Spears, shields, warbonnets (short, Plains type), armour of hide and clubs were used in battle. Rabbitsticks of wood and slingshots were also used.
Beads and ornaments were of shell, bone, wood, feathers, seeds, claws and hooves, bear ears, turquoise, red stone, cannel coal (jet), and porcupine quills. Paint from mineral and vegetable sources was used for decorating objects or the body, which was painted primarily to prevent sunburn.
The hair was worn full length by both men and women, but beard and eyebrows were plucked completely with fingers or tweezers of willowwood. During periods of mourning, hair was cropped with a stone knife, sometimes to about the level of the chin by women. Hair was worn loose, tied in a bunch or with headband, in braids and decorated with pendants, feathers, flowers, etc.
Ear lobes of children were pierced with a snakeweed stem, and nose straightening was practiced on babies if nose was too broad. There was no cradle deformation of the head known among the Mescaleros.
Tattooing of the face and arms by these people was quite an ancient practice, and was performed with cactus spines and black mineral pigment only, not charcoal as other tribes might use.
Clothing consisted of fur caps, robes, shawls, ponchos, and capes of animal skin with the hair either on or off the hide, and woven vegetable fibers. Highly painted and fringed buckskin-sleeved shirts were worn by the men. The women wore buckskin gowns or dresses, painted and fringed. Buckskin belts held up a skin wrapped around the waist to serve as a kilt for the men, or skirts of buckskin for the women. Hard-soled moccasins were worn by both sexes, while only the men wore a hip-length buckskin leggin. Hide overshoes were used in winter.
The winter bed was usually composed of a grass and hide mattress with hide coverings, whereas the summer bed was a willow rack or mat with a rawhide twining bedstead supported by four forked posts covered with skins (Plains type).
Burdens were transported with the aid of a tump line back pack or other slings, baskets, gourds, pottery, rawhide or leather bags or containers and horse travois. Baskets (water-proofed with pitch), mats, cradles, cordage of vegetable and animal materials, including hair and pottery, were manufactured by both men and women.
A variety of games were played by all, including foot racing, shinny, hoop and pole, etc. Gambling by adults was done with a hand game of guessing with bones, moccasin game, drawing straws, dice, and heads or tails with flat stones (wet or dry). The children played games of war, wrestled, and had toys of guns, dolls, stones, etc.
Tobacco was gathered and smoked in an elbow pipe. Both tobacco and pipe were kept in a buckskin bag which was usually highly decorated.