Contriving footwear Part 2

Both genders wore leggings, usually made of fur lined thick leather. If you were a female you wore a thick leather skirt on top. You would then slip into your high moccasins. High moccasins were modified versions of the style of moccasins worn by any particular tribe.

All tribes had some form of winter moccasins that were adaptations of their summer ones. Tall sides were added, some extended the fold over collar to become sides and some just fashioned a type of spat. All of these were insulated inside and on the sole.

Soles were also modified, much like a Duck shoe, a thicker and occasionally rawhide sole would be used. These soles were dipped in goose grease, tallow, beeswax or bear fat to provide waterproofing. While the inner sole was still warm insulating materials would be added. Most tribes used either duck or goose down, felted animal hair, and animal fur. Some tribes used down from plants like Milkweed and Cattails. Some tribes would weave grasses and place these inner soles between the layers of insulation. (Learn other uses for common plants from the “Coast to Coast Survival Plants” ebook

Once completed the high moccasin’s seams were coated with a waterproofing such as tallow, beeswax or bear grease. The moccasin was placed near the fire to allow the material to seep deeply into the seam. There is a trick using heat on leather. Many times I have seen winter moccasins passed on to another because they were placed too close to a hot fire which caused the leather to shrink.

Contriving footwear Part 1

When thinking about what things will be in short supply in a post-TEOTWAWKI world, many people forget about footwear. However, like it or not, shoes, boots, sneakers and sandals all come to their inevitable end. Of course, most people have never actually worn a shoe long enough to wear a hole in the bottom or to have the sole separate from the upper portion of the shoe. They simply have no idea just how fragile is that bit of gear that we put on every day that protects our tender feet.

So what will you do when the time comes that your shoes wear out or even worse your kids outgrow their shoes? You’ll get by. You’ll get inventive and devise ways to protect your feet. In fact, some of those ways may seem a bit outlandish in America, but in some parts of the world today people are using things like 2-liter soda bottles, tires and cardboard as shoes.

Now, before there was ever a cobbler to hang out his “open for business” sign, people were pretty clever about contriving footwear. In our own country, the Native Americans developed some very effective footwear with modifications to increase their effectiveness in all kinds of weather and use.

While the styles of Native American footwear varied somewhat from tribe to tribe, they were basically the same: made out of leather tanned from animal hides and cut to fit the individual. These were usually called “moccasins”. Some moccasins were only ankle high, while others were much higher; up to the calf and even the knee.