History Main / BraidsBeadsandBuckskins

* Superheroes like Danielle Moonstar from ''Comicbook/{{X-Men}}'' and Dawnstar of the {{Legion Of Super-Heroes}} have been drawn dressed in Braids, Beads and Buckskins. It's particularly ridiculous with Dawnstar, who lives in the 30th century and isn't even from Earth, but wears a fringed buckskin dress anyhow with the loose justification that her planet was colonized by Native Americans.
** Moonstar is arguably a subversion in that her particular tribe, the Cheyenne, actually did wear that style of clothes. Considering she grew up on a reservation her fashion choice is not that unusual.
** Forge is also a native american, albeit one who largely rejected his heritage and shaman training after a disaterous mission with the US Army and the revellation of his status as a mutant. His costume still bears some hollywood native american influence such as fringed boots (and sometimes on his vest) as well as a native headband and long hair.

* TruthInTelevision: Long hair is often considered masculine among Native American cultures, especially in the Southwest, where many Native men have hair that is shoulder-length or longer. However, they're still more likely to wear jeans and a t-shirt than fiction would have you believe.
* Occasionally non-Native Americans who take on a Native American idenity, dress this way to convince people they are.

* The U.S. government historically refuses to acknowledge the Lumbee or Croatan Indians as a federally recognized tribe for a variety of reasons; some Lumbee believe it's partly because they don't look like stereotypical "Indians".

* TruthInTelevision: Long hair is often considered masculine among Native American cultures, especially in the Southwest, where many Native men have hair that is shoulder-length or longer. However, they're still more likely to wear jeans and a tshirt than fiction would have you believe.

* Half-Native American and half-Chinese [[ButNotTooForeign Michelle Chang]] and her adoptive daughter Julia from {{Tekken}}.

* John Redcorn in ''KingOfTheHill'' has long, flowing hair, wears a (presumably) buckskin vest, and wears several nondescript Native American accessories.
** Of course, he ''is'' consciously milking his heritage to get chicks.
*** Would that make it [[JustifiedTrope justified?]]

* The Patch tribe in ''ShamanKing'', anyone?
** Possibly [[JustifiedTrope justified]] in that they seem to play to the trope to disguise their status as the keepers of the Great Spirit. See: the Authentic Patch Hand-Crafted [insert noun here].

->"Chicks dig you when you're the last of something."

* Seen in a flashback in the ''{{Twilight}}'' movie. The La Push natives wear bone jewlery and skirts while hunting in the 1930's. In the sequel, Jacob gets his long hair cropped, as he does in the book.

While aspects of these outfits are TruthInTelevision for some tribes, America is a very large place, with a great deal of variation between tribal cultures. Consequently, many tribes' traditional outfits look nothing like the stereotype.

* Superheroes like Danielle Moonstar from ''Comicbook/{{X-Men}}'' and Dawnstar of the LegionOfSuperHeroes have been drawn dressed in Braids, Beads and Buckskins. It's particularly ridiculous with Dawnstar, who lives in the 30th century and isn't even from Earth, but wears a fringed buckskin dress anyhow with the loose justification that her planet was colonized by Native Americans.

* The other familiar image is of an Eastern warrior with roached hair or shaved head with a scalplock.

* In ''OneFlewOverTheCuckoosNest'', Chief Bromden had long, free-flowing hair. ''{{Fargo}}'' and ''Film/{{Insomnia}}'' (the Hollywood remake) had respectively a mechanic and a police constable with long, braided hair.

** FSherman Alexie is a Native American writer, poet, and comedian of Spokane/Coeur d'Alene heritage, who grew up on the Spokane Reservation. Much of his work plays with both the reality and stereotypes of Native Americans and reservation life and culture.

* John Redcorn in ''KingOfTheHill'' has long hair, wears a (presumably) buckskin vest, and wears several nondescript Native American accessories.

* Apache Chief of the SuperFriends goes out of his way to match all Native American stereotypes, including the way he talks.

* Justified by Little Sure Shot of {{Comicbook/SgtRock}}'s Easy Company. He does have feathers on the back of his helmet, but they're commented on, unlike most examples. Sure Shot's a full-blooded Cherokee ColdSniper who needs to be identifiable from a relative distance, hence the feathers.

* Justified by Little Sure Shot of SergeantRock's Easy Company. He does have feathers on the back of his helmet, but they're commented on, unlike most examples. Sure Shot's a full-blooded Cherokee ColdSniper who needs to be identifiable from a relative distance, hence the feathers.

The HollywoodDressCode for Native Americans in cinema portrayed in the pre-modern age. Typical traits of the uniform include:

When modern-day Native Americans are depicted in visual media, they will often have distinct hair and clothing styles, apparently used as a kind of visual shorthand. Common elements include:
* Long hair on both sexes, often braided.
* Hats of some description.
* Clothing styles associated with the American West, but not exclusive to Natives, like leather vests, bolo ties, belts with large buckles, plaid shirts and cowboy boots.
* For women: buckskin dresses with extensive fringes. Also, tightfitting tops with similar fringes on them combined with tight denim shorts are often seen on the sexier younger women.
* Feathers often woven into the hair, for either sex.

Also, for no good reason, they may communicate mostly by grunting, "Ugh!"

Some of this is undoubtedly TruthInTelevision, in that some Native Americans ''do'' dress like this, but since they are depicted like this most of the time, it becomes a form of HollywoodDressCode.

** In the ''Yukon''?? Um, that ''IS'' somewhere near Alaska isn't it? First Nations in the Great White North tend to wear a lot more then a loincloth. Parka anyone?
*** IIRC, when Yukon Jack first appeared, Saquatch commented that his origin didn't make a whole lot of sense.
*** He was also part of the run that included the 100-year-old FlyingBrick. The RuleOfFunny was supposed to be in effect, I think.
*** Yukon Jack's 'tribe' was some sort of set-up, but never explained due to series cancellation. He probably wasn't vulnerable to cold. Oh, and as originally conceived, Shaman didn't fit the dress code ('cept the long hair); the rest came later, [[CharacterDerailment with a few other changes]].
* Totally averted in {{Scalped}}.

* How are the Martians in ''{{Futurama}}'', obvious Expys, not yet mentioned?

* Eyeglasses manufactured by the U.S. Government, according to Sherman Alexie (American poet, author and filmmaker of native descent).

* Subverted ''and'' played straight in the Christopher Moore book ''Coyote Blue''. The protagonist, Sam Hunter (formerly Samson-Hunts-Alone) is an extremely erudite, urbane city-dwelling Native American who had to leave the reservation after some unpleasantness involving a local BIA officer. His family is a fairly traditional Native family, who still follow the traditions of the Crow people, but have followed modern trends as well, whereas his uncle, Pokey-Medicine-Wing, is a full-blown buckskins-and-beads Medicine Man with a constant, albeit minor, grudge against the white man, a fact that he peppers his stories with. Coyote himself makes a few appearances in buckskins and beads, but for all his activity, seems to do so out of a combination of irony and the fact that he's the Trickster God and happens to enjoy looking a little off.

* The [[ValuesDissonance Red Skins]] (Native...somethings, we can go with Americans) from ''PeterPan'' wear feathers in their hair, say "How," and well...any racist stereotype of Native Americans you can think of. In the Disney film version, they even have a song called "What makes the Red man red?" that [[OldShame that Disney would rather not discuss.]]

* Despite being aliens, the [[{{Film/Avatar}} Na'vi]] wear plenty of this sort of clothing.