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Chippewa Red Paint: Iron Scum from Springs, Baked Hard, Powdered and Mixed with Grease (Densmore, 1928)
How the Chippewa (Ojibwe) made their red paint, as Frances Densmore recorded it for the Bureau of American Ethnology: the reddish iron scum skimmed from certain springs, dried, baked in the fire until hard as stone, ground to a fine red powder kept in buckskin, and mixed with grease to paint faces, bodies and arrows. The same powder set the colour in their dyes.
Beginner
A day: collect, dry, bake, grind
Instructions
1
1
Read Densmore
Read Densmore
"When mixed with grease it made a paint that was reddish but not vermilion and was used on arrows and for painting faces and bodies."
2
2
Collect the scum
Collect the scum
Skim the reddish substance that rises on certain springs (it is iron oxide) and carry it home.
Materials for this step:
Raw Ochre1 pieceTools needed:
Birch Bark Container3
3
Dry and bake
Dry and bake
Let it dry, then bake it in the fire until it "becomes hard like stone" (time ours: until it no longer gives off steam and is hard right through).
Tools needed:
Fire Pit4
4
Powder it
Powder it
Break the baked lumps and grind them to a fine red powder. Keep the powder in a buckskin bag.
Materials for this step:
Buckskin1 pieceTools needed:
Hammerstone
Grinding Stone5
5
Mix the paint
Mix the paint
For face, body or arrow paint, work a little powder into grease on the palm or a stone until it spreads (amount ours: add grease until it smears smoothly). The colour is reddish, not vermilion.
Materials for this step:
Animal Fat (Tallow)1 pieceTools needed:
Grinding Stone6
6
Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting
Ochre paint troubleshooting.
Flow
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7
7
History and honest limits
History and honest limits
From Frances Densmore, *Uses of Plants by the Chippewa Indians*, **44th Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology** (1928), p. 370 (checked on the archive.org scan usesofplantsbych00dens). Her Chippewa informants gave no baking time or grease amount; those and the grinding tools are ours.
Materials
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Tools Required
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