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HAUDENOSAUNEE
CLOTHING |
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Haudenosaunee people today dress just like you and
me. Girls and boys wear jeans and running
shoes and t-shirts and baseball caps. Traditional styles of clothing are worn on special occasions such as festivals, ceremonies, or powwows. During
special occasions Iroquois people might wear older styles of clothing made
from leather or cloth.
Boys might wear
ribbon shirts and breechcloths and girls might wear an overdress, skirt and
leggings.They might also wear leather moccasins.
Accessories such as turquoise
and silver jewelry, bead
jewelry,
barrettes, wampum, bolo ties, belt buckles or earrings made of beads or bone might also be
worn. Accessories can be worn for these special occasions, but many times you
will see someone wearing a necklace along with their jeans and t-shirt. This
necklace might have the image of a turtle or bear which represents that person’s
Haudenosaunee
clan.
Traditional Haudenosaunee clothes can
be made of either leather or cloth. Cloth was brought over to North America by
the early European traders.
Haudenosaunee used the cloth to make their own style of
clothing. By the eighteenth century (1700s), the use of calico and flannel cloth
was well established among
Haudenosaunee women and men. Deer,
moose, and elk
hides
and furs such
as
beaver, bear or wolf were the
materials used to make clothing for men and women,
before the
introduction of cloth.
The basic pieces of clothing
were moccasins, leggings, a skirt for women, a breechcloth for men, some type of
wrap to cover the upper part of the body in cool or cold weather and a robe of
fur. Accessories to the outfit were made of shell, bone, antler,
clay, feathers, and
other
natural materials.
When cloth was
brought over by the early traders, it was sought after and became an important
trade item. Certain types
of finished clothing
such as
coats and shirts were also desired by the Iroquois as well
as glass beads
and silver jewelry pieces. While the basic components of
the dress remained the same, perhaps the biggest change was the introduction of
the shirt with sleeves for both the men and the women. Linen shirts and military
coats were traded to the
Haudenosaunee
throughout the 1700s. Peter Kalm
described women at about the same time as wearing short blue knee length
petticoats, edged with ribbons, a blouse over the petticoat, and wampum for
jewelry. In 1765 (Parker, 1926:117) a report on the Seneca details women wearing
broadcloth skirts, flannel underskirts and leggings, and an overdress of flannel
or turkey cloth (calico) in green, red. or blue and nicely beaded rows of silver
brooches and ribbons on the collar and bottom of the overdress. Men wore flannel
and broadcloth hunting shirts, but interestingly their leggings were still made of
leather. For special occasions, they wore military coats. Ruffled shirts are
also often mentioned. These descriptions of
Haudenosaunee
clothing continue
throughout the 1700s and into the 1800s. In 1834, the
Reverend John Douse at Six Nations reports,
"The men ...wear moccasins. and no trousers but
have long leggings and the shirt overall loose and on the outside
- as to
the women; -
they wore cloth chiefly,-a petticoat-leggings of It and a bed
gown of print... A good black stiff hat, such
as men wear in England and a large square of broadcloth often very good complete their
dress..." (Johnston, 1964:261). It is at this
time that more and more mention
is made of the
Haudenosaunee
dressing in "English fashion" with only the elderly
retaining the traditional dress.
In 1851,
Henry Morgan Lewis made a distinction between the clothing of men and women
by stating that women
continued to
wear
traditional dress; however, not
necessarily
"richly
embroidered" with beadwork. The men
he noted,
wore the
traditional clothing only for "the dance".
By the 20th
century, many
Haudenosaunee
reserved their traditional
clothing for
special occasions. A show style of dress was also
adopted at that time
which combined elements of other Native clothing with the Iroquois style. Plains
Indian clothing along with accessories and design
elements became popular. Outfits were
also made
to resemble leather.
They were often
made of tan and brown cloth,
which was fringed at the shoulders and sleeves. Pant
legs and skirt bottoms
were also fringed.
The Plains style feather bonnet also
became very
popular. Today, many
Haudenosaunee prefer
to dress
in their own traditional style clothing when
participating in ceremonies, powwows, and other special events.
DRESS THE CORNHUSK DOLLS IN THE CLOTHING
THEY WOULD HAVE WORN IN EACH TIME PERIOD!
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