I saw an Indian, who, though he had never signalized himself in defense of the nation, got a mark made on his body in order to deceive those who only judged from appearance. The council agreed that, to obviate such an abuse, which would confound brave men with cowards, he who had wrongfully adorned himself with the figure of a club on his skin, without ever having struck a blow at war, should have the mark torn off; that is, the place should be flayed, and that the same should be done to all who would offend in the same case.
The Indian women are allowed to make marks all over their body, without any bad consequences; they endure it firmly, like the men, in order to please them, and to appear handsomer to them.
James Adair (a) says of the Chikasas in 1720:
They readily know achievements in war by the blue marks over their breasts and arms, they being as legible as our alphabetical characters are to us. Their ink is made of the root of pitch pine, which sticks to the inside of a greased earthen pot; then delineating the parts, they break through the skin with gairfish teeth, and rub over them that dark composition, to register them among the brave, and the impression is lasting. I have been told by the Chikasah that they formerly erased any false marks their warriors proudly and privately gave themselves, in order to engage them to give real proofs of their martial virtue, being surrounded by the French and their red allies; and that they degraded them in a public manner, by stretching the marked parts, and rubbing them with the juice of green corn, which in a great degree took out the impression.
Sir Alex. Mackenzie (b) tells that the Slave and Dog Rib Indians of the Athabaskan stock practiced tatooing. The men had two double lines, either black or blue, tattooed upon each cheek from the ear to the nose.
In James’s Long (c) it is reported that—
The Omahas are often neatly tattooed in straight lines, and in angles on the breast, neck, and arms. The daughters of chiefs and those of wealthy Indians generally are denoted by a small round spot tattooed on the forehead. The process of tattooing is performed by persons who make it a business of profit.
Rev. J. Owen Dorsey (a) says:
In order that the ghost may travel the ghost-road in safety it is necessary for each Dakota, during his life, to be tattooed either in the middle of the forehead or on the wrists. In that event his spirit will go directly to the “Many Lodges.”