Two Gros Ventres were killed on the ice by the Dakotas in 1789-’90. The two are designated by two spots of blood on the ice, and killed is expressed by the blood-tipped arrow against the figure of the man above. The long hair, with the red forehead, denotes the Gros Ventre. The red forehead illustrates the manner of applying war paint, and applies, also, to the Arikara and Absaroka Indians, in other Dakota records. The horizontal blue band signifies ice.
Stephen Powers says (Contrib. to N. A. Ethnology, III, p. 109) the Mattoal, of California, differ from other tribes in that the men tattoo. “Their distinctive mark is a round blue spot in the center of the forehead.”
He adds: Among the Mattoal—
The women tattoo pretty much, all over their faces.
In respect to this matter of tattooing there is a theory entertained by some old pioneers which may be worth the mention. They hold that the reason why the women alone tattoo in all other tribes is that in case they are taken captives their own people may be able to recognize them when there comes an opportunity of ransom. There are two facts which give some color of probability to this reasoning. One is that the California Indians are rent into such infinitesimal divisions, any one of which may be arrayed in deadly feud against another at any moment, that the slight differences in their dialects would not suffice to distinguish the captive squaws. A second is that the squaws almost never attempt any ornamental tattooing, but adhere closely to the plain regulation mark of the tribe.
Paul Marcoy, in Travels in South America, N. Y., 1875, Vol. II, page 353, says of the Passés, Yuris, Barrés, and Chumanas, of Brazil, that they mark their faces (in tattoo) with the totem or emblem of the nation to which they belong. It is possible at a few steps distant to distinguish one nation from another.
GENTILE OR CLAN DESIGNATIONS.
Rev. J. Owen Dorsey reports of the Osages that all the old men who have been distinguished in war are painted with the decorations of their respective gentes. That of the Tsi[c]u wactake is as follows: The face is first whitened all over with white clay; then a red spot is made on the forehead, and the lower part of the face is reddened; then with the fingers the man scrapes off the white clay, forming the dark figures, by letting the natural color of the face show through.
In Schoolcraft, V, 73, 74, it is stated that by totemic marks the various families of the Ojibwa denote their affiliation. A guardian spirit has been selected by the progenitor of a family from some object in the zoological chain. The representative device of this is called the totem. A warrior’s totem never wants honors in their reminiscences, and the mark is put on his grave-post, or adjedatig, when he is dead. In his funeral pictograph he invariably sinks his personal name in that of his totem or family name. These marks are, in one sense, the surname of the clan. The personal name is not indicative of an Indian’s totem.
The same custom, according to Rev. J. Owen Dorsey, prevails among the Omahas; and with the exception of that portion which relates to the drawing of the totemic mark upon the grave post the above remarks apply also to the Dakotas, of Northern Dakota, according to the observations of Dr. Hoffman. The Pueblos, remarked Mr. James Stevenson in a conversation with the writer, depict the gens totems upon their various forms and styles of ceramic manufacture. The peculiar forms of secondary decoration also permit the article to be traced to any particular family by which it may have been produced.