MATERIAL CI l.l I RE 53 



both sexes usually wore it loose on the shoulders and 

 hack. The ('row men sometimes cropped the forelock 

 and trained it to stand erect; the Blackfoot, Assini- 

 boin, Yankton-Dakota, Hidatsa, Mandan, Arikara, 



and Kiowa trained a forelock to hang down over the 

 nose. Early writers report a general practice of arti- 

 ficially lengthening men's hair by gumming on extra 

 strands until it sometimes dragged on the ground. 



The hah* of women throughout the Plains was usually 

 worn in the two-braid fashion with the median part 

 from the forehead to the neck. Old women frequently 

 allowed the hair to hang down at the sides or confined 

 it by a simple headband. 



Again, we find exceptions in that the Oto, Osage, 

 Pawnee, and Omaha closely cropped the sides of the 

 head, leaving a ridge or tuft across the crown and down 

 behind. It is almost certain that the Ponca once 

 followed the same style and there is a tradition among 

 the Oglala division of the Teton-Dakota that they also 

 shaved the sides of the head. (See also History of the 

 Expedition of Lewis and Clark, Reprinted, New York, 

 1902, Vol. 1, p. 135.) We may say then that the love 

 of long heavy tresses was a typical trait of the Plains. 



By the public every Indian is expected to have his 

 hair thickly decked with feathers. The striking- 

 feather bonnets with long tails usually seen in pictures 

 were exceptional and formerly permitted only to a few 

 distinguished men. They are most characteristic of 

 the Dakota. Even a common eagle feather in the hair 

 of a Dakota had some military significance according 



