© Painting by Dan Nance of Patriot Art, Inc.The way the Native American looked was defined by two factors - where and when. Time and region created a look that was unfamiliar to the modern eye. An indian, is an indian, is an indian, while the initial image if an Indian is a Western warrior wearing a feathered headdress, surveying the vast prarie, the Indian of the Eastern woodlands in the 18th century had different factors that influenced the way they dressed. The natives clothing was a matter of form and function. For an unimaginable period of time, the materials used to make clothing came directly from the forest and lakes of the surrounding region. When the Europeans arrived, goods were traded to natives that were unavailable before. Although these goods profoundly affected the way the native looked, they certainly did not "Europeanize" the Indian. The materials used to make the clothing had changed but the function remained the same.
Trade items such as wool and linen were readily addopted by the Indians to suite their lifestyle, some of this clothing such as the match coat, leggings and breechclout was as old as the culture itself while others such as guns, ruffled shirts, trade silver, glass beads, iron kettles, steel knives and axes had within a few decades of introduction almost completely replaced the traditional stone tool, pottery, bow and arrow.
The visual image of the native changed through the centuries as the introduction of European goods were introduced but certain elements remained unchanged. One of the most striking of these elements was the slit or stretched ear. It was very common for the rim of the ear to be cut and left attached at the top and bottom, after this was allowed to heal, it was stretched by hanging lead weights on it, it was then wrapped with thin wooden strips or wire into a semi-circle about four inches in diameter. Also common was for the ear lobe to be pierced and stretched to a size to allow boars tusks, bird bones or carved stone weights and other such ornaments to be worn. Another custom the Europeans found unusual was peircing the septum of the nose in which different ornaments could be hung. The way the men wore their hair was also unaffected by the Europeans. The hair was plucked from the scalp leaving only a small patch on the top rear of the head, this was allowed to grow and was highly ornamented with dyed hair roaches, feathers, beads and other assorted ornaments. Tattooing was a popular decoration in which defferent designs of serpents, birds, animals and all sorts of figures were expertly marked on the skin.
The native warriors clothing and equipment was perfectly suited for combat in the forest as years of combat had reduced it to its barest essentials. They fought unencombered in the dark forests that defined them. Many Europeans, upon meeting natives for the first time found people very different that the heathen savages they had expected. Instead they were met by Indians that carried themselves with all the dignity of a Roman senator with beautifully carved ornaments and finely decorated quilled bags, painted hides and colorful finger woven sashes adorned them.
Despite immense cultural differences -- or perhaps because of them -- the history of the Native American Indian remains hauntingly compelling and is viewed across the vastness of time and we try to understand and it becomes a fascination for me.
My persona at historical events is a native of the Eastern woodlands at the time periods from pre-contact to 1820 with a focus on the late 1750's of the French and Indian war.
