Thompson (Nlaka'pamux) Face Paints: Red Ochre, Micaceous Hematite, Charcoal and White Clay, Dry or on Greased Skin (Teit, 1900)

"The paints were rubbed on either dry or after the face had been greased."

Red ochre or other red earth; micaceous hematite (specular iron) for a glittering dark red-grey; charcoal for black; yellow ochre; white clay. Powder each finely (ours: in a stone mortar).

For a dry paint, keep the powder as it is. For a paint that holds, melt deer fat, stir in the powder and heat it, as the Thompson did for all their paints on wood and hide (proportion ours: about one part fat to two of powder). Keep it in a stone dish or on a flat piece of hide. Puccoon root works too: dip the fresh root in deer fat and rub it on.

Grease the face first, or paint dry. Use a finger or small sticks. Patterns Teit recorded: young women, a red dot on each cheek, sometimes carried over the temples and eyebrows; older women, the whole face red up to the eyes; men, from their dreams: big red spots on the cheeks and a streak along each eyebrow, or one side of the face red, or the face covered with wet red and stripes scratched through it with a deer's jaw or teeth. The parting of the hair was often painted red.

From James Teit, *The Thompson Indians of British Columbia*, **Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History, Jesup North Pacific Expedition** vol. I part IV (1900), pp. 184, 226, 228 and Fig. 207 (checked on the archive.org scan cihm_16242). Some designs belonged to warriors, shamans or ceremonies; a man's design came from his own dream, so make your own rather than copy one. By 1900 face painting was used mostly by shamans and women. Grinding, the fat ratio and the stand-in heads are ours.