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-The Project Gutenberg eBook of Indians of Lassen Volcanic National
-Park and Vicinity, by Paul E. Schulz
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
-will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
-using this eBook.
-
-Title: Indians of Lassen Volcanic National Park and Vicinity
-
-Author: Paul E. Schulz
-
-Release Date: June 13, 2021 [eBook #65605]
-
-Language: English
-
-Produced by: Stephen Hutcheson and the Online Distributed Proofreading
-             Team at https://www.pgdp.net 
-
-*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INDIANS OF LASSEN VOLCANIC
-NATIONAL PARK AND VICINITY ***
-
-
-
-
-
-                                INDIANS
-                                   OF
-               LASSEN VOLCANIC NATIONAL PARK AND VICINITY
-
-
-                                   by
-                             Paul E. Schulz
-
-
-                            Published by the
-
-                       Loomis Museum Association
-                     Lassen Volcanic National Park
-                          Mineral, California
-
-
-                               Copyright
-                                  1954
-
-                Printed in the United States of America
-                  Susanville _Lassen Litho_ California
-
-
-
-
-                               _PREFACE_
-
-
-It is with some temerity that the author, a geologist by training and an
-interpretive naturalist by occupation, undertakes to compile this
-booklet on Indians who once inhabited the vicinity of Lassen Peak.
-
-The main mission of a naturalist, as he functions in the National Park
-Service, is to act as an interpreter of technical information gathered
-together by research scientists. It is his obligation as well as his
-privilege to make these data of history and natural history available
-for visitors to units administered by the National Park Service of the
-United States Department of the Interior. The Park Naturalist is
-challenged to create in visitors an eager interest by presenting
-information in an appealing manner so that the great stories of the
-respective areas may be learned easily and pleasantly. In doing this,
-visitors gain fuller understanding and hence better appreciation of the
-significance of these areas. This leads to greater enjoyment of the
-scenic masterpieces, the scientific natural wonders, and the historic
-shrines of areas of the National Park System. Not only is the visitor’s
-enjoyment enhanced by his active reception of the interpretive
-facilities and services offered him by the Federal Government, but his
-pride is stimulated in these areas which have been set aside for his own
-use as well as for the benefit of future generations. A citizen’s pride
-in his park areas in turn develops a love of country. It also promotes a
-sense of responsibility which helps the National Park Service fight
-vandalism, fire carelessness, and litter carelessness to the ultimate
-benefit of all concerned.
-
-Little on the pages which follow may be classed as original material for
-it is in the role of interpreter that the undersigned has assembled
-information gleaned by qualified students.
-
-The term “Amerind” instead of the traditional word “Indian” was
-seriously considered for use in this book but finally rejected. Ever
-since Christopher Columbus’ historic mistake the word Indian has had a
-confusing two-fold meaning. Columbus, of course, thought that he had
-been successful in reaching India when his little fleet touched the
-shores of the New World. Hence he applied the word Indian to the people
-he found there, supposing them to be natives of India. The term Amerind
-is a coined contraction of the words: American Indian. The use of
-Amerind has been advocated by some authors to do away with confusion,
-and it does seem to be an excellent name, but it has not enjoyed wide
-usage by the American public.
-
-I am deeply indebted to the following named persons whose research and
-learned writings have provided the bulk of the information contained in
-the present publication. The bibliography carries the titles of the
-specific references used.
-
-  Dr. Roland B. Dixon
-  Mr. Thomas R. Garth
-  Dr. E. W. Gifford
-  Dr. Robert F. Heizer
-  Dr. Stanislaw Klimek
-  Dr. A. L. Kroeber
-  Dr. Saxton T. Pope
-  Dr. Carl O. Sauer
-  Dr. Edward Sapir
-  Dr. Leslie Spier
-  Miss Erminie W. Voegelin
-  Dr. T. T. Waterman
-
-Properly, specific credit should be given in the text for each fact and
-quotation taken from the works of others, but the result would in this
-case have been unwieldy and of no practical benefit to the readers whom
-this book is intended to reach. It is hoped that professional
-ethnologists into whose hands this volume may fall will forgive this
-unorthodox usage of the research results of serious students.
-
-Mrs. Selina La Marr (Boonookoo-ee-menorra) was a valuable and gracious
-informant. Thanks are due again to Dr. E. W. Gifford, Director of the
-Museum of Anthropology at the University of California, for many
-courtesies, including donation of a copy of Dixon’s rare “Yana Indians”
-and also for his constructive perusal of the manuscript. Others who
-assisted the author were Mrs. Grace Schulz, Miss Lois Bell of the
-University of California “University Explorer” radio program, and Mr.
-Louis Caywood, National Park Service archeologist. Dr. J. H. Woolsey,
-M.D., earned gratitude of the author by donation of his personal copy of
-Pope’s “Medical History of Ishi”. Miss Lilian Nisbet of the Tehama
-County Library was helpful in the securing of other reference materials.
-
-Most Californians are vitally interested in the Indians of this state,
-yet few are aware of the excellent California State Indian Museum
-operated by the Division of Beaches and Parks. The Indian Museum is open
-to the public daily, free of charge, in a separate building on the
-grounds of Sutter’s Fort State Historical Monument in Sacramento. The
-author highly commends this museum to you. It contains a wealth of
-authentic materials which have been organized into handsome and exciting
-story-telling exhibits of first quality by Curator Jack Dyson.
-
-                                                          Paul E. Schulz
-                                                         Park Naturalist
-                                           Lassen Volcanic National Park
-                                                               Fall 1954
-
-
-
-
-                               _CONTENTS_
-
-
-  Preface                                                              I
-  Contents                                                           III
-  Prehistoric Man Comes to North America                               1
-  Early Cultures in North America                                      4
-  The California Indians                                               8
-  Indian Tribes of the Lassen Area                                    16
-  Indian-Pioneer Conflict; the Ishi Story                             20
-  Hunting                                                             38
-  Fishing                                                             43
-  Gathering and Preparation of Other Foods                            48
-  Houses and Furnishings                                              60
-  Household Implements, Tools, and Weapons                            66
-  Basketry and Textiles                                               80
-  Tanning, Cordage, and Glue                                          96
-  Transportation                                                      99
-  Domestic Animals and Pets                                          103
-  Clothing                                                           105
-  Beauty and Personal Grooming                                       111
-  Wealth                                                             117
-  Ceremonial Dress                                                   119
-  Tobacco and Smoking                                                120
-  Music and Arts                                                     122
-  Games and Social Gatherings                                        126
-  Dances                                                             129
-  Political Organization of Tribes                                   131
-  War and Peace                                                      133
-  Birth and Babies                                                   136
-  Adulthood Rites                                                    141
-  Marriage and Divorce                                               143
-  Death and Burial                                                   145
-  Counting, Time, and Place                                          149
-  Concepts of Sun, Moon, and Stars                                   151
-  Weather Phenomena                                                  153
-  Earthquake Beliefs                                                 155
-  Creation Beliefs and Other Legends                                 157
-  Medical Treatment                                                  162
-  Spirits and Ghosts                                                 164
-  Shamanism and Doctoring                                            166
-  Miscellaneous Magic                                                173
-  Bibliography                                                       175
-
-    [Illustration: Association logo]
-
-
-
-
-                               Chapter I
-                 PREHISTORIC MAN COMES TO NORTH AMERICA
-
-
-Archeological studies of human remains from all over the world have
-shown beyond serious question that man originated in the Eastern
-Hemisphere about a million years ago. Meager remnants of prehistoric
-skeletons of man and his tools, hearths, and debris heaps have been
-found in deposits of late Cenozoic time, Chapter Five of earth’s
-history. This late Cenozoic period starting about a million years ago is
-called the Pleistocene or Ice Age. These discoveries show the orderly
-processes of survival of the fittest and of evolution developing
-successive generations of man with refined physical and mental
-qualities, ultimately producing modern man.
-
-During the Ice Age there were four separate times during which ice
-formation on all continents of the earth increased tremendously. Just
-what caused changes in climate to make this possible is not definitely
-known. Slight changes in amount of carbon dioxide in the air, which
-could have been affected by the amount of volcanic activity or by major
-changes in the amount of plant life in existence, may have affected the
-climate. Slight variations in the orbit of the earth in its course
-around the sun may also have had their influence. Even today it would
-require a drop of only a few degrees in the average annual temperature
-of the earth’s climate to produce a large increase in ice formation. All
-that is required is that a little more snow falls each winter than will
-melt in the summer. Thus, each year the excess would gradually build up
-glaciers and continental ice sheets, producing another “ice stage” in a
-few thousands of years.
-
-The area of ice in the world today is relatively small: under 6 million
-square miles, about the same as that existing during each of the four
-interglacial (warm climate) stages of the Pleistocene. During the four
-glacial stages of the Ice Age, continental ice sheets increased their
-areas by three or four times, also becoming larger in size in each
-successive cold cycle. The latest and most extensive of these glacial
-times, the Wisconsin Stage, actually saw two ice advances with a brief
-recession separating them about 60,000 years ago.
-
-During each glacial stage tremendous amounts of water were removed from
-the oceans and deposited on the continents as ice fields. This involved
-amounts of as much as 20 million cubic miles of water, causing
-world-wide lowering of sea level of about 150 or 200 feet. Today the sea
-between Alaska and Siberia is very shallow. It is not difficult to
-realize that lowered sea level during the glacial stages of the ice age
-drained the water from this and other shallow sea floors exposing these
-as land links or “land bridges” which extended between continents and
-islands. This state of affairs made possible the overland migration of
-man to the Western Hemisphere.
-
-In his illuminating paper “Early Relations of Man to Plants” Sauer has
-pointed out that early man’s migrations to the New World were not the
-result of mere aimless wanderings. Peking Man of the first interglacial
-stage about 900,000 years ago in Asia used fire in established hearths.
-He ate both cooked meats and vegetables. This evidence indicates at
-least a semi-sedentary family life. Since he had learned to make himself
-more comfortable generally by remaining in one favorable place, it
-follows logically that even primitive Peking Man migrated only when he
-could improve his lot by doing so. He moved on only when he was forced
-to do so by a failing food supply or because of crowded conditions
-caused by increasing numbers of his fellow men. It is believed that not
-only Peking Man, but his descendants were as sedentary as their food
-supply allowed them to be. Dr. Sauer observes that
-
-  “... the history of human population (numbers) is a succession of
-  higher and higher levels, each rise to a new level being brought about
-  by the discovery of more food either through occupation of a new
-  territory or through increase in food producing skill.”
-
-The invention of a better tool, improved food preparation, discovery of
-new foods, better storage, or utilization would bring about this
-increase in food availability.
-
-Apparently the twin circumstances of the need for more food and the
-existence of a dry land connection between Asia and North America
-enabled a series of migrations of prehistoric men to the New World. The
-migrations did not occur just during one glacial stage, nor during the
-last 15 or 25,000 years as some have claimed, but continued
-interruptedly over a period of many thousands of years. Perhaps such
-migrations started as long ago as 300,000 years—whenever land
-connections permitted and other conditions warranted. As a result, we
-find a number of stocks of Old World Man at various levels of cultural
-development coming into the Americas. Naturally a variety of plant and
-animal species migrated in both directions between the Old and New
-Worlds of their own accord, in addition to those which might have been
-brought along by prehistoric man.
-
-A classic example of plant migration to the New World is that of
-California’s celebrated redwoods. In China just a few years ago the
-little changed ancestors of these trees, the still-growing Metasequoia
-were discovered. In rocks of the most recent era (Chapter Five of
-earth’s history) the step by step migration of the changing redwood
-ancestors can be followed by studying successively younger rock layers
-in Siberia, Alaska, and in Canada and northwest United States. These
-relics and imprints of the foliage, fruits, and even of wood texture of
-these ancient trees were covered by sands and muds, and thus preserved
-in stone as fossils. This has made it possible to identify the ancestral
-redwood species and to demonstrate their march to California. It is
-interesting to note how the redwoods changed in the process, evolving by
-degrees to cope with new conditions of climate and soil during their
-slow migrations. At length today two distinct and unique Sequoias are to
-be found living only in California. One, the Coast Redwood, has adapted
-itself to coastal fogs and reproduction by sprouting root shoots. The
-other, restricted to drier areas of the west slope of the Sierra, the
-Sierra Redwood or Big Tree, has its needles reduced to small scales to
-withstand the drier climate, and reproduces only by seed.
-
-Sauer observes that the stone implements of prehistoric man are the best
-preserved relics of his culture and are the most easily found.
-Unfortunately the less durable and less easily recognized relics of
-skin, bone, wood, and vegetable fibers which are equally or often even
-more important clues to the past, have been altered beyond recognition
-or completely destroyed. As a result these disappeared or their
-camouflaged remnants have been overlooked and passed unrecognized by
-even careful students seeking to learn the details of this fascinating
-story of the how’s and why’s and when’s of your ancestors and mine in
-Europe and also of the Indians in Asia and in North America in general,
-and of those of the Lassen area in particular.
-
-
-
-
-                               Chapter II
-                    EARLY CULTURES IN NORTH AMERICA
-
-
-The fact that skeletons of primitive forms of man have so far not been
-discovered in the Western Hemisphere does not mean that ancestral forms
-preceding modern man did not migrate to the New World in remote times.
-It is that erroneous idea which has caused some persons to reason that
-man arrived here only in the final glacial stage. Good evidence has been
-presented to suggest that the sites he would have been most likely to
-inhabit might be submerged at present or may have been especially
-vulnerable to destruction by erosion.
-
-Certain primitive peoples of the New World (in South America) do no
-boiling of foods and do not have the dog, indicating very early
-immigration from the Old World. Dr. Sauer suggests a date during the
-third glacial stage, the Kansan, about 300,000 years ago instead of the
-Wisconsin Glacial Stage of 15,000 or 25,000 years ago as some have
-contended.
-
-At the present level of archeological and paleontological knowledge of
-prehistoric man in North America, Sauer recognizes five basic early
-cultures. These are listed below in the order of their apparent
-appearances in the New World.
-
-The most primitive and oldest culture of man recognized to date is very
-difficult to detect, for its evidences were of a fragile nature. Few
-traces of it remain to be seen today. This first culture known in North
-America lacks both stone weapon points and grinding stones. These items
-were also found lacking in the cultures of some isolated contemporary
-peoples of both North and South America.
-
-The second oldest culture in North America was that of the Ancient Food
-Grinders which appears to have been widespread in the rather rainy
-climate of the Mississippi and Pacific regions of North America. These
-people built fireplaces or hearths—beds of collected stones. They used a
-grinding slab of stone on which a handstone was rubbed to crush hard
-seeds. This indicates a greater variety of foods than used in the
-earlier culture. A number of crude pounding tools such as choppers and
-scrapers were employed as were a few rude knives of stone. It is of
-interest and significance that use of the grinder and grinding slab
-disappeared completely from most or all of this area later. The well
-known metate and mano grinding devices of the Southwest were introduced
-much later, along with the growing of corn or maize, from the Central
-American region. Coiled basketry appears to be identified with this
-second culture too, such articles being essential as containers for
-collection of seeds, winnowing, et cetera. Studies of the evidence in
-the field show also that these peoples were sedentary to the extent of
-developing refuse mounds or middens. The fact that this culture is not
-found in Europe or in Asia indicates that it developed in the Western
-Hemisphere.
-
-About 35,000 years ago the third culture appears to have developed. It
-was one in which hunting was of major importance. These hunters were not
-nomads, however, for the building of hearths, accumulations of
-artifacts, and also the general use of seed grinding stones, all
-indicate rather sedentary habits. This culture is characterized by the
-presence of dart or spear throwers, an invention of European origin.
-This indicates more recent migrations from the Old World. These darts
-were stone tipped and propelled with a spear thrower or atlatl, making
-hunting of animal food much more effective than in the case of earlier
-cultures.
-
-The fourth culture is that known by the names Folsom and Yuma. In these
-people interest in plant foods and fibers was slight, for this was
-primarily a mobile hunting culture. The people were not sedentary, but
-moved around.
-
-Well after the disappearance of the glaciers of the Ice Age, late comers
-from the Old World brought a fifth culture to the Americas. These people
-used the bow and arrow with its small and finely worked stone point.
-Fish hooks were used and many stone implements were well polished. This
-too is the first culture of the New World with which the dog was
-associated.
-
-In Eastern North America, and particularly well known in the Southwest,
-are abundant archeological evidences from easily recognized prehistoric
-living sites. These reveal a succession of more recent cultures and
-changes within cultures, as well as movement of early peoples. In
-contrast there are relatively few recognized prehistoric sites in
-California which tell much about early customs and material culture of
-aboriginal man. Some productive areas which have been found are notably
-the following: The Farmington Reservoir area of Stanislaus County more
-than 4,000 years old—possibly much older, Kingsley Cave, the Santa
-Barbara area, and the off-shore islands to the southwest of it. There
-are also a few shell mounds in the Los Angeles—Ventura area and more
-numerous and extensive ones in the San Francisco Bay vicinity. Of the
-latter shell mounds A. L. Kroeber writes:
-
-    [Illustration: AREAS AND SUBAREAS OF CULTURES IN AND ABOUT
-    CALIFORNIA
-    after A. L. Kroeber]
-
-  NORTHWESTERN CALIF.
-  NORTH PACIFIC COAST AREA
-  CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
-  SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
-  PLATEAU AREA
-  PLAINS AREA
-  CALIFORNIA-GREAT BASIN AREA
-  SOUTHWEST AREA
-  LOWER COLORADO
-
-  “... all the classes of objects (shells, refuse, mortars, pestles,
-  obsidian, charmstones, and bone awls) in question occur at the bottom,
-  middle, and top of the mounds, and ... they occur with substantially
-  the same frequency. In other words, the natives of the San Francisco
-  region traded the same materials from the same localities one, two, or
-  three thousand years ago as when they were discovered at the end of
-  the eighteenth century. They ate the same food, in nearly the same
-  proportions (only mammalian bones became more abundant in higher
-  levels), prepared it in substantially the same manner, and sewed
-  skins, rush mats, and coiled baskets similarly to their recent
-  descendants. Even their religion was conservative, since the identical
-  charms seem to have been regarded potent. In a word, the basis of
-  culture remained identical during the whole of the shell-mound period.
-
-  “When it is remembered that ... the beginning of this period
-  (occurred) more than 3,000 years ago, it is clear that we are here
-  confronted by a historical fact of extraordinary importance. It means
-  that at the time when Troy was besieged and Solomon was building the
-  temple, at a period when even Greek civilization had not yet taken on
-  the traits that we regard as characteristic, when only a few
-  scattering foundations of specific modern culture were being laid and
-  our own northern ancestors dwelled in unmitigated barbarism, the
-  native Californian already lived in all essentials like his descendant
-  of today. In Europe and Asia, change succeeded change of the
-  profoundest type. On this far shore of the Pacific, civilization, such
-  as it was, remained immutable in all fundamentals.
-
-  “... The permanence of Californian culture ... is of far more than
-  local interest. It is a fact of significance in the history of
-  civilization.”
-
-Successive intrusions of different peoples and the isolation of the
-resultant developing Indian tribes, century after century, gave rise to
-many diverse languages. Although some were mere dialects, there were
-about 750 different North American Indian languages.
-
-
-
-
-                              Chapter III
-                         THE CALIFORNIA INDIANS
-
-
-Dr. A. L. Kroeber’s map shows all tribes within the present political
-boundaries of the State of California. The tribes of the extreme
-northwest corner and those of the southern tip of the state are not
-typical of what we generally think of as “California Indians”.
-
-Although it may not be scientifically sound to do so, it is often
-convenient to refer to the Indian tribes of the California region
-collectively. The term “Digger Indians” is frequently used for this
-purpose with a somewhat disparaging connotation. The origin of this name
-is traceable to white traders and pioneers who observed that local
-Indians dug extensively for a number of food items, hence the name
-Digger was applied. However, this is a poor name as digging was but one
-of many methods the Indians used to secure food. Besides, digging was by
-no means peculiar to Indians of the California area. It is best,
-therefore, simply to use the term California Indians, if one wishes to
-refer to this group of tribes as a whole.
-
-In connection with the nickname Digger Indian, it is of interest to note
-that the California tribes used the conspicuous pine of the foothills,
-_Pinus sabiniana_, as a source of edible pine nuts and for other
-purposes too. Because the so called Digger Indians used these trees so
-much, the pioneers named the conifers Digger Pines, a name recognized
-today as the proper common name of that tree.
-
-California tribes are usually not considered high culturally among
-Indians generally, yet Yurok, Pomo, and Chumash are equal to any tribe
-in North America in wood, bone, steatite, obsidian, feather, and skin
-work, while local tribes of the Lassen area made basketry of a variety
-and quality unsurpassed elsewhere.
-
-Although there were local differences in food habits, the California
-Indians as a group had a highly diversified diet in contrast to the
-so-called one-food tribes in surrounding areas. Of course it is an
-over-simplification to speak of one-food tribes, for all ate quite a
-variety of foods. Yet, it is true that several cultures had been built
-upon the great abundance and importance of one particular food item as
-compared to all other foods eaten. North of California, Indians built
-their culture largely upon the salmon. To the east were tribes which
-depended upon the bison for most of their needs, and southeast of
-California the Southwest Indians built their culture around the all
-important maize or native corn. In any of these regional groups, if the
-main food item failed, disaster struck the tribes. In contrast, the
-Californians, with diversified eating habits, had four major food
-sources: fish, game, roots, and seeds or nuts. Each was important and
-the failure of any one caused hardship, but by no means the serious
-disaster which befell the more specialized groups of Indians if their
-main food supply item failed. If any one item of the California Indian
-diet were to be selected as the most important and universal food, one
-of the nuts, the acorn would have to be named.
-
-    [Illustration: INDIAN TRIBAL DISTRIBUTION IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
-    after A. L. Kroeber]
-
-  TOLOWA
-  YUROK
-  KAROK
-    UPPER
-    LOWER
-  SHASTAN
-    SHASTA
-    OKWANUCHU
-    ACHOMAWI
-    ATSUGEWI
-    KORO MINU
-    NEW RIVER
-  MODOC
-  NORTHERN PAIUTE
-  LASSEN VOL. NAT. PARK
-  PYOT
-  WHILIOUT
-  ATHABASCAN
-    CHILULA
-    HUPA
-    NONGATL
-    SINKYONE
-    LASSIK
-    WAILAKI
-    KATO
-  YUKI
-    YUKI
-    HUCHNOM
-    COAST YUKI
-  POMO
-    N.
-    C.
-    S.W.
-    E.
-    S.E.
-  WAPPO
-  CHIMA RIKO
-  WINTUN
-    NORTHERN
-    CENTRAL
-    SOUTHWESTERN
-    SOUTHEASTERN
-  COSTANOAN
-    SAN FRANCISCAN
-    SANTA CLARA
-    SANTA CRUZ
-  YANA
-    N.
-    CENTRAL
-    SOUTHERN
-    YAHI
-  MAIDU
-    NORTHEASTERN
-    NORTHWESTERN
-    SOUTHERN
-  WASHO
-  MIWOK
-    COAST MIWOK
-    PLAINS
-    NORTHERN
-    CENTRAL
-    SOUTHERN
-  YOKUT
-    NORTH VALLEY
-
-California Indians are often regarded to have been lazy and shiftless.
-To be sure there were such individuals, but we have that type of person
-in our midst too, and I dare say in equal or greater percentage. As a
-matter of fact, Indians generally could not afford to be lazy—there was
-no beneficent government to coddle them. It was largely a case of sink
-or swim. They had to provide their own shelter, food, and clothing as
-well as what amusement and extras—hardly to be called luxuries—they
-wished to enjoy. These things were all wrought from the wilderness with
-their own bare hands, using only wood, stone, and fire as tools. These
-native Americans lived in a stone-age culture. Metals, the wheel,
-domesticated herd animals, and agriculture were unknown to California
-Indians. Although there was some seasonal migration, there were no truly
-nomadic or wandering tribes in California.
-
-In California there were 103 separate tribes each speaking its own
-language. To be sure, some were mere dialects of others, but there were
-21 tongues completely distinct from each other and mutually
-unintelligible. These belonged to several unrelated language families,
-as shown on the second map.
-
-As suggested above, Kroeber has shown that we are technically incorrect
-in referring to the California Indians as a single group of tribes.
-Within the political boundaries of the State of California there were
-actually three separate cultures with a number of subcultures, which
-were as follows: The small area in the northwest corner of the state,
-the Klamath River drainage, was occupied by the Northwest California
-Sub-culture, a part of the North Pacific Coast Culture which extended
-into British Columbia. The California-Great Basin Culture had three
-representatives in the state: the smallest or Lutuami Sub-culture,
-represented by the Modoc tribe only, extended down from the north across
-the east central portion of the northern boundary of California. The
-next larger was the Great Basin Sub-culture just east of the
-Cascade-Sierra backbone. The third and largest sub-culture of the
-California-Great Basin Culture was that of the Central California tribes
-(the Diggers of the pioneer), extending westward from the Cascade-Sierra
-crest to the Pacific Ocean across the bulk of the state. The fifth
-sub-culture is known as the Southern California comprising the area
-south of the Tehachapi Mountains from the coast east across the Colorado
-River, being a part of the Southwest Culture.
-
-    [Illustration: LINGUISTIC FAMILIES
-    INDIAN LANGUAGE GROUPS OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA and the families to
-    which they belong, after A. L. Kroeber]
-
-  Lutuamian
-    LUTUAMI
-  Hokan
-    KAROK
-    SHASTAN
-    CHIMARIKO
-    POMO
-    WASHO
-    YANA
-  Shoshonian
-    PAIUTE
-  Penutian
-    WINTUN
-    MAIDU
-    MIWOK
-    YOKUT
-    COSTANOAN
-  Algonkian
-    YUROK
-  Athabascan
-    ATHABASCAN
-  Yukian
-    YUKI
-
-Nevertheless, some generalities hold, and at the risk of the inaccuracy
-which is typical of generalizations, we might set forth the following
-customs as being characteristic of California Indians:
-
-Animal flesh bulked a smaller volume of food eaten than did vegetable
-materials—or, in the case of coastal peoples, than did seafoods. Dog and
-reptile flesh were considered poisonous or undesirable, but insects and
-worms were generally eaten. Acorns were the most important single food.
-All tribes utilized seeds of such plants as buckeye, grass, sedge, and
-sunflower family plants. All items, but the first, were collected with a
-basketry seed beater in a conical burden basket, parched, winnowed,
-ground, and eaten either dry, as unleavened bread, or as boiled mush.
-
-Although the fish hook and line were known throughout the area, most
-fishing was done by means of nets, weirs, use of poison, and harpoons
-thrust, but not thrown.
-
-Hunting with bow and arrow was most important. Disguise and dogs were
-used in the north, but surrounding the game was the common means of
-hunting in the south.
-
-The northern bow was short, broad, and sinew backed while southern
-Californians used long narrow bows without reinforcement.
-
-Arrows were usually two-piece and tipped with obsidian points. Three
-different arrow releases were used among California Indians. Northern
-arrows were straightened by use of a hole through a piece of wood or
-similar material, and were polished by use of horsetail stalks while a
-grooved squarish soapstone (steatite) did both jobs in the south.
-
-Basketry was highly developed, being California’s best art form. The
-northern quarter of the area did twined basketry; coiled basketry
-prevailed elsewhere.
-
-Cloth was unknown, but woven rabbit skin strip blankets were universal,
-especially for bedding. Rush mats were twined and sewn.
-
-Pottery was unknown except for a very crude undecorated form in the San
-Joaquin Valley, an intrusion from the Southern California Sub-culture
-where pottery became important.
-
-Music of California was characterized by singing, rattles, whistles,
-split slap sticks, flute, and musical bow. The last two instruments were
-the only ones which were able to make real melodies, but amazingly,
-neither one was used for dances or ceremonies. California Indians were
-virtually without any drums—the exception being a single headed flat
-foot drum used in ceremonial sweathouse chambers of the tribes in the
-Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys.
-
-Dress of California women was a front and a back apron of
-skin—especially buckskin—or of plant fiber. Men wore nothing or a folded
-skin about the hips or between the legs. In bad weather both sexes used
-cape-like or wrap-around (over one arm and under the other) skin robes.
-In localized areas the brimless dome-shaped basketry cap was worn by
-women. Hair of both sexes was long (but shorn in mourning) and
-frequently put up in nets by men. Men removed their beards by pulling
-with their fingers.
-
-In mountain areas social and religious cults were lacking. In the
-extreme northwest corner wealth dances were held; in central California
-the secret society and Kuksu dances, in the south the Jimsonweed
-initiation system, and in the Colorado River area the dreamsong ceremony
-flourished.
-
-Houses varied from open enclosures and brush or bark shelters to frame
-structures more or less completely dug into the ground and covered with
-bark, brush, and dirt, usually with a roof entrance and or one to the
-south; this was the earth lodge. In the extreme northwest housing was
-not the earth lodge, but a structure built on top of the ground;
-hand-split planks were used in its construction.
-
-Sweat houses were of the earth lodge type, often of daily service and in
-northern areas, lived in too. Sweat houses of California were not heated
-by steam, but directly with fire.
-
-Boats generally were of rushes tied into balsa rafts or into boat
-shapes. In addition one-piece dugout canoes from tree logs were typical
-of the northern portion of California, becoming progressively more
-refined in workmanship and in design to the northwest. A unique lashed
-split board canoe was made by channel island tribes in the Santa Barbara
-vicinity.
-
-The tribe as a political unit, so common elsewhere in America, did not
-exist in California. What we call a tribe was actually a number of
-groups of Indians, each of whom had a chief, spoke the same language
-dialect, had the same customs, intermarried regularly, and were usually
-mutually friendly. There was no tribal chief as such.
-
-In the northwest portion of California wealth was so important that real
-chieftain leadership was lacking. In central and southern California the
-chief was a powerful local leader on a hereditary basis. Between the two
-extremes was a zone where tribes struck a compromise; the hereditary
-local chief had moderate authority and usually was well to do, but not
-necessarily so. Rich men in smaller political divisions were influential
-headmen under the local chief.
-
-Warfare was only for revenge and not for plunder or for a desire for
-distinction. Except for the Northwest Sub-culture, scalps were generally
-taken and included the victim’s skin down to his eyes or nose, and
-including the ears. Not infrequently the whole head was taken by a
-victorious warrior. The weapon was the bow and arrow, with rocks
-employed in close combat. Such war implements as shields, clubs, spears
-(throwing), and tomahawks were not used.
-
-Guessing games, usually played by men, were universal, with variations,
-and heavy gambling was the rule. Shinny in several different forms was
-widely played.
-
-Shamans were employed for curing diseases which were believed due to the
-presence in the body of some foreign hostile object. This was removed by
-sucking accompanied by singing, dancing, and tobacco smoking.
-
-The girls’ adulthood or puberty ceremony and dance was important to all
-California tribes.
-
-Population figures even on the most scholarly basis, Kroeber states, are
-at best reasonable guesses. As nearly as can be determined there were
-originally about one million Indians in North America, three million in
-Central America, and three million in South America. California probably
-had about 133,000 Indians or nearly one per square mile. This is a
-density three or four times greater than for the whole of North America.
-
-Today the North American Indian population (including about 30%
-half-breeds) is less than 10% of what it was. Over 90% of our Indians
-have been destroyed by wholesale killing at the hands of the white man,
-by new diseases, unfavorable changes in diet, clothing, and dwellings
-plus such Caucasian cultural factors as settlement, concentration, and
-the like. The decline in Indian population varied directly with the
-degree of civilized contact the several tribes experienced. It is
-interesting to note that virtually all of the Indians exposed to the
-Spanish missions commencing 1769 are gone except for a few in the
-extreme south who were only partly missionized. Kroeber states:
-
-  “It must have caused many of the fathers a severe pang to realize, as
-  they could not but do daily, that they were saving souls only at the
-  inevitable cost of lives. And yet such was the overwhelming fact. The
-  brute upshot of missionization, in spite of its kindly flavor and
-  humanitarian root, was only one thing: death.”
-
-Kroeber also points out that some tribes had much less resistance and
-hence suffered greater decline in population in response to equal white
-contact than others did. As in the case of other living things, there
-were favorable circumstances under which the Indian flourished—where
-life was relatively easy and secure. Such conditions produced virile
-stock and a rich culture both materially and spiritually—a condition
-found in broad valleys drained by the great rivers of California: the
-Klamath, the Sacramento, and the San Joaquin. As is also the case with
-specific plants and animals, Indians in less favorable sites lived
-submarginally—a difficult existence, poor in material and spiritual
-culture. Under such circumstances it takes just a small amount of
-additional unfavorable influence to make existence impossible. On this
-basis Kroeber explains the extinction or near extinction of poor
-mountain tribes upon contact with the whites while the Indians of the
-fertile valleys, although suffering more intensive Caucasian contact,
-were able to survive in reasonable numbers. This is a specific exception
-to the general observation made above that population decrease varied
-directly with the degree of contact. There are examples in California;
-the local one is the survival of valley Maidu and Wintun populations as
-compared to the surrounding mountain people with poorer cultures: the
-Yahi, Yana, Okwanuchu, Shasta, New River Shasta, Chimariko, and the
-Athabascan tribes of the west with survival percentages today of up to
-only 5% at best.
-
-There is another factor which caused greater devastation of the
-economically insecure mountain tribes. White settlers were able to use
-to their own advantage some of the labor, services, and even food which
-the valley Indians afforded them. Thus it was not to the interest of the
-whites to wipe out these Indians. On the other hand, the mountain tribes
-with a poorer economy were prone to steal livestock to supplement their
-food supplies as they had no means to gain wealth to enable them to buy
-from the whites. Such depredations were a major cause of retaliation by
-white man in the form of bloody punitive attacks on Indians from whom
-the settlers had nothing to gain.
-
-
-
-
-                               Chapter IV
-                    INDIAN TRIBES OF THE LASSEN AREA
-
-
-Lassen Peak with an elevation of 10,453 feet above sea level is the
-central high point of a somewhat topographically isolated mountain mass
-of volcanic origin. The slopes descending in all directions from Lassen
-Peak are clothed in coniferous forests, dotted with small lakes of
-glacial origin, and drained by a few fish bearing streams flowing
-radially from the mountain. There are also a few hot spring areas and
-some barren expanses where recent eruptions have produced mudflows and
-lavas. For the most part, game abounds in the Lassen highland, but the
-winters are snowy and severe, making it unsuitable for Indians to live
-there the year around.
-
-As shown on the map, parts of the lands of four distinct tribes of
-Indians lay within what are today the boundaries of Lassen Volcanic
-National Park. Permanent homes and villages of Atsugewi, Yana, Yahi and
-mountain Maidu tribes were at lower elevations in the Ponderosa Pine and
-Digger Pine belts, and situated near streams. There food was relatively
-easily available and winters were the least severe within the limits of
-the respective tribal territories.
-
-Each summer when deer migrated to higher elevations, the Indians also
-moved toward Lassen Peak to hunt and to fish trout, spending the whole
-summer in temporary camps.
-
-There was some contact between the four tribes during their sojourns in
-the uplands of the park area, but the activities of each Indian group
-were pretty well confined to its own territory. The four Lassen tribes
-did on occasion engage in small battles, but this was the exception
-rather than the rule—generally speaking they lived harmoniously as
-neighbors, and there was even occasional inter-marriage between tribes.
-
-These tribes all had simple hill or mountain cultures which, in spite of
-some difference of custom, were surprisingly alike. It is believed that
-this is due to the fact that the four tribes all lived under very
-similar conditions of environment—the same type of country in many
-respects. The similarity of their cultures is all the more interesting
-in that the Atsugewi were of the Hokan Family, speaking a Shastan
-language. Yana and Yahi, also of Hokan stock spoke Yana languages. The
-mountain Maidu were of the Penutian Family, speaking a Maidu language.
-
-According to the best available figures, some of which are only
-reasonable guesses, populations of the local tribes were probably about
-as follows:
-
-    [Illustration: INDIAN TRIBAL AREAS OF THE LASSEN REGION
-    after A. L. Kroeber and T. R. Garth—note the boundaries of Lassen
-    Volcanic National Park dashed in above and left of center of the
-    map. Lassen Peak is at the junction of the Atsugewi, Yana, and Maidu
-    territories.]
-
-  ACHOMAWI
-  SHASTAN
-    OKWANUCHU
-  NORTHERN WINTUN
-  CENTRAL WINTUN
-  S. E. WINTUN
-  CENTRAL YANA
-  NORTH (YANA)
-  SOUTHERN YANA
-  ATSUGEWI
-    ATSUGE
-    APWARUGE
-  NORTHERN PAIUTE
-  NORTHEASTERN MAIDU
-  NORTHWESTERN MAIDU
-  SOUTHERN MAIDU
-  WASHO
-
-                                  1770     1910     1950
-
-  Atsugewi                       1,000      250       75
-  Yana (north, central, s)         750       25       10
-  Yahi                             275        5     none
-  Maidu (mountain)               2,000      800      300
-  Totals                         4,025    1,080      385
-
-  Garth states that: “The Atsugewi are divided into two major groups,
-  the Atsuge or pinetree-people, who occupy Hat Creek Valley, and the
-  Apwaruge—from Apwariwa, the name of Dixie Valley—who live to the east
-  in and around Dixie Valley. Sometimes the Apwaruge are called
-  Mahoupani, juniper-tree-people, a name which reflects the dry and
-  barren nature of their territory....
-
-  “... certain cultural differences (existed) between the eastern and
-  western Atsugewi, who in most aspects of nonmaterial culture and in
-  language are one people. In the western area there was more abundant
-  rainfall and a fairly luxuriant growth of pines, oaks, and other
-  trees. Here the Atsuge subsisted largely on acorns and fish; made
-  twined basketry, using willow, pine root, _Xerophylum_ grass, and
-  redbud materials; and had bark houses and numerous other structures of
-  bark. On the contrary, in the eastern area, which is comparatively
-  arid and lacking in trees, the Apwaruge depended on the acorn less
-  than did the Atsuge and fishing was less important, to judge by the
-  scarcity or lack of nets, fish hooks, and harpoons; made inferior
-  twined baskets of twisted tule with a different twist to the weave; as
-  a rule had their houses covered with tule mats rather than with bark;
-  and were much poorer than the Atsuge. This cultural distinction
-  between the eastern and western areas is also found to the north among
-  the Achomawi.”
-
-Dixon’s studies have revealed that the Maidu had no general name for
-themselves, remarkable as this may seem. The name Maidu was first used
-by Stephen Powers in 1877 in his volume “TRIBES OF CALIFORNIA”, a name
-he arbitrarily applied to these Indians since the word meant “Indian” or
-“man” in their language. The adjectives northwest or valley, northeast
-or mountain, and southern or foothill are applied to identify the three
-different cultures corresponding to the three distinct geographic
-provinces inhabited by the Maidu Indians as a whole. In a number of
-respects the culture of the mountain or northeast Maidu was more like
-that of their northern neighbors, the Atsugewi, than it was like that of
-the closely related southern and northwestern Maidu peoples. Obviously
-the factor of environment or characteristics of the land occupied is of
-extreme importance in creating such a situation.
-
-
-
-
-                               Chapter V
-             INDIAN—PIONEER CONFLICT AND THE STORY OF ISHI
-
-
-Conflict—prolonged, tragic, and violent—flared during the period when
-Europeans wrested control of North America from the native Indian. In
-viewing the struggle between Indian and white man, feelings run high
-even today.
-
-What was it when Custer’s contingent was wiped out?—when the Modocs
-inflicted such heavy losses on the American troops?—when the Navajo,
-Sioux, and others made their devastating raids on wagon trains and
-pioneer settlers? These were just as much a part of the war as were the
-exploits of Rogers’ Rangers, the indiscriminate slaying of Indian men,
-women, and children in the Yahi caves on Mill Creek, and the
-annihilation of large segments of Atsugewi and Yana tribes cornered at
-points northwest of the present Lassen Volcanic National Park area. War
-is never a pretty thing. Was the hit and run killing of white people by
-Indians any less defensible morally than white man’s atrocities against
-the Indians, or, for that matter, than commando raids and atomic
-bombings of today? Our viewpoint on such matters in the past has all too
-often been that might makes right, since we have always been on the
-winning side. Until very recently we have followed the biased opinion of
-the colonists and pioneers of these United States: whenever we won, it
-was a glorious and righteous victory, but if the Indian emerged
-victorious, it was regarded as a dastardly massacre. It is a viewpoint
-readily understandable where a person’s loved ones are involved—but not
-justifiable.
-
-Our veterans of recent wars will vouch for the fact that white man’s
-wars can be primitive and violent when life and limb are at stake. We
-are hardly in a position to criticize the “cruel and sneaking” fighting
-methods of the Indians. Was it not use of Indian fighting methods which
-was so valuable to us in defeating the British in the colonial war for
-independence?
-
-Indians fought in the only way they knew—and a disheartening losing
-fight it was for them with bows and arrows against rifles. For each gain
-in weapons and technical know-how the Indians made, the whites made
-many. True, it cost Americans much in the way of lives, anguish, and
-money, but how small were these losses in comparison to those of the
-Indians. American Indians, the undisputed owners of this continent for
-thousands of years, were not only nearly exterminated, but in the end we
-took virtually all of their land by force and with it took away the
-means of self support as well without “due process of law”. We denied
-the Indian the right of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of
-happiness”—the very things for which we as a nation stand. In all
-fairness, however, it should be stated that in recent years modest
-monetary retribution has been made by the U.S. Government to some of the
-surviving descendants.
-
-S. F. Cook has pointed out that Spanish contact with California Indians
-was a rather passive matter. Spanish penetrated deeply, but did not
-settle on Indian lands of appreciable size. The Spanish were present in
-small numbers, a population numbering perhaps 4,000 by 1848. To be sure
-there was occasional bloodshed, but it was the exception in Spanish
-California rather than the rule, for the Spanish regarded Indians as an
-asset, a human resource which provided labor and even some food and
-materials. The Indians were a respected element in the social and
-economic structure of Hispanic California, having civic and legal
-rights. Even under the Spanish, was there a great reduction of the
-Indian population through limited warfare and displacement, but much
-more importantly through disease. Nevertheless, by 1845 a more or less
-satisfactory equilibrium seems to have evolved between the Spanish and
-the California Indians.
-
-In contrast the hordes of white immigrants who followed considered the
-Indians entirely useless and there was no place for the latter in the
-pioneers’ economy of material wealth. All good lands were taken from the
-Indians arbitrarily and as quickly as possible. However, it must be
-stated that there were exceptions to both the Spanish and Gringo
-relations with the California Indians, but, in general, the foregoing
-statements are accurate.
-
-How the conflict of pioneer versus Indian affected the Atsugewi is
-summarized for us by Garth as follows:
-
-  “The Atsugewi, because of their somewhat secluded mountain habitat,
-  were spared contact with white civilization until the middle of the
-  nineteenth century. Although there were vague reports of contact with
-  Spanish explorers or Mexican bandits, these could not be verified.
-  Peter Skene Ogden may have been the first white man to visit the area
-  (1827-1828). Besides the trappers, Fremont, Greenwood, and other
-  explorers probably skirted Atsugewi country. Peter Lassen passed
-  through Achomawi-Atsugewi country in opening the Pit River Route of
-  1848. He was soon followed by a stream of white migration from the
-  east which was devastating to the Indians and their culture.
-  Prospectors entered the Lassen region in 1851, and not long afterward
-  came white settlers. By about 1859 the Indians were felt to be a
-  menace to the whites in the area and were rounded up by militia and
-  taken to the Round Valley Indian Reservation. Unsatisfactory
-  conditions at the Reservation caused most of them to leave in 1863 and
-  return to their old haunts along Hat Creek and Dixie Valley.
-
-  “Joaquin Miller reports an uprising in 1867 of the Pit River and Modoc
-  Indians, who had made up old differences and were now fighting
-  together. A number of whites were massacred. Miller speaks of an
-  Indian camp being made on Hat Creek in the war that followed. It is
-  not thus improbable that the Atsuge participated in that war. After a
-  year or so of fighting the Indians suffered a final crushing defeat
-  and surrendered. This last engagement may be the one at Six Mile Hill,
-  spoken of by informants, in which a large number of their people were
-  cornered in a cave and massacred by soldiers. After this, many of the
-  Indians were again removed to Round Valley. Those remaining and some
-  who subsequently returned from the Reservation maintained friendly
-  relations with the whites. Today most Atsugewi live on allotments in
-  their old territory, the younger Indians often working for their white
-  neighbors or for the lumber mills. The census of 1910 gives a
-  population of 240 for ‘Hat Creek Indians’. This figure may also have
-  included the Dixie Valley Atsugewi, since they are not mentioned in
-  the census. The present population is probably half that or less.”
-
-The Maidu also were decimated upon contact with white man. However, with
-only rare exception, Maidu accepted rather passively invasion of their
-territory with the attendant driving away of game and destruction of
-fish in the streams by mining operations in gold rush days. However,
-since the remnants of the Maidu were in the way of white mans’
-developments, treaties were made in 1851 by which these Indians gave up
-all claims to their ancestral lands and were taken to short lived
-reservations in Amador, Nevada and Butte Counties, also later to the
-Round Valley Reservations in the Coast Range. A great many Maidu soon
-returned to their homes. In the late 50’s and 60’s a desultory war was
-waged on the Maidu by California State troops which further reduced the
-number of surviving Indians of this tribe.
-
-The management of the University of California’s excellent informative
-“UNIVERSITY EXPLORER” radio program series has given permission to quote
-the following from its broadcasts. This material concerns the conflict
-of the closely related Yana and Yahi tribes with the whites and the
-fabulous story of Ishi. The script has been abridged and considerably
-rearranged:
-
-  “... The Yana way of life was a strange one to the white observer, but
-  the tribes prospered under it until white emigration from the East
-  threw them into conflict with a new and unfriendly people. The
-  Indians, of course, resented the white incursion and revolted against
-  it. That happened in all sections of the country where whites
-  displaced Indians, but it would be hard to imagine a more inept way of
-  handling the situation than that used by the white men in the
-  Sacramento Valley. Some of the large land owners protected the Indians
-  of their holdings; among them were General John Bidwell, one of the
-  founders of Chico, (Peter Lassen on his Rancho Bosquejo between Mill
-  and Deer Creeks), and John Sutter, on whose property the Gold Rush
-  started. But they were exceptions. Most of the settlers apparently
-  believed the only way to handle the natives was to compete with them
-  in cruelty. One celebrated Indian-killer took great pride in a blanket
-  he had made from Indian scalps. The whites had learned scalping from
-  the Eastern Indians, but they themselves popularized it in
-  California....
-
-  “The Indians often plundered settlers’ cabins and stole livestock.
-  This was natural, since they regarded the whites as invaders.
-  Unfortunately, the settlers’ retaliation frequently consisted of
-  rounding up a gang of Indians and slaughtering them. And it didn’t
-  make too much difference whether they were the guilty Indians.
-  Professor Waterman wrote that the Yahi expressed their resentment of
-  the white men more violently than did the other Yana groups, but since
-  the Yahi moved around more and displayed greater skill in hiding out,
-  quite innocent groups of Indians often took the blame for the acts of
-  the Yahi. Professor Waterman cited the case of one white posse which
-  took to the trail following a series of Indian raids. The posse came
-  upon an encampment of Indians and shot about forty of them. But the
-  Indians had been camped in the same place for two nights, and the
-  whites later found a couple of almost-empty whiskey barrels there. It
-  doesn’t stand to reason, Professor Waterman pointed out, that Indians
-  skilled in warfare would be so careless after an attack on their
-  enemies.
-
-  “As the animosity between white men and red men grew, the atrocities
-  on both sides became revolting. White women and children were tortured
-  and killed by the Yana. But the anthropologists who have studied this
-  unpleasant phase of California history believe the whites invited such
-  savage assaults by their own brutal mistreatment of the Indians.
-
-  “... The Yana gradually took to the woods as it became obvious that
-  they were being outnumbered and decimated by the settlers in one
-  massacre after another. By the late 1860’s the Indians had been
-  reduced in numbers and intimidated to the point where they no longer
-  could be considered a serious menace to the people who had taken over
-  their hunting grounds. By then the Indians’ crimes were more on the
-  level of petty theft than major violence. The three Yana tribes had
-  become almost extinct as social organizations, but a fair number of
-  Yana-speaking individuals survived long after the turn of the century.
-
-  “With the Yahi tribe, however, it was a different story. For a long
-  time the Yahi—then called the Mill Creeks, because area around that
-  little stream was their principal hunting ground—for a long time, the
-  Yahi were believed to have been wiped out in a final massacre in
-  1865.... In 1871, a group of cattle-herders in Tehama County found a
-  spot where Indians apparently had wounded a steer. The whites used
-  dogs to follow the steer’s bloody trail, and cornered some thirty
-  Indians in a hillside cave. They promptly slaughtered the Indians,
-  including several children. The settlers’ peculiar idea of mercy was
-  pointed out by Professor Waterman’s informant, who noted that one of
-  the cattle-herders could not bear to kill the children with his .56
-  caliber rifle—‘it tore them up so bad’ he said. So he did it instead
-  with a .38 caliber revolver.... They call the rock shelter Kingsley
-  Cave after Norman Kingsley, the settler who ... supposedly ... shot
-  the Indian children. The Kingsley Cave site was apparently used for a
-  long time. Grinding tools of two different cultural periods were found
-  ... (by University of California Archeological Survey staff
-  excavations currently investigating the site).
-
-  (The Yahi were thought to have been completely wiped out by this last
-  unjustified atrocity, but in 1908) “... surveyors for a power company
-  in the hilly country around Deer Creek reported they had caught a
-  glimpse of a naked Indian standing poised near the stream with a
-  double-pronged primitive fishing spear. Next day, other members of the
-  party were startled when an arrow came whistling through the
-  underbrush at them—a stone-tipped arrow like those used by the
-  supposedly extinct Indians. The surveyors kept on pushing ahead, until
-  they came upon a cleverly concealed camp in the tangled woods. There
-  they found a middle-aged woman and two aged and feeble Indians, a man
-  and a woman. The old woman, hiding under a pile of rabbit skins,
-  apparently wanted water, and the surveyors gave her some after the old
-  man and the other woman had hidden in the underbrush. The surveyors
-  also carried off all the blankets, bows and arrows and other articles
-  in sight; but when they returned next day to make some sort of
-  restitution, the Indians had disappeared. They were never seen again,
-  even though the University later sent anthropologists in search of
-  them....
-
-  “... with the dawn of a clear August day in 1911.... The butchering
-  crew of a slaughterhouse near Oroville were awakened ... by a furious
-  barking of the dogs at the corral. They rushed into the corral to find
-  a man crouching in the mud, surrounded by the slaughterhouse shepherd
-  dogs. The butchers called off the dogs to get a closer look at their
-  guest—and a most unusual guest he was.
-
-  “The man’s only clothing was a piece of torn, dirty canvas across his
-  shoulders. His skin was sunburned to a copper brown, his hair was
-  clipped close to the skull, and he obviously was suffering from severe
-  malnutrition. His body was emaciated and his cheeks clung to the bones
-  to accentuate his furiously glaring eyes.
-
-  “But the strangest thing about this man was his speech. It was like
-  nothing the butchers had ever heard.... The sheriff tried English and
-  Spanish, then several Indian dialects. But he was unable to draw any
-  intelligible response from his prisoner. For lack of a better place to
-  put him, the sheriff locked him in the jail cell reserved for mental
-  cases, even though the man from the slaughterhouse appeared to be more
-  lost than insane.
-
-  “The ‘Wild Man of Oroville’ made good newspaper copy, and clippings
-  about his mysterious discovery caused much excitement in the
-  department of anthropology at the University of California. It was a
-  good thing that the news reached the University when it did. The
-  frightened wild man was cowering in his cell, refusing to accept food
-  from his captors whom he obviously distrusted, while the sheriff
-  vainly tried to identify him.
-
-  “The late Professor T. T. Waterman was especially excited. So excited,
-  in fact, that he stuffed a few clothes in his suitcase, quickly picked
-  out a list of words from the files on California Indian languages, and
-  caught the first train to Oroville for an interview with the prisoner.
-
-  “The reason for Professor Waterman’s excitement was that he believed
-  the Oroville prisoner was a Yahi Indian. If this guess was correct,
-  Waterman would have a major anthropological find. For anthropologists
-  are concerned with origins, development and variegated cultures of
-  mankind; and if the frightened prisoner in Oroville turned out to be a
-  Yahi, Professor Waterman and his colleagues would have a living
-  encyclopedia of the language, customs, and habits of a people who were
-  believed to be extinct ... he might be one of the little band reported
-  at Deer Creek (in 1908), perhaps the man with the fishing spear.
-
-  “The task of determining whether the prisoner was Yahi was complicated
-  by the fact that no one knew the Yahi language. This doesn’t sound
-  like an insuperable stumbling block, until you remember that the
-  California Indian languages were numerous and distinct; there were
-  over one hundred dialects, many of them mutually unintelligible. These
-  dialects were classified into eighteen major language groups, which in
-  turn made up six entirely different language families. These six
-  language families apparently are completely unrelated—a strange
-  circumstance, when you consider that almost all of the languages of
-  Europe can be traced to common origins.
-
-  “However, Professor Waterman was fortunate in one respect. A fairly
-  extensive word-list had been collected from the dialect of the Nozi
-  Indians who had once lived just to the north of the Yahi and were
-  their nearest relatives. Both the Yahi and the Nozi belonged to the
-  Yana language stock, which stemmed from the widespread Hokan family.
-  So Professor Waterman relied on Nozi words to make the identification.
