Native Americans utilized a variety of natural materials for makeup and body decoration before European contact. Plant products, minerals, clay, and animal byproducts provided dyes, pigments, and adhesives to create colors for the skin, eyes, lips and hair. Makeup served ceremonial, spiritual, and cultural purposes and allowed Native Americans to express their identity.
Plant Products
Native Americans frequently employed plant materials to produce cosmetic colors. Berries, roots, bark, and leaves supplied a range of pigments. For example, blackberries, blueberries, currants, elderberries, pokeberries, and raspberries provided shades of purple, blue, and red. Puccoon or bloodroot, a bright red root, was used extensively for facial and body paint by tribes across North America. Bearberry leaves, buttercups, and yellow dock created yellow hues. Green clays colored with grass, cedar, sage, or other herbs produced green pigments. Charcoal derived from burnt wood or seeds gave black color.
Plant materials often required processing to extract usable pigments. Berries and fruits were crushed and their juices collected. Roots like puccoon were pulverized into powders. Clays were purified by mixing with water and straining out impurities. Pigments were then mixed with animal fats or other emollients to create face and body paints. These natural “cosmetics” not only added color but also possessed medicinal, cleansing, and protective properties for skin and hair.
Minerals
In addition to plants, Native Americans used mineral pigments to create cosmetics and dyes. Red and yellow ocher provided earthy red, orange, and yellow tones. Soft white and yellow clays were fashioned into face paints. Powdered forms of lead ores, manganese, iron, and malachite provided shades of grey, black, red, and green. Pulverized galena, a blue-gray lead mineral, was a common decoration for darkening the eyes. Mica, a shiny mineral that cleaves into thin sheets, was used as a glittery adornment for skin and clothing.
Mineral pigments required purification and preparation too. Clays were mixed with water and strained; ocher lumps were finely ground with mortar and pestle. To make them adhere to the skin and hair, the powders were blended with animal grease, seeds oils, and other binding agents. Tribes located near mineral sources like the Great Lakes copper mines traded cosmetic pigments with other groups.
Animal Products
Native Americans also utilized animal byproducts to color their skin, hair, and clothing. Soft, absorbent charcoal derived from burning bones, antlers, hooves, or horns provided both black pigment and a cleansing face mask. The soot collected from burning pine wood or resin acted similarly. Fat rendered from mammals like deer, elk, and bear served as carriers for applying pigments; congealed, it produced waxy substances for hair styling.
Blood was used as a red dye, either by itself or mixed with salt to prevent coagulation. Brains and livers, boiled and oxidized, created rust or tan dyes for leather and fur. Urine, too, acted as a bleaching and dyeing agent. Beeswax, egg whites, fish oils, marrow, and milks were blended to make ointments, styling waxes, and adhesive bases for cosmetics. Porcupine quills, squirrel fur, snake skins, and insect cocoons added texture, shine, and color when applied to the hair and skin.
Cosmetic Tools
To apply their natural cosmetics, Native Americans fashioned a variety of tools from wood, bones, quills, and fibers. Smooth sticks collected from willow, oak, and sassafras provided applicators for face and body paints. Stiff brushes were produced from chewed fibers, set into wooden handles and dried. Hollow bird bones stored and dispensed pigments. Mixing palettes included turtle shells, smooth stones, shards of pottery, and dried animal bladders—often decorated with symbols representing their owner.
Women kept their tools in woven baskets or buckskin bags. To make eye makeup, they employed specialized instruments. A small peeled stick applied colors around the eyes; it was stored inside a hollow bone or quill between uses. Tribes also used thin strips of hide or fiber to separate lashes. Pigments ground fine and mixed into an oily base were applied with a slender tapered tool made of bone, wood, or porcupine quill.
Body Painting
Both Native American women and men routinely painted their skin for ceremonial, war, and daily use. Pigments produced from local plants, clays, and minerals created distinctive traditional colors and patterns for each tribe. Body painting occurred as part of tribal rituals, before hunts and battles, and for beautification and expression of identity.
