Traditional Dress

During the Green Corn Ceremony, Seminole men, women and children wear their finest patchwork clothing, often newly created. Women’s (and girls’) traditional dress consists of a full, floor-length skirt and matching cape. Both are composed of contrasting colors of cloth and rickrack, and both include horizontal bands of patchwork. During Stomp Dances, women’s turtle-shell leg rattles provide rhythmic accompaniment to the men’s singing.

Yoreme Pajko’ora Dance manikin. Mayo-Yoreme pajko’ora dancers wear a white blanket, or manta, wrapped around their waist and legs, and a long-sleeved white shirt. The white clothing represents purity. Pajko’ora dancers also wear long strings of pebble-fi lled, Giant Silk Moth cocoons wrapped around their legs. The sound made by the leg rattles resembles that of a rattlesnake – associated with rain and fertility. Photographs by Ernest Amoroso