-
-  “At first, the prisoner in Oroville seemed as frightened of Professor
-  Waterman as he had been of all the other white men. Patiently, the
-  anthropologist proceeded through his list of Nozi words, but the
-  captive Indian apparently recognized none of them. At last, though,
-  the professor pointed to the wooden frame of the Indian’s cot, and
-  pronounced the word ‘si’wi’ni,’ which according to his list meant
-  ‘yellow pine’. Immediately, the Indian relaxed. His harried, unhappy
-  look turned to beaming good cheer, and he acted as if he had found a
-  long-lost friend. Pointing to his cot, he repeated Professor
-  Waterman’s word ‘si’wi’ni’ several times, as if agreeing that, yes,
-  his cot was yellow pine. His own language differed from that of the
-  Nozi, but some of the vocabulary was the same. Professor Waterman had
-  struck upon one of the right words; later, he pronounced more familiar
-  words, and it was established that the Indian was a Yahi. He also
-  managed to explain that he called himself ‘Ishi’, which meant simply,
-  ‘I am a man’.
-
-  “Professor Waterman was naturally elated with his new-found
-  acquaintance. The Butte County sheriff was equally elated to be rid of
-  his difficult charge, so Ishi was taken to the Museum, then located in
-  San Francisco, for further study and interrogation.
-
-  “Thus it happened that this human relic of the Stone Age came to live
-  at a modern university. The Regents of the University gave Ishi some
-  official status by appointing him an assistant janitor at $25 a month.
-  But his value to the University did not come from dexterity with a mop
-  and broom; he was valued because he could tell the anthropologists
-  about his people, preserving knowledge which otherwise would have died
-  with his fellow-tribesmen.
-
-  “Ishi adapted himself well to this new life, and he was a friendly and
-  popular fixture at the museum for five years. He picked up the white
-  man’s ways by watching the people around him; at his first civilized
-  dinner, he imitated his hosts’ motions and managed a knife and fork
-  far more skilfully than most of us can handle chopsticks in a Chinese
-  restaurant. He was delighted and awe-stricken by many of the
-  developments of civilization; but the things that impressed him most
-  were not what the anthropologists had expected. Electric lights,
-  airplanes, and automobiles made little impression; they were
-  completely beyond his range of experience, and he dismissed them as
-  ‘white man’s magic’, worthy of little attention. The tall buildings in
-  downtown San Francisco did not startle him; as he explained, his own
-  country had cliffs and crags just as high. But what really amazed him
-  about the city were the enormous crowds of people on the streets. He
-  had seen people before, of course, but never more than twenty or
-  thirty in one place.
-
-  “In general, the things that Ishi considered most remarkable were
-  things which approached something in his own experience. He knew how
-  hard it was to start a fire by friction, so pocket matches were indeed
-  a wonder. Water faucets which could be turned on and off were likewise
-  marvelous; why, the white man could make a spring, right there in the
-  house! One of the first modern devices to catch Ishi’s babbled
-  attention was an ordinary window roller shade. He tried to push it
-  aside, but it flipped back; he lifted it, but it fell down. Finally
-  someone showed him how to give it a little tug and let it roll itself
-  up, and Ishi was amazed. A half-hour later, he was still trying to
-  figure out what had happened to the shade.
-
-  “Ishi and his hosts learned to communicate with each other fairly
-  adequately; he never became accustomed to formal grammar, but he
-  picked up a vocabulary large enough to express his wishes and his
-  comments about the things around him. Actually, the anthropologists
-  admitted, Ishi learned to speak English far better than any of them
-  were able to learn Yahi. They suspected that some of his vocabulary
-  was acquired from the school children who used to visit him, for it
-  included a fair sampling of most unacademic slang.
-
-  “There were some things Ishi didn’t like to talk about—the death of
-  his relatives and the last horrible years around Deer Creek before he
-  wandered to the Oroville slaughterhouse—were subjects he found too
-  painful. Besides, there was a tribal taboo against mentioning the
-  names of the dead. His close-cropped head, incidentally, was the
-  result of burning off his hair in mourning for his mother and sister,
-  in accordance with tribal custom.
-
-  “But the knowledge which Ishi passed on was rich and varied.... Among
-  the contributions for which Ishi is remembered are some of the finest
-  arrowheads and spear tips in existence; he made these for the
-  University Museum both of modern bottle glass and from the natural
-  materials.... In fact, Ishi was the source of almost all that is known
-  of Yahi life. He gladly described the customs of his people, and he
-  enjoyed chipping out Stone Age weapons and showing how they were used.
-  With primitive drawings, he tried to tell the story of the massacre
-  which wiped out most of his tribe....
-
-  “Ishi’s own life ended in March 1916, when he died of tuberculosis. He
-  was then believed to be in his 50’s. Those who knew him at the
-  University considered his death a great loss—not only because of what
-  he had contributed to anthropology, but because he had a natural
-  friendliness and dignity which made him a beloved personality.
-  Professor A. L. Kroeber once told me: ‘The manner in which he
-  acquitted himself, both from the scientific and social points of view,
-  was so admirable that everyone who chanced to meet him counted it a
-  privilege to be his friend’. And Ishi had the comforting knowledge
-  that his departure from this earth would not be a completely alien
-  one. Because he had passed on the elements of his culture, it was
-  possible to bury him with all the ceremony of his own people. His bows
-  and arrows were laid beside him, and some bowls of food were placed in
-  the grave so he would not grow hungry on his long journey to the Happy
-  Hunting Ground....
-
-  “Ishi was not only the last survivor of the Yahi ... but he was also
-  believed to (have been) the last representative of the Stone Age in
-  the United States.”
-
-While not apropos to the subject of this chapter, “Pioneer Conflict...”
-we digress with some quotations from Pope’s “Medical History of Ishi” to
-give the reader a better understanding of this last of the Mill Creek
-Indians, his character, and his beliefs.
-
-  “... Ishi himself later made the statement that he was not sick but
-  had no food. White men had taken his bow and arrows; game was scarce,
-  and he had no means of procuring it. He had strayed from his usual
-  trail, between Deer Creek and ... Lassen (Peak). The railroad on one
-  side and a large river on the other kept him from making his way to
-  the refuge of the hills. His fear of trains and automobiles seems to
-  have been considerable in those days.
-
-  “Upon being captured, Ishi, according to his own account, was
-  handcuffed, confronted by guns and pistols, and intimidated to such an
-  extent that he vomited with fear....
-
-  “About this time (fall, 1912) I became instructor in surgery in the
-  University Medical School, and thus came in contact with the Indian.
-
-  “From the first weeks of our intimacy a strong friendship grew up
-  between us, and I was from that time on his physician, his confidant,
-  and his companion in archery....
-
-  “The Museum (of Anthropology) is near the Hospital, and since Ishi had
-  been made a more or less privileged character in the hospital wards,
-  he often came into the surgical department. Here he quietly helped the
-  nurses clean instruments, or amused the internes and nurses by singing
-  his Indian songs, or carried on primitive conversation by means of a
-  very complex mixture of gesture, Yana dialect, and the few scraps of
-  English he had acquired in his contact with us.
-
-  “His affability and pleasant disposition made him a universal
-  favorite. He visited the sick in the wards with a gentle and
-  sympathetic look which spoke more clearly than words. He came to the
-  women’s wards quite regularly, and with his hands folded before him,
-  he would go from bed to bed like a visiting physician, looking at each
-  patient with quiet concern or with a fleeting smile that was very
-  kindly received and understood.
-
-
-                        “ISHI’S MEDICAL BELIEFS”
-
-  “Women—Ishi had many of our own obsolete superstitions regarding
-  women. One criticism he made of white man’s civilization was the
-  unbridled liberty we give menstruating women. The ‘Sako mahale’, as he
-  designated them, were a cause of much ill luck and sickness. They
-  should be in seclusion during this period. In fact, he often commented
-  on the number of sick men that came to the hospital. I asked him what
-  he thought made so many men sick. He said it was ‘Sako mahale, too
-  much wowi (houses), too much automobile,’ and last but most important
-  of all, the ‘Coyote doctor’, or evil spirit.
-
-  “Dogs—Playing with dogs, and letting them lick one’s hand, Ishi said
-  was very bad. He assured me that to let babies play with dogs this way
-  led to paralysis. It is interesting to note that Dr. R. H. Gibson of
-  Fort Gibson, Alaska, has reported the coincidence of poliomyelitis
-  among the Tanana Indians and the occurrence of distempers in dogs.
-
-  “Rattlesnakes—Ishi’s treatment for rattlesnake bite was to bind a toad
-  or frog on the affected area. This is interesting in the light of the
-  experiments of Madame Phisalix of the Pasteur Institute, who
-  demonstrated the antidotal properties of salamandrin, an extract
-  obtained from salamander skin, and the natural immunity that the
-  salamander has to viper venom. Macht and Abel have obtained a similar
-  powerful alkaloid from the toad _Bufo nigra_, called bufagin, which
-  has some of the properties of strychnin and adrenalin. It has been
-  used as an arrow poison by South American aborigines. Experiments
-  which I conducted with salamandrin as an antidote to crotalin, show
-  that it has a pronounced protective and curative value in the
-  immunization of guinea pigs and in their cure after being bitten by
-  the rattlesnake. It is, however, too dangerous and potent a poison
-  itself to be of any practical value.
-
-  “When out camping we killed and cooked a rattlesnake or ‘kemna’. Ishi
-  refused not only to taste it, but also to eat from the dishes in which
-  it had been cooked. We ate it, and found that it tasted like rabbit or
-  fish. Ishi expected us to die. That we did not do so he could only
-  explain on the grounds that I was a medicine man and used magic
-  protection.
-
-  “Moon—Ishi held the superstition common among uneducated Caucasians,
-  that it is unwholesome to sleep with the moon shining on one’s face,
-  so he covered his head completely under his blankets when sleeping in
-  the open.
-
-  “Hygiene—Ishi had wholesome notions of hygiene. When out hunting he
-  has several times stopped me from drinking water from a stream which
-  he thought had been contaminated by dwelling houses above.
-
-  “His residence in the Museum caused many misgivings in his mind. The
-  presence of all the bones of the dead, their belongings, and the
-  mummies were ever a source of anxiety to him. He locked his bedroom
-  door at night to keep out spirits. When we stored our camping
-  provender temporarily in the Museum bone room, Ishi was not only
-  disgusted but genuinely alarmed. It was only after the reassurance
-  that the ‘bunch a mi si tee’ could not enter through the tin of the
-  cans that he was relieved.
-
-  “Surgery—On some of his visits to the University Hospital, Ishi gazed
-  through the glass-panelled door of the operating room and watched the
-  less grewsome scenes therein, wondering no doubt what was the meaning
-  of this work ... and his questions afterward, though few and
-  imperfectly understood, showed that he marveled most at the
-  anaesthetic and that he debated the advisability of such surgical
-  work.
-
-  “Once he saw me remove a diseased kidney. He viewed the sleeping man
-  with deep wonder. He seemed interested at the methods we employed to
-  prevent hemorrhage. For days afterwards he asked me if the patient
-  still lived, and seemed incredulous when I said he did. When he saw an
-  operation for the removal of tonsils he asked me why it was done. I
-  told him of the pain and soreness which was indicative of disease, and
-  necessitated the operation. He conveyed to me the information that
-  among his people tonsillitis was cured by rubbing honey on the neck,
-  and blowing ashes down the throat through a hollow stick or quill; no
-  operations were necessary.
-
-  “The only surgical operation with which he seemed familiar was
-  scarification. This was accomplished by means of small flakes of
-  obsidian and had as its purpose the strengthening of the arms and legs
-  of men about to go out on a hunt.
-
-  “Herbs—His own knowledge of the use of medicinal herbs was
-  considerable, as we learned later when he went back to Deer Creek
-  canyon with us on a three weeks’ camping trip, here he designated
-  scores of plants that were of technical, medicinal, or economic value.
-  But he put very little faith in these things. The use of herbs and
-  drugs seems to have been the province of old women in the tribe.
-
-  “There was a hole in the septum of his nose which he had used as a
-  receptacle for a small piece of wood, as well as for holding
-  ornaments. When he had a cold he placed in this spot a twig of baywood
-  or juniper, and indicated to me that this was medicine. It served very
-  much with him as menthol inhalers do with us. Its influence was
-  largely psychic but agreeable.
-
-  “Magic—The real medicine was magic. The mysteries of the k’uwi, or
-  medicine man, were of much greater value than mere dosing. Their
-  favorite charms seem to have been either blowing of smoke and ashes in
-  certain directions to wield a protective or curative influence, or the
-  passing of coals of fire through themselves or their patients by means
-  of sleight of hand. They also sucked out small bits of obsidian or
-  cactus thorns from their clients, averring that these were the
-  etiological factors of sickness.
-
-  “The principal cause of pain, according to Ishi, was the entrance of
-  these spines, thorns, bee stings, or, as he called them, ‘pins’, into
-  the human frame. The medicine man sucked them out, or plucked them
-  while they were floating in the air in the vicinity of the sick man.
-  They were then deposited in a small container, usually made of the
-  dried trachea of a bird, or of a large artery. The ends of this tube
-  were sealed with pitch or some form of a stopper and the whole thing
-  taken possession of by the doctor, thus keeping the ‘materia morbosa’
-  where it could do no further harm.
-
-  “The fact that I was able to do sleight of hand: vanish coins, change
-  eggs into paper, swallow impossible objects at will, and perform
-  similar parlor magic, convinced Ishi that I was a real doctor, much
-  more than any medication or surgery at my command. He came,
-  nevertheless, to our clinic whenever he had a headache, or a bruised
-  member, or lumbago, and accepted our services with due faith.
-
-
-                        “ISHI’S PERSONAL HABITS”
-
-  “Sleep—... he slept between blankets in preference to sheets. He had
-  several flannelette nightshirts but he preferred to sleep naked....
-
-  “Clothing—... At first he was offered moccasins, but refused to wear
-  them. He wanted to be like other people. Usually he wore a bright
-  colored necktie and sometimes a hat, when he was going down town ...
-  cotton shirts and (cotton) trousers were his choice. He used a pocket
-  handkerchief in the most approved manner, and because of his frequent
-  colds he needed it often.
-
-  “Modesty—Ishi, strange to say, was very modest. Although he went
-  practically naked in the wilds, and, as described by Waterman, upon
-  his first appearance in Deer Creek Canyon he was seen altogether nude,
-  nevertheless, his first request after being captured was for a pair of
-  overalls. He was quite careful to cover his genitalia; when changing
-  clothes, assumed protective attitudes, and when swimming in the
-  mountain streams with us wore an improvised breech clout even though
-  his white companions abandoned this last vestige of respectability.
-
-  “Toilet—When well he bathed nearly every day, and he always washed his
-  hands before meals. He was very tidy and cleanly in all his personal
-  habits. When camping, he was the only man in our outfit who got up
-  regularly and bathed in the cold mountain stream every morning.
-
-  “Ishi was an expert swimmer.... He used a side stroke and sometimes a
-  modified breast stroke, but no overhand or fancy strokes; nor did he
-  dive. He swam under water with great facility and for long distances.
-  The rapids of Deer Creek were rather full yet he swam them, and
-  carried my young son hanging to his hair.
-
-  “When he was sick he resented being bathed except when ordered by the
-  nurse or doctor. Like many other primitive people, he considered
-  bathing injurious in the presence of fever. He never attempted to take
-  a sweat bath while in civilization, but often spoke of them. I never
-  saw him brush his teeth, but he rubbed them with his finger, and they
-  always seemed clean. He washed his mouth out with water after meals.
-
-  “His beard was sparse but he plucked it systematically by catching
-  individual hairs between the blade of a dull jack-knife and his thumb.
-  In his native state he used a sort of tweezers made of a split piece
-  of wood. He did this work without the use of a mirror.
-
-  “He combed and brushed his hair daily. He washed it frequently.... At
-  first he had no dandruff, but after two or three years’ contact with
-  the whites he had some dry seborrhoea, and began to get a trifle gray
-  at the temples ... he used grease on his scalp when in his native
-  state; whereas bay leaves and bay nuts he said were heated and reduced
-  to a semi-solid state, when they were rubbed on the body after the
-  sweat bath. Here they acted as a soporific, or, as he said, like
-  whiskey, and the person thus anointed fell into a sweet slumber. The
-  same substance was rubbed on moccasins to make them waterproof.
-
-  “On one occasion he contracted ring worm, probably from a wandering
-  cat. He was given a sulphur salve for this, and after its cure he
-  still used the ointment to soften his hands.... He was not susceptible
-  to ‘poison oak’ ... nor to sunburn. His skin bleached out considerably
-  while in San Francisco, and became darker when exposed to sunlight.
-
-  “... (he) seemed to have the same fondness for sweet-scented soap that
-  Orientals manifest.
-
-  “His personal belongings he kept in a most orderly manner, everything
-  in his box being properly folded and arranged with care. Articles
-  which he kept outside of this box he wrapped in newspaper and laid in
-  systematic arrangement on shelves in his room.
-
-  “In working on arrows or flaking obsidian, he was careful to place
-  newspapers on the floor to catch his chips. In fact, neatness and
-  order seemed to be part of his self-education.
-
-  “In the preparation of food and the washing of dishes he was very
-  orderly and clean.
-
-  “Diet—... After a certain period of this luxury (eating heavily) he
-  discerned the folly of this course and began eating less, when his
-  metabolism returned to a more normal balance. Part of this increase
-  was due to the large quantities of water he drank. Being unaccustomed
-  to salt, our seasoning was excessive and led to increased hydration of
-  his bodily tissues. He had a great fondness for sweets.... He tried
-  and liked nearly all kinds of foods, but seemed to have an aversion
-  for custards, blanc manges, and similar slimy confections, nor could
-  he be persuaded to drink milk. He contended that this was made for
-  babies, while he said that butter ruined the singing voice....
-
-  “Matches he took up with evident delight; they were such a contrast to
-  the laborious methods of the fire drill, or of nursing embers, which
-  he employed in the wilds.
-
-  “... His meat he boiled only about ten minutes, eating it practically
-  without seasoning.
-
-  “His own food in the wilds seems to have been fish, game, acorn meal,
-  berries, and many roots. Prominent among these latter was the bulb of
-  the _Brodiaea_. The Indian could go out on an apparently barren
-  hillside and with a sharp stick dig up enough _Brodiaea_ bulbs in an
-  hour to furnish food for a good meal. These roots are globular in
-  shape, with the appearance of an onion, ranging in size from a cherry
-  to a very small potato. The flavor when raw is like that of a potato,
-  and when cooked like a roasted chestnut.
-
-  “Alcohol—... Ishi himself had no liking for strong drink, although at
-  one time he purchased a few bottles of beer and drank small quantities
-  diluted with sugar and water. He called it medicine. His response to
-  my query regarding whiskey was, ‘Whiskey-tee crazy-aunatee, die man.’
-
-  “Tobacco—Occasionally Ishi smoked a cigarette, and he knew the use of
-  tobacco, having had access to the native herb in the wilds. But he
-  seldom smoked more than a few cigarettes a day, and frequently went
-  weeks without any. He disapproved of young people smoking. He chewed
-  tobacco at times, and spat copiously. Both of these indulgences,
-  however, he resorted to only when invited by some congenial friend.
-
-  “Etiquette—Although uncultured, he very quickly learned the proper use
-  of knife, fork, and spoon. His table manners were of the very best. He
-  often ate at my home, where he was extremely diffident; watched what
-  others did and then followed their examples, using great delicacy of
-  manner. His attitude toward my wife or any other woman member of the
-  household was one of quiet disinterest. Apparently his sense of
-  propriety prompted him to ignore her. If spoken to, he would reply
-  with courtesy and brevity, but otherwise he appeared not to see her.
-
-  “When he wanted to show his disapproval of anything very strongly, he
-  went through the pantomime of vomiting.
-
-  “Thrift—As janitor in the Museum, he was making a competent income,
-  understood the value of money, was very thrifty and saving, and looked
-  forward to the day when he could buy a horse and wagon. This seemed to
-  be the acme of worldly possession to him. He was very happy and well
-  contented, working a little, playing enough, and surrounded by
-  friends.
-
-
-                   “ISHI’S DISPOSITION AND MENTALITY”
-
-  “Disposition—In disposition the Yahi was always calm and amiable.
-  Never have I seen him vehement or angry. Upon rare occasions he showed
-  that he was displeased. If someone who he thought had no privilege
-  touched his belongings, he remonstrated with some show of excitement.
-  Although he had lived in part by stealing from the cabins of men who
-  had usurped his country, he had the most exacting conscience
-  concerning the ownership of property. He would never think of touching
-  anything that belonged to another person, and even remonstrated with
-  me if I picked up a pencil that belonged to one of the Museum force.
-  He was too generous with his gifts of arms, arrow-heads, and similar
-  objects of his handicraft.
-
-  “His temperament was philosophical, analytical, reserved, and
-  cheerful. He probably looked upon us as extremely smart. While we knew
-  many things, we had no knowledge of nature, no reserve; we were all
-  busy-bodies. We were, in fact, sophisticated children.
-
-  “His conception of immortality was that of his tribe, but he seemed to
-  grasp the Christian concept and asked me many questions concerning the
-  hereafter. He rather doubted that the White God cared much about
-  having Indians with Him, and he did not seem to feel that women were
-  properly eligible to Heaven. He once saw a moving picture of the
-  Passion Play. It affected him deeply. But he misconstrued the
-  crucifixion and assumed that Christ was a ‘bad man’.
-
-  “Use of tools—He was quite adept in the use of such simple tools as a
-  knife, handsaw, file, and hatchet. He early discovered the advantages
-  of a small bench vise, and it took the place of his big toe in holding
-  objects thereafter.... Journeys were measured by days or sleeps ...
-  (he) was awe-struck when I took him to a sawmill where large cedar
-  logs were brought in and rapidly sawed up into small bits to be used
-  in making lead pencils. It would have taken hours for him to fell even
-  a small tree, and an interminable length of time to split it. But here
-  was a miracle of work done in a few minutes. It impressed him
-  greatly....”
-
-In concluding remarks on Indian conflict with pioneer, a word concerning
-Indian reservations will not be amiss. The author does best again in
-quoting, this time from Kroeber:
-
-  “The first reservations established by Federal officers in California
-  were little else than bull pens. They were founded on the principle,
-  not of attempting to do something for the native, but of getting him
-  out of the white man’s way as cheaply and hurriedly as possible. The
-  reason that the high death rate that must have prevailed among these
-  makeshift assemblages was not reported on more emphatically is that
-  the Indians kept running away even faster than they could die.
-
-  “The few reservations that were made permanent have on the whole had a
-  conserving influence on the population after they once settled into a
-  semblance of reasonable order. They did little enough for the Indian
-  directly; but they gave him a place which he could call his own, and
-  where he could exist in security and in contact with his own kind....”
-
-Despite certain undesirable features of Indian Reservations, the general
-conclusion is that for a number of tribes survival has been considerably
-greater today than would have been the case if the Indians had had to
-shift for themselves in competition with the whites.
-
-
-
-
-                               Chapter VI
-                                HUNTING
-
-
-Hunting was obviously a very important activity of the Lassen Indians,
-not only for survival, but as a means of acquiring the comfort and
-security which success brought. Also a good hunter was held in high
-esteem socially.
-
-Deer were most sought and the hunter went to considerable effort to get
-“deer power” (a sort of guardian spirit) to possess him. This gave him
-skill and good luck. Generally only men hunted, sometimes individually,
-at other times in small or large groups.
-
-Before going hunting tobacco was often smoked ceremonially with prayers
-and singing while the shaman (medicine man) supervised and the hunters’
-bodies were anointed with medicine. Weapons to be used were smoked over
-a fire, while the hunters talked to their bows and arrows about the
-coming hunt. Frequently Atsugewi, Yana, and Yahi hunters also cut
-themselves until they bled. This was true especially if their
-marksmanship had not been good of late. Cuts were made in the forearm
-and charcoal was rubbed in. They often took sweat baths too before
-hunting, but the Maidu did not. The latter, however, offered shell beads
-to help increase deer power. Atsugewi hunters left offerings of paint,
-tobacco, and eagle-down at certain spots in the mountains for luck.
-
-After a youth killed his first game, Maidu and Atsugewi switched him, a
-bow string being commonly used. Then the Atsugewi father talked to his
-son, blew smoke on him, and sent him out alone into the mountains for at
-least five days to seek power. Yana and Yahi youths were not permitted
-to touch, skin, or eat any of their first kill of each kind of animal,
-lest it spoil their luck. In these tribes the father skinned the animal
-and dressed the hide, teaching his son how this was done.
-
-After hunting there were often cleansing activities and ceremonies, and
-usually a division of meat although a lone hunter could retain all of
-it. It was considered quite bad to come home empty handed. After a bear
-had been killed he was spoken to kindly and in sympathetic terms. Deer
-eyes were often eaten to give good sharp eyesight to the eater.
-
-In a popular method of deer hunting by all Indians of the Lassen area, a
-deer head disguise was worn by the hunter. He approached his quarry
-cautiously using screening bushes and moving his antlered head above
-them to simulate a buck feeding. Sometimes the hunter carried brush
-along in front of himself. The mountain Maidu always used the whole
-deerskin for disguise. When close enough the hunter would shoot with bow
-and arrow. Since this was a nearly silent weapon, there was no noise to
-startle the deer, and so it was sometimes possible to slay two or three
-deer on one occasion.
-
-Atsugewi hunters might encircle a small brush covered or wooded
-mountain. They set many fires, leaving non-burning gaps where bowmen hid
-in holes. The deer were shot as they came out of the burning area.
-
-Mountain Maidu sometimes concealed themselves in pits near deer licks
-where they shot the animals in moonlight.
-
-Another hunting method was to drive deer along fences built of brush or
-stone or along ropes to which bunches of tules were tied as hanging
-streamers. Strategically placed hunters in shallow pits shot the driven
-deer as they passed through openings which had been left. Dogs were
-frequently used in hunting out and in driving deer.
-
-The brush deer-blind along a well traveled deer trail was used too, as
-well as hanging a noose in the deer trail to snare the deer. Still
-another means of taking deer was like that of the northern neighbors of
-the Atsugewi, the Pit River Tribe or Achomawi. They employed a six or
-seven foot deep pit about nine feet long dug with slightly undercut side
-walls. This opening was covered and concealed with poles, brush, and
-dirt. As the deer trotted along established trails over the disguised
-pitfalls they fell through. Or, deer might be driven to such pits,
-sometimes with the aid of converging walls or fences in conjunction with
-pitfalls. Deer trapped in these pitfalls were killed by strangling from
-above with ropes.
-
-Another popular way to secure deer was to follow the animal for one or
-more days. The pursuing Indian carried a small amount of food which he
-ate to sustain himself while moving. The deer, although swifter afoot
-than the hunter, was persistently followed at a steady pace. The animal
-did not get a chance to feed properly nor to rest. At length the deer
-became weakened to the point where the hunter could approach and shoot
-it at close range.
-
-If a hunter were fairly close to a deer and it was moving, he might
-shout at it, causing the deer to stop momentarily out of curiosity. This
-provided a better chance of bringing the quarry down with bow and arrow.
-Deer were sometimes lured closer by whistling with lips, blowing on a
-leaf or grass blade held in the hands, or by imitating the cry of a
-fawn. A hunter is said occasionally to have been able to sing to a group
-of deer, holding their attention while he cautiously approached within
-arrow range.
-
-If practical, deer or other game was killed by driving the animals over
-cliffs. Elk, mountain sheep, antelope, and reportedly occasionally even
-bison were hunted by one or more of the means. Except for the case of
-mountain sheep, such animals were probably rare within the territories
-of the tribes being considered.
-
-Meat of such large game was prepared for eating after skinning by
-roasting in the earth pit ovens to be described in succeeding chapters
-or by cutting up and boiling. Much venison and the like was also stored
-for winter use. In this case the meat was cut into strips and dried in
-the sun or on wooden frames over fires. This was not a smoking, but
-rather a drying process. Such jerked meat was stored in large, tightly
-woven baskets. Meat fresh or dried was almost invariably eaten with
-acorn mush.
-
-Bear hunting was common among tribes of the Lassen area. The American
-Black Bear is not aggressive and by no means always black. He is of
-moderately large size and often is light or dark brown in color. Indians
-liked to hunt the Black Bear in winter, two hunters entering the
-hibernating den. One carried a torch and the other a bow and arrow. They
-rolled a large block of wood in front of them and shot the bear at point
-blank range, then quickly ran out. Wounded, frightened, and in a
-semi-stupor, the bear usually stumbled over the wooden block. If he did
-not die in the den, but came out, he was shot by other waiting hunters.
-Mountain Maidu instead of entering the den smoked the bear out with
-pitchy torches planted at the den entrance.
-
-The California Grizzly was much larger, fiercer, and more aggressive.
-This grizzly is now extinct, but was common especially in the foothill
-and lower mountain slopes of California before the coming of the white
-man. Grizzlies were normally engaged only by a large group of hunters
-and after considerable ceremonial preparation. Hunters never entered the
-den. Two stout poles were crossed in front of the opening with one or
-two men holding each—a dangerous job. The bear was spoken to nicely and
-urged to come out which he usually soon did. As the bear started to
-climb over the poles at the den entrance, the Indians pushed up forcing
-the bear’s body against the roof so that he could most easily be shot.
-If this maneuver was not successful, a brave hunter enticed the bear to
-pursue him while the others shot arrows into the grizzly. Especially
-sharp and heavily poisoned arrow points were used on grizzly bear by the
-Atsugewi.
-
-It was believed that a man who drank fresh bear blood would be very
-healthy thereafter, if he were strong enough. If he were weak, however,
-drinking the blood would kill him promptly.
-
-Mountain lion were tracked, sometimes with dogs, sometimes in the snow,
-then treed and shot. Wildcats were generally killed in the same way. A
-hunter might coax a mountain lion to leap at him by simulating a deer
-feeding, using the deer head and skin disguise, but this was a dangerous
-practice.
-
-Except in the eastern part of Atsugewi territory where the Apwaruge
-lived, rabbits were not plentiful. Yana, Yahi, and Maidu hunted them
-more, driving cottontail, snowshoe, and jack rabbits into long nets and
-clubbing them to death. In the winter rabbits were sometimes tracked and
-shot with bow and untipped arrows.
-
-Other small mammals were shot, caught by dogs, and dug, smoked, or
-drowned out of burrows. A stick split at the end was thrust into a
-burrow and by twisting was entangled in the creature’s fur sufficiently
-to drag him out. Ground squirrels could be outrun and killed by stepping
-on them. Skunks, badgers, rats, and more often porcupines were eaten—the
-latter being clubbed or stoned to death.
-
-Small and medium sized animals were also caught under stone or log
-deadfalls which were propped up to drop on the victim while it was
-traveling along a runway, crossing a stream on a log, or when the animal
-pulled on a baited trigger. Similar placing was used for setting spring
-snares which took advantage of bent tree limbs for power. Long fences
-with nooses placed in gaps were used for rabbits, quail, and the like,
-and on occasion for creatures as large as deer. Some nooses were even
-operated by hand from a place of hiding.
-
-Birds of all sorts were caught too, but live or imitation decoys were
-never employed as lures. Woodpeckers were removed from the nest by hand
-or else a noose was hung around the nest opening. Some birds were taken
-in basketry traps. Waterfowl were shot with bow and arrow and the young
-were run down. Eggs were also taken. Some ducks were speared at night
-from canoes or driven into nets by use of a canoe with fire at one end.
-Frequently nets or snares were suspended at intervals just above a
-stream where waterfowl commonly alighted. Ducks and geese were also
-driven into the traps in taking off from the water.
-
-Grouse and small birds like robins and blackbirds were shot with blunt
-or untipped arrows, usually of one-piece construction.
-
-It is interesting to note that in contrast to other local tribes, the
-Yana and Yahi tribes did not employ the following hunting techniques:
-burning brush, using bird snaring booths, nets for ducks, geese,
-rabbits, or deer, nor was game driven into enclosures or quail secured
-by use of net traps or drive fences. Furthermore Yana and Yahi did not
-believe that game was immortal.
-
-    [Illustration: Atsugewi Snare set on a log lying across a stream.]
-
-It was not an uncommon practice, especially among the mountain Maidu, to
-frequently burn off their lands to make for easier travel and to
-minimize the possibility of ambush by enemies. The frequent “light”
-burnings do not seem to have generated enough heat to have destroyed the
-forests. Never the less this practice is not regarded as a wise
-conservation as it is definitely injurious to tree and much other plant
-reproduction as well as being destructive of organic material in the
-soil, damaging the watershed and being unfavorable to certain animal
-species, as well as accelerating erosion.
-
-
-
-
-                              Chapter VII
-                                FISHING
-
-
-Fishes were one of the four important food categories consumed by
-Indians of the Lassen region. Land-locked and other non-migratory
-Rainbow Trout were abundantly available in mountain streams and in some
-lakes. Steelhead Trout penetrated the territories of our four tribes
-too. Salmon, however, did not go so far upstream, only rarely coming up
-Hat Creek, for instance, into Atsugewi lands. For the most part this
-tribe of Indians visited the Pit River to the north in the autumn. They
-paid the Achomawi, through whose territory this fine salmon stream
-flowed, for the privilege of catching salmon by giving up a share of the
-catch to them. The larger streams in south Yana, Yahi, and mountain
-Maidu country contained salmon and steelhead, but it seems that these
-tribes also made bargains with the Valley Indians for salmon fishing
-privileges or else made fishing forays to the Sacramento River.
-
-    [Illustration: Atsugewi Bow-type net. This kind was usually used in
-    small streams where it covered the full width of the stream bed.
-    Fish were commonly driven into it, then the handle was raised.]
-
-Gill nets about three feet high and as much as 30 feet long were
-commonly used. Spawning trout in the spring were speared in large
-numbers. Although old informants have denied the practice,
-Boonookoo-ee-menorra (Mrs. Selina La Marr of the Atsugewi) tells of
-catching Rainbow Trout by hand from Manzanita Creek banks about fifty
-years ago when her family came up in the summer to fish. Trout were
-speared by the Atsugewi with two pointed or four pointed spears instead
-of the common single pointed version. Bone or Serviceberry wood might be
-used for the tips. Spears were used not only from stream banks, but,
-especially at night, from a canoe equipped with a torch in front. One
-man or more would spear the fish while a person, sometimes a woman,
-paddled the craft from the rear. The torch consisted of four
-mountain-mahogany sticks bound together with pitch down the center.
-
-    [Illustration: A northeast Maidu bow-fish net about forty inches
-    long. It was used for fish other than salmon. Northwest and southern
-    Maidu did not use such nets, employing seine nets instead (after
-    Dixon).]
-
-It is interesting to note that the practice of shooting fish with bow
-and arrow was not carried on by any tribes of the Lassen area, although
-the eastern people of the Pit River Indians (Achomawi), the western
-Shasta, Wintu, and foothill Maidu did do so.
-
-Only Atsugewi, of the tribes we are considering, trapped fish in
-converging weirs into which fish might be driven. In the autumn, streams
-were sometimes diverted by damming. The fish trapped in the ponds
-remaining were scooped out with baskets or nets. Mountain Maidu drove
-fish into traps and caught lamprey eels in dip or scoop nets. Bow-type
-nets illustrated in the text were used with the bow bent ends down
-resting on the bed of the stream, the pole being raised to trap the
-fish. The net was preferably as wide as the stream.
-
-All local tribes fished with lines and hooks which were made by lashing
-a sharp piece of bone to a section of twig, at an acute angle. Atsugewi
-and mountain Maidu also used a “gorge” for angling. This was a slender
-piece of bone two or three inches long fastened near the middle and
-sharpened at both ends. Hooks were sometimes baited with meat,
-grasshoppers, or large flies, but man-made “flies” as fishermen know
-them today were not used. Sometimes meat or grasshopper bait was used by
-Atsugewi on fish-lines without any hook. Atsugewi women occasionally
-fished with baskets and with hook and line. Hooks were often tied in a
-series on a line attached either on both banks of the stream or to a
-pole secured in the bank or tied to tules or to brush, and left over
-night. A series of basket traps was sometimes likewise stretched across
-a stream.
-
-    [Illustration: A Klamath fish hook similar to those used by local
-    tribes. Single barbed hooks were also employed.]
-
-Salmon fishing was done largely with harpoons which differ from spears
-in having one or more movable barbs or toggles of bone. These opened
-when the harpoon was pulled back (outward in the victim) thus securing
-the catch all the more firmly. This was necessary for such large and
-heavy fish as salmon. Yana tribes caught their salmon with either hook
-and line or by spearing with a two pointed harpoon.
-
-Natural falls were favored fishing sites. There Indians caught salmon
-and steelhead trout as the fish attempted to scale the falls. Long
-handled nets were used. Atsugewi went so far as to build scaffoldings to
-assist either in this method of fishing or from which to harpoon large
-fish. In the latter case many whitish rocks, where available, were
-thrown into the stream to build up a light colored bottom for better
-visibility in harpooning or spearing.
-
-After the fish were caught they were killed by striking with a stick as
-a general practice. Mountain Maidu sometimes killed fish by striking
-their heads on rocks. The central Yana, interestingly enough, killed
-fish by biting them!
-
-In quiet portions of streams fish were poisoned by placing certain
-pounded plant materials in the water. Yana and Yahi used crushed
-Soaproot; Atsugewi used pulverized Wild Parsley. Wild Parsley
-application made the water bluish, and caused the fish soon to rise to
-the surface of the water floating belly-up. Where suitable quiet pools
-did not exist in a stream, they were sometimes formed by the Indians
-through temporary damming. Buckeye nut pulp, which is poisonous, was not
-used in this area for poisoning fish.
-
-Long basketry fish traps, usually constructed by men, were also
-utilized. The design and proportions of these varied with the tribe.
-
-Each of the Lassen area tribes had taboos which prevented youths, and in
-the case of Atsugewi, their parents too, from eating the first fish each
-youth caught.
-
-    [Illustration: Plan of Maidu open basketry fish trap (after Dixon)
-    several feet long. The pointed end was untied to extract the fish.]
-
-Chubs and minnows, spurned by white man, were driven into nets and
-eaten. At lower elevations, where waters were warmer and sluggish,
-suckers provided a common source of food fish. The Indians also not
-infrequently dove for crawfish and fresh water mussels. These were
-gathered in net sacks by male Indians of all local tribes. Yana and Yahi
-roasted mussels but did not boil them and never dried them for later
-use. A flat rock might be carried on the shoulders to assist the diving
-Indians.
-
-Some fish were cooked by roasting over coals or by boiling. Most trout,
-however, were cleaned, head and backbone removed, and then strung up on
-poles to dry. No salt was used in the process. The dried fish was
-carried to camp or village in large baskets. Dried trout was tied into
-small bales for storage and placed in baskets or in pits dug in the
-ground for safe-keeping. Salmon were usually cooked in earth pit ovens,
-then dried and crumbed by Atsugewi and mountain Maidu for later use.
-This was of necessity an autumnal activity. Yana and Yahi stored their
-salmon in dried slabs, pulverizing it as needed.
-
-    [Illustration: Atsugewi basketry fish trap (after Garth).]
-
-
-
-
-                              Chapter VIII
-                GATHERING AND PREPARATION OF OTHER FOODS
-
-
-As has been pointed out earlier under “California Indians”, these tribes
-had a common food pattern. Although there was some difference in the
-relative importance of the four major types of food to the several
-tribes due to varying availability, the California Indians ate (1) game,
-especially deer, (2) fish, particularly salmon and trout, (3) roots and
-bulbs which the women dug, and (4) fruits and seeds of a wide variety,
-the most important of which were acorns.
-
-Besides fish and venison, many kinds of flesh food were eaten by the
-Indians of the Lassen area: fox, wolf, grizzly and black bear, skunk,
-raccoon, porcupine, rabbit, owl, fish, fresh water mussel, and turtle
-being most common. They also ate with apparent relish a variety of
-insects and the like including crickets, grasshoppers, angleworms, red
-ant eggs, and yellow-jacket larvae.
-
-Game which was not eaten by either Atsugewi or mountain Maidu was
-coyote, elk, antelope, and all snakes and lizards. The last two items
-were almost universally shunned by California Indians. Many California
-tribes including Yana and Yahi refused to eat dog meat, some of them
-believing canine flesh to be poisonous. That mountain Maidu was one of
-the few tribes which ate dog flesh whenever it was available is denied
-by Dixon. Atsugewi ate it only as a last resort when rare, near-famine
-conditions prevailed or during times of severe epidemic. Canine flesh
-was believed by them to be a powerful and perhaps somewhat dangerous
-medicine. Buzzards seem to have been about the only birds which were not
-eaten.
-
-Each tribe had certain taboos on eating game. An Atsugewi did not, for
-example, eat wildcat, gopher, hawk, lamprey eel, or caterpillars.
-Mountain Maidu did not eat mountain lion, badger, raven, or crawfish.
-
-Heart of deer was taboo to all males among Atsugewi and to all children
-and youths of the mountain Maidu. The foetus of all animals and also
-deer fawns could not be eaten by any except Atsugewi, Yana, and Yahi old
-men and old women. Animal foetus was, however, allowed as food to all
-mountain Maidu adults. Bear foetus was skinned by Atsugewi and fed to
-old women because it was so tender. Likewise, Yana and Yahi made foetus
-soup for old folks to eat. Deer liver was taboo to Atsugewi boys and
-youths. Taboo also among Atsugewi was the eating of fish and deer meat
-together. Among mountain Maidu the eating of salt on bear meat was
-prohibited. Many other food combinations were outlawed by these and
-other California tribes.
-
-Deer backbone was ground up and eaten dry by mountain Maidu or molded
-into small cakes, then baked and eaten while Atsugewi would dry deer
-backbones with meat still adhering, grind it up, and then boil the meal
-before eating it. Yana also ate pulverized meal of other bones after
-cooking. Marrow was relished; it was a special delicacy for Yana
-children.
-
-Securing of large game and fish and their preparation has been described
-earlier.
-
-Such animals as wildcat, raccoons, foxes, et cetera were skinned and
-cooked in earth ovens by all local tribes. These were pits sometimes as
-much as six feet wide and lined with rocks. A large fire was built in
-the pit to thoroughly heat the rock lining, after which any unburned
-debris was removed. The animal to be roasted was laid in the pit on a
-layer of green pine needles, or various other leaves, depending upon the
-tribe. A large heated rock was placed inside the body cavity and smaller
-hot rocks were wedged under the fore and hind legs which were then all
-tied tightly together. A flat heated rock might be placed on top of the
-carcass and the whole was covered with pine needles and the like, and
-finally with hot ashes and sometimes dirt. The roasting proceeded for
-half a day or so. Blood and fat might be placed in the intestine
-membranes of larger animals (especially wildcat) to form sausage and
-cooked in ashes. Mountain Maidu also boiled blood for eating.
-
-Quills of porcupine and hair of badger, squirrel, or other small mammals
-might be singed off before cooking instead of skinning the animals.
-Ground squirrels were sometimes merely gutted and then roasted in ashes
-without further preparation. When Yana (and probably Yahi) did this,
-they then skinned the ground squirrels after cooking and mashed the
-whole bodies by pounding before eating them. Rabbits were roasted over
-coals and broken into pieces for eating. Both mountain Maidu and
-Atsugewi sometimes broiled small mammals on a single stick over coals.
-
-Turtles were cooked alive in hot ashes. If they crawled out they were
-pushed back in again.
-
-Duck eggs were boiled in baskets using hot rocks—cooked they would keep
-for a week or two. Yana tribes roasted quail eggs in ashes. Birds were
-gutted, feathers singed off in flames and roasted on sticks or roasted
-in oven pits. Roasting was invariably used for the large birds such as
-ducks, geese, and swans.
-
-Atsugewi practiced some fascinating gathering techniques in which they
-were not unique. Insects were gathered by both men and women.
-Grasshoppers and crickets not infrequently appeared in large numbers.
-These were collected early in the morning while still sluggish with
-cold. When very abundant they were scraped with sticks from branches of
-bushes into large burden baskets. During the heat of the day
-grasshoppers were effectively collected by singeing them. Some tribes
-merely burned dry grassy fields after which the insects were easily
-picked up. Atsugewi made a long willow “rope” to which many bunches of
-dry grass were fastened. This was set afire and men carrying this
-blazing band stretched tightly between them ran across open grassland
-where the grasshoppers were numerous. The insects jumped into the flames
-and were thus killed. Yana pulverized grasshoppers and other insects
-without cooking them.
-
-Atsugewi roasted crickets in the pit oven. These were then dried two
-days and finally eaten or stored. If they had been stored, they were
-pounded before being eaten.
-
-Salmon flies were plentiful along Pit River and Lost Creek (outside of
-the park). These were hand picked from the banks early in the morning.
-The wings were removed and the bodies boiled before eating by the
-Atsugewi.
-
-When yellow-jackets, always carnivorous (meat eaters), were seen buzzing
-about, Atsugewi would tie a white flower petal to a grasshopper leg.
-When the yellow-jacket picked this morsel up and flew away with it
-toward its nest, the Indians would run after the yellow-jacket which was
-easy to follow on account of the conspicuous flower petal it carried
-along. Thus yellow-jacket nests were found. A line was marked around the
-nest area with the fingers. This line was supposed to increase the size
-of the nest. Pine needles were then stacked over the nest and burned to
-kill the winged insects. This done, the nest was dug up and roasted
-alongside a fire, thus cooking the maggot-like grubs inside. These were
-considered to be quite a delicacy. According to Dixon, mountain Maidu
-young folks were denied this delicacy, but not so among the Yana. Dried
-grasshoppers, crickets, and yellow-jacket larvae were foods often used
-as items of trade.
-
-Angleworms were collected by first driving a digging stick a few inches
-into the moist soil, then moving the top about. The consequent
-disturbing of the ground made the worms crawl out. Although other
-California tribes made angleworm soup, Atsugewi, Yana, and probably Yahi
-sometimes roasted angleworms between hot rocks. Maidu reportedly dried
-worms for eating.
-
-Red ant eggs were eaten by Indians too. Atsugewi baked them in earth pit
-ovens, while mountain Maidu parched them with coals. Mountain Maidu also
-ate certain caterpillars, but the other tribes of the Lassen area did
-not.
-
-    [Illustration: A. Sharpened iron rod digging stick with pine cross
-    piece wrapped in coarse cotton cloth used for about forty years by
-    Mrs. Mullen of Hat Creek. Length about four feet.
-
-    B. Another recent mountain mahogany digging stick made by Mr. and
-    Mrs. Lyman LaMarr (Boonookoo-ee-menorra). The point of the green
-    wood was toughened in flame. Stick three and one half feet long.]
-
-Indians of this region did not carry on any agriculture, that is they
-did not plant crops for food or other purposes, but collected those
-which grew wild. It was, however, a common practice to burn some areas
-over regularly to stimulate growth of edible seed producing plants.
-Women always gathered the vegetable materials and prepared them for use.
-
-Roots and bulbs provided vital foods to the aborigines also. These were
-procured with a digging stick. In this region it was blunt at the top
-with a tapered point at the digging end. Atsugewi fastened a short cross
-piece on top to serve as a handle. The digging stick was made by this
-tribe of green mountain-mahogany wood with the digging point hardened by
-scorching in the flame. After the coming of white man, the same design
-was retained, but an iron rod replaced the mountain-mahogany digging
-shaft.
-
-In use, the digging stick was thrust into the ground next to the plant
-whose root was to be secured. The handle portion was worked sideways a
-couple of times, then pulled downward toward the operator. The point
-very effectively brought the root out of the ground. Roots were
-customarily tossed into a large cone-shaped carrying basket which was
-held in place on the digging woman’s back by a chest band over her
-chest. Some of the load in the basket might also be supported by a band
-from the basket over the Indian woman’s forehead.
-
-Roots were cleaned by rubbing (sometimes with sand) in a shallow
-bowl-shaped basket of a rough coarse mesh weave of willow ribs, like
-that used for cleaning acorns. The whole was dipped in water frequently.
-Rubbing usually continued until the skins were entirely removed.
-
-The most important item of this type collected in large amount for food
-is known as epos locally, or “peh-ts-koo” among the old Atsugewi. The
-plant belongs to the parsley family and stands one to two feet high.
-Actually, probably more than one species was eaten by Indians of the
-Lassen area. These plants are not unlike except in detail. All had sweet
-carrot-like taproots about two inches long. Garth states that Atsugewi
-ate the species _Pteridendia bolanden_ which apparently corresponds to
-the botanists’ _Perideridia bolanderi_ or _Eulophus bolanderi_; also
-probably _Carum_ or _Perideridia oregona_ and _californica_. Common
-English names for epos are squaw root or yampah. Epos roots were dried
-and stored, then ground up for use. This food item was made into either
-soup or bread. The finished product had a fine sweet meaty or nutty
-taste, and was held in high esteem. Obviously this constituted an
-important vegetable in the diet.
-
-At least two kinds of camas bulbs and _brodeia_ bulbs were roasted in
-the earth pit oven, ground to pulp, shaped into cakes, and rebaked.
-These were then either eaten or dried and stored. The latter process was
-not employed by mountain Maidu. If the baked camas cakes were stored,
-they would be soaked with water before eating. Camas cakes were not made
-into soup.
-
-Tiger lily bulbs were roasted in earth pit ovens and eaten immediately.
-They were a highly prized food.
-
-Wild onion was used too, but usually with other root foods as a
-flavoring.
-
-The foregoing are but a few of the most extensively eaten roots. Many
-others, especially those of the lily and parsley families, were used by
-tribes of the Lassen region.
-
-Yana tribes robbed gophers of stores of edible roots and bulbs. These
-were found by probing for burrows and digging out the animals’ food
-storage chambers. Men usually did this, which is an exception to the
-general rule that women only collected vegetable materials.
-
-Acorns were probably the most important single food of California
-Indians. Surprisingly, this was true even in eastern parts of the
-territories of the Atsugewi (Apwaruge), mountain Maidu, and others where
-acorns were scarce or wanting entirely. Indians frequently traded for
-acorns or made long journeys for them. Acorns of the black oak were
-generally preferred over other kinds. Nearly all varieties were used for
-food on occasion, however. It is interesting to note that Modoc and
-Klamath Indians were exceptions in not using acorns for food.
-
-In the fall, usually in September, acorns were gathered by women after
-the ripe nuts had been knocked from the oaks with long poles, or by men
-and young agile girls climbing the trees to strike the fruit with
-straight sticks or staves. To aid in climbing large smooth tree trunks,
-Atsugewi men used sapling ladders on which part of branches were left
-attached to serve for footholds. Mountain Maidu on the other hand used a
-very unique two poled ladder with buckskin rungs. Acorns were carried to
-villages by women in stages, using baskets about the size of nail kegs.
-
-First spring food gathering each year was marked by rites in which the
-shamans, or medicine men, conducted praying ceremonies. Atsugewi
-conducted three of these. In May first epos roots were gathered and sung
-over by shamans. They examined the roots and prophesied whether the
-women who had dug them were going to be sick. Those who were going to be
-sick dug roots all day. In the evening these were dumped into piles and
-women shamans sang over these for half the night to make the threatened
-women healthy. Each woman gatherer participating then took home the
-roots she had dug leaving some for the shamans, who cooked and ate them.
-A second first food ceremony consisted of a ceremonial feast of fruit
-and vegetable materials with fish which the men brought. In the third
-such rite, root digging women threw away the first roots they dug that
-season and prayed to the effect: “Don’t make me poor. Give me good luck.
-You may have this one.”
-
-In autumn, mountain Maidu held their first fruit ceremonies. Large
-groups of women went out to gather acorns. Acorn mush was made
-immediately of the first batch collected. The shamans ate some and
-prayed. Portions of this batch were then eaten by the rest of the
-assemblage. After that it was all right for anyone to gather and to use
-acorns of the new crop.
-
-Local tribes stored acorns in the shell either indoors in large baskets
-or outside in pits or in large hoppers or granaries covered with bark.
-The details of these varied with the several tribes. Maidu except for
-the “mountain tribe” and Yana shelled, split, and slightly dried some of
-their acorns, and placed them in basketry storage bins lined with
-broadleafed maple leaves. Maidu ate twelve different kinds of acorns,
-but the favorites were the black oak (_Quercus kelloggii_), _golden cup
-oak_ maul, or canyon oak (_Quercus chrysolepis_), and sierra live oak
-(_Quercus wislizenii_) acorns.
-
-In preparation, acorns were cracked by up-ending each on a flat rock and
-striking the point with any convenient small stone. Sometimes small
-acorns were cracked with the teeth. Though usually a woman’s job, young
-folks and men might help with the task.
-
-    [Illustration: Basaltic lava mortar from Yana territory, about ten
-    inches high.]
-
-The thin brownish skin which covers the acorn kernels was removed by
-rubbing vigorously in rough porous baskets made entirely of willow ribs.
-Water was not used. Indians of the Lassen area did not employ stone
-mortars for grinding acorns as was the practice in other parts of
-California. Stone mortars were always found, not made, and were used for
-ceremonial purposes, in the belief that these had been made by Coyote.
-However, Maidu families cherished portable stone mortars. They were kept
-buried at some distance from the dwelling, and dug up for occasional
-inspection. Bed-rock acorn pounding holes are not found in this region
-either except for the Maidu area. Instead, acorn meats were placed in
-hopper baskets lacking bottoms. This basketry mortar hopper rested with
-the small open end down on a heavy flat stone. The pounding basket was
-held in place by the Indian woman’s knees as she sat in front of and
-straddling it. In one hand she wielded a stone pestle, flat on the
-grinding end. With the other hand she stirred the acorn material so that
-the coarse pieces worked toward the center to get the full impact of the
-pounding. The hopper basket was not always used, by the mountain Maidu,
-the pounding often being done merely on a flat rock slab, the woman’s
-free hand continually brushing the acorn material back to the center.
