Red Indians: not in Europe!

 History With RCS, archaeology, prehistory, history, and a little conjecture

                Why did newcomers to to the east coast of North America, years before and after 1500 AD, often speak of red Indians? I have seen many Indians from coast to coast in the U.S. and  none looked red to me. Once I did see a Navajo "medicine man" painted red for a purification ceremony.

                Painted.

                My questions, as to why east coast Indians were so often called red, have not been answered. So, I have looked around a bit and trying to make an 'educated' guess.

                So far, I have discovered that professionals have written about a Red Paint People on the northeast coast of North America known mostly by their burial remains. Burial sites found all over the east coast of Canada and the U.S. The east coast where the term Red Indian was most used. Those Red Paint People used what looked to be red paint to color their grave sites and their dead red. It has been said that those sites were dated from about 4500 BP to about 1000 AD.

                Could ancestors of the Red Paint People have been painting themselves red when some of our ancestors arrived

                Red.

                Then, in the literature, I found discussion of a Red Ochre People having lived in much the same area. They have been dated back to 5000 BC or earlier. They too spread red coloring around their dwellings, burial sites, and over their dead. May they not have colored their living red? May the not have had some family colored red around 1500?

                I observed, not so long ago, Indians who passed their days at Santo Domingo do los Colorados, Ecuador with their skin colored red.

                So then, could it be that in those early days of discovery and exploration our ancestors were not color blind, but that rather they actually observed native peoples colored red?

                Maybe later, words about the Ancient Maritime People of all around the North Atlantic who liked the iron oxide red coloring greatly may be an appropriate.

by Richard