Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma

Excerpt from: "Choctaw Music and Dance"

By James H. Howard and Victoria Lindsay Levine

Copyright 1990

When participating in public performances of Choctaw dances, today's Choctaws wear their national regalia. This regalia, for both sexes, is quite distinctive and readily distinguishes the wearer as a Choctaw rather than a member of some other southeastern tribe. There are only slight differences between the Mississippi and Oklahoma Choctaws in terms of dress. Most of the items making up both the man's and the woman's costume are derived form the clothing styles of southern whites in the nineteenth century. Certain of the component parts, however, are made and decorated in a distinctive Choctaw manner, and both the male and female ensembles are now so well integrated into Choctaw culture that they constitute a tribal badge.

MEN

The costume of the men and boys, from head to toe, consists of the following eight items:

1. A low-crowned black felt hat (shapo) is usually decorated with a band of two commercial rayon ribbons. Often there is a tiny ribbon bow at the front of the band and the ends of the ribbons are allowed to hang loose over the brim of the hat for several inches in the back. The name of the hat in Choctaw, shapo, derives from the French chapeau and indicated the European group from which the Choctaws secured their headgear. According to Claud Medford, Jr., the older Cajun men of Louisiana often wear a hat identical to that used by the Choctaws. Medford reports that until recently both Choctaws and French-speaking Louisianans ordered these hats from suppliers in France.

Sometimes Older Choctaw men wear an eagle feather at one side of the hat or even o­ne o­n each side. I have also seen men wearing a colored turkey or goose feather that has had most of the rachis shaved away so that the web vibrates rapidly in the slightest breeze. This is an old southeastern Indian trait, and I have observed feathers treated in this manner among the Creeks, Seminoles, and Yuchis in Oklahoma as well. Formerly some men wore silver headbands or crowns as hatbands. These were the same pierced silver headbands formerly worn in connection with the cloth turban, which was the male head covering antedating the felt hat.

2. The traditional Choctaw shirt (ilefoka lomba) is collarless and buttons at the back of the neck. These shirts are invariably in a solid color of cotton, usually red, blue, yellow, white, or pink, with a decoration of finely cut and stitched appliqué work employed in Choctaw appliqué work names and a symbolic meaning. They will be discussed later o­n this page.

3. Around the neck some men wear a bright silk scarf (natpaski), an openwork necklace (shikalla nondzhi), or simply several strands of large beads strung in loops. I have also seen Plains-style beaded bolo ties and choker necklaces or simply a commercially made silk cravat.

4. An optional item worn over the shirt is the beaded cloth shoulder belt or baldric (skikalla eskofatshi). It is of a color that contrasts with the color of the shirt and is beautifully beaded in traditional Choctaw Motifs. Today only a few of the men and boys, usually older men, wear these baldrics, but old photographs and costume dolls indicate that their use was once more general. O­ne old photograph in 1907 even shows a young girl wearing a pair of baldrics, but this certainly was never common practice. Usually baldrics are made and worn in matching sets, but that is not invariably the case. Baldrics were o­nce worn by Creeks, Seminoles, Yuchis, Cherokees, and even Shawnees, but they are now seen o­nly among the Choctaws. I was told that at o­ne time each Choctaw community had its characteristic designs.

5. Another optional item is the beaded belt (eskofatshi). It may be decorated in the same designs and beadwork techniques as the baldric (item 4 above), but I have also seen recent examples done in loom work using Plans Indian geometric designs. Beaded belts are purely ornamental and are worn over the ordinary leather belt used to hold up the trousers.

6. Fastened to the belt o­n o­ne side, either right or left, is a bunch of long ribbons of various colors (sita lapushki), which may hang nearly to the ground. These ribbons may be a survival of the ends of the finger-woven yarn sash formerly worn by Choctaw men. Trailing behind the moving dancers, the ribbons provide an interesting accent to their movements.

7. Trousers or slacks (ohala foka) in Mississippi are usually black. The male dancers in Eugene Wilson's Oklahoma troupe, however, were completely outfitted in white slacks when I saw them perform in 1974. Male dancers in Buster Ned's Sixtown troupe often have a stripe of appliqué o­n the outer side of each trouser leg and three of the younger men in his group have shirts and trousers of the same matching color and appliqué design.

8. Ordinary commercially made shoes or moccasins (shulush, from the English word shoes) complete the present-day male dancer's regalia. Historic Choctaw dolls indicate that until 1860 or 1870 Choctaw men and women wore soft-soled moccasins of native manufacture. These were of the classical southeastern type, puckered to a single seam at the top of the foot and with large ankle flaps.

Bells (tale saolowa), as noted earlier, are still worn by some of the male dancers in Buster Ned's troupe and were formerly worn by male dancers in Mississippi and Louisiana. The hunting coat (na foka patafa, lit. "split garment") is an obsolete item of male costume. It appears in photographs of Choctaw men taken in 1907 and 1909 and in the Catlin paintings. The coat was worn over the shirt and was decorated with appliqué designs at the cuff, front opening, and hem. Such hunting coats were widespread in the Southeast in the nineteenth century and the first few decades of the twentieth. They survived until the late 1960's among the Creeks, Seminole and Yuchis in Oklahoma but apparently went out of use somewhat earlier among the Choctaws.

Silver armbands (shakba elhfoa), silver gorgets, and face paint (nashuka humachi) are also items of male adornment no longer seen but still remembered.

WOMEN

The Women and Girls wear regalia composed of the following six items:

1. The comb (issep isht elpi) is usually made of silver with fancy cutout work, but in Densmore's days it was sometimes made of an old-fashioned man's celluloid collar (cf. Densmore 1943: 116). The comb is worn just back of the crown of the head.

2. A bead necklace (shikalla nondzhi) is similar to that of the men, done in "net" or openwork beadwork, like a small bib in its shape.

3. The traditional Choctaw woman's dress (Chahta hoyo ilifoka) is the Choctaw version of a common style worn by white women in the early nineteenth century. It has full sleeves, either full length or three-quarters length, a fitted top, and a long skirt with o­ne (Oklahoma) or two (Mississippi) ruffles at the bottom. Like the man's shirt, the woman's dress is of a solid color such as red, blue, yellow, or pink, or light green, and it is ornamented with cutout appliqué' work in a contrasting color o­n the bosom, back, cuffs, and in two or three rows at and just above the hem.

4. Over the dress is worn a long white apron (na foka intikpa takali) with ruffles at the bottom and sides with long ties in the back. Sometimes the apron is decorated with a single row of appliqué' at the edge in a contrasting color.

5. Some women and girls wear a bunch of long ribbons (sita lapushki) of various colors hanging from the back of the neck nearly to the hem of the skirt.

6. Commercially made shoes or moccasins (shulush) complete the woman's regalia.

A variety of hairstyles are seen. In Mississippi mature women generally wear their hair brushed back from the forehead and tied or fastened with a comb at the back of the neck, while younger women and girls wear theirs parted in the middle and falling loose over the shoulders. In Oklahoma o­ne is more likely to see shorter hair and permanent waves. Younger women and girls in both states sometimes wear two braids, probably a reflection of Pan-Indian sentiments. In both Mississippi and Oklahoma younger girls sometimes wear Pan-Indian-Style beaded headbands and beaded "Powwow Princess" Coronets.

Silver earrings, bracelets, and finger rings are seen in both Mississippi and Oklahoma.

Obsolete items of feminine costume are face paint (nashuka humachi) and a second silver comb worn at the front of the head to "frame the face."

THE MEANING OF DIFFERENT SYMBOLS

Perhaps the most characteristic feature of present-day Choctaw costuming, both male and female, is the cutout appliqué' work noted above in connection with the men's shirts and the women's dresses and aprons. There seems to be a limited number of designs employed in this type of ornamentation. Buster Ned supplied the following interpretation of some of these appliqué' designs.

1. The diamond design, is derived from the markings of a diamondback rattlesnake. (note added) "Because of the medicine derived from them".

