Native American Women and the Importance of Braids
Nov 08, 2023
Native American women of the Plateau region, which encompasses parts of present-day Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and surrounding areas, have a rich cultural tradition that often found expression in their attire and personal grooming. One striking aspect of their hairstyle was the practice of wearing their hair with a middle part, usually divided into two braids. This distinctive hairstyle symbolized profound cultural values of balance and equality. The middle part represented a perfect equilibrium, both in the physical sense of parting the hair down the center and in a deeper spiritual and societal sense. It embodied the idea of harmony between individuals, tribes, and the natural world. Native American societies, particularly in the Plateau region, placed a high premium on collective well-being, cooperation, and unity, and this hairstyle was a reflection of those principles. It wasn't until later that one-sided parts, influenced by external fashion trends and colonial influences, began to gain prominence. Despite these changes, the traditional middle-parted, two-braided hairstyle remains an enduring symbol of the enduring cultural heritage and values of Native American women of the Plateau region.
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I personally find the _____ First Nation people to be the most interesting to learn about..(answer at end) Sure everyone has heard about the Iroquois in the NE that fought against George Washington. or the so called “civilized tribes” that farmed like the Cherokee, Choctaw, and other SE tribes. Especially the plains Horse Warriors from the great Lakota, Dakota, or “Sioux”, northern Cheyenne and the plains peoples who can claim ancestry from Red ☁️, Crazy 🐎, and the great Sitting 🐂 RIP and others. Every boy dreams of being an Apache or Commanchee warrior at some part after learning about them. They are what most people think about when they talk about cowboys and indians and I find are the quintessential stereotyped “indians”, especially in old western movies. Those are all wonderful people with extremely rich and interesting cultures no doubt, though none are the most interesting to me.
Everybody that’s read this far is furiously trying to guess who I’m talking about. Probably thinking I’m going to say the Shoshone, Utes, or most of you thinking about the Najavo? No ,naw, nope. Sorry you all were wrong.
Is there anyone left who hasn’t picked wrong yet? (Only first guess counts) Yes! Well you must have gotten me and picked the Shawnee and their great Chief Techumseh? Well you are still wrong 😉. It’s none of the above my friends.
My favorite First Nation people are the great Northwestern Pacific coast peoples! For anyone who loves anthropology and proto American culture and history and you don’t know the Pacific coast peoples you’re missing out bad. You should stop reading here now and go research them. You can come back and thank me later.
I have my own personal theory based on absolutely no prove but I think the geography was able to protect these people for the longest time but sadly that same geography was their prison once discovered by colonizer’s. So I think they were able to carry on in isolation with little to no contact with the migrating Americans for the longest compared to any other people. Keeping their culture pure and uncontaminated by western “progress” culture. So when first discovered by white men who have had centuries at that point to perfect how to handle first contact, propagandize, and assymalate the locals all while stealing their land out from under them. They were heartless evil men but they weren’t stupid. They recorded every last detail they were able to learn and observe from them after being shown hospitality &;allowed to spend time with them. So I guess for prosperity since. “Yes, they were going to exterminate them” but they were “civilized” not animals after all smh. Anyway I’m getting way off track.
The point is they were able to record so much fascinating stuff about a culture that even at that point in time seemed ancient and amazing. They were quickly genocided and the survivors enslaved or deported but before that happened someone wrote it all down and my God is it amazing. Obviously I can’t get to deep into such a unique and detailed culture here in a comment but I’ll just touch on a few things. They had these bronze signs (or not signs but there is no equivalent English word to describe them accurately but they were to the Pacific Coast tribes what the Mona Lisa is to the west like art masterpieces made out of metal. These carried tremendous prestige and honor because tribes would occasionally sell the one they have to a different tribe and it’s a huge wonderful festival with both tribes and they try to out do one another by giving away or buying the metal art things for a tremendous amount of “blankets”. There’s so much more to it then I can describe but they pay hundreds and THOUSANDS of “blankets” for the art things. Just go read about it yourself I can’t do it justice. Or how they wore body armor in battle that they made from wood that looked a tremendously amount like Samurai armor from medieval Japan. They had some limited metal working technology and we’re able to mine and refine Tin and Copper. They have a really weird language that you will see if you read about those festivals I was talking about where they auction the things. They have ancient stones about the huge ships that carried strange men to their shores long before Columbus. They practiced a form of slavery where enemies taken prisoner in fighting become slaves. They quite brutally would severe one of the prisoners Achilles tendon. That way once he healed enough he would be able to walk with a limp but he couldn’t run away so he would not have to be watched 24/7. Like other tribes they kinda adopted some captives into the tribe and they could live just like the rest of the tribe albeit with a limp.
I could go on n on n on but I’ve already went WAY to long and in this day and age where the attention span is miniscule, AI is being used as a shortcut to everything often with laughable outcomes, and people seem allergic to truth and self education. I seriously doubt anyone is still reading at this point. Ya know what I will cash app the first person that replies to this or some other way show me you’ve read it and I’ll send you $20 straight to your cash app no question asked. So this isn’t the last sentence allowing someone to cheat and read just the last line. So I’m not joking the Pacific Coast people are just so fascinating and id highly recommend everyone to go read about them. I’ve read every single book that’s ever been written about them I think unless someone has came out with something new in the past 5 years but other than that I can’t find anymore. I wish I was you and I was the one just now hearing about them so I could go learn about them for the first time. That’s how interesting they are. Maybe I should write a book about them. I probably know more about them than 99.8% of people but idk I’m only 1/8th Osage and I’m not a very good writer.