-Acorn meal was ground until it was as fine as flour. The coarse pieces
-were separated from the fine by a process which employed a flattish
-piece of wood or bark a foot or so across. Sometimes a basketry plaque
-was used. A portion of ground meal was placed on this tray which was
-held firmly at one side and inclined toward the operator. The other edge
-of the plaque was shaken, causing the coarse material to roll into a
-container held in the lap for repounding while the fine flour remained
-on the plaque. A small brush, generally made from the pounded and dried
-root of the soap-plant, was used to brush the flour off and into the
-cooking basket. Mountain Maidu, according to Voegelin, actually did sift
-acorn meal through open-work baskets though this was not a common
-practice even among members of this tribe.
-
-White oak and some other acorn flour could be used for cooking without
-further preparation. Atsugewi preferred black oak acorns which had to be
-leached to remove the bitter tannic acid before using. To do this the
-flour was placed in a shallow depression on clean sand over porous
-earth, usually, but Yana used loosely woven baskets for the purpose, and
-in recent times it has become common practice to place cloth flour
-sacking over a screen or sieve. Cold water was poured over the meal
-until it was nearly free of bitterness. Warm water was then employed
-briefly, but hot water was never used, for it would make the flour tend
-to jell. Sand was removed from the bottom of the flour by touching the
-bottom of a handful of the moist material to water. The flour held
-together, but the sand grains dropped off. The flour could be dried and
-stored at this point, but was usually used as it was prepared.
-
-Portions of about two or three quarts of acorn flour were placed in
-cooking baskets a foot or more in diameter. Water was added and then hot
-stones were dropped in. These smoothly rounded stones, of any shape and
-from one and a half to three inches in diameter, had been heated in an
-open fire. They were quickly dipped into water to remove ashes before
-being put into the mush cooking basket. The method of handling these
-cooking stones seems to have varied. Present day Atsugewi say a small
-looped stick was used, but old informants stated that two forked sticks
-were employed. Stirring had to be continuous lest the cooking stones
-scorch the basket. Atsugewi used any convenient stick for this, but Yana
-had a small oak paddle. After boiling a short while the acorn mush
-became light greyish or brownish in color; when cooled it jellied quite
-firmly. Acorn mush was commonly eaten warm with meat, from small
-individual baskets. Spoons were unknown in the Lassen area so acorn mush
-was eaten with index and second fingers. Mountain Maidu made their acorn
-mush of a more liquid consistency so that it was often consumed by
-drinking.
-
-Acorn bread was made by using less water and adding a small amount of
-reddish iron-bearing or blackish salt-bearing soil by Atsugewi, but
-mountain Maidu left this ingredient out. The paste was molded into
-biscuit or loaf-shaped forms, wrapped in leaves and baked all night in
-earth pit ovens. Yana sometimes added red soil to their acorn bread
-making it brightly colored. Usually black oak acorns were used for bread
-by the Yana tribes and white oak for soup.
-
-That acorns are a fine food is indicated by the following analysis of
-the uncooked meal. The proportions vary somewhat, but not importantly
-among the several kinds of acorns used: 21% fat, 5% protein, 62%
-carbohydrate, and 14% water, mineral, and fiber. In cooked acorn mush
-the proportions remain the same relatively, except, of course, for the
-greatly increased water content.
-
-Buckeye nuts, not used much by Atsugewi, were important to other Indians
-of California, especially those residing at lower elevations. These
-fruits were gathered when ripe, then shelled, pounded and soaked in
-loosely woven baskets until the poisonous juice was leached out. The
-pulpy mass was next squeezed to remove excess water. Unlike acorn meal
-buckeye pulp was eaten uncooked. Yana crushed their buckeyes with their
-feet and leached the material in creeks, though sometimes hot water was
-used.
-
-Nuts of digger pine and sugar pine were highly regarded as food. Men
-climbed trees and picked digger pine cones or shook limbs to dislodge
-sugar pine cones. The cones were placed on end and covered with dry
-grass which was burned, ridding the cones of pitch. After this heat
-treatment, sugar pine nuts came out easily when cone scales were pulled
-back. After singeing the heavy digger pine cones were hit with rocks to
-obtain the large nuts they contained.
-
-The white sweet crusty deposit occasionally found on the bark of sugar
-pines was relished as candy by Atsugewi. However, it had a laxative
-property which mountain Maidu recognized and reputedly employed as such.
-
-A variety of small plant seeds also provided tasty nutrition. Several
-members of the sunflower family including balsam root species and mules
-ears, and others were used by all local tribes. Such seeds were usually
-collected by beating them with paddle-shaped basketry seed beaters into
-burden baskets. They were then parched with coals in flat trays, placed
-in flat baskets and worked about with stones until freed of skins. Seeds
-were winnowed by tossing them up allowing wind to carry hulls and skins
-away. The seeds were then pulverized with a small stone or muller, being
-rolled or rubbed on a larger rock slab generally referred to as a
-metate. Such seeds were eaten dry by Atsugewi, Yana, and Yahi without
-grinding, or the flour might be moistened and molded into cakes about
-the size of biscuits and eaten without further cooking. However, Yana
-also cooked certain sunflower seeds and the yellow blossoming heads of
-the small (_Helianthella_) sunflower were themselves cooked and eaten.
-
-Clover tops were collected in summer and eaten fresh by all local
-tribes. Mountain Maidu also baked them in earth pit ovens, then dried
-and stored the material to be recooked in winter for making soup.
-Atsugewi cooked clover roots in ovens. Young thistle stalks were eaten
-raw as was the foliage of several carrot-like plants. Mushrooms, fresh,
-roasted, or dried were eaten also. Young soap-plant stems were eaten
-fresh or baked and dried for winter use by Yana tribes.
-
-Manzanita berries were gathered by all Indians of the Lassen region in
-July and August. These berries were knocked into burden baskets with a
-stick. They were dried, stored in pits, pounded when needed, and sifted
-as fine meal. This was moistened and molded into biscuit-sized cakes and
-put away until wanted. Either fresh flour or the cakes were eaten plain
-or put into water and drunk. One investigator reported fermentation of
-manzanita cider and its use as a mild intoxicant, but this appears to
-have been the exception rather than the rule. The drink, of
-lemonade-like character, was usually consumed fresh. Manzanita cider was
-conveyed to the mouth by dipping a deer tail sop into the liquid, and
-then by sucking it. Small cakes were made of a mixture of manzanita and
-wild plum flours. Yana and Yahi also ate manzanita berries as such
-either fresh, or roasted and dried.
-
-Red berries of skunk or squaw bush were gathered in midsummer, washed,
-dried, and stored. They were pounded into flour in a mortar basket,
-mixed with manzanita flour and drunk. Elderberries were mashed and mixed
-with manzanita flour and stored as cakes.
-
-Wild plums were prepared by removing seeds. These were then eaten fresh
-or dried for storage.
-
-Chokecherries and service berries were put into baskets when ripe and
-mashed. The paste was eaten without cooking.
-
-Gooseberries, huckleberries, currants, Oregon-grape, buckthorn, juniper,
-thimble, and elderberries were eaten fresh, too, but juniper fruits
-might be dried and pounded into flour and stored.
-
-Another item used as food was salt which mountain Maidu and Yana
-gathered locally in mineral form. The Atsugewi also imported it from
-Round Mountain in North Yana territory or made expeditions to this site
-to gather the dark salt material from a certain marsh. This salty earth
-was shaped into black loaves and dried. It was not only used for
-flavoring, but the black soil was also eaten as such by some
-individuals. Atsugewi had a local source of salt, however, by collecting
-fine whitish crystals in the early mornings from the blades of salt
-grass which was run between the fingers. Atsugewi used salt for salmon
-and venison in cooking, but not in drying processes.
-
-Pine pitch was chewed, but Atsugewi also used milkweed chewing gum.
-
-As for eating customs, Atsugewi ate three meals each day. Mountain Maidu
-just prepared two real meals. Hands were washed after eating deer and
-bear meats. Mountain Maidu wiped faces and hands with bark and grass
-after eating.
-
-There was a well defined division of labor among California Indians. Men
-would carry water for unusually long distances or heavy logs for
-firewood, but women usually carried water, wood, acorn and root crops,
-and the like. In the case of moving camp, however, men carried the
-heaviest burdens. The most important division of labor was the
-delegation to men of all activities concerning animals and animal
-products, and to women all pertaining to vegetable materials. Women, for
-instance, collected materials for basketry and made all the baskets,
-except that men often made basketry fish traps and nets. Women dug roots
-and cooked all food except meat which men normally cooked. Exception to
-this rule was necessarily made when men were away on hunting trips or at
-war. Men usually built the houses, made moccasins and skin clothing too.
-
-Among Atsugewi and mountain Maidu only men made fire, but this was
-accomplished by both sexes among the Yana and Yahi.
-
-
-
-
-                               CHAPTER IX
-                         HOUSES AND FURNISHINGS
-
-
-The Atsugewi used earth-covered lodges as their permanent winter
-dwellings. These varied in size from about nine feet in length, for a
-single family, to more than thirty feet in length for a chief’s house
-which was usually larger than other houses. Most frequently houses were
-about twenty feet long and somewhat narrower, being occupied by three to
-five families. The earth lodge was elliptical in shape with one center
-post planted firmly in the earth floor somewhat back of true center.
-This supported beams running to two smaller secondary posts and to earth
-shoulders which resulted from excavation of the entire floor to a depth
-of about three feet. On the beams other poles or rafters and bark slabs
-(usually of incense-cedar) were laid. The whole sloping roof was then
-covered with pine needles and a layer of earth.
-
-The main entrance was through a hole about in the center of the roof.
-Over this a heavy mat was placed in bad weather. This opening also
-served as a smoke hole. A ladder made of two poles with cross pieces
-tied on with serviceberry withes was used inside.
-
-    [Illustration: The Northeast (mountain) Maidu earth lodge plan used
-    only three primary posts plus secondary entrance posts.]
-
-  logs or poles
-  a fireplace
-  b mainpost with forked top
-  c front posts with forked tops
-
-A secondary entrance of small size, used by children, was built
-horizontally at ground level on the south (front) end of the house. It
-projected tunnel-like a short distance beyond the lodge outside wall.
-The main purpose of this ground-level opening was to act as a ventilator
-duct to supply draft for proper burning of the cooking and house warming
-fire which burned in front of the center post. At night the ventilator
-duct was closed. This reduced air supply, causing the fire to burn very
-slowly. Glowing coals developed as a result. These produced reduced but
-adequate heat for the occupants who slept with their feet to the fire.
-Men did all of the house construction work except for excavation. The
-women did this with digging sticks and wooden or basketry scoops with
-which they threw the dirt out of the pit. Excavation of the floor of the
-lodge not only made it easier to construct a strong house, but
-contributed materially to the warmth of the standard winter house.
-
-    [Illustration: Typical winter house of the local permanent Indian
-    villages at lower elevations.]
-
-There was no furniture as such. Each family used an assigned portion of
-the house, and cooked its own food, but utilized the central communal
-fire. A thin layer of grass, carefully kept away from the fire, covered
-the floor. The Indians slept on the floor on mats made of tule. During
-the day these and the sleeping blankets were rolled up and provided the
-only seats. However, sitting usually consisted of squatting on the
-floor.
-
-Blankets of deer and elk skin were generally used. Atsugewi also used
-loose tule or grass blankets and all our tribes employed both woven
-rabbit skin and patchwork rabbit or fox blankets. Yana in addition to
-all the foregoing utilized bear skins; sometimes they removed the hair
-from their blankets.
-
-Atsugewi pillows were of bundles of leaves or grass while those of the
-mountain Maidu were harder, being merely piles of small poles, blocks of
-wood, or rocks.
-
-Interior earth walls of the houses were sometimes hung with tule mats or
-skins fastened with pegs to prevent dirt from sloughing off and rolling
-onto the floor. A few shelves might also be provided by laying wooden
-slabs on sticks driven into the dirt walls.
-
-    [Illustration: Atsugewi bark house]
-
-There were other less substantial winter houses consisting either of
-small double lean-tos of bark slabs or conical houses on frameworks of
-slender poles and with shallow excavations. Some dirt was thrown against
-the outside walls for added warmth. Lazy people, who were usually
-consequently poor in the necessities and comforts of normal Indian life,
-lived in this more flimsy type of house. Also, women when indisposed
-repaired to such huts. A doorway was left in the siding to be closed by
-a tule mat in these little houses. They were also equipped with small
-smoke holes for central fires.
-
-Atsugewi summer houses as such really did not exist. Summer camps were
-little more than circular enclosures of brush, juniper, or other conifer
-limbs or of rock. These were ten or fifteen feet across with openings to
-the east. There was no roof, although branches and bark slabs might be
-put over crude frames in rainy weather. If a person were caught in a
-sudden shower he might make a temporary shelter by leaning bark slabs,
-if available, against a large rock or log lying on the ground.
-
-Atsugewi did not have any separate sweat houses nor dancing or assembly
-chambers, but used the larger earth lodge houses for these purposes. The
-largest belonged to chiefs and to other well-to-do Indians. Heat for
-sweating was provided directly by fire and not by production of steam as
-was the case with Plains Indians who threw water on hot stones. In
-recent years, however, after introduction of the horse, Atsugewi learned
-the latter technique and also constructed Plains Indian type sweat
-houses of one to three person capacity. These were dome shaped, and
-built of willow poles set in the ground in a circle. The tops were bent
-over and tied down, and this framework was covered with skins.
-
-Old type sweating was for men only, but Indian women—usually wives—also
-sweated with men in the new style separate sweat houses. Old time
-Atsugewi purposes in sweating were for gaining success in hunting, in
-gambling, and for general good luck. Some praying was done, but there
-were no formalized ceremonies or dances amongst the Atsugewi. Men
-sometimes slept in sweat houses.
-
-In the case of all local tribes sweating was followed by a cold plunge,
-if available nearby. Lacking this facility, a cold sponge bath was
-taken.
-
-The mountain Maidu earth lodge for dwelling and sweating was similar to
-that of the Atsugewi. However, northeast Maidu earth lodges “koom” were
-simpler and smaller than those of northwest and southern Maidu. Three
-posts, often forked were used in place of 10 or 11 employed for valley
-lodges. Excavation was about three feet deep, circular in plan, and from
-18 to 40 feet across. A large flat stone was placed upright at the foot
-of the mainpost between it and the fire in the center. The vertical
-walls of the excavation were usually covered or lined with vertically
-placed whole or split logs or with bark slabs. Logs were lain
-horizontally on the three posts as indicated on the accompanying sketch.
-Radial rafters supporting the roof were placed on these beams and
-sloping downward to the ground surface outside as well as to two small
-posts at the small openway or ventilator passage. Cross poles were
-placed horizontally on the rafters and on these, large pieces of bark,
-branches, and pine needles were successively laid. Lastly, a heavy
-covering of soil 8 to 20 inches thick was heaped on the structure. On
-top in the center a smokehole was left, large enough to serve as the
-main entrance originally, but after the coming of white man, the
-smokehole was made smaller, and, instead, the originally small
-ventilator tunnel which sloped from floor level up to the ground surface
-outside was enlarged, thus supplanting the smokehole as the main
-entrance. Originally a ladder of two poles with cross pieces tied on
-with grapevine or other withes gave vertical access from the floor to
-the smokehole entrance. Dixon reports that a notched log was sometimes
-used for the purpose among mountain Maidu.
-
-The koom or lodge was occupied from November to March and was situated
-on the edges of wide meadows in mountain Maidu areas. At lower elevation
-occupancy was more or less continuous.
-
-Mountain Maidu did not have separate sweat houses. They always used a
-large earth dwelling lodge for the purpose. This was similar to the
-Atsugewi practice. These Maidu did, however, have a formalized sweat
-dance. Also different from the Atsugewi was the practice of men using
-the sweat house for gambling, handicraft work, and competitive singing.
-
-The “hoe-bow” of the mountain Maidu was a hut, 8 to 15 feet in diameter
-and excavated 12 to 15 inches deep. Two main poles were securely tied
-near the end. From the resulting “V” at the top, shorter poles were laid
-to a pair of slender posts about three feet high and set about three
-feet apart along the edge of the excavation. Against this frame
-branches, bark, and leaves were piled and earth was heaped around the
-bottom. The doors of all such bark huts opened to the south and were
-hung with a skin or tule mat.
-
-The rude summer shelter or shade provider was just like that of the
-Atsugewi.
-
-Information on Yahi house details are somewhat scanty, but in all
-probability they were small conical bark-covered huts while some larger
-earth lodges were built to house several families—in general similar,
-but perhaps smaller than those of the other tribes of the Lassen area.
-The large pretentious lodge, constructed solely for sweating and
-ceremonies, of the Sacramento Valley tribes seems to have been lacking
-among all of our local tribes.
-
-The common bark hut dwelling of the Yana was apparently built over a
-circular depression two feet deep, the top of the house rising about six
-feet above the ground. It was probably like the mountain Maidu huts,
-being a series of poles resting on the edges of the excavation. These
-met and were tied at the top to form a cone of low slope, although some
-informants claimed that the posts were set so firmly that tying together
-was omitted. The frames were covered with pine and incense-cedar bark
-slabs leaving a smoke hole near each apex. Earth was probably banked on
-the lower sloping walls. Entrance was never through the smoke hole as in
-the case of Atsugewi and some mountain Maidu earth lodge houses, but by
-means of a small door at ground level on the south side. The entrance
-was protected by a little covered way extending outward three feet from
-the house wall, and decked over by a gable roof of low pitch. A ramp of
-low pitch extended from the floor of the house through this antechamber
-to the ground level outside as no steps were constructed.
-
-The Yana lodge houses were not numerous. The ground plan was long,
-usually wedge or oval in outline and designed for several families, each
-with its own fire. As with the other tribes discussed in this booklet,
-such buildings also served as sweat houses. A ladder consisting of a
-notched log extended down from the smoke hole to the floor. One, two, or
-three center posts with radiating rafters and shorter side posts were
-employed. The Yana followed the Atsugewi practice of providing each
-earth lodge with a south facing, ground level, tunnel-like ventilator
-entrance of small size. It is possible that Yana did have a few special
-sweating lodges of the same design, but the matter is debatable. During
-sweating Yana men talked and played; the main purpose of sweating was to
-make men strong.
-
-It has already been pointed out that all four tribes which used what is
-now Lassen Volcanic National Park did so only during the summer. During
-their high mountain sojourn, the local Indians did not live in houses as
-such. There, residence during the three or four summer months was in
-temporary camps, usually roofless circular areas to accommodate several
-families. These were fenced in with brush and were entered by one or
-more openings somewhat in the same manner as campsites reserved for
-visitors at their permanent villages at lower elevations. Four-posted
-horizontal roofs, to provide shade, were sometimes constructed too. Yana
-seem to have made a lean-to or hut with grass and bark covering for
-summer roofs.
-
-
-
-
-                               Chapter X
-                HOUSEHOLD TOOLS, IMPLEMENTS, AND WEAPONS
-
-
-Implements for grinding foods were important. Mountain Maidu, in fact
-all Maidu tribes, ground some acorns on flat bed rock. When the
-resultant holes which eventually developed in the rock surfaces became
-deep, they were abandoned as the acorn meal tended to pack into hard
-lumps at the bottoms thereof. A heavy flat stone grinding slab was most
-frequently used. However, all Lassen area tribes had portable stone
-mortar bowls too. The Atsugewi and mountain Maidu did not make these nor
-did they use them for grinding food. Such portable stone mortars were
-found, evidently having been fashioned by more ancient tribes.
-Supernatural powers were ascribed to these mortars, and they were used
-only by shamans or medicine men. The Maidu thought that stone mortar
-bowls were made by Coyote at the time of creation and scattered over the
-world for the use of mankind. Others believed the mortars to have been
-“first people” originally, who were turned to stones in this form upon
-the coming of the Indian people at which time other “first people” were
-transformed into animals.
-
-    [Illustration: Northeast Maidu soapstone bowl six inches wide—a rare
-    article (after Dixon)]
-
-As has been described under the preparation of acorn mush, local tribes
-used the flat stone pounding slab under an open bottomed hopper basket,
-most commonly. The hopper basket of the Atsugewi and mountain Maidu was
-usually of twined construction and bound often with buckskin about the
-basal edge. Mountain Maidu sometimes employed their coiling technique in
-making the acorn pounding basket. It was from this tribe, at the turn of
-the century, that Atsugewi learned to make their pounding hopper baskets
-of the stronger coiled construction.
-
-    [Illustration: Maidu stone axe head, 5 inches long (after Dixon)]
-
-    [Illustration: One of several seed beater types used locally]
-
-Pestles of stone were long, smoothed, and sometimes flattened on the
-sides. This resulted from use of these implements also as rubbing or
-mulling stones for processing small seeds on flat slabs without
-employment of basket hoppers. The pestles were always without the
-ornamentation used by certain other California tribes. The pounding end
-of the food grinding pestles are ever so slightly convex—their grinding
-surfaces are nearly flat. This is in contrast to pestles used in the
-deep bowl-shaped portable stone mortars for ceremonial purposes. The
-grinding ends of these pestles were strongly rounded, nearly
-hemispherical in shape.
-
-The muller or small seed crusher used on the flat grinding slab without
-a hopper basket was of oval or rectangular shape, and it too was
-unornamented.
-
-Small brushes used in miscellaneous food preparation were made of
-pounded dried soap-plant bulb fibers.
-
-Hot rocks for cooking were usually handled with two sticks. None of our
-tribes used spoons. Crude obsidian knives with, or more commonly
-without, bone handles were used for many chores.
-
-Yana used split cobble stones for cutting and scraping operations. Their
-stone knives sometimes had wrapped buckskin handles.
-
-Bone awls, usually with wrapped handles, were commonly used for sewing
-buckskin and other hides. Atsugewi are said by some to have had both
-eyed and open notched needles of bone for sewing skins and tule mats.
-
-The wooden shuttle for net weaving was a stick notched at both ends and
-was used by all of the local tribes. A squarish wooden net mesh spacer
-permitted nets to be properly made.
-
-Mountain Maidu used deer antler wedges for splitting wood while Atsugewi
-used wooden wedges—especially of mountain-mahogany. Wedges were usually
-driven with simple wooden clubs, though rocks might be employed for the
-purpose.
-
-Drills for boring holes in shell work and for making pipes and the like
-were used by Atsugewi only. Such drills were wooden shafts with stone
-points. These were rotated by rolling the shaft between the palms of the
-hands. Where the drill was not in use, holes were made in pieces of wood
-with live coals. Sometimes unfinished clamshell money was received in
-trade perhaps at a discount. Such pieces were strung tightly onto a cord
-and the whole string was then rolled between two flat stones thus
-grinding the shell edges to make the well formed disks characteristic of
-clam shell money.
-
-    [Illustration: Soap-root fiber acorn meal brush about 6 inches long
-    (after Dixon)]
-
-    [Illustration: A lava pestle, flat ended food pounder, about 10
-    inches long]
-
-Fire making drills were of greater importance. All local tribes employed
-them. Those of this area were one-piece hand rotated affairs which did
-not utilize the labor saving drill bow of the midwest. A long buckeye
-wood stick about half an inch thick was twirled on a notched block of
-incense-cedar or juniper wood. A bed of dry shredded grass and
-incense-cedar or other flammable tinder was used to nourish the spark
-into flame. Both sexes made fire among the Yana and Yahi, but unless the
-men were away, Atsugewi and mountain Maidu women did not make fire.
-Buckeye was uncommon or lacking in the areas of the latter tribes, so
-this material had to be traded from the Yana and Yahi. Buckeye fire
-making sticks commanded quite a price, a piece two feet long often
-selling for ten completed arrows. Since fire making required much effort
-and skill, fire was rarely allowed to go out. A “slow match” consisting
-of a piece of punky wood in which the fire smouldered was usually
-carried along.
-
-    [Illustration: Maidu bone awls or basket “needles” about 6 inches
-    long]
-
-It was as true in prehistoric America as it is today that weapons were
-essential to existence. Weapons were necessary not only for
-warfare—whether aggressive or defensive—but for the securing of game for
-food since domestication of animals was not practiced.
-
-The bow and arrow was the only important weapon of California Indians.
-Local bows were rather short and quite broad in cross-section. We quote
-Garth’s “Atsugewi Ethnography” on the subject as follows:
-
-  “... The best bows were made by the Atsuge, who had a supply of yew
-  wood ... along the western borders of their territory. The Paiute were
-  anxious to trade for Atsuge bows and considered them much superior to
-  their own. In making the bow a piece of yew wood was selected, split,
-  and shaved down with flints and pumice stone to the required form and
-  thickness. After it had been wrapped in green grass and roasted in hot
-  ashes, the bow was bent to required shape (recurved tips with a slight
-  incurve at the middle), which it retained when it cooled off. Sinew,
-  taken from the back of a deer, was softened by chewing and was then
-  glued on the back of the bow in short strips, which were rubbed out as
-  flat as possible with a smooth piece of bone. Salmon skins were boiled
-  to make the glue.
-
-    [Illustration: Yahi making fire by twirling buckeye rod on
-    Incense-cedar block]
-
-    [Illustration: Maidu fire drill of buckeye (right) about 28 inches
-    long. In the two inch wide Incense-cedar slab note the cut notches
-    with a deeper twirling hole at the head of each.]
-
-  “The designs painted in green and red on the backs of bows are among
-  the few examples of masculine art. The painting was done with a
-  feather tip. The sinew for the bowstring ... was chewed to make it
-  soft and then it was made into a two-ply cord by rolling it with the
-  open hand on the thigh. After salmon glue was rubbed in to make the
-  fibers stick together, the string was stretched by tying a rock to one
-  end and allowing it to hang down from some support. A tassel ... of
-  mole skin might be attached to the end of the bow for decoration....
-
-    [Illustration: Indian Jack Harding after photo by Williams
-
-    “Montgomery Creek” Indian, part white—good archer
-
-    An Atsugewi type bow characteristically short, broad, sinew backed
-    and held at 45 degree angle in shooting. Note the painted
-    decoration]
-
-  “... Flint tipped arrows ... were made of cane or rose and had
-  foreshafts of Serviceberry, or they might be entirely of Service wood.
-  Cane arrows ... with a sharp-pointed foreshaft of Serviceberry were
-  commonly used for small animals and birds. Such arrows might be
-  unfeathered ... (an informant) recalled a bird arrow ... with a barbed
-  wooden point. Deer-bone pointed arrows were sometimes used for killing
-  deer and other game. Voegelin reports that these arrows were also
-  sometimes barbed. Flint-tipped arrows were about thirty inches long
-  ... arrows for small game were somewhat shorter than flint-tipped
-  arrows ... the wood was ordinarily dried before it was used. The end
-  of the Serviceberry foreshaft was cut into a dowel which was inserted
-  in the soft pithy center of the main shaft, the juncture being wrapped
-  with sinew. A notch one-fourth of an inch deep was cut in the butt. A
-  laterally notched obsidian arrow point was inserted in the split end
-  of the foreshaft and bound on with cross lashings of sinew. The
-  binding was ordinarily waterproofed with pitch.
-
-  “Two small grooved pumice stones were used to smooth arrow shafts. The
-  foreshaft was painted red as an indication that poison had been
-  applied to the point. Other bands or stripes of color toward the nock
-  end of the arrow served as ownership marks ... the stripes might run
-  spirally as on a stick of candy ... all kinds of colors being used for
-  painting arrows. Feathers were split along the midrib and were glued
-  to the shaft, about a finger’s width below the butt, with pitch. Sinew
-  wrapping bound down each end of the feathers, three of which—about
-  four inches long—were used to an arrow. The edge of the feather was
-  burned smooth with a hot coal. Feathers of hawks or similar birds were
-  used on ordinary arrows, but for the finest arrows—those to be used
-  for bear and deer—eagle feathers were employed. An arrow wrench of
-  bone or wood was used for straightening arrows; or they might simply
-  be straightened by using the teeth as a vise. A flat antelope horn
-  might be perforated and used as an arrow wrench.... (John La Mar) had
-  a small triangular stone with a hole in the center ... which, he said
-  was heated in the fire and used for straightening cane arrows.
-
-    [Illustration: Maidu bow 40 inches long and two inches wide, deer
-    sinew backed and painted with powdered greenish rock from Oregon
-    mixed with Salmon glue. Two arrows are obsidian tipped. (after
-    Dixon)]
-
-  “Although the flint points themselves were considered poisonous, an
-  arrow poison was often used for larger game as well as in war. The
-  usual method of making poison was to take the liver or pancreas of a
-  deer and allow it to rot; the material was then smeared on the arrow
-  point....”
-
-Rattlesnake poison was also employed; however none of the poisoned arrow
-concoctions were very effective except to start infection of wounds
-inflicted by arrow points so treated.
-
-    [Illustration: Painted Atsugewi bows (after Garth)]
-
-  a. Goose Valley, design in red (Apwaruge)
-  b. Goose Valley, design in red (Apwaruge)
-  c. Drawn by Dave Brown (Atsuge) with outer lines red, inner lines
-          green
-
-Arrow points found in the park area, in the territory of both Atsugewi
-and mountain Maidu are most frequently of obsidian, but sometimes are of
-a dense dull black basalt lava. The term flint is a very loose one,
-being applied to obsidian, chert, opal, chalcedony, and even to the
-dense basalt, noted above, in common usage.
-
-Mountain Maidu imported yew wood as this did not commonly grow in their
-own territory. This tribe, however, also manufactured its own bows. In
-practically all respects bow and arrow design and execution were
-identical to that of the Atsugewi. Those of Yana and Yahi were similar
-too. All tribes of the Lassen area fashioned arrow points with barbs. In
-addition mountain Maidu flaked points without barbs but with basal stems
-for attachment were made.
-
-
-                      MOUNTAIN MAIDU STONE POINTS
-
-    [Illustration: Dull black obsidian much more convex on one side than
-    on the other. From near Corral Meadow; one and one half inches.]
-
-    [Illustration: Black obsidian near Little Willow Lake; one and one
-    half inches long.]
-
-    [Illustration: Dense black basalt from Terminal Geyser; one and five
-    eighths inches.]
-
-    [Illustration: Black obsidian near Little Willow Lake, one inch
-    long.]
-
-
-                   ATSUGEWI KNIFE (?) AND ARROW POINT
-
-    [Illustration: Black obsidian spear point or knife from south shore
-    of Summit Lake; four inches.]
-
-    [Illustration: Dark gray banded point from Northeast shore Snag
-    Lake; two inches.]
-
-
-                          SOUTHERN YANA POINTS
-
-    [Illustration: Dark gray obsidian point from Battle Creek Meadows.
-    Note unusually strong asymmetry in two planes; one inch long.]
-
-    [Illustration: Coarse gray lava knife (?) from Battle Creek Meadows;
-    Three and one half inches long.]
-
-The bow was most frequently held in shooting at an angle of about 45
-degrees with the arrow on top. Mountain Maidu used that style, too, or
-else held the bow horizontally with the arrow on top except in case of
-war when the arrow was held on the underside of the bow. Gifford and
-Klimak reveal that northern and central Yana held the bow horizontally.
-Sapir and Spier found that the Yana tribes proper (not Yahi), however
-held bows vertically in shooting. All tribes considered except Yahi used
-the primary release of the arrow in shooting. In this method the arrow
-was held between the index and third fingers, which caught and pulled
-back the string. The thumb held the other side of the arrow. The Yahi,
-on the other hand used the Mongolian release; grasping the arrow with
-the thumb and unbent first joints of the first and second fingers.
-
-    [Illustration: Maidu bone arrow point flaker about ten inches long
-    (after Dixon)]
-
-  “... the arrow was let fly between the index and third finger of the
-  left hand, which held the bow. Many arrow points were uniface and
-  curved slightly to one side.... A hunter, when shooting at a distant
-  object, turned the arrow so that the point curved up; when shooting an
-  object close by, he turned the arrow so that the point curved down. A
-  hunter carried at least one arrow in his left hand with his bow. Extra
-  arrows were carried in a quiver ... (made of) coyote, raccoon, or
-  other skins. Ordinarily the hunter carried his quiver on his back, but
-  if he wanted to be able to reach the arrows easily, he hung it on his
-  ... shoulder so that it fell under his left armpit. Arrows were taken
-  from the quiver with the right hand.”
-
-Inside the quiver, at the bottom, a cushion of dry grass was placed to
-prevent the stone points from chipping each other.
-
-    [Illustration: Maidu arrow-straightener and smoother of sandstone
-    about three inches long (after Dixon)]
-
-
-                           YAHI STONE POINTS
-
-    [Illustration: Nearly colorless obsidian south of Sulphur Works;
-    three quarters inch.]
-
-    [Illustration: Off-white chalcedony point south of Sulphur Works
-    area; one and one half inches.]
-
-    [Illustration: Black obsidian one and one quarter inches long and a
-    full one half inch thick.]
-
-    [Illustration: Three inch point of coarse gray lava from Mill Creek
-    Canyon.]
-
-    [Illustration: Black obsidian. South of Sulphur Works, one and one
-    half inches.]
-
-
-    [Illustration: Yana arrow points one and one half to two inches
-    long. The materials used are mostly black obsidian, also dark grey
-    and buff obsidian. One is of dense black basalt.]
-
-    [Illustration: A pair of Yana arrow smoother and straightening
-    stones made of porous glassy (pre-Lassen?) dacite pumice, length
-    about two and one half inches]
-
-War clubs were not used. Atsugewi claim to have had a stone axe,
-sharpened by chipping and lashed with sinew to a split oak or
-mountain-mahogany handle a foot or so long. It was used for chopping
-roots and small trees on occasion, but the stone axe was certainly not
-widely used by California Indians, and even among Atsugewi it may have
-been unknown until the coming of white man, or knowledge of it may have
-been gained from Plains Indians after the advent of the horse. The
-tomahawk, so important to Indians of eastern and midwestern North
-America, was unknown to California Indians. Trees were normally felled
-and cut by controlled burning.
-
-Four-foot spears, tipped with large flaked stone points for fighting at
-close quarters, were used by all local tribes on occasion, but were not
-numerous. Only the Yana are believed to have thrown the weapon; the more
-common usage seems to have been by energetically thrusting it.
-
-Knives or daggers as fighting implements were made of chipped obsidian
-but were quite rare. A short, crude, one edged, stone knife was used
-widely as a general utility implement, but not in combat nor in killing
-game. Yana Indians also employed a mussel shell knife for light delicate
-work around camp. Atsugewi and mountain Maidu sometimes affixed wooden
-handles to their obsidian knives. These two tribes also fashioned knives
-of sharpened bone and horn.
-
-    [Illustration: A wooden arrow straightener from northern California
-    (Yurok)]
-
-    [Illustration: Atsugewi stone arrow-straightener]
-
-    [Illustration: Mountain Maidu arrow quiver made of an inside-out
-    small mammal skin.]
-
-    [Illustration: Atsugewi cased fox skin quiver made by slitting
-    animal’s skin along its hind legs, turning skin inside out, and
-    finally sewing the mouth and eye openings shut.]
-
-    [Illustration: 4½ inches     7 inches
-    Maidu stone knives of obsidian, one with a wooden and sinew handle
-    (after Dixon)]
-
-    [Illustration: A warrior in stick armor and fur helmet]
-
-Of equipment for warfare, Garth states:
-
-  “Defensive armor included rod armor ..., gowns ... of dried elk or
-  bear skins, and skin helmets which came down over the forehead and
-  ears, ‘so a man could just see out of it’. The skin armor extended to
-  the ankles or lower; it was worn over one shoulder so that it
-  protected only the side of the body turned toward the enemy. Rod
-  armor, made of serviceberry withes twined together with buckskin
-  string, was high enough to come up to the neck under the chin and
-  extended two or three inches below the belt. The Plains Indian shield,
-  although found among the Surprise Valley Paiute and other Paiute
-  tribes to the east, was lacking among the Atsugewi,” and all other
-  tribes of the Lassen area.
-
-
-
-
-                               Chapter XI
-                         BASKETRY AND TEXTILES
-
-
-The outstanding art of the Indians of California was their basketry. In
-fact the excellence of California basketry generally is not exceeded
-elsewhere in North America. Size varies from that of a pea to that of a
-bushel basket. Both weave and ornamentation were very diversified.
-
-Basketry of the Lassen area, especially that of the Atsugewi and
-mountain Maidu, was of good quality. Both coiled and twined types of
-basketry (to be described below) were made by mountain Maidu, but the
-Atsugewi did not learn the art of coiled basketry from the Maidu until
-the early 1900’s. Yana and Yahi wove both types but twined baskets were
-by far the more numerous. This is due to the fact that these tribes were
-akin to the twining tribes of the north. Close contact with the
-neighboring Wintun tribes of the Sacramento Valley resulted in the
-addition of limited amount of coiling technique in their basketry making
-over the years.
-
-    [Illustration: Technique of the three willow rod (or rib) coiled
-    basketry (after Otis T. Mason). Note that the lashing strand anchors
-    the three new ribs “a”, “b”, and “c” to the top rib “d” of the
-    preceding three “d”, “e”, and “f” group]
-
-    [Illustration: Simple twined basketry technique employs two weft
-    (lashing) strands, but when overlaying with another material is done
-    two or more layers will make up each of the strands “a” and “b”
-    (modified from Otis T. Mason)]
-
-Coiled basketry itself had some technical variations with which we shall
-not concern ourselves. The coiling technique was characteristic of the
-central and southern part of the California area. Mountain Maidu used
-three willow rods in a parallel group which ran as a core in a
-continuous spiral starting at the center of the basket. This was the
-warp element. The bundle of three willow ribs was lashed to the
-preceding basketry by a strand or weft (filler) of the inner bark of
-redbud. This was accomplished by poking an awl through the preceding
-row, and separating the stitches. In doing so, the awl was passed under
-the topmost of the core or warp of three coiling willow ribs. A redbud
-bark strand was then slipped through the awl hole, thus lashing the
-three loose willow ribs down by passing the strand around them and
-through the next awl hole in the preceding row. Recent Atsugewi coiled
-basketry technique is similar in all details, having been learned from
-the Maidu.
-
-    [Illustration: Variations of the simple twined basketry technique:
-    a, method of starting the round root-cleaning basket; b, detail of
-    side wall of basket showing open work weave. (Garth)]
-
-Twined basketry consisted of willow ribs radiating from a common center.
-These twigs were the warp. The weft of filling and binding stitches were
-split pine root strands. Dixon states that mountain Maidu sometimes dyed
-pine root black by burying it in mud mixed with charcoal. Pine root was
-tightly woven in to make the bottom of the basket which was normally
-undecorated. More and more willow ribs were added as the basket became
-larger. The willow ribs were curved up when willow rib additions were
-decreased. As the sides began to be built up on these twined baskets,
-each pine root stitch, both inside and outside, was covered with a
-whitish strand of bear-grass or squaw-grass. The tops of baskets were
-often left unfinished after the unused willow warps were clipped off.
-The basket did not unravel in use. However, the best baskets were
-finished by adding a marginal strengthening ring of choke cherry or
-willow which was bound to the basket body firmly and neatly, usually by
-wrapping with strands of redbud bark. During weaving willow withes were
-fastened inside of the basket to help it retain its shape, but these
-were removed upon completion of the basket.
-
-    [Illustration: Side outline shapes of Maidu baskets (after Dixon).
-    The plan of virtually all Maidu baskets was circular. Twined storage
-    baskets are up to three feet in diameter for holding seed, meal,
-    etc. Open twined construction was used for storage of whole acorns,
-    fish, and meat. Flatish circular basketry plaque was for “vibration
-    sifting”.]
-
-            _FOOD BOWL                       _STORAGE
-             DIPPING                         COOKING_
-         GENERAL UTILITY_
-
-            _FOOD BOWL                       _STORAGE
-              DIPPER                         COOKING_
-         GENERAL UTILITY_
-
-            _COOKING_                        _STORAGE
-                                             COOKING_
-
-            _FOOD BOWL                       _STORAGE
-              DIPPER                         COOKING_
-         GENERAL UTILITY_
-
-            _COOKING_                        _BURDEN_
-
-            _FOOD BOWL                       _STORAGE
-              DIPPER                         COOKING_
-         GENERAL UTILITY_
-
-  _TRAYS or large BASKET COVER_       _TRAY or BASKET COVER_
-
-Some utility baskets were undecorated, being made merely of pine root
-and willow, or, if coiled, of redbud and willow. However, most baskets
-bore some designs. They were all named and were inspired by the objects
-of nature about these outdoor peoples, and not the product of their
-imaginations. Nevertheless, the designs are quite stylized, often to the
-extent that recognition of the inspiration is difficult or impossible.
-
-In the case of twined baskets the designs were made by substituting
-outer redbud bark for squaw-grass to produce a dull red instead of the
-white overlaid stitches of the rest of the basket. As a result of the
-double twining technique the designs were seen equally well on the
-inside and the outside of each basket. Black designs were of overlaid
-maidenhair fern (_Adiantum pedatum_) stems. However, mountain Maidu also
-used common bracken fern (_Pteris aquilinum_) for black designs. Indians
-to the north of the Atsugewi used roots and stems of certain sedges
-treated with charcoal and mud or with ashes and water to produce
-basketry materials of black and of warm henna-brown coloration
-respectively. These were used on occasion by Atsugewi. The bear-grass,
-redbud, and maidenhair fern decorative materials were most commonly used
-by all tribes of this area. Atsugewi are the only local Indians to have
-used feathers to adorn their baskets. They used the shiny iridescent
-blue-green feathers from the necks of male mallard ducks. This was not
-common, however, and by no means used as often nor developed to the fine
-art and diversity of the famous Pomo feathered basketry of the Clear
-Lake region of the California Coast Range. Atsugewi are also believed to
-have occasionally adorned some basketry work with shell beads and
-porcupine quills, but this must have been quite rare or more examples
-would have survived to the present day.
-
-Outer bark of redbud almost always decorated coiled baskets.
-
-Concerning Maidu basketry Dixon states that the vast majority of the
-articles are of the coiled type, twining technique being used only for
-burden baskets and hopper or grinding baskets. For the radial ribs of
-the former they used shoots of hazel (_Corylus rostrata_ var.
-_californica_) when available. He points out too, the frequent use of
-the feather, quail-tip, and arrow-point designs not only among the
-mountain Maidu, but among all Maidu. A characteristic of this group of
-Indians also, in contrast to other local tribes, is the tendency to
-confine one design to a basket rather than combining designs. Maidu
-employed a wide variety of designs. Many of them represent animals and
-plants. A considerable number of Maidu patterns exhibit a more or less
-obscure realism which becomes apparent only after one is informed as to
-what the design means. The Maidu show a tendency also toward arrangement
-of design elements in spiral or zigzag lines.
-
-    [Illustration: Atsugewi basket, twined and overlaid with bear-grass
-    and maiden hair fern.]
-
-    [Illustration: Maidu hopper, pounding, or milling basket of twined
-    construction on rock mortar slab. Diameter about eighteen inches
-    (after Dixon).]
-
-    [Illustration: Atsugewi general utility basket of twined
-    construction with lizard foot design. Underside shown to reveal dark
-    (actually tan-colored) area of bare split pine root weft without
-    bear-grass or maiden hair overlay.]
-
-    [Illustration: Coiled type Atsugewi hopper basket with flying geese
-    design. View shows pounding hole in bottom of basket, in this case
-    bound with buckskin.]
-
-Dixon noted that “mussel’s tongue” (the fresh water mussel) is one of
-the unique and peculiar basketry designs used by the Atsugewi.
-Representation of intestines and deer excrement are also worthy of
-special mention for this tribe. Other common Atsugewi designs in
-basketry decoration are lizard, deer rib, owl’s claw, and flying geese,
-as well as arrow-point. Two or more different designs are often combined
-on a single basket. Among Atsugewi and Achomawi there seems to be no
-restriction of certain patterns to baskets intended for special uses.
-Like mountain Maidu, zigzag and spiral arrangements are preferred,
-horizontal bands being rare. Curiously an Atsugewi design is often given
-different meaning by different individual Indians. This is in contrast
-to the uniformity of interpretation of a given design by all the Maidu
-individuals, normally.
-
-    [Illustration: Maidu open twined “tray” or plate-like basket about
-    ten inches long (after Dixon)]
-
-Yana tribes frequently substituted another material for willow ribs. The
-identity of this warp is not certain. Reliable students believe it to be
-hazelnut twigs, but to my knowledge that plant is scarce indeed even in
-the foothill territory. Yana and Yahi had some other peculiarities in
-their basketry. Designs were sometimes wrought in a negative way, that
-is by merely leaving off overlay so that the design was thereby defined
-in exposed pine root weft. Sapir and Spier found that these tribes also
-used alder bark for dying basketry decoration materials a red-brown. A
-reddish color was produced on peeled shield fern stems by passing them
-through the mouth while chewing dogwood bark. They dyed pine roots, too,
-on occasion with a red soil or with the powdery filling of spores from
-the inside of a fungus obtained from certain coniferous trees. These
-variations of basketry decoration do not seem to have been used by the
-Atsugewi and mountain Maidu.
-
-    [Illustration: Maidu fish-teeth design on coiled basket.]
-
-    [Illustration: Mountain Maidu geese-flying design on coiled basket.]
-
-    [Illustration: Atsugewi lizard’s claw or lizard’s foot design.]
-
-    [Illustration: Mountain Maidu mountains designs on twined baskets.
-    The right hand treatment may be repeated in reverse to the right
-    making a symmetrical pyramid shaped design outline.]
-
-    [Illustration: An interesting unsymmetrical flower design.]
-
-    [Illustration: Atsugewi intestines.]
-
-The basketry described above was all close-woven. In fact, so closely
-were the twined baskets made that they held water with little or no
-leakage even without linings of pitch or any other substance. There was
-no pottery of any kind in central or northern California.
-
-The art of basketry included also a third type—loose or open weaving,
-sometimes of tules. The latter were also used extensively for making
-mats for a variety of purposes. Open weaving at other times was done
-with willow withes, split juniper twigs, or of another material
-tentatively identified as hazel. Fish traps, carrying baskets, some
-storage baskets, and bags were not infrequently of this type of
-construction.
-
-All basketry materials had to be well soaked in water, as they were
-brittle when dry. After weaving and upon drying these materials set in
-place, making the basketry firm, strong, and resistant to unraveling.
-
-Collection of basketry materials was more arduous and required greater
-know-how than might be suspected. Willow withes were only taken from the
-particularly strong and supple shoots from Hinds or valley willow
-(_Salix hindsiana_) which grows along stream banks up to 3000 foot
-elevations and also from the similar sandbar, river, or grey willow
-(_Salix fluviatilis_ variety _argyrophylla_) which also lines streams,
-often growing in sandbars. These species are recognized by their long
-very narrow silvery leaves and a grey bark, furrowed when mature. Willow
-twigs were collected when the leaves were off of the stems in the spring
-and in the fall. At other times the twigs were more brittle. Spring
-picked willow withes “slipped” their bark easily, but those collected in
-the fall had to be scraped to remove the bark. The willow ribs were
-further dressed by scraping to uniform size.
-
-Pine roots of either ponderosa pine (_Pinus ponderosa_) or digger pine
-(_Pinus sabiniana_) were usually used. However not all trees had roots
-of suitable strength and flexibility, so that it was necessary to “shop
-around” for good roots. This involved digging holes to reach the roots
-and then testing these by tugging on small strands until suitable roots
-were located. Roots three or four inches in diameter were then cut off
-with a small obsidian axe, if the individual were so fortunate as to
-possess this rarity, or by using a sort of bone pick, or, more commonly,
-by slowly burning through the green root with a small fire. Root lengths
-of about four feet were gathered, taken home, and there roasted in hot
-ashes. This made the pine roots very soft. They were then split into
-quarters with digging sticks or stone choppers and finally were pulled
-apart into thin strips using hands and teeth. The resulting half inch
-wide strips were tied into bundles for storage. In use, these strips
-were well soaked in water. Pine root strands of proper width were easily
-split off by hand. The finer and smaller the basketry to be done,
-naturally, the narrower was the material split for making it.
-
-    [Illustration: Atsugewi twined basket, deer-rib and arrow point
-    designs. Both are frequently used.]
-
-    [Illustration: Pit River (used by Dixon to include Atsugewi) popular
-    mussels’ tongue designs.]
-
-    [Illustration: Mountain Maidu mountain-and-cloud design on coiled
-    basket.]
-
-    [Illustration: Atsugewi pine cone design]
-
-    [Illustration: Atsugewi deer-gut design on twined basket—also a
-    popular pattern.]
-
-    [Illustration: Another Atsugewi version of deer-gut design on twined
-    basket.]
-
-    [Illustration: Pit River (applied by Dixon to include also the
-    Atsugewi) deer excrement designs.]
-
-    [Illustration: Atsugewi flint design]
-
-The chief overlay material—already mentioned—was what we call bear-grass
-or squaw-grass. In truth this is not grass, but the leaf of a lily, the
-well known bear-grass of Mount Rainier National Park, scientifically
-known as _Xerophylum tenax_. This grows only in limited areas in this
-region, hence Atsugewi had to make long trips on foot to obtain it. In
-recent years, at least, bear-grass was to be found only in the territory
-of the Shasta and of the mountain Maidu: a few miles west of Mount
-Shasta and near Greenville in Plumas County. Bear-grass could be
-collected only during about two weeks in mid-July. Earlier it was too
-tender; later it was too brittle “like hay”. Only new central leaves of
-each plant were plucked. The heavy mid-rib had to be removed from each
-leaf with an awl before use.
-
-Maidenhair fern frond stems were picked in August.
-
-Redbud twigs collected in the spring would “slip” the red outer bark
-easily in a thin layer. This was used for overlay pattern making on
-twined baskets. The white inner bark, or, more properly, sapwood was
-then stripped off for binding material and as the white lashing weft for
-coiled baskets. In the case of fall-collected redbud twigs the red outer
-bark adhered to the sapwood. This was used as the lashing strand or weft
-where red designs were desired on coiled baskets.
-
-Apwaruge, the eastern division of the Atsugewi, often made baskets of
-tules. These were more flexible, softer baskets than those made by the
-westerners, the Atsuge, and so there was considerable exchange of
-baskets between the two divisions of the Atsugewi.
-
-Atsugewi occasionally made openwork baskets from split juniper too,
-especially for low scoop-shaped, round, or oval baskets for fishing,
-root cleaning, et cetera, but as indicated earlier, willow ribs were
-used for this purpose also.
-
-    [Illustration: (Yana) dogs ears]
-
-    [Illustration: Probably Yana House design]
-
-    [Illustration: Maidu quail tip design widely used but only on coiled
-    baskets.]
-
-    [Illustration: (Yana) crane’s leg]
-
-    [Illustration: (Atsugewi) meadow lark]
-
-    [Illustration: (Achomawi) flying geese or pine cone
-    (Yana) pine cone]
-
-    [Illustration: Maidu earthworm design on a coiled basket.]
-
-    [Illustration: Maidu bushes design on a coiled basket.]
-
-    [Illustration: Mountain Maidu duck’s-wing design on a coiled
-    basketry plaque.]
-
-    [Illustration: (Maidu) diamond
-    (Yana) wolf’s eye]
-
-    [Illustration: Mountain Maidu eye design.]
-
-    [Illustration: (Atsugewi) flint or arrowhead]
-
-    [Illustration: (Maidu) watersnake (?)
-    (Yana) bushes]
-
-    [Illustration: (Yana) bats]
-
-    [Illustration: Maidu design, probably sugar pine tree.]
-
-    [Illustration: A continuing zig-zag arrow feather design widely and
-    frequently used by Maidu in coiled basketry, sometimes this was
-    combined with the quail tip pattern.]
-
-    [Illustration: Single and double arrow point designs—the most
-    commonly used of all Maidu patterns. It was relatively easy to make
-    and very versatile.]
-
-    [Illustration: (Maidu) big tongues
-    (Yana) intestines]
-
-    [Illustration: (Maidu) quail tip
-    (Yana) root digger]
-
-    [Illustration: (Maidu) mountain
-    (Yana) root digger hand]
-
-    [Illustration: (Maidu) earthworm
-    (Yana) intestines]
-
-    [Illustration: (Maidu) earthworm
-    (Yana) intestines]
-
-    [Illustration: (Maidu) mountain
-    (Yana) root digger hand]
-
-    [Illustration: (Achomawi) mountain or bear’s foot
-    (Yana) root digger hand]
-
-    [Illustration: (Maidu) vine
-    (Yana) geese]
-
-    [Illustration: (Maidu) rattlesnake
-    (Yana) geese]
-
-    [Illustration: (Wintun) sucker tail
-    (Yana) long worms in rotten wood.]
-
-    [Illustration: (Yana) wolf’s eye]
-
-Basket styles varied little among the several tribes of the Lassen
-region. Bottle shapes were never made until after the coming of white
-man. Cooking baskets were bowl-shaped with high, convexly curved sides,
-sometimes nearly globular in form. Baskets from which food was eaten
-individually and general utility baskets were similarly shaped but
-smaller. Boiling baskets were sometimes without decoration; their
-dimensions of height and width were about equal. Storage baskets also
-had about the same shape, curving less, sometimes, but were large, being
-three feet or more in size. Some were of open work, but usually they
-were of close or tight weaving.
-
-Flattish bowls or somewhat curved trays were used for food platters as
-well as for winnowing, parching, and cleaning foods by chafing. Some
-were of open weave made of willow or hazel (?) only while others were
-closely woven.