2. The Saint Andrew's cross design, X, according to Buster Ned, derives from the Choctaw stickball game (kebutsha): "In years past [the player] when the game was over... Would hang the sticks o­n the walls of the house, and put [them] in the shape of an X. the design means "May our paths cross again and again." The Saint Andrew's cross design is also commonly seen in beadwork.

3. The half-diamond design, according to Buster Ned, "is derived from, [the] life of the people. The Choctaw people believed in the Great Spirit (God) in that their life followed an imaginary road. [The design symbolizes] that when they give aid to someone sick, they come off this imaginary road, and when the sick was well, he returned to this road and continued,. [Likewise] when he died something bad, he again left the road, o­nly he was o­n the opposite side, thus the half diamond design."

Or

4. The road design, according to Buster Ned, represents the "road of life" which o­ne travels in his or her span o­n earth, as mentioned in connection with the half diamond design above.

5. The circle design, O, represents the Choctaw tribe. Buster Ned comments: "The Choctaws believed, and still do, that we live in a circle (imaginary) and that, in this circle, a man or woman cannot talk about (gossip) or tell bad tales o­n another Choctaw. If this happens then this is...Passed o­n until [within] a short period of time the person who did the talking finds himself or herself being shunned by his fellow tribesman and he then "out of the circle" and he'll be wondering why."

6. The ball design, filled in circle, represents the ball used in the Choctaw stickball game. According to Buster this design was worn o­nly o­n the garments of the male stickball players. This design is apparently obsolete, as I have never seen it in use in either Mississippi or Oklahoma. It is nevertheless clearly identifiable as a representation of the Choctaws in neatly covered with interwoven rawhide or a leather strip, which explains the interior line work in this design.

7. The reversal spiral or "coiled snake" design. This design represents the giant horned serpent of southeastern mythology coiling and uncoiling. It is definitely prehistoric in origin, as it appears as a pottery design o­n vessels from the Mississippian archaeological culture. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it was in wide spared use as a beadwork design o­n baldrics. I have observed it o­n baldrics collected form the Cherokees, Creeks, Alabamans, and Coushatta's as well as from the Choctaws. at present it continues in use o­nly among the Choctaws. In 1965 I collected a baldric from Wilson Morris, of the Bogue Chitto Community in Mississippi, which employs the reversed spiral motif together with design 2, the Saint Andrew's cross. The reversed spiral design is sometimes split into two parts or otherwise modified.

8. Another common beadwork design is the "friendship" design, identified by Wilson Morris.

9. The sunburst and sunburst enclosing a star are also common beadwork designs, but I did not secure any interpretations of their symbolism.

HOW TO SEW A CHOCTAW DRESS

1. Cut yoke, front and back, cut two of each.

2. Cut lower bodice or midriff, front and back. Cut two the same size.

3. Sleeve-length to waist. Tear: two cuffs, large enough to slip over hand; two waistbands, to go around your waist loosely plus 2";

Skirt: two panels with length desired from midcalf to floor;

Strips for ruffles for hem, skirt and yoke: Tear strips allowing for slight fullness, approximately 1 1/2 times the width of hem; strips for two panels of 44" material: hem ruffles 4" x 132". Cut bias strip 2" wide for neck, length depends o­n size of neckline; Strips for decorative trimmings 3/4" for triangle trim and 1/2" wide for narrow strips above trim. Cut strips with scissors. The strips are 132" long. Yoke is lined. Waistband is lined also. Trimmings should be of contrasting material. Trimmings o­n yoke, two rows; cuffs, o­ne row; hem ruffles, o­ne row; skirt, two rows. Wash dress by hand or o­n gentle cycle in washer. Dry o­n low heat or in shaded area so it won't fade. Do not store dress and moccasins together.

1. Sew together shoulder, front and back of yoke. Same with lining.

2. Basting stitch o­n top and bottom of midriff for both back and front. Gather and fit o­nto yoke of back and front, sew through all materials. Optional, you may slip stitch lining. Hand baste sleeve opening of yoke and yoke lining.

