Mystery solved! With the help Facebook friends, I believe I have a solution for Kop, the red used to color Beothuk skin red. Bloodroot grows as far north as Nova Scotia, and the root was used as a red dye. It is mixed with red ocher, a mordant (mordants combine with dyes to make them permanent). It not only dyes the skin red, the mixture is an insect repellant. [bloodroot without a mordant is toxic]
C. T. Suddeth 
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