costume

[thebob210]

for the seminole indians what type of costumes do they wear and where can i find some pictures

 

thanks

 

www

 

bob

[Eagle92]

Bob,

Welcome to the forums. friendly word of advice, please do NOT call ceremonial and dance attire "Costumes." Call it regalia, attire, clothes, but not costume. While I know according to the Oxford English Dictionary 2nd. Ed. (OED2) costume can correctly describe any set of clothes, it most common definition, as in Halloween Costume,is considered derogatory and insulting to Native Americans, and they have asked the OA to refrain from that term.

 

Now as to find info on Seminole regalia, Look at the Seminole nation's website as I am sure they have traditional attire there. Swanton's books from teh early 1900s are excellent, especially since he was an ethnologist on SE Native Americans.

 

PM and I can send you some photos of an OA ceremony team in that type of regalia. Now dependin upon who you were talking to in that lodge, it was either Creek reagalia ( those living in GA) or Seminole regalia (those living in FL).

 

PM me and mopre later,

[thebob210]

I live in Alabama what type of regallia do they wear? And can I see the pics

 

Www

Bob

[Eagle92]

For dancing I am either Northern Traditional, or Southern Straight. I prefer Straight at the moment as there are more tradish dancers, and only 2 or 3 Straight dancers.

 

When I did ceremonies back in the day, I started out doing the typical Plains,but after some research and talking, got the chapter to switch to Houmas, a Louisiana tribe. Now my chapter is in the process of making Tuscarora regalia.

 

Depending upon where in AL, i can get you some info. I have the Swanton bookin my possession, and it may be a Google Boook since I belive the copyright has expired. Plus it was a GPO book . PM me.

[emb021]

Those of us in the Florida OA section have done a lot of research on the clothing of the florida seminole. You can see a lot of our research here: http://www.nativetech.org/seminole/index.html

 

If you can, try coming to our Section Seminars in November, as we usually have many sessions on Seminole Men's Clothing.

 

Also, join the SoutheasternCulture group at Yahoo Groups for more info (pictures, etc)

 

[regi]

 

Eagle92,

 

In your first response to Bob you corrected him on use of term "costume".Personally I agree that it does have an insulting sound to it.I tend to use "regalia".But I've been corrected over the last year and was told that "costume" is the current term accepted by National.

Their explanation is in the Guide to inductions revision May 07.

Appendix 13 page 7.I refrained from commenting earlier because I only had the verbal reprimand as evidence.I stumbled on this looking for something else.Sorry to be throwing something irrelevant to Bob's needs in to this.

[Eagle92]

Regi,

 

I am stunned. Just checked and not only is it used on page 7, but an additional 12 times throughout the document. I can tell you from personal experience, Native Americans do not like the term.

 

All I will say is this: if you are a dancer, do NOT call it a costume at a Native American Powwow!

 

 

[regi]

their explanation says that decision was made after asking some Native Americans but it doesn't say if these represented persons who had any other credentials other than blood lines.They may have gotten different feed back if they asked a different set of people.

The ceremonialists I know don't feel comfortable using "Costume"

[Eagle92]

If the ceremoniealists are uncomfortable, I now advise a ceremony team ( at least until the end of the month), I 'ld let them continue using reaglia as the term of choice.

[regi]

 

Definitely.This is not the kind of policy I'd make an issue about enforcing.

 

[BigDave]

Seminoles?

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b7/Chief_Osceola_on_Renegade_FSU.jpg/450px-Chief_Osceola_on_Renegade_FSU.jpg(This message has been edited by BigDave)