Part 5 - Introduction 

The removal of the "Five Civilized" Tribes to Oklahoma. 

The most accurate adjectives to describe the life of the Indians in the southeast in the nineteenth century were turbulent, onerous, and formidable. The continued survival of the Indians in their native homeland had reached a state of crisis.

According to the introduction in Preliminary Inventories of the National Archives, Volume 1:

"During most of the 19th century probably the chief goal of Indian Policy was to clear the way for expansion on the frontier by extinguishing Indian title to land. Until 1871 the main device used to accomplish this objective was the treaty by which the Indians gave up their claims to certain areas of land in exchange for reserves in those area not then sought for white settlement and for compensation in money or goods often extended over a long period of time (annuity payments)."1

However, the quotation does not state that most of the moves were coercive and/or forced and that the government payments did not mirror the value of the land nor the improvements made on it by the Indians.

In 1802, a compact was drawn up between the state of Georgia and the Federal government in which the latter promised to

".....extinguish, at its own expense, the Indian title within the reserved limits of Georgia as soon as it could be done `peaceably and on reasonable terms.'"2

With the acquisition of Louisiana in 1803, land became readily available for the beginning of the process of Indian removal.

The basic justification and instrument that was to be used to coerce the Indians to leave the Southeast was the principle of States' Rights over the sovereignty of the Federal government. Although it took over forty years to accomplish, this principle was to be used consistently to overcome one barrier after another until the Southeast Indians finally removed to Indian territory in Oklahoma.

It is important to note that even though some of the reasons were different, the northern states as well as the Federal Government were also desirous that the Northeastern Indians remove to land not already populated by whitemen.

Initially, voluntary removal was tried. Between 1805 and 1808 both the Chickasaws and Choctaws were approached and offered the proposition of removal to an area west of the Mississippi.3 Likewise, throughout the early years of the nineteenth century, the major tribes were all urged to remove to land west of the Mississippi. Some individuals did move into Arkansas, but they were a small minority.

Treaties were formulated and signed by various Indians who claimed they were representing the whole nation, but these claims were, in fact, fraudulent. For example, William McIntosh,4 a minor chief in the Creek Nation presented himself as a designated representative of the Nation and urged removal.

According to a missive written by the Cherokee Council on October 24, 1823 to its Friends and Brothers warning them about McIntosh's designs, in which the council stated that McIntosh told some of the Cherokee chiefs

"that he had offered his whole country to the United States' Commissioners for two dollars per acre, and suggested the idea of the Cherokees, Creeks, Choctaws and Chickasaws, all to surrender up their country, and emigrate West of the Missippi [Mississippi] river, and there to settle themselves under our Government."5

He further suggested that financial awards would be available from the Commissioners of the United States for all Indians participating in the plan to "sell" their homeland.6

While the Choctaws, Chickasaws, Cherokees, and Creeks were being "urged" to emigrate to land west of the Mississippi, the Indians of Florida were being forced to merge together and relocate to a very inhospitable area north of Charlotte harbor by the Treaty of Moultrie Creek in 1823.

The land north of Charlotte harbor was barren and not tillable and the sustenance the Government had promised them for a year was insufficient from the beginning. The Seminole Indians were near starvation. They could not return to their former homes because they were already in the possession of the whitemen.7

The Cherokees, meanwhile, who had previously emigrated on their own to Arkansas, were forced to move, once again. The negotiations among the western Cherokees for their second removal were concluded in 1828.8

Each successive President of the United States from 1800 onward, viewed the Indians and also their "Removal" from the land east of the Mississippi slightly differently. However, land cession was usually a defining motive.

On March 3, 1819, Congress enacted the Civilization Fund Act which provided ten thousand dollars annually for the instruction of the Indians in agriculture, spinning, weaving, etc. Money was, also, allocated to educate the Indians through boarding schools established by missionaries. The ultimate goal of the government was to hope that by drawing the Indians away from hunting as their main method of subsistence, they would be willing to cede to the government all their excess land.9

Statute ll, Chapter LXXXV was "An Act making provision for the Civilization of the Indian tribes adjoining the frontier settlements"10 The act read as follows:

"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, that for the purpose of providing for the further decline and final extinction of the Indian tribes, adjoining the frontier settlements of the United states, and for further introducing among them the habits and arts of civilization, the president of the United States shall be, and is hereby authorized, in every case where he shall judge improvement in the habits and condition of such Indians practical, and that the means of instruction can be introduced with their own consent, to employ capable persons of good moral character, to instruct them in the mode of agriculture suited to their situation; and for teaching their children in reading, writing, and arithmetic, and performing such other duties as may be enjoined, according to such instructions and rules as the President may give and prescribe for the regulation of their conduct, in the discharge of their duties.

"SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the annual sum of ten thousand dollars be, and the same is hereby appropriated, for the purpose of carrying into effect the provisions of this act; an account of the expenditures of the money, and proceedings in execution of the foregoing provisions, shall be laid annually before Congress."

A few years after this act, in 1821, Sequoyah presented to the Cherokee people his syllabary or Cherokee alphabet. Through the use of the alphabet, the Cherokees were able to greatly reduce illiteracy.11

In 1825, the Cherokee Legislative Conference voted to put money aside for the establishment of a Cherokee/English newspaper.12

Unfortunately for the Indians, when Andrew Jackson became President in 1828, he brought with him a hatred for the Indians and a desire to obtain their land by removing them by any means. One can only speculate on whether their fate would have been different with a different president.

