With more than 200,000 members living in Canada, The Cree are one of the largest groups of First Nations in North America. The

1. Onas family - Tierra del Fuego. 2. Adornments. Solomon Islands. 3. Andaman Boy with his father's bones (Andaman Islands, India). 4. Dogon ritual dance masks - southeast of Timbuktu, Mali. 5. Hmong (Meo) women in wedding clothes. Vietnam (Tonkin). 6. Two Moi tribesmen in a hut built on piles, southern Annam, Vietnam. 7. Algonquin shaman, Canada. 8. Aboriginal people with their shaman and sacred pole, Australia. 9. Group of Ainu people, Japan. 10. Araucanian graveyard, Chile. 11. Cleaning wells. Southern Tunis. 12. Eskimos with their tent make of skins, Greenland. 13. Indian turner. 14. Young Abyssinian playing the lyre. 15. Woman in mourning, Madagascar. 16. Fetish Priest Hazena. Niger. 17. Sakai boy blow the dart from the sumpit (blowgun), Malaysia. 18. Two Patamona indigenous build a boat, Guyana.

Check out this site for interesting facts bout the Comanche tribe. Food, clothing, homes, weapons, chiefs and culture of the Comanche. Interesting facts about the Comanche nation of the Great Plains.

Пусть теплые ветры небес мягко дуют на ваш дом. Да благословит Великий Дух всех, кто туда входит. Пусть ваши мокасины проложат счастливые тропы на множестве снегов, и пусть радуга всегда будет касаться вашего плеча.

Native American culture is rich with magical customs and captures the spirit of living free, but during the 20th century it was quickly vanishing. Because of this, Edward Sheriff Curtis dedicated decades of his life to capturing and recording the lifestyle of indigenous tribes in North America and his extensive work includes some of the most captivating photos from that era.

From sonofthesouth.net: Creek Indians, members of a noted confederacy whose domain extended from the Atlantic westward to the high lands which separate the waters of the Alabama and Tombigbee rivers, including a greater portion of the States of Alabama and Georgia and the whole of Florida. It was with the people of this confederacy that Oglethorpe held his first interview with the natives on the site of Savannah. They called themselves Muscogees, but, the domain abounding in creeks, it was called the Creek country by the Europeans. Evidently the kindred in origin and language of the Chickasaws and Choctaws, they claimed to have sprung from the earth, emigrated from the Northwest, and reached Florida, when they fell back to the more fertile regions of the Ocmulgee, Coosa, and Tallapoosa rivers. Some of them remained in Florida, and these became the Seminoles of a later period. De Soto penetrated their country as early as 1540, and twenty years later De Luna formed an alliance with the tribe of the Coosas. When the Carolinas and Louisiana began to be settled by the English, Spaniards, and French, they all courted the Creek nation. The English won the Lower Creeks, the French the Upper Creeks, while the Spaniards, through their presents, gained an influence over a portion of them. In 1710 some of these (the Cowetas) made war on the Carolinas, and were petted by the Spaniards at St. Augustine, but in 1718 they joined the French, who built a fort at Mobile. In 1732 eight Creek tribes made a treaty with Oglethorpe at Savannah; and in 1739 he made a treaty with the Cowetas, and they joined him in his expedition against St. Augustine. When the French power in North America was overthrown, the entire Creek nation became subject to English influence. At that time they had fifty towns, and numbered nearly 6,000 warriors. They were the allies of the British during the American Revolution. Many Tories fled to the Creek towns from the Carolinas and Georgia at the close of the war, and excited the Indians to ravage the frontiers of those States. A peace was concluded with the Creeks by Washington in 1790; yet some of them joined the Cherokees in incursions into Tennessee in 1792. Another treaty was made in 1796, and in 1802 they began to cede lands in the United States. But when the War of 1812 broke out they joined their old friends, the English; and by an awful massacre at Fort Mims, in August, 1813, they aroused the Western people to vengeance. Troops led by General Jackson and others entered the Creek country; and in 1813 they ravaged the finest portion of it, destroyed