Colour

Why do tribes use bright colours? 

Native American Tribes would decorate majority of their crafts to make them appear beautiful to the eye. Adding colour and designs with materials such as paint, beads, quill embroidery and the traditional method of carving and weaving.

Certain colours can symbolise something as well as there patterns or images. Here are a few examples of what colours symbolise to the Native American man.

Black

- night, underworld, male, disease and death.

Blue 

- sky, water, female, clouds, lightning, moon, thunder and sadness. 

Green 

- plant life, earth, summer and rain.

Red 

- wounds, unset, thunder, blood, earth, war and day.

White

- winter, death and snow.

Yellow 

-        sunshine, day and dawn.

-        In todays society we symbolise colour with meaning and is used as a tactical approach within advertising a company/ brand.

-        Red is the colour for blood energy, war,danger.strength,power,determination, passion,desire and love. 

-        Because red is such an emotionally intense colour it has been proven to enhance the human metabolism, raises blood pressure and increases respiration rate which makes you make a decision quickly on the spot which is why on websites 'BUY NOW' or 'CLICK HERE' are usually in capitals / flashing or in red. 

-         

-        White is associated with light, faith, innocence, safety, cleanliness, purity and virginity. It is considered as the colour of perfection which is why you are supposed to be wedded in a white dress.

-        when using white in advertising is it usually to portray a cleanness and high-tech products. it is also a charitable organisation shade to use as angels are suggested to be white which makes you assume the innocence of there organisation. Also it is use with advertising food, usually if you see a white packaging and simple designs it represents low-fat, dairy or low weight foods.

-         

-        'Color was important to add meaning to a design, too. Most Native Americans named four points of the earth, the four directions of the compass--north, south, east, and west--and assigned a color to each one. Among the Cherokee, north was blue, south was white, east was red, and west was black. Colors could also mean life or death, wax or peace, female or male, night or day. For example, the Navaho thought black represented men and blue, women. The Hopi thought that the color blue was the most sacred and used it to honor their gods.'

What would they use to create a particular colour?

ColorPlant Material

Blacks

- wild grapes, hickory bark, alder bark, dogwood bark, mountain mahogany bark

Blues 

- larkspur petals, alfalfa flowers, sunflower seeds

Browns

 - walnut shells, birch bark

Greens

 - moss, algae, lily-of-the-valley leaves, juniper berries

Purples

 - blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, rotten maple wood

Reds

 -sumac berries, dogwood bark, beets, cranberries

Yellows

 - onion skins, goldenrod stems and flowers, sunflower petals, dock roots, marigold petals, moss, 

peach leaves, birch leaves, sage    

References:
http://www.color-wheel-pro.com/color-meaning.html - colour meaning
http://www.lewisandclarktrail.com/section2/colorsanddesigns.htm - Native american Definition of colour
http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=tribal+colour+wheel+chart&um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1632&bih=878&tbm=isch&tbnid=8AnJfaGARlPfpM:&imgrefurl=http://daxdesigns.blogspot.com/2010/10/colour-my-world-or-should-that-be-tint.html&docid=63k9Jnjv-FRX5M&imgurl=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc-CSEfZy2S3pENpyQsNs048g335Viklv6YYAZh5JIIkb-uogJLmyz9G3sgy8bkeQJrSjOzPnX_SM_E8PeUhCa7gnuhcQDSje04ZO8sncrQGGojjG3xMDUn96CWWB77rkMuriYtEYMtxm7/s320/300px-BYR_color_wheel.svg.png&w=300&h=300&ei=e0GqUOONIsqChQfcxoCwAg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=179&vpy=209&dur=33&hovh=225&hovw=225&tx=163&ty=69&sig=112823694655427877957&page=3&tbnh=143&tbnw=143&start=86&ndsp=48&ved=1t:429,r:86,s:0,i:331