What Was Typical Clothing for Creek Indians?
Creek Indian men typically wore leather leggings and breechcloths and the women typically wore deerskin or woven wraparound skirts. Men did not usually wear shirts, but when the weather became cool, both genders wore cloaks. Creeks also wore moccasins on their feet. The Creeks adapted the European style of dress later and created their own unique fashions, including using ribbon applique to decorate cloth skirts, jackets and blouses. Unlike the Sioux, the Creeks did not wear war bonnets.
Creek women wore their hair long on top of their heads in a topknot style. Creek men typically wore Mohawk-style haircuts and often wore roaches, which are headdresses made of porcupine hair. Warriors and other men often used bright red face paint for dances and battles, and adorned their bodies with tattoos. Creek women did not typically wear paint or tattoos. As of 2015, Creek people dress in jeans and other modern fashions, although some still wear ribbon shirts and moccasins, and at dances, roaches in their hair.
The Creek people called themselves Isti or Istichata, and lived in the region that is now the Southeastern United States. In a reference to Ocmulgee Creek in Georgia, European settlers called the inhabitants Creek Indians, and the Creeks soon adopted the name Muscogee. Between 1836 and 1837, the U.S. Army enforced federal government Indian policy and removed more than 20,000 Muscogee Creeks to Indian Territory in Oklahoma.
