Native American Dancer Roaches & Roach Spreaders
On his head the traditional Native American dancer wears a roach, a long decorated drop down his back. The longer porcupine hair is preferred because of it’s movement. The roach spreader can be made of bone, metal, rawhide or leather. It can be carved, beaded, painted, etc. or just left plain. The roach feathers are inserted in sockets on the spreader, with two roach feathers being the usual number.
In eastern tribes Roaches are made from deer and porcupine guard hair (sometimes even moose hair) and roach spreaders have been worn for special dress and dancing since the 17th century. Roaches are made to move fluidly by tying bundles of guard hair in a row, and fastened to that is an outer row of dyed deer hair so all the hairs stand straight up. A 1650 account from New Netherland (New York) noted that natives used for their roaches a “long deer’s hair which is dyed red”, which may have been obtained from Mohawk or other Native Americans. Another account from New Netherland between 1634 and 1635 describes rings or wreathes made of this red hair, which was “braided with the roots of a sort of green herb”. The roach hairs are splayed apart by a spreader. The roach and spreader are held in place with a pin stuck through a lock of hair that has been pulled through a hole in the roach, or by laces that are tied around the head and neck. A wide spreader flattens a roach while a narrower roach allows the hairs to stand straight up. A feather (traditionally only eagle) would be inserted into each socket on top of the spreader.