Chippewa Red Dyes: Seven Formulae from Dogwood, Puccoon, Bloodroot, Hemlock and Red Cedar Bark (Densmore, 1928)

"Unless otherwise stated, the portion of the tree used in dye was the inner bark." Grindstone dust, the usual thing "to set the color", was silt with iron in it.

Boil white birch, red-osier dogwood (outer and inner bark) and oak bark in hot water (amounts not given). Burn about an armful of cedar-bark scraps: about 2 cups of ash, right for about 2 gallons (7.6 L) of dye. Sift the ash through cheesecloth, add it after the dye has boiled a while, let it boil up again, then put in the yarn. She records the rule: do not let a man or any outsider look into the dye.

Nine inches (23 cm) of dried puccoon root, or as much pulverised, 1 quart (0.95 L) hot water and 1 teaspoon of ochre. Let it boil up a little, put in the material after it has stood a while in hot water, boil half an hour to an hour with the kettle covered, then take it off the fire and leave it in the dye several hours. Not bright enough: dye again the same way. She gives it for porcupine quills, "substantially the same" for other materials.

Scarlet (3): 2 handfuls bloodroot root, 1 handful each of wild plum, red-osier dogwood and alder inner bark, 1 quart hot water; boil all before the material goes in. Mrs. Razer dyed quills a brilliant scarlet with it. Dark red (4): 1 handful bloodroot root, 1 handful wild plum, 1 quart hot water.

(5) Hemlock bark with a little grindstone dust in hot water. (6) A decoction of the dark red inner bark of red cedar; Chippewa women in Ontario boiled the cedar strips for their mats in it.

Red-osier dogwood and alder bark in equal parts, boiled in hot water. Mrs. Razer dyed white blanket a pretty light red with it; left out in the weather for several weeks it changed only slightly. Rinse and dry (ours).

From Frances Densmore, *Uses of Plants by the Chippewa Indians*, **44th Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology** (1928), pp. 370-372 (checked on the archive.org scan usesofplantsbych00dens). Mrs. Razer made formulae 3 and 7 for her. Bark amounts in formulae 1 and 5-7 are not given; using yarn throughout, metric figures and rinsing are ours.