The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1916-03-01
INDIANS STILL
GET THEIR DYES
In OId-Fashioned Way,
AS OF .YOre.
THE SCARCITY OF OYESTUFfS
Doesn't Bother Them - They
Continue To Initiate Hues
OF the Rainbow.
DOESN'T KNOW WHAT DYES ARE

Manufacturers all over the coun-
try are complaining of the shortage
of dyes; clothing makers are threat
ening to dress us in garments white
as snow; the time is coming. say the
ink makers, when we must rely on
the red fluid made famous by Cap
tain Kidd and other pirate bands
when we want to write q check, but
Chem, better known as "Steve,' an
Indian and a manufacturer of Brit
ish Columbia worries not. Chem
goes calmly on, using the dyes that
his tribesmen, Clayuquots, have
used for generations. He makes his
own dyes, and whether any more are
ever imported from Germany, or
whether American chemists solve
the secrets, are alik7 matters of su-
preme Indifference t. him. So long
as his klutchman and his tenas, O."
in English. his wife and daughter,
retain their strength IN will pose as
a manufacturer and luru OUT THE
same mat and baskc. goods, having
the same bright colors as the uten-
sils his forefathers used as berry
containers and cooking vessels when
the foot of the white man was for
eign to these shores.
Chem" and his women hold forth
at Pioneer place every Monday and
ranged about them on the sidewalk
are their manufactured articles for
sale. There may be found cedar
bark mats, striped with alternate
black. yellow and brown; water
tight baskets, blushing coyly in red
and pink; grass baskets of every
sort and description, from the small
one fit for a thread basket, which
sells for moxt bit (25 cents) to the
large ones, three feet across, with
conventional designs OF wolves and
dogs racing around the rim, which
retail and wholesale for 81 TO S., or
as much more as the chechako is
willing to give.
All these specimens of the handi-
work of the women shine forth in
gay colors, and all colors are obtain
ed by the klutchmen according to
the simple process known for thcus-
ands of years. The black. and it is
a black that will not fade, is obtain
ed by covering the rushes, grasses or
bark with the black mud of the
swamps, which gives lasting jet
equal to any imported dye; the red
is obtained from the bark of the al
der, pink from weaker solution of
the same bark. brown comes from
the familiar tanbark of the hemlock,
and yellow is boiled out of the root
of the Oregon grape.
Then, in addition to these colors, F.
there is the natural color of the ma
terial which is used for the mats or !
baskets. Certain grasses and rushes
can be dried so the green tint re- /
other grasses turn white, and I
the brown of cedar bark IS well
known. Also, there are different
shades of browns found in the bark
of the cedar. If the tree is old and
the bark is near the surface it IS
dark in color; taken next to the tree.
1t is a delicate combination of gray
and brown. The inner bark of the
cottonwood is pearl gray.
dye, dye. halo nika cumtux dye?"
said Chem. "Nika klutchman NAM
,ck conoway iktas coqua ahnkutty."
dye? 1 don't know what dye is
My women made these articles as the
Indians used to do in old times
Seattle Post-Intelligencer.