Native Life: Gorgets

I ran across a blog with an entry arguing that early Natives had had contact with Ancient Israelites or some such, and had been introduced to moon worship by them.  I'm not making this up.  One piece of evidence was the prevalence of the gorget neckpieces worn by chiefs and distinguished warriors.  The article showed various pictures such as this Seminole warrior, one of Osceola's comrades, to bolster their case.  Wow!  Could they never be more wrong.  True, one style of the gorget was introduced by an outside culture but it was more recent than the Israelites.  It was British, French and American officers interacting with Natives and presenting them with gorgets that started the trend.   

The gorget was the neckpiece of a suit of armor.  As guns took over the battlefields and armies began scaling back on the use of armor, the breast plate and gorget were among the last pieces to go.  Eventually, the gorget became a decorative ornament used to indicate an officer as opposed to enlisted man in most European armies.  The trend crossed the ocean, and American officers, including George Washington, sported gorgets as emblems of their rank.  While interacting with Natives, officers sometimes gave them these neckpieces as specific tokens of esteem.  The Natives were quick to see that the gorget indicated rank and soon adopted them for much the same purpose, with some creative adaptations. 

European gorgets could be engraved with a coat of arms or the badge of an individual's regiment.  Natives also carved their gorgets with decorative emblems that had significance to them.  They began the custom of wearing more than one, fastened above the other with leather strips.  One to three gorgets were common, though some warriors sported four, as Osceola did in one famous drawing.  There was no indication that the more gorgets indicated a higher rank.  The number and decoration reflected personal preference.  Osceola reverted to three gorgets after he gifted one of his to an American officer who had given Osceola's small daughter a dress. 

There is another ornament also known as a gorget.  These were elaborate round ornaments made of shell by artists of the Mississippi Culture, ancestors of the Muscogean Peoples such as Creeks, Choctaw and Chickasaw.  Later tribes also wore similar shell ornaments as does the Caddo warrior painted also by Catlin.  Modern artists have elaborated on the theme with beautifully carved shell pieces, center.