From Bear Grease to Big Chief: The cultural acceptance of Straight Hair

Hair has always told a story of ancestry, survival, resistance, and adaptation. Long before store shelves filled with creamy relaxers and lye-based solutions, Indigenous communities across the Southeast and Eastern Woodlands were already caring for their thick, coiled, or woolly hair using natural oils like bear grease. For them, hair was sacred, styled with intention, anointed with tradition, and shaped by cultural meaning. Bear grease wasn’t just about shine or appearance; it nourished the scalp, softened coarse strands, and connected people to the natural world.

Fast forward to the early 1900s, and we meet Garrett Morgan a Black inventor who changed the course of hair history. He discovered that a chemical used to lubricate sewing machines could also straighten tightly coiled hair. The result was one of America’s first commercial hair relaxers. But to sell his product in a segregated, anti-Black society, Morgan often marketed himself in disguise donning feathers and adopting the persona of “Big Chief” to pass as Indigenous. It was a marketing move rooted not in gimmick, but survival, a reflection of how performative identity was often the key to economic opportunity.

In this post, we trace the arc from bear grease to lye, from ancestral traditions to chemical transformations and the complex history wrapped up in a single strand of hair. We’ll explore how hair care became political, how cultural practices were commodified, and how Indigenous and Black communities alike have long navigated the tension between what is natural, what is beautiful, and what is socially acceptable.

🔸 Southeastern Tribes:

1. Cherokee (Aniyvwiyaʔi)

   • Used bear grease to soften and style hair, particularly before ceremonies or public appearances.

   • Also mixed it with red ochre for face and body painting.

2. Creek (Muskogee)

   • Known for long, shiny hair, especially among men.

   • Bear grease was commonly used to maintain hair health and protect it from sun and dryness.

3. Choctaw

   • Applied bear grease to promote hair growth and strength.

   • Considered bear grease sacred, due to the bear’s spiritual significance.

4. Chickasaw

   • Used bear grease for hair grooming and also as a skin protectant.

   • Historical accounts from European observers noted their hair was often slicked and styled with bear oil.

5. Seminole

   • Bear grease was utilized in both hair and body grooming.

Used to maintain ceremonial appearance and hygiene in Florida’s humid climate.

🔸 Eastern Woodlands Tribes:

1. Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee — Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, Tuscarora)

   • Bear grease was used to style the traditional scalp lock or mohawk-style haircuts.

   • Often combined with ash or herbs to hold the style.

2. Shawnee

   • Used bear grease as part of grooming practices and to symbolize strength and vitality.

   • Bear fat was also traded among tribes for personal care purposes.

3. Lenape (Delaware)

   • Applied bear grease to keep hair supple and strong, especially in colder climates.

   • Sometimes perfumed it with pine resin or sweetgrass.

4. Powhatan Confederacy (Tidewater Virginia)

   • Described by early English settlers as having “sleek, black, shining hair” from the use of oils such as bear grease.

It was an important part of prestige and social identity.

Bear Grease Cultural Importance:

• In many of these tribes, bear hunting was ceremonial, and the fat (grease) was one of the most prized products.

• Bear grease also served medicinal purposes: for joint pain, skin issues, or insect repellant.

It was often shared in kinship networks and used during rites of passage, courting, and warfare preparation.

Primary Sources & Descriptions:

• James Adair, in History of the American Indians (1775), wrote about Southeastern Indians using bear grease on their hair for shine and scalp health.

• John Lawson (early 1700s) noted Carolina Indians using bear grease extensively in grooming.

William Bartram’s Travels (1791) mentions tribes using animal fats, especially bear, for both hair and skin applications.

🐻 How Bear Grease Was Traditionally Made:

1. Harvesting the Bear Fat

• The fat was carefully removed after a ceremonial bear hunt, often in fall or early winter when the bear’s fat content was highest.

• Fat was typically taken from the back, underarms, and belly the softest and richest deposits.

In some traditions, certain parts of the bear (like the fat or bones) were only handled by specific people, like elders or hunters, due to spiritual taboos.

2. Cutting and Rendering the Fat

• The fat was cut into small chunks and placed into a clay pot, carved stone bowl, turtle shell, or even a carved-out wooden trough depending on the tribe and resources.

• The chunks were slowly heated near or over a fire, but not directly in the flames to prevent burning.

In colder climates, the fat was sometimes rendered using hot stones placed into the container.

🔥 The key was low and slow heat allowing the fat to melt without scorching. Burnt bear grease would smell bad and be less useful for hair and ceremonial use.

3. Straining the Oil

• Once the fat melted into a liquid, it was strained using:

  • Corn husks

  • Woven grass or bark fiber filters

  • Cloth (later on, when European materials were available)

The goal was to remove meat fibers or impurities. The cleaner the oil, the better it was for hair application.

4. Cooling and Storing

• The clean bear grease was poured into:

  • Sealed gourds

  • Animal bladders

  • Clay containers

  • Later, glass jars (after European contact)

It would solidify into a soft butter-like texture at room temperature or colder climates, and could last for months if stored properly.

🔸 Optional Additives (Tribal Variations):

• Some tribes mixed in:

  • Sweetgrass, pine resin, or herbs (for fragrance)

  • Charcoal or ash (for hold or style)

  • Red ochre or clay (for coloring or ceremonial use)

Among the Cherokee and Creek, for instance, bear grease mixed with red ochre was worn during war, ceremonies, or dances.

