Clothing/Foot ware

Although the Spanish reported that the California Indians wore next to nothing, the Serranos did wear clothing to protect them in their mountain climate. Women wore deerskin dresses, with flaps in the front and back, worn with a belt or fringed skirts made of grass or mesquite bark. The women also wore (hukatswakam) laced with a buckskin thong tied around the leg on top of the boot just below the knee. A small rabbit skin might be worn as a cloak. Necklaces were made of yucca seeds or bones. Ceremonial jewelry was made of twine and feathers or hanging pendants of stone, as well as, shells. Men wore a deerskin shirt with sleeves. Both the front flap and the back flap were fringe, and paint strips ran around the front and back. Juniper bark was sometimes beater to a soft fiber for clothing and mattresses. Pakhal reeds were soaked in water and the bark removed and twisted into a soft, silky, strong yellow chord to use in nets and baby hammocks. Yucca was ideal for rope, strings and mats. Desert willow bark could be pounded into a fibrous material for nets, shirts, or breech clouts.