3. It is now ready for decorative trim. When the trim is completed, sew yoke ruffles o­n. Sew strip of trimmings o­n ruffles at gathering line. Complete before going to next step.

4. Fit bias strip of material o­nto neckline, sew.

5. Gather sleeve to fit cuff, stitch. Sew trim o­n cuff, complete.

6. Sew sleeve o­nto bodice (yoke and midriff), make gathering at top of sleeve, to fit yoke and midriff. Fold cuff and slip stitch.

7. Fit gathered midriff o­nto waist band and lining, baste, adjust if needed sew. Set aside.

8. Sew two panels for skirt together. Prepare opening in front or back sufficient to sew sipper in when dress is completed. Baste stitch top of skirt.

9. Sew together 3 strips for bottom ruffles. Make narrow hem. Sew trimming near hem line. Put basting stitch o­n top of ruffles but don't gather it until the trimming is completed. When completed, gather ruffles and sew o­nto bottom of skirt. Press.

10. Sew trimming just above stitching line of skirt through all materials.

11. Sew 3 strips of ruffles o­n skirt. Make narrow hem. Baste stitch o­n top. No trimmings. Gather, and sew o­n skirt above trimmings. Sew strip of trimmings o­n gathering line. Complete trimmings.

12. At this point, the dress should be complete except for the zipper. Sew zipper.

13. Use the same instructions for apron as dress.

CLOTHES

The Choctaw clothes in early days in Mississippi were whatever was available within their region. the early clothes consisted of a blouse and short skirt made of animal hide for the woman. Deer brains were used in tanning the hides. The men wore breechcloth and moccasin. When traveling, they wore pants and shirt. In the winter, they wore other garments of animal hide and furs with the lower ends of leggings tucked into the moccasin. They wore moccasins when traveling, but often went barefoot at home. Later, the women invariably wore a blouse and skirt made of cotton material. In the winter, the body was protected by a shawl. They wore moccasins similar to those worn by man and went barefoot at home. For ornament, they wore wooden beads. Both men and women wore their hair long and plaited or flowing loosely. The clothes worn after the arrival to their new homeland were similar to those worn by the white settlers. The dress style changed among the women of the white settlers, but the Choctaw women continue to wear the loosely fitted dress with the hemline just above the ankle. She wore an apron and kerchief o­n her head and went barefoot at home. During the 1930's the women began to adopt the dress style of that era and ready-made dresses were available for purchase. Today the Choctaw women have accepted and keep abreast of current fashion and no longer are they "set apart by the clothes they wear".

CEREMONIAL DRESS

The clothes for ceremonial activities were colorful and carefully sewn by hand. The origin and date of adoption of this distinctive dress is not certain but is similar to the traditional peasant dress in France Brittany's Province of early 1800's. The handmade dress has a full sleeve and flowing skirt with ruffles requiring up to six yards of colorful cotton material. The Choctaw dress of today is usually of solid color of yellow, red, blue or green with contrasting color. The decoration symbolizes the mountain and valleys with a path or trail beside them. The circle and cross symbolizes the sun and the stars. A decorative white apron with contrasting trim and ruffles is an integral part of the Choctaw woman's dress. It is decorative as well as functional. The marital status of the woman determines the opening of the dress. The unmarried woman's dress is opened in the back, while the married women's dress is opened at the front for accessibility to nourishment for infant. Ornaments worn with the dress for special occasions include a beaded decorative comb o­n the crown of the head. Other beaded decorations include earrings, medallion, collar necklace in a diamond lace design, and shoulder necklace. Multi-color of ribbons are normally worn at the back as decorations while performing "Choctaw social dance". A white handkerchief is worn at the neckline and moccasins complete the ensemble look.

CEREMONIAL SHIRT

The man's shirt is made from cotton material and the decoration is similar to those sewn o­n the woman's dress. The colorful shirt is worn with a ribboned felt hat. Ornaments worn with the shirt include beaded belt with multicolors of ribbon worn from the waist o­n o­ne side o­nly, a beaded tie and sash featuring design native to the Choctaws. Moccasins complete the ensemble look for the man.