The women are the chief, if not the only, manufacturers; the
men judge that if they performed that office, it would
exceedingly depreciate them. * * * In the winter season, the
women gather buffalo's hair, a sort of coarse, brown, curled
wool; and having spun it as fine as they can, and properly
doubled it, they put small beads of different colours upon
the yarn, as they work it, the figures they work in those
small webs, are generally uniform, but sometimes they
diversify them on both sides. The Choktah weave shot-pouches
which have raised work inside and outside. They likewise make
turkey feather blankets with the long feathers of the neck
and breast of that large fowl--they twist the inner end of
the feathers very fast into a strong double thread of hemp,
or the inner bark of the mulberry tree, of the size and
strength of coarse twine, as the fibres are sufficiently
fine, and they work it in manner of fine netting. As the
feathers are long and glittering, this sort of blankets is
not only very warm, but pleasing to the eye.[30]

The extent and importance of the art among the Gulf tribes are indicated
by a number of early observers. The Knight of Elvas speaks of
the use of blankets by the Indians, 83 degrees west longitude, and 32
degrees north latitude, or near the central portion of Georgia:

These are like shawls, some of them are made from the inner
barks of trees, and others from a grass resembling nettle,
which, by threading out, becomes like flax. The women use
them for covering, wearing one about the body from the waist
downward, and another over the shoulder, with the right arm
left free, after the manner of the gypsies: the men wear but
one, which they carry over their shoulders in the same way,
the loins being covered with a bragueiro of deer-skin, after
the fashion of the woolen breech-cloth that was once the
custom of Spain. The skins are well dressed, the color being
given to them that is wished, and in such perfection, that,
when of vermilion, they look like very fine red broadcloth,
and when black, the sort in use for shoes, they are of the
purest. The same hues are given to blankets.[31]

At Cutifachiqui similar fabrics were observed:

In the barbacoas were large quantities of clothing, shawls of
thread, made from the barks of trees and others of feathers,