A jacket or shirt made of buckskin and reaching to the knees was generally
worn. It was variously decorated. Buckskin strip fringes bordered it;
pictures in black or red or other colors were painted upon it; handsome
patterns were worked into it with beads or porcupine quills, brightly
dyed; tufts of hair or true scalps might be attached to it.
Over all these came the blanket or robe. Nowadays these are got from the
whites, and are simple flannel blankets; but in the old times they were
made of animal hides. In putting on a blanket, the male Indian usually
takes it by two corners, one in each hand, and folds it around him with
the upper edge horizontal. Holding it thus a moment with one hand, he
catches the sides, a little way down, with the fingers of the other hand,
and thus holds it.
Even where the men have given up the old style of dress the women often
retain it. The garments are usually made, however, of cloth instead of
buckskin. Thus among the Sacs and Foxes the leggings of the women, which
used to be made of buckskin, are now of black broad-cloth. They are made
very broad or wide, and reach only from the ankles to a little above the
knees. They are usually heavily beaded. The woman’s skirt, fastened at the
waist, falls a little below the knees; it is made of some bright cloth and
is generally banded near the bottom with tape or narrow ribbon of a
different color from the skirt itself. Her jacket is of some bright cloth
and hangs to the waist. Often it is decorated with brooches or fibulæ made
of German silver. I once saw a little girl ten years old who was dancing,
in a jacket adorned with nearly three hundred of these ornaments placed
close together.
All Indians, both men and women, are fond of necklaces made of beads or
other material. Men love to wear such ornaments composed of trophies,
showing that they have been successful in war or in hunting. They use elk
teeth, badger claws, or bear claws for this purpose. One very dreadful
necklace in Washington is made chiefly of the dried fingers of human
victims. Among the Sacs and Foxes, the older men use a neck-ring that
looks like a rope of solid beads. It consists of a central rope made of
rags; beads are strung on a thread and this is wrapped around and around
the rag ring, until when finished only beads can be seen.
Before the white man came, the Indians used beads made of shell, stone, or
bone. Nowadays they are fond of the cheap glass beads which they get from
white traders. There are two kinds of beadwork now made. The first is the
simpler. It is sewed work. Patterns of different colored beads are worked
upon a foundation of cloth. Moccasins, leggings, and jackets are so
decorated; sometimes the whole article may be covered with the bright
beads. Almost every one has seen tobacco-pouches or baby-frames covered
with such work. The other work is far more difficult. It is used in making
bands of beads for the arms, legs, and waist. It is true woven work of the
same sort as the famous wampum belts, of which we shall speak later. Such
bands look like solid beads and present the same patterns on both sides.
The porcupine is an animal that is covered with spines or “quills.” These
quills were formerly much used in decorating clothing. They were often
dyed in bright colors. After being colored they were flattened by pressure
and were worked into pretty geometrical designs, color-bands, rosettes,
etc., upon blankets, buckskin shirts, leggings, and moccasins. Very little
of this work has been done of late years: beadwork has almost crowded it
out of use.
[Illustration.]