Dine' males - Navajo Male Adornment

Dine' males - Navajo Male Adornment
Historical photography circa 1900s
Photo courtesy Internet

As I have mentioned in previous posts, I have done research on the perpetuation of Navajo male Indigenous adornment and have found that this practice is being lost in this era.

I adore this photograph for several reasons, but above all I like that it depicts three generation of Navajo males. We can see that there is an elder man, and a middle-aged man and also a young boy presented in their finest southwestern Navajo male adornment.

At this era Navajo were utilizing velveteen materials in their garments and usually it was their shirts that were fashioned with the quality velveteen. Here we see that they are wearing such shirts, including pants that are made of cotton material. Historically the Navajo would reuse materials they sourced from perhaps flour bags, or other items used in a utilitarian fashion.

They are all adorned with head adornments, but it is the elder man who wears the traditional Navajo male head adornment via his war bonnet hat. Usually they were made from buckskin and adorned with turkey feathers.

As we can see their silver work adornments are exquisite.