On May 28, 1830, a bill was passed that virtually obliterated all the rights of the Indians. It gave Jackson the right to secure land exchanges and start the formal and "sanctified" process of removal even though the bill did not specifically authorize enforced removals.13

An English man who toured the eastern seaboard of the United States during this period, the first third of the nineteenth century, summarized well the treatment accorded to the Indians in the past and prophecized their future in the United States:

"That the Aborigines have been cruelly treated, cannot be doubted. The very words of the Message admit this; and the tone of feelings and conciliation which follows that admission, coupled as it is with the intended injustice expressed in other paragraphs, can be viewed in no other light than as a piece of political mockery. The Message says, their present condition, contrasted with what they once were, makes a most powerful appeal to our sympathies. Our ancestors found them the uncontrollable possessors of these vast regions. By persuasion and force, they have been made to retire from river to river, and from mountain to mountain, until some of the tribes have become extinct, and others have left but remnants, to preserve for a while their once terrible names. Now the plan laid down by the president, in order to prevent, if possible, the total decay of the Indian people, is, to send them beyond the Mississippi, and guarantee to them the possession of ample territory west of that river. How far this is likely to answer the purpose expressed, let us now examine.

"The Cherokees, by their intercourse with and proximity to the white people, have become half civilized; and how is it likely that their condition can be improved by driving them into the forests and barren prairies? That territory is at present the haunt of the Pawnees, the Osages, and other warlike nations, who live almost entirely by the chase, and are constantly waging war even with each other. As soon as the Cherokees, and other half-civilized Indians, appear, they will be regarded as common intruders, and be subject to the united attacks of these people. There are even old feuds existing among themselves, which, it is but too probable, may be renewed. Trappers and hunters, in large parties, yearly make incursions into the country beyond the boundaries of the United States, and in defiance of the Indians kill the beaver and the buffalo-the latter merely for the tongue and the skin, leaving the carcass to rot upon the ground. Thus is this unfortunate race of men robbed of their means of subsistence. Moreover, what guarantee can the Indians have, that the United States will keep faith for the future, when it is admitted that they have not done so in times past? How can they be sure that they may not further be driven from river to river, and from mountain to mountain, until they reach the shores of the Pacific; and who can tell but that then it may be expedient to drive them into the ocean?

"The policy of the United States government is evidently to get the Indians to exterminate each other."14

The period from 1802 to 1845 was complicated by many levels of conflict and dissention. Schematically, five levels of contention enveloped the Southeastern Indian: Level one found the Indians caught up in the controversy of states rights as distinct from the laws of the federal government. Level two pitted either the Federal government, the state government, or both against the Indians. Level three brought one Southeastern tribe against another. Level four found individual tribes split into factions, and level five found the tribes who had been forced to remove to the Indian territory in conflict with the tribes indigenous to the area.

Even though the Indians of both the northeast and southeast were removed from their homes, to varying degrees, during the first half of the nineteenth century, various writers and artists sought them out to paint their pictures for the pictures of the "redman" were popular in the nineteenth century. Even though the plains Indians were more often depicted by artists and writers because their costumes were more colorful and unusual, some artists and writers did portray the Northeast and Southeast Indians.

Through the art work of the nineteenth century where the Indian has been either painted or drawn in situ (and not in a studio in a Metropolitan location) by Catlin, O. J. Lewis, George Winter, Basil Hall, etc., it can be seen that the Indians who lived or had lived on the eastern seaboard, in contrast to the plains, shared many aspects of dress and adornment at that time period. G. Turner in his book Traits of Indian Character; As Generally Applicable to the Aborigines of North America... published in 1836 described the general dress and adornment of the these Indians. Obviously, not all will be applicable to all tribes; however, the common thread is important to note because it transcends tribal identities. It is, also, important to realize that the tribes did intermingle with each other. When Charles Johnson was captured in 1790, he was captured by a group of Shawnees, Delawares, Wyandots, and Cherokees.15

"As regards their vanity, and that part of the species upon which is supposed to operate with the most force, we have not often had the fortune to contemplate a young squaw at her toilette. But, from the studied arrangement of her calico jacket; from the glaring circles of vermillion on her plump and circular face; from the artificial manner in which her hair, of intense black, is clubbed in a roll of the thickness of a man's wrist; from the long time which it takes her to complete these arrangements; from the manner in which she minces, and ambles, and plays off her prettiest airs, after she has put on all her charms;- we should clearly infer, the dress and personal ornament occupy the same portion of her thoughts that they do of the fashionable woman of civilized society.

