§ 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).