Colors

miyaashim'shkwaawi 'it is faded red' (miyaal- 'faded');

mshkwaawi 'it is red'.

halawim'shkwaawi 'it is dull red' (light red; elicited by Gatschet   for bronze-colored, and described as a faded red). mshkwa'kiitha 'red fox'; mshkwa'kiithiwilenawen 'Fox Indian'. noolamooma 'my face paint'; holamoon'shkwa 'face paint root', pl. holamoon'shkooki.   Brown is literally 'dark red': pkonimshkwaawi (Gatschet).

See mshkwi 'blood'.

holamo 'vermillion, face paint', pl holamooki 'the vermilions' (shades of red). War and ceremonial paint.

halawihothaawi 'it is dull   yellow'; hothaawashkwi 'yellow weed' (see also hothaawaskomi 'red acorn');   hothaawikatwi 'it (plants) turns yellow' [SS:451]. Perhaps hothaaki 'S'auk and Fox' (particularly Sauk whose own self-designation pertains to yellow).    

hothaawi 'yellow; it is yellow'.

halawishkipakya 'l'ight blue';   shkipakina, shkipakinaana 'blue corn bread dumpling(s)'; shkipakaapamekwatwi 'it looks sky(blue)-colored'; shkipakisheeya 'green cloth';   shkipakyaashishik 'blue clay' [SS:314];   nishkipakipiye'shipiyeha 'I paint it blue'.

shkipakya 'blue, green; blue-green'.

mkateewaakami   'black liquid'; mkateewileni 'Black man'; mkateewiy'kwe 'Black woman'; mkateewalwi 'charcoal' (SS: 350).

mkateewa 'black; it is black'.

wiipekwim'shkwaawi   'it is grayish red'; wiipekwimi 'speckled corn'; wiipekwim'shkothi   'roan horse' (SS:413); pkoni wiipekwa 'dark gray'; halawiwiipekwa   'light gray' (Garschet: 90).

wiipekwa 'gray; it is gray'.

wa'kanakya it is white'.

waapim'sheewe or weewa'kanakithita 'white horse';

waapa- 'white, light, morning':
an nitial stem in used in  composition.

wapanwi 'it is morning'; niwaapilecheena 'I painted his finger, his hand, white'; waapaam'kwi   'white clay'; also in many animal names (for example: waapiti 'elk', waapalanye'thi 'eagle (variety; otherwise, pele'thi)'; waapa'komiishi 'white oak' (SS:411).

There are no records by any investigator of a generic term for color. However, words for paint are associated with the use of color for war and ceremonial occasions; for this Gatschet has hat'thika 'paint of any color'.

There are three primary colors: red, yellow and blue-green.  In addition, there is black, grey, and white. Other colors are indicated by modification as 'dark' (Gatschet has "pkuni" for dark) or 'light' (halawi 'dull, faded'), or by comparison (sky-blue, leaf-green, etc.).

mshkwaawi

hothaawi

shkipakya

mkateewa

white

wa'kanakya

wiipekwa