Clad with the 'Hair of Trees': A history of native American Spanish moss textile industries (Article)

Textile History

Volume 41, Issue 1, 1 May 2010, Pages 3-27

Carocci, M.

 

University of London, Goldsmiths College, United Kingdom

View references (152)

Abstract

This article examines textile industries related to the plant known as 'Spanish Moss' (Tillandsia usneoides) that were developed by Native Americans over the centuries. In revising the known historical accounts that mention this plant either as garment or as domestic textile, it reveals a widespread and refined empirical knowledge of Spanish Moss ecology that continues into the present day with important implications for the maintenance of cultural continuity and identity among Native Americans of the southeast United States. In this first, comprehensive look at documents that make reference to the plant, indigenous North American Spanish Moss textiles and garments are analysed from an anthropological perspective that highlights the significance of social and cultural meanings embodied in objects. The framework provided by this perspective indicates how a comparative anthropological interpretation of past records that mention Spanish Moss textile industries can be useful to reconstruct hidden, or poorly known histories of textiles. Whilst data generated by a fresh look at the sources can enrich the existing literature about the plant, they simultaneously contribute to further developing methodologies suitable to an understanding of culturally specific knowledge associated with weaving and manufacturing processes. © 2010 Pasold Research Fund Ltd.

Indexed keywords

GEOBASE Subject Index for World Textile Abstracts: cultural anthropology; ecology; garment; natural fiber; textile history

ISSN: 00404969Source Type: Journal Original language: English

DOI: 10.1179/174329510x12670196126485Document Type: Article

View in search results format

References (152)

• Page
• • Export |
  • Print |
  • E-mail |
  • Create bibliography

1

Costoro trovammo più bianchi de li passati, vestiti di certe erbe che stanno pendenti da li rami de l'alberi, quali tessano con varie corde di canapa silvestre, el capo nudo, ne la medesima forma de li altri' [translation by the author]. See letter of Giovanni da Verazzano to Francis I of France dated

•  

2

(1966) Prime Relazioni di Navigatori Italiani sulla Scoperta dell'America: Colombo, Vespucci, Verazzano, p. 170.
July 1524 in Luigi Firpo ed., Torino: Utet

•  

3

The analysis carried out on textual and iconographic material was complemented by data gathered over nearly a month in South-East United States during the summer of 2007. This research was possible through a generous grant received by the Pasold Research Fund

•  

4

Petersen, J.B.
(1996) A Most Indispensable Art: Native Fiber Industries from Eastern North America. Cited 5 times.
for example, Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press

•  

5

Tilley, C.
(1999) Metaphor and Material Culture. Cited 238 times.
London: Blackwell

•  

6

Schneider, J.

(1987) Annual Review of Anthropology, 16, pp. 409-448. Cited 40 times.
For material specifically related to textiles

•  

7

Ericksen, A.G., Jakes, K.A., Wimberley, V.S.

(2000) Beyond Cloth and Cordage; Archaeological Textile Research in the Americas. Cited 4 times.
P. B. Drooker and L. D. Webster eds, Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press

•  

8

(1989) Cloth and Human Experience. Cited 92 times.
and Annette B. Weiner and Jane Schneider eds, Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press

•  

9

The verb 'to cure' is currently employed by the people residing in south-eastern United States to describe the process by which the harvested Spanish Moss gets converted into a usable product

•  

10

Garth, R.E.

(1964) Ecology, 45 (3), pp. 470-81. Cited 25 times.

•  

11

Martinez, R.J.
(1959) The Story of Spanish Moss and Its Relatives
New Orleans: Home Publications

•  

12

Penfound, W.T., Delier, F.G.

(1947) Ecology, 28 (4), pp. 455-458. Cited 10 times.

•  

13

Bartram, W.
(1794) Travels Through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, the Cherokee Country, the Extensive Territories of the Muscogules or Creek Confederacy and the Country of the Chactaws. Containing An Account of the Soil and Natural Productions of Those Regions Together with Observations of the Manners of the Indians. Cited 2 times.
Sources that mention Spanish Moss among Native Americans span from the sixteenth to the early twentieth century. Original accounts are contained. London

•  

14

Carteret, N.

