Native Americans did not have a large variety in clothing as it was all naturally made. Men did not often wear shirts, but they wore breech cloths, made out of a long rectangular piece of hide or cloth, tucked over a belt so the flaps fell in front and behind sometimes leggings were worn in colder weather.Men usually only wore war shirts which were made up of buckskin decorated with ermine tails, hair and intricate quill work and bead work.
The women traditionally wore skirts and leggings, the length, design and material of the skirts varied in each tribe. In some tribes women’s shorts were optional and in others they always wore tunics in public and in other tribe’s women wore one piece Indian American dresses. Footwear for males and females was a form of moccasin which is a sturdy leather shoe, or a mukluk which is a heavier boot. Styles of footwear however were different in each tribe. Headwear and formal clothing and hairstyles were different in each tribe. Most tribes wore a coat on colder weather however the arctic tribes wore coats such as the Inuit-style fur parkas. The most common hairstyles for the women was to wear their hair out and flowing or in long braids. Sometimes women painted or dyed the centre part of their hair. In southeast tribes such as Creek and Chickasaw women wore their hair in topknots and buns. Southwest, Navajo, Pueblo kept hair cut to shoulder length, Hopi Maiden wore squash blossom or butterfly whorls, which was mad by winding hair around a curved piece of wood to give it a round shape only unmarried women wore this hairstyle. Board or bonnet hair popular with Seminole women, made by fanning hair over titled cardboard into a disc shape worn on top of head. The most common men's hairstyles were flowing hairstyles, long braids, or shaved heads. Hair had a lot of symbolic importance for men. Men in some Western tribes only cut their hair to show grief or shame, and often wore the front part of their hair in special styles including pompadours (hair stiffened with grease or clay so that it stands up), forelocks (one long strand of hair hanging down between the eyes), or small braids or topknots arranged in various shapes. Warriors in other Eastern tribes shaved their heads except for a scalplock (a single lock of hair on the crown of their head), tonsure (a fringe of hair around the head), or roach (a stiff crest of hair running down the middle of the head.) The roach hairstyle is often known as a Mohawk or Mohican hairstyle, after two tribes who frequently wore it. Shoulder-length hair with a cloth bandana around it became a more popular style in the Southwest by the 1800's. Other South-western men twisted their hair into dreadlocks.Northwest Coast wore moustaches and sometimes beards, most men just kept their faces shaved. |