How did the blackfoot indians dress?

Answer 1

The Plateau tribes were influenced both by the Plains culture to the east and the coastal tribes further west, so their clothing was really a mix of elements from both.

Among the Kutenai (or Kootenai), to take just one example, men wore clothes similar to those of the Mandan of the Upper Missouri, using white tanned deer hides and elk and mountain-goat skins. Breechclouts, shirts and leggings were decorated with long fringes, sometimes with small shapes cut out of the leather.

Women also used white tanned deerskins for dresses, worn with short leggings.

Moccasins had a centre seam, with a long U-shape vamp and cuffs were added. Buffalo robes were worn in winter - these were usually traded from Plains tribes. Some wore Salish blankets traded from their neighbours.

Some warriors wore their hair plastered with grease or buffalo dung and made to stand erect in a horn shape, often painted. Some wore the front hair erect with the rest hanging loose, or just two braids like Plains tribes.

Straight-up headdresses like the Blackfoot warbonnets were sometimes worn, but more often one or two feathers were attached directly to the hair. Some of the women wore a basket hat.

Dentalia and abalone shells were obtained from coastal tribes and used in loop necklaces, chokers, earrings and hair ornaments.

See links below for images:

Answer 2

The Blackfoot are a group of allied tribes: Piegan, Blood and Blackfoot proper, each with their own traditions and ways of decorating garments.

In general terms, men wore a knee-length breechclout, shirt, leggings and moccasins of deer or elk skins dyed dark brown or black (in stark contrast to the Crows, who favoured white-tanned skins). Shirts often had a large circular quilled disk on chest and back, with strips of quillwork over the shoulders and down the tops of the sleeves; fringes were simply of cut leather, or hair locks, or rows of rolled ermine tails. Painted designs included a peculiar black tadpole shape thought to represent flying bullets.

Women originally wore the typical Algonquian strap-and-sleeve dress to the ankles (around 1700) or to mid-callf (around 1790). Later the side-seam dress was worn, but by 1830 the two-skin deer-tail dress was common, featuring the deer tail attached to the centre of an added yoke piece, often painted red. The three-skin dress finally adopted had rows of elk teeth and thongs attached for decoration. Women's leggings were knee-length and gartered. Deer, mountain sheep or mountain goats provided the soft skins.

Moccasins were dyed almost black (hence "Blackfoot"), with ankle flaps added.

Outer wear was provided by robes of elk or buffalo hide with the fur left on; after contact with Europeans and access to Hudson's Bay blankets, blanket coats (capotes) became widespread among the tribes.

Blackfoot warriors did not wear Sioux-style warbonnets, but fixed feathers upright into a headband, with rolled strips of ermine fur hanging at each side; fur hats of coyote, badger or otter fur were worn in winter.

See links below for images:

Answer 3

Historically the Comanche were part of the Northern Shoshone so the two groups are very closely related.

Men originally wore breechclouts with knee-length flaps front and rear, tight leggings gartered below the knee with triangular flaps often painted blue and no shirts. From around 1820 they began to wear shirts painted yellow or green, or a combination of the two colours. All of these items were made of deer, antelope or mountain sheep skins tanned very soft and decorated with long, twisted fringes (these long fringes are a tribal distinction among the Comanche and Kiowa).

Women originally wore a knee-length skirt sewn up each side and fringed at seams and hem. Over this was a poncho-like top made from one deer skin with a narrow slit opening for the head creating a high straight neckline. Later a three-skin dress was adopted, often painted lemon or buff and with long fringes.

Moccasins had rawhide soles and large ankle flaps; the uppers were painted rather than beaded and had long fringes at heels and along the front seam. Women combined short leggings and moccasins to make a type of boot, painted and sometime with silver disks down the side.

Warm winter robes were made of buffalo, bear, wolf or coyote furs.

Women wore their hair long and parted in the middle - like many native groups they painted the parting red. Men wore their hair loose or braided, the braids wrapped in otter fur and the parting painted white, red or yellow. Comanche warriors often wore a small round piece of white shell attached to the front of the hair so it sat at the front of the parting.

Links below take you to images of Comanches in traditional dress:

Answer 4

The Mogollon were a branch of the eastern Chiricahua Apache or Gilenos; they may have been the same people as the Bedonkohe (Geronimo's tribe).

In the 19th century the Mogollon had adopted many items of clothing from the Mexicans and white Americans - trousers instead of leggings, shirts and waistcoats (vests), cartridge belts, pistols, trade knives, neck scarves (bandanas) worn with silver conchos and so on. They continued to wear high-top Apache moccasins with turned-up toes, breechclouts and turban-style headbands of trade cloth, as well as a few traditional warrior caps and other headgear.

Women also wore non-native clothes: dresses, skirts and blouses and traded leather belts - but they also retained traditional Apache moccasins.

See links below for images:

Answer 5

The Mingo Indians are native Americans who would normally dress in traditional attire. The clothes were made from deerskins and other forms of animal hides and skins among others.

Answer 6

they lived in long houses