"Appearance of the warriors of the Nez Perce tribe in 1877 ?" Topic

Hello everyone,

Who knows where to find specific 28mm figures for the warriors of the Nez Perce tribe in 1877?

Because in all cases the appearance of the warriors of the Nez Perce tribe in 1877 were different from those of the Plain Indians of the same period.

Thank you

Great question. I don't know of any 28mm figure line that is really geared to Nez Perce. However, the two characteristics that I think would be most important to get the proper look are the pompadour and a high percentage of trade cloth shirts and blanket leggings.

The Crow had those similarities as well. Both the Nez Perce and the Crow had a lot of contact with whites by that time. The Crow are generally considered to be Plains Indians, but they had a lot of contact with the Nez Perce Plateau Indians.

Some of the Foundry plains Indians have pompadours, but I don't think they are packaged together.

The trade cloth shirts are going to be a real problem. Of course not all warriors wore them all the time by any stretch. I have done lots of Sioux and Cheyenne for 1876 using Foundry and Old Glory Indians. I have used green stuff or ProCreate to add trade cloth shirts to quite a few, as they were common to a certain degree. One could also do that for pompadours. Lots of work.

Generally leggings on Foundry and Old Glory Indians can be painted as buckskin or blanket cloth.

Tom

From link
The Nez Perce were tough fighters known for their use of bows backed with sinew and for the excellent Appaloosa horses they bred which had a reputation for speed. Nez Perce would appear very distinctive on the wargames table. Among their features were characteristic short Plateau-style war-shirts with perforated decoration. Nez Perce often dyed their buckskin a salmon color. Red was a favorite color for moccasins. Their breechclouts tended to be knee-length and of bucksin or blue stroud trade cloth with vertical beaded bands. Nez Perce warriors wore the stand up bonnet also used by the Blackfoot and the Cheyenne. Wolfskin headdresses with the ears standing up were also popular. Leggings of buckskin often had horizontal stripes on them. Face painting was not as common as among the Plains tribes and red was the most usual color to paint the face with. Common hairstyles included hair loose with a pompadour, two braids with a pompadour, and hair loose with a forelock hanging over the nose. Braids have white thongs twined into them or are wrapped with otter fur.
It sounds like a fair amount of distinctions can be accomplished by paint choices

A mixture for sure, some of the warriors passed for settlers at less than a 100 yards while others were distinctive enough to be distinguished from Salish at half a mile as happened when the Nez Perce arrived at Fort Owen.

Supposedly some of the white goods were dumped after the tribe arrived in the Bitterroot and the Salish refused to join them, sort of a back to the old ways thing. Friend of mine inherited a black felt hat covered in beads and porcupine quills that Looking Glass gave away as part of that.

There was a good book covering quite a bit of native wear on sale at the Big Hole Battlefield, you might check with them when they open in May.

In the twentieth century, Frontier Miniatures offered, at least their heads …
Thank you Nick for your article.

Here is a video with many older photos of a commemoration of the 1877 struggle.
link

And here is a photo from 1901?
In ceremonial dress:

Thank you DyeHard, the topic advance.