Indian-Inspired Fashion
From Sitting Bull's new clothes to the geometric patterns and color stories that have become staples of Western apparel designs today.
By: G. Daniel DeWeese 11/03/2009
“He honored Sitting Bull by dressing him in...fine clothes with his own hands. [The Arikara (Ree) chief] put on him two fine scarlet trailing breech-cloths, a foot wide, reaching from his belt to the ground, before and behind.
“He helped him into a pair of handsome leggings of soft, pliant buckskin, decorated with a broad bead stripe down the leg, and having heavy twisted fringes from the hip to ankle.
“On his feet he placed moccasins with stiff rawhide soles and flexible elkskin uppers covered with designs in dyed porcupine quills.
“Over Sitting Bull’s head the Ree chief slipped a shirt of mountain-sheep’s skin, with trailing fringes, decorations of quillwork across the shoulders and chest, and tassels of hair in rows on either side. This shirt he laced up the side, and tied the sleeves to fit....”
By appealing to the vanity and sense of style of the great Sioux War Chief Sitting Bull, an unnamed Arikara chief averted a war between the two camps in 1862, as shared in this 1932 account by Chief Joseph White Bull, nephew of Sitting Bull (translated by Stanley Vestal in his biography of White Bull, Warpath).
Personally dressing Sitting Bull in traditional Plains Indian finery may have been an act of appeasement—the nomadic Sioux were better known for their battle skills than the more settled Rees—but then again, the cause of the dispute was a horse race! Honor and bloodshed were both spared.
White Bull’s description of the Arikara garb articulates George Catlin’s, Karl Bodmer’s and other artists’ artistic depictions of Arikara, Mandan and other Indians who lived along the Missouri River in the years after Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery passed through the area. From the description, we know the various pieces were the finest, most highly prized apparel available to Northern Plains Indians in that era—regalia that was suitable for a proud warrior and chief like Sitting Bull. The buckskin leggings, the sheepskin shirt, the fringe trim and the porcupine quill accents were all components of Plains Indian apparel before Europeans arrived in the New World. The scarlet breech-cloths were likely woven goods acquired from white traders who operated along the Missouri into the Dakotas out of St. Louis, as were the beads used to decorate the leggings. The quill work, the beads and the breech-cloth all suggest attire for ceremonial events.
Woven cloth and glass and ceramic beads were among the first transformative goods from Europe adopted by American Indian cultures. The lifestyle and territory of the Sioux had already expanded dramatically with the arrival of horses, which had migrated to the plains after being accidentally reintroduced to North America by 16th-century Spanish conquistadors. It would not be long before the detriments of contact with whites would overwhelm the benefits, from the perspective of the Indians.
While American Indian culture was ultimately overwhelmed by encroaching European culture, Indian art and design—and even some of their apparel—seeped into frontier tastes and sensibilities of Americans and Europeans who ventured West throughout the 1800s. That influence continues to flavor Western apparel today.
Comments (3)
The True West editors appreciate all of our readers who kindly wrote in to let us know about our gaffe regarding Jock Mahoney/Guy Madison. We have corrected this, as you can see in the slideshow that appears with this article. Also, Flying A Productions was Gene Autry's film company, which produced Range Rider, among other TV Westerns. Obviously, since this photo is not of Jock Mahoney, the credit no longer applies. Thank you again for being so observant!
Ditto - Jano722. Don't trust flying A productions.
gwillis alas Keechi
I enjoyed this article very much. The picture on page 51 supposedly of Jock Mahoney as the Range Rider is actually a picture of Guy Madison, possibly playing Wild Bill Hickock.
Jano722
Post A Comment