 Ethnohistorical Sources:

• James Mooney (Cherokee ethnographer) noted bear grease being carefully rendered and reserved for grooming and sacred use.

• John Heckewelder (Moravian missionary among the Lenape) wrote that “the oil of the bear was used by the Indians for anointing the hair and body.”

William Bartram (1791) described Southeastern tribes storing bear oil in “tight vessels” and using it as a luxury.

Many Southeastern and Eastern tribes, including those like the Natchez, Cherokee, Creek, and others, had individuals with naturally woolly, coiled, or tightly curled hair, either due to African admixture or because that hair texture was already present among some American Indian populations long before European or African contact.

Natural Hair Texture Best Suited for Bear Grease:

Bear grease was especially well-suited for coarse, curly, woolly, or kinky hair textures because of its rich, emollient properties. It provided:

• Moisture to dry or tightly coiled hair

• Weight and control for thick hair prone to frizz

• Shine and definition for tightly coiled strands

Ease of combing and styling, often into braids, twists, or styles held with ash or ochre

Who Had "Woolly" Hair in These Tribes?

Historical records (including from colonial observers, slave court cases, and mixed-race classifications) document that many American Indians in the South and East had:

1. Naturally curly to woolly hair without African admixture

   • This includes Yamasee, Catawba, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Natchez.

Early European explorers (like De Soto's chroniclers) noted "black and frizzled" or "crisp" hair among Southeastern Indians as early as the 1500s

1. Individuals with African and Indigenous ancestry, particularly post-1600s

   • These groups often became part of "free people of color" communities or tri-racial isolates (like the Scypion family in Missouri, who were Natchez and Black lineage).

Their descendants maintained African-like hair textures while identifying and practicing American Indian customs.

Example: Marguerite Scypion (Natchez-identified woman, born enslaved)

• Described in court records as having “very woolly hair.”

• Scypion and her family successfully sued for freedom in the 1830s based on their American Indian (Natchez) maternal lineage, which, under Spanish and French law, prohibited Indian slavery.

Her hair texture was used to challenge or “racialize” her identity, but her legal and cultural status as Indian prevailed.

Why Bear Grease Was Used for Woolly Hair:

• Prevents breakage common with tightly curled or kinky hair.

• Softens texture for easier grooming — essential for ceremonial styles or daily braiding.

• Served spiritual and practical purposes — especially for those whose hair type could not be easily styled without added oil.

Colonists often noted that "free colored" or Indian individuals with woolly hair had “well-kept” hair due to the use of animal fats, notably bear grease, rather than European powders or pomades.

Summary: Hair Types & Bear Grease

Hair Texture	Indigenous Use of Bear Grease?	Notes
Straight	✅ Yes	Added shine, used in ceremonial prep
Wavy	✅ Yes	Smoothed flyaways, nourished ends
Curly	✅ Yes	Helped with tangles, added weight and hold
Woolly/Kinky	✅ Especially useful	Provided moisture, control, ease of grooming

Bear grease wasn’t just about appearance — it was a survival tool, a ceremonial material, and a beauty aid deeply tied to identity. It helped preserve the dignity of natural hair, regardless of texture, in an era when colonial systems tried to erase both appearance and heritage.

Garrett Morgan, “Big Chief,” and Hair Straightening

Garrett Morgan, “Big Chief,” and Hair Straightening

 Who was Garrett Morgan?

• Born in 1877 in Paris, Kentucky, to formerly enslaved parents.

• A prolific African American inventor, most famously known for the gas mask and the three-way traffic signal.

But before those inventions, he gained national attention for creating a hair-straightening product.

💈 Morgan’s Hair Product Invention (Early 1900s):

🔬 Accidental Discovery:

• While experimenting with a chemical to reduce friction in sewing machine needles, he noticed the solution also relaxed and straightened curly or woolly hair.

This led to his creation of the G.A. Morgan Hair Refining Cream, one of the earliest commercially available chemical hair relaxers in the U.S.

⚗️ Ingredients:

His product contained lye (sodium hydroxide), which breaks the protein bonds in tightly curled hair to straighten it.

🪶 Adopted Persona: "Big Chief"

• To sell the product to both African American and Indigenous markets  and to sidestep racial discrimination  Morgan sometimes disguised himself as an American Indian and called himself “Big Chief Mason” (or variations like "Big Chief Hair Straightener").

He would dress in feathered regalia, pose as an Indigenous man, and demonstrate his product because he believed white customers would not buy it from a Black man.

Bear Grease vs. Lye-Based Straighteners:

Feature	Bear Grease	G.A. Morgan’s Cream
Source	Natural animal fat (bear)	Chemical (lye-based)
Purpose	Shine, conditioning, light straightening	Full hair relaxing
Traditional use	Ceremonial, grooming, cultural identity	Commercial beauty
Used by	Indigenous tribes (esp. SE/Eastern)	Primarily African Americans
Risk	Very low (if clean)	High (burns, damage)
Cultural association	Ancestral, sacred	Modern, commercialized

Garrett Morgan’s work sits at the crossroads of invention, survival, and identity marketing. His use of the name “Big Chief” and a Native disguise wasn’t random — it shows how Indigenous identity was seen as a more acceptable “public face” than Blackness, especially in racist early 20th-century America.

FIRST TRIBE