"The young Indian warrior is, notoriously, the most thorough going beau in the world. Bond-street and Broadway furnish no subjects that will undergo as much crimping and confinement, to appear in full dress. We are confident that we have observed such a character constantly occupied with his paints and his pocket-glass, three full hours, laying on his colours, and adjusting his tresses, and contemplating, from time to time, with visible satisfaction, the progress of his growing attractions. When he has finished, the proud triumph of irresistible charms is in his eyes. The Chiefs and Warriors, in full dress, have one, two, or three broad clasps of silver about their arms; generally jewels in their ears, and often in their noses; and nothing is more common than to see a thin circular piece of silver, of the size of a dollar, depending from their nose, a little below the upper lip. Nothing shows more clearly the influence of fashion. This ornament-so painfully inconvenient, as it evidently is to them, and so horribly ugly and disfiguring-seems to be the utmost finish of Indian taste. Porcupine quills, stained of different colours, are twisted in their hair. Tails of animals hang from their hair behind. A necklace of bears' or alligators' teeth, or claws of the bald eagle, hang loosely down; and an interior and smaller circle of large red beads, or in default of them, a rosary of red Hawthorne berries, surrounds the neck. From the knees to the feet, the legs are decorated with great numbers of perforated cylindrical pieces of silver or brass, that emit a simultaneous tinkle as the person walks. If, to all this, he adds an American hat, and a soldier's coat, of blue, faced with red, over the customary calico shirt of the gaudiest colours that can be found, he lifts his feet high, and steps firmly on the ground, to give his tinklers a uniform and full sound; and apparently considers his person with as much complacency as the human bosom is supposed to feel. This is a very curtailed view of an Indian beau; but every reader, competent to judge, will admit its fidelity, as far as it goes, to the description of a young Indian warrior over the whole Mississippi Valley, when prepared to take part in a public dance.

"Strange as it may seem to our Atlantic readers, the sight of such an Indian is almost as rare a spectacle in this city (Cincinnati) as in Philadelphia or Boston. But so many faithful prints of Indian figure and costume have recently been presented to the public, that most of those who have not seen the living subject, have the definite views of the general outlines of Indian appearance. The males, almost universally, wear leggins in two distinct pieces, like the legs of pantaloons, fitted very tightly from the loins to the ancles-generally of smoke-tanned deer-skin, and seamed with tassels, or leather fringe; sometimes of blue cloth. Those who inhabit the regions beyond the range of the buffalo, wear a blanket thrown loosely over their shoulders; and those who live in the region of that animal, wear its dressed skin in the same way.

"Their moccasins are ornamented with extreme care, with different coloured porcupine quills, arranged in lines and compartments. But, in the sultry months, they are often seen with no other dress than a piece of blue cloth-in the language of the country, `strouding'-passed between the thighs, and brought round the loins. In regions contiguous to the whites, they have generally a calico shirt, of the finest and flashiest colours; and they are particularly attached to a long calico dress, resembling a morning gown.

"The women wear a calico jacket, leggins not much unlike those of the men, and whenever they can afford it, a blue broad-cloth petticoat, made full, and bunching out, as if swelled with a hoop.

"We do not remember to have seen Indians, either male or female, affect any other colours than red or blue. The thick, heavy black tresses of their hair, are parted from the centre of the forehead and the crown, and skewed with a quill, or a thorn, in a large club behind."16

The following information was added to the text as footnotes by Turner.

"With this difference, however:-the buffalo skin, or robe (as it is called), is dressed with its woolly hair on it; and is worn in summer, with the pelt side inwards; but outwards in winter. The robe also serves the purpose of a bed. These robes are sometimes lavishly decorated, or embroidered, with porcupine quills, dyed red, yellow, green, and black; and sometimes they are only painted with one or more colours."

"The women of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, and Choctaw nations, are an exception. They wear long petticoats, generally of striped cotton; and have worn them time out of mind-a custom undoubtably borrowed from the whites: their neighbours, the Creek, or Muskoghees, retain the short stroud petticoat. The three nations first mentioned are in a progressive state of civilization."17

            Costume Plates 21
Variations on Native American Dress
21  22 more indianssm.jpg (10114 bytes)As stated earlier, few Indians from the Southeast were portrayed by the artists of the time either in situ or in a studio. Two artists who painted the Indians were Catlin who worked in situ and Charles Bird King who worked from a studio in Washington D.C. The latter was hired by Thomas Lorraine McKenney to paint portraits of notable Indians for McKenney's North American Indian Gallery Collection.

An institution that gives some insight into late eighteenth and early nineteenth century Indian dress was the government factory.

The factory system was initially established on a trial basis in 1795. The factory was not an institution for the production of goods but a trading post run by the government. The factors were government employees whose function was to trade with the Indians. The factories in the Southeast were:

Factories in the Southeast

CREEK

Coleraine, 1795-1797

Fort Wilkinson, 1797-1806

Ocmulgee Old Fields, 1806-9

Fort Hawkins, 1809-16

Fort Mitchell, 1816-20

 

CHEROKEE

Tellico, 1795-1807

Hiwassee, 1807-10

CHOCTAW

Fort St. Stephens, 1802-18

Fort Confederation, 1816-22

 

Chickasaw Bluffs, 1802-18

 

Natchitoches, 1805-18

Sulphur Fork, 1818-2218

There are two ways to look at the merchandise sold to the Indians through the Factory stores. One can either peruse the final annual inventories of goods or one can study the list of goods that the factors ordered for their stores. Since it is well known that the Indians did not purchase merchandise that they did not find appealing, end of the year inventories could represent goods that the Indians did not like. Thus, the inventories consulted will be, for the most part, either lists of merchandise sold or given to the Indians as presents and inventories desired by the factors (agents) for future sales. The lists of items desired seem to be more detailed than the lists of items in stock. This would appear to be normal; for items desired need to be explained in more detail than items in inventory.

