FIG. 200.—Omaha lightnings and the four quarters.
§ 374. Blue is assumed to be the earth symbol for two reasons: (1) In the decorations of those who have had visions of bears, there is a broad blue band, representing the earth, out of which the bear is sometimes depicted as issuing; (2) and, furthermore, the Indians seldom distinguish between blue and green, hence, blue may symbolize grass and other vegetation, springing from the earth. In apparent contradiction of this use of blue, we are told by Lynd that “the Tunkan is painted red as a sign of active worship” (see § 132), and by Riggs (§ 133) that large bowlders were adorned with red and green paint, though the use of the two colors may have depended on a composite cult. In this connection attention is called to the battle standards represented on the tent of Ԁejequta, an Omaha. These painted standards had red and blue stripes, denoting the stripes of Indian cloth, sometimes used instead of feathers on the real standards. The latter were carried by the leaders of war parties, and each standard could be used on four such expeditions. When the warriors approached the hostile camp, the keeper of the standard removed the scarf of blue and red cloth from the shaft and wore it around his neck as he went to steal horses (see Pl. XLIV, A, the name Bowlder Thunder-being in § 390, also § 388).
§ 375. Red is known to be the Omaha color for the east. Among the Dakota the spear and tomahawk, the weapons of war, were said to have been given by the Wakinyan, the Thunder-being or Fire power; hence they are painted red (§ 105).
The late Dr. S. R. Riggs informs us that—
In the tiyotipi were placed the bundles of the black and red sticks of the soldiers.[295]
Toward the rear of the tent, but near enough to the fire for convenient use, is a large pipe placed by the symbols of power. These are two bundles of shaved sticks about 6 inches long. The sticks in one bundle are painted black and in the other red. The black bundle represents the real men of the camp—those who have made their mark on the warpath. The red bundle represents the boys and such men as wear no eagle feathers.[296]
They shave out small round sticks all of the same length, and paint them red, and they are given out to the men. These are to constitute the tiyotipi. * * * Of all the round shaved sticks, some of which were painted black and some painted red, four were especially marked. They are the four chiefs of the tiyotipi that were made.[297]
§ 376. Black is assumed to be the symbolic color for the Takuśkanśkan, the Wind-makers, whose servants are the four winds and the four black spirits of night. Black as a war color is put on the face[298] of the warrior. The Santee Dakota consider the raven (a black bird) and a small black stone, less than a hen’s egg in size, symbols of the four winds or quarters. Among the Teton Dakota, the Takuśkanśkan symbols, are small pebbles of two kinds, one white, and, according to the description, translucent; the other “resembles ordinary pebbles,” probably in being opaque.
§ 377. Yellow is assumed to be the color symbolizing water, the west, and the setting sun. The Dakota, Omaha, Ponka, and ┴ɔiwere tribes have been familiar for years with the color of the water in the Missouri river. In a Yankton Dakota legend[299] recorded by the author it is said that when two mystery men prepared themselves to visit a spirit of the water in order to recover an Indian boy, one of the men painted his entire body black, and the other painted himself yellow (this seems to refer to the south and west, the windmakers and the spirits of the waters).
In certain Omaha tent decorations we find that the tent of a Turtle man (Fig. 161) has a yellow ground. A similar yellow ground on the tent of Maⁿtcu-naⁿba of the Hañga gens (Fig. 174) may be connected with the tradition that the Hañga gens came originally from beneath the water. Too much stress, however, must not be placed upon the colors of such mystery decorations, as they may be found hereafter to have had another origin. It is conceivable, although we have no means of proving it, that he who had a vision, depicted on his robe and tent not only the colors pertaining to the objects seen in the vision, but also the color peculiar to the eponymic ancestor or power that was the “nikie” (§ 53). As some men were members of more than one order of shamans, their tent and robe decorations may refer to the one order rather than to the other, and sometimes there may be a reference to both orders. The yellow on the top of the tent of Frog, an Ictasanda man, was said to refer to a grizzly bear vision (fide George Miller, an Omaha—see Fig. 177.) But when we compare it with Pl. XLIV, D, showing the tent of a Hañga man, who was a Buffalo shaman as well as a Grizzly Bear shaman, we find that the top of the latter tent has a yellow band (apparently pointing to the Hañga tradition of an aquatic origin), as well as a blue band at the bottom (referring to the grizzly bear vision).
§ 378. From what has been said respecting the figures 194-199, we are led to make the following provisional coördinations: