Only the medicine men were permitted to use the scraps, trimmed from the edges, for wrapping their sacred pipes or to make a head band worn on great occasions. Since then it also has come to mean an individual, of any species of living thing, which lacks the pigments that other members of its race normally have. Albinos occur among all races of men, almost all species of domestic animals, and a wide variety of wild species. True Albinos, such as in man, show an almost total lack of pigment in their skin, hair and eyes. The eyes, however, appear pink or red because the blood vessels in the iris and retina reflect light, whereas in normally colored individuals they are hidden by pigment.
Albino people have very defective vision and their eyes are extremely sensitive to light.
They habitually squint, blink, and should wear dark glasses. The skin is very white and never tans, so that sunburn is much more serious than in ordinary blondes. Among humans and wild animals, most albinos come from parents with normal coloring. In general, these animals are preferred because they thrive in captivity and are tamer than their wild and colored relatives. For years, the city park of Olney, Illinois, has had a famous colony of white squirrels.