The following is a letter written in May of 1812 describing the items wanted by the Indians according to an Indian Agent.

"I hand you herewith samples of such articles as are at present most wanted for the Indian Department.

"The following general description of the most material articles will give you an idea of the quality & fashion indispensably requisite. A 3 point Blanket should measure in length 6 feet, in breadth 5 feet 2 inches and weigh when dressed 4 pounds.

"A 2 point blanket should measure in length 5 feet 2 inches, in breadth 4 feet 4 inches and weigh when dressed 3 pound[s] 2 ounces. Both should be woven twiller, all white except two cross stripes of a very dark blue placed two inches distance from each end of the Blanket, and each stripe should not be less than three, nor more than four inches wide; near one of the stripes should be placed the points also of dark blue, extending inwardly from the selvage to show on the right side of the Blanket; they should be half an inch wide, and four inches long for the whole points & two inches long for the half points. The Blanket after milling should be dressed as to raize a long shag as per samples, & should raize most on the side the points shew [show].

"Stroud (a very coarse cloth) should be six quarters width and weigh when dressed from 18 to 20 ounces per yard: to be coloured wth dark blue, or red, primerilly the former; and to have a narrow stripe of white left in dying about an inch & one fourth from each edge as per samples; to be regularly put up in pieces of about 20 yards each.

"Indian Cloth should be six quarters wide, & have a white stripe left in dying upon each side as per samples coloured dark blue & red: quality about the same as samples.

"Both stroud & cloth should be put up double as to width and in fold [?] of about 17 inches for convenience of packing. In addition to the above described articles, there will be occasionally wanted a few swan-skins flannels serges &c. The present object of the Superintendent of Indian Trade is to leave samples and descriptions of these articles with you, and to ascertain whether you will undertake to furnish similar goods; if so, on what terms."19

The goods purchased for the different factories in the Southeast varied between factories and over the time periods from about 1803 to 1820. The Significance of the latter is appreciable because it does delineate changes in dress. However, the differences of goods desired between factories is not tremendously significant although it does point to the assumption that goods desired were different not only time wise, but tribe wise. What is of an important and definitive note, however, is the wide variety of both coarse and fine clothes and threads desired by the Indians.

Peter Morgan, the U. S Factory Agent for the Chickasaws in 1808 stressed the need for good quality merchandise.

"In selecting goods for the Indian Trade due regard ought to be paid that they were of the best quality & free from damage. Many articles remain on hand at this Factory House because this has been overlooked. No people are more particular or more suspicious than the Chickasaws........Sky blue & Red Broad quality binding. That remaining on hand is Black & deep Blue [and] were unsaleable."20

"75 pieces Calico - let them be of a thick strong quality free from damaged or injured of various figures but mostly red and blue say from 30-40 cts."21

"100 gross biased quality Binding of Scarlet, green, light blue & yellow 25 gross each; all other colores are unsaleable."22

The following list is included in its entirety as it pertains to fabrics, bindings, and jewelry because it encompasses almost all of the various styles and types of yard goods sold or given to the Southeastern Indians from 1805 to 1820.

The list is from a letter of George Gaines, Choctaw Factory, April 1817.23

100 pairs thick heavy 3 1/2 point blankets 10 pieces rich heavy English calicoes
100 pairs thick heavy 3 point blankets 30 pieces low priced English calicoes rich colors
500 pairs strong 3 point blankets low priced 10 pieces furniture calico
200 pairs good strong 2 1/2 point blanket low priced 10 lb coloured thread
100 pairs striped duffil blankets 500 Slipy Country sewing threads assorted
100 small duffil blankets 12 dozen wool hats assorted
50 pieces best wide thick blue strouds 30 good fur hats
20 pieces best wide thick red strouds 50 low priced fur hats
40 pieces low priced blue strouds 100 gross London scarlet binding from 3/4 to 1 inch wide
1 piece good scarlet cloth 50 gross yellow - same widths
10 pieces low priced white plains 50 gross green - same widths
5 pieces Spotted Swan's skin 25 gross blue - same widths
2 pieces Drab cloth for Great Coat 10 pieces broad handsome ribbon
2 gross best plated Coat buttons 10 pieces narrow handsome ribbon
2 gross best plated waistcoated buttons 200 small pocket looking glasses assorted
2 gross best gilt coat buttons 10 lb blue Moran beads
2 gross best gilt vest buttons 5 lb white Moran beads
10 pieces Russia sheeting 5 lb red Moran beads
1000 yards of good tow linen 20 Bunchy fine Barley corn beads
1000 yards of beddtick or good Cotton stripes 10 dozen Ivory combs assorted
1000 yards of Domestic plaid 25 dozen Horn combs assorted
500 yards of white cotton cloth low priced 5 sets silver arm bands
100 pieces Muslin 5 dozen silver wrist bands
10 pieces Britannia 10 gorgets
3 pieces best fine Irish linen 100 sets ear bobs
2 pieces fine cotton Cambrick 25 low priced men's saddles
20 pieces India Black silk handkerchiefs 5 low ladies saddles
20 dozen low priced black silk handkerchiefs 4 best men's saddles
100 pieces Madras handkerchiefs - handsome lively colors 50 lb best vermillion
50 pieces low priced mock madras handkerchiefs  

One trend that was in evidence was that as time progressed from the earliest part of the nineteenth century to the eighteen twenties, more silk fabric was offered, different types of shoes, and fine fabrics for "officers" coats.

