The clothing and decorations the indigenous people wore were all from nature— furs, grasses, shells, feathers, and even bear claws. Some California Native American customs and apparel have been preserved . A few years ago I watched Miwok and Pomo men, women, and children dance to drum music wearing beaded necklaces, feathers, and headdresses made of black-tipped feather shafts similar to those shown in a painting by Louis Choris, a French painter. I read the woven headbands were made with flicker feather shafts stripped of the wispy, feathery sides. Flickers are large, brown woodpeckers with a black feather bib. In the West, their feathers have reddish shafts ending in black tips. The photograph shows two feathers I found in my garden. The bottom feather is from a flicker’s tail.
What clothing and decorations did Miwoks and Ohlones wear in the 1800s?