-
-Basketry acorn grinding hoppers also called milling baskets or pounding
-baskets, were usually regular twined baskets of suitable size and shape:
-wide mouthed bowl or funnel-shaped. Having no central point from which
-to start the warp, because of the open bottoms, hopper baskets were
-started by twining three pine root wefts about the bases of many willow
-warps to make a circle about five inches in diameter. Additional warps
-were built up on the radiating ribs, proceeding then in the normal
-manner of twining. Twined hopper baskets were usually reinforced by
-lashing one or two strong rings of willow or serviceberry withes. They
-might also be bound with buckskin along the bottom edges for improved
-strength and durability as well as to decrease loss of acorn meal during
-the pounding process. In recent years both mountain Maidu and Atsugewi,
-also used coiling technique in making hopper baskets, for which purpose
-it is well suited.
-
-A recent innovation among Atsugewi has been the covering of bottles with
-basketry and also the weaving of oblong shaped closely twined and coiled
-baskets, as well as goblet shaped creations.
-
-  According to Garth, the seed beater “... was a paddle-shaped implement
-  from one and a half to two feet long with a willow warp and open work
-  twining, also of willow (spaced at three quarters of an inch between
-  rows) across the blade. The handle was wrapped either with willow
-  strips or with buckskin.”
-
-Another important use of basketry was in the construction of cradle
-boards, or more properly, basket cradles. These are generally known to
-present day Americans by the incorrect term papoose baskets. The cradle
-basket is discussed under the heading “Birth and Babies”.
-
-    [Illustration: (Yurok) flint
-    (Yana) zigzagging]
-
-    [Illustration: (Maidu) quail-tip
-    (Yana) “sitting up in a series”]
-
-    [Illustration: (Maidu) vine
-    (Yana) “braided”]
-
-    [Illustration: (Yana) mussels]
-
-    [Illustration: (Maidu) earthworm
-    (Yana) “braided”]
-
-    [Illustration: (Yana) mountains]
-
-    [Illustration: (Yurok) “sitting”
-    (Yana) “zigzagging and turning back”]
-
-    [Illustration: (Yana) wolf’s eye]
-
-    [Illustration: (Yana) trout or salmon tails]
-
-    [Illustration: (Yana) flint]
-
-    [Illustration: (Yana) guts]
-
-    [Illustration: (Atsugewi) skunk’s ear]
-
-Beautifully made basketry caps for women, finely twined, spreading
-bowl-shaped affairs were made by all tribes of the Lassen area. These
-were nicely decorated on the bottoms—or rather tops—as well as on the
-sides, a feature lacking on all other types of local baskets. Another
-unique feature of the basketry cap was the fact that the inside of the
-hat was abraded by rubbing so that none of the pattern remained visible
-because all of the overlay on the inside had been worn away. It is
-suspected that this made the inside of the hat less slippery on the hair
-so that it did not slip off the head so easily. Removal of the
-decoration from the inside of the basketry cap in no way altered the
-appearance or permanence of the outside decorative patterns.
-
-Mats were woven of viscid bulrush, more commonly called tule stalks
-(_Scirpus lacustris_ or _acutus_). According to Voegelin, Atsugewi
-sometimes sewed these together by piercing them with bone needles.
-However the more usual method of manufacture was that of lashing
-together the ends of parallel tule stalks laid next to each other. This
-was done with double cords or strands in the regular simple twining
-manner which shows up well in the sketch of Atsugewi tule leggings. Such
-mats were extensively used as bed mats or mattresses, as earth wall
-coverings, as doorway and ventilator hole hangings, and so on by all of
-the tribes of the Lassen region. Mountain Maidu also employed
-broad-leaved cat-tail (_Typha latifolia_) or narrow-leaved cat-tail
-(_Typha angustifolia_) for such purposes on occasion. This tribe also
-appears to have used a string weft in making at least some of the mats.
-
-
-
-
-                              Chapter XII
-                       TANNING, CORDAGE, AND GLUE
-
-
-Mountain Maidu buried bear skins in wet ground, but hides generally were
-soaked about a week in water by local Indians. Mountain Maidu used ashes
-to help dehair skins other than deer, but this was not a practice common
-to other tribes. Stone, or more frequently, shaped deer rib or pelvic
-bones were used as dehairing scraper tools on skins. The hide was draped
-over an inclined post and was soaked and squeezed occasionally during
-the process of scraping.
-
-The tanning agent was a cooked soup of animal brains, particularly those
-of deer. This material might first have been mashed, mixed with dry
-moss, and then molded into small cakes for drying and storage. The deer
-brain agent was well rubbed into the cleaned, soaked skin. It was then
-allowed to soak overnight in the tanning solution. The next day while
-drying the skin in the sun, the operator stretched and worked the hide
-with his hands to make it soft and pliable.
-
-Among Atsugewi the skin was then smoked over a fire of moist rotten logs
-or green juniper boughs burning in a shallow pit. The skin was laid on a
-domed framework of willow branches arched over the fire. The hide was
-turned occasionally to insure uniform treatment. Mr. Garth believes that
-this smoking process was recently learned. It was not generally
-practiced by neighboring tribes, but produced superior buckskin which
-resisted stiffening as a result of subsequent wetting. Even Atsugewi did
-not smoke other skins.
-
-    [Illustration: Nets. a, b, stages in net making; c, tule float; d,
-    net shuttle.]
-
-Men did all this work as well as the hunting, skinning, and fashioning
-of garments from hides. Skins were sewn with bone awls and deer sinew
-thread which was made by rolling fine deer sinew strands on the thigh
-with the open hand.
-
-    [Illustration: Net making shuttle about fourteen inches long (after
-    Dixon)]
-
-    [Illustration: The usual Maidu knot for nets (after Dixon)]
-
-    [Illustration: Carrying net]
-
-Like other local tribes, the Maidu used many woven skin blankets. These
-were fashioned from one inch strips of rabbit fur, especially, but also
-of the skins of wildcat, cougar, geese, or crows. These were not tanned
-so that upon drying they twisted or curled like the strands of a rope
-with the fur or feather side out. Ends were tied together to form a long
-fur or feather covered rope. This was wound about two poles set upright
-in the ground six feet or so apart to form the warp for the blanket.
-More of the same material was then woven up and down as weft to produce
-a soft and very warm skin blanket which was also quite durable. When
-bird skins were employed a cord core was threaded thru the center of the
-twisted strands before weaving for greater strength.
-
-Mountain Maidu also did feather work like that of the Atsugewi, however
-foothill and valley Maidu did so to a greater extent and of a more
-elaborate nature.
-
-Willow, serviceberry, and redbud withes, and at lower elevations,
-lengths of wild grape vines were used for tying purposes. However,
-Indians also had need for strong and more versatile and more durable
-string, cord, and rope. These were usually made from vegetable fibers.
-Atsugewi and mountain Maidu used Indian hemp and milkweed but not nettle
-or iris fibers as did some other tribes. When mature, but before they
-became old and brittle, the plants were collected and dried, stripped of
-leaves, and the flesh was scraped and pounded off leaving the free
-fibers. String was made by placing two small bundles of fibers parallel
-and close together on the thigh of the leg. These were rolled up into
-two strands side by side with one stroke of the open hand moving either
-up or down the thigh. On the return stroke the two separate and now
-twisted strands were twisted together into one string. Stout cord was
-made by repeating the process, substituting two strings for the two
-bundles of loose fibers this time. To make rope the process was repeated
-several times, successively doubling the cordage product. As the cordage
-strands were twined together, the product was held in the left hand, the
-rolling being done by the right hand on the right thigh.
-
-Nets of good quality were fabricated in a variety of mesh sizes, the
-uniformity of which was controlled by use of squarish wooden blocks.
-Shuttles to hold the string for net tying were straight pieces of wood
-notched at each end and into which the strand was wrapped. As has been
-pointed out, nets were used chiefly for hunting, fishing, and carrying,
-although small nets were often worn in the hair by men.
-
-Adhesives were important in the economy of the Indians too. Pine pitch
-and glue made from the skins of fish were used. A solution of the latter
-was mixed by the mountain Maidu with certain internal organs of fish and
-boiled vegetable materials to improve the quality of their glue.
-
-
-
-
-                              Chapter XIII
-                             TRANSPORTATION
-
-
-It was the lack of transportation rather than the existence of any which
-was important to the aboriginal Americans. This was responsible for the
-degree of isolation which was required to produce the variety of customs
-and languages in most parts of the “New World”. Introduction of the
-horse in historic times materially changed the habits of Plains Indians.
-Likewise the somewhat aggressive Modoc tribe to the north of the Pit
-River, whose conflict with the whites has been memorialized in Lava Beds
-National Monument today, became mobile, even prior to the gold rush
-days, through use of the horse. As a result the Modocs made a number of
-hit and run raids upon Atsugewi and other tribes and were able to carry
-off slaves. This was not the traditional mode of warfare.
-
-Transportation among Indians was by foot or by water until recent times.
-California Indians did not use dogs as beasts of burden as Plains
-Indians did and as the Eskimos still do. Women did general hauling; men,
-however, did most of the really heavy carrying. Women used the conical
-burden basket extensively, but the men did not. Both sexes used the
-buckskin pack strap which in the case of mountain Maidu passed over the
-top of the head. Atsugewi pack straps went over the forehead and also
-over the shoulder across the chest. The brimless basketry cap or hat was
-used with the packstrap especially among the women. Heavy loads were
-frequently carried by men upon the shoulder; such burdens were often
-rolled in mats or animal skins.
-
-Carrying nets made of twisted fibers were commonly employed by men and
-women among local tribes. Atsugewi used a folded buckskin bag sewed at
-the edges, with a handle on top, and opening at the side. Yana
-manufactured an open-work carrying basket too.
-
-In this region loads were never carried on the head, but on occasion
-might be suspended on a pole and carried between two men. The mountain
-Maidu also used a litter for the sick, but Atsugewi carried sick persons
-in burden baskets on their backs.
-
-In rough country crude trails were sometimes built, but this was not a
-common practice. Generally trails as such were not constructed, but
-where they existed they had developed as the result of long use along
-logical routes, in much the same manner as deer and other game trails
-develop.
-
-To cross streams advantage was taken of logs which had fallen of natural
-causes. On occasion single logs were felled by burning to serve as
-bridges. Yana at lower elevations frequently had large streams to cross
-and smaller trees to utilize. Two logs might be felled parallel and
-cross sticks lashed on with grapevine for better footing.
-
-    [Illustration: Boat Types of Native California (not to scale). a,
-    Yurok (northwestern California) river canoe; b, Klamath
-    (northeastern California) canoe; c, tule balsa.]
-
-    [Illustration: Distribution of Types of Native California Boat.]
-
-  a, Dugout canoe
-  b, Dugout canoe
-  c, Tule balsa
-
-    [Illustration: Atsugewi dug-out canoe on Hat Creek]
-
-In swimming most Indians used a pseudo-breast stroke or swam on their
-backs with a frog style stroke. Atsugewi also did a “dog paddle” keeping
-arms under water. Mountain Maidu used swimming techniques which embraced
-principles like those of white man’s side stroke and crawl. They jumped
-into the water feet first in preference to headfirst diving. When
-swimming under water to collect crawfish or mussels a rock was often
-tied loosely to the back.
-
-Water transportation was not of the same degree of importance to the
-tribes of the Lassen region that it was to Sacramento Valley, Coastal,
-and Northwestern Indians. Nevertheless Atsugewi used sharp or blunt
-ended canoes while that of the mountain Maidu had a shovel-like prow and
-stern. These were made from pine logs, usually windfalls about two feet
-in diameter and had a capacity of two to four persons. The logs were
-hollowed out by controlled burning so that the walls were an inch or two
-thick. Pitch was rubbed onto portions needing more burning. Water or mud
-were used to check burning and the charred wood was scraped out with
-rough angular stones. Local dugout canoes were rather crude affairs.
-Cracking of the wood was prevented by keeping the boats wet. They were
-propelled by an unadorned poling rod or by a single bladed square-ended
-paddle about three feet long. A raft, consisting of three or four logs
-lashed together, was used as well by all local tribes and propelled by
-poling.
-
-Atsugewi had another type of craft: the tule balsa—a five foot long
-raised prow affair made of bundles of tules lashed together. It might be
-poled or else pushed by a swimmer. Often this raft-like boat was towed
-by a rope of willow. Atsugewi occasionally ferried children or goods in
-baskets, while among mountain Maidu swimmers carried children on their
-backs and carried goods in one hand, raised above the water level,
-swimming with the other hand.
-
-
-
-
-                              Chapter XIV
-                     DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PETS
-
-
-We are apt to think of Indians, especially Plains Indians, riding horses
-as part of the natural prehistoric scene, yet this was not the case.
-Although fossil remains in the rocks show clearly the development of the
-horse over a period of several millions of years on this continent, the
-horse, the camel, and the rhinoceros—to mention but a few of the
-spectacular mammals—became extinct on the American continents before the
-advent of prehistoric man. American Indians had never seen a horse until
-the coming of the Spanish to the New World in 1540. Likewise domestic
-cattle, sheep, goats, and chickens were unknown to the aborigines.
-
-The dog was widely distributed, however. Some tribes had large as well
-as small dogs of a variety of colors. In the Lassen area the dogs were
-all about the size of small coyotes, mostly with fairly short hair, but
-there are some reports of long haired dogs. Typically the dogs had small
-rather erect and pointed ears. Coloration was chiefly fawn colored to
-brown. Amongst Atsugewi, dogs were usually quite numerous, but certain
-villages seem to have had only a few. In such cases and among the
-mountain Maidu, who generally had only few dogs, they were borrowed for
-hunting. Dogs were almost always named.
-
-Dogs served to warn their owners of the approach of strangers to the
-village or camp. Mountain Maidu taught their dogs not to bark, but to
-“sniff” conspicuously as a signal of stranger approach.
-
-Tribes of the Lassen area did not normally keep dogs in their dwelling
-houses. Atsugewi built separate, domed, bark-covered dog houses, and
-mountain Maidu built two kinds of shelters for their dogs. One was a
-subterranean earth-covered dog house, and the other a conical affair of
-bark slab type construction.
-
-Dogs were widely used in hunting. They were efficient in catching
-rodents and other small mammals such as ground hogs. They were also
-useful for treeing mountain lions and were adept at bringing down
-wounded deer by jumping up and seizing the deers’ ears.
-
-Dogs were not often eaten by tribes in this section of California. Upon
-death, dogs were not buried, but the bodies were merely thrown out.
-
-Upon death of the dog’s owner, among Atsugewi, the dog was retained by
-the widow, but among mountain Maidu the dog was suspended in a tree
-because “It makes dog’s spirit glad”! Although not being generally
-considered in this account, it is curious that among Modoc and eastern
-Achomawi dogs were burned at the deaths of their owners.
-
-Bear cubs were commonly kept. Atsugewi also kept fawns and other small
-mammals as pets. Birds of various sorts were kept by certain tribes.
-Atsugewi plucked or cut wings of birds, especially of eagles whose
-feathers were prized for arrow making, and for ceremonial and decorative
-purposes.
-
-
-
-
-                               Chapter XV
-                                CLOTHING
-
-
-The members of all tribes, especially the Yana and Yahi, went bareheaded
-much of the time. However, basketry caps nearly hemispherical in shape
-and of fine tightly twined weave were worn regularly by Indian women.
-The caps were probably worn to prevent chafing of the pack straps
-originally, but Atsugewi women wore them most of the time. Such hats
-were well decorated with overlaid designs typical of the tribes under
-consideration. Those of Yana and Yahi were usually of tule with black
-and white overlay. Mountain Maidu made some coiled basketry caps, not
-infrequently employing tules or reeds.
-
-Men of all our tribes wore fur headbands on occasion and among Atsugewi,
-fur or buckskin caps too, especially in winter, when shallow bucket
-shaped skin hats of coyote, raccoon, mink and the like afforded
-protection against the rather intense cold.
-
-Eyeshades attached to a band around the head were worn by some Yana
-women so as not to see their sons-in-law! Atsugewi men and possibly
-others might wear side blinds when spearing fish at night to keep torch
-light out of their eyes.
-
-Children up to about six years of age ran about naked, and often the
-older men and women did likewise, particularly among the Maidu.
-
-Buckskin dresses were worn to some extent by the women of most local
-tribes. The mountain Maidu dress was tied at both shoulders and tied or
-belted at the waist. The garment was provided with flaps over the upper
-arms but lacked sleeves. Buckskin dresses were worn by some Indian women
-rich in worldly goods, and usually for special occasions. Recent
-buckskin dresses, of course, are sewn on sewing machines, neatly
-tailored, and follow the general pattern of the conventional dress,
-including regular sleeves.
-
-In normal everyday garb Indian women were naked above the waist. A
-wrap-around skirt, or, more frequently two narrow or wide aprons were
-worn. Sometimes one apron went around the hips, being tied in back and
-provided with a buckskin flap which covered the wearer’s buttocks. The
-Indian women’s aprons were commonly made of shredded incense-cedar,
-willow, or juniper bark, or of tules. In the case of Yana and Yahi
-women, frequently grass or shredded, spring-gathered, broad-leaf maple
-bark were used. The latter was a favorite valley Maidu skirt material.
-The double aprons might however be made of whole buckskin or of strips
-or cords of buckskin, and in winter furs might be used for the purpose.
-The double apron is recognized as the standard garb of California Indian
-women. That of the Maidu was often very narrow, being not much more than
-a front and a rear tassel.
-
-    [Illustration: A beautiful old Shasta buckskin woman’s wrap-around
-    apron ornamented with tan, black, and red vegetable fiber bound
-    slitting in the manner of coarse modern hemstitching, with strings
-    of olivella shells and shaped abalone pendants, and finished on the
-    bottom with long buckskin fringes. The garment is much like the more
-    pretentious aprons described for Atsugewi.]
-
-    [Illustration: Detail of ornamentation on the Shasta buckskin apron]
-
-    [Illustration: Mountain Maidu woman’s tassel-type of shredded bark
-    apron, about twenty two inches long. Some such aprons were
-    considerably wider (after Dixon).]
-
-    [Illustration: Woman’s basketry cap probably Atsugewi or Shasta.
-    Note the design placed on top as well as on the sides of the basket,
-    in contrast to other types of baskets. The bottoms of which are
-    devoid both of design and overlay materials and so present an
-    unadorned pine-root surface.]
-
-Women’s casual aprons and other clothing were not highly ornamented, but
-“dress-up” clothes might be fairly elaborately trimmed. Fringing of
-buckskin, spangles of shell money and ornaments, strings of shell beads,
-pine nuts, deer hoofs, and special white grass fringes commonly
-decorated their better clothes.
-
-In the summer some men, and particularly old ones wore nothing at all.
-Most others wore very little clothing besides a sort of loin covering of
-buckskin or fur which went between the legs and was held in place back
-and front by a belt about the waist. A crude buckskin shirt without
-sleeves was sometimes used.
-
-During winter above aprons, skirts, or loin covering other garments were
-worn. Then men commonly wore the sleeveless buckskin shirt. Both sexes
-usually wore robes of woven rabbit skins (usually imported by the
-Atsugewi), or made of deer or bear fur and worn with the hair side
-inside. Or else the robes were of a patchwork of small mammal skins sewn
-together. These same robes were frequently used for bedding at night. As
-a matter of fact almost any sort of skins available might be used as
-robes. These were tied on in a variety of ways. The wearers must have
-presented a rather motley appearance. On occasion small poncho style
-robes with a central hole for the head and neck clothed the upper bodies
-of local Indians during cold weather.
-
-    [Illustration: Atsugewi fringed buckskin dress of pioneer period]
-
-    [Illustration: An Atsugewi legging made of lashing tules together
-    with a simple twining stitch]
-
-    [Illustration: Maidu buckskin moccasin about eleven inches long
-    (after Dixon)]
-
-Thumbless mittens were made of cased skins of weasels, rats or small
-cottontail rabbits and tied at the wrist with a thong. Atsugewi also
-utilized their fur-lined quivers as muffs when hunting.
-
-California Indians spent much of the time barefoot, but wore buckskin
-moccasins at war, on long hunts or journeys. Different styles were made
-by each of the local tribes. None, however, were normally decorated.
-Mountain Maidu also made moccasins of fur with the hair side in, and
-Atsugewi stuffed pounded grass or grass into their footwear or wore
-grass or tule slippers inside their moccasins during the winter. Maidu
-put soft grass or sedges in their moccasins for added warmth. An extra
-sole of tougher leather such as elkskin was sometimes sewn onto the
-moccasin, but this was not customary.
-
-Occasionally open sandals held on by three or four thongs were worn by
-Atsugewi and Yana.
-
-    [Illustration: Maidu snowshoe with raw-hide lashings]
-
-    [Illustration: Snowshoe of about eighteen inches in diameter (after
-    Dixon)]
-
-Knee length leggings of various materials were common in winter. These
-were tied on with buckskin strips at ankle and knee. Yana used
-hip-length pantleg type leggings held on with waist bands. Atsugewi
-sometimes employed fur pieces, twined tule, or spiral wrap-around fur
-strip leggings. Maidu used deerhide leggings with the hair side inside.
-These went from ankles to above the knees where they were tied, and were
-held close to the leg by an outside spirally wound thong from top to
-bottom.
-
-Snowshoes were a necessity too in the rigorous climate of even the lower
-portions of the areas inhabited by tribes of the Lassen area,
-particularly in those of the Atsugewi and mountain Maidu. Snowshoes of
-the former Indians were circular in plan; those of the latter were oval.
-Snowshoes were fashioned from small green wooden limbs shaped while hot,
-and then crisscrossed with strips of buckskin or hide with the fur side
-down for better traction. Atsugewi used green juniper limbs for the
-purpose. Since the whole foot was bound firmly to this footgear, there
-was no heel play as in the case of white mans’ snowshoes.
-
-
-
-
-                              Chapter XVI
-                      BEAUTY AND PERSONAL GROOMING
-
-
-  Of Atsugewi standards of beauty Garth states: “The ideal woman was
-  short but plump and solidly built so that she could do much work. A
-  slim woman was considered too weak, and a very tall woman was made fun
-  of and called lohkata (stick woman). Heavy breasts, a straight slim
-  nose, large eyes, long black hair, and small feet were all admirable
-  qualities. A girl with big feet was likely to be lazy, also a small
-  foot was desirable because it would not take so large a moccasin. A
-  mother pressed her girl child’s foot together to make it slender. The
-  ideal man was of average height and was heavy set. If a child had a
-  flat nose, his mother pinched it and tried to give it a higher bridge.
-  Bow legs, it was said, might be straightened by the mother when the
-  child was young. Also a child’s ears were pressed against his head; if
-  the ears stood out, this was thought to indicate poor hearing. A slim
-  hand indicated a lazy person; a short stubby hand signified a good
-  worker.”
-
-Garth also comments to the effect that evidently the ideals of Indian
-beauty had a very practical basis. The same general criteria of beauty
-and desirability of women seem to have prevailed among the other tribes
-of this region also, but Yana preferred a rather flat and broad faced
-feminine beauty.
-
-The hair of both men and women among California Indians was generally
-worn long. The tribes of the Lassen area were no exception. However,
-bangs on the forehead were known. Boys and girls let their hair hang
-loosely, except that Atsugewi sometimes cut small boys’ hair short to
-make it grow better later.
-
-Women usually parted their hair in the middle wearing it in two hanks,
-one hanging in front of each shoulder. Each was tied with a piece of
-rawhide. Women of Yana tribes often used strips of otter or mink fur for
-the purpose as did some Atsugewi. Yana women might add further
-decoration in the form of a small string of shell beads. Atsugewi women
-might paint their scalps at the part in the hair with red paint.
-
-The male Indian tied his hair in a bunch which hung down the back. All
-local tribes, except mountain Maidu, seem also to have frequently used a
-small mesh hairnet made of plant fibers with a buckskin band to hold a
-man’s hair in a sort of roll at the back of his head. Maidu called the
-net wee-kah. In preparation for war or for the hunt Yana men coiled
-their hair on their heads with well defined top knots. For dances and
-other special events, male Maidu and Yana, if rich, wore mesh bonnets
-thickly covered with white eagle down feathers tied in so that the net
-strands were not visible. Bone hairpins were sometimes used among Yana
-and mountain Maidu men.
-
-    [Illustration: Men’s hair net type of cap worn by adult males of all
-    Lassen area tribes, the wearer’s long hair being piled on top of the
-    head when worn as in upper sketch (after Dixon) with the loose
-    excess net allowed to fall straight down behind.]
-
-  _NET_
-  _BUCKSKIN_
-  _DRAWSTRING_
-  _CORD_
-
-Adults cut their hair off with stone knives to show grief and mourning
-when relatives died. Both men and women cropped their hair closely, but
-mountain Maidu women sometimes only trimmed it off to shoulder length.
-Singeing instead of cutting the hair was sometimes resorted to.
-
-For combing the hair, Atsugewi might use a single stick, a pine cone, or
-a teasle burr. Mountain Maidu might use stiff pine needles, but the item
-most commonly used by all tribes for the purpose was the porcupine tail.
-The animal’s tail was skinned out, stuffed with grass, and sewed shut at
-the open end. Sharp ends of the porcupine quills were blunted with hot
-stones.
-
-Hair was not dyed in this region. It was, however, rubbed with animal
-fat or bone marrow to make it look nicer by aboriginal standards.
-Atsugewi are said to have perfumed their hair on occasion with aromatic
-plant foliage. Hair and body lice were not uncommon; these were hunted
-and removed by hand. Maidu washed their hair frequently with common
-soaproot (_Chlorogalum pomeridianum_).
-
-Faces of adults were painted for a number of occasions. Black was used
-to some extent by both sexes to prevent sunburn and snow-blindness if
-long exposure in the bright sun were expected. Although Yana men and
-women used red and white paint when dancing, among our other tribes face
-paint was used chiefly by men for dances and ceremonies.
-
-    [Illustration: Porcupine tail comb about ten inches long (after
-    Dixon)]
-
-Paint pigments were mixed with animal fat, especially deer grease, or
-with marrow and applied with the fingers. It was smeared on upper arms,
-legs, chest, and cheeks. Atsugewi and mountain Maidu blackened their
-eyebrows. Red pigment was either red soil, usually roasted or burned to
-make the color brighter, or the spores from a fungus which grows on the
-bark of fir trees. The fungus material was dried over a slow fire to
-prepare it for use. Black pigment was universally charcoal. Ashes were
-not used as white pigment. Students of local tribes state that chalk was
-employed for white paint. However, chalk is lacking in the Lassen
-vicinity and it is highly probable that the suitable and readily
-available white diatomaceous earth deposits were used for this purpose
-instead. Atsugewi also used blue color which was obtained in rock form
-by trade with their northern Pit River or Achomawi neighbors.
-
-The light beards which started to grow on male Indians’ faces were
-universally removed completely by plucking with the fingers.
-
-Earlobe and nose piercing was generally practiced by both sexes. Among
-Atsugewi rims of their ears as well as the lobes were perforated in some
-instances.
-
-Tattooing was occasionally done by Yana, but not as commonly as among
-Atsugewi where women not infrequently wore tattooed vertical lines
-across their mouths. Both sexes commonly tattooed their cheeks with
-horizontal lines or with two or three lines radiating from the corners
-of the mouth. Arms and legs were also tattooed to a certain extent. The
-mutilation was done by rubbing charcoal into cuts which had been made
-with stone knives or by rubbing charcoal on the skin and then pricking
-it with bone awls or porcupine quills. However, even among Atsugewi,
-tattooing was by no means universal. Mountain Maidu women were sometimes
-tattooed with three, five, or seven vertical lines on the chin.
-
-Earrings were worn by nearly all men and women. Atsugewi employed bone
-rings, clamshell beads, feathers and even painted ear ornaments.
-Mountain Maidu and Yana usually used bone or wooden ones, plain or
-decorated with feathers or shells. Abalone, like other sea shells, were
-received only in trade and were fashioned into pendants for ears or
-noses.
-
-Nose piercing consisted of making a hole through the septum of the nose.
-This practice was popular among all local tribes. It was done to permit
-the wearing of jewelry although Yana ascribed a deeper meaning to the
-custom as well. They believed that no person would go to his equivalent
-of heaven unless the nose septum was pierced. Hence this was done to the
-dead and a stick inserted if it had not been done in life. Two-pointed
-bone nose-pins were popular inserts as were long narrow dentalium
-shells, or nose pendants of beads. Only among mountain Maidu were nose
-ornaments highly decorated.
-
-    [Illustration: Portion of Atsugewi (probably) necklace of dentalium
-    shells (one and one fourth inches long) and glass trader beads.]
-
-    [Illustration: Maidu necklaces: bear claw and insect perforated
-    acorn.]
-
-    [Illustration: Atsugewi necklace of clamshell disks and digger pine
-    nuts which are a full half inch long.]
-
-Necklaces were common adornments too, but local tribes did not use
-bracelets. Items used for necklaces were perhaps bear teeth and bear
-claws among Atsugewi and Yana. More commonly, certainly, and used by all
-of our tribes were olivella shells, shaped pieces of abalone shells,
-small animal and bird bone rings or tubes, clamshell discs, long
-tooth-shells (dentalia), and Digger Pine nuts which had been parched
-until blackened. Their ends had then been rubbed off or holes bored
-through ends or sides and cleaned out. Yana also made mussel shell disks
-locally, not only for necklaces but as ear pendants. In later years all
-tribes used glass trader beads, usually interspersed with native items.
-
-Maidu, especially their tribes of the lower elevations, went in for
-elaborate feather decorations and headdresses. Valley Maidu even had
-feather cloaks for ceremonial use.
-
-
-
-
-                              Chapter XVII
-                                 WEALTH
-
-
-Among local tribes wealth was the direct result of skill and industry
-and was highly regarded by all. A person’s social status in the tribe
-varied directly with his wealth. Lazy persons not able to properly care
-for their own needs were considered as bums and looked down upon by all
-other members of the village. With wealth went a certain amount of
-power. Chiefs, although empowered by heritage, were always well to do,
-and the wealthiest men in smaller units acted in the capacity of
-head-men.
-
-As with modern man, money among Indians was an arbitrary medium of
-exchange, yet it was of more practical value to the Indians than our own
-coins are to us. Their money was prized not only for what it would buy
-in material things, but as possessing important decorative value as
-well.
-
-The long tooth-shell or dentalium was used whole and unmodified. It was
-the currency of the northwest California coast. The money of central and
-southern California was the clamshell disk. This was cut, smoothed into
-disk shapes about half an inch in diameter, and each was perforated with
-a central hole by means of which this money could be strung onto cords.
-In no case did local tribes travel the California coast to obtain these
-shell coins. Instead, this item found its way to Indians of the interior
-through progressive or step-by-step trading from coastal tribes through
-intermediate aboriginal traders.
-
-As we might expect, dentalia, having a northern origin, were secured by
-Atsugewi not from their neighbors to the south, but from the northern
-Yana in exchange for buckskins, arrows, wildcat skin quivers, and
-woodpecker scalps. The mountain Maidu did not have dentalia at all.
-
-Except for the central Yana custom of measuring the length of strings of
-clamshell disks, amounts of money were determined by counting and not by
-measuring length on arm tatoos as was so commonly the case in other
-parts of California. Skins of small mammals which had been skinned by
-making only one slit in the hind quarters and whose mouth openings had
-been tied shut, served as purses.
-
-All of our tribes used clamshell money. Among Yana clamshell disks were
-not as valuable as dentalia, and they were more common also among
-Atsugewi, the dentalia being used more for decoration than as money. The
-tribes of the Lassen region generally received the finished clamshell
-money; almost never did they manufacture this, although they did work
-traded abalone shell into jewelry pieces.
-
-Material wealth or treasure other than weapons, skins, baskets, and food
-also consisted largely of imported seashells. Whole olivella shells were
-commonly used as dress ornaments and also for paying shamans for
-services. Bone cylinders, columellae of shells, and especially polished
-cylinders of the mineral magnesite were highly prized. These might be
-used as the central piece of a necklace in the same manner that we might
-utilize a precious gem.
-
-
-
-
-                             Chapter XVIII
-                            CEREMONIAL DRESS
-
-
-All local tribes used the beautiful salmon colored feathers of the
-Red-shafted Flicker, a woodpecker also known to us by the name
-Yellowhammer. A headband of the bird’s feathers—the stiff quills—was
-worn on the forehead. Mountain Maidu doctors wore this item also as a
-belt. In addition Atsugewi made a full feather band which was worn in a
-variety of ways including hanging down the back. This was usually used
-only by the shamans.
-
-Another ceremonial item was the California or Acorn Woodpecker scalp
-headband. This usually had a buckskin strap base, however, mountain
-Maidu glued these gay feathered patches onto fur bands, Yana wore
-woodpecker scalps on buckskin as belts.
-
-Mountain Maidu made belts of bands on which the showy greenish feathered
-neck skins of male Mallard Ducks in mating plumage were strung.
-
-For ceremonial use it was generally customary to tuck small tufts of
-feathers into the top of the hair. Among Atsugewi, chiefs only used
-eagle feathers for this purpose. This tribe also fastened single
-feathers into the crown of buckskin caps in a radiating manner, and also
-onto strips hanging down the back. Sometimes feathers were tipped with
-small white feathers to make the former even more decorative. Feathers
-were also fastened to head nets in a number of ways which differed
-somewhat among our tribes. Among Atsugewi, women wore these on occasion,
-but generally it was the males who decked themselves with feathers.
-Feather plumes of various sorts, employing either twisted buckskin or
-stick bodies, were also in general use.
-
-
-
-
-                              Chapter XIX
-                          TOBACCO AND SMOKING
-
-
-The knowledge and use of tobacco are among the important elements which
-our own culture of today has inherited from the Indians of North
-America. Of what benefit this has been is a debatable matter, but its
-effect has been profound, both on our customs and our economy.
-
-Local tribes used simple one piece wooden pipes of tubular design for
-the most part in smoking tobacco. Atsugewi and mountain Maidu commonly
-employed elder and other woods with a pithy and easily removed center.
-Although not otherwise being considered in this account, the Shasta
-Indian technique of pipe making is mentioned here because of its
-uniqueness. These folks hollowed pipe stems by soaking the end of a
-suitable stick in salmon oil. The larvae of the salmon fly were then
-introduced, and these worm-like creatures, eating the nourishing fishy
-core, would bore their ways lengthwise through the center of the
-heartwood where most of the salmon oil was concentrated. The Yana
-habitually used the wood of ash as pipe stock. Mountain Maidu found but
-did not manufacture a few simple stone pipe bowls also of tubular
-design. These had considerable spiritual significance and were treated
-with great care. Garth states that Atsugewi also had short stone pipes,
-tubular in shape, to which elder or rose wood extensions up to eleven
-inches in length were applied. Stone pipes were apparently not common in
-the Lassen region, however.
-
-    [Illustration: Steatite stone pipes were used without wooden stems,
-    each between three and four inches long. The holes in such pipes
-    were made by tapping a deer antler piece in the depression
-    containing some sand, a slow but effective boring process. This was
-    commonly done by Valley tribes.]
-
-    [Illustration: Yana reddish porous lava (dacite?) pipe, broken half,
-    both sides shown. Note funnel-shaped depression in the bottom of the
-    outside (lower half)]
-
-Pipes were used at social gatherings, after sweating, and at bed time.
-The pipes of the local tribes did not have any bends or curves. These
-straight tubular pipes were therefore most conveniently smoked when the
-Indians were reclining on their backs thus keeping the tobacco from
-falling out. Pipes were normally passed around, and used only by the
-men. However, women shamans of the mountain Maidu also smoked them.
-Shamans regularly used pipe smoking in ceremonies, especially when
-healing the sick.
-
-Tobacco grew wild and burning of brush was performed in certain
-localities to promote the growth of _Nicotiana_ plants. Tobacco was not
-cultivated, but mountain Maidu did collect and scatter seeds in
-favorable areas. Tobacco was prepared merely by collecting the leaves
-when fully developed but still green, then drying, preferably in the
-shade, and finally crumbling the cured leaf in the hand. Tobacco was
-carried in buckskin pouches usually. Atsugewi often added manzanita and
-deer grease to their smoking tobacco. Indians of this region did not
-chew tobacco nor did they eat it with lime as was the custom elsewhere
-in California. Native tobacco is quite strong.
-
-
-
-
-                               Chapter XX
-                             MUSIC AND ART
-
-
-Music of local tribes was limited indeed. It was usually made by men.
-Only Atsugewi among the Lassen tribes possessed the drum, and this is
-believed to have been of recent introduction. It was a tambourine type:
-flat, cylindrical, a foot or so across, and with buckskin shrunken over
-one end.
-
-The shamans of all tribes used cocoon rattles. These were made of large
-cocoons from which the moth pupae had been removed through a small hole.
-Pebbles or seeds were then inserted and usually five or six
-cocoons—among Atsugewi as many as thirty—were tied onto the end of a
-wooden handle and dried. Cocoon rattles were considered dangerous and
-were usually kept hidden out of doors, being used by shamans only when
-doctoring.
-
-A single split stick clapper was employed generally for all types of
-singing and dancing, not being reserved for any special type of person
-or ceremony.
-
-Deer-hoof rattles were made from the small hard “dew-claws” from the
-backs of deer legs. About twenty dew-claws were tied loosely with thongs
-to a strip of buckskin which was then wrapped about a stick with a plain
-handle. The deer-hoof rattle was operated by vigorously jerking it
-lengthwise, in and out. It was used exclusively in the important puberty
-rites when girls attained womanhood.
-
-    [Illustration: Deer-hoof rattle, length about ten inches (after
-    Dixon)]
-
-    [Illustration: Maidu split-stick clapper, twenty inches long]
-
-    [Illustration: Maidu cocoon rattle eight inches long]
-
-    [Illustration: Maidu bird-bone whistles]
-
-    [Illustration: Atsugewi deer-claw rattle]
-
-    [Illustration: Universal split-stick dancing rattle]
-
-    [Illustration: Maidu cocoon rattle]
-
-    [Illustration: Flute and bull-roarer of local manufacture]
-
-Atsugewi and Yana employed hunting bows as musical instruments by
-holding one end in the mouth and plucking the string with fingers.
-Mountain Maidu did so too, but like the others only for their own
-amusement.
-
-Bone, cane, and elder whistles were blown at dances. Flutes, the most
-tuneful of Indians’ instruments, were not played at ceremonies or at
-dances, curiously enough, but just for self amusement, or in the case of
-mountain Maidu also for courting pretty girls. Flute melodies were
-supposed to tell stories, but words were not sung to help the
-interpretation. Yana made a six-hole flute; other tribes of the Lassen
-area used a four hole model. In all cases they were open, reedless
-instruments blown at an angle across one end. The flute was most
-frequently made of elder wood—mountain Maidu burned the holes into it
-with live coals.
-
-Except for basketry designs art as such is virtually non-existent. A few
-simple designs were painted onto hunting bows, and some nose and ear
-pendants might be considered jewelry art forms, but of the lowest
-development. The application of face and body paints and tattooing were
-also simple examples of Indian art.
-
-There appear to be no cliff or cave paintings in the vicinity of Lassen
-Peak, but they are abundant in Lava Beds National Monument about 75
-miles to the north. A different matter is that of petroglyphs which, in
-California, usually have been made by striking or pecking smooth rock
-surfaces with small hard stones. Some of these are to be found in the
-Atsugewi and central Yana territories at lower elevation. However, these
-symbolic markings were not executed by the local tribes. Atsugewi
-believe them to have been made by mythological characters. It appears
-that the petroglyphs must have been made by the predecessors of the Hat
-Creek and Nozi Indians, for these people claim no knowledge of even the
-meaning of the rock writings. Shortly before going to press the first
-petroglyph known to come from the Lassen vicinity was found in the
-territory of the Southern Yana. The site is one where numerous obsidian
-chips and arrowpoints have been found on a gently south sloping, open
-forested portion of Lassen Volcanic National Park headquarters area at
-an elevation of almost 5000 feet and situated slightly west of the
-village of Mineral and just north of the north edge of Battle Creek
-Meadow.
-
-This find on a 10 inch boulder appears to be of ancient origin. The
-surface has weathered considerably yet not so much that the character of
-the carving has been altered. It is apparent that the quarter inch deep
-grooves have been made by rubbing rather than by pecking with hard
-rocks. This is all the more interesting since the boulder bearing the
-carving is of a tough hard and site lava. It is indeed unfortunate that
-the significance of this Battle Creek Meadows petroglyph is unknown. The
-authorities venture the opinion that the stone may have been used in
-puberty ceremonies. If so, whether by the Southern Yana or their
-predecessors we do not know either.
-
-    [Illustration: Battle Creek Meadows petroglyph about nine inches
-    long. The eye-shaped area A is a smooth flat one eighth of an inch
-    below the level of the rest of the rock surface. The grooves
-    bounding it are more than one quarter inch deep and of V-shaped
-    cross-section while the other markings are much shallower troughs
-    with rounded bottoms some being quite vague. B, C, D, and E indicate
-    deeper rounded depressions. F is a smooth and very uniform slightly
-    concave area.]
-
-
-
-
-                              Chapter XXI
-                      GAMES AND SOCIAL GATHERINGS
-
-
-Heavy betting on games was the rule. Games were commonly played between
-neighboring villages or even on occasion with neighboring tribes.
-Gambling was an important element in these contests and large sums were
-bet. Sometimes nearly all of a person’s or even of a group’s possessions
-were at stake. Evaluation of the stakes in white man’s terms is
-difficult, but they are said frequently to have been of the order of
-several hundred dollars or even as much as a thousand dollars. Important
-games lasted more than one day—perhaps three or four days. The players
-caught brief rests only and were completely exhausted by the time the
-playing was over. Singing was the usual accompaniment and high quality
-rendition at games was much admired. Cheating was rare, maybe because it
-was supposed to bring subsequent bad luck.
-
-Most games were guessing games. There was considerable variety in the
-character and number of gambling stones or wooden sticks used, the
-manner of shuffling and other details. The sticks were shuffled and then
-concealed in the hands of one or several players on one side. The
-opposition had to determine the location of the marked stick or the
-arrangement of several. There were many spectators and excitement ran
-high. Women occasionally participated along with the men who were the
-main contestants. Counting sticks might be supplied to each side in
-equal number at the beginning. More often, however, the sticks were all
-placed in a common pile at the outset, the successful side taking a
-counting stick with each win. These scoring sticks were taken and
-surrendered as the tide of the game changed until one side had all. The
-game was won at this point.
-
-Ball games were played too. The ball was of buckskin stuffed with hair.
-The object was to kick the ball between the other team’s goal posts.
-Kicking ball races over given courses and back, or around a lake shore,
-were also indulged in. In some contests the men and youths on opposing
-sides would engage in restraining each other so that a number of
-individual or group wrestling bouts developed on the playing field.
-
-    [Illustration: Yana gambling bone, four inches long]
-
-There were foot races of distances either short or up to fifteen miles
-or so in length. Also archery contests and wrestling matches were held.
-In wrestling the object was to throw the opponent to the ground;
-tripping was not allowed. Contests in which heavy rocks were tossed,
-somewhat in the manner of today’s shot-put, and heavier rocks carried in
-competition over a designated line were other games in which the
-Atsugewi engaged.
-
-Shinny was played by women and children as well as by men, but adult
-sexes played separately in all of our tribes except Yana. Among them
-only men participated in this game. Mountain Maidu had three players on
-a side; Atsugewi had five players. Straight shinny sticks curved at the
-striking end were used and the puck was a hide affair. Mountain Maidu
-used a double ball puck. An attempt was made to keep the puck in the air
-in play. The object, of course, was to get the puck to go between the
-opponents’ goal posts. The Yana used a puck of two bones linked by a
-string several inches long. Running with the puck on the stick as well
-as hitting, and throwing it down the field were permitted.
-
-Children improvised a number of games in the same manner as our own
-children do today in copying their parents. They played house with
-limbless but dressed dolls, made and used toy bows and arrows, and made
-sling shots, too. They commonly tried juggling two stones in one hand,
-spun acorn tops by hand, and in some instances noise makers such as
-wooden buzzers and bull roarers were used. In play, loud noise was not
-condoned, however.
-
-Small feasts might occur at any time and were perhaps the most important
-social gatherings of Atsugewi. They were usually sparked by a temporary
-abundance of food. Dancing was not included.
-
-    [Illustration: Child’s acorn top]
-
-Mr. Garth describes the Atsugewi “... grand occasion ... held only when
-a large supply of food had been accumulated, was the bagapi or ‘big
-time’.... The chief called a meeting to decide on the date and then sent
-his people to various places for deer and other foods. Knotted strings
-(rokuki) with a knot tied for each intervening day before the festival
-were sent to other villages. By untying a knot each day other chieftains
-knew when to start for the host’s village. The host chief stood on the
-roof of his earth lodge and welcomed the visitor, calling each chief by
-name: ‘Don’t fall down. Step carefully. I’m glad you have come to see
-me. Don’t be in a hurry.’... Toward evening the visitors might give a
-dance, after which the host chief called everyone to eat. Large baskets
-containing acorn mush, meat, sunflower seeds, and other foods were
-placed on the ground. The host proffered baskets of food to each
-visiting chief who in turn then distributed the food to his people. In
-winter two tribal groups on opposite sides of the sweat house might have
-a competitive sweat dance, vying to see which could endure the heat
-longest. In summer the sweating was usually omitted, and games of chance
-were begun. In the several days that followed, foot racing, archery,
-weight lifting, and other contests were indulged in. Large bets were
-made by opposing sides on the outcome of each contest, and the losing
-side at the end of the week’s festivities often had little property
-left. Surplus food was divided among the guests before they departed.”
-
-
-
-
-                              Chapter XXII
-                                 DANCES
-
-
-Mountain Maidu had more dances and more types of dances than other
-tribes of the Lassen area. Tribes of the Sacramento Valley had many more
-and more complicated dance ceremonies than ours did.
-
-Mountain Maidu had formalized sweat dances which were performed inside
-large dwelling lodges at night and were participated in by both sexes.
-As in the case of Yana, only one man, the leader, sang and hit the
-central pole rhythmically with a split stick rattle. The dancers
-performed simultaneously but in one spot until they were exhausted and
-took a cold swim afterwards.
-
-Of the less ceremonial Atsugewi sweat dance, Garth states:
-
-  “... Men danced naked except for circlets ... of twisted grass around
-  the waist, head and upper arm, and occasionally from one shoulder
-  diagonally across the chest.... Three or four lines of black or white
-  paint might be drawn across the chest and upper arm. Women wore a
-  skirt and only a small amount of paint. The dancing took place in the
-  combination sweat, dance, and dwelling house of the chief or head
-  man.... The fire was built high with dry mountain mahogany ..., pine
-  ..., and sometimes with willow ..., all woods which burned without
-  much smoke; the ventilator door was closed and the dance began. The
-  one singer sat in a corner and beat time with a split stick rattle....
-  Each of ten or twelve dancers might approach close to the fire to show
-  his ability to endure heat, pick up burning brands, one in each hand,
-  and alternately hit one upper arm and then the other with the brands.
-  The heat often became so intense that water had to be thrown on the
-  center post to prevent its catching fire. There was rivalry to see who
-  could stay inside longest, and after a time one man after another
-  emerged and dived into the icy water nearby or rolled in the snow.
-  There might be sweating three or four nights in succession on the
-  occasion of a communal hunt.”
-
-Mountain Maidu held a dance gathering each spring for Black Bear and
-Grizzly Bear. They believed that this dance had been done by animals in
-mythical “before Indian times”. This gathering lasted three days and
-nights, but the actual dance was in progress only one day and night.
-Only women danced but men participated in the ceremony dressed in bear
-robes. There was much feasting too.
-
-The pre- and post-war dances are discussed under the chapter on war.
-
-
-
-
-                             Chapter XXIII
-                    POLITICAL ORGANIZATION OF TRIBES
-
-
-Tribes, as we think of them, were non-existent as political units, and
-hence there were no tribal chiefs, but there were village chiefs, in the
-California province.
-
-The self governing unit was always a village or a group of small closely
-adjacent villages. This is the political unit which was governed by the
-chief. Villages might consist of from four to about twenty-five earth
-lodges and bark huts with populations of from twenty-five to a hundred
-or more persons. Influential leaders, usually of much wealth—but not
-necessarily so—were recognized as head-men, exercising considerable
-authority over the smaller villages or separated groups of houses near
-villages. However the head-man’s authority was subservient to that of
-the chief.
-
-Chieftainship was inherited through the father’s lineage, the oldest son
-being the first in succession. However, if the son were too young to
-take over, the deceased chief’s brother was temporarily in charge. The
-qualities of good character and knowledge were also important
-qualifications for chieftainship, and a chief could be deposed if he
-were not a good one. Tenure was normally for life, dependent upon
-satisfactory behavior and performance of his responsibilities.
-
-The chief’s relatives hunted and fished for him, but he fed visitors and
-provided most of the food for feasts. The chief always directed
-community economic activities such as group fishing, deer hunting, and
-root digging expeditions. For this reason chiefs had to know much about
-game, fish runs, ripening seasons, et cetera, and had to possess good
-judgement to insure success of group undertakings. Chiefs also spoke to
-their people mornings and evenings, and at ceremonies and the like.
-Chiefs furthermore declared days of rest when chores were done about
-home. Another function was to arbitrate quarrels among the people.
-
-Mountain Maidu villages had assistant chiefs besides, who were sons or
-brothers of the chiefs. This assistant advised the chief and substituted
-for him as the occasion demanded. A specific duty of his was the
-division of food at ceremonies.
-
-Some chiefs had secondary female chiefs who in the case of the Maidu
-were daughters, among Atsugewi the chiefs’ wives. A woman in this
-capacity supervised preparation of food for feasts and in Atsugewi
-villages might give orders to men.
-
-Atsugewi chiefs appointed clowns at ceremonies who were paid. Appointed
-messengers were a part of every chief’s staff. They were selected on the
-basis of both willingness to serve and ability. Maidu had about six
-messengers per village while the number varied among Atsugewi.
-Messengers were good speakers, reliable men, and were discharged if they
-failed in their duties. These included not only message running, but
-among Atsugewi, tending fires at ceremonies. For Maidu chiefs,
-messengers welcomed guests and traveled about gathering news and
-scouting. Special fire tenders were appointed in this tribe.
-
-Atsugewi chiefs seem to have possessed greater prestige and authority
-than those of the mountain Maidu, the Yana, and the Yahi. The decisions
-of Atsugewi chiefs were final, but these had to be diplomatic if the
-chief were to remain popular. If a chief were unpopular some of his
-people would move to another village leaving the first chief’s community
-numerically weaker. Chiefs were generally well obeyed by rich and poor
-alike. In return, chiefs unfailingly had the interests of their people
-at heart. Atsugewi chiefs, specifically, set examples of industry,
-behavior, and judgement for their people. No doubt this was generally
-true of the chiefs of units in other local tribes too.
-
-Because of the greater popularity, prestige, and consequently larger
-following of some individual chiefs, they were considerably more
-powerful than other chiefs in the same tribe. Such men were influential
-to some extent beyond the boundaries of their own territories.
-
-
-
-
-                              Chapter XXIV
-                             WAR AND PEACE
-
-
-Wars were commonly small scale encounters and might be either within
-tribes or between tribes. Atsugewi were not often aggressive. Most
-tribes at one time or another had differences with neighboring tribes,
-but friendly relations were usually re-established soon. Certain tribes,
-however, were repeatedly or traditionally enemies, as for instance,
-Klamath, Paiute, or Modoc against Atsugewi; Washoe against mountain
-Maidu; Achomawi or Wintun against the Yana tribes; and mountain Maidu or
-Wintun against Yahi. Tribes sometimes helped each other in wars, and
-either payment or reciprocal aid was usually forthcoming.
-
-Causes of hostilities in the Lassen area were usually revenge for
-murders (if uncompensated), abduction of women and children, or insults
-to chiefs. Mountain Maidu, Yana, and Yahi also waged wars on account of
-poaching, rape, alleged witchcraft, and the like. All able bodied men
-normally went to war, but mountain Maidu left some at home to protect
-the women.
-
-Chiefs generally did not participate in the fighting although they often
-went along on the war expedition. Instead of leading the battles
-themselves, chiefs appointed special warrior leaders who were principal
-targets of the opposition. Such battle leaders were often head-men, but
-always were men competent to lead the fight and who had good arrow
-dodging power.
-
-Shamans habitually went to war, but did not fight actively except on
-occasion. They were busy singing during battle and urging the warriors
-on or exhorting supernatural help. The Atsugewi shaman reportedly
-“stayed behind a tree all the time giving out his power”.
-
-Preparation for war consisted of practicing dodging arrows, shooting
-arrows, in some cases at effigies, and in dancing. The main purpose of
-the preparation was to incite enthusiasm for the fight. This was so
-successful that quite a commotion developed in the community, to the
-extent that such incidents occurred as warriors with knives chasing
-women and a man shooting his own dog with an arrow! Preparatory war
-dances were held outside near the villages. Both men and women
-participated and shamans sang. Mountain Maidu sustained their dances for
-several days. Warriors spoke to their arrows addressing them as persons.
-Atsugewi men painted themselves with white and black stripes on faces,
-limbs, and bodies. Yana used red and white war paint. Mountain Maidu
-wore head nets and bands. Dried untanned skins of bear, elk, and such
-were worn at dances as well as in battle, as were waistcoat armors of
-strong vertical sticks lashed together. Leather helmets were worn by
-some warriors.
-
-The enemy was usually attacked just at dawn using the element of
-surprise to the fullest extent possible. Some battles were pre-arranged
-in which a number of participants faced each other in well formed lines.