the towns, slew or captured 2,000 Creek warriors, thoroughly subdued them, and, in fact, destroyed the nation. Their last stand against the United States troops was made at Horseshoe Bend in March, 1814. Some of them had already settled in Louisiana, and finally in Texas, where they remained until 1872, when the government took steps to reunite the nation in the Indian Territory. They had ceded all their lands east of the Mississippi. With those who had removed there was trouble at times. Some favored removal west of the Mississippi; others opposed it. In 1825 they put one of their chiefs (William McIntosh) to death for signing a treaty for the cession of lands. In 1836 some of the Creeks joined their kindred, the Seminoles, in Florida in attacks upon the white people, and others joined the United States troops against them (the SEMINOLE WAR). They were finally nearly all removed beyond the Mississippi, where they numbered about 25,000 in 1876. Unsuccessful attempts to Christianize them were made. They refused missions and schools for a long time. Their nation declined, and in 1857 numbered less than 15,000. During the Civil War the tribe was divided in sentiment, 6,000 of them joining the Confederates. Their alliance with the Confederates was disastrous to their nation. In 1866 they ceded 3,000,000 acres of their domain in the Indian Territory to the United States for 30 cents an acre. In 1899 there were 14,771 Creeks at the Union agency in Indian Territory. The men of the Creek Confederacy were well-proportioned, active, and graceful; the women were smaller, exquisitely formed, and some of them were very beautiful. In summer both sexes went without clothing, excepting a drapery of Spanish moss that was fastened at the waist and fell to the thighs. The principal people painted their faces and bodies in fanciful colors, and fops sometimes appeared in beautiful mantles of feathers or deer-skins, and on their heads were lofty plumes of the eagle and the flamingo. The houses of the chiefs stood upon mounds, sometimes in the form of a great pavilion, and the inside of their winter dwellings were daubed with clay. Hunting, fishing, and cultivating their fertile lands were their employment for they seldom made aggressive war. They were skilful artisans in making arms, houses, barges, canoes, and various ornaments. They made pottery for kitchen service, and some of it was very ornamental. Fortifications were constructed with moats, and walled towns and grand and beautiful temples abounded. They made mats of split cane, with which they covered their houses and upon which they sat. These resembled the rush carpeting of the Moors. In their temples, dedicated to the worship of the sun, were votive offerings of pearls and rich furs. They regarded the sun as the superior deity, and in all their invocations they appealed to it as to God. To it they made sacrifices of grain and animals. The chief, while he was alive, was held in the greatest veneration as priest and king. As a symbol of devotion to him of the entire strength of the nation, the sacrifice of the first-born male child was required, while the young mother was compelled to witness the slaughter of her child. Their marriages were attended with great displays of ornaments and flowers, and at the setting of the sun the bride and groom and their friends prostrated them-selves before that luminary and implored his blessing. Like the Iroquois, the civil power in their government was widely distributed; and, like the Iroquois, the Creeks were an exception, in their approach to civilization, to all the Indian tribes of North America. Such were the Creek (or Muscogee) Indians when first seen by Europeans.

Native American culture is rich with magical customs and captures the spirit of living free, but during the 20th century it was quickly vanishing. Because of this, Edward Sheriff Curtis dedicated decades of his life to capturing and recording the lifestyle of indigenous tribes in North America and his extensive work includes some of the most captivating photos from that era.

Indiens Matis Visage couvert de rocou Etat d'Amazonas - Brésil [email protected] www.amazonie-indienne.com

The Amazon tribe has beaten back ranchers and gold miners and famously stopped a dam. Now its leaders must fight again or risk losing a way of life.

