Native Life: Cloth

We've discussed many items that would have been attractive items for trade between Settlers and Natives.  Now here's another that would have rank almost as high as firearms and lead for bullets, cloth.  Cloth came in two forms, bolts of material that could be made into shirts, dresses and other items, and ready-made garments, usually shirts, hence the name, trade shirt.

Natives accepted almost any kind of cloth, but the most widely traded was Calico, also called muslin in the United States.  It is made of partially-processed cotton, which makes it cheaper and more readily available than many types of cloth.  Calico got its name from the city of Calicut in India and was well-known in Europe by the 17th century.  Undyed Calico cloth from India would be shipped to England for block-printing with various patterns, leaves, flowers, whirls, and other motifs, and shipped back to India for sale or trade.  It was also shipped to North America, where it became the common material for everyday shirts and dresses.  Natives appreciate it not only for its bright colors, but because durable Calico cloth was easier to work with than skins, easier to wash and mend, and held up longer under repeated washing and wearing.  Bolts of beautifully printed Calico cloth were sometimes used to commemorate important treaty signings, as it was with the Treaty of Canandaigua, which we've already discussed, and some tribes still get allotments of Calico as specified in earlier treaties.

An important item made from Calico were shirts, sometimes called trade shirts.  Mass produced as ready-to-wear clothing either in England or later North America, they were worn as work shirts by men of all races and most classes.  While upper classes preferred linen because of its texture and look, anyone needing a solid work shirt or hunting shirt would have appreciated Calico, both in undyed form, or even sprigged.  Among Natives, both men and women wore trade shirts because of their durability and practicality on the frontier.