-Such conflicts were subject to “calling off” if too many men were
-injured or killed. Serious raids, however, did not give quarter and men,
-women, and children were killed. Booty was taken and scalps, too, were
-stripped from fallen victims. Scalps were later burned by Atsugewi, but
-mountain Maidu dried human scalps on frames. This tribe also took entire
-heads from bodies on occasion. Prisoners were taken too: Atsugewi not
-infrequently adopted captured children. Captive women might be
-mistreated and raped, then killed. Adult prisoners might escape with
-relative ease because there was no suitable way to confine them
-permanently, and some were returned voluntarily.
-
-While the war party was away on its expedition, the women at home danced
-individually in the manner of the war dance. They sang and prayed to
-help the men at war. Atsugewi women dancers carried feathers, bows, and
-arrows, but rattles were not used in these morale dances.
-
-Upon return of the war party a victory dance was held in or near the
-village in the open air. Men and women danced independently, but
-together at the same time. Atsugewi men painted themselves red and white
-instead of the black and white used for the pre-war dance. They wore
-headdresses of all sorts and the warriors carried their bows, arrows,
-armor, and other fighting gear while dancing. The victory dance took
-place around a fire. Next to the fire Atsugewi planted a short pole on
-which the new scalps were displayed while mountain Maidu danced with the
-scalps secured to hand-carried sticks. It is worth noting that while
-some readers may consider this gloating over human scalps to be a
-primitive morbidity, it is true that often white men—the very pioneers
-we eulogize—took and coveted human scalps themselves.
-
-Warriors, particularly those who had killed adversaries, purified
-themselves by swimming, rubbing aromatic plants on their bodies, praying
-for luck. They did not eat meat for from a few to many days, depending
-on the tribe. Among Atsugewi they also sweated with the same end in
-view, and women brushed the men’s bodies with plant materials to aid the
-purification process.
-
-Surprisingly, the eating of hot foods and any form of meat was taboo to
-wounded warriors. This seems strange, since these are the very foods
-which we consider beneficial to injured persons.
-
-When an attack appeared likely upon an Atsugewi village, the whole
-population retired to high ground which was easily defended. Such sites
-were prepared in advance and might be considered crude forts as they
-were surrounded by rock walls and provided with shelters for the
-non-combatants.
-
-In intertribal wars there was usually no compensation as such made where
-the encounter had been motivated by the satisfaction of securing
-revenge. In the case of feuds or murders within the tribe payment was
-made to relatives of the slain. If persons on both sides were slain
-compensation was made for all the dead. The chief or head-man supervised
-the peace negotiations. Payment was usually in beads or money, but
-Atsugewi sometimes paid off in women or in the amount of the usual price
-of a bride. In this tribe too, the amount of compensation was made
-according to the wealth of the victim. A poor man’s life was not
-considered to be worth as much as a rich man’s. Atsugewi had a
-settlement dance meeting in which both sides were present and wore
-fighting regalia. These dancers disarmed themselves after the payment
-had been made.
-
-
-
-
-                              Chapter XXV
-                            BIRTH AND BABIES
-
-
-The natural function of birth obviously varied only in details of
-handling the situation, delivery assistance, disposition of the
-afterbirth, and methods of cutting and treating the child’s umbilical
-cord. The baby was born in a separate hut which contained a trench
-heated with coals. These were covered with grass and pine needles or fir
-boughs. On this warm green bed the woman lay at least a part of the time
-during labor and also after delivery.
-
-Children were desired and a barren woman was looked down on socially.
-Inability to produce children was grounds for divorce. The behavior of
-both parents during pregnancy was believed to closely affect personality
-and health of the child.
-
-After giving birth, the mother remained in isolation for from nearly a
-week to a month or more. Many taboos were imposed upon her. Bathing in
-streams and sweat baths, eating fresh or dried meat or fish, grease, and
-often salt were forbidden to her. Most tribes of the Lassen area also
-prohibited combing of the mother’s hair by herself during the period of
-isolation. Also taboo was scratching herself with her hands, making
-baskets, preparing food, or traveling.
-
-    [Illustration: Front and side views of Atsugewi cradle basket for a
-    very young baby. (tseh-nay-gow)]
-
-    [Illustration: Atsugewi young baby carrying basket or teseh-nay-gow]
-
-There were restrictions on the father of the newly born child too. Among
-Atsugewi and Yana he stayed with the mother, but mountain Maidu fathers
-stayed away for periods of a week or less. Immediately after the birth
-had taken place, the father ran to the woods to break up and bring home
-quantities of fire-wood. Hunting and fishing of all kinds and traveling
-were taboo for several weeks in most cases. Atsugewi and mountain Maidu
-new fathers were also forbidden to smoke and gamble, and like their
-wives, were denied eating fresh or dried fish, meat, and grease for
-varying periods up to a month. Release from taboos occurred with
-sweating and bathing among Atsugewi and mountain Maidu. Fathers in these
-tribes also gave away the first kill when they resumed hunting.
-
-The mother generally massaged the infant to improve the shape and
-proportion of nose, face, limbs, and torso. Shedding of the baby’s
-umbilical cord was an important event which the Indians wished to occur
-as soon as possible. A variety of odd practices to this end were
-employed. The occurrence of the event relieved the parents of some, or
-in other cases of all, the post birth taboos. Among most of our tribes
-the dried cord was saved until the child reached manhood or womanhood.
-It was customarily secured to the cradle basket, but frequently was
-subsequently lost. Earlobes might be pierced in early infancy especially
-if the child were prone to cry much.
-
-    [Illustration: Atsugewi older baby carrying basket or yah-birr-dee.
-    Note the rounded bottom on A, a modernization. Partial illustration
-    B shows old style construction with a pointed bottom for thrusting
-    into the ground.]
-
-Two cradle baskets were used. Mountain Maidu made two of similar oval
-shape, but the first and smaller one was without a hood. Atsugewi and
-Yana tribes made two different types, but both with rounded carrying
-handles and sunshades on top. These were constructed of willow ribs,
-pine root, and buckskin. The first small basket was called tseh-nay-gow
-by Atsugewi and was used for several months. It was short and with a
-distinctly rounded basketry shelf or lip at its lower end. The larger
-baby basket was called yah-bih-dee and was practically identical to that
-of the mountain Maidu. This was made of the usual twined basketry
-materials, but was of different construction. Willow ribs were lashed
-onto a sturdy one-piece forked branch frame, the joint being at the
-bottom. The base or stem of this Y-piece stuck out below for several
-inches being sharpened so that it could be stuck into the ground near
-the mother in camp or when she was out digging roots in the fields.
-Boo-noo-koo-ee-menorra tells of an interesting modification of the
-yah-bih-dee today. Its frame is now simply rounded at the bottom instead
-of having the pointed end described above. “Most people have cars now a
-days” she says, “and that point poked a hole through the seat of the
-car. So now we make the round kind.” Our visitors to Lassen Volcanic
-National Park are always interested in names of the “papoose basket”.
-This term and the words moccasin, wampum, and so on are no doubt of
-Indian origin being the actual words or reasonable facsimiles thereof
-used by some eastern tribe for the objects concerned. English speaking
-Americans have adopted these names as meaning those particular articles
-for all Indian tribes. It may be recalled that earlier in this book, it
-was pointed out that each tribe had its own distinct language and so,
-obviously, each tribe would have had its own distinct names for these
-objects. Hence there is no all inclusive “Indian name” for the cradle
-basket or anything else.
-
-    [Illustration: Maidu baby carrying basket about thirty five inches
-    long.]
-
-The baby was wrapped in tanned buckskin or soft furs, normally wildcat
-by the Atsugewi. A pad of grass or padded bark was placed on the cradle
-board or basket and then the child was lashed into the tshe-nay-gow with
-buckskin straps in a sitting position on the sill with its feet hanging
-down. Most tribes used dry grass, pounded until soft, for diapers, but
-mountain Maidu used skin material for the purpose. Babies were kept in
-the cradle baskets until they were able to walk. The cradle frame was
-carried on the mother’s back with a tump-line passing over her forehead
-or chest. A series of larger cradle baskets were made as the child grew,
-usually three before the child was allowed to crawl or walk.
-
-The newborn infant was never fed the colostrum from its mother. The baby
-was either let go without food or given a cooked meat gruel for
-nourishment for the first two days or so until bonafide milk was
-produced in the mother’s breasts. Children were nursed as often as they
-wished and until they were quite large: even three or four years old.
-
-Names were given to children usually at the age of about a year. Yana
-waited even longer, however, until ages of four to six years before
-giving real names which for this tribe were habitually of a hereditary
-nature. In the meantime, temporary descriptive nicknames were given.
-Many real Atsugewi names had meanings, while those of mountain Maidu and
-Yana normally did not. Nevertheless, Yana and to a certain extent other
-Indians too, might acquire additional nicknames and descriptive names
-later in life, even in adulthood.
-
-Twins were unwanted among all local tribes, probably because of the
-double care and feeding responsibilities involved. Mountain Maidu
-thought that twins were bad luck and actually feared them. It was
-generally believed that twins were caused by the mother having eaten
-twinned nutmeats. These, therefore, were carefully avoided.
-
-Killing newborn babies whether illegitimate, twins, crippled, or when
-the mother died in childbirth, was practiced only on very rare
-occasions. Certainly infanticide was not the rule among any of the local
-tribes, but of course was practiced in certain other areas.
-
-    [Illustration: Yana baby cradle basket for young baby.]
-
-
-
-
-                              Chapter XXVI
-                            ADULTHOOD RITES
-
-
-A girl’s attainment of puberty or womanhood was an event of obvious
-importance and it was recognized as such by all tribes of the Lassen
-region with extensive formal ritual and ceremony for each individual
-girl. Only the more important and generally employed taboos and rites
-are noted below. There was considerable variation in details of such
-matters even among the four tribes with which we are dealing.
-
-The girl was secluded in a separate hut for from three to six days and
-sometimes during the nights too. The taboos she observed during this
-time were much like those imposed on a mother giving birth, but were
-even more extensive. The young lady must eat from her own special
-baskets, not cross streams, avoid contacting men—especially hunters,
-refrain from gazing at the sun or moon, et cetera. Among things she must
-do were to wear a basketry cap, or special head bands among some tribes,
-and have her hair put up in two knobs wrapped over her shoulders. This
-had to be done for her as she was not allowed to touch her own hair.
-Carrying the deer-hoof rattle she must run races with other girls, and
-dance much also, scratch her head only with a special scratcher, have
-her earlobes pierced if this had not already been done, and frequently
-her nose septum was punctured too, being kept open by insertion of a
-round stick. Among Wintun tribes of the Sacramento Valley some taboos
-lasted for from one to three years!
-
-For several nights public dances were held which lasted all night. Since
-there was no special ritual for anyone but the girl for whom the dances
-were held, these ceremonies were of a joyous nature and were popular and
-well attended. In the middle of the night food provided by the girl’s
-family was served to all present. Singing with deer-hoof rattle
-accompaniment was carried on all night. Intimate affairs between couples
-were not unusual during such dances. During the daytime as well dances
-were held, but these were of short duration and participated in chiefly
-by the women of the village. At the end of the ordeal the girl bathed
-and was given new clothes, ending her taboos.
-
-There was no formal ceremony when boys attained manhood except that the
-youths were generally sent alone into the neighboring mountains for
-several days to seek special “powers” to give them skill and luck in
-certain pursuits such as deer hunting, archery, fighting, shamanism, and
-the like.
-
-During menstruation all women had to observe many taboos too. These
-included eating alone and living in seclusion. They could eat no meat or
-fish, fat, or salt, and must not cook. They must avoid sick persons and
-hunters, and could not scratch themselves except with the scratching
-stick. At the end of the taboo periods of four or five days, they
-usually bathed in streams for purification.
-
-Curiously, wives’ menstruations had to be observed by their husbands in
-a number of ways. Most common was prohibition of smoking, and they must
-eat lightly. Among mountain Maidu the husband could hunt and fish, but
-could not eat any flesh; among Atsugewi the reverse was true.
-
-
-
-
-                             Chapter XXVII
-                          MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE
-
-
-Marriage itself was not formalized with any ceremony. It was common
-practice for parents to arrange marriages when children were young and
-these arrangements, which involved some exchange of gifts or payment,
-were usually honored later. Most other marriages were arranged by
-parents later when the children had reached maturity and generally these
-recognized the children’s wishes. Both of these types of marriages were
-the basis for extensive exchange of presents and visits, details of
-which differed among the several tribes. In addition there was almost
-universal payment for the girl—about ten strings of clamshell disks was
-standard. The boy and girl became husband and wife simply upon starting
-to live together, but the new status was usually marked by a feast
-participated in by the families concerned. Generally there followed a
-period of residence of the couple with one or both of the in-laws. On
-occasion marriages grew from intimacies with no parental negotiations,
-but such matches were not well regarded by the community.
-
-Indian men frequently married women from other villages and occasionally
-even women from other tribes.
-
-If a wife died her sister was generally obliged to marry the widower.
-Likewise, if the husband died it was customary that his brother would
-marry the widow. A wise institution was the relationship of the husband
-and wife with their in-laws. Neither could speak to nor hand things
-directly to the in-law of opposite sex, or in some cases even to the
-brothers and sisters of the in-laws; such things had to be done by a
-third party. In some instances the mother-in-law even avoided looking at
-her son-in-law even though she might like him. Such arrangements no
-doubt prevented many arguments and quarrels, but as far as their own
-evaluation of these customs were concerned, the basis lay in the belief
-that a bear might eat either or both of the violators of the in-law
-taboos.
-
-The practice of having more than one wife at a time was common. One man
-might have three or four wives, but rarely had more than two at a time.
-Rich men or head-men and chiefs were most apt to have more than two
-wives.
-
-Divorce was simple indeed. The man just sent the girl back home if she
-were barren, lazy, promiscuous, or the like. If he had good reasons for
-wanting to get rid of his wife, her purchase price might be refunded by
-her family, or else the ex-wife’s sister might be sent to him in
-exchange, or, sometimes, in addition with no additional payment. On the
-other hand, the wife might leave her husband if she had been badly
-mistreated, or if the husband did not provide enough meat and clothing
-for the family or if he were unfaithful. In divorce the children were
-divided. Usually, but not always, the girls remained with their mother
-and the boys with their father. However, divorce was not common among
-Indians of this region.
-
-On the whole, morals were high and sexual deviations were infrequent,
-although the whole range of such practices were known to the aborigines.
-It appears beyond argument that divorces, moral laxity, and sexual
-aberrations increased with the coming of white man.
-
-
-
-
-                             Chapter XXVIII
-                            DEATH AND BURIAL
-
-
-Atsugewi and mountain Maidu left the corpse in the house for one day.
-They prepared it for burial by dressing it well and adding bead
-necklaces, then wrapping it in a hide. Yana did the same, washing the
-body first, and although also adorning the corpse with jewelry, they
-always removed decorative nose ornaments, replacing these with simple
-sticks. According to Voegelin, Atsugewi removed the body for burial
-prone and feet first through the wall of the house, but Garth states
-that the body was removed through the southern ventilator passage or
-through the regular entrance way in the roof.
-
-The mountain Maidu, Yana, Yahi, and usually the Atsugewi bent the body
-into a position called flexed. The arms were folded across the chest and
-the knees were drawn up against the stomach before wrapping the corpse
-in a robe which was then sewn shut. The mountain Maidu sometimes put the
-wrapped cadaver into a large basket. Voegelin was of the opinion that
-Atsugewi buried their dead lying flat on their backs, and if so, always
-with the head toward the east. It is thought that this prone burial
-might be a recent innovation learned from white man.
-
-Mourners among all of our local tribes wailed aloud and brought gifts
-for the dead. Women, especially the older ones, mourned vigorously. To
-quote Garth again on Atsugewi, of their mourning he states:
-
-  “The deceased’s close relatives mourned the hardest, but friends might
-  also mourn——‘to make them feel better.’ Mourners cried and rolled on
-  the ground, throwing dirt and hot ashes in their faces and hair. Some,
-  in their grief, tried to commit suicide, and a close watch had to be
-  kept over them to prevent their doing so. Favorite methods were to
-  swallow small bits of (obsidian) or to eat a certain kind of spider.
-  Mourners were warned not to cry around the house near the body but to
-  go to the hills to cry, and also not to look down when crying or to
-  cry too much. Otherwise they were subject to bad dreams in which
-  spirits would plague them and possibly kill them. A mourner might
-  acquire power at this time. A widow, with possibly a sister to help
-  her, would wail for a time at daybreak and again in the evening. This
-  lasted for two or three months, sometimes longer. A widower seldom
-  cried more than two or three weeks. The widow visited places at which
-  she had camped with her husband, broke up utensils left there, burned
-  down the brush where he was accustomed to cut wood, and piled up rocks
-  where they had slept together. A widower behaved in similar
-  fashion.... If death occurred in a village, no entertainments could be
-  held for a time; otherwise relatives of the deceased had the right to
-  break things up and throw them around. A man would not sing or attend
-  a ‘big time’ gathering until at least a year after death of a close
-  relative.”
-
-If the lodge were to be lived in again, after a person had died in it,
-Atsugewi brought in juniper boughs, and these were burned to purify the
-house. Bark huts, however, were always burned down after an occupant had
-died.
-
-Mountain Maidu children were kept away from the dead and from the
-funeral proceedings. In that tribe and probably among all local tribes,
-if the deceased were rich the funeral would be much larger and more
-pretentious than if the person had been poor. In the former case the
-ceremony was followed by a feast. Other tribes buried the dead in the
-evening generally within twenty-four hours after death, but Yana waited
-three or four days. Mountain Maidu grave diggers put grass in their
-mouths. Small shallow graves sufficed for poor people, in fact, among
-Atsugewi, at least, poor people were often buried in small depressions
-in lava flows and covered over with convenient rocks.
-
-Enroute to Atsugewi burials no one was permitted to look back, and water
-was sprinkled along the path to prevent the dead person’s spirit from
-returning to the village. At the grave the dead were asked aloud please
-not to look back, for if they did other members of their families would
-die soon.
-
-Cremation, that is, burning of corpses was rare among tribes of the
-Lassen area. At the battlefield and in other instances of death far from
-home, especially in the case of mountain Maidu, burning was done
-occasionally. After this the bones were collected, wrapped in buckskin,
-and then buried.
-
-The flexed bodies of the dead were always placed in graves facing
-eastward. Widows customarily attempted to throw themselves into the
-graves, but were restrained from doing so. A basket of water was
-invariably placed next to the body, and most personal property of the
-deceased was broken and also placed in the grave. The amount of property
-so disposed of varied with the tribe. Mountain Maidu and especially the
-Yana tribes put practically everything in the grave. The latter even
-went so far as to include many gifts of a nature not normally associated
-with the sex. Aprons and baskets, for instance, might be placed in a
-man’s burial. Among Atsugewi the relatives retained some of the property
-of the deceased. Atsugewi might place some food on the grave and mark it
-with a vertical stick, but it was not tended later, and the site was
-generally soon lost.
-
-In winter a person might be buried shallowly in the floor of a living
-house. Next spring the house would be torn down and the dirt walls caved
-in. There was variation not only between, but within tribes as to the
-final disposition of houses of the deceased. They might be burned down,
-a common practice, or they were torn down, abandoned, temporarily
-deserted, or torn down and rebuilt. If to be lived in again,
-purification of some sort was always practiced, either by burning
-juniper boughs in the house, smoking tobacco, bringing in aromatic
-plants, or treating the main beams. Among Yana tribes the family seems
-to have habitually abandoned the house right after the funeral and to
-have burned the whole thing including property and food of all the
-inmates, retaining only the barest necessities of life such as sleeping
-robes.
-
-Among Atsugewi all mourners had to deny themselves meat and fresh fish
-for one day; then they sweated and swam after the funeral. Mountain
-Maidu mourners, including all persons who had had any part in the
-funeral, had to undergo four or five days taboo on eating all flesh.
-They also had to eat alone and from separate dishes, do head scratching
-with special sticks only, were allowed no hunting, gambling,
-intercourse, or smoking. Purification of those persons contaminated by
-participation in burial included swimming and washing every day that the
-taboos were in effect.
-
-Only Atsugewi, of all local tribes, are said to have practiced suicide,
-though unquestionably it did occur on occasion among all California
-Indians.
-
-Mentioning the name of the deceased in the presence of his relatives was
-considered very poor taste, and was actually forbidden in some cases.
-
-It was forbidden that the widow touch the corpse, so that relatives had
-to prepare the body for burial. After the funeral, the widow always cut
-her hair off closely. If an Atsugewi, she made a belt out of it, and the
-hair belt was then often decorated with shells. In all local tribes the
-widow traditionally covered her whole head and face with pitch and
-covered this with white diatomaceous earth or black charcoal. Touching
-her head or face (the whole body for mountain Maidu) with fingers was
-taboo; she could do this only with the scratching stick which mountain
-Maidu widows wore around the neck. Raggedy, ill-looking clothes were
-worn by the survivor, and Atsugewi widows put pitch on old basketry caps
-to be worn. A mourning necklace was worn at all times, made of lumps of
-hard pitch strung onto a fiber string. This was worn until remarriage,
-which was usually two or three years for Atsugewi and one to three years
-for mountain Maidu. Pitch on the face and head was normally left on
-until it wore off of its own accord.
-
-The mourning conduct of grieving men who had lost their wives in death
-was not nearly so lengthy or as rigorous as was that of widows. Widowers
-cut their hair too, but among Atsugewi the only other observance
-required was abstinence of flesh eating for a day. Mountain Maidu
-widowers spent one sleepless night out in the mountains. Widowers did
-not generally sing at dances and at “big times” for about a year, but
-this was not compulsory. The Yana are said to have stayed away from
-dances for two or three years.
-
-Parents mourning the loss of children cut their hair slightly and placed
-some pitch on hair or faces. The Atsugewi mother observed a three day
-meat taboo and the Maidu father went to the hills to seek power.
-However, loss of a baby in birth or before its navel cord dropped off
-was considered a more serious situation. Such bereaved parents gave all
-of their belongings away in order to make a fresh start.
-
-Anniversary mourning rites were not conducted in the Lassen region. An
-exception was the rare instance among Atsugewi when a child was sick at
-a time just three years after the death of its parent. Under such
-circumstances a shaman sang over the child and the whole remaining
-family and relatives mourned, later washing themselves. With respect to
-the general lack of mourning anniversaries it is of interest that the
-foothill (northeast) Maidu held elaborate annual burnings for several
-years after death of relatives. At these great mourning dance ceremonies
-large quantities of valuable possessions were burned as sacrifices to
-honor the dead.
-
-
-
-
-                              Chapter XXIX
-                       COUNTING, TIME, AND PLACE
-
-
-Counting on the fingers was usual practice. Mountain Maidu started with
-their thumbs while Atsugewi began on the little finger of one hand and
-counted across to that on the other hand, and toes were used for the
-purpose too. To help in counting, tribes also employed sticks to
-represent groups of numbers: Atsugewi used sticks to represent 1’s, 5’s,
-10’s, and hundreds. Yana frequently used a stick to represent the unit
-20. This is presumed to be a natural unit because it is the sum of all
-of a person’s fingers and toes.
-
-Time of day, of course, was not expressed in any unit like our hour, but
-roughly by the position of the sun in its daily course overhead. Seven
-to nine positions were referred to descriptively in this respect plus
-early, mid, and late night.
-
-Phases of the moon were most practical and were universally used as a
-longer measure of time. The succession of new moon cycles were named and
-an old man in the village customarily kept track of these by memory. As
-might be expected from this system, in which there was no recording,
-arguments ensued over just which moon or “month” was currently in
-effect. One full course of the moon’s phases takes just about a month,
-so the names for Indians’ moons corresponded nearly to our month names.
-
-All local tribes recognized four seasons. These were identified by the
-positions of certain stars among mountain Maidu, but more generally by
-the positions of the rising sun with respect to a certain peak, tree, or
-similar fixed object. Some Indians kept track of the seasons by watching
-the daily progression of a beam of sunlight coming through the smoke
-hole of a house and falling upon its floor or wall. The shortest day of
-the year naturally was marked by the most southerly progression of the
-sun. This was noted by the Indians, no doubt with joy in the realization
-that longer days and, somewhat later, warmer weather were to be
-expected. The year started with the beginning of November when Indians
-of the Lassen area had left the high elevation hunting grounds on the
-flanks of Lassen Peak, had collected their stores of acorn and salmon,
-and were warmly settled in their winter quarters. Mountain Maidu seem to
-have used names for only the nine moons most important to them.
-
-There was no calendar as such, but the number of days until a certain
-“big time” or other event was kept track of by either cutting off or
-untying one knot in a knotted cord or thong each day. Years were not
-recorded either, but were measured within the memory span as so many
-winters ago, or by relating time to some important event, such as a war
-which most persons might remember.
-
-Directions were pointed out, or in speech were referred to as sunrise
-and sunset for east and west respectively. Directions were commonly
-given with respect to features of the local geography: in the direction
-of such and such a village or toward a named river, spring, or mountain
-which was conspicuous or generally known. We must remember that the
-territories of our local tribes were small and that the terrain was
-intimately known. Specific names were not only given to the conspicuous
-features of the topography, but among Atsugewi, at least, virtually
-every flat, every draw, and every hill was specifically named, and these
-names were known to all members of the tribe. Names of places in the
-territories of other tribes were not known by the local names of those
-tribes. They were either translated or given its own entirely different
-set of names by the first tribe. In other words, each tribe had
-different names for all places—a very confusing situation. Dixon reports
-that Maidu recognized directions as we know them, but that the northeast
-or mountain Maidu had five: west, northwest (the direction of Lassen
-Peak), north, east, and south.
-
-
-
-
-                              Chapter XXX
-                    CONCEPTS OF SUN, MOON, AND STARS
-
-
-Mountain Maidu and Atsugewi believed the sun to be a female human—the
-wife—and the moon to be a male human—the husband. This is a reversal of
-the sex ascribed to these bodies by some other tribes. They believed
-that the figure of a frog was visible in the moon.
-
-Atsugewi stated that Frog fought Moon and swallowed him and the next
-time that Moon swallowed Frog who is now in the center of the moon. When
-Moon and Frog fought, the former was not round, but crescent shaped.
-Yana stated that in the moon they could see Moon’s wife, Frog. Pine
-Marten snapped his evil father-in-law Moon into the sky by means of
-bending a springy tree ’way down and suddenly letting it go. He used the
-same system to snap Frog and her two daughters into the sky also.
-
-To Atsugewi, as to most tribes, the phases of the moon: new, full, and
-waning, represented birth, life, and death—repeated every four weeks,
-although, of course, none of the Indians had the concept of a “week”
-such as we have. All through the year Atsugewi greeted the new moon. Old
-persons shook themselves, and their clothes and bedding in its presence.
-Younger folks ran and jumped toward the moon. If the points or horns of
-the new moon crescent were vertical it was a bad omen indicating
-sickness or death. Babies were shown the new moon, and in the case of
-both Atsugewi and mountain Maidu, babies’ faces and arms were rubbed in
-the new moonlight to make them grow fast. All local tribes addressed the
-moon aloud in friendly terms as if it were a personal relative. The Yana
-prayed to it. In contrast to Atsugewi reaction to vertical position of
-the two moon points, the Yana and mountain Maidu accepted this as
-meaning good fortune and good weather ahead. To these tribes horizontal
-position of the moon crescent in the winter sky denoted that it was full
-of water and indicated pending rains or storms. At other seasons both
-horns up foretold of death. Yana thought that both sun and moon were
-feminine.
-
-After its daily trip across the sky, Atsugewi thought that the sun
-returned to the east in a blue cloud via the side of the earth. As the
-sun and the moon passed each other at the side of the earth, they
-decided on the weather for the following day. The moon supplied the cold
-and the sun the heat.
-
-Eclipses of sun and moon were believed by Yana to be due to their dogs
-devouring them. Atsugewi and mountain Maidu felt that the heavenly
-bodies were dying. The former were of the opinion that Lizard was eating
-Sun or Moon as the case might be. They shouted loudly, shot arrows into
-the air toward the eclipse and beat all available female dogs. Mountain
-Maidu thought that Frog was eating Moon or Sun.
-
-A reddish moon foretold of disaster and was a sign of war for Atsugewi,
-but to Yana it meant hot weather ahead.
-
-Only a few star groups of the night sky were named.
-
-Yana thought the constellation we call the Belt of Orion was Coyote’s
-arrow. All local tribes believed the Milky Way to be a road, or river in
-some cases, which was traveled by departing spirits or souls of the
-dead. Shooting or Falling stars, (more properly meteorites) presaged
-good weather to the Atsugewi who thought these were torches carried by
-spirits from one house to another in the sky. For this tribe too, a
-single conspicuous star—no doubt a planet—seen near the moon was an evil
-sign. If the star were on the left someone nearby would die soon; if it
-lay to the right of the moon someone farther away was doomed.
-
-Atsugewi called the Seven Sisters wir-etisu. These girls were seduced by
-a little rabbit boy at a puberty dance. They became ashamed and went up
-in the sky to become stars. The Big Dipper was called Coyote’s Cane.
-Maidu thought that stars were made of something soft like buckskin.
-
-
-
-
-                              Chapter XXXI
-                           WEATHER PHENOMENA
-
-
-As mentioned in the preceding chapter, weather was determined by
-agreement between sun and moon, but it appears that many things could
-influence their decisions.
-
-Atsugewi assumed it to be the natural thing that it would sprinkle a
-little after a funeral. They also felt that rolling rocks down mountain
-sides or loud shouting in the mountains would cause rain. Furthermore
-they believed that the occurrence of precipitation could be influenced
-by shamans, if they felt like it, by smoking tobacco while looking at
-the sun. The nature of the spirit of a girl, whose ears were pierced at
-this time, was also thought to either cause it to rain or to stop doing
-so according to her spirit power.
-
-Rainbows brought good wild crops as far as the Atsugewi were concerned.
-However, both they and mountain Maidu were of the opinion that pointing
-with a finger at a rainbow, particularly among children would cause the
-finger to become crooked or to fall off.
-
-Thunder and lightning were feared by all tribes of the Lassen region. To
-Atsugewi thunder was the shouting of an old man who wears a rabbit skin
-and who goes about looking for women whom he kills. Mountain Maidu
-thought it to be due to an old man who lives up above and who was once a
-boy on earth, but who had been sent away because he was too fast and ate
-everything in sight. How he made the noise we do not know.
-
-  Also, according to Dixon, “Thunder is thought to be a man or boy of
-  miraculous abilities. He eats trees chiefly. Had it not been for
-  Mosquito, however, Thunder would have preyed on people. Mosquito
-  deceived him, and refused to let Thunder know whence the blood and
-  meat he brought came. Had Thunder found out that Mosquito obtained
-  these from people, they, and not the trees, would have been his prey.”
-  To Yana, thunder was a mythical dog originally: “... a child dug from
-  the ground who accompanied Flint Boy to the west in the guise of a
-  dog. He remained behind in the black storm clouds capping Bally
-  Mountain, a high peak west of Redding, whence his terrific bark could
-  be heard as thunder.”
-
-Atsugewi and mountain Maidu, fearing thunder and lightning, talked to
-them and told them to go away. Old men in the latter tribe carried
-burning sticks in a circle to help drive them away. Atsugewi placed
-skins, preferably raccoon, on sticks held up in the air. They would wave
-these around and call aloud words to the effect that there are: “Too
-many rattlesnakes here, go some other place!”. Not only that, but
-frequently during a thunder storm, especially if violent, they would run
-into open areas, and sometimes even jump into water. Lightning was
-thought to be the weapon of the old man, Thunder Person, mentioned
-above. It came out of his mouth. Apparently Thunder Person was thought
-to assume the form of a raccoon on occasion. Maidu also believed that it
-would thunder whenever a person was bitten by a rattlesnake or when a
-great man died or when a woman had a miscarriage.
-
-Whirlwinds were generally regarded as evil omens which sickened people
-with bad dreams and captured peoples’ shadows or spirits. Indians tried
-to dodge or hide from them. They spoke informally to whirlwinds.
-Mountain Maidu said that they put pains into people. Whenever possible,
-Maidu smoked tobacco when talking to whirlwinds. Atsugewi threw dirt and
-water at the dust devils in an effort to destroy them. Yana did
-likewise, but they did not believe that spirits were inside of
-whirlwinds.
-
-
-
-
-                             Chapter XXXII
-                           EARTHQUAKE BELIEFS
-
-
-Lassen Peak and its vicinity are subject to many local earthquakes
-today. The geologic nature of the area indicates that this has been so
-for thousands of years. Lassen Peak was known to the Atsugewi as
-Wicuhirdiki, which has no meaning. The area was thought to be inhabited
-by a powerful spirit, but Garth notes that there seemed to be no fear
-about hunting and fishing there, and the Indians apparently utilized the
-hot springs medicinally. Garth recorded one pertinent bit of Atsugewi
-(Apwaruge) myth as follows:
-
-  “There once was an earthquake that shook this country up and made
-  those boulders out on the flat shake. It shook so much that it made
-  people sick. There was a very old woman whose hair was almost green.
-  She picked up a rock and pounded it on another rock while she sang.
-  She was praying for the world to stop shaking. Soon she got an answer,
-  and the shaking ceased. Many people were killed. Those who lived in
-  canyons were covered by rocks that were shaken down.”
-
-Yana interpretation of the perplexing and frightening phenomenon of
-earthquakes is tied in, as we might expect, with mythology as follows,
-to quote from Sapir and Spier:
-
-  “A series of fabulous malignant beings were conceived as dwelling in
-  certain localities. In the Sacramento River were water grizzlies
-  (hat-en-na) which pulled fishermen down to devour (them).... They were
-  spotted black and white, like dogs. Somewhere (not specified) was a
-  serpent (e-k-u) which killed people. Near Terry’s mill were believed
-  to dwell malignant little beings (yo-yautsgi), like little children.
-  They often enticed people and ate them up. At a marshy spot and spring
-  on Round Mountain, called Ha-mupdi (?), dwelled a being called
-  Mo-s-ugi-yauna who caused the ground to shake when he was displeased.
-
-  “Once Mo-s-ugi-yauna made a little baby of himself and put himself in
-  the road of two women. One of them took it up and in sport gave it one
-  of her nipples to suck, though she was really without milk. The baby
-  kept sucking until the girl tried to take her breast away, but without
-  success. The baby kept sucking at her, sucked up her flesh, and at
-  last sucked up her whole body.
-
-  “This being was displeased if strangers came near and talked anything
-  but Yana. Once some Yreka Indians came and talked Chinook jargon at
-  that place, whereupon the earth began to shake violently. At last the
-  owner of the place cried out to Mo-s-ugi-yauna that it was not he who
-  had thus spoken and begged him ‘in the doctor way’ to stop, whereupon
-  he did.”
-
-
-
-
-                             Chapter XXXIII
-                   CREATION BELIEFS AND OTHER LEGENDS
-
-
-All local Indians believed in a mythical age when animals were persons
-and talked to each other. Both Atsugewi and mountain Maidu thought that
-floods played a part in the past scheme of things before people were
-created by gifted animal ancestors.
-
-  Garth relates that “Atsugewi mythology tells of the successive
-  creation of two former worlds, the first of which was destroyed by a
-  great flood and the second by a fire which Coyote instigated in an
-  attempt to kill his rival, Grey Fox. After this both Coyote and Grey
-  Fox descended from the heavens on a long rope to the primeval sea
-  below. Here Grey Fox took combings from his fur (in some accounts a
-  piece of sod) and proceeded to make land of it, stretching it to all
-  sides until the present earth was made, in concept a large island
-  floating in the sea. Grey Fox then created trees, animals, and finally
-  people. The sun and moon were two brothers whom Grey Fox told to mount
-  into the sky to light the world, the one during the day and the other
-  at night.... Grey Fox first wanted to create two moons and two suns,
-  but Coyote objected saying that it would be too hot. Grey Fox then
-  made only the sun and one moon.”
-
-  In a somewhat different version, Dixon has recorded that the Atsugewi
-  “... recount how, in the beginning, there was only the illimitable sea
-  and the cloudless sky. Slowly in the sky a tiny cloud began to form,
-  and grew till it reached considerable proportions. Then gradually it
-  condensed, and, becoming solid, became the Silver-Gray Fox, the
-  Creator. Then arose immediately a fog; and from this, as it condensed,
-  and coagulated as it were, arose Coyote. By a process of
-  long-continued and intense thought, the Creator created a canoe into
-  which both he and Coyote descended, and for long years floated and
-  drifted aimlessly therein, till, the canoe having become moss-grown
-  and decayed, they had, perforce, to consider the necessity of creating
-  a world whereon they might take refuge.”
-
-The Yana legends quoted below from Gifford and Klimek (first) and from
-Sapir and Spier are from the northern and central tribes, of that
-people. These legends are given in lieu of those of southern Yana and
-Yahi, with which this book should be concerned, because of the
-similarity of the culture of these four tribes. It is extremely unlikely
-that there would be very great differences in their legends and beliefs
-of creation. Obviously each tribe had its own unique details.
-
-  North Yana: “Coyote, assistant creator, was marplot (the evil schemer)
-  who brought death into the world as follows: Coyote, his two sons, and
-  other people went down-stream to get clamshells. The people played.
-  Coyote’s sons seized the clamshells and ran off with them. One escaped
-  with the stolen shells, but the other was killed. The Coyote boy who
-  escaped shouted to Old Man Coyote, who sat in his assembly house and
-  observed daily what transpired. Coyote boy told the old man his
-  brother was dead. Old Coyote then mourned for his son. Silver Fox told
-  him not to cry, but to clean the assembly house and bring in the dead
-  boy. They strewed the floor with straw and built fire. Silver Fox told
-  old Coyote to lie down and pretend to sleep. ‘Do not move,’ said
-  Silver Fox. This was to cause dead boy to revive. They started to cut
-  old Coyote’s belly to get back the spirit of his dead son. Old Coyote
-  shouted with pain and said: ‘Let him stay dead. The dead shall remain
-  dead.’ Thus he spoiled Silver Fox’s plan for resurrection.”
-
-  Central Yana: “... the creation of people took place at Wama-riwi, a
-  village at the cove north of Battle Creek and several miles west of
-  the present Shingletown, that is, roughly at the center of Yana
-  territory. Here in the beginning were Lizard and Cottontail (in
-  Dixon’s version, Lizard, Gray Squirrel, and Coyote; in Curtin’s,
-  Silkworm) who had no predecessors. Discussing how people shall be
-  made, Lizard lays down sticks which they carry to the four directions
-  to become neighboring Indian tribes. Realizing that they have omitted
-  those at the center, they put down bad (short) sticks there. Hence the
-  Yana are shorter than any of their neighbors: a view held by the Yana
-  and repeated by Powers as fact. In Dixon’s version (from the same
-  informant) Lizard carefully prepares three sticks for Atsugewi,
-  Wintun, and Achomawi, and as an afterthought, short sticks for the
-  Yana. The first three are placed to the east, west, and north; the
-  others are boiled to transform them into humans. Coyote refuses to
-  recognize them until they speak properly, that is, the Yana tongue.
-  Curtin’s version is quite different, although still the Yana are
-  created from sticks: his presumably Northern Yana informant, himself a
-  chief, placed the locale in his own country, at Round Mountain. Here
-  Silkworm puts down three sticks, for the Yana chief, a woman, and an
-  orphan, and a large number around the first for common people; he
-  instructs them how to procure food and admonishes that they obey the
-  chief.
-
-  “The origin of sex, or rather its proper attribution rests in the
-  circumstance that in the beginning, women were men; men were women.
-  The women were such poor hunters that people starved. To remedy this,
-  Cottontail placed stones in a fire; when the women were seated, the
-  stones burst, cutting their proper organs, and the women became men.
-  Hands were then webbed like Lizard’s. In order that they might handle
-  bows and pestles, Lizard, experimenting, cut his fingers apart. With
-  this as a model, he separated those of humans. (In Curtin’s version,
-  Water Lizard remedies the defect for himself alone.) In the beginning
-  when people died, they rose from their graves again. Coyote, who
-  objected to these improvements of human affairs, not only proposes
-  that they shall stay dead but stamps down a dead man who would rise.
-  When his own son dies, he changes his mind, but Lizard, Cottontail,
-  and Gray Squirrel will have none of it, so that death and mourning
-  were established forever.”
-
-  Again Garth is here quoted on Atsugewi beliefs: “As in most of
-  northern California there are numerous natural phenomena in Atsugewi
-  territory which marked some mythological event. A low cone-like rock
-  in Dixie Valley was said to be a basket belonging to Coyote. About
-  four miles south of Pittville on the old village site of Mawakasui was
-  an oblong rock ten feet or so in length which was said to be the
-  petrified remains of a lizard whom Butterfly had killed. The extremely
-  rough tongue of lava-covered land extending down the center of Hat
-  Creek Valley was created by Porcupine to impede Coyote with whom
-  Porcupine was running a race. Eagle Lake was said to have been
-  formerly in Atsuge territory, but Coyote tired of the manzanita
-  berries and camass roots which the people fed to him here, so he moved
-  the lake to the Apwaruge country. Here the people fed him epos roots
-  and treated him better.”
-
-  The Maidu concept of the world according to Dixon is that of “...
-  floating on the surface of a great sea, but anchored by five ropes
-  stretched by the Creator, which hold the island steady, and prevent it
-  from drifting about. Occasionally some being seizes these ropes and
-  shakes them, and this causes earthquakes. The world was flat when
-  first made from the bit of mud brought up from the depths of the
-  primeval sea by the turtle (turtle does not appear in the northeast or
-  mountain Maidu version) or from the robin’s nest floating in the sea.
-  Later the Creator and the Coyote went about over the world, making the
-  rivers and mountains. Coyote was in general responsible for the
-  latter, and for the extreme roughness of the country....” The
-  Creator’s stone canoe is said to be visible today on top of Keddie
-  Peak just north of Indian Valley (Greenville); also his and Coyote’s
-  dance houses may be seen as huge circular depressions at what is now
-  Durham (near Chico).
-
-  In his extensive collection of Maidu myths, Dixon observes that
-  “Throughout the myths there is nowhere any suggestion that the Maidu
-  had any knowledge of any other region, that they were immigrants in
-  the land where they live. This complete absence of any migration
-  tradition is a feature which is very characteristic, and serves to
-  differentiate the mythology not only of the Maidu, but of most
-  Californian tribes, from that of the Southwest, and much of the
-  eastern portion of the continent.”
-
-  He further states: “here the creation is a real beginning: beyond it,
-  there is nothing. In the beginning was only the great sea, calm and
-  unlimited, to which, down from the clear sky, the Creator came, or on
-  which he and Coyote were floating in a canoe. Of the origin of
-  previous place of abode of either Creator or Coyote, the Maidu know
-  nothing....”
-
-  “... the whole series of tales told by the stock ... appeared to
-  follow one another in a more or less regular and recognized order.
-  Beginning with the creation, a rather systematic chain of events leads
-  up to the appearance of the ancestors of the present Indians, with
-  whose coming the mythic cycle came to a close. This mythic era, the
-  be-be-ito, seems to fall into a number of periods, with each of which
-  a group or set of myths has to deal. First, we have the coming of
-  Ko-do-yan-pe (Earth-Namer or Creator) and Coyote, their discovery of
-  this world, and the preparation of it for the ‘first people’; next the
-  creation of these first people, and the making and planting of the
-  germs of the human race, the Indians, who were to come after; third,
-  the long period during which the first people were in conflict, and
-  were in the end changed to the various animals in the present world.
-  In this period Earth-Maker tries to put an end to Coyote, whose evil
-  ways and wishes are in direct contrast to his own.” Creator was always
-  dignified and striving to make life easy, happy, and deathless for
-  mankind, while Coyote, a trickster and amorous knave, worked with
-  continued success to render life difficult for man with the result
-  that man’s lot is to suffer and finally to die. This belief was
-  generally uniform among the tribes of the Lassen area. “... During
-  this period Earth-Maker strives for a last time in vain with Coyote,
-  his defeat, and disappearance toward the East coincident with the
-  appearance of the human race, which bursts forth from the spots where
-  the original pairs had been buried long before.” These potential human
-  beings had been made “... as tiny wooden figures by the Creator, and
-  planted here and there in pairs, that they might grow in secret and
-  safety during the time of monsters and great conflicts....”
-
-  In other myths also there is great similarity among the Maidu,
-  Atsugewi, Yana, and Yahi. Dixon says concerning “... The theft of
-  fire, for instance.... In all, the fire is held by a man and his
-  daughters, and is discovered largely through the agency of the Lizard;
-  the fire is watched and guarded by a sentinel bird, is stolen in
-  consequence of his sleeping while on guard, and pursuit by the women
-  is hindered by the strings of their skirts being cut as they sleep.
-  The fire is brought back by a group of animals, among whom the fire is
-  divided for safety; and the pursuers, who are usually Thunder, and his
-  two daughters Rain and Hail, are put to flight.”
-
-
-
-
-                             Chapter XXXIV
-                           MEDICAL TREATMENT
-
-
-The bulk of the important doctoring was done by shamans or medicine men.
-This was all based on supernatural faith and fear. As we know from
-advances of our modern civilization in the field of psychosomatic
-medicine, such “in the mind” cures were highly effective in practice.
-With all due respect to the modern medical profession, it is a foregone
-conclusion that from 50% to 75% of the patients of today’s general
-medical doctor are going to get well eventually without any bonafide
-medical treatment anyway. This percentage favored the shamans too.
-
-Besides shamans there were secondary Indian doctors called herbalists.
-Among Atsugewi, these persons did not have the power of shamans, and
-could not cure disease, but only check or weaken it. However, this class
-of doctor did administer various medicines internally and externally,
-and gave treatments which may actually have been—in some cases—of
-benefit beyond mere faith healing. These remedies were handed down, as
-was all Indian knowledge, by word of mouth from generation to
-generation. Old men taught the young.
-
-Herbalists were able to make snake bite victims recover; treatment
-included sucking the wound. Cauterization or burning of affected parts
-was practiced. Atsugewi treated rheumatism in patients with vapor baths
-in a trench of hot coals on which pine needles and yerba santa or
-mountain balm branches were placed, with a robe over all.
-
-Mountain Maidu smoked wild parsnip for headaches, colds, and wounds.
-Mountain Maidu and Atsugewi believed that toothaches were caused by the
-presence of worms in the teeth. Corrective poultices were placed on the
-cheek. Yana did this too, but placed a hot stone on the poultice, and
-also bit on a mole’s front foot, dried, to relieve the pain. Atsugewi
-often set the poultice on fire which might leave permanent scars.
-
-The seeds of rosinweed, a member of the sunflower family, were
-collected, then shelled, cooked, dried, and finally pounded. This
-medicine was taken for chills. Wild iris roots were chewed raw for
-coughing.
-
-Decoctions, that is, water in which plants had been boiled to extract
-their medicinal juices, were drunk. California angelica, a member of the
-parsley family, was used in this way for colds, diarrhea, headache, et
-cetera. This medication was popular with all local tribes for treating
-many ills.
-
-Yana used poultices of roots of bracken fern, pounded and warmed for
-application to burns. The bulbs of false solomon seal were pounded fine
-and also hot soap-root poultices were applied to swellings, pains, or
-boils. Peeled California angelica roots were crushed and laid on aching
-heads.
-
-Ground squirrel grease was used to soften rough hands and to relieve
-cracking of the skin from chapping.
-
-Atsugewi employed green leaves of chokecherry, pounded as poultices, for
-cuts, sores, and bruises. The boiled liquor of pounded chokecherry bark
-was used for bathing wounds to promote healing.
-
-They employed decoctions of wormwood to prevent blood poisoning and to
-treat cuts. Decoctions of greenleaf manzanita leaves were good for cuts
-and burns. Both oak bark and oak gall decoctions were drunk to prevent
-infection and catching colds and were given to women in childbirth.
-Atsugewi also chewed raw juniper berries as a treatment for colds.
-
-Obviously there was a host of other treatments as we know of a large
-variety of other plants, roots, and fruits which were used medicinally.
-
-Broken bones were set as best they could be set, and were bound up in
-simple but effective splints.
-
-For general good health Garth states that an Atsugewi “... man chewed
-the top shoot off a young pine tree. Especially was this done by a
-father after his wife bore a child.”
-
-In Yana sweat houses and probably in those of other tribes too, veins
-were cut with obsidian chips to “let the bad blood out” if a person felt
-ill.
-
-
-
-
-                              Chapter XXXV
-                           SPIRITS AND GHOSTS
-
-
-Ghosts and spirits were one and the same, and were to local Indians as
-souls are conceived by white man, yet the Indian conception was more
-variable. Some spirits were good and others were evil, but all were
-feared and avoided whenever possible. They were frequently associated
-with omens and had somewhat the appearance of human beings. Among
-Atsugewi they were visible only to shamans, but were heard by nearly all
-persons. Yana commoners both saw and heard spirits, but only very
-rarely.
-
-The spirit left the body right after death. Mountain Maidu thought that
-it turned back once before going on. Yana believed that the spirit
-tarried in the vicinity of the body for a while, going to the south
-first briefly for a sort of trial or evaluation which included
-determination as to whether or not the nose septum had been pierced.
-Then, as all local Indians apparently agreed, the ghost or spirit went
-to a distant place in the west via the Milky Way. Yana thought that
-there was some distinction in destination of good and bad persons’
-ghosts, but our other tribes conceived only of one place for all spirits
-finally. We do not today have a very clear understanding of the
-aboriginal Indian concept of heaven except that people lived in this
-land of the dead in sweat houses, hunting, eating, loving, and sleeping,
-but with complete absence of sickness. Concepts of the life of spirits
-changed with the coming of the whites preceding even the advent of
-pioneer settler days. All information in that regard which students have
-been able to gain from informants in this region is decidedly flavored
-with Christian dogma.
-
-Spirits or ghosts returned to old haunts of the body on occasion or,
-more often, to the vicinity of the grave. For this reason burial grounds
-were usually well removed from villages. Bad smells would drive spirits
-away, while whistling and flowers attracted them. Fiber-wound crossed
-sticks were hung in sweat houses of Yana tribes to keep spirits out. All
-tribes of the Lassen area thought that ghosts visited the living in
-dreams and also considered it feasible that the spirits of people might
-go to visit those of the dead when the persons were asleep, or more
-commonly when the living were unconscious.
-
-Mountain Maidu didn’t speak much about ghosts, but if one had been
-making a nuisance of itself by visiting much in dreams, they fed it by
-having all members of the family throw small portions of food into the
-fire before commencing to eat their meals. Besides, a shaman was hired
-under these circumstances to sing for the dreamer. The same ceremony was
-observed by the Atsugewi. It was also the practice of the dreamer in
-this tribe to eat with a dog, spitting out some of the food, saying to
-the dog, “You better eat for me. Take that spirit away.” Atsugewi were
-evidently very conscious of ghosts for they spoke to them, spit out
-chewed epos roots for the spirits, smoked tobacco for them, burned hair
-and skin to repel them, and tobacco and feather bundles were hung near
-the house doorways for their benefit. New Atsugewi parents had a unique
-ritual at the time of their first meat eating after the taboos of
-childbirth—they chewed small amounts of meat and put this on their toes
-for the dogs to eat.
-
-  Garth says of Atsugewi spirit beliefs: “A man who was about to die,
-  whether he felt sick or not, had a peculiar odor about him. If he went
-  hunting, deer ran from him saying, ‘Phew, that man smells bad.’
-  Coyotes and dogs would come close to him and bark at him. He would die
-  unless a shaman could remove this aura of death from him.”
-
-There were many omens of a spirit nature which foretold calamity. To
-Atsugewi upon hearing the cries of certain animals at night, especially
-if an owl hooted at one, or if one saw a kingsnake, death was supposed
-to descend upon a relative.
-
-If evil spirits frightened a person and tried to steal his soul, the
-spirits could be foiled by standing with one’s feet widely spread apart.
-If followed by a ghost, a person might turn around, retracing his
-footsteps while the spirit continued in the direction one had been
-traveling initially.
-
-When a person was asleep his spirit could wander around. If, during
-these wanderings, a bad spirit caught the person’s spirit before he
-could awaken, the person was deprived of it.
-
-Also the spirit on occasion left a person voluntarily if it didn’t like
-the body, as for instance, if it smelled badly. When a person’s spirit
-or soul were gone, only the heart was left to keep him alive, and he
-would succumb easily to the first sickness. For this reason, Atsugewi
-shamans periodically examined all the people to see if any spirits were
-missing. When anyone was found lacking his spirit, the shaman had to
-work to bring it back, sucking it into the person’s head. If several
-spirits were missing at once, it was not easy to get the right spirit
-back into its own body. They didn’t know what would happen if a person
-got the wrong soul back into his body—but it wasn’t good.
-
-
-
-
-                             Chapter XXXVI
-                        SHAMANISM AND DOCTORING
-
-
-Shamans or doctors, more commonly known to modern Americans by the name
-medicine men, were important in the lives of all Indians but, among
-ours, probably to the highest degree among the Maidu. Whether we, with
-our scientific enlightenment today, are after all happier and of greater
-peace of mind, than the aborigines were or not, is a philosophical
-consideration beyond the scope of this book. The fact of the matter is
-that mankind in the past invariably has resorted to the supernatural to
-explain things not understood. Indians are a case in point—being totally
-without scientific explanations, mysticism and the supernatural pervaded
-their whole culture—their every day activities—to a point which to us
-today seems fantastic, yet understandable in a way. If you and I had
-been in the Indian’s place, might not we also have subscribed whole
-heartedly to these same beliefs with which we would have grown up, and
-which our loved and trusted elders had taught us in good faith?
