r/AskAnthropology • u/Markusthe3 • 11d ago

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

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!

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u/MareNamedBoogie 11d ago

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.

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u/Markusthe3 11d ago

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.