Dressing Up

like “Redskins” and “Indians,” a scholar recalls a vogue among Americans during the Revolutionary War for Native American-style garb as, aka The Junto, public historian Marta Olmos posted that one proponent of such costumery was…George Washington. Observing in a letter that the fringed, tunic-style Indian hunting shirt was “a dress justly supposed to carry no small terror in the enemy,” the general told Virginia Colonel Daniel Morgan to “dress a Company or two of true Woods Men in the right Indian Style and let them make the Attack accompanied with screaming and yelling as the Indians do,” reports Olmos, who is an interpreter at Minute Man National Historical Park in Concord, Massachusetts. Some fighters accessorized with moccasins and warpaint. In time, Congress imposed a conventional, European-influenced uniform of blue coat, white breeches, and tricorn hat, but a.er the 1776 British surrender of Boston, Olmos writes, “Congress released a commemorative medal with the image of a rifleman wearing a hunting shirt and holding a tomahawk.”