In a list of needed supplies for the Cherokees at the Arkansas factory in 1820, the following items were included: 

4 pieces of silk for dresses

2 dozen silk shawls

2 dozen women's morocco shoes

2 dozen calf skin women's shoes 

In addition, certain anomalies present themselves which are in contradiction to other information. The main contradictory material is found in the lack of ornamentation supposedly ordered by the Creek Factor. The Creek men wore gorgets and silver hat bands around their turbans as did other male Indians. However, these items are absent from the inventories consulted.

Another interesting note is that contrary to some opinions that the Indians would not buy anything that was green. Green binding was always purchased along with red, light blue, and yellow. It was also noted on some orders that substitution of any other color was not permissible.

While not a domestic item, the purchasing of saddles gives information about the habits of the buyers. On most of the requisitions, saddles for both men and women can be found. Those for the latter, also, included side saddles. In addition, material for covering furniture and creating draperies was also ordered. It can be safely assumed that these later items were not to be purchased by white families for it is usually indicated when any item is not strictly for the Indian trade. Selling to non-Indian families was prohibited.

Both striped, plaid, plain, and colorful boldly printed material was ordered. Soft colors were not desirable. One of the suppliers wrote to a Factor in 1806:

"I am now preparing some printed Callicoes of very rich strong lively colours and mediam figures and patterns; and some of large Flowers and beasts."24

Another area where specifics were stated was in the choice of feathers. While feathers, especially black, were ordered for all groups, it is interesting to note that in 1806 the Chickasaws wanted flat Ostrich feathers while the Choctaws wanted plumes.

It was not until 1811 that silver head bands to wear around the turbans began to appear in items ordered for the various factories.25 These items were described as:

"thin silver bands to reach around the hat 1 inch to 1 1/2 inches wide at the ends & 2 to 3 inches in the middle, cut fancifully to show in front."26

During the same time period, instead of ordering all goods by pieces, measurements of yardage were substituted. The material called Chintz was, also, observed on the various requisition lists.27

The requisition list for Chickasaw Bluffs for 1818 requested "half moon" pendants and not gorgets.28 The latter article, being probably a circle. However, while half moons became popular, the other factories stocked both those and (round) gorgets. In addition, broaches now began to appear on the requisition lists.

There are very few references to fabrics of any drab color. The only significant reference was a requisition for 200 pieces of Brown Domestic.29

The only mention of women's ready made clothes dealt with stockings, shoes, or shawls. Men's ready made clothes usually only referred to the purchase of shirts. There are a few instances where fine quality material was purchased for making fancy men's coats to be worn at affairs of state. There is even one indication where "1 piece white thicket suitable for officer pantaloons" was requested for the Creeks in 1803.30

While the lists are not complete, and some of the types of fabrics could not be identified, the lists of factory goods wanted are a good indication and reaffirmation of what was worn from about 1805 until 1820.

According to Michael Green in The Politics of Indian Removal, the factory system was used by the Federal Government to manipulate the Indians by exploiting their reliance on trade goods. One method used was to withhold goods unless the Indians followed the government's bidding; another method used was to force land cessions from indebted tribal Headmen.31

Thomas McKenney was appointed Superintendent of Indian Trade in 1816 at approximately the same time that the institution was declining. Although his tenure was limited, he started to establish an Indian Museum in his office in Washington. He requested his factors (employees of the factories) to purchase representative Indian artifacts and, also, to exchange some of the government goods for the aforementioned artifacts.32

McKenney did not only collect Indian artifacts, but he wanted to preserve the visage of the Indians of the nineteenth century. Commencing in the latter part of the eighteenth century, Indian delegations came to Washington to try to "plead" various causes before the Federal Government and before the President of the United States, whom they were instructed to believe was "their great father". Between 1820 and 1821,33 McKenney conceived of the idea to establish an Indian Portrait Gallery to capture the likeness of the different Indians. This was an adaptation of the English custom of painting important personages when they visited the seat of government. He also requested that portraits be painted in the field in "the costume of the respective Tribes."34

However, the Indians might arrive in one dress and leave Washington in "the White man's" dress. Herman Viola in his book The Indian Legacy of Charles Bird King, stated that upon a delegation's arrival they were besieged by cobblers, tailors, etc. in order to out fit them in selected "White" man's clothing.35 With the official establishment of Indian trading houses by the Congressional Act of March 2, 1811, section 9, friendly Indians who came to Washington were outfitted with certain specified goods or others of equal value according to their choice.36 Some examples of the clothing were: 

"One Hatt

One Blanket

Two Shirts

One Jacket

One Waistcoat

One Pantaloon or Cloth equivalent for Legons

Two pair of Stockings

Two pair of Shoes"37 

There is a note to this particular document that states that: "These articles are to be of the quality usually furnished to People of this description in the way of Trade."38

Some of them, also, received solid silver medals in various sizes according to rank. These medals bore the visage of the incumbent American President. The largest was three inches in diameter.39

Women were also furnished with material or clothing. One Chickasaw woman who accompanied her husband in 1813 was furnished with _yds of "Common Callico"40

A letter of March 10, 1811 noted that:

"As two of this Party are women, they may be equipped, if they desire it, with any article of Female apparel of equal value with the assortment above stated [clothing for the men]."41

In these documents the female apparel is not specified. This is consistent with other documents and invoices from the period. It appears that much of the men's clothing was ready made or made to order; whereas it appears that the women might have just been given yard goods from which they were to construct their own clothes. However, this conclusion is not definitive.