-Shamanism gave to the Indians a feeling of comfort and, shall we say,
-security?—a sort of foundation of faith which all men must have for the
-living of reasonably satisfying lives.
-
-Shamans were men of influence in the village, with prestige second only
-to that of the chief. Women shamans were uncommon and usually possessed
-less potent power. The life of a shaman was precarious because if he
-failed to effect a high percentage of cures or if he were “proven”
-responsible for sending pains which caused death to persons, he might be
-killed—sometimes even with the advance approval of the chief, and
-without retaliation by the offending shaman’s relatives. When this was
-done, he was cut into pieces, not for the morbid reasons, the reader
-might suspect, but for the practical reason that the parts of his body
-could in this way be disposed of in widely scattered places. Otherwise
-there was the danger that he might, with the help of his power, be
-reassembled and again be able to continue his malpractice and to include
-his murderers among future victims.
-
-There were several kinds of shamans among the local Indians. Each tribe
-in the Lassen area had the all important Sucking Shaman. Atsugewi and
-mountain Maidu also had special Bear, Rattlesnake, and Weather Shamans
-while only Yana had Singing Shamans in addition.
-
-The power of shamans was much more potent than mere “luck” which came
-easily to the majority of ordinary mortals in dreams, during puberty
-ceremonies, and the like. This “luck” was a weak supernatural blessing
-which was not sought, but came voluntarily and gave the person skill and
-success in crafts and daily pursuits such as fishing, hunting certain
-animals or birds, canoe making, et cetera.
-
-It would be impractical in this book to give the complicated and
-voluminous details of all phases of shamanism as conceived and practiced
-by each of the four local tribes. The following information has been
-somewhat generalized in the hope that the reader will get the “feel” of
-the shaman concept which was essentially the same for all the tribes of
-the Lassen area.
-
-Power was usually sought by men desiring to be shamans, but all were not
-successful in such quests. On the other hand shamanistic power came to
-some voluntarily, and it was dangerous not to accept this power if it
-came to one. To refuse might cause death. One could tell when one was
-successful in getting power because one would bleed from the nose or
-mouth. He would also learn to sing and dance, and would receive
-instructions and paraphernalia from his guardian spirit.
-
-Shamanistic power could be acquired in a number of ways, not all of
-which applied to each tribe being considered. A rare means was by
-inheritance. If an old shaman had power and if this power or guardian
-spirit liked his son or nephew, it would say “Sometimes I’m going to
-play with that boy” and so it goes to the boy. At sundown the latter
-listens to it sing to him and he gets the power. The boy learns about it
-in the vision and from the old shaman’s instructions.
-
-    [Illustration: Small portions of yellow hammer or red-shafted quill
-    headbands.]
-
-Another infrequent way to gain power was involuntarily when seriously
-ill, while in a trance, or when dreaming.
-
-The third and usual method of acquiring the shamanistic power was by
-vision quest. It was a difficult ordeal. This might be undertaken at
-various times of life, but most commonly at or near puberty. In questing
-power there was no assurance of success, no matter how sincere a person
-might be, or how hard he might try. Successful shamans could quest
-repeatedly for additional powers.
-
-Youths were prepared for questing by being lectured to by fathers or
-uncles who also pierced their nose septa. Each youth went alone and
-unclothed into certain portions of the mountains for several days and
-nights. He slept little and fasted, eating little or nothing at all; all
-flesh was taboo. The questing usually included swimming in lakes or
-special pools and placing the nose piercing stick in an underwater
-niche, and (Yana) securing certain bird feathers. He built a fire,
-smoking his body over it, and cut himself deliberately. If successful,
-the power came to him in a trance or faint producing bleeding from the
-nose or mouth.
-
-The guardian spirit communicated with the novice, appearing in a vision
-usually. It gave instructions and taught its special ceremonial song. To
-shamans of some tribes the guardian spirit looked something like a
-human; to others it looked like a bug or like a small hair. This was the
-“pain” or poison object and yet was considered to be a guardian spirit
-at the same time. This is what the novice acquired in becoming a shaman.
-This pain or guardian spirit could come from any of many sources. It was
-alive and could talk, and gave the novice certain resultant powers. Most
-commonly powers were from animals such as coyote, bear, and the like,
-but also might come from sun, moon, wind, thunder and lightning, eagle,
-hawk, small birds, reptiles, frog, or oldman spirit.
-
-The novice then acquired what we might call magic feathers. There were
-several types including the popular salmon colored flicker feathers.
-Most important, however, was the feather tuft known as kaku among the
-Atsugewi. This allegedly was found in finished form and not made. So
-full of power was the kaku that it could not be kept in a house. It was
-placed outside securely tied to a willow branch beside a stream or
-hidden inside a hollow tree trunk. The kaku was able to move by itself
-so had to be tied down or placed under a rock. When the novice shaman
-discovered his kaku, the feathers were singing; when he died, blood
-dripped from its feathers!
-
-Upon his return to the village, the successful seeker stayed out of
-dwelling houses for a day or two. Among some tribes he was sick for this
-period. Universally he sweated and swam. Eating habits of the novice
-shaman varied in different cases, but were always as dictated by the
-specific instructions given to him by his guardian spirit. Invariably
-all forms of flesh were shunned. He smoked tobacco and gave his first
-hunting kill to an old man. During the novice period the new shaman was
-helped by old shamans at the fireside in the sweat house. He did much
-dancing, singing, handled hot coals and fire, bled from the mouth, and
-might fall into a trance.
-
-In contrast to herbalist doctors who gave private treatment, that of
-shamans was public and usually conducted indoors, preferably in sweat
-lodges. The shaman needed singing help and the more help and the more
-persons who attended his doctoring the better. Sucking Shamans were the
-most important and required official assistants. These included one or
-more interpreters to communicate with the lay helpers or supporters,
-while the shaman was doctoring, and an outside speaker to help call the
-shaman’s spirits. Doctoring could take from one to three days and
-nights.
-
-To diagnose the patient’s ills the shaman danced about, blowing smoke on
-him, and singing with the help of the audience. The shamans also drank
-water, sometimes with a tube, from portable stone mortars with spirit
-power. They often squirted water from their mouths. A whistle was used
-in some cases and often the supernatural powerful cocoon rattle. Among
-mountain Maidu herb medicines might be administered to the patient also.
-
-At length the shaman’s guardian spirit or pain told him the location of
-the disease object, and then he could see or feel it. Often the shaman
-learned further from the spirit just who it was who had sent the disease
-object to plague his patient.
-
-Curing the afflicted was accomplished next by the shaman’s sucking this
-pain or disease object out of some portion of the person’s body. The
-evil pain could be any curious small object and this the shaman
-exhibited to all present. The malignant pain was disposed of in a number
-of ways. It might be sent back to the owner who sent it, that is, the
-offending shaman. Or, it might be sent to his children who would be
-doomed because a shaman could not doctor his own pain. Other times the
-curing shaman would destroy the disease object by biting it and burning
-it or dispose of it by taking the pain into his own charmed body.
-
-When a whole community had been affected by a pain sent by an evil
-shaman, the pain usually hid in the bushes nearby. In such a case, the
-shaman had to be very powerful to get the best of the situation. First
-he conducted the ceremony of detection of one victim in the usual sweat
-house manner. Once the shaman found out where the trouble was, he went
-outdoors with the villagers to help in corraling the offending pain.
-Frequently only after a lengthy search was he successful in finding the
-pain and then capturing it. Upon taking it into his body it might be so
-powerful as to cause him to go into a trance. In this event his
-assistants had to support him bodily, and had to sing for him, otherwise
-the shaman might die. Without wishing to appear facetious or
-disparaging, it can be said that a good shaman had to be an excellent
-showman as well.
-
-Sucking Shamans were obligated to accept all cases which they were asked
-to treat. If they refused any and the afflicted died, then the shamans
-might be killed themselves by relatives of the persons who succumbed.
-The thinking was that if a shaman refused a case, he must have had
-something to do with making the person sick in the first place.
-
-Payment was always made to the shaman. The amount was determined by the
-patient’s relatives. They would take the offering to the shaman when
-engaging him, but payment was not made at that time. The shaman looked
-over the proffered payment and might ask for more or for a different
-kind of payment. To give himself a foolproof alibi in case of failure to
-cure, and to increase his prestige if he did cure, he might reply to the
-effect that “The beads already have the smell of death on them, but I’ll
-see what I can do about it.” The payment was placed near the patient
-during healing treatment and was not actually collected by the shaman if
-the patient died within a few weeks or months. The shaman’s assistants
-were also paid, but in lesser amounts.
-
-    [Illustration: Maidu shaman ceremonial neck pendant knife of
-    obsidian, nine and one half inches long (after Dixon)]
-
-Besides the main function of curing, other good powers of the shamans
-were the ability to foretell future events, to see what was going on at
-distant places, and to locate lost or stolen articles. Among certain
-tribes control of weather was also possible by Sucking Shamans—among
-others there were special shamans with weather power.
-
-Evil powers of Sucking Shamans could cause illness or death. This was
-done by talking to the pain and sending it to the victim. The shaman
-might put it on the end of a willow stick and point it at the person
-while singing and smoking tobacco. This could go on all night.
-Transmission of the pain to the intended victim was facilitated by
-contact, such as sneaking up behind him and touching him, or by putting
-the disease pain in his food or under his doorstep. The bad pain might
-also be dispatched by blowing it through a pipe or putting it in the
-victim’s pipe, or by talking to the shaman’s own animal spirit,
-injecting the pain into it and then sending the animal to the victim.
-This power animal might just take it to the intended person, or it might
-actually attack and bite him. If the evil pain had been successfully
-sent, and the intended dire results occurred, the relatives of the
-victim had a moral right to kill the offending shaman, without fear of
-retaliation. It seems that the culprit was usually recognized—obviously
-often mistakenly. It follows that shamans’ lives were somewhat
-precarious, not knowing who was going to find damning evidence against
-them.
-
-By somewhat the same means as described above shamans could steal a
-person’s spirit or soul, rendering that person liable to quick and sure
-death from the slightest accident or illness. Shamans could be hired to
-perform these evil powers.
-
-Singing Shamans were dreamers foretelling the future and telling the
-living what their dead relatives wanted them to do. The Singing Shaman
-was always male among mountain Maidu. Our other tribes did not have this
-specialist, instead such powers were in the repertoire of the Sucking
-Shaman.
-
-Among Yana and Yahi tribes, apparently, weather doctoring could be done
-by any shaman, and this was usually the case among Atsugewi. However,
-mountain Maidu had specialized Weather Shamans. These were men who were
-capable not only of producing rain, snow, or hail, but also fog and high
-winds, or ending any of these.
-
-Rattlesnake Shamans were generally women among Atsugewi and men among
-mountain Maidu. They could protect people from rattlesnakes or cure
-bites. The latter was accomplished by sucking which removed snakes and
-snakes’ teeth from the wound.
-
-Bear Shamans did not exist among Yana tribes. Among Atsugewi and
-mountain Maidu these were not specialists, instead bear power was an
-additional skill of Sucking Shamans. They were almost always men and
-pertained not to Black Bear, but only to the California Grizzly. They
-wore bear skin, hair, teeth, and claws and simulated the bear’s actions
-in treating patients. Bear Shamans were called primarily to minister to
-bear wounded persons from whom they sucked out bear blood and teeth.
-
-
-
-
-                             Chapter XXXVII
-                          MISCELLANEOUS MAGIC
-
-
-All tribes of the Lassen region exercised miscellaneous more or less
-supernatural powers which one might term magic.
-
-Examples were: carrying a turtleshell on one’s belt which rendered a
-person immune to rattlesnake strikes, or, among Maidu the rubbing of the
-root of _Angelica breweri_ on the legs to keep rattlesnakes away.
-Poisoning of persons could be done by some skilled people (not shamans)
-by rubbing an unspecified substance on their hands and then touching the
-victim’s body; this could drive him crazy or kill him.
-
-To mountain Maidu the number five was sacred and lucky according to
-Dixon.
-
-    [Illustration: Yana charmstones and a fir twig basket container for
-    such charms.]
-
-Charm stones, usually in pairs were found by many fortunate Indians.
-They were smooth and rounded and were especially effective if possessing
-rings or other special markings on them which were actually surface
-traces of mineral veins. Quartz crystals, rare in this volcanic region,
-were also highly prized as charm stones. An ideal storage place for
-charm stones in their special basketry containers was in a rattlesnake
-“den” where such snakes tended to hibernate in the winter. At any rate
-charm stones were kept hidden and the owner would secretly rub them on
-himself to gain good luck in gambling or in other pursuits which
-involved much in the way of chance.
-
-    [Illustration: Atsugewi charmstones]
-
-Prayers for a variety of reasons were offered simply by the individual.
-It was common practice every few days or so to make token food offerings
-at mealtime for no specific reason. The bits of food might be thrown to
-the east or into the fire.
-
-                            * * * * * * * *
-
-Thus ends this resume of the customs and beliefs of the tribes of the
-Lassen region—tribes virtually extinct as such today—tribes which once
-lived here among the scenic beauties of Lassen Volcanic National Park.
-We, the descendants of the relentless conquerors of these local Indians,
-come here now to enjoy ourselves and to refresh our bodies and spirits.
-As we do this on the lands of the vanquished, we owe them not only a
-moment of thoughtful reverence, but also whatever kindness and aid we
-are able to give their descendants.
-
-
-
-
-                              BIBLIOGRAPHY
-
-
-  Dixon, Roland B.: BASKETRY DESIGNS OF THE INDIANS OF NORTHERN
-          CALIFORNIA
-    Feb. 12, 1902, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History,
-          Vol. 17, Part 1
-  Dixon, Roland B.: MAIDU MYTHS
-    June 30, 1902, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History,
-          Vol. 17, Part 2
-  Dixon, Roland B.: THE NORTHERN MAIDU
-    May 1905, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, Vol.
-          17, Part 3
-  Garth, Thomas R.: KINSHIP TERMINOLOGY, MARRIAGE PRACTICES, AND
-          BEHAVIOR TOWARD KIN AMONG THE ATSUGEWI
-    July 1944, American Anthropologist, Vol. 46, No. 3
-  Garth, Thomas R.: EMPHASIS ON INDUSTRIOUSNESS AMONG THE ATSUGEWI
-    Oct. 1945, American Anthropologist, Vol. 47, No. 4
-  Garth, Thomas R.: ATSUGEWI ETHNOGRAPHY
-    Feb. 1953, Anthropological Records, University of California, Vol.
-          14, No. 2
-  Gifford, E. W. and Klimek, Stanislaw: CULTURE ELEMENT DISTRIBUTIONS:
-          II, YANA
-    1936, University of California Publications in American Archeology
-          and Ethnology, Vol. 37, No. 2
-  Heizer, R. F. and Whipple, M. A.: THE CALIFORNIA INDIANS
-    1951, University of California Press
-  Klimek, Stanislaw: CULTURE ELEMENT DISTRIBUTIONS: I, THE STRUCTURE OF
-          THE CALIFORNIA INDIAN CULTURE
-    1935, University of California Publications in American Archeology
-          and Ethnology
-  Kniffen, Fred B.: ACHOMAWI GEOGRAPHY
-    1928, University of California Publications in American Archeology
-          and Ethnology
-  Kroeber, A. L.: HANDBOOK OF THE INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA
-    1925, Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology,
-          Bulletin. No. 78
-  Kroeber, A. L.: CULTURE ELEMENT DISTRIBUTIONS: XV, SALT, DOGS, AND
-          TOBACCO
-    Feb. 1941, Anthropological Records, University of California, Vol.
-          6, No. 1
-  Mason, Otis T.: REPORT OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM
-    1902
-  Merriam, C. Hart: CLASSIFICATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE PIT RIVER
-          INDIAN TRIBES
-    Smithsonian Institute, Vol. 78, No. 3
-  Pope, Saxton T.: THE MEDICAL HISTORY OF ISHI
-    May 15, 1920, University of California Publications in American
-          Archeology and Ethnology, Vol. 13, No. 5
-  Sapir, Edward: THE POSITION OF YANA IN THE HOKAN STOCK
-    June 1917, University of California Publications in American
-          Archeology and Ethnology, Vol. 13, No. 1
-  Sapir, Edward and Spier, Leslie: NOTES ON THE CULTURE OF THE YANA
-    Sept. 1943, Anthropological Records, University of California, Vol.
-          3, No. 3
-  Sauer, Carl O.: EARLY RELATIONS OF MAN TO PLANTS
-    Jan. 1947, Geographical Review
-  Vogelin, Ermine W.: CULTURE ELEMENT DISTRIBUTIONS: XX, NORTHEAST
-          CALIFORNIA
-    June 1942, Anthropological Records, University of California, Vol.
-          7, No. 2
-  Waterman, T. T.: THE YANA INDIANS
-    Feb. 1918, University of California Publications in American
-          Archeology and Ethnology, Vol. 13, No. 2
-
-
-                                  ASK
-                             THE MAN IN THE
-                     NATIONAL PARK SERVICE UNIFORM
-
-                      _He’ll be glad to help you!_
-
-
-                              BE PROUD OF
-                     LASSEN VOLCANIC NATIONAL PARK!
-
-As a citizen of the United States it belongs to you. Keep it unspoiled
-for your next visit and for future generations by helping to:
-
-  1. Prevent forest fires.
-  2. Protect the flowers, the animal life, and the rock and mineral
-          formations.
-  3. Keep it clean.
-
-
-This booklet is one of a series prepared by the Loomis Museum
-Association, a non-profit distributing organization sponsored by the
-Naturalist Department of Lassen Volcanic National Park. The Association
-is dedicated to the accumulation and dissemination of information
-concerning the history and natural history of this park. Toward this end
-it has published the following books available by mail. The post office
-address is Mineral, California. During the summer, these publications
-are also available at the Loomis Museum sales desk at Manzanita Lake,
-Lassen Volcanic National Park.
-
-  GEOLOGY OF LASSEN’S LANDSCAPE, Schulz                               55¢
-  PICTORIAL HISTORY OF THE LASSEN VOLCANO, Loomis                     85¢
-  GUIDE TO LASSEN PEAK HIGHWAY, Schulz                                25¢
-  STORIES OF LASSEN’S PLACE NAMES, Schulz                             40¢
-  BIRDS OF LASSEN VOLCANIC NATIONAL PARK AND VICINITY, Stebbins       85¢
-  FISH AND FISHING IN LASSEN VOLCANIC NATIONAL PARK, Potts            40¢
-  INDIANS OF THE LASSEN AREA Schulz                                   85¢
-
-For mail orders please add 12% for postage and packing. If the addressee
-is in California also add 3% sales tax. Prices are subject to change
-without notice.
-
-    [Illustration: Association logo]
-
-
-
-
-                          Transcriber’s Notes
-
-
-—Silently corrected a few typos.
-
-—Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook
-  is public-domain in the country of publication.
-
-—In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by
-  _underscores_.
-
-
-
-*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INDIANS OF LASSEN VOLCANIC
-NATIONAL PARK AND VICINITY ***
-
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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 65605 ***
+
+                                INDIANS
+                                   OF
+               LASSEN VOLCANIC NATIONAL PARK AND VICINITY
+
+
+                                   by
+                             Paul E. Schulz
+
+
+                            Published by the
+
+                       Loomis Museum Association
+                     Lassen Volcanic National Park
+                          Mineral, California
+
+
+                               Copyright
+                                  1954
+
+                Printed in the United States of America
+                  Susanville _Lassen Litho_ California
+
+
+
+
+                               _PREFACE_
+
+
+It is with some temerity that the author, a geologist by training and an
+interpretive naturalist by occupation, undertakes to compile this
+booklet on Indians who once inhabited the vicinity of Lassen Peak.
+
+The main mission of a naturalist, as he functions in the National Park
+Service, is to act as an interpreter of technical information gathered
+together by research scientists. It is his obligation as well as his
+privilege to make these data of history and natural history available
+for visitors to units administered by the National Park Service of the
+United States Department of the Interior. The Park Naturalist is
+challenged to create in visitors an eager interest by presenting
+information in an appealing manner so that the great stories of the
+respective areas may be learned easily and pleasantly. In doing this,
+visitors gain fuller understanding and hence better appreciation of the
+significance of these areas. This leads to greater enjoyment of the
+scenic masterpieces, the scientific natural wonders, and the historic
+shrines of areas of the National Park System. Not only is the visitor’s
+enjoyment enhanced by his active reception of the interpretive
+facilities and services offered him by the Federal Government, but his
+pride is stimulated in these areas which have been set aside for his own
+use as well as for the benefit of future generations. A citizen’s pride
+in his park areas in turn develops a love of country. It also promotes a
+sense of responsibility which helps the National Park Service fight
+vandalism, fire carelessness, and litter carelessness to the ultimate
+benefit of all concerned.
+
+Little on the pages which follow may be classed as original material for
+it is in the role of interpreter that the undersigned has assembled
+information gleaned by qualified students.
+
+The term “Amerind” instead of the traditional word “Indian” was
+seriously considered for use in this book but finally rejected. Ever
+since Christopher Columbus’ historic mistake the word Indian has had a
+confusing two-fold meaning. Columbus, of course, thought that he had
+been successful in reaching India when his little fleet touched the
+shores of the New World. Hence he applied the word Indian to the people
+he found there, supposing them to be natives of India. The term Amerind
+is a coined contraction of the words: American Indian. The use of
+Amerind has been advocated by some authors to do away with confusion,
+and it does seem to be an excellent name, but it has not enjoyed wide
+usage by the American public.
+
+I am deeply indebted to the following named persons whose research and
+learned writings have provided the bulk of the information contained in
+the present publication. The bibliography carries the titles of the
+specific references used.
+
+  Dr. Roland B. Dixon
+  Mr. Thomas R. Garth
+  Dr. E. W. Gifford
+  Dr. Robert F. Heizer
+  Dr. Stanislaw Klimek
+  Dr. A. L. Kroeber
+  Dr. Saxton T. Pope
+  Dr. Carl O. Sauer
+  Dr. Edward Sapir
+  Dr. Leslie Spier
+  Miss Erminie W. Voegelin
+  Dr. T. T. Waterman
+
+Properly, specific credit should be given in the text for each fact and
+quotation taken from the works of others, but the result would in this
+case have been unwieldy and of no practical benefit to the readers whom
+this book is intended to reach. It is hoped that professional
+ethnologists into whose hands this volume may fall will forgive this
+unorthodox usage of the research results of serious students.
+
+Mrs. Selina La Marr (Boonookoo-ee-menorra) was a valuable and gracious
+informant. Thanks are due again to Dr. E. W. Gifford, Director of the
+Museum of Anthropology at the University of California, for many
+courtesies, including donation of a copy of Dixon’s rare “Yana Indians”
+and also for his constructive perusal of the manuscript. Others who
+assisted the author were Mrs. Grace Schulz, Miss Lois Bell of the
+University of California “University Explorer” radio program, and Mr.
+Louis Caywood, National Park Service archeologist. Dr. J. H. Woolsey,
+M.D., earned gratitude of the author by donation of his personal copy of
+Pope’s “Medical History of Ishi”. Miss Lilian Nisbet of the Tehama
+County Library was helpful in the securing of other reference materials.
+
+Most Californians are vitally interested in the Indians of this state,
+yet few are aware of the excellent California State Indian Museum
+operated by the Division of Beaches and Parks. The Indian Museum is open
+to the public daily, free of charge, in a separate building on the
+grounds of Sutter’s Fort State Historical Monument in Sacramento. The
+author highly commends this museum to you. It contains a wealth of
+authentic materials which have been organized into handsome and exciting
+story-telling exhibits of first quality by Curator Jack Dyson.
+
+                                                          Paul E. Schulz
+                                                         Park Naturalist
+                                           Lassen Volcanic National Park
+                                                               Fall 1954
+
+
+
+
+                               _CONTENTS_
+
+
+  Preface                                                              I
+  Contents                                                           III
+  Prehistoric Man Comes to North America                               1
+  Early Cultures in North America                                      4
+  The California Indians                                               8
+  Indian Tribes of the Lassen Area                                    16
+  Indian-Pioneer Conflict; the Ishi Story                             20
+  Hunting                                                             38
+  Fishing                                                             43
+  Gathering and Preparation of Other Foods                            48
+  Houses and Furnishings                                              60
+  Household Implements, Tools, and Weapons                            66
+  Basketry and Textiles                                               80
+  Tanning, Cordage, and Glue                                          96
+  Transportation                                                      99
+  Domestic Animals and Pets                                          103
+  Clothing                                                           105
+  Beauty and Personal Grooming                                       111
+  Wealth                                                             117
+  Ceremonial Dress                                                   119
+  Tobacco and Smoking                                                120
+  Music and Arts                                                     122
+  Games and Social Gatherings                                        126
+  Dances                                                             129
+  Political Organization of Tribes                                   131
+  War and Peace                                                      133
+  Birth and Babies                                                   136
+  Adulthood Rites                                                    141
+  Marriage and Divorce                                               143
+  Death and Burial                                                   145
+  Counting, Time, and Place                                          149
+  Concepts of Sun, Moon, and Stars                                   151
+  Weather Phenomena                                                  153
+  Earthquake Beliefs                                                 155
+  Creation Beliefs and Other Legends                                 157
+  Medical Treatment                                                  162
+  Spirits and Ghosts                                                 164
+  Shamanism and Doctoring                                            166
+  Miscellaneous Magic                                                173
+  Bibliography                                                       175
+
+    [Illustration: Association logo]
+
+
+
+
+                               Chapter I
+                 PREHISTORIC MAN COMES TO NORTH AMERICA
+
+
+Archeological studies of human remains from all over the world have
+shown beyond serious question that man originated in the Eastern
+Hemisphere about a million years ago. Meager remnants of prehistoric
+skeletons of man and his tools, hearths, and debris heaps have been
+found in deposits of late Cenozoic time, Chapter Five of earth’s
+history. This late Cenozoic period starting about a million years ago is
+called the Pleistocene or Ice Age. These discoveries show the orderly
+processes of survival of the fittest and of evolution developing
+successive generations of man with refined physical and mental
+qualities, ultimately producing modern man.
+
+During the Ice Age there were four separate times during which ice
+formation on all continents of the earth increased tremendously. Just
+what caused changes in climate to make this possible is not definitely
+known. Slight changes in amount of carbon dioxide in the air, which
+could have been affected by the amount of volcanic activity or by major
+changes in the amount of plant life in existence, may have affected the
+climate. Slight variations in the orbit of the earth in its course
+around the sun may also have had their influence. Even today it would
+require a drop of only a few degrees in the average annual temperature
+of the earth’s climate to produce a large increase in ice formation. All
+that is required is that a little more snow falls each winter than will
+melt in the summer. Thus, each year the excess would gradually build up
+glaciers and continental ice sheets, producing another “ice stage” in a
+few thousands of years.
+
+The area of ice in the world today is relatively small: under 6 million
+square miles, about the same as that existing during each of the four
+interglacial (warm climate) stages of the Pleistocene. During the four
+glacial stages of the Ice Age, continental ice sheets increased their
+areas by three or four times, also becoming larger in size in each
+successive cold cycle. The latest and most extensive of these glacial
+times, the Wisconsin Stage, actually saw two ice advances with a brief
+recession separating them about 60,000 years ago.
+
+During each glacial stage tremendous amounts of water were removed from
+the oceans and deposited on the continents as ice fields. This involved
+amounts of as much as 20 million cubic miles of water, causing
+world-wide lowering of sea level of about 150 or 200 feet. Today the sea
+between Alaska and Siberia is very shallow. It is not difficult to
+realize that lowered sea level during the glacial stages of the ice age
+drained the water from this and other shallow sea floors exposing these
+as land links or “land bridges” which extended between continents and
+islands. This state of affairs made possible the overland migration of
+man to the Western Hemisphere.
+
+In his illuminating paper “Early Relations of Man to Plants” Sauer has
+pointed out that early man’s migrations to the New World were not the
+result of mere aimless wanderings. Peking Man of the first interglacial
+stage about 900,000 years ago in Asia used fire in established hearths.
+He ate both cooked meats and vegetables. This evidence indicates at
+least a semi-sedentary family life. Since he had learned to make himself
+more comfortable generally by remaining in one favorable place, it
+follows logically that even primitive Peking Man migrated only when he
+could improve his lot by doing so. He moved on only when he was forced
+to do so by a failing food supply or because of crowded conditions
+caused by increasing numbers of his fellow men. It is believed that not
+only Peking Man, but his descendants were as sedentary as their food
+supply allowed them to be. Dr. Sauer observes that
+
+  “... the history of human population (numbers) is a succession of
+  higher and higher levels, each rise to a new level being brought about
+  by the discovery of more food either through occupation of a new
+  territory or through increase in food producing skill.”
+
+The invention of a better tool, improved food preparation, discovery of
+new foods, better storage, or utilization would bring about this
+increase in food availability.
+
+Apparently the twin circumstances of the need for more food and the
+existence of a dry land connection between Asia and North America
+enabled a series of migrations of prehistoric men to the New World. The
+migrations did not occur just during one glacial stage, nor during the
+last 15 or 25,000 years as some have claimed, but continued
+interruptedly over a period of many thousands of years. Perhaps such
+migrations started as long ago as 300,000 years—whenever land
+connections permitted and other conditions warranted. As a result, we
+find a number of stocks of Old World Man at various levels of cultural
+development coming into the Americas. Naturally a variety of plant and
+animal species migrated in both directions between the Old and New
+Worlds of their own accord, in addition to those which might have been
+brought along by prehistoric man.
+
+A classic example of plant migration to the New World is that of
+California’s celebrated redwoods. In China just a few years ago the
+little changed ancestors of these trees, the still-growing Metasequoia
+were discovered. In rocks of the most recent era (Chapter Five of
+earth’s history) the step by step migration of the changing redwood
+ancestors can be followed by studying successively younger rock layers
+in Siberia, Alaska, and in Canada and northwest United States. These
+relics and imprints of the foliage, fruits, and even of wood texture of
+these ancient trees were covered by sands and muds, and thus preserved
+in stone as fossils. This has made it possible to identify the ancestral
+redwood species and to demonstrate their march to California. It is
+interesting to note how the redwoods changed in the process, evolving by
+degrees to cope with new conditions of climate and soil during their
+slow migrations. At length today two distinct and unique Sequoias are to
+be found living only in California. One, the Coast Redwood, has adapted
+itself to coastal fogs and reproduction by sprouting root shoots. The
+other, restricted to drier areas of the west slope of the Sierra, the
+Sierra Redwood or Big Tree, has its needles reduced to small scales to
+withstand the drier climate, and reproduces only by seed.
+
+Sauer observes that the stone implements of prehistoric man are the best
+preserved relics of his culture and are the most easily found.
+Unfortunately the less durable and less easily recognized relics of
+skin, bone, wood, and vegetable fibers which are equally or often even
+more important clues to the past, have been altered beyond recognition
+or completely destroyed. As a result these disappeared or their
+camouflaged remnants have been overlooked and passed unrecognized by
+even careful students seeking to learn the details of this fascinating
+story of the how’s and why’s and when’s of your ancestors and mine in
+Europe and also of the Indians in Asia and in North America in general,
+and of those of the Lassen area in particular.
+
+
+
+
+                               Chapter II
+                    EARLY CULTURES IN NORTH AMERICA
+
+
+The fact that skeletons of primitive forms of man have so far not been
+discovered in the Western Hemisphere does not mean that ancestral forms
+preceding modern man did not migrate to the New World in remote times.
+It is that erroneous idea which has caused some persons to reason that
+man arrived here only in the final glacial stage. Good evidence has been
+presented to suggest that the sites he would have been most likely to
+inhabit might be submerged at present or may have been especially
+vulnerable to destruction by erosion.
+
+Certain primitive peoples of the New World (in South America) do no
+boiling of foods and do not have the dog, indicating very early
+immigration from the Old World. Dr. Sauer suggests a date during the
+third glacial stage, the Kansan, about 300,000 years ago instead of the
+Wisconsin Glacial Stage of 15,000 or 25,000 years ago as some have
+contended.
+
+At the present level of archeological and paleontological knowledge of
+prehistoric man in North America, Sauer recognizes five basic early
+cultures. These are listed below in the order of their apparent
+appearances in the New World.
+
+The most primitive and oldest culture of man recognized to date is very
+difficult to detect, for its evidences were of a fragile nature. Few
+traces of it remain to be seen today. This first culture known in North
+America lacks both stone weapon points and grinding stones. These items
+were also found lacking in the cultures of some isolated contemporary
+peoples of both North and South America.
+
+The second oldest culture in North America was that of the Ancient Food
+Grinders which appears to have been widespread in the rather rainy
+climate of the Mississippi and Pacific regions of North America. These
+people built fireplaces or hearths—beds of collected stones. They used a
+grinding slab of stone on which a handstone was rubbed to crush hard
+seeds. This indicates a greater variety of foods than used in the
+earlier culture. A number of crude pounding tools such as choppers and
+scrapers were employed as were a few rude knives of stone. It is of
+interest and significance that use of the grinder and grinding slab
+disappeared completely from most or all of this area later. The well
+known metate and mano grinding devices of the Southwest were introduced
+much later, along with the growing of corn or maize, from the Central
+American region. Coiled basketry appears to be identified with this
+second culture too, such articles being essential as containers for
+collection of seeds, winnowing, et cetera. Studies of the evidence in
+the field show also that these peoples were sedentary to the extent of
+developing refuse mounds or middens. The fact that this culture is not
+found in Europe or in Asia indicates that it developed in the Western
+Hemisphere.
+
+About 35,000 years ago the third culture appears to have developed. It
+was one in which hunting was of major importance. These hunters were not
+nomads, however, for the building of hearths, accumulations of
+artifacts, and also the general use of seed grinding stones, all
+indicate rather sedentary habits. This culture is characterized by the
+presence of dart or spear throwers, an invention of European origin.
+This indicates more recent migrations from the Old World. These darts
+were stone tipped and propelled with a spear thrower or atlatl, making
+hunting of animal food much more effective than in the case of earlier
+cultures.
+
+The fourth culture is that known by the names Folsom and Yuma. In these
+people interest in plant foods and fibers was slight, for this was
+primarily a mobile hunting culture. The people were not sedentary, but
+moved around.
+
+Well after the disappearance of the glaciers of the Ice Age, late comers
+from the Old World brought a fifth culture to the Americas. These people
+used the bow and arrow with its small and finely worked stone point.
+Fish hooks were used and many stone implements were well polished. This
+too is the first culture of the New World with which the dog was
+associated.
+
+In Eastern North America, and particularly well known in the Southwest,
+are abundant archeological evidences from easily recognized prehistoric
+living sites. These reveal a succession of more recent cultures and
+changes within cultures, as well as movement of early peoples. In
+contrast there are relatively few recognized prehistoric sites in
+California which tell much about early customs and material culture of
+aboriginal man. Some productive areas which have been found are notably
+the following: The Farmington Reservoir area of Stanislaus County more
+than 4,000 years old—possibly much older, Kingsley Cave, the Santa
+Barbara area, and the off-shore islands to the southwest of it. There
+are also a few shell mounds in the Los Angeles—Ventura area and more
+numerous and extensive ones in the San Francisco Bay vicinity. Of the
+latter shell mounds A. L. Kroeber writes:
+
+    [Illustration: AREAS AND SUBAREAS OF CULTURES IN AND ABOUT
+    CALIFORNIA
+    after A. L. Kroeber]
+
+  NORTHWESTERN CALIF.
+  NORTH PACIFIC COAST AREA
+  CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
+  SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
+  PLATEAU AREA
+  PLAINS AREA
+  CALIFORNIA-GREAT BASIN AREA
+  SOUTHWEST AREA
+  LOWER COLORADO
+
+  “... all the classes of objects (shells, refuse, mortars, pestles,
+  obsidian, charmstones, and bone awls) in question occur at the bottom,
+  middle, and top of the mounds, and ... they occur with substantially
+  the same frequency. In other words, the natives of the San Francisco
+  region traded the same materials from the same localities one, two, or
+  three thousand years ago as when they were discovered at the end of
+  the eighteenth century. They ate the same food, in nearly the same
+  proportions (only mammalian bones became more abundant in higher
+  levels), prepared it in substantially the same manner, and sewed
+  skins, rush mats, and coiled baskets similarly to their recent
+  descendants. Even their religion was conservative, since the identical
+  charms seem to have been regarded potent. In a word, the basis of
+  culture remained identical during the whole of the shell-mound period.
+
+  “When it is remembered that ... the beginning of this period
+  (occurred) more than 3,000 years ago, it is clear that we are here
+  confronted by a historical fact of extraordinary importance. It means
+  that at the time when Troy was besieged and Solomon was building the
+  temple, at a period when even Greek civilization had not yet taken on
+  the traits that we regard as characteristic, when only a few
+  scattering foundations of specific modern culture were being laid and
+  our own northern ancestors dwelled in unmitigated barbarism, the
+  native Californian already lived in all essentials like his descendant
+  of today. In Europe and Asia, change succeeded change of the
+  profoundest type. On this far shore of the Pacific, civilization, such
+  as it was, remained immutable in all fundamentals.
+
+  “... The permanence of Californian culture ... is of far more than
+  local interest. It is a fact of significance in the history of
+  civilization.”
+
+Successive intrusions of different peoples and the isolation of the
+resultant developing Indian tribes, century after century, gave rise to
+many diverse languages. Although some were mere dialects, there were
+about 750 different North American Indian languages.
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter III
+                         THE CALIFORNIA INDIANS
+
+
+Dr. A. L. Kroeber’s map shows all tribes within the present political
+boundaries of the State of California. The tribes of the extreme
+northwest corner and those of the southern tip of the state are not
+typical of what we generally think of as “California Indians”.
+
+Although it may not be scientifically sound to do so, it is often
+convenient to refer to the Indian tribes of the California region
+collectively. The term “Digger Indians” is frequently used for this
+purpose with a somewhat disparaging connotation. The origin of this name
+is traceable to white traders and pioneers who observed that local
+Indians dug extensively for a number of food items, hence the name
+Digger was applied. However, this is a poor name as digging was but one
+of many methods the Indians used to secure food. Besides, digging was by
+no means peculiar to Indians of the California area. It is best,
+therefore, simply to use the term California Indians, if one wishes to
+refer to this group of tribes as a whole.
+
+In connection with the nickname Digger Indian, it is of interest to note
+that the California tribes used the conspicuous pine of the foothills,
+_Pinus sabiniana_, as a source of edible pine nuts and for other
+purposes too. Because the so called Digger Indians used these trees so
+much, the pioneers named the conifers Digger Pines, a name recognized
+today as the proper common name of that tree.
+
+California tribes are usually not considered high culturally among
+Indians generally, yet Yurok, Pomo, and Chumash are equal to any tribe
+in North America in wood, bone, steatite, obsidian, feather, and skin
+work, while local tribes of the Lassen area made basketry of a variety
+and quality unsurpassed elsewhere.
+
+Although there were local differences in food habits, the California
+Indians as a group had a highly diversified diet in contrast to the
+so-called one-food tribes in surrounding areas. Of course it is an
+over-simplification to speak of one-food tribes, for all ate quite a
+variety of foods. Yet, it is true that several cultures had been built
+upon the great abundance and importance of one particular food item as
+compared to all other foods eaten. North of California, Indians built
+their culture largely upon the salmon. To the east were tribes which
+depended upon the bison for most of their needs, and southeast of
+California the Southwest Indians built their culture around the all
+important maize or native corn. In any of these regional groups, if the
+main food item failed, disaster struck the tribes. In contrast, the
+Californians, with diversified eating habits, had four major food
+sources: fish, game, roots, and seeds or nuts. Each was important and
+the failure of any one caused hardship, but by no means the serious
+disaster which befell the more specialized groups of Indians if their
+main food supply item failed. If any one item of the California Indian
+diet were to be selected as the most important and universal food, one
+of the nuts, the acorn would have to be named.
+
+    [Illustration: INDIAN TRIBAL DISTRIBUTION IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
+    after A. L. Kroeber]
+
+  TOLOWA
+  YUROK
+  KAROK
+    UPPER
+    LOWER
+  SHASTAN
+    SHASTA
+    OKWANUCHU
+    ACHOMAWI
+    ATSUGEWI
+    KORO MINU
+    NEW RIVER
+  MODOC
+  NORTHERN PAIUTE
+  LASSEN VOL. NAT. PARK
+  PYOT
+  WHILIOUT
+  ATHABASCAN
+    CHILULA
+    HUPA
+    NONGATL
+    SINKYONE
+    LASSIK
+    WAILAKI
+    KATO
+  YUKI
+    YUKI
+    HUCHNOM
+    COAST YUKI
+  POMO
+    N.
+    C.
+    S.W.
+    E.
+    S.E.
+  WAPPO
+  CHIMA RIKO
+  WINTUN
+    NORTHERN
+    CENTRAL
+    SOUTHWESTERN
+    SOUTHEASTERN
+  COSTANOAN
+    SAN FRANCISCAN
+    SANTA CLARA
+    SANTA CRUZ
+  YANA
+    N.
+    CENTRAL
+    SOUTHERN
+    YAHI
+  MAIDU
+    NORTHEASTERN
+    NORTHWESTERN
+    SOUTHERN
+  WASHO
+  MIWOK
+    COAST MIWOK
+    PLAINS
+    NORTHERN
+    CENTRAL
+    SOUTHERN
+  YOKUT
+    NORTH VALLEY
+
+California Indians are often regarded to have been lazy and shiftless.
+To be sure there were such individuals, but we have that type of person
+in our midst too, and I dare say in equal or greater percentage. As a
+matter of fact, Indians generally could not afford to be lazy—there was
+no beneficent government to coddle them. It was largely a case of sink
+or swim. They had to provide their own shelter, food, and clothing as
+well as what amusement and extras—hardly to be called luxuries—they
+wished to enjoy. These things were all wrought from the wilderness with
+their own bare hands, using only wood, stone, and fire as tools. These
+native Americans lived in a stone-age culture. Metals, the wheel,
+domesticated herd animals, and agriculture were unknown to California
+Indians. Although there was some seasonal migration, there were no truly
+nomadic or wandering tribes in California.
+
+In California there were 103 separate tribes each speaking its own
+language. To be sure, some were mere dialects of others, but there were
+21 tongues completely distinct from each other and mutually
+unintelligible. These belonged to several unrelated language families,
+as shown on the second map.
+
+As suggested above, Kroeber has shown that we are technically incorrect
+in referring to the California Indians as a single group of tribes.
+Within the political boundaries of the State of California there were
+actually three separate cultures with a number of subcultures, which
+were as follows: The small area in the northwest corner of the state,
+the Klamath River drainage, was occupied by the Northwest California
+Sub-culture, a part of the North Pacific Coast Culture which extended
+into British Columbia. The California-Great Basin Culture had three
+representatives in the state: the smallest or Lutuami Sub-culture,
+represented by the Modoc tribe only, extended down from the north across
+the east central portion of the northern boundary of California. The
+next larger was the Great Basin Sub-culture just east of the
+Cascade-Sierra backbone. The third and largest sub-culture of the
+California-Great Basin Culture was that of the Central California tribes
+(the Diggers of the pioneer), extending westward from the Cascade-Sierra
+crest to the Pacific Ocean across the bulk of the state. The fifth
+sub-culture is known as the Southern California comprising the area
+south of the Tehachapi Mountains from the coast east across the Colorado
+River, being a part of the Southwest Culture.
+
+    [Illustration: LINGUISTIC FAMILIES
+    INDIAN LANGUAGE GROUPS OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA and the families to
+    which they belong, after A. L. Kroeber]
+
+  Lutuamian
+    LUTUAMI
+  Hokan
+    KAROK
+    SHASTAN
+    CHIMARIKO
+    POMO
+    WASHO
+    YANA
+  Shoshonian
+    PAIUTE
+  Penutian
+    WINTUN
+    MAIDU
+    MIWOK
+    YOKUT
+    COSTANOAN
+  Algonkian
+    YUROK
+  Athabascan
+    ATHABASCAN
+  Yukian
+    YUKI
+
+Nevertheless, some generalities hold, and at the risk of the inaccuracy
+which is typical of generalizations, we might set forth the following
+customs as being characteristic of California Indians:
+
+Animal flesh bulked a smaller volume of food eaten than did vegetable
+materials—or, in the case of coastal peoples, than did seafoods. Dog and
+reptile flesh were considered poisonous or undesirable, but insects and
+worms were generally eaten. Acorns were the most important single food.
+All tribes utilized seeds of such plants as buckeye, grass, sedge, and
+sunflower family plants. All items, but the first, were collected with a
+basketry seed beater in a conical burden basket, parched, winnowed,
+ground, and eaten either dry, as unleavened bread, or as boiled mush.
+
+Although the fish hook and line were known throughout the area, most
+fishing was done by means of nets, weirs, use of poison, and harpoons
+thrust, but not thrown.
+
+Hunting with bow and arrow was most important. Disguise and dogs were
+used in the north, but surrounding the game was the common means of
+hunting in the south.
+
+The northern bow was short, broad, and sinew backed while southern
+Californians used long narrow bows without reinforcement.
+
+Arrows were usually two-piece and tipped with obsidian points. Three
+different arrow releases were used among California Indians. Northern
+arrows were straightened by use of a hole through a piece of wood or
+similar material, and were polished by use of horsetail stalks while a
+grooved squarish soapstone (steatite) did both jobs in the south.
+
+Basketry was highly developed, being California’s best art form. The
+northern quarter of the area did twined basketry; coiled basketry
+prevailed elsewhere.
+
+Cloth was unknown, but woven rabbit skin strip blankets were universal,
+especially for bedding. Rush mats were twined and sewn.
+
+Pottery was unknown except for a very crude undecorated form in the San
+Joaquin Valley, an intrusion from the Southern California Sub-culture
+where pottery became important.
+
+Music of California was characterized by singing, rattles, whistles,
+split slap sticks, flute, and musical bow. The last two instruments were
+the only ones which were able to make real melodies, but amazingly,
+neither one was used for dances or ceremonies. California Indians were
+virtually without any drums—the exception being a single headed flat
+foot drum used in ceremonial sweathouse chambers of the tribes in the
+Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys.
+
+Dress of California women was a front and a back apron of
+skin—especially buckskin—or of plant fiber. Men wore nothing or a folded
+skin about the hips or between the legs. In bad weather both sexes used
+cape-like or wrap-around (over one arm and under the other) skin robes.
+In localized areas the brimless dome-shaped basketry cap was worn by
+women. Hair of both sexes was long (but shorn in mourning) and
+frequently put up in nets by men. Men removed their beards by pulling
+with their fingers.
+
+In mountain areas social and religious cults were lacking. In the
+extreme northwest corner wealth dances were held; in central California
+the secret society and Kuksu dances, in the south the Jimsonweed
+initiation system, and in the Colorado River area the dreamsong ceremony
+flourished.
+
+Houses varied from open enclosures and brush or bark shelters to frame
+structures more or less completely dug into the ground and covered with
+bark, brush, and dirt, usually with a roof entrance and or one to the
+south; this was the earth lodge. In the extreme northwest housing was
+not the earth lodge, but a structure built on top of the ground;
+hand-split planks were used in its construction.
+
+Sweat houses were of the earth lodge type, often of daily service and in
+northern areas, lived in too. Sweat houses of California were not heated
+by steam, but directly with fire.
+
+Boats generally were of rushes tied into balsa rafts or into boat
+shapes. In addition one-piece dugout canoes from tree logs were typical
+of the northern portion of California, becoming progressively more
+refined in workmanship and in design to the northwest. A unique lashed
+split board canoe was made by channel island tribes in the Santa Barbara
+vicinity.
+
+The tribe as a political unit, so common elsewhere in America, did not
+exist in California. What we call a tribe was actually a number of
+groups of Indians, each of whom had a chief, spoke the same language
+dialect, had the same customs, intermarried regularly, and were usually
+mutually friendly. There was no tribal chief as such.
+
+In the northwest portion of California wealth was so important that real
+chieftain leadership was lacking. In central and southern California the
+chief was a powerful local leader on a hereditary basis. Between the two
+extremes was a zone where tribes struck a compromise; the hereditary
+local chief had moderate authority and usually was well to do, but not
+necessarily so. Rich men in smaller political divisions were influential
+headmen under the local chief.
+
+Warfare was only for revenge and not for plunder or for a desire for
+distinction. Except for the Northwest Sub-culture, scalps were generally
+taken and included the victim’s skin down to his eyes or nose, and
+including the ears. Not infrequently the whole head was taken by a
+victorious warrior. The weapon was the bow and arrow, with rocks
+employed in close combat. Such war implements as shields, clubs, spears
+(throwing), and tomahawks were not used.
+
+Guessing games, usually played by men, were universal, with variations,
+and heavy gambling was the rule. Shinny in several different forms was
+widely played.
+
+Shamans were employed for curing diseases which were believed due to the
+presence in the body of some foreign hostile object. This was removed by
+sucking accompanied by singing, dancing, and tobacco smoking.
+
+The girls’ adulthood or puberty ceremony and dance was important to all
+California tribes.
+
+Population figures even on the most scholarly basis, Kroeber states, are
+at best reasonable guesses. As nearly as can be determined there were
+originally about one million Indians in North America, three million in
+Central America, and three million in South America. California probably
+had about 133,000 Indians or nearly one per square mile. This is a
+density three or four times greater than for the whole of North America.
+
+Today the North American Indian population (including about 30%
+half-breeds) is less than 10% of what it was. Over 90% of our Indians
+have been destroyed by wholesale killing at the hands of the white man,
+by new diseases, unfavorable changes in diet, clothing, and dwellings
+plus such Caucasian cultural factors as settlement, concentration, and
+the like. The decline in Indian population varied directly with the
+degree of civilized contact the several tribes experienced. It is
+interesting to note that virtually all of the Indians exposed to the
+Spanish missions commencing 1769 are gone except for a few in the
+extreme south who were only partly missionized. Kroeber states:
+
+  “It must have caused many of the fathers a severe pang to realize, as
+  they could not but do daily, that they were saving souls only at the
+  inevitable cost of lives. And yet such was the overwhelming fact. The
+  brute upshot of missionization, in spite of its kindly flavor and
+  humanitarian root, was only one thing: death.”
+
+Kroeber also points out that some tribes had much less resistance and
+hence suffered greater decline in population in response to equal white
+contact than others did. As in the case of other living things, there
+were favorable circumstances under which the Indian flourished—where
+life was relatively easy and secure. Such conditions produced virile
+stock and a rich culture both materially and spiritually—a condition
+found in broad valleys drained by the great rivers of California: the
+Klamath, the Sacramento, and the San Joaquin. As is also the case with
+specific plants and animals, Indians in less favorable sites lived
+submarginally—a difficult existence, poor in material and spiritual
+culture. Under such circumstances it takes just a small amount of
+additional unfavorable influence to make existence impossible. On this
+basis Kroeber explains the extinction or near extinction of poor
+mountain tribes upon contact with the whites while the Indians of the
+fertile valleys, although suffering more intensive Caucasian contact,
+were able to survive in reasonable numbers. This is a specific exception
+to the general observation made above that population decrease varied
+directly with the degree of contact. There are examples in California;
+the local one is the survival of valley Maidu and Wintun populations as
+compared to the surrounding mountain people with poorer cultures: the
+Yahi, Yana, Okwanuchu, Shasta, New River Shasta, Chimariko, and the
+Athabascan tribes of the west with survival percentages today of up to
+only 5% at best.
+
+There is another factor which caused greater devastation of the
+economically insecure mountain tribes. White settlers were able to use
+to their own advantage some of the labor, services, and even food which
+the valley Indians afforded them. Thus it was not to the interest of the
+whites to wipe out these Indians. On the other hand, the mountain tribes
+with a poorer economy were prone to steal livestock to supplement their
+food supplies as they had no means to gain wealth to enable them to buy
+from the whites. Such depredations were a major cause of retaliation by
+white man in the form of bloody punitive attacks on Indians from whom
+the settlers had nothing to gain.
+
+
+
+
+                               Chapter IV
+                    INDIAN TRIBES OF THE LASSEN AREA
+
+
+Lassen Peak with an elevation of 10,453 feet above sea level is the
+central high point of a somewhat topographically isolated mountain mass
+of volcanic origin. The slopes descending in all directions from Lassen
+Peak are clothed in coniferous forests, dotted with small lakes of
+glacial origin, and drained by a few fish bearing streams flowing
+radially from the mountain. There are also a few hot spring areas and
+some barren expanses where recent eruptions have produced mudflows and
+lavas. For the most part, game abounds in the Lassen highland, but the
+winters are snowy and severe, making it unsuitable for Indians to live
+there the year around.
+
+As shown on the map, parts of the lands of four distinct tribes of
+Indians lay within what are today the boundaries of Lassen Volcanic
+National Park. Permanent homes and villages of Atsugewi, Yana, Yahi and
+mountain Maidu tribes were at lower elevations in the Ponderosa Pine and
+Digger Pine belts, and situated near streams. There food was relatively
+easily available and winters were the least severe within the limits of
+the respective tribal territories.
+
+Each summer when deer migrated to higher elevations, the Indians also
+moved toward Lassen Peak to hunt and to fish trout, spending the whole
+summer in temporary camps.
+
+There was some contact between the four tribes during their sojourns in
+the uplands of the park area, but the activities of each Indian group
+were pretty well confined to its own territory. The four Lassen tribes
+did on occasion engage in small battles, but this was the exception
+rather than the rule—generally speaking they lived harmoniously as
+neighbors, and there was even occasional inter-marriage between tribes.
