Clothing
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 around Plymouth 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