Hairdressing: Of hairdressing, Lechford reported: “They cut their haire of divers formes, according to their Nation or people so that you may know a people by their cut....”[234] There was also variation in hairstyle within the social group. An unmarried girl could be distinguished from a married women by her hair style.[235] At marriage, the women’s hair was cut off, and until her hair grew back she wore a covering on her head.[236] A young man who was not yet a warrior could be identified by his short haircut.[237] Further variation noted among the adults of the same tribe may mean that various kin groups used distinctive styles of hairdressing.[238] Long hair was highly prized, and wearing the hair in a tight “pony tail” was said to make it grow faster.[239] Hairdressing was a daily activity which involved oiling and, according to one writer, dyeing.[240]
Probable Wampanoag hairstyles include the following: hair cut short into bangs in the front, the remainder falling free to the shoulders; hair braided into four braids with part of this knotted behind, and with feathers and other sorts of ornaments stuck into the knot; hair shaved from the front and sides of the head, the remainder left long and made into a knot with feathers in it.[241]
Various forms of ornament, frequently feathers, were an integral part of certain hairstyles. Turkey and eagle feathers are mentioned specifically for this purpose.[242] Single feathers might be stuck into a knotted portion or otherwise intertwined with the hair.[243] Feathers were sometimes joined fan-shape and put into the hair. Fox tails and other fur were also used for hair ornament. Strips of deer hides, dyed red, were tied on, in the manner of a cock’s comb.[244] Other ornaments included ribbons of European manufacture and ornamental combs carved from antler.[245]
Specific information on female styles of hairdress is slight. Champlain describes one style which was a combination of free-falling hair in back and various braids for the rest.[246] Beyond this, there are no descriptions that relate to the Wampanoags.
Sources are contradictory in the subject of facial hair. Some writers report that Indians in this region generally despised and plucked out what little facial hair they had.[247] Another writer of the same period relates that these Indians were at pains to preserve their own thin beards and to add to them by fastening on animal hair.[248]
EXPLOITATIVE ACTIVITIES
Lumbering and Forest Products: Prior to contact with Europeans the Wampanoags used stone tools for lumbering. Large trees felled with these primitive implements were used for the manufacture of dugout canoes.[249] Birch bark, another product of the forest, provided the material for house coverings and containers of various sorts as well as material for another type of canoe. As the range of the canoe birch (B. papyrifera) had its southern limit at Cape Anne on the immediate coast, the use of birch bark by the Wampanoags was probably not so extensive as that of some of their neighbors.[250] Nevertheless, by trade and by seeking out individuals of the species that grew beyond their range, birch bark was obtained and used as an alternative material for the items mentioned above.
Carved wooden bowls and spoons are said to have been a craft specialty of the Wampanoags. Burls were selected for carving material in order to avoid the problem of splitting along the grain when an item was subjected to repeated wetting and drying. Small objects such as fish hooks were sometimes made of wood, and there were other more obvious uses such as poles for house frames, arrowshafts and handles for tools. Bast fiber (inner bark) was used for various woven items. A red dye was made from pine bark.[251] Turpentine and pitch were also products of the pines.[252]
Mining and Quarrying: Both soapstones for bowls and pipes and native copper for ornaments were obtained aboriginally by New England Indian groups. So far as is known, however, the Wampanoags did none of the extraction of these materials themselves. They obtained either the materials or the finished products through trade.[253]
Pigments were probably obtained at various local outcroppings. Limonite furnished yellow; hematite served for some of the reds. The stone used for tools and weapons—quartz and slate—was also locally occurring material.[254] Clay for potting was available in the Plymouth area.[255]