Powwow and Matchcoats Differences Between East and West Styles compiled, edited, commentary by Joseph Newman Christoph Baron Von Graffenried (15 Nov. 1661-November? 1743), was founder of New Bern and a leader in early Swiss and German colonization of America, was born in his ancestral village of Worb in the Canton of Bern, Switzerland. Graffenried embarked 650 Palatines from English ports and about 150 Swiss from Dutch ports after their voyage down the Rhine River. He joined Michel and the surveyor John Lawson in the Neuse-Trent area and soon laid out, in a cruciform plan, his Stättli, the little town that he called New Bern. In the town he settled most of the craftsmen he had transported. In outlying areas up the Trent, approaching the present-day site of Pollocksville, he settled the farmers among the emigrants. This was in 1710. Within a matter of months, the colony was overwhelmed by the Indian uprising led by the Iroquoian Tuscarora. Most of the Swiss were massacred, and Graffenried and Lawson were taken prisoner and held at the Indian town of Cotechney, near the modern town of Snow Hill. Lawson was executed and Michel also "died among the Indians," though the manner of their deaths is not known. In negotiations with Iroquoian tribes on Virginia's border, Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood of Virginia interceded on behalf of Graffenried, with whom he had been corresponding. The Swiss leader was released unharmed, but his colony was doomed to fail. One cause was the Indian troubles, which lasted until 1718. Another was the lack of support from the badly divided Proprietary government, paralyzed at this time by internal dissensions between Quakers and Anglicans. A third cause was an outbreak of yellow fever. Graffenried fell ill, and Governor Edward Hyde, from whom he might have expected support, died during the epidemic." http://www.learnnc.org/lp/media/uploads/2007/08/lawson_death_bw.jpg What to take note of here is the drummer....just like in Alexander Sptswood's description of Saponi drumming style....there is one drummer with the drum and two sticks....thus making the druming style more like the Aztec/Mayan druming style....now anyone with druming experience of any kind will tell you one person with 2 sticks makes a very different sound than a person with 1 stick or numerous people with 1 stick. 1729: William Byrd while visiting one of the Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) Indian Towns in Southampton County – “the young men danced to beat of a gore drum, stretched tight with a skin - the women wore Blue and Red Match Coats with their hair braided with Blue and White beads.” Chief Dragging Canoe "The young men had painted themselves in a hideous manner, not so much for ornament as terror. In that frightful equipage they entertained us with sundry war dances, wherein they endeavoured to look as formidable as possible. The instrument they danced to was an Indian drum, that is, a large gourd with a skin braced tight over the mouth of it. The dancers all sang to the music, keeping exact time with their feet, while their heads and arms were screwed into a thousand menacing postures. Upon this occasion the ladies had arrayed themselves in all their finery. They were wrapped in their red and blue match coats, thrown so negligently about them, that their mahogany skins appeared in several parts, like the Lacedæmonian damsels of old. Their hair was braided with white and blue peak, and hung gracefully in a large roll upon their shoulders. This peak consists of small cylinders cut out of a conch shell, drilled through and strung like beads. It serves them both for money and jewels, the blue being of much greater value than the white, for the same reason that Ethiopian mistresses in France are dearer than French, because they are more scarce. The women wear necklaces and bracelets of these precious materials, when they have a mind to appear lovely. " "The Timucua used tattoos as a status symbol. These tattoos were dotted designs created by poking holes in the skin with a sharp object like a hawk talon, shark’s tooth, or bone needle. Then a mixture of wood ashes (to prevent infection) and possibly berry juice was rubbed into the holes. The chief and his family had more tattoos than anyone else. Men and women were both tattooed. The chief and possibly his advisers (Principle Men) received a blue tattoo around their lips." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YmZZYuyR4Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2woHIJ9Yz0&NR=1&feature=endscreen Notice in the last videos the drumming style...1 person per drum and 2 sticks....also take note of the ankles in the last video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpPKAJIGRjg " The musician came and sat himself in the middle of the ring All the instrument he had was a piece of board and two small sticks The board he set upon his lap and began to sing a doleful tune and by striking on the board with his sticks he accompanied his voice He made several antic motions and sometimes shrieked hideously which was answered by the boys As the men sung so the boys danced all round endeavoring who could outdo the one the other in antic motions and hideous cries the movements answering in some way to the time of the music . All that I could remark by their actions was that they were representing how they attacked their enemies and relating one to the other how many of the other Indians they had killed and how they did it making all the motions in this dance as if they were actually in the action " “Colonial Children” by Albert Bushnell Hart, Blanche Evans Hazard Page 124 (Saponi Indian Dance at Fort Christanna) Note from the above... "HE", which would be a single person...."Sticks", which means more than one stick....."sat himself in the middle of the ring", which means the drumming was with the dancers not away. Joseph Newman: Now in this next video...remember what the Aztec dancers had on their ankles...again watch this next video and pay attention to the ankles of the Muscogee Stomp dancers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAknzFxGX1A Here is what John white painted from seeing a south east native festival in person in the 1500's....note the regalia and the rattles..also note the totem style poles used in the festivals. http://www.kunstpedia.com/content_images/1/Smithsonion/John%20White%20I.jpg Next take note of the common Aztec clothing in this next image http://www.aztec-history.com/images/aztec-clothes-men.jpg " like the Lacedæmonian damsels of old" that was the description given for the South East people in Virginia and North Carolina..... Lacedæmonian clothing would be associated with the "Toga"....such as a toga party....toga toga toga Tuscarora Lodge "Page 4 For Counters, they use either Pebbles, or short scantlings of straw or reeds. Where a Battle has been fought, or a Colony seated, they raise a small Pyramid of these stones, consisting of the number slain or transplanted. Their reeds and straws serve them in Religious Ceremonies: for they lay them orderly in a Circle when they prepare for Devotion or Sacrifice; and that performed, the Circle remains still for it is Sacrilege to disturb or to touch it the disposition and sorting of the straws and reeds, shew what kinde of Rites have there been celebrated, as Invocation, Sacrifice, Burial The faculties of the minde and body they commonly express by Emblems. By the figure of a Stag, they imply swiftness; by that of a Serpent, wrath; of a Lion, courage; of a Dog, fidelity; by a Swan, they signifie the English,alluding to their complexion, and flight over the Sea. An account of Time, and other things, they keep on a string or leather thong tied in knots of several colours. I took particular notice of small Wheels serving for this purpose among the Oenocks, because I have heard that the Mexicans use the same. Every Nation gives his particular Ensigne or Arms: The Sasquesahanaugh a Tarapine, or small Tortoise; the Akenatzy's (This is the Occaneechi of the Saponi) a Serpent; the Nahyssanes (This is the Tutelo and holds the same for the Monacan and Manahaocs) three Arrows. In this they likewise agree with the Mexican Indians. They worship one God, Creater of all things, whom some call Okaee (Okee to the Mattamuskeet) ,others Mannith: to him alone the High priest, or Periku,offers Sacrifice; and yet they believe he has no regard to sublunary affairs, but commits the Government of Mankinde to lesser Deities, as Quiacosough and Tagkanysough,that is, good and evil Spirits: to these the inferiour Priests pay their devotion and Sacrifice, at which they make recitals, to a lamentable Tune, of the great things done by their Ancestors. From four women, viz. Pash, Sepoy, Askarin, and Maraskarin, they derive the Race of Mankinde; which they Page 5 therefore divide into four Tribes, distinguished under several names. They very religiously observe the degrees of Marriage, which they limit not to distance of Kindred, but difference of Tribes, which are continued in the issue of the Females: now for two of the same Tribe to match, is abhorred as Incest, and punished with great severity. Their places of Burial they divide into four quarters, assigning to every Tribe one: for, to mingle their bodies, even when dead, they hold wicked and ominous. They commonly wrap up the corpse in beasts skins, and bury with it Provision and Housholdstuff for its use in the other world. When their great men die, they likewise slay prisoners of War to attend them (This was done by taking pine splinters and placing it all over the body then liting it on fire, when the prisoner fell to the ground a warrior would run up and hit him over the head with the Tomahawk, to not kill these prisoners was taken as disrespect to you great warriors and would anger the creator). They believe the transmigration of souls: for the Angry they say is possest with the spirit of a Serpent; the