Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1902-02-28
WHY THE INDIANS PAINT.
Significance of Face Painting by In.
dams as Told by Bureau Of
Ethnology.

Various Meanings Of the Paints Used
by Different Tribes Of
Indians.
commissioner Jones reported order
directing the agents stationed at the
different reservations to prohibit. face
Eilnting among the Indians has
aroused a general desire for informa-
ton as to the meaning and significance
Of face-painting: among the North Am
erlcan Indians. The bureau Of eth
nology, says the Washington Post,
has discovered the fact that the abor-
lgine had a reason and a motive for
everything he did, and that. contrary
to the old view. he painted or tattooed
his face or body not through a savage
love of bright color. but because each
and every design and color had a
meaning and significance. in certain.
respects similar to the heraldry of the
Middle Ages.
The various designs and colors used
in face-painting vary from tribe to
tribe. Thus, when w. J. MCGEE went
to Tiburon island, in the Gulf of Cal
ifornia, during the summer of 1897. he
discovered that the Seri Indians reck-
oned their descent from the mother,
and that matriarchy was the law in all
matters of ancestry. He learned fur
Their that each great family or clan
had as its distinctive and distinguish
Ing badge a certain facial design,
which the elder women of the tribe
alone wore painted on their faces.
The men do~not paint at all, except
on rare occasions, when they paint the
~natrfarchial design on their faces to
indicate their descent or relationship
to certain of the elder women of the
tribe. who paint constantly, and who
are never seen in public without the
family design of curves, cross-hatchets,
crescents and other figures on their
faces.
In other tribes f~ace-painting has
nothing to do with ancestry, but, on
the contrary, the various colors and
designs are employed to express the
emotions. purposes and intentions of
the wearers. From the latter is de-
rived the term "war paint" A tribe
having declared war against a neigh
boring band. the fighting men began
their warlike preparations by paint
ing their faces.
Certain colors denote hatred, revenge,
and contempt of death. One brave
will paint twelve red spots and eight
black lines on his face to show that he
had in former engagements been
wounded twelve times, and that he
knows nc fear. Another will daub
red over his forehead, signifying that
he proposes to create a scene of blood
whenever the wal party reaches the
enemy's country. Each tribe has a
sort of language of color and design
handed down from their ~forefathers
OF old by means of oral tradition.
Sometimes when a tribe is power
less to make wal they vent their re-
sentiment by painting their faces in
flaming colors and striking designs,
indicating their true feelings toward
those whom they hate, but are too
weak to p Thus it has always
been noticed that serious outbreaks
and uprisings have, inevery case, been
proceeded for months by an epidemic
of face-painting among the Indians.
Col. Beckworth relates. in his inter
esting book on the American aborig-
ines, that in 1873 he passed through
the hamlets of the Shevwits, a small
tribe of Northern Arizona, and found
the faces of the men painted to express
their resentment against the Mormons,
with whom they had had q quarrel,
but against whom they were powerless
to declare war.
The face-painting Of other tribes has
a religious and mystical purport and
suggestiyeness, with little, if any.
bearing on either war or ancestry.
Thus the Zunis. Moquis, Sias, Navajos,
Mojaves, Papagoes, and other south
western tribes paint their faces and
bodies in elaborate designs, symbols
izing rain clouds. the ~.feathered SER.
pent," the great inner-world ocean, or
azipapu." and other curious figures Of
their mythology. In the "Midewi-