What was Onondaga clothing like? Did they wear feather
headdresses and face paint?
Onondaga headdress
Onondaga boy
Onondaga men wore breechcloths with
leggings. Onondaga women wore
wraparound skirts with shorter leggings.
Men did not originally wear shirts in
Onondaga culture, but women often wore a
long tunic called an overdress. The
Onondagas usually wore deerskin moccasins
on their feet. In colonial times, the
Onondaga tribe adapted European costume
like cloth shirts and blouses, decorating
them with beadwork and ribbon applique.
Here is a webpage about traditional
Iroquois dress, and here are some
photographs and links about American
Indian clothes in general.
The Onondagas didn't wear long
headdresses like the Sioux. Men wore
traditional Iroquois headdresses, which
were feathered caps with a different
insignia for each tribe. (The Onondaga
headdress has one eagle feather standing
straight and one trailing behind.) Women
sometimes wore beaded tiaras. In times of
war, Onondaga men often shaved their
heads except for a scalplock or a crest
down the center of their head--the style
known as a roach or "Mohawk." Sometimes
they would augment this hairstyle with
splayed feathers or artificial roaches
made of brightly dyed porcupine hair.
Onondaga women only cut their hair when
they were in mourning. Otherwise they
wore it long and loose or plaited into a long
braid. Men sometimes decorated their
faces and bodies with tribal tattoo art,
but Onondaga women generally didn't paint
or tattoo themselves.
Today, some Onondagas still wear
moccasins or a beaded shirt, but they wear
modern clothes like jeans instead of
breechcloths... and they only wear
feathers in their hair on special occasions
like a dance.
From:
http://www.geocities.com/bigorrin/onondaga_kids.htm
Black & Purple Roach
Northern Plains
Collected 1881
Ogden B. Read Collection
The porcupine hair roach is a head ornament worn
by men. It is typically constructed of porcupine
guard hair (not quills) and hair from the tail of the
white-tail deer. Some roaches from the southern
plains are constructed using black turkey beards.
The exact origins of the roach are not known for
certain. There is some conjecture that they were
originally worn as part of society regalia and may
have originated among the Missouri River tribes.
However, this is not certain. From drawings by
Charles Bird King and George Catlin (among
others), we do know that roaches were in common
use in the early 19th century and it is likely that
they were in use much earlier. The roach worn by
Buffalo Bull can be clearly seen in this drawing by
George Catlin in 1832:
Crow Roach
1900's
Denver Art Museum
Collection
Buffalo Bull
Grand Pawnee Warrior
Painted by George Catlin, 1832
Crow Roach
1900's
Denver Art Museum
Collection
Note the orange & pink
striped deer hair
From: http://www.matoska.com/roach_history.htm