LO: Identify traditional Native American

dress.

Who was Christopher Columbus?

• Christopher Columbus was a famous Spanish explorer.

• In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed from Europe to America across the Atlantic ocean in a wooden sail boat, using the stars and sun to navigate.

• Columbus thought he had arrived in India and so mistakenly called the Native Americans ‘Indians’.

• The new lands he found was named 'The New World'. When he returned back to Spain he took some of the Native Americans with him along with other items such as gold and spices.

What do you

think the first

impressions of

both the

native

Americans

and the

European

settlers was of

each other?

First impressions of Native Americans

– what did they wear?

One of the most common materials used in Native American clothing

was animal skins. Over many years, Native Americans developed

ways of tanning animal hides so that they became soft leather. The leather was used for shoes and clothing, and

sometimes as a covering for their homes. Some Native American tribes believed that wearing the skin of an animal gave the wearer some of the animal’s strength and power. Sometimes, an animal’s tail would be left intact and used at the neckline, something like a furry necklace!

Often they wore shirts or tunics as well. In some tribes,

like the Cherokee and the Apache, the women wore longer

buckskin dresses. Most Native Americans wore some kind

of footwear. This was usually a shoe made of soft leather

called a moccasin.

•Prior to the Europeans arriving, American Indians used wood,

shells, and bone to make beads to decorate their clothing and

make jewellery. Later they would start using the European's glass

beads.

•The brain of the animal was sometimes used in the tanning process

because of its chemical properties.

•Plains Indians sometimes wore breastplates made of bone for

armour when going to war.

•The most popular kind of headdress was not the feathered one

you see on TV a lot, but one called a roach. The roach was made

from animal hair, generally stiff porcupine hair.

•Elaborate clothes, headdresses, and masks were often used in

religious ceremonies

Draw a picture

of a native

American

when

Christopher

Columbus

arrived in North

America and

label key

features of the

items they

wear.

Write a diary entry

from the view

point of Christopher

Columbus

about what he

saw when he first

met

the Native Americans.

At the end of

the entry include a labelled diagram.

Dear Diary, 3rd August 1942

We came across land today, after weeks of sailing the

cruel, harsh seas of the Atlantic. My men and I were just

about ready to give up trying to find the continent of Asia

when suddenly, one of my men shouted the words I had

longed to hear, the words I had dreamt every night “Land

ahead!”

“Was this it?” I thought. “Had we finally reached Asia?”

As we approached the vast land, ten of my best sailors and

myself jumped down into the tender boats to bring us to

shore. We cautiously crept onto the hard, muddy soil and

what approached us was a sight I had never seen

before…….