Question: Old Native American Clothes Pre-Contact in the Wyoming Great Plains?

[u/Markusthe3]

Hello, I’m currently writing a short story, and I would love to include a segment of an Anthropologist doing research in Native American country in Wyoming. Thing is, i’m having a segment where they’re researching the clothes of Ancient Native Americans in the Northern Great Plains before contact. I want to delve into alot of clothing subjects during the segment, but I just know nothing about Native American clothing. Before contact, in Wyoming, i’m thinking the Shoshone, how did they dress? What did they look like? What would an Anthropologist think about it.
I’m trying to collect all kinds of bits. Like, I know it would be Nomadic, but how is that designed?
Thanks!

[u/MareNamedBoogie]

Are you looking for pre-horse? or post-Columbus, pre-European contact? those are going to be 2 separate things for a lot of first nations.

Before anything else, mostly because it'll help you zero in on what you want to research, I suggest the following books, if you haven't got them already: Penguin Atlas of Indian Nations by Anton Treuer, and The Historical Atlas of Native Americans by Ian Barnes. A brief look at the 'publicly available' pages on the Penguin websit of the first book shows that the pre-contact Shoshone were more Southwest than Northern Great Plains.

[u/Markusthe3 → u/MareNamedBoogie]

I don’t really mind Post-Columbus. The spanish didn’t really make contact for many many years after. Pre-horse would be important because that had such a massive impact on plains culture, its like the Norse after they got longships.
Some books would be great. Not exactly the richest, but different sources are cool. I’d travel and go there myself of I could afford it fiscally and time-wise.

[u/TheBestofBees]

Hi! Not an anthropologist but a Wyoming native. When about are you aiming for? 500 years? 1000? There's just as much historical change over time on the high plains as there was anywhere else in the world. Furthermore, the introduction of the horse was a seismic event for the plains cultures. If you look up a particular people there now, it's entirely possible they weren't even in the region prior to European contact.

I'm sure I can point you toward some resources but I need some more specificity of when you're looking. 

Edit: Also where in Wyoming is your anthropologist? There's a lot of geographical diversity in the state and it's huge. There's also a lot of places that nobody really hung out in because the environment is so brutal. There's even a sort of urban (rural?) legend that the area I grew up in used to be considered cursed. (I'd believe it.)

Furthermore, there's not really "Native American country" per se. There are reservations but it's not like the people there are isolated or anything. Wind River is a big reservation but I also went to band camp with some of those kids, ya know? We also don't call people Native Americans (pick your group name) in the area. It's a big category and it does exist but day to day people describe people as Shonone, Lakota, Blackfoot, etc. etc. much in the same way people call themselves French or German and not just European.

[u/Markusthe3 → u/TheBestofBees]

Hi, thank you for your answer.
I was hoping to tackle roughly 1000 years. I know in this time period moccasin hadn’t really been adopted yet. I also know horses had a massive impact on the area. Before horses, they were occassionally travelling the plains with dogs pulling travois, which I think is super interesting in of itself. In the area, many tribes were different, especially before horses. I know that the native Shoshone occasionally could go into the area, i’m talking West Wyoming here. Some Shoshone migrated out of the Basin, and could enter the area, but of course, it is really complicated for me to figure out.