+
+These tribes all had simple hill or mountain cultures which, in spite of
+some difference of custom, were surprisingly alike. It is believed that
+this is due to the fact that the four tribes all lived under very
+similar conditions of environment—the same type of country in many
+respects. The similarity of their cultures is all the more interesting
+in that the Atsugewi were of the Hokan Family, speaking a Shastan
+language. Yana and Yahi, also of Hokan stock spoke Yana languages. The
+mountain Maidu were of the Penutian Family, speaking a Maidu language.
+
+According to the best available figures, some of which are only
+reasonable guesses, populations of the local tribes were probably about
+as follows:
+
+    [Illustration: INDIAN TRIBAL AREAS OF THE LASSEN REGION
+    after A. L. Kroeber and T. R. Garth—note the boundaries of Lassen
+    Volcanic National Park dashed in above and left of center of the
+    map. Lassen Peak is at the junction of the Atsugewi, Yana, and Maidu
+    territories.]
+
+  ACHOMAWI
+  SHASTAN
+    OKWANUCHU
+  NORTHERN WINTUN
+  CENTRAL WINTUN
+  S. E. WINTUN
+  CENTRAL YANA
+  NORTH (YANA)
+  SOUTHERN YANA
+  ATSUGEWI
+    ATSUGE
+    APWARUGE
+  NORTHERN PAIUTE
+  NORTHEASTERN MAIDU
+  NORTHWESTERN MAIDU
+  SOUTHERN MAIDU
+  WASHO
+
+                                  1770     1910     1950
+
+  Atsugewi                       1,000      250       75
+  Yana (north, central, s)         750       25       10
+  Yahi                             275        5     none
+  Maidu (mountain)               2,000      800      300
+  Totals                         4,025    1,080      385
+
+  Garth states that: “The Atsugewi are divided into two major groups,
+  the Atsuge or pinetree-people, who occupy Hat Creek Valley, and the
+  Apwaruge—from Apwariwa, the name of Dixie Valley—who live to the east
+  in and around Dixie Valley. Sometimes the Apwaruge are called
+  Mahoupani, juniper-tree-people, a name which reflects the dry and
+  barren nature of their territory....
+
+  “... certain cultural differences (existed) between the eastern and
+  western Atsugewi, who in most aspects of nonmaterial culture and in
+  language are one people. In the western area there was more abundant
+  rainfall and a fairly luxuriant growth of pines, oaks, and other
+  trees. Here the Atsuge subsisted largely on acorns and fish; made
+  twined basketry, using willow, pine root, _Xerophylum_ grass, and
+  redbud materials; and had bark houses and numerous other structures of
+  bark. On the contrary, in the eastern area, which is comparatively
+  arid and lacking in trees, the Apwaruge depended on the acorn less
+  than did the Atsuge and fishing was less important, to judge by the
+  scarcity or lack of nets, fish hooks, and harpoons; made inferior
+  twined baskets of twisted tule with a different twist to the weave; as
+  a rule had their houses covered with tule mats rather than with bark;
+  and were much poorer than the Atsuge. This cultural distinction
+  between the eastern and western areas is also found to the north among
+  the Achomawi.”
+
+Dixon’s studies have revealed that the Maidu had no general name for
+themselves, remarkable as this may seem. The name Maidu was first used
+by Stephen Powers in 1877 in his volume “TRIBES OF CALIFORNIA”, a name
+he arbitrarily applied to these Indians since the word meant “Indian” or
+“man” in their language. The adjectives northwest or valley, northeast
+or mountain, and southern or foothill are applied to identify the three
+different cultures corresponding to the three distinct geographic
+provinces inhabited by the Maidu Indians as a whole. In a number of
+respects the culture of the mountain or northeast Maidu was more like
+that of their northern neighbors, the Atsugewi, than it was like that of
+the closely related southern and northwestern Maidu peoples. Obviously
+the factor of environment or characteristics of the land occupied is of
+extreme importance in creating such a situation.
+
+
+
+
+                               Chapter V
+             INDIAN—PIONEER CONFLICT AND THE STORY OF ISHI
+
+
+Conflict—prolonged, tragic, and violent—flared during the period when
+Europeans wrested control of North America from the native Indian. In
+viewing the struggle between Indian and white man, feelings run high
+even today.
+
+What was it when Custer’s contingent was wiped out?—when the Modocs
+inflicted such heavy losses on the American troops?—when the Navajo,
+Sioux, and others made their devastating raids on wagon trains and
+pioneer settlers? These were just as much a part of the war as were the
+exploits of Rogers’ Rangers, the indiscriminate slaying of Indian men,
+women, and children in the Yahi caves on Mill Creek, and the
+annihilation of large segments of Atsugewi and Yana tribes cornered at
+points northwest of the present Lassen Volcanic National Park area. War
+is never a pretty thing. Was the hit and run killing of white people by
+Indians any less defensible morally than white man’s atrocities against
+the Indians, or, for that matter, than commando raids and atomic
+bombings of today? Our viewpoint on such matters in the past has all too
+often been that might makes right, since we have always been on the
+winning side. Until very recently we have followed the biased opinion of
+the colonists and pioneers of these United States: whenever we won, it
+was a glorious and righteous victory, but if the Indian emerged
+victorious, it was regarded as a dastardly massacre. It is a viewpoint
+readily understandable where a person’s loved ones are involved—but not
+justifiable.
+
+Our veterans of recent wars will vouch for the fact that white man’s
+wars can be primitive and violent when life and limb are at stake. We
+are hardly in a position to criticize the “cruel and sneaking” fighting
+methods of the Indians. Was it not use of Indian fighting methods which
+was so valuable to us in defeating the British in the colonial war for
+independence?
+
+Indians fought in the only way they knew—and a disheartening losing
+fight it was for them with bows and arrows against rifles. For each gain
+in weapons and technical know-how the Indians made, the whites made
+many. True, it cost Americans much in the way of lives, anguish, and
+money, but how small were these losses in comparison to those of the
+Indians. American Indians, the undisputed owners of this continent for
+thousands of years, were not only nearly exterminated, but in the end we
+took virtually all of their land by force and with it took away the
+means of self support as well without “due process of law”. We denied
+the Indian the right of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of
+happiness”—the very things for which we as a nation stand. In all
+fairness, however, it should be stated that in recent years modest
+monetary retribution has been made by the U.S. Government to some of the
+surviving descendants.
+
+S. F. Cook has pointed out that Spanish contact with California Indians
+was a rather passive matter. Spanish penetrated deeply, but did not
+settle on Indian lands of appreciable size. The Spanish were present in
+small numbers, a population numbering perhaps 4,000 by 1848. To be sure
+there was occasional bloodshed, but it was the exception in Spanish
+California rather than the rule, for the Spanish regarded Indians as an
+asset, a human resource which provided labor and even some food and
+materials. The Indians were a respected element in the social and
+economic structure of Hispanic California, having civic and legal
+rights. Even under the Spanish, was there a great reduction of the
+Indian population through limited warfare and displacement, but much
+more importantly through disease. Nevertheless, by 1845 a more or less
+satisfactory equilibrium seems to have evolved between the Spanish and
+the California Indians.
+
+In contrast the hordes of white immigrants who followed considered the
+Indians entirely useless and there was no place for the latter in the
+pioneers’ economy of material wealth. All good lands were taken from the
+Indians arbitrarily and as quickly as possible. However, it must be
+stated that there were exceptions to both the Spanish and Gringo
+relations with the California Indians, but, in general, the foregoing
+statements are accurate.
+
+How the conflict of pioneer versus Indian affected the Atsugewi is
+summarized for us by Garth as follows:
+
+  “The Atsugewi, because of their somewhat secluded mountain habitat,
+  were spared contact with white civilization until the middle of the
+  nineteenth century. Although there were vague reports of contact with
+  Spanish explorers or Mexican bandits, these could not be verified.
+  Peter Skene Ogden may have been the first white man to visit the area
+  (1827-1828). Besides the trappers, Fremont, Greenwood, and other
+  explorers probably skirted Atsugewi country. Peter Lassen passed
+  through Achomawi-Atsugewi country in opening the Pit River Route of
+  1848. He was soon followed by a stream of white migration from the
+  east which was devastating to the Indians and their culture.
+  Prospectors entered the Lassen region in 1851, and not long afterward
+  came white settlers. By about 1859 the Indians were felt to be a
+  menace to the whites in the area and were rounded up by militia and
+  taken to the Round Valley Indian Reservation. Unsatisfactory
+  conditions at the Reservation caused most of them to leave in 1863 and
+  return to their old haunts along Hat Creek and Dixie Valley.
+
+  “Joaquin Miller reports an uprising in 1867 of the Pit River and Modoc
+  Indians, who had made up old differences and were now fighting
+  together. A number of whites were massacred. Miller speaks of an
+  Indian camp being made on Hat Creek in the war that followed. It is
+  not thus improbable that the Atsuge participated in that war. After a
+  year or so of fighting the Indians suffered a final crushing defeat
+  and surrendered. This last engagement may be the one at Six Mile Hill,
+  spoken of by informants, in which a large number of their people were
+  cornered in a cave and massacred by soldiers. After this, many of the
+  Indians were again removed to Round Valley. Those remaining and some
+  who subsequently returned from the Reservation maintained friendly
+  relations with the whites. Today most Atsugewi live on allotments in
+  their old territory, the younger Indians often working for their white
+  neighbors or for the lumber mills. The census of 1910 gives a
+  population of 240 for ‘Hat Creek Indians’. This figure may also have
+  included the Dixie Valley Atsugewi, since they are not mentioned in
+  the census. The present population is probably half that or less.”
+
+The Maidu also were decimated upon contact with white man. However, with
+only rare exception, Maidu accepted rather passively invasion of their
+territory with the attendant driving away of game and destruction of
+fish in the streams by mining operations in gold rush days. However,
+since the remnants of the Maidu were in the way of white mans’
+developments, treaties were made in 1851 by which these Indians gave up
+all claims to their ancestral lands and were taken to short lived
+reservations in Amador, Nevada and Butte Counties, also later to the
+Round Valley Reservations in the Coast Range. A great many Maidu soon
+returned to their homes. In the late 50’s and 60’s a desultory war was
+waged on the Maidu by California State troops which further reduced the
+number of surviving Indians of this tribe.
+
+The management of the University of California’s excellent informative
+“UNIVERSITY EXPLORER” radio program series has given permission to quote
+the following from its broadcasts. This material concerns the conflict
+of the closely related Yana and Yahi tribes with the whites and the
+fabulous story of Ishi. The script has been abridged and considerably
+rearranged:
+
+  “... The Yana way of life was a strange one to the white observer, but
+  the tribes prospered under it until white emigration from the East
+  threw them into conflict with a new and unfriendly people. The
+  Indians, of course, resented the white incursion and revolted against
+  it. That happened in all sections of the country where whites
+  displaced Indians, but it would be hard to imagine a more inept way of
+  handling the situation than that used by the white men in the
+  Sacramento Valley. Some of the large land owners protected the Indians
+  of their holdings; among them were General John Bidwell, one of the
+  founders of Chico, (Peter Lassen on his Rancho Bosquejo between Mill
+  and Deer Creeks), and John Sutter, on whose property the Gold Rush
+  started. But they were exceptions. Most of the settlers apparently
+  believed the only way to handle the natives was to compete with them
+  in cruelty. One celebrated Indian-killer took great pride in a blanket
+  he had made from Indian scalps. The whites had learned scalping from
+  the Eastern Indians, but they themselves popularized it in
+  California....
+
+  “The Indians often plundered settlers’ cabins and stole livestock.
+  This was natural, since they regarded the whites as invaders.
+  Unfortunately, the settlers’ retaliation frequently consisted of
+  rounding up a gang of Indians and slaughtering them. And it didn’t
+  make too much difference whether they were the guilty Indians.
+  Professor Waterman wrote that the Yahi expressed their resentment of
+  the white men more violently than did the other Yana groups, but since
+  the Yahi moved around more and displayed greater skill in hiding out,
+  quite innocent groups of Indians often took the blame for the acts of
+  the Yahi. Professor Waterman cited the case of one white posse which
+  took to the trail following a series of Indian raids. The posse came
+  upon an encampment of Indians and shot about forty of them. But the
+  Indians had been camped in the same place for two nights, and the
+  whites later found a couple of almost-empty whiskey barrels there. It
+  doesn’t stand to reason, Professor Waterman pointed out, that Indians
+  skilled in warfare would be so careless after an attack on their
+  enemies.
+
+  “As the animosity between white men and red men grew, the atrocities
+  on both sides became revolting. White women and children were tortured
+  and killed by the Yana. But the anthropologists who have studied this
+  unpleasant phase of California history believe the whites invited such
+  savage assaults by their own brutal mistreatment of the Indians.
+
+  “... The Yana gradually took to the woods as it became obvious that
+  they were being outnumbered and decimated by the settlers in one
+  massacre after another. By the late 1860’s the Indians had been
+  reduced in numbers and intimidated to the point where they no longer
+  could be considered a serious menace to the people who had taken over
+  their hunting grounds. By then the Indians’ crimes were more on the
+  level of petty theft than major violence. The three Yana tribes had
+  become almost extinct as social organizations, but a fair number of
+  Yana-speaking individuals survived long after the turn of the century.
+
+  “With the Yahi tribe, however, it was a different story. For a long
+  time the Yahi—then called the Mill Creeks, because area around that
+  little stream was their principal hunting ground—for a long time, the
+  Yahi were believed to have been wiped out in a final massacre in
+  1865.... In 1871, a group of cattle-herders in Tehama County found a
+  spot where Indians apparently had wounded a steer. The whites used
+  dogs to follow the steer’s bloody trail, and cornered some thirty
+  Indians in a hillside cave. They promptly slaughtered the Indians,
+  including several children. The settlers’ peculiar idea of mercy was
+  pointed out by Professor Waterman’s informant, who noted that one of
+  the cattle-herders could not bear to kill the children with his .56
+  caliber rifle—‘it tore them up so bad’ he said. So he did it instead
+  with a .38 caliber revolver.... They call the rock shelter Kingsley
+  Cave after Norman Kingsley, the settler who ... supposedly ... shot
+  the Indian children. The Kingsley Cave site was apparently used for a
+  long time. Grinding tools of two different cultural periods were found
+  ... (by University of California Archeological Survey staff
+  excavations currently investigating the site).
+
+  (The Yahi were thought to have been completely wiped out by this last
+  unjustified atrocity, but in 1908) “... surveyors for a power company
+  in the hilly country around Deer Creek reported they had caught a
+  glimpse of a naked Indian standing poised near the stream with a
+  double-pronged primitive fishing spear. Next day, other members of the
+  party were startled when an arrow came whistling through the
+  underbrush at them—a stone-tipped arrow like those used by the
+  supposedly extinct Indians. The surveyors kept on pushing ahead, until
+  they came upon a cleverly concealed camp in the tangled woods. There
+  they found a middle-aged woman and two aged and feeble Indians, a man
+  and a woman. The old woman, hiding under a pile of rabbit skins,
+  apparently wanted water, and the surveyors gave her some after the old
+  man and the other woman had hidden in the underbrush. The surveyors
+  also carried off all the blankets, bows and arrows and other articles
+  in sight; but when they returned next day to make some sort of
+  restitution, the Indians had disappeared. They were never seen again,
+  even though the University later sent anthropologists in search of
+  them....
+
+  “... with the dawn of a clear August day in 1911.... The butchering
+  crew of a slaughterhouse near Oroville were awakened ... by a furious
+  barking of the dogs at the corral. They rushed into the corral to find
+  a man crouching in the mud, surrounded by the slaughterhouse shepherd
+  dogs. The butchers called off the dogs to get a closer look at their
+  guest—and a most unusual guest he was.
+
+  “The man’s only clothing was a piece of torn, dirty canvas across his
+  shoulders. His skin was sunburned to a copper brown, his hair was
+  clipped close to the skull, and he obviously was suffering from severe
+  malnutrition. His body was emaciated and his cheeks clung to the bones
+  to accentuate his furiously glaring eyes.
+
+  “But the strangest thing about this man was his speech. It was like
+  nothing the butchers had ever heard.... The sheriff tried English and
+  Spanish, then several Indian dialects. But he was unable to draw any
+  intelligible response from his prisoner. For lack of a better place to
+  put him, the sheriff locked him in the jail cell reserved for mental
+  cases, even though the man from the slaughterhouse appeared to be more
+  lost than insane.
+
+  “The ‘Wild Man of Oroville’ made good newspaper copy, and clippings
+  about his mysterious discovery caused much excitement in the
+  department of anthropology at the University of California. It was a
+  good thing that the news reached the University when it did. The
+  frightened wild man was cowering in his cell, refusing to accept food
+  from his captors whom he obviously distrusted, while the sheriff
+  vainly tried to identify him.
+
+  “The late Professor T. T. Waterman was especially excited. So excited,
+  in fact, that he stuffed a few clothes in his suitcase, quickly picked
+  out a list of words from the files on California Indian languages, and
+  caught the first train to Oroville for an interview with the prisoner.
+
+  “The reason for Professor Waterman’s excitement was that he believed
+  the Oroville prisoner was a Yahi Indian. If this guess was correct,
+  Waterman would have a major anthropological find. For anthropologists
+  are concerned with origins, development and variegated cultures of
+  mankind; and if the frightened prisoner in Oroville turned out to be a
+  Yahi, Professor Waterman and his colleagues would have a living
+  encyclopedia of the language, customs, and habits of a people who were
+  believed to be extinct ... he might be one of the little band reported
+  at Deer Creek (in 1908), perhaps the man with the fishing spear.
+
+  “The task of determining whether the prisoner was Yahi was complicated
+  by the fact that no one knew the Yahi language. This doesn’t sound
+  like an insuperable stumbling block, until you remember that the
+  California Indian languages were numerous and distinct; there were
+  over one hundred dialects, many of them mutually unintelligible. These
+  dialects were classified into eighteen major language groups, which in
+  turn made up six entirely different language families. These six
+  language families apparently are completely unrelated—a strange
+  circumstance, when you consider that almost all of the languages of
+  Europe can be traced to common origins.
+
+  “However, Professor Waterman was fortunate in one respect. A fairly
+  extensive word-list had been collected from the dialect of the Nozi
+  Indians who had once lived just to the north of the Yahi and were
+  their nearest relatives. Both the Yahi and the Nozi belonged to the
+  Yana language stock, which stemmed from the widespread Hokan family.
+  So Professor Waterman relied on Nozi words to make the identification.
+
+  “At first, the prisoner in Oroville seemed as frightened of Professor
+  Waterman as he had been of all the other white men. Patiently, the
+  anthropologist proceeded through his list of Nozi words, but the
+  captive Indian apparently recognized none of them. At last, though,
+  the professor pointed to the wooden frame of the Indian’s cot, and
+  pronounced the word ‘si’wi’ni,’ which according to his list meant
+  ‘yellow pine’. Immediately, the Indian relaxed. His harried, unhappy
+  look turned to beaming good cheer, and he acted as if he had found a
+  long-lost friend. Pointing to his cot, he repeated Professor
+  Waterman’s word ‘si’wi’ni’ several times, as if agreeing that, yes,
+  his cot was yellow pine. His own language differed from that of the
+  Nozi, but some of the vocabulary was the same. Professor Waterman had
+  struck upon one of the right words; later, he pronounced more familiar
+  words, and it was established that the Indian was a Yahi. He also
+  managed to explain that he called himself ‘Ishi’, which meant simply,
+  ‘I am a man’.
+
+  “Professor Waterman was naturally elated with his new-found
+  acquaintance. The Butte County sheriff was equally elated to be rid of
+  his difficult charge, so Ishi was taken to the Museum, then located in
+  San Francisco, for further study and interrogation.
+
+  “Thus it happened that this human relic of the Stone Age came to live
+  at a modern university. The Regents of the University gave Ishi some
+  official status by appointing him an assistant janitor at $25 a month.
+  But his value to the University did not come from dexterity with a mop
+  and broom; he was valued because he could tell the anthropologists
+  about his people, preserving knowledge which otherwise would have died
+  with his fellow-tribesmen.
+
+  “Ishi adapted himself well to this new life, and he was a friendly and
+  popular fixture at the museum for five years. He picked up the white
+  man’s ways by watching the people around him; at his first civilized
+  dinner, he imitated his hosts’ motions and managed a knife and fork
+  far more skilfully than most of us can handle chopsticks in a Chinese
+  restaurant. He was delighted and awe-stricken by many of the
+  developments of civilization; but the things that impressed him most
+  were not what the anthropologists had expected. Electric lights,
+  airplanes, and automobiles made little impression; they were
+  completely beyond his range of experience, and he dismissed them as
+  ‘white man’s magic’, worthy of little attention. The tall buildings in
+  downtown San Francisco did not startle him; as he explained, his own
+  country had cliffs and crags just as high. But what really amazed him
+  about the city were the enormous crowds of people on the streets. He
+  had seen people before, of course, but never more than twenty or
+  thirty in one place.
+
+  “In general, the things that Ishi considered most remarkable were
+  things which approached something in his own experience. He knew how
+  hard it was to start a fire by friction, so pocket matches were indeed
+  a wonder. Water faucets which could be turned on and off were likewise
+  marvelous; why, the white man could make a spring, right there in the
+  house! One of the first modern devices to catch Ishi’s babbled
+  attention was an ordinary window roller shade. He tried to push it
+  aside, but it flipped back; he lifted it, but it fell down. Finally
+  someone showed him how to give it a little tug and let it roll itself
+  up, and Ishi was amazed. A half-hour later, he was still trying to
+  figure out what had happened to the shade.
+
+  “Ishi and his hosts learned to communicate with each other fairly
+  adequately; he never became accustomed to formal grammar, but he
+  picked up a vocabulary large enough to express his wishes and his
+  comments about the things around him. Actually, the anthropologists
+  admitted, Ishi learned to speak English far better than any of them
+  were able to learn Yahi. They suspected that some of his vocabulary
+  was acquired from the school children who used to visit him, for it
+  included a fair sampling of most unacademic slang.
+
+  “There were some things Ishi didn’t like to talk about—the death of
+  his relatives and the last horrible years around Deer Creek before he
+  wandered to the Oroville slaughterhouse—were subjects he found too
+  painful. Besides, there was a tribal taboo against mentioning the
+  names of the dead. His close-cropped head, incidentally, was the
+  result of burning off his hair in mourning for his mother and sister,
+  in accordance with tribal custom.
+
+  “But the knowledge which Ishi passed on was rich and varied.... Among
+  the contributions for which Ishi is remembered are some of the finest
+  arrowheads and spear tips in existence; he made these for the
+  University Museum both of modern bottle glass and from the natural
+  materials.... In fact, Ishi was the source of almost all that is known
+  of Yahi life. He gladly described the customs of his people, and he
+  enjoyed chipping out Stone Age weapons and showing how they were used.
+  With primitive drawings, he tried to tell the story of the massacre
+  which wiped out most of his tribe....
+
+  “Ishi’s own life ended in March 1916, when he died of tuberculosis. He
+  was then believed to be in his 50’s. Those who knew him at the
+  University considered his death a great loss—not only because of what
+  he had contributed to anthropology, but because he had a natural
+  friendliness and dignity which made him a beloved personality.
+  Professor A. L. Kroeber once told me: ‘The manner in which he
+  acquitted himself, both from the scientific and social points of view,
+  was so admirable that everyone who chanced to meet him counted it a
+  privilege to be his friend’. And Ishi had the comforting knowledge
+  that his departure from this earth would not be a completely alien
+  one. Because he had passed on the elements of his culture, it was
+  possible to bury him with all the ceremony of his own people. His bows
+  and arrows were laid beside him, and some bowls of food were placed in
+  the grave so he would not grow hungry on his long journey to the Happy
+  Hunting Ground....
+
+  “Ishi was not only the last survivor of the Yahi ... but he was also
+  believed to (have been) the last representative of the Stone Age in
+  the United States.”
+
+While not apropos to the subject of this chapter, “Pioneer Conflict...”
+we digress with some quotations from Pope’s “Medical History of Ishi” to
+give the reader a better understanding of this last of the Mill Creek
+Indians, his character, and his beliefs.
+
+  “... Ishi himself later made the statement that he was not sick but
+  had no food. White men had taken his bow and arrows; game was scarce,
+  and he had no means of procuring it. He had strayed from his usual
+  trail, between Deer Creek and ... Lassen (Peak). The railroad on one
+  side and a large river on the other kept him from making his way to
+  the refuge of the hills. His fear of trains and automobiles seems to
+  have been considerable in those days.
+
+  “Upon being captured, Ishi, according to his own account, was
+  handcuffed, confronted by guns and pistols, and intimidated to such an
+  extent that he vomited with fear....
+
+  “About this time (fall, 1912) I became instructor in surgery in the
+  University Medical School, and thus came in contact with the Indian.
+
+  “From the first weeks of our intimacy a strong friendship grew up
+  between us, and I was from that time on his physician, his confidant,
+  and his companion in archery....
+
+  “The Museum (of Anthropology) is near the Hospital, and since Ishi had
+  been made a more or less privileged character in the hospital wards,
+  he often came into the surgical department. Here he quietly helped the
+  nurses clean instruments, or amused the internes and nurses by singing
+  his Indian songs, or carried on primitive conversation by means of a
+  very complex mixture of gesture, Yana dialect, and the few scraps of
+  English he had acquired in his contact with us.
+
+  “His affability and pleasant disposition made him a universal
+  favorite. He visited the sick in the wards with a gentle and
+  sympathetic look which spoke more clearly than words. He came to the
+  women’s wards quite regularly, and with his hands folded before him,
+  he would go from bed to bed like a visiting physician, looking at each
+  patient with quiet concern or with a fleeting smile that was very
+  kindly received and understood.
+
+
+                        “ISHI’S MEDICAL BELIEFS”
+
+  “Women—Ishi had many of our own obsolete superstitions regarding
+  women. One criticism he made of white man’s civilization was the
+  unbridled liberty we give menstruating women. The ‘Sako mahale’, as he
+  designated them, were a cause of much ill luck and sickness. They
+  should be in seclusion during this period. In fact, he often commented
+  on the number of sick men that came to the hospital. I asked him what
+  he thought made so many men sick. He said it was ‘Sako mahale, too
+  much wowi (houses), too much automobile,’ and last but most important
+  of all, the ‘Coyote doctor’, or evil spirit.
+
+  “Dogs—Playing with dogs, and letting them lick one’s hand, Ishi said
+  was very bad. He assured me that to let babies play with dogs this way
+  led to paralysis. It is interesting to note that Dr. R. H. Gibson of
+  Fort Gibson, Alaska, has reported the coincidence of poliomyelitis
+  among the Tanana Indians and the occurrence of distempers in dogs.
+
+  “Rattlesnakes—Ishi’s treatment for rattlesnake bite was to bind a toad
+  or frog on the affected area. This is interesting in the light of the
+  experiments of Madame Phisalix of the Pasteur Institute, who
+  demonstrated the antidotal properties of salamandrin, an extract
+  obtained from salamander skin, and the natural immunity that the
+  salamander has to viper venom. Macht and Abel have obtained a similar
+  powerful alkaloid from the toad _Bufo nigra_, called bufagin, which
+  has some of the properties of strychnin and adrenalin. It has been
+  used as an arrow poison by South American aborigines. Experiments
+  which I conducted with salamandrin as an antidote to crotalin, show
+  that it has a pronounced protective and curative value in the
+  immunization of guinea pigs and in their cure after being bitten by
+  the rattlesnake. It is, however, too dangerous and potent a poison
+  itself to be of any practical value.
+
+  “When out camping we killed and cooked a rattlesnake or ‘kemna’. Ishi
+  refused not only to taste it, but also to eat from the dishes in which
+  it had been cooked. We ate it, and found that it tasted like rabbit or
+  fish. Ishi expected us to die. That we did not do so he could only
+  explain on the grounds that I was a medicine man and used magic
+  protection.
+
+  “Moon—Ishi held the superstition common among uneducated Caucasians,
+  that it is unwholesome to sleep with the moon shining on one’s face,
+  so he covered his head completely under his blankets when sleeping in
+  the open.
+
+  “Hygiene—Ishi had wholesome notions of hygiene. When out hunting he
+  has several times stopped me from drinking water from a stream which
+  he thought had been contaminated by dwelling houses above.
+
+  “His residence in the Museum caused many misgivings in his mind. The
+  presence of all the bones of the dead, their belongings, and the
+  mummies were ever a source of anxiety to him. He locked his bedroom
+  door at night to keep out spirits. When we stored our camping
+  provender temporarily in the Museum bone room, Ishi was not only
+  disgusted but genuinely alarmed. It was only after the reassurance
+  that the ‘bunch a mi si tee’ could not enter through the tin of the
+  cans that he was relieved.
+
+  “Surgery—On some of his visits to the University Hospital, Ishi gazed
+  through the glass-panelled door of the operating room and watched the
+  less grewsome scenes therein, wondering no doubt what was the meaning
+  of this work ... and his questions afterward, though few and
+  imperfectly understood, showed that he marveled most at the
+  anaesthetic and that he debated the advisability of such surgical
+  work.
+
+  “Once he saw me remove a diseased kidney. He viewed the sleeping man
+  with deep wonder. He seemed interested at the methods we employed to
+  prevent hemorrhage. For days afterwards he asked me if the patient
+  still lived, and seemed incredulous when I said he did. When he saw an
+  operation for the removal of tonsils he asked me why it was done. I
+  told him of the pain and soreness which was indicative of disease, and
+  necessitated the operation. He conveyed to me the information that
+  among his people tonsillitis was cured by rubbing honey on the neck,
+  and blowing ashes down the throat through a hollow stick or quill; no
+  operations were necessary.
+
+  “The only surgical operation with which he seemed familiar was
+  scarification. This was accomplished by means of small flakes of
+  obsidian and had as its purpose the strengthening of the arms and legs
+  of men about to go out on a hunt.
+
+  “Herbs—His own knowledge of the use of medicinal herbs was
+  considerable, as we learned later when he went back to Deer Creek
+  canyon with us on a three weeks’ camping trip, here he designated
+  scores of plants that were of technical, medicinal, or economic value.
+  But he put very little faith in these things. The use of herbs and
+  drugs seems to have been the province of old women in the tribe.
+
+  “There was a hole in the septum of his nose which he had used as a
+  receptacle for a small piece of wood, as well as for holding
+  ornaments. When he had a cold he placed in this spot a twig of baywood
+  or juniper, and indicated to me that this was medicine. It served very
+  much with him as menthol inhalers do with us. Its influence was
+  largely psychic but agreeable.
+
+  “Magic—The real medicine was magic. The mysteries of the k’uwi, or
+  medicine man, were of much greater value than mere dosing. Their
+  favorite charms seem to have been either blowing of smoke and ashes in
+  certain directions to wield a protective or curative influence, or the
+  passing of coals of fire through themselves or their patients by means
+  of sleight of hand. They also sucked out small bits of obsidian or
+  cactus thorns from their clients, averring that these were the
+  etiological factors of sickness.
+
+  “The principal cause of pain, according to Ishi, was the entrance of
+  these spines, thorns, bee stings, or, as he called them, ‘pins’, into
+  the human frame. The medicine man sucked them out, or plucked them
+  while they were floating in the air in the vicinity of the sick man.
+  They were then deposited in a small container, usually made of the
+  dried trachea of a bird, or of a large artery. The ends of this tube
+  were sealed with pitch or some form of a stopper and the whole thing
+  taken possession of by the doctor, thus keeping the ‘materia morbosa’
+  where it could do no further harm.
+
+  “The fact that I was able to do sleight of hand: vanish coins, change
+  eggs into paper, swallow impossible objects at will, and perform
+  similar parlor magic, convinced Ishi that I was a real doctor, much
+  more than any medication or surgery at my command. He came,
+  nevertheless, to our clinic whenever he had a headache, or a bruised
+  member, or lumbago, and accepted our services with due faith.
+
+
+                        “ISHI’S PERSONAL HABITS”
+
+  “Sleep—... he slept between blankets in preference to sheets. He had
+  several flannelette nightshirts but he preferred to sleep naked....
+
+  “Clothing—... At first he was offered moccasins, but refused to wear
+  them. He wanted to be like other people. Usually he wore a bright
+  colored necktie and sometimes a hat, when he was going down town ...
+  cotton shirts and (cotton) trousers were his choice. He used a pocket
+  handkerchief in the most approved manner, and because of his frequent
+  colds he needed it often.
+
+  “Modesty—Ishi, strange to say, was very modest. Although he went
+  practically naked in the wilds, and, as described by Waterman, upon
+  his first appearance in Deer Creek Canyon he was seen altogether nude,
+  nevertheless, his first request after being captured was for a pair of
+  overalls. He was quite careful to cover his genitalia; when changing
+  clothes, assumed protective attitudes, and when swimming in the
+  mountain streams with us wore an improvised breech clout even though
+  his white companions abandoned this last vestige of respectability.
+
+  “Toilet—When well he bathed nearly every day, and he always washed his
+  hands before meals. He was very tidy and cleanly in all his personal
+  habits. When camping, he was the only man in our outfit who got up
+  regularly and bathed in the cold mountain stream every morning.
+
+  “Ishi was an expert swimmer.... He used a side stroke and sometimes a
+  modified breast stroke, but no overhand or fancy strokes; nor did he
+  dive. He swam under water with great facility and for long distances.
+  The rapids of Deer Creek were rather full yet he swam them, and
+  carried my young son hanging to his hair.
+
+  “When he was sick he resented being bathed except when ordered by the
+  nurse or doctor. Like many other primitive people, he considered
+  bathing injurious in the presence of fever. He never attempted to take
+  a sweat bath while in civilization, but often spoke of them. I never
+  saw him brush his teeth, but he rubbed them with his finger, and they
+  always seemed clean. He washed his mouth out with water after meals.
+
+  “His beard was sparse but he plucked it systematically by catching
+  individual hairs between the blade of a dull jack-knife and his thumb.
+  In his native state he used a sort of tweezers made of a split piece
+  of wood. He did this work without the use of a mirror.
+
+  “He combed and brushed his hair daily. He washed it frequently.... At
+  first he had no dandruff, but after two or three years’ contact with
+  the whites he had some dry seborrhoea, and began to get a trifle gray
+  at the temples ... he used grease on his scalp when in his native
+  state; whereas bay leaves and bay nuts he said were heated and reduced
+  to a semi-solid state, when they were rubbed on the body after the
+  sweat bath. Here they acted as a soporific, or, as he said, like
+  whiskey, and the person thus anointed fell into a sweet slumber. The
+  same substance was rubbed on moccasins to make them waterproof.
+
+  “On one occasion he contracted ring worm, probably from a wandering
+  cat. He was given a sulphur salve for this, and after its cure he
+  still used the ointment to soften his hands.... He was not susceptible
+  to ‘poison oak’ ... nor to sunburn. His skin bleached out considerably
+  while in San Francisco, and became darker when exposed to sunlight.
+
+  “... (he) seemed to have the same fondness for sweet-scented soap that
+  Orientals manifest.
+
+  “His personal belongings he kept in a most orderly manner, everything
+  in his box being properly folded and arranged with care. Articles
+  which he kept outside of this box he wrapped in newspaper and laid in
+  systematic arrangement on shelves in his room.
+
+  “In working on arrows or flaking obsidian, he was careful to place
+  newspapers on the floor to catch his chips. In fact, neatness and
+  order seemed to be part of his self-education.
+
+  “In the preparation of food and the washing of dishes he was very
+  orderly and clean.
+
+  “Diet—... After a certain period of this luxury (eating heavily) he
+  discerned the folly of this course and began eating less, when his
+  metabolism returned to a more normal balance. Part of this increase
+  was due to the large quantities of water he drank. Being unaccustomed
+  to salt, our seasoning was excessive and led to increased hydration of
+  his bodily tissues. He had a great fondness for sweets.... He tried
+  and liked nearly all kinds of foods, but seemed to have an aversion
+  for custards, blanc manges, and similar slimy confections, nor could
+  he be persuaded to drink milk. He contended that this was made for
+  babies, while he said that butter ruined the singing voice....
+
+  “Matches he took up with evident delight; they were such a contrast to
+  the laborious methods of the fire drill, or of nursing embers, which
+  he employed in the wilds.
+
+  “... His meat he boiled only about ten minutes, eating it practically
+  without seasoning.
+
+  “His own food in the wilds seems to have been fish, game, acorn meal,
+  berries, and many roots. Prominent among these latter was the bulb of
+  the _Brodiaea_. The Indian could go out on an apparently barren
+  hillside and with a sharp stick dig up enough _Brodiaea_ bulbs in an
+  hour to furnish food for a good meal. These roots are globular in
+  shape, with the appearance of an onion, ranging in size from a cherry
+  to a very small potato. The flavor when raw is like that of a potato,
+  and when cooked like a roasted chestnut.
+
+  “Alcohol—... Ishi himself had no liking for strong drink, although at
+  one time he purchased a few bottles of beer and drank small quantities
+  diluted with sugar and water. He called it medicine. His response to
+  my query regarding whiskey was, ‘Whiskey-tee crazy-aunatee, die man.’
+
+  “Tobacco—Occasionally Ishi smoked a cigarette, and he knew the use of
+  tobacco, having had access to the native herb in the wilds. But he
+  seldom smoked more than a few cigarettes a day, and frequently went
+  weeks without any. He disapproved of young people smoking. He chewed
+  tobacco at times, and spat copiously. Both of these indulgences,
+  however, he resorted to only when invited by some congenial friend.
+
+  “Etiquette—Although uncultured, he very quickly learned the proper use
+  of knife, fork, and spoon. His table manners were of the very best. He
+  often ate at my home, where he was extremely diffident; watched what
+  others did and then followed their examples, using great delicacy of
+  manner. His attitude toward my wife or any other woman member of the
+  household was one of quiet disinterest. Apparently his sense of
+  propriety prompted him to ignore her. If spoken to, he would reply
+  with courtesy and brevity, but otherwise he appeared not to see her.
+
+  “When he wanted to show his disapproval of anything very strongly, he
+  went through the pantomime of vomiting.
+
+  “Thrift—As janitor in the Museum, he was making a competent income,
+  understood the value of money, was very thrifty and saving, and looked
+  forward to the day when he could buy a horse and wagon. This seemed to
+  be the acme of worldly possession to him. He was very happy and well
+  contented, working a little, playing enough, and surrounded by
+  friends.
+
+
+                   “ISHI’S DISPOSITION AND MENTALITY”
+
+  “Disposition—In disposition the Yahi was always calm and amiable.
+  Never have I seen him vehement or angry. Upon rare occasions he showed
+  that he was displeased. If someone who he thought had no privilege
+  touched his belongings, he remonstrated with some show of excitement.
+  Although he had lived in part by stealing from the cabins of men who
+  had usurped his country, he had the most exacting conscience
+  concerning the ownership of property. He would never think of touching
+  anything that belonged to another person, and even remonstrated with
+  me if I picked up a pencil that belonged to one of the Museum force.
+  He was too generous with his gifts of arms, arrow-heads, and similar
+  objects of his handicraft.
+
+  “His temperament was philosophical, analytical, reserved, and
+  cheerful. He probably looked upon us as extremely smart. While we knew
+  many things, we had no knowledge of nature, no reserve; we were all
+  busy-bodies. We were, in fact, sophisticated children.
+
+  “His conception of immortality was that of his tribe, but he seemed to
+  grasp the Christian concept and asked me many questions concerning the
+  hereafter. He rather doubted that the White God cared much about
+  having Indians with Him, and he did not seem to feel that women were
+  properly eligible to Heaven. He once saw a moving picture of the
+  Passion Play. It affected him deeply. But he misconstrued the
+  crucifixion and assumed that Christ was a ‘bad man’.
+
+  “Use of tools—He was quite adept in the use of such simple tools as a
+  knife, handsaw, file, and hatchet. He early discovered the advantages
+  of a small bench vise, and it took the place of his big toe in holding
+  objects thereafter.... Journeys were measured by days or sleeps ...
+  (he) was awe-struck when I took him to a sawmill where large cedar
+  logs were brought in and rapidly sawed up into small bits to be used
+  in making lead pencils. It would have taken hours for him to fell even
+  a small tree, and an interminable length of time to split it. But here
+  was a miracle of work done in a few minutes. It impressed him
+  greatly....”
+
+In concluding remarks on Indian conflict with pioneer, a word concerning
+Indian reservations will not be amiss. The author does best again in
+quoting, this time from Kroeber:
+
+  “The first reservations established by Federal officers in California
+  were little else than bull pens. They were founded on the principle,
+  not of attempting to do something for the native, but of getting him
+  out of the white man’s way as cheaply and hurriedly as possible. The
+  reason that the high death rate that must have prevailed among these
+  makeshift assemblages was not reported on more emphatically is that
+  the Indians kept running away even faster than they could die.
+
+  “The few reservations that were made permanent have on the whole had a
+  conserving influence on the population after they once settled into a
+  semblance of reasonable order. They did little enough for the Indian
+  directly; but they gave him a place which he could call his own, and
+  where he could exist in security and in contact with his own kind....”
+
+Despite certain undesirable features of Indian Reservations, the general
+conclusion is that for a number of tribes survival has been considerably
+greater today than would have been the case if the Indians had had to
+shift for themselves in competition with the whites.
+
+
+
+
+                               Chapter VI
+                                HUNTING
+
+
+Hunting was obviously a very important activity of the Lassen Indians,
+not only for survival, but as a means of acquiring the comfort and
+security which success brought. Also a good hunter was held in high
+esteem socially.
+
+Deer were most sought and the hunter went to considerable effort to get
+“deer power” (a sort of guardian spirit) to possess him. This gave him
+skill and good luck. Generally only men hunted, sometimes individually,
+at other times in small or large groups.
+
+Before going hunting tobacco was often smoked ceremonially with prayers
+and singing while the shaman (medicine man) supervised and the hunters’
+bodies were anointed with medicine. Weapons to be used were smoked over
+a fire, while the hunters talked to their bows and arrows about the
+coming hunt. Frequently Atsugewi, Yana, and Yahi hunters also cut
+themselves until they bled. This was true especially if their
+marksmanship had not been good of late. Cuts were made in the forearm
+and charcoal was rubbed in. They often took sweat baths too before
+hunting, but the Maidu did not. The latter, however, offered shell beads
+to help increase deer power. Atsugewi hunters left offerings of paint,
+tobacco, and eagle-down at certain spots in the mountains for luck.
+
+After a youth killed his first game, Maidu and Atsugewi switched him, a
+bow string being commonly used. Then the Atsugewi father talked to his
+son, blew smoke on him, and sent him out alone into the mountains for at
+least five days to seek power. Yana and Yahi youths were not permitted
+to touch, skin, or eat any of their first kill of each kind of animal,
+lest it spoil their luck. In these tribes the father skinned the animal
+and dressed the hide, teaching his son how this was done.
+
+After hunting there were often cleansing activities and ceremonies, and
+usually a division of meat although a lone hunter could retain all of
+it. It was considered quite bad to come home empty handed. After a bear
+had been killed he was spoken to kindly and in sympathetic terms. Deer
+eyes were often eaten to give good sharp eyesight to the eater.
+
+In a popular method of deer hunting by all Indians of the Lassen area, a
+deer head disguise was worn by the hunter. He approached his quarry
+cautiously using screening bushes and moving his antlered head above
+them to simulate a buck feeding. Sometimes the hunter carried brush
+along in front of himself. The mountain Maidu always used the whole
+deerskin for disguise. When close enough the hunter would shoot with bow
+and arrow. Since this was a nearly silent weapon, there was no noise to
+startle the deer, and so it was sometimes possible to slay two or three
+deer on one occasion.
+
+Atsugewi hunters might encircle a small brush covered or wooded
+mountain. They set many fires, leaving non-burning gaps where bowmen hid
+in holes. The deer were shot as they came out of the burning area.
+
+Mountain Maidu sometimes concealed themselves in pits near deer licks
+where they shot the animals in moonlight.
+
+Another hunting method was to drive deer along fences built of brush or
+stone or along ropes to which bunches of tules were tied as hanging
+streamers. Strategically placed hunters in shallow pits shot the driven
+deer as they passed through openings which had been left. Dogs were
+frequently used in hunting out and in driving deer.
+
+The brush deer-blind along a well traveled deer trail was used too, as
+well as hanging a noose in the deer trail to snare the deer. Still
+another means of taking deer was like that of the northern neighbors of
+the Atsugewi, the Pit River Tribe or Achomawi. They employed a six or
+seven foot deep pit about nine feet long dug with slightly undercut side
+walls. This opening was covered and concealed with poles, brush, and
+dirt. As the deer trotted along established trails over the disguised
+pitfalls they fell through. Or, deer might be driven to such pits,
+sometimes with the aid of converging walls or fences in conjunction with
+pitfalls. Deer trapped in these pitfalls were killed by strangling from
+above with ropes.
+
+Another popular way to secure deer was to follow the animal for one or
+more days. The pursuing Indian carried a small amount of food which he
+ate to sustain himself while moving. The deer, although swifter afoot
+than the hunter, was persistently followed at a steady pace. The animal
+did not get a chance to feed properly nor to rest. At length the deer
+became weakened to the point where the hunter could approach and shoot
+it at close range.
+
+If a hunter were fairly close to a deer and it was moving, he might
+shout at it, causing the deer to stop momentarily out of curiosity. This
+provided a better chance of bringing the quarry down with bow and arrow.
+Deer were sometimes lured closer by whistling with lips, blowing on a
+leaf or grass blade held in the hands, or by imitating the cry of a
+fawn. A hunter is said occasionally to have been able to sing to a group
+of deer, holding their attention while he cautiously approached within
+arrow range.
+
+If practical, deer or other game was killed by driving the animals over
+cliffs. Elk, mountain sheep, antelope, and reportedly occasionally even
+bison were hunted by one or more of the means. Except for the case of
+mountain sheep, such animals were probably rare within the territories
+of the tribes being considered.
+
+Meat of such large game was prepared for eating after skinning by
+roasting in the earth pit ovens to be described in succeeding chapters
+or by cutting up and boiling. Much venison and the like was also stored
+for winter use. In this case the meat was cut into strips and dried in
+the sun or on wooden frames over fires. This was not a smoking, but
+rather a drying process. Such jerked meat was stored in large, tightly
+woven baskets. Meat fresh or dried was almost invariably eaten with
+acorn mush.
+
+Bear hunting was common among tribes of the Lassen area. The American
+Black Bear is not aggressive and by no means always black. He is of
+moderately large size and often is light or dark brown in color. Indians
+liked to hunt the Black Bear in winter, two hunters entering the
+hibernating den. One carried a torch and the other a bow and arrow. They
+rolled a large block of wood in front of them and shot the bear at point
+blank range, then quickly ran out. Wounded, frightened, and in a
+semi-stupor, the bear usually stumbled over the wooden block. If he did
+not die in the den, but came out, he was shot by other waiting hunters.
+Mountain Maidu instead of entering the den smoked the bear out with
+pitchy torches planted at the den entrance.
+
+The California Grizzly was much larger, fiercer, and more aggressive.
+This grizzly is now extinct, but was common especially in the foothill
+and lower mountain slopes of California before the coming of the white
+man. Grizzlies were normally engaged only by a large group of hunters
+and after considerable ceremonial preparation. Hunters never entered the
+den. Two stout poles were crossed in front of the opening with one or
+two men holding each—a dangerous job. The bear was spoken to nicely and
+urged to come out which he usually soon did. As the bear started to
+climb over the poles at the den entrance, the Indians pushed up forcing
+the bear’s body against the roof so that he could most easily be shot.
+If this maneuver was not successful, a brave hunter enticed the bear to
+pursue him while the others shot arrows into the grizzly. Especially
+sharp and heavily poisoned arrow points were used on grizzly bear by the
+Atsugewi.
+
+It was believed that a man who drank fresh bear blood would be very
+healthy thereafter, if he were strong enough. If he were weak, however,
+drinking the blood would kill him promptly.
+
+Mountain lion were tracked, sometimes with dogs, sometimes in the snow,
+then treed and shot. Wildcats were generally killed in the same way. A
+hunter might coax a mountain lion to leap at him by simulating a deer
+feeding, using the deer head and skin disguise, but this was a dangerous
+practice.
+
+Except in the eastern part of Atsugewi territory where the Apwaruge
+lived, rabbits were not plentiful. Yana, Yahi, and Maidu hunted them
+more, driving cottontail, snowshoe, and jack rabbits into long nets and
+clubbing them to death. In the winter rabbits were sometimes tracked and
+shot with bow and untipped arrows.
+
+Other small mammals were shot, caught by dogs, and dug, smoked, or
+drowned out of burrows. A stick split at the end was thrust into a
+burrow and by twisting was entangled in the creature’s fur sufficiently
+to drag him out. Ground squirrels could be outrun and killed by stepping
+on them. Skunks, badgers, rats, and more often porcupines were eaten—the
+latter being clubbed or stoned to death.
+
+Small and medium sized animals were also caught under stone or log
+deadfalls which were propped up to drop on the victim while it was
+traveling along a runway, crossing a stream on a log, or when the animal
+pulled on a baited trigger. Similar placing was used for setting spring
+snares which took advantage of bent tree limbs for power. Long fences
+with nooses placed in gaps were used for rabbits, quail, and the like,
+and on occasion for creatures as large as deer. Some nooses were even
+operated by hand from a place of hiding.
+
+Birds of all sorts were caught too, but live or imitation decoys were
+never employed as lures. Woodpeckers were removed from the nest by hand
+or else a noose was hung around the nest opening. Some birds were taken
+in basketry traps. Waterfowl were shot with bow and arrow and the young
+were run down. Eggs were also taken. Some ducks were speared at night
+from canoes or driven into nets by use of a canoe with fire at one end.
+Frequently nets or snares were suspended at intervals just above a
+stream where waterfowl commonly alighted. Ducks and geese were also
+driven into the traps in taking off from the water.
+
+Grouse and small birds like robins and blackbirds were shot with blunt
+or untipped arrows, usually of one-piece construction.
+
+It is interesting to note that in contrast to other local tribes, the
+Yana and Yahi tribes did not employ the following hunting techniques:
+burning brush, using bird snaring booths, nets for ducks, geese,
+rabbits, or deer, nor was game driven into enclosures or quail secured
+by use of net traps or drive fences. Furthermore Yana and Yahi did not
+believe that game was immortal.
+
+    [Illustration: Atsugewi Snare set on a log lying across a stream.]
+
+It was not an uncommon practice, especially among the mountain Maidu, to
+frequently burn off their lands to make for easier travel and to
+minimize the possibility of ambush by enemies. The frequent “light”
+burnings do not seem to have generated enough heat to have destroyed the
+forests. Never the less this practice is not regarded as a wise
+conservation as it is definitely injurious to tree and much other plant
+reproduction as well as being destructive of organic material in the
+soil, damaging the watershed and being unfavorable to certain animal
+species, as well as accelerating erosion.
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter VII
+                                FISHING
+
+
+Fishes were one of the four important food categories consumed by
+Indians of the Lassen region. Land-locked and other non-migratory
+Rainbow Trout were abundantly available in mountain streams and in some
+lakes. Steelhead Trout penetrated the territories of our four tribes
+too. Salmon, however, did not go so far upstream, only rarely coming up
+Hat Creek, for instance, into Atsugewi lands. For the most part this
+tribe of Indians visited the Pit River to the north in the autumn. They
+paid the Achomawi, through whose territory this fine salmon stream
+flowed, for the privilege of catching salmon by giving up a share of the
+catch to them. The larger streams in south Yana, Yahi, and mountain
+Maidu country contained salmon and steelhead, but it seems that these
+tribes also made bargains with the Valley Indians for salmon fishing
+privileges or else made fishing forays to the Sacramento River.
+
+    [Illustration: Atsugewi Bow-type net. This kind was usually used in
+    small streams where it covered the full width of the stream bed.
+    Fish were commonly driven into it, then the handle was raised.]
+
+Gill nets about three feet high and as much as 30 feet long were
+commonly used. Spawning trout in the spring were speared in large
+numbers. Although old informants have denied the practice,
+Boonookoo-ee-menorra (Mrs. Selina La Marr of the Atsugewi) tells of
+catching Rainbow Trout by hand from Manzanita Creek banks about fifty
+years ago when her family came up in the summer to fish. Trout were
+speared by the Atsugewi with two pointed or four pointed spears instead
+of the common single pointed version. Bone or Serviceberry wood might be
+used for the tips. Spears were used not only from stream banks, but,
+especially at night, from a canoe equipped with a torch in front. One
+man or more would spear the fish while a person, sometimes a woman,
+paddled the craft from the rear. The torch consisted of four
+mountain-mahogany sticks bound together with pitch down the center.
+
+    [Illustration: A northeast Maidu bow-fish net about forty inches
+    long. It was used for fish other than salmon. Northwest and southern
+    Maidu did not use such nets, employing seine nets instead (after
+    Dixon).]
+
+It is interesting to note that the practice of shooting fish with bow
+and arrow was not carried on by any tribes of the Lassen area, although
+the eastern people of the Pit River Indians (Achomawi), the western
+Shasta, Wintu, and foothill Maidu did do so.
+
+Only Atsugewi, of the tribes we are considering, trapped fish in
+converging weirs into which fish might be driven. In the autumn, streams
+were sometimes diverted by damming. The fish trapped in the ponds
+remaining were scooped out with baskets or nets. Mountain Maidu drove
+fish into traps and caught lamprey eels in dip or scoop nets. Bow-type
+nets illustrated in the text were used with the bow bent ends down
+resting on the bed of the stream, the pole being raised to trap the
+fish. The net was preferably as wide as the stream.
