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American Indian Clothing and Regalia

Originally, there were many different traditional clothing styles in North America. Nearly every Native American tribe had its own distinctive style of dress, and the people could often tell each other's tribal identities by looking at their clothes, headdresses, and ornamentation.

In most tribes, Native American men wore breechclouts or breechcloths (a long rectangular piece of hide or cloth tucked over a belt, so that the flaps fell down in front and behind), sometimes with leather leggings attached in colder climates. Here's a page of breechcloth and legging pictures. In other tribes Indian men wore a short kilt or fur trousers instead of a breechcloth. Most Indian men did not use shirts, but Plains Indian warriors wore special buckskin war shirts decorated with ermine tails, hair, and intricate quillwork and beadwork. Here are pictures of two traditional Sioux war shirts. Most Native American women wore skirts and leggings, though the length, design, and material of the skirts varied from tribe to tribe. In some Indian cultures women's shirts were optional and were usually treated more like coats, while in others, women always wore tunics or mantles in public. And in other tribes women usually wore one-piece dresses instead, like this Cheyenne buckskin dress. Nearly all Native Americans had some form of moccasin (a sturdy leather shoe) or mukluk (heavier boot), with the styles of footwear differing from tribe to tribe (as you can see from these mocasin pictures). Most tribes used cloaks in colder weather, but some of the northern tribes wore Inuit-style fur parkas instead. Most variable of all were headgear and formal clothing, which were different in nearly every tribe. Here's a page illustrating traditional hairstyles from several different tribes.

After colonization, Native American clothes began to change. For one thing, as Indian tribes were driven from their ancient lands and forced into closer contact with each other, they began to borrow some of each other's tribal dress, so that fringed buckskin clothing, feather headdresses, and woven blankets became popular among Indians outside of the tribes in which they originated. For another, Indians began to adapt some articles of European costume to their own style, decorating cloth garments with characteristic Native American beadwork, embroidery, and designs. These clothes were not original to the Americas, but by the 1800's they were recognized by anyone viewing them as Indian apparel. Such post-colonial native dress includes beaded jackets and shirts, ribbon shirts, Seminole patchwork skirts, satin shawls, woolen sweaters, broad ribbon applique, jingle dresses, and the Cherokee tear dress. Today, most Native Americans wear contemporary American and Canadian clothes in their daily life; however, unique American Indian clothing styles still exist. Some traditional Indian garments, such as buckskins, ribbon dresses, and beaded moccasins, are still worn in many tribes, particularly to formal events. Others, such as breechcloth, leggings, headdress and dance shawl, are only worn at powwows and religious ceremonies. In general, American Indians use the word "regalia" for traditional clothing which is used for ceremonial occasions. Some native people find the phrase "Native American costume" offensive, due to long association with hurtful red-faced Halloween costumes.

If you are looking to buy regalia or other clothes that were actually made by Native Americans--either because it's important to you to have the real thing or because you want to support native people with your purchase--then here is our list of American Indian clothing designers whose work is for sale online. We have grouped them into Traditional Native American Clothing (both secular clothes and ceremonial regalia), Contemporary Native American Clothing (modern clothes like tee-shirts made with native designs), and Native American Designer Clothes (contemporary clothing styles designed as wearable art and priced accordingly). Hopefully this can provide you with a good starting point. If you have a website of Native American clothing to add to this list, let us know. We gladly advertise any individual native artist or native-owned art store here free of charge, provided that all clothes were made by tribally recognized American Indian, Inuit, or First Nations artists.

Thank you for your interest in Native American art!

˜ Native American Clothing Stores

On our main site we do our best to avoid slowing down our page loading with graphics, but this page is about art, so we'd really be remiss in not showing a few representative Native American clothing pictures. All photos are the property of their respective artists; please visit their sites to see their work in more depth.

– Native American Regalia and Traditional Clothing

Since all of these traditional Indian clothes are handmade and many are custom-made, they don't usually have a large inventory of identical items. So if you love an artist's work but they don't seem to have the right size, color, or style currently for sale, I recommend you contact them. Many of these artists will make clothes to your specifications, and others have a much larger selection in their store than they have featured for sale on their website.

Littlecrow Regalia
This Otoe family specializes in making Oklahoma style pow wow regalia, but they also carry a wide variety of traditional American Indian clothing and dance apparel--check out the Photo Album to see their full breadth.

Native American Dance Outfits
Jingle dresses, fancy shawls, and other powwow wear handmade by a Tohono O'odham artist. Her Native American children's clothes are just adorable.

Cheryl's Porcupine Roaches
Native American roaches (men's dance headdresses) handmade by a Poarch Creek lady.
A roach is made of colored deer fur and porcupine guard hair, not the sharp quills.

Neswabmi Porcupine Roach Headdresses
Another good source for quality handmade roaches, by a Potawatomi artist.

Wright Shawls
Native American dance shawls by Lakota Sioux artist Gerald Wright. Beautiful hand fringing.

Native American Breastplates
If you're looking for a Plains Indian breastplate, these Blackfeet artists make really beautiful ones. The rods are traditionally made of bone hairpipe or buffalo horn. American Indian breastplates were originally worn by Plains warriors as armor, but today Indian men only wear them ceremonially, as regalia.

NKJ Native Originals
This Mohawk designer makes traditional Native American ribbon shirts and dresses, buckskin shirts, and full-length deerskin dresses.

Silversmith Indian Regalia
Ribbon shirts and dresses, dance regalia, and Native American wedding dresses by a Cayuga seamstress.

Seminole Indian Clothing
The Seminole Tribe of Florida is selling beautiful Seminole patchwork skirts, jackets, capes, and shirts, including children's clothing.

