Shereen Sweeney, age 11, of Visalia, California for her question:

Where did the Indians get war paint?

The North American Indians wore skin paint to impress their friends and scare their enemies. The earth provided colorful clays of reds, browns and yellows and every cooked roast provided fat to mix them into pasty paints. The plant world provided a rainbow assortment of vivid scarlets and purples, greens and browns. These dyes were extracted from selected roots and berries, nuts and seeds. Warriors were identified by the tribal colors and designs of their skin paint.

In most cases, elaborate war paint jobs were reserved for special occasions. Clay paints were suitable because it was easy to wash them off. Dyes extracted from plants were harder to remove. Some tribes created permanent skin designs as part of their everyday costumes. These were made by rubbing plant dyes into shallow skin gashes and pinprick tattoos. Certain dandies of Central America always carried make up kits containing red dye from ucuru seeds and charcoal mixed with cassava starch to freshen up the black outlines.