Matchcoats: Cultural Conservatism and Change in One Aspect of Native American Clothing

Abstract

The English term matchcoat derives from an Algonquian root word relating to clothing or dress in general. During the seventeenth century matchcoat came to refer to European-made units of woolen cloth, generally about two meters (a ''fathom'') long, that were traded to natives who wore them as loosely wrapped cloaks. Some English-speaking scholars have erroneously emphasized the word match, inferring that ''matchcoats'' were garments that were pieced together from small units, or matched in a way that resembled techniques used by natives to make cloaks from pelts. The common ''blanket'' worn by the stereotypical ''Indian'' of that period also was called a matchcoat. Native-made garments, often described in the early literature, were rapidly replaced by these pieces of trade cloth. The term matchcoat was being applied to ''made up'' or off-the-rack tailored sleeved coats by the s. The use of increasingly elaborate trade-cloth coats reveals progressive adoption of European garments among all of the native peoples of the Northeast.

Threads: Collecting Cloth in the North American French Colonies

“…Ethnographic material is physically and intellectually separated from archaeological material. Archaeologists have tended to use excavated material to interpret the colonial dress of Native peoples (e.g., Loren 2001;Mason 2003;Miller and Hamell 1986;Turgeon 2004), while ethnographic examples are often used by art historians and ethnohistorians (e.g., Berlo and Phillips 1998;Becker 2005;Phillips 1998;Ulrich 2001). And when viewed separately, each data set provides partial, even conflicting views of Native experiences of cloth and religious conversion.…”

The Fabric of Empire in a Native World: An Analysis of Trade Cloth Recovered from Eighteenth-Century Otstonwakin

“…Beyond recording Madame Montour's presence in Lancaster, Witham Marshe's account provides a semi-opaque though intriguing window through which to view the significant role cloth played in colonial Pennsylvania. He remarked that Native Americans had their faces painted in a diverse range of colors and were dressed in old and ragged matchcoats, a garment made of European wool worn as a loosely wrapped cloak (Becker 2005). Marshe's journal also listed the European trade goods presented to Native American leaders in Lancaster, including textile items such as strouds, shirts, and duffel blankets in addition to guns and gunpowder.…”