10/10/22, 6:27 AM FEATHERS TO FINERY: WHAT PEOPLE DID - AND DIDN'T - WEAR IN NEW WORLD – Orlando Sentinel

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FEATHERS TO FINERY: WHAT PEOPLE DID - AND

DIDN'T - WEAR IN NEW WORLD
By Cindy Schreuder of The Sentinel Staff
Orlando Sentinel • Mar 22, 1992 at 12:00 am

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10/10/22, 6:27 AM FEATHERS TO FINERY: WHAT PEOPLE DID - AND DIDN'T - WEAR IN NEW WORLD – Orlando Sentinel

Sailors crossing the ocean with Christopher Columbus were swaddled in wool and cotton, the
standard dress of the day.

The Tainos, the natives that the crew encountered in the Bahamas, had a more limited
wardrobe. Columbus described them as looking "as their mothers bore them."

Each group likely was startled by the other's attire.

"We don't really know much about what those Indians dressed like," said Herman J. Viola,
director of Quincentenary Programs at the National Museum of Natural History in
Washington.

"Columbus described them as people that had no clothes."

The Tainos, who left no modern-day descendants, were not exhibitionists, historians stressed,
but the subtropical climate and limited resources of the Caribbean influenced their dress.
There were no sheep to provide wool and few large animals with skins suitable for clothing.

Women may have sported some type of grass or reed skirt, while men occasionally may have
worn loincloths.

"I would think a lot of your Indians in that part of the world dressed that way," Viola said.

For the museum's exhibit on the quincentenary of Columbus' arrival in the New World, Viola
said, curators omitted clothes from the replica Tainos, but discreetly placed branches around
them.

Although they had few clothes to fuss over, the Tainos were careful about their appearance.
They wore tropical bird feathers of bright colors in their hair, said William Keegan, a
University of Florida archaeologist who excavates pre-Columbian sites in the Bahamas.

They also made jewelry, carving olive shells for pendants and making decorative ear spools -
similar to modern-day earrings - bracelets and belts, Keegan said.

"We know that they wove very elaborate belts in which there were shell beads . . . woven into
cotton belts in very elaborate designs," Keegan said. "One of the feelings is these represented
trade relationships and tribute payments similar to the wampum belts of the Northeastern
U.S."

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10/10/22, 6:27 AM FEATHERS TO FINERY: WHAT PEOPLE DID - AND DIDN'T - WEAR IN NEW WORLD – Orlando Sentinel

Taino men and women used the decorative objects, and Taino women wore skirts, in
accordance with a strict dress code, Keegan said.

"The elite women wore skirts of ankle length," Keegan said. "Commoners wore the shorter
skirts. Only elites were allowed to wear feathers. Some of the more elaborate shell belts and
things were certainly only worn by chiefs."

Tainos also adorned their bodies with paint, using clay stamps with vegetable dyes to imprint
designs on their skin.

Thinking he would encounter powerful Asian leaders, Columbus apparently traveled to the
Bahamas with his best clothes.

"There is documentary evidence that Columbus had all of his finery with him that he would
put on on ceremonial occasions," said John Fleming, a medieval period scholar at Princeton
University.

But the European crewmen who sailed with Columbus likely wore loose-fitting shirts or
smocks and something akin to a pair of pants, Fleming said. The high cost of clothing and the
limited space on the ships meant that crewmen brought few outfits.

"Especially as the voyage wore on, you would have seen people wearing some pretty peculiar
stuff," he said.

Shortly before Columbus left the Bahamas to return to Spain during the first voyage, the
navigator and and a Taino ruler named Guacanagari exchanged articles of clothing.

That swap was "probably one of the most important exchanges that took place," said Keegan,
the UF researcher.

Columbus gave Guacanagari his cloak and some shoes. The Taino gave the sailor two masks
with gold inlay - and the crown he was wearing on his head.

"Guacanagari crowning Columbus - for a European, there was no more symbolic offering,"
Keegan said.

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