investigated, to be practised only by the Mexican and Pueblo tribes, and by the Navajos, but the Pimas and Maricopas of Arizona were adepts in these arts in 1857. The government agent reports at that time: “They also spin and weave their cotton, by hand, into blankets of a beautiful texture, an art not acquired from the Spaniards, but found among them more than three hundred years ago, when the Spaniards first penetrated the country.”[121] The Algonquins of Connecticut dressed in skins “cured so as to be soft and pliable, and sometimes ornamented with paint and with beads manufactured from shells. Occasionally they decked themselves in mantles made of feathers overlapping each other as on the back of the fowl, and presenting an appearance of fantastic gayety which, no doubt, prodigiously delighted the wearers. The dress of the women consisted usually of two articles: a leather skirt, or under garment, ornamented with fringe; and a skirt of the same material, fastened round the waist with a belt and reaching nearly to the feet.... Their hair they dressed in a thick heavy plait which fell down upon the neck; and they sometimes ornamented their heads with bands of wampum or with a small cap. The men went bare-headed, with their hair fantastically trimmed, each according to his fancy. One warrior would have it shaved on one side of the head and long on the other. Another might be seen with his scalp completely bare, except a strip two or three inches in width running from the forehead over to the nape of the neck. This was kept short, and so thoroughly stiffened with paint and bear’s grease as to stand straight after the fashion of a cock’s comb, or the crest of a warrior’s helmet. The legs were covered with leggins of dressed deerskin, and the lower part of the body was protected by the breech-cloth, usually called by the early settlers, Indian breeches. Moccasins, that is, light shoes of soft dressed leather, were common to both sexes; and like other portions of the attire, were many times tastefully ornamented with embroidery of wampum. The men often dispensed with their leggins, especially in summer; while in winter they protected themselves against the bleak air by adding to their garments a mantle of skins. The male children ran about in a state of nature until they were ten or twelve years old; the girls were provided with an apron, though of very economical dimensions.... The women ... used the paint as an ornament, while the men seldom applied it, except when they went to war and wished to appear very terrible in the sight of their enemies. Sachems and great men had caps and aprons heavily wrought with different-coloured beads. Belts were also worn of the same material, some of which contained so great a quantity of wampum as to be valued by the English colonists at eight and ten pounds sterling.”[122]

Here we discover the same desire for distinction of individuals by dress that exists in all races, and the same desire to dress richly on the part of those possessing wealth or station, for it must be understood that wealth and station have their degrees amongst the rudest Amerinds as well as amongst the highest and amongst the Europeans. The dress in the summer always differs considerably from that of winter. In many tribes little is worn by the men in summer but the breech-cloth, and sometimes not even that. I recall one morning when I was living in the Moki village of Tewa, in Arizona, one of the dignitaries came to call upon me, as was a common custom, and he had wrapped about him a native blanket. When he temporarily let this covering drop away from his person, I noticed that there was not even a breech-cloth beneath. The small children of both sexes played about in a state of nature, though some wore a shirt, and the women appeared to have on only the one garment, made of two small black blankets sewed together on their side edges and caught over the right shoulder and under the left. The Moki women wear moccasins only in the ceremonials, or on some state occasion, or when travelling. They rarely travel.

Catlin gave a great deal of attention to the costumes of the Amerinds he travelled amongst and painted, and a reference to his works opens up a world of detail that cannot be presented here. Some of his most interesting work was amongst the Mandans, of Dakota stock, in the year 1832.[123] I will quote from him some general remarks on the Mandan costume. “The Mandans, in many instances, dress very neatly, and some of them splendidly. As they are in their native state, their dresses are all of their own manufacture, and, of course, altogether made of skins of different animals belonging to those regions. There is, certainly, a reigning and striking similarity of costume amongst most of the North-western tribes, and I cannot say that the dress of the Mandans is decidedly distinct from that of the Crows or the Blackfeet, the Assiniboins, or the Sioux[124]; yet there are modes of stitching or embroidering in every tribe which may at once enable the traveller who is familiar with their modes to detect or distinguish the dress of any tribe. These differences consist generally in the fashions of constructing the head-dress, or of garnishing their dresses with the porcupine quills, which they use in great profusion.... The tunic, or shirt, of the Mandan men is very similar in shape to that of the Blackfeet—made of two skins of deer, or mountain-sheep, strung with scalp-locks, beads, and ermine. The leggings, like those of the other tribes of which I have spoken, are made of deerskins and shaped to fit the leg, embroidered with porcupine quills, and fringed with scalps from their enemies’ heads. Their moccasins are made of buckskin, and neatly ornamented with porcupine quills. Over their shoulders (or, in other words, over one shoulder and passing under the other) they very gracefully wear a robe from a young buffalo’s back, oftentimes cut down to about half of its original size, to make it handy and easy for use. Many of these are also fringed on one side with scalp-locks, and the flesh side of the skin curiously ornamented with pictured representations of the creditable events and battles of their lives. Their head-dresses are of various sorts, and many of them exceedingly picturesque and handsome, generally made of war-eagles’ or ravens’ quills and ermine. These are the most costly part of an Indian’s dress in all this county, owing to the difficulty of procuring the quills and the fur; the war-eagle being the rara avis, and the ermine the rarest animal that is found in the country.” Catlin gave two horses for one of the head-dresses. This specimen came down to the wearer’s feet. These are now called “war-bonnets,” and are still in use among the Sioux and other tribes. “There is occasionally,” continues Catlin, “a chief or a warrior of so extraordinary renown that he is allowed to wear horns on his head-dress, which give to his aspect a strange and majestic effect. These are made of about a third part of the horn of a buffalo bull, the horn having been split from end to end, and a third part of it taken and shaved thin and light and highly polished. These are attached to the top of the head-dress on each side in the same place that they rise and stand on the head of a buffalo, rising out of a mat of ermine skins and tails, which hang over the top of the head-dress somewhat in the form that the large and profuse locks of hair hang and fall over the head of a buffalo bull.” This head-dress with horns “is used only on certain occasions, and they are very seldom.”[125]

Among the Omahas, also of Dakota stock, garments, Dorsey says, “were usually made by the women, while men made their weapons.... There is no distinction between the attire of dignitaries and that of the common people.”[126]