“one is a red skin as plain as paint and nature can make him” ~~James Fenimore Cooper

In a previous post, “Redskins and Warpaint”, I had traced the first use of the term “Redskin” for American Indian back to 1699.

There seems to be no etymological evidence that the word “redskin” originally meant anything other than “an aborigine with red skin”. According to Take Our Word For It, the earliest recorded use of the word was found in a quotation from 1699: “Ye firste Meetinge House was solid mayde to withstande ye wicked onsaults of ye Red Skins.”

I have just come upon a new reference from Father Andrew White’s travel log of 1634, which recorded his first impressions upon seeing the natives along the Chesapeake Bay. Aboard an English ship bound to settle the Maryland colony, he first noticed that their bodies were painted with earthen or plant-based red colors. It thus seems that they were named “Redskins” not only because of warpaint, but probably because all of the natives were accustomed to slathering their skins with their primitive yet effective version of insect repellant.

The natives are of tall and comely stature, of a skin by nature somewhat tawny, which they make more hideous by daubing, for the most part, with red paint mixed with oil, to keep away the mosquitoes; in this, intent more on their comfort than their beauty. They smear their faces also with other colors ; from the nose upwards, seagreen, downwards, reddish, or the contrary, in a manner truly disgusting and terrific. And since they are without beard almost to the end of life, they make the representation of beard with paint, a line of various colors being drawn from the tip of the lips to the ears.

Of course, mosquitoes were the curse of the early settlers and this method of the natives to ward them away seems practical, even if not beautiful to Father White’s tastes. The term “Redskin” was part if the language in 1823, when James Fenimore CooperThe Pathfinder began writing his novels, using the term “red-skin natur” and “redskin“(The Pathfinder) generously throughout.

… Mabel, “for there are two Indians and only one white man.” “Pale face,” said the Tuscarora, holding up two fingers; “red man” holding up one. “Well,” rejoined Cap, “it is hard … of life and respectability about him; one is a red skin as plain as paint and nature can make him; but the third chap is half-rigged; being neither brig, nor schooner. … (The PathfinderThe Pathfinder by James Fenimore Cooper, page 18).

Tracked at Don Surber and Room Q.