Part 1 - Introduction 

Dress and adornment are an integral part of the overall culture of a people. As dress is influenced by outside cultural and political forces, so are other cultural elements. In order to fully appreciate and understand how the dress of the Southeast Indians changed to varying degrees upon contact with Europeans and later Euro-Americans, it is necessary to first paint a picture of their life minus outside or European influence. Since the only documentation of their early life is presented by Europeans, it is obvious that the mere presence of Europeans was a disruptive element. However, mainly through early European eye witness accounts, descriptions of "early life" by tribal members living in various centuries, and an understanding of cultural patterns, an approximate scenario can be painted of Southeast Indian life before the advent of European influence.

Before this scenario can be painted, it is necessary to understand the perspectives of those people who documented and drew what they saw. In addition, the way in which these strangers regarded and interacted with the Indians set the stage for future relationships.

In Europe, by the year 1500, books were widely read and learning respected. The Holy Roman Empire boasted fifteen Universities. The books produced by scholars and non-scholars alike were comprehensive compilations concerning the universe. They were illustrated with highly stylized intricate wood cuts and etching. The common thread that ran through these books was that belief that the ancient scholars had already put down on paper a complete and full description of the Universe.

"All of them suggested that few surprises could await the explorer of the past or present, the reader of the Bible, or the student of the cosmos."1

Since history was considered to be the evolution of God's will, all new information was evaluated in terms of the ancient theories.

By the end of the fifteenth century, a cultural revolution was happening in Europe. This was spurred on by the discovery of the New World which created for the European paradoxes and contradictions to their ingrained belief systems. These "revolutionaries" started to contradict and doubt the "wisdom" of the ancient Greek, Roman, and other "sacrosanct" scholars. By the 1490's, the European intellectual community was divided into two groups: the Humanists - those who studied the humanities; and the scholastics - those who relied strictly on the ancient authoritarian sources.

To complicate the issues, the ancient scholars did not always agree. The Greeks in the fourth and fifth century felt that culture was a product of environment; while the sophists argued that all people started out as barbarians and evolved into "civilized" beings.

The ancient scholars offered models to historians on which to base their works. Many of these were wordy and filled with irrelevant statistics while others were romantic depictions of foreign societies written from either imagination or from tales told and retold by travelers.

While the scholars and non-scholars alike were writing and arguing, religious beliefs were also being questioned. The belief in the "Power of the Devil" was at its height as was the Spanish inquisition. Killing those possessed by the Devil, was accepted and applauded. Non-Catholic believers were hunted out and tortured.

Since the people of the New World did not follow the traditional Christian theology, many regarded them as being of the devil. Thus, it became the responsibility of those "enlightened" to Christianize these heathens. Much of this responsibility fell upon the shoulders of the Spanish friars.

In other sections of Europe, the clash between the Humanists and Scholastics was also very evident. However, even the humanists looked to old models while providing fresh insight.

Münster, a German writer of the period, added new information to the map of Europe.

"He could portray the inhabitants of the New World only as naked Europeans, their naughty bits aesthetically concealed by draped cloths, or as cannibals energetically sawing another human being into loin chops."2

Theodore de Bry, a Protestant refugee from Liège and an engravist, edited and illustrated through his engravings a history of the New World based solely on other people's writings and drawings and his own religious convictions. He, himself, never went to the New World but drew heavily on Le Moyne's drawings of the Florida Indians. De Bry's etchings became a model for future depictions of the New World Natives.

Across sixteenth century Europe, descriptions of the Indians were being forced into already established molds and their existence being rationalized and adapted to existing structures and theories.

"Individual ancient texts and theories proved surprisingly resilient, yielding solutions to agonizing historical, ethical, and religious problems. The discovery of human beings in the Americas, after all, posed a hard question to scholars who believed that the world had a seamless and coherent history."3

In this context, Biblical theories as to the origin of the Indian became prevalent. Some scholars stated that the Indians were descendants of the Lost tribes of Israel; while others believed they were descendants from Ham.

Also, across sixteenth century Europe, prominent thinkers were calling for new methods to study natural phenomenon, including Man. Francis Bacon was a key figure who advocated substituting "discovery" for "reading." Bacon believed that studying, analyzing, and philosophizing using the ancient texts as a base was no longer workable or enough.

"The new world had become a preeminently new thing, the clearest evidence not only of the limits of the ancients' travels but also of the limits of their knowledge."4

Use of the ancient texts did not disappear. Intellectual arguments still raged across Europe in the 1700's; but "facts" began to replace "texts" as the sole authority.

The Native Americans, of course, did not know the climate of Europe when the early explorers first encountered them. Their customs and belief structure were in many ways diametrically opposite to that of the Europeans.

In order to gain a knowledge and understand future historical and cultural events, attitudes, and mores, the cultural context of the Indian's life, when first encountered by the European explorers, must be understood.

Frank G. Speck, in an article on the Powhatan tribes of Virginia, made a statement about the ethnology of the original native groups that is relevant to all tribes and, also, very important to an understanding of the evolution and modification of their cultural changes.

"The Virginia Indians, like all peoples passing through successive changes in their transit from simple to complex culture, must have undergone revolutions in their mode of life many times. This can be imagined when we picture the waves of influence that swept across their frontiers in earlier times. These changes, before the coming of the Europeans, would all seem to have remained within the horizon of Native American culture, hence were less violent in effect. For, viewed at several periods of their history, separated by intervals of a century, we see the same tribes greatly altered in their physical and cultural aspects."5

The first section of this book is devoted to creating a scenario that depicts the life of the Native American Indians of the Southeast before the influence of the Europeans had permeated and changed their way of life. However, since the first hand accounts of that period are not very numerous and were created by Europeans who, by definition, would have acted as modifiers of the Indians' behavior, one must look at behavioral patterns over a period of time and through the eyes of many observers in order to try to determine whether the behavior noted was a reaction to new stimuli in the environment or whether it was a result of traditions that overrode the current conditions.

Much of the information in this part of the book has been furnished by material found in the Bureau of American Ethnology Reports and Bulletins and from primary sources. Whenever possible, these sources were people who had lived in the sixteenth or seventeenth century. However, to create the fullest and yet historically correct picture, primary sources have been used from the eighteenth century, as well.

Part One is divided into the following chapters:

 

Chapter 1

  Locale

  Categorization of the Southeast Indians

  Physical Characteristics

 

 Chapter 2

  Origination theories

  Spiritual Beliefs and Associated Ceremonies

  Life Cycle or Rites of Passage

 

  Chapter 3

  Social Organization

  Social Institutions

  Social Stratification

 

 

Chapter 4

  Economy

  Technology

  Housing

 

  Chapter 5

  Arts

  Recreation

 

  Chapter 6

  Archaeological information


1. Anthony Grafton, New Worlds, Ancient Texts, p. 13.

2. Ibid., p. 110-111.

3. Ibid., p. 149.

4. Ibid., p. 212.

5. Frank G. Speck, Indian Notes and Monographs - vol. 1, #5, "Chapters on the Ethnology of the Powhatan tribes of Virginia," pp. 450-451.