I’ve been interested in the Saura woman’s clothing also. I saw the re-creation ten years ago when I first moved to the East. I remember feeling disquieted about the display. This was long before I had any idea I would ever know any details about the “Indians in our family,” and certainly had no idea that they derived from these parts.
It seemed a bit macabre at the time that they had “remade” this person from her bones. I don’t know if it wasn’t that well done, or if it was just the first time I’d seen it. Or were they also displaying her bones alongside? Maybe that’s what seemed disrespectful. I can’t remember. Maybe it was just my imagination conjuring up the bones.
Last spring I went with my mom to that museum and was trying to find that display again. I was told that it was on loan, but the bronze statue on the steps of the museum was of her. Funny how radically our perceptions can change. When I saw her this time, I thought she looked lovely and was very interested in her clothes — haute couture.
Later that summer I talked to an archeologist at Town Creek and it was from her that I learned that this was the Saura woman, she was Siouan, and the re-creation was probably the closest approximation of what women in this region would have worn in the winter. (I personally don’t believe we went around half nekkid all winter with a feather cape on top, sorry. Anybody I’m related to would have ached all winter and worn LAYERS.)