red paint people

[kiddrock33]

any info on the red paint people ? very important questions possibly connected to them. in massachusetts ny vt borders. kiddrock33

[MEinWV]

What questions are you looking for answers on?

Don't know a lot, but i'd be glad to help.

[fossis]

any info on the red paint people ? very important questions possibly connected to them. in massachusetts ny vt borders. kiddrock33

Hi Kiddrock, Here is what I found in one of my books,
In New England & the Maritime Provinces of Canada-The Archaic life-style had taken hold by 3000 B.C., & perhaps earlier.
Indian cemeteries have been found throughout the area, & these gravesites show that the people there had also developed carefully prescribed burial practices. of particular intrest are the Red Paint People, a name given them by 18th-century farmers because these ancient indians lined their burial pits with bright red hematite.
The most intresting Red Paint burial ground discovered so far is at Port au Choix, in northern Newfoundland- the northernmost penetration of the people who practiced the Red Paint rites. Here, on an abandoned beach a few yards above the present shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, the skeletons of 100 persons, buried 4,000 years ago, have survived in excellent condition. Judging by the remains, they were a robust group of people, quite similar in appearance to the Indians of New England during historic times.
The dead apparently were buried with the tools they valued most highly & might want to have in the next world. The graves contain axes, adzes, & gouges-heavy woodworking tools the Indians probably used to make dugout canoes. These fishermen & hunters also possesed firemaking kits of flintstone & pyrite, as well as a wide variety of tools & weapons of bone, stone, & antler. As findings aat the Port au Choix site indicate, the people also crafted bone & antler into combs, pins, & effigies.
By 1500 B.C. the Red Paint People were already in decline, & by 500 B.C.- for reasons that are not entirely clear- the old cult had largely faded.
Archaelogists believe that these Red Paint People were almost certainely among the ancestors of the Algonquin Indians who roamed the forests of the Northeast when the Europeans came to the new world.

Hope this was of some help, Fossis.........

[MEinWV]

Thanks fossis! Additional info I just found, states that they could have ranged as far west as the Great Lakes.

A site similar to the Red Paint culture was found at Lake Champlain.

[fossis]

Thanks fossis! Additional info I just found, states that they could have ranged as far west as the Great Lakes.

A site similar to the Red Paint culture was found at Lake Champlain.

Good Job,

Fossis..............

[MEinWV]

More info, which makes this quite interesting!

Some points found in burials in Maine are made of material from quarries in Vermont, and also Rhama(spelling may be off) chert, from Labrador.

[mojjax]

Nova-PBS did a show on the Red Paint People back in 1987 :

Secrets of the Lost Red Paint People
NOVA follows archaeologists as they unearth clues, some 7,000 years old, about an unknown, mysterious and advanced sea-faring people who lived along the North Atlantic coast of the United States and Canada.
Original broadcast date: 12/15/87
Topic: anthropology/ancient


There is also a old book called '' A Report on the Archeology of Maine ''
it's dated 1922 by the Andover Press . I have a copy of this book and it is one of my prized possessions . Chock full of maps and hundreds of pictures of artifacts from expeditions that took place from 1912 - 1920 .
The expeditions were organized by the Department of Archeology , Phillips Academy , Andover , Mass .

mojjax

[jbl04410]

The red paint people were definitely wanderers.They were all over Maine.I have found artifacts that are from the same time frame gouges etc.But I couldnt say for sure If they were Red paint or not.Man I didn't know Kidd was an artifact hunter thats just another thing me and him have in common.Arrow-heads and Pamela anderson sweet.lol.................................JAY