White earth daubed over the hair generally denotes mourning.

The young men sometimes have a bunch of hair on the crown, about the size of a small teacup, and nearly in the shape of that vessel upside down, to which they fasten various ornaments of feathers, quillwork, ermine tails, &c.

Red and white earth and charcoal are much used in their toilets; with the former they usually daub their robes and other garments, some red and others white.

The women comb their hair and use grease on it." The Slave Indians (a tribe of the Athapaskan family) tattooed their cheeks with charcoal inserted under the skin, also daubed their bodies, robes, and garments profusely with red earth (generally called, in the text of travellers, vermilion), but they had another favourite pigment, procured from the regions on the west of the Rocky Mountains, some kind of graphite, like the lead of lead pencils.

With this they marked their faces in black lead after red earth has been applied, and thus gave themselves a ghastly and savage appearance.
Their dress consists of a leather shirt trimmed with human hair and porcupine-quill work, and leggings of leather.