The Indians of Manhattan Island and Vicinity - Paperback

by Alanson Skinner (Author)

Excerpt from The Indians of Manhattan Island and Vicinity

Indian tribes east of the Mississippi had one point in common, they were soft - soled, but west of the Mississippi region the tribes of the prairies used hard flat soles of rawhide for their shoes.

In addition to this costume the warriors wore necklaces of dyed deer hair, of native copper or shell beads, or wampum; and often they hung over their chests pendants of stone or gorgets, such as are still to be found occasionally upon the sites of their old camps. They also painted their faces with various pigments, especially red and black, which they obtained from limonite and graphite fragments. To this day one may find in the débris of an abandoned Indian lodge bits of these paint stones showing the striated markings of the stone scrapers with which the color was removed for use. The Manhattans, being a part of the Delaware tribe, an important group of the Algonkin stock, probably followed the ancient Delaware custom of tattoo ing their bodies, with designs represent ing their dreams and warlike exploits.

Old paintings of the Delaware show us that they were their knives, and even their tobacco pipes and pouches, Suspended from their necks. The reason for wearing their knives in this position, old Indians of some of the central western tribes declare, was so that they could be more readily seized at a moment's notice. Besides his deerskin tobacco pouch, with its dyed hair and porcupine quill embroidery and leathern fringe, each warrior carried a war club, carved of wood, with a ball-shaped head set at right angles from the handle, and a six foot bow and quiver of flint, bone, or antler tipped arrows.

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