(1897) Collections of the South Carolina Historical Society, 5.
[1670], The Shaftesbury Papers and Other Records Relating to Carolina and the First Settlement on Ashley River Prior to the Year 1676, in Langdon Cheves ed., Charleston

•  

15

Catesby, M.
(1731) The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and Bahama Islands. Cited 40 times.
2 vols, London

•  

16

Covey, C.
(1961) Cabeza de Vaca's Adventures in the Unknown Interior of America. Cited 10 times.
first published. this edition Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press

•  

17

Dickenson, J.
(1803) Narrative of A Shipwreck in the Gulf of Florida
Stanford, NY

•  

18

Le Page Du Pratz, A.S.
(1758) Histoire de la Louisiane, Contenant la Découverte de Ce Vaste Pays; Sa Description Géographique; un Voyage dans les Terres; l'Histoire Naturelle: Les Moeures, Côtumes & Religion des Naturels, Avec Leurs Origines; Deux Voyages dans le Nord du Nouveau Mexique, Don't un Jusq'à la Mer du Sud; Ornée de Deux Cartes & de 40 Planches en Taille-douce. Cited 11 times.
Paris: De Bure; La Veuve Delaguette; Lambert

•  

19

Gaffarel, P.L.J.
(1875) Histoire de la Floride Française. Cited 3 times.
Paris: Librairie de Fermin-Didot

•  

20

García, G.
(1902) Dos Antiguas Relaciones de la Florida. Cited 4 times.
Mexico: de J. Aguilar Vera y Comp.

•  

21

Hariot, T.
(1590) Merveilleux et Estrange Rapport Toutes Fois Fideles, des Commoditez Qui Se Trouvent en Virginia, des Facons des Naturels Habitans d'Icele
Frankfurt am Mein, Laquelle A Esté Nouvellement Descouverte Par les Anglois Que Messier Richard Greinvile Chevalier y Mena en Colonial An 1585 À la Charge Principale de Messire Walter Raleigh Chevalier Suprintendant des Mines d'Estain, Favorisé Par la Reyne d'Angleterre, et Autorisé Par Ses Letters Patentes

•  

22

Hawkins, B.

(1848) Georgia Historical Society Collections, 3. Cited 2 times.
Savannah

•  

23

Lawson, J.
(1709) A New Voyage to Carolina: Containing the Exact Description and Natural History of That Country: Together with the Present State Thereof. and A Journal of A Thousand Miles, Travel'd Thro Several Nations of Indians. Giving A Particular Account of Their Customs, Manners Etc.
London

•  

24

Le Moyne, J.
(1875) Narrative of le Moyne, An Artist Who Accompanied the French Expedition to Florida under Laudonnière, 1564 Translated from the Latin of de Bry. Cited 3 times.
Boston

•  

25

(1946) The New World: The First Pictures of America Made by John White and Jacques le Moyne and Engraved by Theodore de Bry with Contemporary Narratives of the Huguenot Settlement in Florida 1562-1565 and the Virginia Colony 1585-1590
Stefan Lorant ed., New York: Puell, Sloan and Pearce

•  

26

Margry, P.
(1881) Decouvertes et Etablissments des Francais dans l'Ouest et dans le Sud de l'Amerique Spetentrionale (1614-1754) Memoires et Documents Originaux
4 vols, Paris: Maisonneuve

•  

27

(1969) The Indians of Texas in 1830 by Jean Louis Berlandier
For recent research that refers to old material, see John C. Ewers ed., Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press

•  

28

Laurencich-Minelli, L.

(1983) Archivio per l'Antropologia e la Etnografia, 113, pp. 187-206. Cited 4 times.

•  

29

(1992) Bologna e Il Mondo Nuovo
Bologna: Grafis

•  

30

Swanton, J.R.

(1922) Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin, 73. Cited 28 times.
Washington, DC: Government Printing Office

•  

31

Brown, R.C.

(1994) Florida's First Peoples: 12,000 Years of Human History, pp. 86-87.
Sarasota, Florida: Pineapple Press

•  

32

Adovasio, J.M., Andrews, R.L., Hyland, D.C., Illingworth, J.S.

(2001) North American Archaeologist, 22 (1), pp. 1-90. Cited 5 times.

•  

33

Andrews, R.L., Adovasio, J.M.

(1996) A Most Indispensable Art: Native Fiber Industries from Eastern North America, pp. 30-49. Cited 5 times.
J. B. Petersen ed., Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press

•  

34

Brown
Working Fiber, pp. 86-93.

•  

35

Holmes, W.H.

(1896) Thirteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology 1891-1892
Washington, DC: Government Printing Office

•  

36

Petersen, J.B.

A Most Indispensable Art, pp. 1-29. Cited 4 times.
Petersen ed.

