What was ojibwa clothing made of?

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1174006

2026-09-06 07:45

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Ojibwa, Ojibwe, Chippewa or Anishinaabe women anciently wore only a wrap-around buckskin skirt with a robe added in cool weather. By the time of European contact they wore strap-and-sleeve dresses; these had shoulder straps, were mid-calf in length and featured detachable sleeves tied on with leather thongs and fastened at the wrist - with no underarm seam. These dresses were decorated with red, black and yellow paint, bird claws, porcupine quills and little nuggets of native copper. Leggings were knee-length and sometimes an underskirt of woven nettle fibres was worn.

Women usually parted their hair in the centre and pulled it back to form a single rear braid, or there were two front braids wrapped in eel skin, or the hair was worn loose. Red and yellow paint were used to colour the parting.

When trade cloth became available, dresses were made of that material but in the traditional style. During the 1800s and probably due to the influence of other tribes, Ojibwa women began to wear full-length dresses made of two complete deer hides (see the link below for an example of this later style).

Headbands were never a feature of historic Ojibwa women's costume until very recent times.

The links below take you to images of Ojibwa women in traditional costume:

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