Did nez perce wear jewelry

Answer 1

There are two answers, depending on whether you mean the pre-reservation era, or the later period when the Nez Perce people were confined to reservations.

The original native dress was noted by Lewis and Clark in 1805; women wore ankle-length deerskin (buckskin) dresses without belts, decorated with beads, shells and small pieces of brass. The brass and beads had already been obtained in trade through other tribes. 50 years later they were wearing two-skin dresses with the deer tails applied front and back, with the yoke area beaded in Plains style; long fringes edged the yoke, side seams and the uneven hemline, sometimes with dewclaws added to the fringe.

Rows of leather thong were used to decorate some dresses and a decorated leather belt was worn by the 1850s.

In the later reservation era Plains style decoration on yokes was replaced by Plateau style beadwork; more women wore trade cloth dresses over a blouse; these dresses were T-shaped, with square cut oversleeves. Leggings were knee-length and gartered with bands of leather or cloth, beautifully beaded.

Moccasins were of the soft-soled, one-piece style that had a seam along the outside of the foot; decoration was done in porcupine quills or glass beads (the "keyhole" shape design was popular). Moccasins were typically also painted red.

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