While we know our northern friends may not feel it, in the South, Spring is
here. So we thought we'd share a few of our gardening sites appropriate
for this time of the year. Along with gardening, there's grilling, and getting
ready to diet so that you can fit back into that bathing suit this summer!
Dyes and Pigments. Most of the Indian tribes of North
America made permanent dyes from organic materials. The demand for these dyes
arose when basketry, quill work, and other textile industries had reached a
considerable degree of advancement, and there was need of diversity of color in
ornamentation, as well as permanency of color, which pigments alone could not
supply.
Dyes. The California tribes and many others who made baskets were
usually satisfied with natural colors. These are the red and black of bark, the
white of grass stems, the pale yellow of peeled rods or rushes, and the brown of
root bark. A few dyes were known, however, notably a black or dark gray on
splints which had been buried in mud. The Hupa obtained bright yellow from
lichens, another color from the roots of the Oregon grape, and a brownish red
from alder bark. Most of the tribes of the S. W. use only black for designs on
baskets, and, rarely, red dyes. The Hopi, how ever, have a larger number of
native dyes for basketry splints than any other tribe, and the Apache, Walapai,
and Havasupai have a number of vegetal dyes that are not used in basketry. The
Abnaki and other tribes made fugitive stains from pokeberries and fruits of the
blueberry and elder. Lichens, golden-seal, bloodroot, and the bark of the
butternut and other trees were also used by trip northern and eastern tribes,
and in southern regions the prickly pear. The Virginia Indians, according to
Hariot, used sumach, a kind of seed, a small root, and the bark of a tree to dye
their hair, as well as to color their faces red and to dye mantles of deerskin
and the rushes for baskets and mats. The tribes of the N. W. coast employed a
number of harmonious vegetal colors in their baskets. Most of the native dyes of
the Indians were superseded by others introduced, especially in late years by
aniline colors.
Quillwork, formerly widespread, was generally superseded by beadwork, and the
native dyes employed in the art have fallen almost into disuse. Some of the N.
W. coast tribes, the Eskimo, and the northern Athapascans alone practise quill
working in its purity, but its former range was extensive.
Native vegetal blanket dyes are found in use only among the Chilkat of Alaska,
who still retain them in weaving their ceremonial shawls. The Nez Percé
and the Navaho formerly used permanent vegetal dyes of pleasing colors for wool.
With the latter these dyes have given way so recently to aniline colors that the
de tails of their manufacture have not be come lost. The use of dyes required a
knowledge of mordants; for this purpose urine was commonly employed by the
Navaho, Hopi, and Zuni, besides an impure native alum, and an iron salt mixed
with organic acids to produce black. It has been assumed that, since the
weaver's art seems to be accultural with the Navaho, the mordant dyes may have
been derived from the Pueblos, who, in turn, may have received them from the
Spaniards. Matthews, however, controverts the opinion that the Navaho learned
the art of weaving from the Pueblos; and indeed there is no reason why the
Indians should not have become acquainted with various mordants through the
practise of the culinary art or other domestic arts in which tire is employed.
Pigments. The inorganic colors used by the Indians were mostly derived
from iron-bearing minerals, such as ochers and other ores, and stained earths.
These furnished various tints, as brown, red. green, blue, yellow, orange, and
purple. The search for good colors was assiduously pursued; quarries were opened
and a commerce in their products was carried on. White was derived from kaolin,
limestone, and gypsum; black from graphite, powdered coal, charcoal, or soot;
green and blue from copper ores, phosphate of iron, etc. Pigments were used for
facial decoration, red being most prized, for which reason the vermilion of the
trader was eagerly adopted, but the intent of face painting was generally
totemic or religious and not merely ornamental. Pigments were rubbed into soft
tanned skins, giving the effect of dye, and were mixed with various media for
painting the wood and leather of boxes, arrows, spears, shields, tipis, robes,
parfleche cases, etc. Among the Southwestern tribes in particular pigments were
mixed with sand for dry-paintings (q. v. ), while pigments of iron earths or
kaolin were employed for decorating pottery. In connection with the preparation
and use of pigments are grinding slabs and mullers, mortars and pestles, brushes
and paint sticks, and a great variety of pouches and pots for carrying or for
preserving them. The media for applying the pigments varied with the objects to
be deco rated and with tribal or personal usage. In general, face paint was
mixed with grease or saliva, while the medium for wood or skin was grease or
glue. The N. W. coast Indians put grease on their faces before applying the
paint. Among some of the Pueblos, at least, an emulsion of fat seeds w r as made
with the pigment, and this was applied by spurting from the mouth. See
Adornment, Art, Dry-painting, Mines and Quarries, Ornament, Painting.
Consult Dorsey in Field Columb. Mus. Publ., Anthrop. ser. ; Fewkes in
17th Rep. B. A. E., 1898; Goddard, Life and Culture of the Hupa, 1903;
Holmes in Am. Anthrop., v, no. 3, 1903; Hough (1) in Am. Anthrop., xi,
May, 1898; (2) in Rep. Nat. Mus., 1900 and 1901; Kroeber in Bull.
Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., xviii, pt, 1, 1902; Mason, Aboriginal American
Basketry, 1902; Matthews in 3d Rep. B. A. E., 1884; Pepper, Native
Navajo Dyes, in Papoose, Feb., 1902; Stephen in Internat. Folk-lore
Cong., i, 1898; Wissler in Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., xviii, pt. 3, 1904.
(W. H.)
This site
includes some historical materials that may imply negative stereotypes
reflecting the culture or language of a particular period or place. These
items are presented as part of the historical record and should not be
interpreted to mean that the WebMasters in any way endorse the stereotypes
implied .
Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico, Frederick Webb Hodge, 1906
