In all the pictures of Native Americans I’ve seen, I can’t remember one sporting a mustache and/or beard.
Hollywood has perpetuated this in their movies. I can’t imagine the average Native American man got up in the morning and shaved his face clean before starting his day, but I can’t discount it since I’m not one.
So, what’s the Straight Dope?
Most native americans have light facial hair. That makes shaving and plucking a lot easier. I grew up in Alaska, and lots of native guys I knew had a scraggly thin beard and mustache, but none of them could grow a thick full beard.
This may be a myth as well, but I recall reading that native american’s did have some facial hair, but that it was not as thick as ours and that it was a cultural practice to actually pluck out what little they had with shellfish fragments. But this was from info I recall from the late sixties when they still had white guys like Chuck Conners playing Geronimo.
As has been said, male Native Americans often have some facial hair, but it is normally not nearly as dense as in male Caucasians or Africans. Often it amounts to a thin moustache and maybe a few strands on the chin. In some groups, it is the tradition to pluck it out; in others, many men may wear a moustache.
Before the days of the tweezer, did they pull or pluck the hair out as Si Amigo suggested with shellfish fragments?
Actually, there are two questions that come up here now that the first one was answered:
Was it the Native American culture to pluck the hairs out and keep the face clean, was it a matter of personal choice for each male, or did each nation (Sioux, Hopi, Seminole, etc) have their own rules for this?
How DID one pluck hair before the tweezer? I can’t imagine plucking my mustache hair or beard hair with tweezers, yet alone something not designed to do it. (For an experiment, I used tweezers today and plucked a few hairs out of my face. NOT a pleasant way to shave). :eek:
Keep in mind that you’re soft and weak. 
I’m assuming it hurts for women who pluck, but, well, they get used to it.
All of the above is true to a degree. Our beards are not very thick at all, but perhaps more uniform in some cases than one may be led to believe. I shave about once a week. I have a goatee but it was a several year project to make it look passable. Many Native men have whiskers.
Here is a picture of Swimmer, a Cherokee medicine carrier of the old days, taken in 1888. I have always heard he was full blood, but I don’t know it for a fact. File:Swimmer the Cherokee cultural preservationist.png - Wikipedia
Here is Leonard Peltier, a Sioux Win huge loot with Conan from $0.20 starting bet
BTW, support of Leonard’s cause and legal fees would be much appreciated.
CateAyo, thank you for the post and the links!
Do you know of any tribe/nation rules or traditions pertaining to facial hair growth, or was it a matter of personal preference for each man?
I’m Native American, and your description is pretty accurate as to my ability to grow facial hair. It comes in thickest at the bottom of my chin and just beneath my lower lip, but by thickest, I mean it’ll be a little longer than stubble if I go more than a week without shaving. Lately, I’ve been trying to see how long it will actually grow. I’ve gone six months without shaving. I have growth on the knob of my chin that extends slightly beneath my jaw but nowhere else. A very small moustache that’s only slightly longer than the average male would keep a trimmed goatee. A small amount of hair just beneath my lower lip that is now 3/4 of an inch long and grows from a very narrow area that’s basically a thin horizontal slit beneath the lip - there’s no growth between that area and my chin. I cannot grow hair anywhere else on my face.
The hair on my arms and legs is noticeably thinner than other men’s.
My experience is true to most male members of my family on my father’s (Native) side.
I had a boyfriend who was full-blooded Native American; Navajo on his dad’s side; Pueblo tribe on his mom’s side. He had very sparce facial hair, practically no hair on his arms, but hairy legs.
It’s pretty much the same with Asians, and Native Americans presumably crossed over from Asia…seems like there would be a pretty simple genetic explanation…
Not all Caucasians have thick beards either, but it seems every Middle-easterner does…
Fairly burly mustaches are common in Mexico. I’m not sure whether that indicates mixing with Europeans or if people further South evolved the ability or came from a line with more facial hair.
In Mexicacn mestizos or whites, not on “indian faces”. The Pancho Villa moustache pretty much requires a grandfather from Europe to be able to grow.
Is there an element of social status involved? Did the Mexican custom of growing moustaches come from a desire to prove European ancestry?
No idea, it’s not like you need it to show the ancestry; it comes from a time when men in the Western world would usually have beards, moustaches, handlebars… and hasn’t disappeared as much as it has elsewhere. The moustache’s nickname is a clue about why its popular: it’s sort of a patriotic moustache, for some of its wearera. And there’s always the possibility of a full-blooded indian getting the “facial hair” gene, but it might lead to arguments about who the actual father really was, if the actual Dad doesn’t have it.
Many West Coast Natives had substantial facial hair, up to long, full beards, based on photos from the 1800’s / early 1900’s.
I’ve never heard of specific tribal norms, one way or the other. They may very well exist, but no one I associate with seems to be aware of prohibitions. Native America is, and was, however, very diverse.
I once jokingly asked a Navajo acquaintance of mine why he had facial hair. He told me it “comes from eating the white man’s food.” 
General Ely Parker (a Seneca and Union General who was at Lee’s Surrender)
While I’ve seen many Asians with beards and moustaches, it’s not nearly as common and they’re usually not as thick as those of people with European and African ancestry. I wonder if there was an adaptation advantage to them not growing thick facial hair. (It seems a no-brainer that people whose ancestors lived in cold climates for umpteen thousand years probably develop thicker facial hair, but it doesn’t seem to be evidenced by the Inuits or Siberians.)