Similar clothing, also, was given to important Indian personages by Indian agents. Dr. John Sibley, the Nachitoches Indian Agent, in his journal for the year 1807, listed the many gifts he gave to them. Some of the most frequently given gifts were Regimental coats of blue or red, timmed with velvet, plated buttons, etc. Other gifts were braggies, (breech clouts), gorgets, hats with plumes, and silk handkerchiefs.

Sibley gave to two great Tawakeno chiefs [Tawakoni is a Caddoan tribe of the Wichita group] the following items:42

"I gave Each of them an officers full trim Regimental Coat, blue & Buff with appulets & Lace, each of them a Hat & Plume, a Shirt, a Gorget, On which I had engrav'd the Eagle, & the United States of America in words enclosing it, a Braggy, 4yds Binding, a Looking Glass, a Knife, & two parcels of vermillion, & to their wives each of them, a Scarlet flap, a Pair of scissors, 200 Wampum Beeds, 1 doz Needles, a Pair of Ear Jewels, 4 oz Thread, a Snuff Box, a Handkf, a Looking Glass, 2 yds Callico, a Comb, & 4 oz Vermillion."43

McKenney hired Charles Bird King to paint the majority of portraits for his proposed gallery. King painted them in his Washington studio between 1821 and 1830.44 As stated previously, it cannot be ascertained after the fact if the clothes that the Indians wore for their portraits were brought with them to Washington, made for them by a tailor once in Washington, or supplied to them by Charles Bird King to be worn while their portrait was painted. The evidence suggests that the latter two options probably occurred most frequently even though dress clothes - regimental coats, hast with plumes, etc. had been presented to the Indians for many years.

Excerpts from an article in the Niles' Register of 1833 described the national significance of the undertaking by McKenney.

"The tribes represented in this gallery are eighteen in number, viz: Chippewas, (or Objibwa), Sioux, Menonenee, Winnebago, Sauk, Fox, Otto, Pawnee, Maha, Kansas, Seneca, Shawnee, Delaware, Creek, (or Muscogee), Uchee, Cherokee, Choctaw, (or Chata), amd Seminole.

"The original drawings were made from life, chiefly by Mr. King of Washington, and are perfect likeness.

"It is believed `that there no where exists such materials for a work so unique, so authentic and instructive. Its great value as it regards the United States, can be appreciated properly, perhaps only by posterity; because the Indians, though thinned and scattered, are yet amongst us. Europe, it is believed, is prepared now to put the proper estimate upon the work. In order, therefore, that countries other than our own, may enjoy the gratification of beholding the red men of our forests, in their almost breathing likenesses, and in their native, and varied and singular costumes....' "45

Although a goal of the collection was to capture the Indians as they were and usually in their native costume, an analysis of the collection shows that similar "props" must have been used by King to adorn and/or completely cloth his subject while painting them because some, regardless of tribal affiliation wore exactly the same gorget, arm band, and/or blanket. Another explanation might be that since 1811 all the Indians were furnished with similar clothing upon their arrival in Washington. However, the paintings are still a very valuable resource.

While Charles Bird King used a studio setting, George Catlin travelled throughout the western part of the United States to portray the Indians in their natural setting and be the Indians' historian.46 Catlin's goal was to not only capture on paper the Indians' likeness, but also to obtain artifacts from the various tribes.47 He wanted "to serve as promoter and advocate of the Indian cause."48

    Costume Plate # 22 Illustrations Modeled
     After Some Of George Catlin's Drawings
23catlin familysm.jpg (21288 bytes)    
He started on his major travels in 1830 and by 1837 was equipped to open an Indian Gallery in New York City.49 To augment the material in his gallery, he held lectures to inform the people of the state of the Indians. However, he was unpopular among many "experts" who had never seen the tribes but portrayed their lifestyle differently; this situation caused him to remove his show to Europe.50

Although Catlin did some paintings of Indians of "the Five Civilized tribes," most of his work portrayed the Plains Indians and the Indians that were indigenous to the region of the Indian Territory.

Catlin was not unique in not portraying those Indians from the "Five Civilized" tribes as wearing distinctive dress. By the nineteenth century, many were indistinguishable from the white man. The skirt length pictured is in keeping with what a white woman would wear. The style of the woman's outfit, however, is a little ambiguous on how it was made. Also, the woman would probably have worn an apron around her waist. This will be pictured in later illustrations.