Women applied earthy red ochers and brown clay paints in intricate dots, lines, and symbols to the face and body for ceremonies and special tribal events. They used black pigments from charcoal to paint stylized figures on the midriff to symbolize multiple children birthed. Yellow pollen or clay decorated women’s cheeks and foreheads; green pigments made from grass and herbs embellished clothing.
Warriors and hunters camouflaged themselves and embodied animal powers by painting their bodies, faces, and hair. Bold ocher and white clay designs invoked courage before raids and conflict. Red, black, and green pigments helped them blend into the forest when stalking game. Chiefs and medicine men created sacred symbols on skin to call on spirit beings for guidance and protection.
Facial Makeup
In addition to body painting, Native American women skillfully applied colorful cosmetics to their faces. They used red ochers, yellow clays, and black charcoal pigments to enhance eyes, cheeks, and lips. Pigments were blended with bear fat or other animal oils before application. Women stored face paints in animal bladders or abalone shells, painting delicate designs on them to represent the purpose of the color.
Eyes were prominently highlighted by both painting the lids and lining the rims. Eyeshadows were produced by mixing clays and charcoal powders with grease into a dry paste, applied with slim paint sticks. Oak, bone, and quill applicators pressed charcoal powder under the lower lids, producing a bold elongating effect. Yellow pollen or clay opened up and brightened the eyes.
Cheeks received circles, triangles, or dots in red, yellow, and brown pigments. Tattooing was also employed to permanently color the face—both puncture and suture methods created blue facial tattoos, particularly among southeastern and California tribes. Lips were stained reddish-purple with berry juices and colored clays. Mustache hairs were tweezed and blackened with soot or mascara.
Hair Styling
Native Americans styled their hair in many ways—straight, braided, up, down—and incorporated decorative elements. Women’s long hair was a point of traditional pride frequently adorned with beads, feathers, strips of fur, animal parts, and pigmented clay. The ornate arrangements denoted marital status, tribe identity, and ceremonial purpose.
To control and shape the hair, women employed wax from bees and other sources. Beeswax was collected from wild honeybee hives and stored in animal bladders. Other waxes were produced by rendering animal fats like bear grease over a fire and allowing them to solidify. The soft wax was hit with a paddle to aerate it, enhancing pliability. Wax was then kneaded into the hair, shaping rigid styles that set as it cooled and dripped down the strands.
Plant oils also aided hair care. Castor, jojoba, and salvia oils made hair glossy; yucca-root soaps cleansed. Wood ashes or clays were sprinkled on the scalp to absorb oils. Plant-based hair dyes provided color. Henna, black walnut shells, and tree barks suffused reds and browns. Puccoon and ochers tinted yellow and orange. Evergreen leaves and indigo produced glossy blacks and shimmering blues on dark hair.
Regional Variations
While many natural cosmetic materials were used broadly across tribes, Native American makeup expressed regional variations shaped by environment, culture, and trade networks.
Southwestern tribes like the Navajo primarily utilized mineral cosmetics. Jet-black charcoal, red and yellow ochers, white kaolin clays, and glittering ground mica produced their signature body paints. Southeastern tribes had access to river clays, trading vibrant quill-worked palettes filled with them. Blue indigo, black walnut dyes, and bold white shapes defined their war paint.
Northern tribes employed berries like chokecherries and juniper ashes for purple-red pigments. Coastal groups gathered iron-oxide packed sands for rich red ochers and fashioned fish oil containers to store them. Native Alaskans charred lampblacks from oil lamps, using the velvety pigment to darken eyes and lips against harsh weather. Cosmetics intertwined with each tribe’s spiritual views, martial customs, ceremonies, and cultural identity.
Cosmetics in Ceremony
| Ceremony | Cosmetic Use |
|---|---|
| Marriages | Brides painted yellow clay dots on cheeks and foreheads as symbols of fertility and hope. |
| Coming of age | Adolescent girls wore face paints denoting their eligibility for marriage. |
| Warfare preparation | Warriors painted skin and hair with symbolic pigments to invoke courage and protection. |
| Burials | The deceased were adorned with cosmetics and their finest body paints to honor their spirit journey. |
| Religious rituals | Shamans and medicine men painted sacred symbols and masks to summon spiritual powers. |
| Storytelling | Face and body paints illustrated characters and events in oral legends. |
| Festivals & victories | Participants painted faces, bodies, and hair with elaborate celebratory designs. |
Cosmetics and body paints played an integral role in Native American ceremony, rituals, storytelling, and cultural events. Vibrant mineral powders, plant-based pigments, and wet clays provided a medium for expressing identity, signaling milestones, honoring spirits, and connecting with tribal history through symbolic designs painted on the skin.
