Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2014
November 5, 1853. Ida Pfeiffer, an Austrian traveler, is on her way to a village north of Crescent City in California, and the main purpose of her visit to this region is, as she claims, to see Indians. What she finds instead are ethnically hybrid Native Americans:
Nichts erschien mir komischer als die sonderbaren Anzüge, denn auch hier lasen sie alle von den Weißen weggeworfenen Kleidungsstücke auf. So sah ich einen Indianer, welcher ein Beinkleid, eine sehr schadhafte Mantille und einen zerknitterten Frauenhut trug. Ein anderer hatte weiter nichts als einen Frack an, den er nach eigenem Geschmacke auf der Rückseite ganz mit Glasperlen benäht hatte. Ein dritter trug wieder nur eine Weste, dazu einen Männerhut, in welchen er oben ein Loch geschnitten und viele Vogelfedern aufgesteckt hatte. Ebenso geschmackvoll waren die Weiber gekleidet.
[Nothing seemed more comical to me than their strange outfits, for here too they collected all the garments discarded by the whites. I saw an Indian wearing a pair of breeches, a very ragged mantilla, and a crumpled lady's hat. Another one wore nothing but a frock coat, the back of which he had adorned with glass beads according to his own taste. A third one wore only a waistcoat and a man's hat to go with it. On its top he had cut a hole and stuck many feathers into it. The women were dressed in equally good taste.]
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