Frontier white women in the early part of the 19th century, "often adopted.....[a] plain loose blouse or jacket and a gathered skirt".51

"These frontier Indians52 for the most part live in cabins of logs, like those of our backwoods settlers; and many of them are indistinguishable, except in color, language, and to some degree in costume from the poorer classes of their white neighbors. Even in dress and language the more civilized are fast conforming to the latter. In many families, especially of the Cherokee, the English tongue only is spoken; and great numbers of these, as well as of the Choctaws and Chickasaws, dress according to the American fashion: but the ruder portions of even these, the most enlightened nations, as is also the case with nearly all of the northern tribes, wear the hunting shirt, sometimes of buckskin, but now more commonly of calico, cotton plaid or linsey. Instead of using hats, they wreath about their heads a fancy-colored shawl or handkerchief. Neither do the women of these classes wear bonnets, but leave their heads exposed, or protected only with a shawl, somewhat after the manner of the mexican females; Their most usual dress is a short petticoat of cotton goods, or as frequently with the tribes of the north, of coarse red or blue broad-cloth."53

               Costume Plate # 23
             Hunting Shirt Variations

hunting jacket variationssm.jpg (15232 bytes)Two articles of dress described by Josiah Gregg who wrote Commerce of the Prairies need to be addressed - the hunting shirt and the petticoat. Firstly, most writers, when describing the dress of the Indians, assume that the "hunting shirt" was a garment worn by all Indians since the advent of the European on their continent. However, it must be remembered that this type of shirt was not in evidence when the Europeans first interacted with the southeastern Indians.

Secondly, there seems to be a lack of clarity as to the length of the petticoat54 worn by the female Southeastern Indians emigrants in the first third of the nineteenth century. The question basically, is "how short is short?"

According to Ellen J. Gehret, in Rural Pennsylvania Clothing, while hemlines in the eighteenth century were about six or eight inches from the ground, by the nineteenth century they had lengthened.55

The discrepancy found in the statements in reference to the different lengths of the petticoats worn by the Indians under discussion can only be assumed to reflect various types of petticoats, some of which deviated from white American dress and reflected the style of petticoat worn by the Indians in the mid-eighteenth century.



While some journalists carefully delineated the Indian tribes whom they were describing, other writers who had traveled in different areas of the United States would describe dress in the aggregate, "lumping" all North American tribes together. Although James Buchanan mainly traveled in the Northeast, his compiled description of Native American dress is interesting because it gives insight and a basis for comparison with the dress of the members of the "Five Civilized" tribes as described others.

"The warriors and chiefs are distinguished by their ornaments. The present dress of the Indians is well known to consist in blankets, plain or ruffled shirts and leggings for the men and cloth petticoats for the women, generally red, blue, or black. The blankets are sometimes made of feathers. This manufacture requires great patience, being a very tedious kind of work; yet the Indians do it in a most ingenious manner. the feathers (generally those of the turkey and goose) are curiously arranged and interwoven together with a sort of thread or twine, which they prepare from the rind or bark of the wild hemp and nettle. The wealthy adorn themselves with ribands or gartering of various colours, beads, and silver broaches. They wear, moreover, broad rings or bands on their arms, fingers, and round their hats; these ornaments are highly valued if of silver, but if only plated, they are despised, and hardly worn. I have seen in young children, three rings in each ear. These decorations are arranged by the women, who, as well as the men, know how to dress themselves in style. Those of the men consists in the painting of themselves (their head and face principally), wearing gaudy garments, with silver arm spangles and breast plates, and a belt or two of wampum hanging to their necks. The women, at the expense of their husbands or lovers, line their petticoat and blanket with choice ribands of various colours, or with gartering, on which they fix a number of silver broaches or small round buckles. They adorn their leggings in the same manner; their mocksens are neatly embroidered with coloured porcupine quills, and are besides, almost entirely covered with various trinkets; they have also a number of little bells and brass thimbles round their ankles, which, when they walk, make a tinkling noise, which is heard at some distance; this is intended to draw the attention of those who pass by, that they may look at, and admire them.

"The women make use of vermillion in painting themselves for dances; but they are very careful and circumspect in applying the paint, so that it does not offend or create suspicion in their husbands; there is a mode of painting which is left entirely to loose women and prostitutes.

"When the men paint their thighs, legs, and breast, they generally, after laying on a thin shading coat of a darkish colour, and sometimes of a whitish clay, dip their fingers' ends in black or red paint, and then spreading them out, bring the streaks to a serpentine form.

"The notion formerly entertained that the Indians are beardless by nature, and have no hair on their bodies, is now entirely exploded.........The reasons they give for thus deracinating their hair, are that they may have a clean skin to lay the paint on, when they dress for festivals or dances, and to facilitate tattooing themselves; a custom formerly much in vogue among them, especially by those of valour. They say that either painting or tattooing on a hairy face or body would have a disgusting appearance.

"Tattooing is now greatly discontinued. The process is quickly done, and does not seem to give much pain. They have poplar-bark in readiness, burnt and reduced to powder; the figures that are to be tattooed are marked or designed on the skin; the operator, with a small stick, rather larger than a common match, (to the end of which some sharp needles are fastened) quickly pricks over the whole so that blood is drawn; then a coat of the above power is laid and left to dry."56

Adam Hodgson, a treasurer of the West Lancastershire Association of the Church Missionary Society who traveled in North America from 1819-1821, commented that he only saw one instance of tattooing. This involved the mother of a guide whose "breast [was] completely chequered, in a regular pattern, with blue lines very close."57 


1. Edward E. Hill, compiler, Preliminary Inventories of the United States National Archives Number 163, Volume 1, p. 1.

2. Annie Heloise Abel, "The History of Events Resulting in Indian Consolidation West of the Mississippi," Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1906. p. 245.

