Southwestern Indians

Most of us get our impressions of what Native Americans wore from movies and television. But who says that they got it right?

There are various pictures and drawings from the past that can give us a better look.

During the 1850s, the U.S. Government investigated a number of routes for building a railroad to the west coast. There were northern routes, middle routes, and southern routes. I came across one of the reports sent back on the southern route (more or less along the 35^th parallel), and it contained drawing of many of the Native Americans living in the southwest at the time.

In addition to seeing fairly typical dress, we also see that there was a mixture of moccasins and bare feet.

Here is a Paiute, clearly barefoot:

Paiute

There were quite a few pictures of Mojaves, with all of them barefoot.

First, a village scene.

Mojave Village

Next, Mojaves in paint.

Painted Mojaves

And just a couple.

A Mojave Couple

This also agrees with an old Smithsonian photograph from 1871.

Two Mohave braves dressed in loincloths; full-length, standing, western Arizona.

In the first Mojave picture, we see a woman and child barefoot at home. We see the same with a Plains Indian tribe, the Kiowa.

Kiowa Camp

And here, while on the move, it looks to me as if the woman is still barefoot.

Moving Camp

However, just because we see one picture with bare feet, that doesn’t mean they all went barefoot, all the time. For instance, here’s a picture of two Tonto Indians. One is barefoot; the other shod (moccasinned).

A Pair of Tontos

A representative from the Pueblo Indians is this Zuñi: moccasins.

Zuñi Pueblo

We also always think of the Plains Indians riding their horses with moccasins, because that is what the movies show. That is why I found it interesting to see this picture of Comanche on horseback.

Barefoot Comanche on Horseback

One thing I think we can take from this is that the Southwest Native Americans, at least, didn’t have this thing about shoes having to be worn all the time. They used them as tools: on when needed, off when not.