Bloudy, with that of a Wolf; the Timorous, of a Deer; the Faithful, of a Dog, &c. and therefore they are figured by these Emblemes." THE Discoveries of JOHN LEDERER One very interesting thing in that historical record (which was written from first hand in person contact) is this passage "An account of Time, and other things, they keep on a string or leather thong tied in knots of several colours. I took particular notice of small Wheels serving for this purpose among the Oenocks, because I have heard that the Mexicans use the same." This next video will show you what Lawson was talking about https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhWItvjk9Yg ENGRAVING Plate 136 The plate is entitled 'Ther Idol Kivvasa'. It represents an idol seated in a circular hut. The image has the hair tied in a knot above the head, while the face shows signs of tattooing. "In his caption Hariot describes this 'idol' as carved of wood, about 4 feet high, with a head 'like the heades of the people of Florida', all black except for a flesh-coloured face, white breast, and white spots on the thighs. The necklace consisted of white beads alternating with spherical copper beads. This image was kept in the charnel house at Secoton, 'as the keper of the kings dead corpses'. Other 'churches' had two, or a maximum of three, set in a dark corner" http://www.virtualjamestown.org/images/white_debry_html/debry136.html The interestng thing about this is the hairstyle is that of the Timucua. The Timucua was neighbors to the Taino...and the Taino was mixed blood Mayan (The Taino's tribes went from Florida (bimini area) all the way to Cuba (Mayan territory). http://pelotes.jea.com/NativeAmerican/LeMoyne/RECREATIONAL%20WALKS.GIF http://www.powhatanmuseum.com/sitebuilder/images/Caribbean_Map-757x554.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5a/TimucuaTerritory.gif http://whitelocust.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/middleamericass.gif " Where a Battel has been fought, or a Colony seated, they raise a small Pyramid of these stones, consisting of the number slain or transplanted. " https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNV8LDjA9N4 Now, when English got here the tribes in south east was Christianized, was encored into European lifestyles and culture...over time their history and in a lot of cases even their tribe name was forgotten....then the late 1900's these people re started their groups and often using the wrong tribal destination....these people did not have their traditional native styles passed to them so they took styles and traditions of the out west tribes which was not a part of their own ancestor's styles etc. These groups falsely pass off out west tribe's look and traditions as their own and this mis educates the public and mis educates the future generations. It has gotten around the public so much that the REAL traditional people are seen as fakes while the false eastern tradional people are seen by the public as REAL. Even the Traditional hair style for the South east (The mohawk) is very very rarely seen in these south east groups. Traditional regalia is very rarely seen, traditional Gorgets are rarely seen, etc etc.....a lot of these south east groups even pass off out western jewelry as traditional south east jewelry. Only recently did war bonnets and tipi's start being dropped from these south east groups who back in the 1980's was calling tipi's and war bonnets as traditional south east culture. Because of these groups using non south east culture stuff....the East coast native people started getting labeled as "wanna be's". There is so many people in these south east groups today who will be so much into saying they are of all these historical tribes yet they refuse to do the simplest thing which is wear a Mohawk. These people will be all into pottery and metal jewelery yet refuse to do conch shell art which was the south east's biggest art form. They will get tattoos of feathers and bull skulls yet refuse to get a tattoo that was actually wore by south east tribes. A lot of these south east groups will even demand their members be christian when christian is not a traditional south east religion. These people will be so much into telling people they are part of these historical tribes yet will flat out refuse to even study what pre contact religion beliefs these historical tribes had. Now knowing all the REAL traditional festivals the south east tribes had....watch these next videos and ask yourself.....why in the world do these groups call these festivals "traditional" or even "preserving our history"..... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlrEaTIYhMQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djkfJwvM9Hs In all truth...if we was to take the people in these 2 videos back to even the 1700's Virginia and North Carolina....the native people would say.....WTF is this lol Matchcoats The Matchcoat is very simple but effective outer garment that is nothing more than a blanket that is fastened around the body. Some accounts simply describe what has come to be known as a matchcoat, rather than calling it by name. Of this type is the quote from the naturalist Peter Kalm, who traveled extensively through this country in the 1750's. In a listing of "Goods Sold to the Natives by the French," Kalm includes "Pieces of white cloth, or of a coarse uncut material. The Indians constantly wear such a cloth, wrapping it round their bodies. Sometimes they hang it over their shoulders; in warm weather they fasten the pieces round the middle; and in cold weather they put them over the head. Both their men and women wear these pieces of cloth, which have commonly several blue or red stripes on the edge" (Peter Kalm; Peter Kalm's Travels in North America; the English Version of 1770; Dover Publications, NY 1987; p. 519). A similar description is from Pierre Pouchot: "The Indians fasten their blankets below with their belts, and make them pass over the head like a monk's hood, arranging them so well that they only expose their nose and hands" (Pierre Pouchot, Memoir upon the Late War in North America, Be-tween the French and English, 1755-60; W. Elliot Woodward, Roxbury, MA, 1866, Vol. II, p. 215). Words often shift meanings with usage, locale, and time; the word matchcoat may just be a prime example. Watch-coats were worn by those of European extraction as noted below; a garment called a "machigode" or "machicote" worn by Indian women was the equivalent of a petticoat, as men-tioned in the 17th and 18th centuries. Pouchot writes of the "machicote" in his memoirs, stating "The [Indian] men sleep entirely naked; the women wear only the machicote, for the sake of decency . . . .The women wear an under petticoat called machicote, made of an ell of blue or red cloth . . . .The lower edge is ornamented with several strips of yellow, blue and red ribbon or Eglish edge lace. This arrangement resembles a courrier's frock. It is fastened around the waist by a strap . . .The men instead of a machicote, wear a breech-cloth" (Pouchot; Vol. I; p.187-193). A French soldier known only as J.C.B. and the author of Travels in New France (1751-1761), also refers to this garment: "This skirt, called a 'machicote," reaches only to the knees . . ." (Qtd. O'Neill II, p. 29). though it appears that the word "machicote" may be the genesis of "matchcoat," it is quite possible the words were understood at the time to be quite different, since the former is so obviously a woman's garment in these accounts. A contemporary note from Lieut. Henry Timberlake's 1756-1765 memoirs describing the costume of the men is quoted in Their Bearing is Noble and Proud: " . . .a large mantle or match-coat thrown over all completes their dress at home . . .(Qtd. O'Neill II, p. 35). And later, ". . .two yards and three-quarters make a matchcoat and leggon. . ." (Qtd. O'Neill II, p. 36). The Rev. David Jones made a similar observation in 1772-73: "The men wear shirts, match-coats, breech-clouts, leggings and mockesons, called by them mockeetha" (Qtd. O'Neill II, p. 42). Chief Kanitoga wearing a mantle They must have been quite common, as Col. Henry Bouquet included in his 1754 "list of Indian goods," "518 blankets, 60 English Match Coats, 80 White French ditto very coarse, 120 Brown french ditto very coarse." David Zeisberger described the matchcoat in 1779 in Ohio: "If an Indian has a Matchcoat, That is a blanket of the smaller sort, a shirt and brich clout, and a pair of leggins, he thinks himself well dressed. In place of a blanket those who are in comfortable circumstances . . .wear a strowd, i. e., two yards of blue, red or black cloth which they throw lightly over themselves and arrange much as they would a Match-coat." (Qtd. O'Neill II, p. 52). Nicolas Cresswell also noted the use of this versatile garment in his Journal: ". . . a matchcoat serves them for a bed a night" (Cresswell, The Journal of Nicolas Cresswell 1774-1777; The Dial Press, NY 1924, p. 121). It is interesting to note how very similar to the Scottish mantle or arisaid the matchcoat arrangement is, with similarities to the machigode as well. It may be that although English didn't habitually wear a blanket or length of cloth in such a fashion it was certainly not unknown to those of Celtic extraction. In the book Tartan; The Highland Habit by Hugh Cheape (National Museums of Scotland; Edinburgh; 1991) we see a number of examples, including an 18th century man in shirt, trews (trousers) and cloak (from Samuel Rush Meyrick's The Costume of the Original Inhabitants of the British Islands, London 1815), p. 10; a belted plaid worn much like a matchcoat from the National Museums of Scotland, p. 15. On page 16, a reclining Sir Duncan Campbell "wears 'a loose cloak of several ells', fastened with a brooch at the neck and belted at the waist" from the Scottish National Portrait Gallery that is indistinguishable from our current understanding