For special occasions, men generally wore a white buckskin shirt with long sleeves and a short tail, breechclout, and leggings of deerskin. Over the shirt, they also wore a red wool cape. During cooler weather, Creek men frequently wore overshirts of deerskin or animal furs. Creek garments of European manufacture included calico shirts and trousers, and wool or cotton coats. Most commonly, men donned a turban around their heads. On some occasions, they painted their faces and adorned their bodies with elaborate tattooing.
Creek deerskin moccasins were generally sewn with sinew and decorated with bright dyes, quillwork, silverwork, and beads. Both sexes often tied their moccasins with long straps wrapped above the ankles and below the knees.
Women's regalia included a white deerskin tunic with short sleeves that extended to just below the hips, a knee-length skirt of dressed deerskin, and sometimes a long dress over the skirt. During warm weather, a woman might wear only the skirt which extended to mid-calf, and perhaps leggings. They usually went barefooted.
Creek warriors painted themselves with blue, black, and white paints before going to war, and wore special, highly ornamented regalia. Creek men, both in times of peace and of conflict, occasionally had their nostrils pierced.
Trade Goods
Beginning as early as the seventeenth century, Creek males often wore shirts, coats, trousers, and hats in the Euro-American style purchased through the slave trade. By the mid-eighteenth century, these trade items had virtually supplanted those of Indian manufacture.
Although Creek women initially rejected European-made clothing, by the early nineteenth century, they too adopted certain aspects of Euro-American dress. They favored dresses, shawls, and headscarves of trade material. Creek silverwork flourished into the early nineteenth century, when silversmiths crafted brooches, earrings, nose jewels, gorgets, and bracelets for trade.
With respect to Native religious items, Creek Indians traditionally manufactured their medicine bundles, fans, and masks from available native materials, such as wood, grasses, and skins. Creek women excelled in the art of producing pottery and basketry for everyday and ceremonial use.