Importance of Native Cosmetics
Native American cosmetics served spiritual, ceremonial, and practical needs:
– Pigments produced from the earth and plants symbolized the link between humans and the natural world. Body painting honored spirits inhabiting the land that provided the raw materials.
– Cosmetics and hair styles visually communicated marital availability, fertility, social status, victory, mourning, and cultural identity.
– Face and body paint camouflaged hunters and warriors, allowing them to blend into the landscape.
– Decorative paintings on skin and hair invoked ancestral guidance and protection in battle, ceremony, and during life’s milestones.
– Plant-based cosmetics possessed antibacterial, fragrant, and conditioning properties that cleansed and nourished the skin and hair.
– Application of ceremonial body paints promoted a meditative, prayerful mindset and connection to tradition.
Though organic and natural, the colored compounds Native Americans ingeniously produced became integral methods of expressing identity, communicating status, enhancing wellbeing, and invoking spiritual power. Their cosmetics fulfilled roles far beyond simply decorating the body.
Decline of Traditional Cosmetics
European contact in the 16th-18th centuries drastically disrupted Native American cosmetic traditions. Government bans on ritual practices and cultural expression, loss of land and access to natural resources, disease, and warfare contributed to the decline.
As Christian missionaries sought to convert Native Americans, they banned traditional ceremonies like the Sundance where body paint was integral. Government-run boarding schools punished students for wearing any native cosmetics, hairstyles, or clothing. Policies of forced assimilation harshened over decades, leading to cultural losses.
Deportation from ancestral territories severed access to many natural makeup sources like clay deposits and plant materials. Unfamiliar Eastern lands lacked the right minerals and vegetation for pigments. Along with land loss, overhunting of animals whose fats made paints and styling waxes generated shortages. Introduced diseases like smallpox also decimated tribal populations and knowledge keepers.
Despite government repression, many Native Americans sustained cosmetic traditions privately or through adaptations. Some switched to more accessible local plants for dyes and paints. Secret ceremonies in remote locations allowed continuation of spiritual body painting traditions. Many natural cosmetic practices diminished over generations, though recent revitalization efforts are building their comeback.
Modern Revival
Today, Native Americans are experiencing a renaissance of traditional cosmetics and body painting:
– Young Native American women are embracing ceremonial body paints and makeup as part of cultural pride and identity.
– Tribes are reviving rituals like Sundances and powwows that prominently feature symbolic body paints.
– Artists are reconstructing mineral and plant recipes for pigments used by their ancestors.
– Natural cosmetics classes teach traditional collection practices and use of authentic ingredients.
– Online indigenous artists share revival techniques for body paint and natural makeup.
– Stores specializing in native cosmetics supply pigments, dyes, tools, and tutorials.
– Native American cosmetic artists make and model traditionally inspired makeup as cultural ambassadors.
– Scholars are studying preserved artifacts and texts to rediscover lost plant- and mineral-based paint recipes.
– Ethnobotanists work with tribes to locate and propagate ancestral plant sources of dyes.
– Tribal conferences build networks to share knowledge of materials, practices and ceremonial body art traditions.
Conclusion
Ancient Native American cosmetics made from natural earth and botanical sources served deep cultural, spiritual, and practical purposes beyond aesthetics. The organic pigments, dyes, and styling agents intricately tied into ceremonies, storytelling, cultural expression, wellbeing, and the natural world itself. While government assimilation policies and land losses severely disrupted the practices, recent Native cultural revitalization has inspired a vibrant renaissance of traditional cosmetics. Through reconstructing old formulas, re-establishing access to native plants, and rediscovering techniques, Native Americans can reconnect to this rich ancestral tradition and its roots in tribal identity.