•  

37

(1987) The Historic Indian Tribes of Louisiana: From 1542 to the Present, pp. 137-171.
A more specific survey of south-eastern Indians' regional technologies can be found in the section, Fred B. Kniffen, Hiram F. Gregory and George A. Stokes, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press

•  

38

Whitford, A.C.

(1946) Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, 38 (1). Cited 8 times.

•  

39

Maygarden, B.D.

Building in colonial Louisiana: Creolization and the survival of French traditions
(2006) International Journal of Historical Archaeology, 10 (3), pp. 208-236. Cited 4 times.
doi: 10.1007/s10761-006-0012-4

• View at Publisher

40

Bushnell, D.I.

(1908) American Anthropologist, 10 (3), pp. 568-574. Cited 6 times.

•  

41

Simpkins, D.L., Allard, D.J.

(1986) American Antiquity, 6 (1), pp. 102-117. Cited 7 times.

•  

42

Spanish Moss in His A New Voyage to Carolina, p. 117.
John Lawson talks extensively about the various uses, 190, 207

•  

43

Swanton, J.

(1946) Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin, 137, p. 247.
Further discussions of indigenous usage of the plant for domestic purposes can be found, Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution

•  

44

Brown
Working Fiber, p. 91.
For a later treatment of the subject

•  

45

Moerman, D.E.
(1998) Native American Ethnobotany, p. 563. Cited 447 times.
Spanish Moss as indigenous medicine is discussed, Portland, Oregon: Timber Press, 673

•  

46

SPECK, F.G.

A LIST OF PLANT CURATIVES OBTAINED FROM THE HOUMA INDIANS OF LOUISIANA
(1941) Anthropological Quarterly, 14 (4), p. 49.

• View at Publisher

47

Medford Jr., C., Gregory, H.F., Sepulvado, D., Cameron, N., Jones, J.
(1990) The Old Ways Live: The Claude Medford Jr. Collection, p. 55.
A miniature of a dugout canoe with the forked pole used to harvest Spanish Moss made by Houma artist Antoine Billiot is in the Williamson Museum in Natchitoches, Louisiana, Natchitoches, LA: Williamson Museum, Northwestern State University., 63

•  

48

Hudson, C.
(1976) The Southeastern Indians, p. 264. Cited 302 times.
Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press

•  

49

Milanich, J.T.
(1996) The Timucua, pp. 59-60. Cited 23 times.
Oxford: Blackwells

•  

50

Lawson
A New Voyage to Carolina, pp. 190-91.
This practice was widespread from the southern limits of Virginia to the south-western corners of Louisiana until the mid-eighteenth century. The earliest reports mention tufts or pads of Spanish Moss tied to the body through a system of leather thongs that prevented it from moving while the girl was walking. The wad may have had the function of a menstrual pad, but nothing other than the shape of the covering is known. The French founder of Louisiana Monsieur d'Iberville recorded it among the Bayogoula and Pascagoula girls in the lower Mississippi valley. John Lawson witnessed the same practice among pubescent girls of an unidentified group of Carolina Indians (possibly a Siouan tribe). References to this practice are found

•  

51

Margry
Decouvertes, 4, p. 171.
Hariot Merveilleux et estrange rapport, table VIII

•  

52

Swanton, J.

(1922) Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin, 73, p. 303. Cited 28 times.
Washington, DC: Government Printing Office

•  

53

Aldrich, C.C., Deblieux, M.W., Kniffen, F.B.

(1943) Economic Geography, 19 (4), pp. 347-357.

•  

54

(2007) Pers. Comm.
A thriving industry based on the procurement, cure and sale of Spanish Moss flourished in the southern United States until it declined as a consequence of the invention of artificial materials in the second part of the twentieth century. Foams and other synthetic materials gradually replaced the processed plant for padding mattresses, chairs and eventually automobile seats (Jean Verret-Luster (Houma) , Natchitoches, Louisiana, July

•  

55

Brown
Working Fiber, pp. 89-91.

•  

56

Alt, S.

Spindle whorls and fiber production at early Cahokian settlements
(1999) Southeastern Archaeology, 18 (2), pp. 124-134. Cited 15 times.

57

Gregory, H.P.
(2007) Pers. Comm
Natchitoches, Louisiana, July

•  

58

Kniffen, F.

(1953) Western Folklore, 12 (3), pp. 179-184. Cited 3 times.

•  

59

Knopp, K.R.

(1996) North South Trader's Civil War, 23 (1), pp. 32-35.

•  

60

Wilson, M.
(2007) (Koasati Tribe), Pers. Comm.
In colonial times technological knowledge was exchanged between people living in close proximity, for example, among Africans and Native American slaves that worked together in plantations and in the southern Bayous. Over the century following the Civil War Native Americans, African Americans and Cajuns living in and near the swamps made a living out of gathering the moss for commercial purposes. Koasati and Houma informants remember the post-Second World War period when their parents and grandparents used to harvest Spanish Moss for both domestic consumption and sale, Natchitoches, Louisiana, July

•  

61

Hamby, L.

Wrapt with string
(2007) Textile: The Journal of Cloth and Culture, 5 (2), pp. 206-229. Cited 2 times.
doi: 10.2752/175183507X219498

• View at Publisher

62

Holmes, W.H.
Prehistoric Textile Art, pp. IV.

•  

63

Swanton, J.

(1946) Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin, 137, p. 476.
Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution

•  

64

Granberry, J.
(1993) A Grammar and Dictionary of the Timucua Language, p. 115. Cited 18 times.
Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, In the Timucua language the word amuna equally describes cloth, yet with reference to tailored garments

•  

65

Milanich, J.T.

(2004) Handbook of the North American Indians Vol.14, Southeast, pp. 219-228. Cited 5 times.
A short discussion of Timucua garments can be found Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution

•  

66

Paterek, J.
(1994) Encyclopedia of American Indian Costume. Cited 12 times.
A description based on primary sources can be found., New York and London: W. W. Norton & Co.

•  

67

Anawalt, P.R.

(2005) Arqueologia Mexicana (Special Issue: Textiles Del México de Ayer y Hoy), 19, pp. 10-19.

•  

68

García
Dos Antiguas Relaciones, p. 193.
Geupil or huipil is a short, square tunic made of two pieces of cotton sewn together along the shoulders that was used by Mexican Nahuatl women of the sixteenth century. This term may have described a Spanish Moss outfit that resembled a short poncho made of festoons spreading over the torso and shoulder as reported by Fray Andrés

•  

69

Swanton, J.

(1922) Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin, 73, p. 346. Cited 28 times.
His account appears translated in English by Swanton: 'The dress of the women is in the style of a cloak (guepil) and skirts of the long moss (pastel) which grows on trees, made like a fringe. The cloak hangs from the neck to a point below the waist, and the skirts from the waist down to the ground' Washington, DC: Government Printing Office

•  

70

Hann, J.
(1996) A History of the Timucua Indians and Missions. Cited 42 times.
Additional descriptions of forms of garments used by south-eastern Indian women before the eighteenth century can be found, Gainesville: University Press of Florida

•  

71

Wenhold, L.L.

(1936) Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 95 (16), p. 95. Cited 3 times.
in the translation of colonial correspondence

•  

72

The New World, p. 113.
Lorant ed

•  

73

Hulton, P., Quinn, D.B.
(1964) The American Drawings of John White 1577-1590: With Drawings of European and Oriental Subjects Vols 1 and 2. Cited 14 times.
London: The Trustees of the British Museum; Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press

•  

74

Swanton
Early History, p. 346. Cited 4 times.

•  

75

(1992) Middle English Dictionary, p. 1122.
For a recent definition of surplesse, see Robert E. Lewis and Mary F. Williams eds, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. A 'surplesse' is a loose-fitting liturgical garment usually worn over a long tunic

•  

76

Catlin, G.
(1844) Letters and Notes on the Manners, Customs, and Conditions of the North American Indians, Ii. Cited 58 times.
first published

•  

77

(1973) New York: Dover Publications, p. 223.
this edition

•  

78

Sherr Dubin, L.
(1999) North American Jewelry and Adornment from Prehistory to the Present, p. 213.
New York: Harry N. Abrams Publishers, 403. A very clear image of the way this collar was worn can be appreciated in George Catlin's 1834 two portraits of Tul-lock-císh-ko (Drinks the Juice of the Stone), Choctaw ball player part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum's collections. Dubin published a modern rendition of this item

•  

79

Verret-Luster, J.
(2007) Pers. Comm.
Natchitoches Louisiana July

•  

80

Gregory, H.P.
(2007) Pers. Comm.
As a complement to her statement, Professor Gregory adds that Spanish Moss skirts had a short-lived resurgence in the 1970s, but the fad soon died out Natchitoches, Louisiana

•  

  Carocci, M.; University of London, Goldsmiths College, United Kingdom
© Copyright 2010 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.