of a matchcoat. In addition we find a comely barefoot lass on p. 34 wearing an arisaid or plaid in similar fashion, from the National Museums of Scotland collection.. (The plaid or "plaide" was properly a garment, not the pattern, which was referred to as a sett or tartan.) A very similar garment is shown on a woman in Five Centuries of American Costume, by R. Turner Wilcox, Chas. Scribner's Sons, NY 1963. A formal Highland matchcoat George Washington wrote of traveling fast in December of 1753: "I took my necessary Papers; pulled off my Cloaths; and tied myself up in a Match Coat. [Some editions say "watch-coat"--Ed.] Then with Gun in Hand and Pack at my Back, in which were my Papers and Provisions, I set out with Mr. Gist, fitted in the same Manner, on Wednesday the 26th." (George Washington, Diary; Riverside Press, Cambridge, MA 1925, p. 63.) A footnote on this page references the matchcoat: " So called because made of skins that were matched in putting them together. There was a coarse woollen cloth known as 'match-cloth,' which was used by the English in imitation of the Indian skin coat. It is, of course, impossible to say whether Washington's coat was of skins or cloth" (Washington p. 63). Elias Pym Fordham's 1818 description of his style of wearing his blanket may be one of the best description we have of the matchcoat as we understand it today: "...over my great coat* I wore a blanket, pinned under the chin in the Indian fashion, and confined to the waist by a leather belt; to which was suspended a large hunting or scalping knife. Fifteen years ago, this was a common dress in Kentucky, as it is now on the frontiers of Indiana and in the Illinois Territory" (Elias Pym Fordham; Fordham's Personal Narrative, 1817-1818; Heritage Books, Inc., Bowie, Maryland, 1989, p.158). A similar method is demonstrated by Mike Alton in American Pioneer Video's "Pioneering; The Longhunter Series," Vol. 3, starring Mark Baker. Another mention that may refer to a matchcoat-like arrangement of a blanket is this from Bradbury: "I wrapped a blanket round me, tied a black handkerchief on my head, and fastened on my belt, in which I stuck my tomahawk, and then walked into the village" (John Bradbury; Travels in the Interior of America in the Years 1809, 1810, and 1811, U. of Nebraska Press, 1987, p. 63). In Ste. Genevieve of 1808, Schultz noted a different use of a blanket by whites: "The majority of French in this place are almost as easily supplied as the native Indians: neither of them make any use of a hat or shoes; a pair of mockasons and a blanket seems equally common to both, except that the former will cut his into the shape of a coat [probably the capote or capeau], whereas the latter always prefers his loose" Christian Schultz; Travels on an Inland Voyage . . . Performed in the Years 1807 and 1808; Gregg Press reprint, 1968; Vol. II, p. 56). In Alice Morse Earle's Costume of Colonial Times, she defines the matchcoat as "The definition given two centuries ago by Governor Beverley of Virginia was this: 'The proper Indian matchcoat is made of skins dressed with the fur or sewed together. The Duffield matchcoat is bought of the English. The name matchcloth was given to a coarse woollen cloth used for these coats, but duffels were chiefly employed in their manufacture. The derivation of the word seems uncertain. In Baragoa's Chippewa Dictionary the word matchigode is given for petticoat," a similar usage to those noted above (Earle, Empire State Book Co., NY 1924, p. 159.) Duffel, also called Duffield, Shag, and Trucking-cloth, was commonly dyed red or blue to please the Indians of Virginia and New England, according to Robert Plot's 1677 report to the Witney, the town where duffels were woven. According to Plot, "their [the Indians] manner [of wearing them] being to tear them into Gowns of about two Yards long, thrusting their Arms through two Holes made for that Purpose, and so wrapping the rest about them as we our Loosecoats. Daniel Defoe wrote that "Witney 'Duffield Stuffs' were not only worn by the North American Indians but were "much worn even here in winter" (from Textiles in America 1650-1870; Florence M. Montgomery, W. W. Norton & Co, NY, 1984; p. 228). From the Journal of the Middle Waters Frontier, Vol 3, #3, Summer 1998 Clotheslines- Native Style Reader Rick Stickle sends this from The Journal of Nicholas Cresswell, 1774-1777, Dial Press, Norwood MA., 1924: "Friday, September 1st 1775. Saw an Indian Dance in which I bore a part. Painted by my Squaw in the most elegant manner. Divested of all my cloths, except my Calico shirt, breechclout, leggings, and Mockesons.... The men have strings of deer's hoofs tied round their ankles and knees, and gourds with shot or pebblestones in them in their hands which they continually rattle. The women have Morris bells or thimbles with holes in the bottom and strung upon a leather thong tied round their ankles, knees, and waists. The jingling of these Bells and Thimbles, the