3. Ibid., pp. 252-253.

4. William McIntosh was probably born in 1778. He was the son of a White man, Captain William McIntosh, who had been a Loyalist officer during the revolutionary War, and a Coweta (Creek) Indian mother from the Wind Clan. The Politics of Indian Removal, by Michael D. Green, page 54.

5. John Howard Payne Papers, Volume 7, part 1, p. 54. Courtesy of The Edward E. Ayer Collection, Newberry Library.

6. Ibid., p. 53.

7. Annie Heloise Abel, "The History of Events Resulting in Indian Consolidation West of the Mississippi," Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1906. pp. 357-359.

8. Ibid., p. 368.

9. Michael D. Green, The Politics of Indian Removal, p. 47.

10. Public Statutes at Large of the United States of America, Volume lll, pp. 516-517,

11. Grace Steele Woodward, The Cherokees, p. 143.

12. Ibid., p. 143.

13. Grant Foreman, Indian Removal, pp. 21-22.

14. S. A. Ferrall, Ramble of Six thousand Miles through the United States of America, pp. 265-267.

15. Charles Johnson, A Narrative of the Incidents Attending the Capture, Detention, and Ransom of Charles Johnson who was Made a Prisoner by the Indians on the River Ohio, in the year 1790, p. 20.

16. G. Turner, Traits of Character as Generally Applicable to the Aborigines of North America, pp. 18-20.

17. Ibid., pp. 20-21.

18. Guide to Records in the National Archives of the U.S. Relating to American Indians, p. 20.

19. National Archives, Record of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Record group 75, roll T58.

20. National Archives. "Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs", entry 12. Chickasaw Bluffs 1808. 

21. National Archives. "Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs", entry 12. Chickasaw Bluffs 1809. 

22. National Archives. "Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs", entry 12. Chickasaw Bluffs, 1809.

23. National Archives, Roll 1, Indent book 1805 -1820 and Miscellaneous Accounts, 1803-10. Microcopy T-500.

24. National Archives, Group 75. From a letter of 1806 - Roll 142 from B. Treat Esq. to Arkansas Factor.

25. National Archives. "Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs", entry 12, Chickasaw Bluffs, fall 1811.

26. National Archives. "Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs", entry 12, Choctaw 1818.

27. National Archives. "Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs", entry 12, Chickasaw Bluffs, 1812.

28. National Archives. "Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs", entry 12, Chickasaw Bluffs, 1818.

29. National Archives. "Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs", entry 12, Choctaw, 1818.

30. National Archives. "Record of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, group 75, roll T58.

31. Michael Green, The Politics of Indian Removal, p. 47.

32. James Horan, The McKenney-Hall Portrait Gallery of American Indians, pp. 31-32.

33. Ibid., p. 45.

34. Herman J. Viola, The Smithsonian Journal of History, Volume 3, Number 2, Fall 1968, "Washington"s First Museum: The Indian Office Collection of Thomas McKenney", p. 10.

35. Herman J. Viola, The Indian Legacy of Charles Bird King, p. 25.

36. National Archives, Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Record Group 75, Microfilm T58.

37. National Archives, Group 75, Letter of December 18, 1815 for clothes for a delegation of Cherokees and Chickasaws.

38. Ibid., same letter of December 18, 1815.

39. Herman J. Viola, The Indian Legacy of Charles Bird King, p. 28.

40. National Archives, Group 75, Letter of March 3, 1813, microfilm T58.

41. National Archives, Group 75, microcopy T58.

42. Hodge, BAE, Bulletin #30, pp. 701-2.

43. John Sibley, A Report from Natchitoches in 1807, pp. 51-52.

44. Herman J. Viola, The Smithsonian Journal of History, Volume 3, Number 2, Fall 1968, "Washington"s First Museum: The Indian Office Collection of Thomas McKenney", p. 10.

45. Niles' Register, volume XLIV, P. 223.

46. George Catlin, Letters and Notes on the North American Indians, 1975 edition with an introduction by Michael Mooney, p. 13.

47. Ibid., pp. 13 & 14.

48. Ibid., p. 3.

49. Ibid., pp. 19 & 60.

50. Ibid., p. 61.

51. Betty J. Mills, Calico Chronicles, p.26

52. Gregg was referring to the Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Creeks in 1839 in Indian Territory.

53. Josiah Gregg, Commerce of the Prairies, originally copy written in 1844. Information cited from Reuben Gold Thwaites' Early Western Travels, volume XX, pp. 304-305.

54. The term "skirt" meaning "petticoat" did not come into use until the 19th century. Ellen J. Gehret, Rural Pennsylvania Clothing, p. 45

55. Ellen J. Gehret, Rural Pennsylvania Clothing, p. 45.

56. James Buchanan, Sketches of the History, Manners, and Customs of the North American Indians, pp. 93-97.

57. Adam Hodgson, Letters from North America, p. 224.