Metis Clothing
Traditional finger-woven sashes and fringed buckskin jackets from a Metis artists' cooperative.

– Native American Moccasins

The most universal element of Native American dress, moccasins were worn throughout North America and into Central America, and remain popular footwear among many Indian tribes today. Visit our Native American Moccasins page to buy some from contemporary Indian artists.

– Native American Mittens and Gloves

Native American Mitts
This moccasin store also sells traditional fur and leather mittens in the Cree and northern Indian style.

Sweetgrass Indian Mittens and Gloves
This First Nations craft shop sells Native American gloves and mitts in the Ojibway style.

– Cowichan Sweaters

Among the Northwest Coast Indians there is a long tradition of weaving wool by hand (originally using mountain goat hair, later sheep's wool). About a century ago Salish Indian weavers turned this skill towards sweater-making, and their distinctive designs have become a native Canadian classic.

Cowichan Indian Clothes
Hand-knitted Native American sweaters, scarves, and other winter clothes by Coast Salish crafters.

Cowichan Sweaters
Handmade Cowichan Indian sweaters, mittens, and other woolen clothes.

– Contemporary Native American Clothing

Sometimes, all you're looking for is a Native American t-shirt. Here are some of our favorites.

NDN Gear
This Navajo-owned company screen-prints t-shirts with designs by contemporary American Indian artists. (The one at left is by Navajo artist Baje Whitethorne.) They have a broad selection of prints and you can get a really striking t-shirt this way.

British Columbia Native T-Shirts
Northwest Indian t-shirt designs by a Nuu-chah-nulth artist. This native-owned store also sells scarves and ties with Indian designs.

Rez Dog
This Sioux-owned company, ubiquitous at powwows, is selling their t-shirts with humorous American Indian logos online now.

Rapid Pilot
Anishinabe-owned clothing company specializing in T-shirts. They also carry other Chippewa products such as ribbon shirts, quill baskets, and jewelry.

– Native American Designer Clothes

These Native American fashion labels are too expensive for either of us to buy ourselves, but all three are Indian-owned, and if you can afford them, the clothes are beautiful enough to be worth their price.

Tammy Beauvais Designs
Contemporary Canadian fashion designs with an Iroquois flair. Check out the women's capes and hats.

Dorothy Grant Haida Art
Designer Native American clothing in dramatic Northwest Indian designs, by a Haida artist. She has a line of leather handbags at more affordable prices, too.

Betty David Shearlings
This Spokane Indian clothing designer presents fine leather jackets painted with Northwest Coast designs.

– Native American Blankets

Woven blankets were used as cloaks in the Southwest and dance regalia in the Pacific Northwest; later, colorful wool blankets introduced by Europeans became popular as outerwear in many tribes. Today, blankets are not usually used as articles of clothing, so we have put our pictures and information about Native American blankets on the page with Indian rugs and other weavings. Look for it there!

˜ Books About Native American Clothing


Encyclopedia of American Indian Costume	Beauty, Honor, and Tradition: The Legacy of Plains Indian Shirts	Dress Clothing of the Plains Indians
A good book overviewing native clothing styles and regalia in different Indian tribes.	Cultural background and color photographs of traditional Plains Indian clothing.	Another artistic book about Great Plains Native American clothing.


How to Make Cherokee Clothing	Sinews of Survival: The Living Legacy of Inuit Clothing
Descriptions and sewing patterns for traditional Cherokee Indian dress and accessories.	Here's one about traditional Inuit ("Eskimo") clothes, with illustrations.

˜ Indian Clothing And Regalia Links

Here are some other good internet resources for learning about or purchasing Native American clothing:

The Indian Arts and Crafts Act: US law against passing off fake American Indian crafts as genuine.

What constitutes Native American art fraud, and how to report it if you find it.

First Nations Clothing: Excellent online photographic collection of Canadian Indian and Inuit clothing.

Native American Leather and Clothes: Articles, sketches, and photos of American Indian clothing from NativeTech.

Native American Clothing, Regalia and Textiles: Photographs, descriptions, and links about traditional Indian clothes.

Clothing of Indians: Anthropology text on Indian clothing in various tribes.

The Mathematics of Seminole Patchwork: Article about the designs, legends, and geometry of Seminole Indian patchwork.

Seminole Patchwork: How to make Seminole Indian skirts and other clothing, with illustrations.

Women's Jingle Dress: The origins and tradition of the jingle dress and jingle dance.

Cherokee Tear Dresses: The legend of the Cherokee Tear Dress and how they are made.

Cowichan Sweaters: Background and photographs of these Native Canadian knitted sweaters.

Native American Clothing: Orrin contributed to this larger directory of American Indian clothes, many of which are authentic.

Native American Information: View our fact sheets for individual Indian tribes, with information about traditional clothing styles in each.

About us: This website belongs to Native Languages of the Americas, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving and promoting endangered Native American languages. We are not artists ourselves, so if you are interested in buying some of the clothes featured on this page, please contact the artists directly. Though we have featured only Native American clothing and regalia identified with the name and tribal affiliation of each artist, we haven't called the tribal offices to check up on any of them, and we only know a few of them personally. We also don't guarantee any of their products. This is not an exhaustive list of American Indian clothing--if you would like us to add your native clothing site to this page, please contact us with your URL and tribal affiliation. We advertise any individual native artist or native-owned art business here free of charge. We do not link to clothing or regalia which is not made by tribally recognized American Indian, Inuit, or First Nations artists, so please do not ask us to. And finally, websites do occasionally expire and change hands, so use your common sense and this general rule of thumb: if the creator of each individual artwork is not identified by name and specific tribe, you are probably not looking at authentic American Indian clothes.

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