The basic dress for both men and women was the breech clout—a length of deerskin that was looped over a belt in back, passed between the legs, and looped over a belt again in front.[176]In post-contact times this garment was sometimes made of cloth.[177]The breech clout was worn at all times by adults.[178]Female children wore such a garment or its equivalent from early infancy; male children went naked until they were ten or twelve years old.[179]
The Wampanoags did not wear a great deal of additional clothing. For additional protection from insects and cold, the Indians usually wore a thick coating of animal or vegetable fat.[180]The Wampanoags might put on leggings when traveling through scratchy undergrowth. Leggings consisted of two tubes of deerskin, extending from ankle to groin, fastened into the moccasin at the lower end and held up by attaching them to the belt.[181]Leggings were worn by both sexes; those worn by the women may have been somewhat shorter.[182]Leggings were also worn as a protection against the cold, especially by the older people.[183]
Skin capes were a common item of clothing for both sexes.[184]Women’s capes, about twice as long as those worn by men, are reported to have hung down behind like a train.[185]Capes for summer wear were of deerskin—either worn hair side out or made of de-haired skins. For winter wear the hair was left on and turned to the inside.[186]The skins of Beaver, otter, racoon, bear, and fox—the smaller ones being sewed together—were also used for winter mantles.[187]Mantles made of turkey feathers were mentioned previously.[188]
Champlain reported that Indians on Cape Cod (probably Nauset) wore capes woven of grass and hemp fibers.[189]These extended to the thighs and may have been worn in summer as a protection against insects. Or, perhaps they were for special occasions. One fragment of such a mantle, excavated along with a burial near Manchester, Massachusetts, was made of twilled bast fiber.[190]The lower edge of the garment was fringed.[191]
The skin mantle was usually worn passed under the right arm, brought over the left shoulder, and the two ends fastened.[192]For traveling or other activity the garment was bound tight against the body with a belt.[193]In very cold weather the exposed arm was covered with a detachable fur sleeve which was tied on.[194]In the absence of the sleeve, the mantle might be allowed to hang loose, and the wearer alternately cover whichever shoulder was exposed to the wind as he walked.[195]
Both men and women wore moccasins. The preferred material for these was moose hide, but in its absence, deerskin served.[196]Everyone went barefoot in the summer, but they usually carried their moccasins slung on their backs in case of having to travel over very rough ground.[197]
Contact with Europeans brought changes in the style and the material of some Indians’ clothing. Indians were encouraged to adopt English styles of dress as part of the process of their conversion to Christianity. Many, however, found the European style of clothing a nuisance. Wood says: “... their chief reasons they render why they will not conforme to our English apparell, are, because their women cannot wash them when they bee soyled, and their means will not reach to buy new when they have done with their old; and they confidently beleeve, the English will not be so liberall as to furnish them upon gifture: therefore they had rather goe naked than be lousie....”[198]Often, articles of English clothing were worn for special occasions.[199]Some Indians began selling all their skins to European traders and using cloth to make their traditional garments.[200]The cloth which they preferred was a blanket material called “duffils” or “trucking cloth”.[201]Whatever the style and material of their clothing, however, the Wampanoags preferred to wear only the loincloth when they were in their own houses.[202]
Ornament: Copper or brass, breast-plates, necklaces, bandoliers, etc. are often mentioned by explorers who visited the New England coast prior to the establishment of permanent settlements.[203]A change in fashion apparently took place among the Indians of southeastern New England during the early historic period, however, for colonial writers describe the same types of ornaments as being made of shell.