rattling of the Deer's hoofs and gourds, beating of the drum and kettle, with the horrid yells of the Indians, render it the most unharmonious concert, that human idea can possibly conceive. (P. 120) Tuesday September 26th 1775. [Ottawa] Their persons are tall and remarkably straight, of a copper colour, with long black hair, regular features and fine black eyes. The dress of the men is short, white linen or calico shirts which come a little below their hips without buttons at the neck or wrist and in general ruffled and a great number of silver brooches stuck in it. Silver plates about three inches broad round the wrists of their arms, silver wheels in their ears, which are stretched long enough for the tip of the ear to touch the shoulder, silver rings in their noses, Breechclout and mockeysons with a matchcoat that serves them for a bed at night. They cut off their hair except a lock on the crown of the head and go bareheaded, pluck out their beards. The women wear the same sort of shirts as the men and a sort of short petticoat that comes no lower than the knee, leggings and mockeysons, the same as the men. Wear their hair long, curled down the back in silver plates, if they can afford it, if not tied in a club with red gartering. No rings in the nose but plenty in the ears. Both men and women paint with Vermillion and other colours mixed with Bear's Oil and adorn themselves with any tawdry thing they think pretty. (P. 109) From the Journal of the Middle Waters Frontier, Vol 3, #4 Clotheslines- This comparison was compiled from the Pennsylvania Gazette, on the usages of the terms match coat and watch coat and kindly gave the Journal permission to publish it. He writes: "I, too, have been confused by the match/watch terms. I may be getting it surrounded. A search of the entire PA Gazette showed few references to either, but both are there, and used for what seem obviously different garments. I'm including all references to both. The "match coat" invariably refers to Indians or blankets in some way. I believe this is the style used by re-enactors, which is simply the draped blanket, Indian fashion, cut only to proper length and wrapped around the body and over the shoulder or shoulders. January 21, 1778 The Pennsylvania Packet ".....a tow cloth shirt, a white ditto, white plush breeches, speckled stockings, old shoes, and a match coat blanket." October 6, 1768 The Pennsylvania Gazette "...it is probable he will change his Clothes, and get an Indian Match coat." October 6, 1768 The Pennsylvania Gazette "They have likewise taken with them a pretty good feather bed, with Russia drilling tick, and three or four pretty good match coat blankets;..." July 2, 1752 The Pennsylvania Gazette"...name Jehu, looks much like an Indian, and will endeavour to pass for such, when it suits him, having a striped Indian match coat with him, which supposed he will make use of for that purpose:" March 2, 1758 The Pennsylvania Gazette "....and on his Return, dug up an Indian which they had buried, took away his Match coat, and scalped him with a broken Stone." August 30, 1753 The Pennsylvania Gazette "The further Conference between his Excellency JAMES GLEN, Esq; Governor of South Carolina, and Malatchi and other Headmen of the Creek Indians, held the 31st of May, promised in our last. The "watch coat", on the other hand, is obviously a much more civilized garment, tailored, even, with capes and buttons, etc. April 18, 1745 The Pennsylvania Gazette "...had on a brown Coat, a blue Watch coat, Leather Breeches,..." August 30, 1739 The Pennsylvania Gazette "...and stole from thence three Pieces of Portuguese Gold, and one small piece of Spanish Silver, a red Watch Coat not much wore, and is supposed to be now worn by the abovesaid Convict." April 15, 1756 The Pennsylvania Gazette "Had on when he went away, A red duffel watchcoat, with brass buttons, and an old grey broad cloth coat,..." May 9, 1751 The Pennsylvania Gazette"Had on when he went away, a red coloured watch coat, without a cape, a brown coloured leather jacket..." From the January 3, 1760, edition of The Pennsylvania Gazette "The 17th, we set the town on fire, about 12 o, which continued burning all that day. "The same Day we went out a fascining, and to make oars, with a small party to cover us; 5 were killed, of which 4 were scalped, and we were obliged to quit the wood directly; the Indians came up very near, and killed and scalped one man close by us; the grenadiers of the 45th regiment fired upon them, and killed one, but the Indians carried him off; we had five killed, and three wounded; but our people returning upon them, made them fly to fast, that they were obliged to leave their match coats, with several other things, behind them, but could not get one of them prisoners. A deserter came to us, from whom we got some account of their forces, which, however imperfect, gave us some encouragement. http://www.oldetoolshop.com/trekking/library/matchcoats.html