Blackfoot Face Paints: Yellow Earth Burned Red, Earths Applied Wet or Worked into Tallow on the Face (Wissler, 1910)

"It may be applied wet or the face rubbed with tallow into which some of the pigment is worked with the hands."

Yellow earth; red earth as found; white earth; charcoal for black. The Blackfoot named many more, from buffalo gall stones (yellow) to a dark blue mud.

The Blackfoot had a red earth made by burning yellow earth, and another reddened by long exposure to the sun. Ours: heat the yellow earth in a pan in a hot fire until it turns red, let it cool, and grind it fine.

Either wet the powder with a little water and paint it on, or rub tallow on the face and work some of the powder into it with the hands. Everyday wear: large round red spots on the cheeks, a broad band on the forehead and chin; women traced the part of the hair red. Stripes, designs and several colours were kept for ceremonies.

From Clark Wissler, *Material Culture of the Blackfoot Indians*, **Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History** vol. V (1910), pp. 72, 133-134 (checked on the archive.org scan materialcultureo00wiss); the hero is his Fig. 36, a Blackfoot paint bag 26 cm long (they ran from 8 to 15 cm). He quotes earlier travellers: Maximilian saw trade vermilion rubbed in with fat, yellow clay on the face with red round the eyes, and a shining iron earth for blue bands. How the earth is burned, grinding and amounts are ours.