Breast-plates were solid sheets of copper or brass hammered thin and flat.[204]They were about a foot in length and half that wide.[205]Sheet copper was also made into tubular beads. These were about four inches long and a quarter of an inch in diameter. They were made by bending the sheet of metal around a stick from which the pith had been removed to form a hole for stringing.[206]Tubular beads were strung together (long axes parallel) to make bandoliers. Bandoliers were worn diagonally across the chest or sometimes as belts around the waist.[207]Similar fillets made of shorter copper beads were probably worn as headbands.[208]Tubular copper beads strung end to end were worn as necklaces.[209]Gorgets and pendant earrings were also made out of copper and brass.[210]
By the time the Pilgrims arrived, shell ornaments apparently had replaced the metal ornaments which earlier chroniclers said were worn by everyone, for none of the colonial writers mentions Indians wearing copper or brass ornaments.[211]Most shell ornament was based on beadwork, although shell, along with bone and stone was used for ear pendants—cut-outs of birds, fish, and other animals.[212]By at least 1647 wampum was the most popular style of shell beads.[213]
Wampum served as “money” and as ornament. It was introduced into Plymouth colony as an item of exchange in 1627 by the Dutch, for although it was common among Indians to the south, it was virtually unknown as an item of trading value to Indians aroundPlymouth and farther north.[214]Important people in the tribe had a few ornaments of wampum prior to 1627. Altham describes Massasoit in 1623 as wearing a belt of shell beads that were probably wampum.[215]After a slow start in Plymouth, wampum increased in popularity until it was common to see Indians wearing bracelets, necklaces, headbands, and belts, woven in various designs of small purple and white beads.[216]Collars, caps, and ear pendents were also made of wampum.[217]The beads were strung end to end as well as being woven in bands.[218]
The wampum made in southern New England was fashioned from the shells of the quahog, or hard-shelled clam (Venus mercenaria).[219]Bead blanks were first roughed out from the whole shell then drilled with a stone (later metal—introduced by Europeans) drill. Beads were then strung together and ground into their final shape with an abrasive stone.[220]
There were other, less popular, styles of shell beads and beadwork.[221]Sometimes small discoidal beads (probably quahog and periwinkle) were used instead of the tubular wampum for beadwork, as necklaces, bracelets, and hair ornaments. Like wampum, these beads were white and purple in color.[222]There were also large tubular shell beads that were strung for necklaces.[223]
Bone and seeds were also used for beads,[224]and early explorers report necklaces of variously colored stones.[225]
Besides jewelry, the Wampanoags used painting and tattooing as means of personal adornment. Tattooing was done by two techniques. A sharp instrument was used to pierce and lift a small area of skin, and black pigment was inserted into the wound. By repeating these small incisions close together, decorative lines were formed. This form of tattooing was done on the cheeks; the patterns were zoomorphic “... as Beares, Deares, Mooses, Wolves, &c., some of fowls, as of Eagles, Hawkes, &c....”[226]The other technique of tattooing was accomplished by “branding” with a hot iron. Geometrical shapes were applied to the arms and chest by this method.[227]
Body painting was done in red, yellow, white, and black. Red powder was sometimes put onto the hair.[228]The body and hair were prepared for painting by a thorough greasing; the grease provided a bond for the pigment.[229]Different colors might be used on various sections of the face, or a single color might be used for the whole face.[230]Both men and women wore paint. Paint was worn for mourning, for war ceremonial or festive occasions, and for games.[231]Warriors used lurid coloring to make them appear more terrible to the enemy.[232]Painting the face black, with soot and ashes, was a symbol of mourning.[233]There were undoubtedly many other associations between styles of painting and specific events or social groups, but they were not recorded by seventeenth century observers.
Hairdressing: Of hairdressing, Lechford reported: “They cut their haire of divers formes, according to their Nation or people so that you may know a people by their cut....”[234]There was also variation in hairstyle within the social group. An unmarried girl could be distinguished from a married women by her hair style.[235]At marriage, the women’s hair was cut off, and until her hair grew back she wore a covering on her head.[236]A young man who was not yet a warrior could be identified by his short haircut.[237]Further variation noted among the adults of the same tribe may mean that various kin groups used distinctive styles of hairdressing.[238]Long hair was highly prized, and wearing the hair in a tight “pony tail” was said to make it grow faster.[239]Hairdressing was a daily activity which involved oiling and, according to one writer, dyeing.[240]
Probable Wampanoag hairstyles include the following: hair cut short into bangs in the front, the remainder falling free to the shoulders; hair braided into four braids with part of this knotted behind, and with feathers and other sorts of ornaments stuck into the knot; hair shaved from the front and sides of the head, the remainder left long and made into a knot with feathers in it.[241]
Various forms of ornament, frequently feathers, were an integral part of certain hairstyles. Turkey and eagle feathers are mentioned specifically for this purpose.[242]Single feathers might be stuck into a knotted portion or otherwise intertwined with the hair.[243]Feathers were sometimes joined fan-shape and put into the hair. Fox tails and other fur were also used for hair ornament. Strips of deer hides, dyed red, were tied on, in the manner of a cock’s comb.[244]Other ornaments included ribbons of European manufacture and ornamental combs carved from antler.[245]
Specific information on female styles of hairdress is slight. Champlain describes one style which was a combination of free-falling hair in back and various braids for the rest.[246]Beyond this, there are no descriptions that relate to the Wampanoags.
Sources are contradictory in the subject of facial hair. Some writers report that Indians in this region generally despised and plucked out what little facial hair they had.[247]Another writer of the same period relates that these Indians were at pains to preserve their own thin beards and to add to them by fastening on animal hair.[248]