October 2022 • Nebraskaland 47
to the Spanish-Dutch or Chinese
mineral, and they would trade "a
heap of furs" for three times as much
vermilion as would lie on the tip of a
knife. Verdigris, a French colorant, was
used by Native Americans to "paint
their faces green."
The cover of this issue of the
Quarterly includes a sample of red
ochre obtained from a deposit of the
ore found at Sunrise, Wyoming. It is
known to have been mined there over
10,000 years ago and is listed as a
World Archeological Site by the United
Nations.
In their study of the Omaha
tribe, Alice C. Fletcher and Francis
La Flesche included the following
observations in their remarks on the
changes brought by traders: "Another
saving of labor in comparison with
old methods was involved in buying
paints from the traders. The paint was
sold in small packages not much larger
than a paper of darning needles and
the price of one of those packages in
the last century was the value of 25
cents .… Great quantities of paint were
sold, this article alone yielding a large
profi t to the trader." The authors noted
that the Omaha regularly bought red,
green, blue and yellow paint.
Upper Missouri River fur trader
Edwin Denig stated that the traders
furnished Chinese vermilion, chrome
yellow and verdigris. "Out of all these
an Indian can please himself … ." He
commented that "their native dyes
… have been superseded by those
introduced by the traders, with all but
the Crow Indians. At the present day
they all mostly use the clippings of
diff erent colored blankets and cloth,
which by boiling with the substances
to be dyed, communicates the tint of
the cloth to it in some degree. Thus
rose, green, pale blue and violet colors
are obtained. For black they boil
the inner papers in which Chinese
vermilion is enveloped."
Early travelers repeatedly mention
gifts of a few awls or a paper of
vermilion to the Native Americans
they encountered. Vermilion was a
major item in the fur trade along with
guns, powder, knives, axes, tobacco,
blankets and liquor.
Native Americans were practical
people. They learned three centuries
ago that it was easier to drop in at the
nearest trading post and buy a high-
quality pigment in whatever quantity
they needed.
N
For more information on the Museum,
visit furtrade.org.
Opposite, top: 4-ounce buckskin bag of Chinese vermilion, one of several found in
an HBC warehouse at Fort Victoria, British Columbia.
Above: Pigments sold in the fur trade.
