About

This woman wears a mix of clothing she provided for herself and some which she received in trade from English, French, or Dutch traders in the Northeast colonies and Canada.  She made her dress, leggings, and moccasins of deerskin.  A man would have hunted the deer, and it was a woman’s job to prepare the hide and sew it into clothing. She received in trade her items of metal, glass, and cloth. Trade items in the 1700s included wool, linen, silk, and cotton cloth, ready-made shirts, knitted wool hats and mittens, glass beads, silver jewelry, and metal axe heads and knife blades. 

Wôbanaki people did not have special clothing for sleeping. They slept in what seemed most suited for the season. In the winter this would mean wearing several layers to bed and in the hot weather one might sleep without clothing.

Wôbanaki people believed it was a good idea to protect sensitive areas of the body, such as joints, any openings, the neck, ears, and face, with jewelry, garters, and tattoos. By these means, they believed that dangerous energy or spirits could not enter their bodies. Jewelry with complicated patterns, reflective surfaces, and dangling and jangling pieces such as bells or metal cones, all helped to confuse harmful forces. Porcupine quill embroidery, beading, fringe, and ribbons might be added to the edges of clothing, both to offer protection and to encourage connections with desirable plants and animals. For instance, the hem of a skirt might be decorated with ribbon, or the flaps on a pair of moccasins might be decorated with beads or porcupine quill embroidery.