Paints and Dyes
The principal paints sold them are Chinese vermilion, chrome yellow and verdigris. Out of all these an Indian can please himself, and either buy such as are mentioned, or use the shells, feathers, furs, etc., their own country and labor produces.
The native dyestuffs for coloring porcupine quills and feathers are as follows: For yellow, they boil the article to be colored with the moss found growing near the root of the pine or balsam fir tree. For red, they in the same way use the stalk of a root called we-sha-sha, the English name of which is unknown to us. They have also some earths and ochers, which by boiling impart a dull red, violet, and blue color, but we are unacquainted with the process and their names in any other language except the Indian. Their native dyes, however, with the exception of the yellow, are superseded by those introduced by the traders, with all but the Crow Indians, who living near and in the Rocky Mountains find several coloring herbs and mineral substances unknown to the other tribes, which produce much better colors than these mentioned. At the present day they all mostly use the clippings of different colored blankets and cloth, which by boiling with the substance 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.