The Pima Indians/Technology/Artifacts/Clothing

by Frank Russell

TECHNOLOGY

Artifacts

CLOTHING

The description of Pima clothing need not he long. Throughout fully three-fourths of the year clothing for protection is quite unnecessary in that region, and that worn in winter was of the simplest character. The history of Pima clothing may be divided into four periods, namely: The first, in which natural products, little modified, were employed; the second, in which native textiles were introduced; the third, in which more or less remote imitations of Mexican costumes were in vogue; and the present period, when very plain and serviceable clothing is purchased from the whites.

Materials and Types

In primitive times the men wore breech-cloths (pl. XXXVII, a, b) and the women kilts that fell to the knee, both made of the soft and flexible inner bark of the willow, which is used by some among the Colorado River tribes to the present day. During the brief season when the temperature approached the freezing point at night the men wore deerskin shirts, and when abroad upon stony trails encased their feet in red-dyed moccasins, also of deerskin. For protection at home both sexes wore rawhide sandals, which appear to Caucasian eyes all too scant protection for the feet. where nature arms most species, animate or inanimate alike, with tooth and claw.^[1]

After the adoption of the art of weaving, the cotton blanket was worn in winter, and in summer also by the women, who girded it, doubled, around their waists with maguey cords, neatly woven belts, or merely tucked one edge within the other. When the winds from the sacred caves blew cold upon their shoulders they were shielded by the outer fold of blanket, which was drawn up around the neck; at least by all save the widow, who dared not raise the blanket above the armpits during the period of mourning. Plate XXXVI illustrates the mode of wearing this garment. As the blanket hung to the knees it might be converted by the men into baggy trousers by looping a cord from the girdle behind down between the legs and drawing it up in front. Some there were too poor or too strongly beset by the passion for gambling long to retain the single fabric that served for clothing by day and bedding by night, and they were compelled to resort to the bark garments of the ancients. Another material available for winter blankets was rabbit skins, which were cut in strips and braided together in the manner customary among so many American tribes.

During the Spanish and Mexican régime the sombrero found favor, and even yet the steeple crown of this head gear may occasionally be seen. The women adopted a sleeveless chemise, which they wear to some extent to-day; it is shown in plate XXXVIII, b, though usually no longer worn by a woman so young. A few women also follow the Mexican fashion of covering their heads with improvised mantillas—usually towels or aprons—as shown in figure 5, where the costumes of a group of both sexes are well shown. This view was taken at the agency, and as they were unaware of the author's presence with the camera, which was kept concealed, the posing was perfectly natural. When the summer heat begins to be felt the older men strip to the breechcloth, as shown in plate XXXVII, a, b, when they are about their homes.

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1. As an example of this tendency of desert plants to clothe themselves with armor, mention may be appropriately made of the crucifixion thorn, Holocantha emoryi, as it grows abundantly upon the mesas between the Gila villages and the Salt River Pima settlement, 30 miles northward. It becomes a small leafless tree that is a tangle of thorny spikes, each a hand's breadth in length (pl. XXI, c).