+
+All local tribes fished with lines and hooks which were made by lashing
+a sharp piece of bone to a section of twig, at an acute angle. Atsugewi
+and mountain Maidu also used a “gorge” for angling. This was a slender
+piece of bone two or three inches long fastened near the middle and
+sharpened at both ends. Hooks were sometimes baited with meat,
+grasshoppers, or large flies, but man-made “flies” as fishermen know
+them today were not used. Sometimes meat or grasshopper bait was used by
+Atsugewi on fish-lines without any hook. Atsugewi women occasionally
+fished with baskets and with hook and line. Hooks were often tied in a
+series on a line attached either on both banks of the stream or to a
+pole secured in the bank or tied to tules or to brush, and left over
+night. A series of basket traps was sometimes likewise stretched across
+a stream.
+
+    [Illustration: A Klamath fish hook similar to those used by local
+    tribes. Single barbed hooks were also employed.]
+
+Salmon fishing was done largely with harpoons which differ from spears
+in having one or more movable barbs or toggles of bone. These opened
+when the harpoon was pulled back (outward in the victim) thus securing
+the catch all the more firmly. This was necessary for such large and
+heavy fish as salmon. Yana tribes caught their salmon with either hook
+and line or by spearing with a two pointed harpoon.
+
+Natural falls were favored fishing sites. There Indians caught salmon
+and steelhead trout as the fish attempted to scale the falls. Long
+handled nets were used. Atsugewi went so far as to build scaffoldings to
+assist either in this method of fishing or from which to harpoon large
+fish. In the latter case many whitish rocks, where available, were
+thrown into the stream to build up a light colored bottom for better
+visibility in harpooning or spearing.
+
+After the fish were caught they were killed by striking with a stick as
+a general practice. Mountain Maidu sometimes killed fish by striking
+their heads on rocks. The central Yana, interestingly enough, killed
+fish by biting them!
+
+In quiet portions of streams fish were poisoned by placing certain
+pounded plant materials in the water. Yana and Yahi used crushed
+Soaproot; Atsugewi used pulverized Wild Parsley. Wild Parsley
+application made the water bluish, and caused the fish soon to rise to
+the surface of the water floating belly-up. Where suitable quiet pools
+did not exist in a stream, they were sometimes formed by the Indians
+through temporary damming. Buckeye nut pulp, which is poisonous, was not
+used in this area for poisoning fish.
+
+Long basketry fish traps, usually constructed by men, were also
+utilized. The design and proportions of these varied with the tribe.
+
+Each of the Lassen area tribes had taboos which prevented youths, and in
+the case of Atsugewi, their parents too, from eating the first fish each
+youth caught.
+
+    [Illustration: Plan of Maidu open basketry fish trap (after Dixon)
+    several feet long. The pointed end was untied to extract the fish.]
+
+Chubs and minnows, spurned by white man, were driven into nets and
+eaten. At lower elevations, where waters were warmer and sluggish,
+suckers provided a common source of food fish. The Indians also not
+infrequently dove for crawfish and fresh water mussels. These were
+gathered in net sacks by male Indians of all local tribes. Yana and Yahi
+roasted mussels but did not boil them and never dried them for later
+use. A flat rock might be carried on the shoulders to assist the diving
+Indians.
+
+Some fish were cooked by roasting over coals or by boiling. Most trout,
+however, were cleaned, head and backbone removed, and then strung up on
+poles to dry. No salt was used in the process. The dried fish was
+carried to camp or village in large baskets. Dried trout was tied into
+small bales for storage and placed in baskets or in pits dug in the
+ground for safe-keeping. Salmon were usually cooked in earth pit ovens,
+then dried and crumbed by Atsugewi and mountain Maidu for later use.
+This was of necessity an autumnal activity. Yana and Yahi stored their
+salmon in dried slabs, pulverizing it as needed.
+
+    [Illustration: Atsugewi basketry fish trap (after Garth).]
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter VIII
+                GATHERING AND PREPARATION OF OTHER FOODS
+
+
+As has been pointed out earlier under “California Indians”, these tribes
+had a common food pattern. Although there was some difference in the
+relative importance of the four major types of food to the several
+tribes due to varying availability, the California Indians ate (1) game,
+especially deer, (2) fish, particularly salmon and trout, (3) roots and
+bulbs which the women dug, and (4) fruits and seeds of a wide variety,
+the most important of which were acorns.
+
+Besides fish and venison, many kinds of flesh food were eaten by the
+Indians of the Lassen area: fox, wolf, grizzly and black bear, skunk,
+raccoon, porcupine, rabbit, owl, fish, fresh water mussel, and turtle
+being most common. They also ate with apparent relish a variety of
+insects and the like including crickets, grasshoppers, angleworms, red
+ant eggs, and yellow-jacket larvae.
+
+Game which was not eaten by either Atsugewi or mountain Maidu was
+coyote, elk, antelope, and all snakes and lizards. The last two items
+were almost universally shunned by California Indians. Many California
+tribes including Yana and Yahi refused to eat dog meat, some of them
+believing canine flesh to be poisonous. That mountain Maidu was one of
+the few tribes which ate dog flesh whenever it was available is denied
+by Dixon. Atsugewi ate it only as a last resort when rare, near-famine
+conditions prevailed or during times of severe epidemic. Canine flesh
+was believed by them to be a powerful and perhaps somewhat dangerous
+medicine. Buzzards seem to have been about the only birds which were not
+eaten.
+
+Each tribe had certain taboos on eating game. An Atsugewi did not, for
+example, eat wildcat, gopher, hawk, lamprey eel, or caterpillars.
+Mountain Maidu did not eat mountain lion, badger, raven, or crawfish.
+
+Heart of deer was taboo to all males among Atsugewi and to all children
+and youths of the mountain Maidu. The foetus of all animals and also
+deer fawns could not be eaten by any except Atsugewi, Yana, and Yahi old
+men and old women. Animal foetus was, however, allowed as food to all
+mountain Maidu adults. Bear foetus was skinned by Atsugewi and fed to
+old women because it was so tender. Likewise, Yana and Yahi made foetus
+soup for old folks to eat. Deer liver was taboo to Atsugewi boys and
+youths. Taboo also among Atsugewi was the eating of fish and deer meat
+together. Among mountain Maidu the eating of salt on bear meat was
+prohibited. Many other food combinations were outlawed by these and
+other California tribes.
+
+Deer backbone was ground up and eaten dry by mountain Maidu or molded
+into small cakes, then baked and eaten while Atsugewi would dry deer
+backbones with meat still adhering, grind it up, and then boil the meal
+before eating it. Yana also ate pulverized meal of other bones after
+cooking. Marrow was relished; it was a special delicacy for Yana
+children.
+
+Securing of large game and fish and their preparation has been described
+earlier.
+
+Such animals as wildcat, raccoons, foxes, et cetera were skinned and
+cooked in earth ovens by all local tribes. These were pits sometimes as
+much as six feet wide and lined with rocks. A large fire was built in
+the pit to thoroughly heat the rock lining, after which any unburned
+debris was removed. The animal to be roasted was laid in the pit on a
+layer of green pine needles, or various other leaves, depending upon the
+tribe. A large heated rock was placed inside the body cavity and smaller
+hot rocks were wedged under the fore and hind legs which were then all
+tied tightly together. A flat heated rock might be placed on top of the
+carcass and the whole was covered with pine needles and the like, and
+finally with hot ashes and sometimes dirt. The roasting proceeded for
+half a day or so. Blood and fat might be placed in the intestine
+membranes of larger animals (especially wildcat) to form sausage and
+cooked in ashes. Mountain Maidu also boiled blood for eating.
+
+Quills of porcupine and hair of badger, squirrel, or other small mammals
+might be singed off before cooking instead of skinning the animals.
+Ground squirrels were sometimes merely gutted and then roasted in ashes
+without further preparation. When Yana (and probably Yahi) did this,
+they then skinned the ground squirrels after cooking and mashed the
+whole bodies by pounding before eating them. Rabbits were roasted over
+coals and broken into pieces for eating. Both mountain Maidu and
+Atsugewi sometimes broiled small mammals on a single stick over coals.
+
+Turtles were cooked alive in hot ashes. If they crawled out they were
+pushed back in again.
+
+Duck eggs were boiled in baskets using hot rocks—cooked they would keep
+for a week or two. Yana tribes roasted quail eggs in ashes. Birds were
+gutted, feathers singed off in flames and roasted on sticks or roasted
+in oven pits. Roasting was invariably used for the large birds such as
+ducks, geese, and swans.
+
+Atsugewi practiced some fascinating gathering techniques in which they
+were not unique. Insects were gathered by both men and women.
+Grasshoppers and crickets not infrequently appeared in large numbers.
+These were collected early in the morning while still sluggish with
+cold. When very abundant they were scraped with sticks from branches of
+bushes into large burden baskets. During the heat of the day
+grasshoppers were effectively collected by singeing them. Some tribes
+merely burned dry grassy fields after which the insects were easily
+picked up. Atsugewi made a long willow “rope” to which many bunches of
+dry grass were fastened. This was set afire and men carrying this
+blazing band stretched tightly between them ran across open grassland
+where the grasshoppers were numerous. The insects jumped into the flames
+and were thus killed. Yana pulverized grasshoppers and other insects
+without cooking them.
+
+Atsugewi roasted crickets in the pit oven. These were then dried two
+days and finally eaten or stored. If they had been stored, they were
+pounded before being eaten.
+
+Salmon flies were plentiful along Pit River and Lost Creek (outside of
+the park). These were hand picked from the banks early in the morning.
+The wings were removed and the bodies boiled before eating by the
+Atsugewi.
+
+When yellow-jackets, always carnivorous (meat eaters), were seen buzzing
+about, Atsugewi would tie a white flower petal to a grasshopper leg.
+When the yellow-jacket picked this morsel up and flew away with it
+toward its nest, the Indians would run after the yellow-jacket which was
+easy to follow on account of the conspicuous flower petal it carried
+along. Thus yellow-jacket nests were found. A line was marked around the
+nest area with the fingers. This line was supposed to increase the size
+of the nest. Pine needles were then stacked over the nest and burned to
+kill the winged insects. This done, the nest was dug up and roasted
+alongside a fire, thus cooking the maggot-like grubs inside. These were
+considered to be quite a delicacy. According to Dixon, mountain Maidu
+young folks were denied this delicacy, but not so among the Yana. Dried
+grasshoppers, crickets, and yellow-jacket larvae were foods often used
+as items of trade.
+
+Angleworms were collected by first driving a digging stick a few inches
+into the moist soil, then moving the top about. The consequent
+disturbing of the ground made the worms crawl out. Although other
+California tribes made angleworm soup, Atsugewi, Yana, and probably Yahi
+sometimes roasted angleworms between hot rocks. Maidu reportedly dried
+worms for eating.
+
+Red ant eggs were eaten by Indians too. Atsugewi baked them in earth pit
+ovens, while mountain Maidu parched them with coals. Mountain Maidu also
+ate certain caterpillars, but the other tribes of the Lassen area did
+not.
+
+    [Illustration: A. Sharpened iron rod digging stick with pine cross
+    piece wrapped in coarse cotton cloth used for about forty years by
+    Mrs. Mullen of Hat Creek. Length about four feet.
+
+    B. Another recent mountain mahogany digging stick made by Mr. and
+    Mrs. Lyman LaMarr (Boonookoo-ee-menorra). The point of the green
+    wood was toughened in flame. Stick three and one half feet long.]
+
+Indians of this region did not carry on any agriculture, that is they
+did not plant crops for food or other purposes, but collected those
+which grew wild. It was, however, a common practice to burn some areas
+over regularly to stimulate growth of edible seed producing plants.
+Women always gathered the vegetable materials and prepared them for use.
+
+Roots and bulbs provided vital foods to the aborigines also. These were
+procured with a digging stick. In this region it was blunt at the top
+with a tapered point at the digging end. Atsugewi fastened a short cross
+piece on top to serve as a handle. The digging stick was made by this
+tribe of green mountain-mahogany wood with the digging point hardened by
+scorching in the flame. After the coming of white man, the same design
+was retained, but an iron rod replaced the mountain-mahogany digging
+shaft.
+
+In use, the digging stick was thrust into the ground next to the plant
+whose root was to be secured. The handle portion was worked sideways a
+couple of times, then pulled downward toward the operator. The point
+very effectively brought the root out of the ground. Roots were
+customarily tossed into a large cone-shaped carrying basket which was
+held in place on the digging woman’s back by a chest band over her
+chest. Some of the load in the basket might also be supported by a band
+from the basket over the Indian woman’s forehead.
+
+Roots were cleaned by rubbing (sometimes with sand) in a shallow
+bowl-shaped basket of a rough coarse mesh weave of willow ribs, like
+that used for cleaning acorns. The whole was dipped in water frequently.
+Rubbing usually continued until the skins were entirely removed.
+
+The most important item of this type collected in large amount for food
+is known as epos locally, or “peh-ts-koo” among the old Atsugewi. The
+plant belongs to the parsley family and stands one to two feet high.
+Actually, probably more than one species was eaten by Indians of the
+Lassen area. These plants are not unlike except in detail. All had sweet
+carrot-like taproots about two inches long. Garth states that Atsugewi
+ate the species _Pteridendia bolanden_ which apparently corresponds to
+the botanists’ _Perideridia bolanderi_ or _Eulophus bolanderi_; also
+probably _Carum_ or _Perideridia oregona_ and _californica_. Common
+English names for epos are squaw root or yampah. Epos roots were dried
+and stored, then ground up for use. This food item was made into either
+soup or bread. The finished product had a fine sweet meaty or nutty
+taste, and was held in high esteem. Obviously this constituted an
+important vegetable in the diet.
+
+At least two kinds of camas bulbs and _brodeia_ bulbs were roasted in
+the earth pit oven, ground to pulp, shaped into cakes, and rebaked.
+These were then either eaten or dried and stored. The latter process was
+not employed by mountain Maidu. If the baked camas cakes were stored,
+they would be soaked with water before eating. Camas cakes were not made
+into soup.
+
+Tiger lily bulbs were roasted in earth pit ovens and eaten immediately.
+They were a highly prized food.
+
+Wild onion was used too, but usually with other root foods as a
+flavoring.
+
+The foregoing are but a few of the most extensively eaten roots. Many
+others, especially those of the lily and parsley families, were used by
+tribes of the Lassen region.
+
+Yana tribes robbed gophers of stores of edible roots and bulbs. These
+were found by probing for burrows and digging out the animals’ food
+storage chambers. Men usually did this, which is an exception to the
+general rule that women only collected vegetable materials.
+
+Acorns were probably the most important single food of California
+Indians. Surprisingly, this was true even in eastern parts of the
+territories of the Atsugewi (Apwaruge), mountain Maidu, and others where
+acorns were scarce or wanting entirely. Indians frequently traded for
+acorns or made long journeys for them. Acorns of the black oak were
+generally preferred over other kinds. Nearly all varieties were used for
+food on occasion, however. It is interesting to note that Modoc and
+Klamath Indians were exceptions in not using acorns for food.
+
+In the fall, usually in September, acorns were gathered by women after
+the ripe nuts had been knocked from the oaks with long poles, or by men
+and young agile girls climbing the trees to strike the fruit with
+straight sticks or staves. To aid in climbing large smooth tree trunks,
+Atsugewi men used sapling ladders on which part of branches were left
+attached to serve for footholds. Mountain Maidu on the other hand used a
+very unique two poled ladder with buckskin rungs. Acorns were carried to
+villages by women in stages, using baskets about the size of nail kegs.
+
+First spring food gathering each year was marked by rites in which the
+shamans, or medicine men, conducted praying ceremonies. Atsugewi
+conducted three of these. In May first epos roots were gathered and sung
+over by shamans. They examined the roots and prophesied whether the
+women who had dug them were going to be sick. Those who were going to be
+sick dug roots all day. In the evening these were dumped into piles and
+women shamans sang over these for half the night to make the threatened
+women healthy. Each woman gatherer participating then took home the
+roots she had dug leaving some for the shamans, who cooked and ate them.
+A second first food ceremony consisted of a ceremonial feast of fruit
+and vegetable materials with fish which the men brought. In the third
+such rite, root digging women threw away the first roots they dug that
+season and prayed to the effect: “Don’t make me poor. Give me good luck.
+You may have this one.”
+
+In autumn, mountain Maidu held their first fruit ceremonies. Large
+groups of women went out to gather acorns. Acorn mush was made
+immediately of the first batch collected. The shamans ate some and
+prayed. Portions of this batch were then eaten by the rest of the
+assemblage. After that it was all right for anyone to gather and to use
+acorns of the new crop.
+
+Local tribes stored acorns in the shell either indoors in large baskets
+or outside in pits or in large hoppers or granaries covered with bark.
+The details of these varied with the several tribes. Maidu except for
+the “mountain tribe” and Yana shelled, split, and slightly dried some of
+their acorns, and placed them in basketry storage bins lined with
+broadleafed maple leaves. Maidu ate twelve different kinds of acorns,
+but the favorites were the black oak (_Quercus kelloggii_), _golden cup
+oak_ maul, or canyon oak (_Quercus chrysolepis_), and sierra live oak
+(_Quercus wislizenii_) acorns.
+
+In preparation, acorns were cracked by up-ending each on a flat rock and
+striking the point with any convenient small stone. Sometimes small
+acorns were cracked with the teeth. Though usually a woman’s job, young
+folks and men might help with the task.
+
+    [Illustration: Basaltic lava mortar from Yana territory, about ten
+    inches high.]
+
+The thin brownish skin which covers the acorn kernels was removed by
+rubbing vigorously in rough porous baskets made entirely of willow ribs.
+Water was not used. Indians of the Lassen area did not employ stone
+mortars for grinding acorns as was the practice in other parts of
+California. Stone mortars were always found, not made, and were used for
+ceremonial purposes, in the belief that these had been made by Coyote.
+However, Maidu families cherished portable stone mortars. They were kept
+buried at some distance from the dwelling, and dug up for occasional
+inspection. Bed-rock acorn pounding holes are not found in this region
+either except for the Maidu area. Instead, acorn meats were placed in
+hopper baskets lacking bottoms. This basketry mortar hopper rested with
+the small open end down on a heavy flat stone. The pounding basket was
+held in place by the Indian woman’s knees as she sat in front of and
+straddling it. In one hand she wielded a stone pestle, flat on the
+grinding end. With the other hand she stirred the acorn material so that
+the coarse pieces worked toward the center to get the full impact of the
+pounding. The hopper basket was not always used, by the mountain Maidu,
+the pounding often being done merely on a flat rock slab, the woman’s
+free hand continually brushing the acorn material back to the center.
+Acorn meal was ground until it was as fine as flour. The coarse pieces
+were separated from the fine by a process which employed a flattish
+piece of wood or bark a foot or so across. Sometimes a basketry plaque
+was used. A portion of ground meal was placed on this tray which was
+held firmly at one side and inclined toward the operator. The other edge
+of the plaque was shaken, causing the coarse material to roll into a
+container held in the lap for repounding while the fine flour remained
+on the plaque. A small brush, generally made from the pounded and dried
+root of the soap-plant, was used to brush the flour off and into the
+cooking basket. Mountain Maidu, according to Voegelin, actually did sift
+acorn meal through open-work baskets though this was not a common
+practice even among members of this tribe.
+
+White oak and some other acorn flour could be used for cooking without
+further preparation. Atsugewi preferred black oak acorns which had to be
+leached to remove the bitter tannic acid before using. To do this the
+flour was placed in a shallow depression on clean sand over porous
+earth, usually, but Yana used loosely woven baskets for the purpose, and
+in recent times it has become common practice to place cloth flour
+sacking over a screen or sieve. Cold water was poured over the meal
+until it was nearly free of bitterness. Warm water was then employed
+briefly, but hot water was never used, for it would make the flour tend
+to jell. Sand was removed from the bottom of the flour by touching the
+bottom of a handful of the moist material to water. The flour held
+together, but the sand grains dropped off. The flour could be dried and
+stored at this point, but was usually used as it was prepared.
+
+Portions of about two or three quarts of acorn flour were placed in
+cooking baskets a foot or more in diameter. Water was added and then hot
+stones were dropped in. These smoothly rounded stones, of any shape and
+from one and a half to three inches in diameter, had been heated in an
+open fire. They were quickly dipped into water to remove ashes before
+being put into the mush cooking basket. The method of handling these
+cooking stones seems to have varied. Present day Atsugewi say a small
+looped stick was used, but old informants stated that two forked sticks
+were employed. Stirring had to be continuous lest the cooking stones
+scorch the basket. Atsugewi used any convenient stick for this, but Yana
+had a small oak paddle. After boiling a short while the acorn mush
+became light greyish or brownish in color; when cooled it jellied quite
+firmly. Acorn mush was commonly eaten warm with meat, from small
+individual baskets. Spoons were unknown in the Lassen area so acorn mush
+was eaten with index and second fingers. Mountain Maidu made their acorn
+mush of a more liquid consistency so that it was often consumed by
+drinking.
+
+Acorn bread was made by using less water and adding a small amount of
+reddish iron-bearing or blackish salt-bearing soil by Atsugewi, but
+mountain Maidu left this ingredient out. The paste was molded into
+biscuit or loaf-shaped forms, wrapped in leaves and baked all night in
+earth pit ovens. Yana sometimes added red soil to their acorn bread
+making it brightly colored. Usually black oak acorns were used for bread
+by the Yana tribes and white oak for soup.
+
+That acorns are a fine food is indicated by the following analysis of
+the uncooked meal. The proportions vary somewhat, but not importantly
+among the several kinds of acorns used: 21% fat, 5% protein, 62%
+carbohydrate, and 14% water, mineral, and fiber. In cooked acorn mush
+the proportions remain the same relatively, except, of course, for the
+greatly increased water content.
+
+Buckeye nuts, not used much by Atsugewi, were important to other Indians
+of California, especially those residing at lower elevations. These
+fruits were gathered when ripe, then shelled, pounded and soaked in
+loosely woven baskets until the poisonous juice was leached out. The
+pulpy mass was next squeezed to remove excess water. Unlike acorn meal
+buckeye pulp was eaten uncooked. Yana crushed their buckeyes with their
+feet and leached the material in creeks, though sometimes hot water was
+used.
+
+Nuts of digger pine and sugar pine were highly regarded as food. Men
+climbed trees and picked digger pine cones or shook limbs to dislodge
+sugar pine cones. The cones were placed on end and covered with dry
+grass which was burned, ridding the cones of pitch. After this heat
+treatment, sugar pine nuts came out easily when cone scales were pulled
+back. After singeing the heavy digger pine cones were hit with rocks to
+obtain the large nuts they contained.
+
+The white sweet crusty deposit occasionally found on the bark of sugar
+pines was relished as candy by Atsugewi. However, it had a laxative
+property which mountain Maidu recognized and reputedly employed as such.
+
+A variety of small plant seeds also provided tasty nutrition. Several
+members of the sunflower family including balsam root species and mules
+ears, and others were used by all local tribes. Such seeds were usually
+collected by beating them with paddle-shaped basketry seed beaters into
+burden baskets. They were then parched with coals in flat trays, placed
+in flat baskets and worked about with stones until freed of skins. Seeds
+were winnowed by tossing them up allowing wind to carry hulls and skins
+away. The seeds were then pulverized with a small stone or muller, being
+rolled or rubbed on a larger rock slab generally referred to as a
+metate. Such seeds were eaten dry by Atsugewi, Yana, and Yahi without
+grinding, or the flour might be moistened and molded into cakes about
+the size of biscuits and eaten without further cooking. However, Yana
+also cooked certain sunflower seeds and the yellow blossoming heads of
+the small (_Helianthella_) sunflower were themselves cooked and eaten.
+
+Clover tops were collected in summer and eaten fresh by all local
+tribes. Mountain Maidu also baked them in earth pit ovens, then dried
+and stored the material to be recooked in winter for making soup.
+Atsugewi cooked clover roots in ovens. Young thistle stalks were eaten
+raw as was the foliage of several carrot-like plants. Mushrooms, fresh,
+roasted, or dried were eaten also. Young soap-plant stems were eaten
+fresh or baked and dried for winter use by Yana tribes.
+
+Manzanita berries were gathered by all Indians of the Lassen region in
+July and August. These berries were knocked into burden baskets with a
+stick. They were dried, stored in pits, pounded when needed, and sifted
+as fine meal. This was moistened and molded into biscuit-sized cakes and
+put away until wanted. Either fresh flour or the cakes were eaten plain
+or put into water and drunk. One investigator reported fermentation of
+manzanita cider and its use as a mild intoxicant, but this appears to
+have been the exception rather than the rule. The drink, of
+lemonade-like character, was usually consumed fresh. Manzanita cider was
+conveyed to the mouth by dipping a deer tail sop into the liquid, and
+then by sucking it. Small cakes were made of a mixture of manzanita and
+wild plum flours. Yana and Yahi also ate manzanita berries as such
+either fresh, or roasted and dried.
+
+Red berries of skunk or squaw bush were gathered in midsummer, washed,
+dried, and stored. They were pounded into flour in a mortar basket,
+mixed with manzanita flour and drunk. Elderberries were mashed and mixed
+with manzanita flour and stored as cakes.
+
+Wild plums were prepared by removing seeds. These were then eaten fresh
+or dried for storage.
+
+Chokecherries and service berries were put into baskets when ripe and
+mashed. The paste was eaten without cooking.
+
+Gooseberries, huckleberries, currants, Oregon-grape, buckthorn, juniper,
+thimble, and elderberries were eaten fresh, too, but juniper fruits
+might be dried and pounded into flour and stored.
+
+Another item used as food was salt which mountain Maidu and Yana
+gathered locally in mineral form. The Atsugewi also imported it from
+Round Mountain in North Yana territory or made expeditions to this site
+to gather the dark salt material from a certain marsh. This salty earth
+was shaped into black loaves and dried. It was not only used for
+flavoring, but the black soil was also eaten as such by some
+individuals. Atsugewi had a local source of salt, however, by collecting
+fine whitish crystals in the early mornings from the blades of salt
+grass which was run between the fingers. Atsugewi used salt for salmon
+and venison in cooking, but not in drying processes.
+
+Pine pitch was chewed, but Atsugewi also used milkweed chewing gum.
+
+As for eating customs, Atsugewi ate three meals each day. Mountain Maidu
+just prepared two real meals. Hands were washed after eating deer and
+bear meats. Mountain Maidu wiped faces and hands with bark and grass
+after eating.
+
+There was a well defined division of labor among California Indians. Men
+would carry water for unusually long distances or heavy logs for
+firewood, but women usually carried water, wood, acorn and root crops,
+and the like. In the case of moving camp, however, men carried the
+heaviest burdens. The most important division of labor was the
+delegation to men of all activities concerning animals and animal
+products, and to women all pertaining to vegetable materials. Women, for
+instance, collected materials for basketry and made all the baskets,
+except that men often made basketry fish traps and nets. Women dug roots
+and cooked all food except meat which men normally cooked. Exception to
+this rule was necessarily made when men were away on hunting trips or at
+war. Men usually built the houses, made moccasins and skin clothing too.
+
+Among Atsugewi and mountain Maidu only men made fire, but this was
+accomplished by both sexes among the Yana and Yahi.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER IX
+                         HOUSES AND FURNISHINGS
+
+
+The Atsugewi used earth-covered lodges as their permanent winter
+dwellings. These varied in size from about nine feet in length, for a
+single family, to more than thirty feet in length for a chief’s house
+which was usually larger than other houses. Most frequently houses were
+about twenty feet long and somewhat narrower, being occupied by three to
+five families. The earth lodge was elliptical in shape with one center
+post planted firmly in the earth floor somewhat back of true center.
+This supported beams running to two smaller secondary posts and to earth
+shoulders which resulted from excavation of the entire floor to a depth
+of about three feet. On the beams other poles or rafters and bark slabs
+(usually of incense-cedar) were laid. The whole sloping roof was then
+covered with pine needles and a layer of earth.
+
+The main entrance was through a hole about in the center of the roof.
+Over this a heavy mat was placed in bad weather. This opening also
+served as a smoke hole. A ladder made of two poles with cross pieces
+tied on with serviceberry withes was used inside.
+
+    [Illustration: The Northeast (mountain) Maidu earth lodge plan used
+    only three primary posts plus secondary entrance posts.]
+
+  logs or poles
+  a fireplace
+  b mainpost with forked top
+  c front posts with forked tops
+
+A secondary entrance of small size, used by children, was built
+horizontally at ground level on the south (front) end of the house. It
+projected tunnel-like a short distance beyond the lodge outside wall.
+The main purpose of this ground-level opening was to act as a ventilator
+duct to supply draft for proper burning of the cooking and house warming
+fire which burned in front of the center post. At night the ventilator
+duct was closed. This reduced air supply, causing the fire to burn very
+slowly. Glowing coals developed as a result. These produced reduced but
+adequate heat for the occupants who slept with their feet to the fire.
+Men did all of the house construction work except for excavation. The
+women did this with digging sticks and wooden or basketry scoops with
+which they threw the dirt out of the pit. Excavation of the floor of the
+lodge not only made it easier to construct a strong house, but
+contributed materially to the warmth of the standard winter house.
+
+    [Illustration: Typical winter house of the local permanent Indian
+    villages at lower elevations.]
+
+There was no furniture as such. Each family used an assigned portion of
+the house, and cooked its own food, but utilized the central communal
+fire. A thin layer of grass, carefully kept away from the fire, covered
+the floor. The Indians slept on the floor on mats made of tule. During
+the day these and the sleeping blankets were rolled up and provided the
+only seats. However, sitting usually consisted of squatting on the
+floor.
+
+Blankets of deer and elk skin were generally used. Atsugewi also used
+loose tule or grass blankets and all our tribes employed both woven
+rabbit skin and patchwork rabbit or fox blankets. Yana in addition to
+all the foregoing utilized bear skins; sometimes they removed the hair
+from their blankets.
+
+Atsugewi pillows were of bundles of leaves or grass while those of the
+mountain Maidu were harder, being merely piles of small poles, blocks of
+wood, or rocks.
+
+Interior earth walls of the houses were sometimes hung with tule mats or
+skins fastened with pegs to prevent dirt from sloughing off and rolling
+onto the floor. A few shelves might also be provided by laying wooden
+slabs on sticks driven into the dirt walls.
+
+    [Illustration: Atsugewi bark house]
+
+There were other less substantial winter houses consisting either of
+small double lean-tos of bark slabs or conical houses on frameworks of
+slender poles and with shallow excavations. Some dirt was thrown against
+the outside walls for added warmth. Lazy people, who were usually
+consequently poor in the necessities and comforts of normal Indian life,
+lived in this more flimsy type of house. Also, women when indisposed
+repaired to such huts. A doorway was left in the siding to be closed by
+a tule mat in these little houses. They were also equipped with small
+smoke holes for central fires.
+
+Atsugewi summer houses as such really did not exist. Summer camps were
+little more than circular enclosures of brush, juniper, or other conifer
+limbs or of rock. These were ten or fifteen feet across with openings to
+the east. There was no roof, although branches and bark slabs might be
+put over crude frames in rainy weather. If a person were caught in a
+sudden shower he might make a temporary shelter by leaning bark slabs,
+if available, against a large rock or log lying on the ground.
+
+Atsugewi did not have any separate sweat houses nor dancing or assembly
+chambers, but used the larger earth lodge houses for these purposes. The
+largest belonged to chiefs and to other well-to-do Indians. Heat for
+sweating was provided directly by fire and not by production of steam as
+was the case with Plains Indians who threw water on hot stones. In
+recent years, however, after introduction of the horse, Atsugewi learned
+the latter technique and also constructed Plains Indian type sweat
+houses of one to three person capacity. These were dome shaped, and
+built of willow poles set in the ground in a circle. The tops were bent
+over and tied down, and this framework was covered with skins.
+
+Old type sweating was for men only, but Indian women—usually wives—also
+sweated with men in the new style separate sweat houses. Old time
+Atsugewi purposes in sweating were for gaining success in hunting, in
+gambling, and for general good luck. Some praying was done, but there
+were no formalized ceremonies or dances amongst the Atsugewi. Men
+sometimes slept in sweat houses.
+
+In the case of all local tribes sweating was followed by a cold plunge,
+if available nearby. Lacking this facility, a cold sponge bath was
+taken.
+
+The mountain Maidu earth lodge for dwelling and sweating was similar to
+that of the Atsugewi. However, northeast Maidu earth lodges “koom” were
+simpler and smaller than those of northwest and southern Maidu. Three
+posts, often forked were used in place of 10 or 11 employed for valley
+lodges. Excavation was about three feet deep, circular in plan, and from
+18 to 40 feet across. A large flat stone was placed upright at the foot
+of the mainpost between it and the fire in the center. The vertical
+walls of the excavation were usually covered or lined with vertically
+placed whole or split logs or with bark slabs. Logs were lain
+horizontally on the three posts as indicated on the accompanying sketch.
+Radial rafters supporting the roof were placed on these beams and
+sloping downward to the ground surface outside as well as to two small
+posts at the small openway or ventilator passage. Cross poles were
+placed horizontally on the rafters and on these, large pieces of bark,
+branches, and pine needles were successively laid. Lastly, a heavy
+covering of soil 8 to 20 inches thick was heaped on the structure. On
+top in the center a smokehole was left, large enough to serve as the
+main entrance originally, but after the coming of white man, the
+smokehole was made smaller, and, instead, the originally small
+ventilator tunnel which sloped from floor level up to the ground surface
+outside was enlarged, thus supplanting the smokehole as the main
+entrance. Originally a ladder of two poles with cross pieces tied on
+with grapevine or other withes gave vertical access from the floor to
+the smokehole entrance. Dixon reports that a notched log was sometimes
+used for the purpose among mountain Maidu.
+
+The koom or lodge was occupied from November to March and was situated
+on the edges of wide meadows in mountain Maidu areas. At lower elevation
+occupancy was more or less continuous.
+
+Mountain Maidu did not have separate sweat houses. They always used a
+large earth dwelling lodge for the purpose. This was similar to the
+Atsugewi practice. These Maidu did, however, have a formalized sweat
+dance. Also different from the Atsugewi was the practice of men using
+the sweat house for gambling, handicraft work, and competitive singing.
+
+The “hoe-bow” of the mountain Maidu was a hut, 8 to 15 feet in diameter
+and excavated 12 to 15 inches deep. Two main poles were securely tied
+near the end. From the resulting “V” at the top, shorter poles were laid
+to a pair of slender posts about three feet high and set about three
+feet apart along the edge of the excavation. Against this frame
+branches, bark, and leaves were piled and earth was heaped around the
+bottom. The doors of all such bark huts opened to the south and were
+hung with a skin or tule mat.
+
+The rude summer shelter or shade provider was just like that of the
+Atsugewi.
+
+Information on Yahi house details are somewhat scanty, but in all
+probability they were small conical bark-covered huts while some larger
+earth lodges were built to house several families—in general similar,
+but perhaps smaller than those of the other tribes of the Lassen area.
+The large pretentious lodge, constructed solely for sweating and
+ceremonies, of the Sacramento Valley tribes seems to have been lacking
+among all of our local tribes.
+
+The common bark hut dwelling of the Yana was apparently built over a
+circular depression two feet deep, the top of the house rising about six
+feet above the ground. It was probably like the mountain Maidu huts,
+being a series of poles resting on the edges of the excavation. These
+met and were tied at the top to form a cone of low slope, although some
+informants claimed that the posts were set so firmly that tying together
+was omitted. The frames were covered with pine and incense-cedar bark
+slabs leaving a smoke hole near each apex. Earth was probably banked on
+the lower sloping walls. Entrance was never through the smoke hole as in
+the case of Atsugewi and some mountain Maidu earth lodge houses, but by
+means of a small door at ground level on the south side. The entrance
+was protected by a little covered way extending outward three feet from
+the house wall, and decked over by a gable roof of low pitch. A ramp of
+low pitch extended from the floor of the house through this antechamber
+to the ground level outside as no steps were constructed.
+
+The Yana lodge houses were not numerous. The ground plan was long,
+usually wedge or oval in outline and designed for several families, each
+with its own fire. As with the other tribes discussed in this booklet,
+such buildings also served as sweat houses. A ladder consisting of a
+notched log extended down from the smoke hole to the floor. One, two, or
+three center posts with radiating rafters and shorter side posts were
+employed. The Yana followed the Atsugewi practice of providing each
+earth lodge with a south facing, ground level, tunnel-like ventilator
+entrance of small size. It is possible that Yana did have a few special
+sweating lodges of the same design, but the matter is debatable. During
+sweating Yana men talked and played; the main purpose of sweating was to
+make men strong.
+
+It has already been pointed out that all four tribes which used what is
+now Lassen Volcanic National Park did so only during the summer. During
+their high mountain sojourn, the local Indians did not live in houses as
+such. There, residence during the three or four summer months was in
+temporary camps, usually roofless circular areas to accommodate several
+families. These were fenced in with brush and were entered by one or
+more openings somewhat in the same manner as campsites reserved for
+visitors at their permanent villages at lower elevations. Four-posted
+horizontal roofs, to provide shade, were sometimes constructed too. Yana
+seem to have made a lean-to or hut with grass and bark covering for
+summer roofs.
+
+
+
+
+                               Chapter X
+                HOUSEHOLD TOOLS, IMPLEMENTS, AND WEAPONS
+
+
+Implements for grinding foods were important. Mountain Maidu, in fact
+all Maidu tribes, ground some acorns on flat bed rock. When the
+resultant holes which eventually developed in the rock surfaces became
+deep, they were abandoned as the acorn meal tended to pack into hard
+lumps at the bottoms thereof. A heavy flat stone grinding slab was most
+frequently used. However, all Lassen area tribes had portable stone
+mortar bowls too. The Atsugewi and mountain Maidu did not make these nor
+did they use them for grinding food. Such portable stone mortars were
+found, evidently having been fashioned by more ancient tribes.
+Supernatural powers were ascribed to these mortars, and they were used
+only by shamans or medicine men. The Maidu thought that stone mortar
+bowls were made by Coyote at the time of creation and scattered over the
+world for the use of mankind. Others believed the mortars to have been
+“first people” originally, who were turned to stones in this form upon
+the coming of the Indian people at which time other “first people” were
+transformed into animals.
+
+    [Illustration: Northeast Maidu soapstone bowl six inches wide—a rare
+    article (after Dixon)]
+
+As has been described under the preparation of acorn mush, local tribes
+used the flat stone pounding slab under an open bottomed hopper basket,
+most commonly. The hopper basket of the Atsugewi and mountain Maidu was
+usually of twined construction and bound often with buckskin about the
+basal edge. Mountain Maidu sometimes employed their coiling technique in
+making the acorn pounding basket. It was from this tribe, at the turn of
+the century, that Atsugewi learned to make their pounding hopper baskets
+of the stronger coiled construction.
+
+    [Illustration: Maidu stone axe head, 5 inches long (after Dixon)]
+
+    [Illustration: One of several seed beater types used locally]
+
+Pestles of stone were long, smoothed, and sometimes flattened on the
+sides. This resulted from use of these implements also as rubbing or
+mulling stones for processing small seeds on flat slabs without
+employment of basket hoppers. The pestles were always without the
+ornamentation used by certain other California tribes. The pounding end
+of the food grinding pestles are ever so slightly convex—their grinding
+surfaces are nearly flat. This is in contrast to pestles used in the
+deep bowl-shaped portable stone mortars for ceremonial purposes. The
+grinding ends of these pestles were strongly rounded, nearly
+hemispherical in shape.
+
+The muller or small seed crusher used on the flat grinding slab without
+a hopper basket was of oval or rectangular shape, and it too was
+unornamented.
+
+Small brushes used in miscellaneous food preparation were made of
+pounded dried soap-plant bulb fibers.
+
+Hot rocks for cooking were usually handled with two sticks. None of our
+tribes used spoons. Crude obsidian knives with, or more commonly
+without, bone handles were used for many chores.
+
+Yana used split cobble stones for cutting and scraping operations. Their
+stone knives sometimes had wrapped buckskin handles.
+
+Bone awls, usually with wrapped handles, were commonly used for sewing
+buckskin and other hides. Atsugewi are said by some to have had both
+eyed and open notched needles of bone for sewing skins and tule mats.
+
+The wooden shuttle for net weaving was a stick notched at both ends and
+was used by all of the local tribes. A squarish wooden net mesh spacer
+permitted nets to be properly made.
+
+Mountain Maidu used deer antler wedges for splitting wood while Atsugewi
+used wooden wedges—especially of mountain-mahogany. Wedges were usually
+driven with simple wooden clubs, though rocks might be employed for the
+purpose.
+
+Drills for boring holes in shell work and for making pipes and the like
+were used by Atsugewi only. Such drills were wooden shafts with stone
+points. These were rotated by rolling the shaft between the palms of the
+hands. Where the drill was not in use, holes were made in pieces of wood
+with live coals. Sometimes unfinished clamshell money was received in
+trade perhaps at a discount. Such pieces were strung tightly onto a cord
+and the whole string was then rolled between two flat stones thus
+grinding the shell edges to make the well formed disks characteristic of
+clam shell money.
+
+    [Illustration: Soap-root fiber acorn meal brush about 6 inches long
+    (after Dixon)]
+
+    [Illustration: A lava pestle, flat ended food pounder, about 10
+    inches long]
+
+Fire making drills were of greater importance. All local tribes employed
+them. Those of this area were one-piece hand rotated affairs which did
+not utilize the labor saving drill bow of the midwest. A long buckeye
+wood stick about half an inch thick was twirled on a notched block of
+incense-cedar or juniper wood. A bed of dry shredded grass and
+incense-cedar or other flammable tinder was used to nourish the spark
+into flame. Both sexes made fire among the Yana and Yahi, but unless the
+men were away, Atsugewi and mountain Maidu women did not make fire.
+Buckeye was uncommon or lacking in the areas of the latter tribes, so
+this material had to be traded from the Yana and Yahi. Buckeye fire
+making sticks commanded quite a price, a piece two feet long often
+selling for ten completed arrows. Since fire making required much effort
+and skill, fire was rarely allowed to go out. A “slow match” consisting
+of a piece of punky wood in which the fire smouldered was usually
+carried along.
+
+    [Illustration: Maidu bone awls or basket “needles” about 6 inches
+    long]
+
+It was as true in prehistoric America as it is today that weapons were
+essential to existence. Weapons were necessary not only for
+warfare—whether aggressive or defensive—but for the securing of game for
+food since domestication of animals was not practiced.
+
+The bow and arrow was the only important weapon of California Indians.
+Local bows were rather short and quite broad in cross-section. We quote
+Garth’s “Atsugewi Ethnography” on the subject as follows:
+
+  “... The best bows were made by the Atsuge, who had a supply of yew
+  wood ... along the western borders of their territory. The Paiute were
+  anxious to trade for Atsuge bows and considered them much superior to
+  their own. In making the bow a piece of yew wood was selected, split,
+  and shaved down with flints and pumice stone to the required form and
+  thickness. After it had been wrapped in green grass and roasted in hot
+  ashes, the bow was bent to required shape (recurved tips with a slight
+  incurve at the middle), which it retained when it cooled off. Sinew,
+  taken from the back of a deer, was softened by chewing and was then
+  glued on the back of the bow in short strips, which were rubbed out as
+  flat as possible with a smooth piece of bone. Salmon skins were boiled
+  to make the glue.
+
+    [Illustration: Yahi making fire by twirling buckeye rod on
+    Incense-cedar block]
+
+    [Illustration: Maidu fire drill of buckeye (right) about 28 inches
+    long. In the two inch wide Incense-cedar slab note the cut notches
+    with a deeper twirling hole at the head of each.]
+
+  “The designs painted in green and red on the backs of bows are among
+  the few examples of masculine art. The painting was done with a
+  feather tip. The sinew for the bowstring ... was chewed to make it
+  soft and then it was made into a two-ply cord by rolling it with the
+  open hand on the thigh. After salmon glue was rubbed in to make the
+  fibers stick together, the string was stretched by tying a rock to one
+  end and allowing it to hang down from some support. A tassel ... of
+  mole skin might be attached to the end of the bow for decoration....
+
+    [Illustration: Indian Jack Harding after photo by Williams
+
+    “Montgomery Creek” Indian, part white—good archer
+
+    An Atsugewi type bow characteristically short, broad, sinew backed
+    and held at 45 degree angle in shooting. Note the painted
+    decoration]
+
+  “... Flint tipped arrows ... were made of cane or rose and had
+  foreshafts of Serviceberry, or they might be entirely of Service wood.
+  Cane arrows ... with a sharp-pointed foreshaft of Serviceberry were
+  commonly used for small animals and birds. Such arrows might be
+  unfeathered ... (an informant) recalled a bird arrow ... with a barbed
+  wooden point. Deer-bone pointed arrows were sometimes used for killing
+  deer and other game. Voegelin reports that these arrows were also
+  sometimes barbed. Flint-tipped arrows were about thirty inches long
+  ... arrows for small game were somewhat shorter than flint-tipped
+  arrows ... the wood was ordinarily dried before it was used. The end
+  of the Serviceberry foreshaft was cut into a dowel which was inserted
+  in the soft pithy center of the main shaft, the juncture being wrapped
+  with sinew. A notch one-fourth of an inch deep was cut in the butt. A
+  laterally notched obsidian arrow point was inserted in the split end
+  of the foreshaft and bound on with cross lashings of sinew. The
+  binding was ordinarily waterproofed with pitch.
+
+  “Two small grooved pumice stones were used to smooth arrow shafts. The
+  foreshaft was painted red as an indication that poison had been
+  applied to the point. Other bands or stripes of color toward the nock
+  end of the arrow served as ownership marks ... the stripes might run
+  spirally as on a stick of candy ... all kinds of colors being used for
+  painting arrows. Feathers were split along the midrib and were glued
+  to the shaft, about a finger’s width below the butt, with pitch. Sinew
+  wrapping bound down each end of the feathers, three of which—about
+  four inches long—were used to an arrow. The edge of the feather was
+  burned smooth with a hot coal. Feathers of hawks or similar birds were
+  used on ordinary arrows, but for the finest arrows—those to be used
+  for bear and deer—eagle feathers were employed. An arrow wrench of
+  bone or wood was used for straightening arrows; or they might simply
+  be straightened by using the teeth as a vise. A flat antelope horn
+  might be perforated and used as an arrow wrench.... (John La Mar) had
+  a small triangular stone with a hole in the center ... which, he said
+  was heated in the fire and used for straightening cane arrows.
+
+    [Illustration: Maidu bow 40 inches long and two inches wide, deer
+    sinew backed and painted with powdered greenish rock from Oregon
+    mixed with Salmon glue. Two arrows are obsidian tipped. (after
+    Dixon)]
+
+  “Although the flint points themselves were considered poisonous, an
+  arrow poison was often used for larger game as well as in war. The
+  usual method of making poison was to take the liver or pancreas of a
+  deer and allow it to rot; the material was then smeared on the arrow
+  point....”
+
+Rattlesnake poison was also employed; however none of the poisoned arrow
+concoctions were very effective except to start infection of wounds
+inflicted by arrow points so treated.
+
+    [Illustration: Painted Atsugewi bows (after Garth)]
+
+  a. Goose Valley, design in red (Apwaruge)
+  b. Goose Valley, design in red (Apwaruge)
+  c. Drawn by Dave Brown (Atsuge) with outer lines red, inner lines
+          green
+
+Arrow points found in the park area, in the territory of both Atsugewi
+and mountain Maidu are most frequently of obsidian, but sometimes are of
+a dense dull black basalt lava. The term flint is a very loose one,
+being applied to obsidian, chert, opal, chalcedony, and even to the
+dense basalt, noted above, in common usage.
+
+Mountain Maidu imported yew wood as this did not commonly grow in their
+own territory. This tribe, however, also manufactured its own bows. In
+practically all respects bow and arrow design and execution were
+identical to that of the Atsugewi. Those of Yana and Yahi were similar
+too. All tribes of the Lassen area fashioned arrow points with barbs. In
+addition mountain Maidu flaked points without barbs but with basal stems
+for attachment were made.
+
+
+                      MOUNTAIN MAIDU STONE POINTS
+
+    [Illustration: Dull black obsidian much more convex on one side than
+    on the other. From near Corral Meadow; one and one half inches.]
+
+    [Illustration: Black obsidian near Little Willow Lake; one and one
+    half inches long.]
+
+    [Illustration: Dense black basalt from Terminal Geyser; one and five
+    eighths inches.]
+
+    [Illustration: Black obsidian near Little Willow Lake, one inch
+    long.]
+
+
+                   ATSUGEWI KNIFE (?) AND ARROW POINT
+
+    [Illustration: Black obsidian spear point or knife from south shore
+    of Summit Lake; four inches.]
+
+    [Illustration: Dark gray banded point from Northeast shore Snag
+    Lake; two inches.]
+
+
+                          SOUTHERN YANA POINTS
+
+    [Illustration: Dark gray obsidian point from Battle Creek Meadows.
+    Note unusually strong asymmetry in two planes; one inch long.]
+
+    [Illustration: Coarse gray lava knife (?) from Battle Creek Meadows;
+    Three and one half inches long.]
+
+The bow was most frequently held in shooting at an angle of about 45
+degrees with the arrow on top. Mountain Maidu used that style, too, or
+else held the bow horizontally with the arrow on top except in case of
+war when the arrow was held on the underside of the bow. Gifford and
+Klimak reveal that northern and central Yana held the bow horizontally.
+Sapir and Spier found that the Yana tribes proper (not Yahi), however
+held bows vertically in shooting. All tribes considered except Yahi used
+the primary release of the arrow in shooting. In this method the arrow
+was held between the index and third fingers, which caught and pulled
+back the string. The thumb held the other side of the arrow. The Yahi,
+on the other hand used the Mongolian release; grasping the arrow with
+the thumb and unbent first joints of the first and second fingers.
+
+    [Illustration: Maidu bone arrow point flaker about ten inches long
+    (after Dixon)]
+
+  “... the arrow was let fly between the index and third finger of the
+  left hand, which held the bow. Many arrow points were uniface and
+  curved slightly to one side.... A hunter, when shooting at a distant
+  object, turned the arrow so that the point curved up; when shooting an
+  object close by, he turned the arrow so that the point curved down. A
+  hunter carried at least one arrow in his left hand with his bow. Extra
+  arrows were carried in a quiver ... (made of) coyote, raccoon, or
+  other skins. Ordinarily the hunter carried his quiver on his back, but
+  if he wanted to be able to reach the arrows easily, he hung it on his
+  ... shoulder so that it fell under his left armpit. Arrows were taken
+  from the quiver with the right hand.”
+
+Inside the quiver, at the bottom, a cushion of dry grass was placed to
+prevent the stone points from chipping each other.
+
+    [Illustration: Maidu arrow-straightener and smoother of sandstone
+    about three inches long (after Dixon)]
+
+
+                           YAHI STONE POINTS
+
+    [Illustration: Nearly colorless obsidian south of Sulphur Works;
+    three quarters inch.]
+
+    [Illustration: Off-white chalcedony point south of Sulphur Works
+    area; one and one half inches.]
+
+    [Illustration: Black obsidian one and one quarter inches long and a
+    full one half inch thick.]
+
+    [Illustration: Three inch point of coarse gray lava from Mill Creek
+    Canyon.]
+
+    [Illustration: Black obsidian. South of Sulphur Works, one and one
+    half inches.]
+
+
+    [Illustration: Yana arrow points one and one half to two inches
+    long. The materials used are mostly black obsidian, also dark grey
+    and buff obsidian. One is of dense black basalt.]
+
+    [Illustration: A pair of Yana arrow smoother and straightening
+    stones made of porous glassy (pre-Lassen?) dacite pumice, length
+    about two and one half inches]
+
+War clubs were not used. Atsugewi claim to have had a stone axe,
+sharpened by chipping and lashed with sinew to a split oak or
+mountain-mahogany handle a foot or so long. It was used for chopping
+roots and small trees on occasion, but the stone axe was certainly not
+widely used by California Indians, and even among Atsugewi it may have
+been unknown until the coming of white man, or knowledge of it may have
+been gained from Plains Indians after the advent of the horse. The
+tomahawk, so important to Indians of eastern and midwestern North
+America, was unknown to California Indians. Trees were normally felled
+and cut by controlled burning.
+
+Four-foot spears, tipped with large flaked stone points for fighting at
+close quarters, were used by all local tribes on occasion, but were not
+numerous. Only the Yana are believed to have thrown the weapon; the more
+common usage seems to have been by energetically thrusting it.
+
+Knives or daggers as fighting implements were made of chipped obsidian
+but were quite rare. A short, crude, one edged, stone knife was used
+widely as a general utility implement, but not in combat nor in killing
+game. Yana Indians also employed a mussel shell knife for light delicate
+work around camp. Atsugewi and mountain Maidu sometimes affixed wooden
+handles to their obsidian knives. These two tribes also fashioned knives
+of sharpened bone and horn.
+
+    [Illustration: A wooden arrow straightener from northern California
+    (Yurok)]
+
+    [Illustration: Atsugewi stone arrow-straightener]
+
+    [Illustration: Mountain Maidu arrow quiver made of an inside-out
+    small mammal skin.]
+
+    [Illustration: Atsugewi cased fox skin quiver made by slitting
+    animal’s skin along its hind legs, turning skin inside out, and
+    finally sewing the mouth and eye openings shut.]
+
+    [Illustration: 4½ inches     7 inches
+    Maidu stone knives of obsidian, one with a wooden and sinew handle
+    (after Dixon)]
+
+    [Illustration: A warrior in stick armor and fur helmet]
+
+Of equipment for warfare, Garth states:
+
+  “Defensive armor included rod armor ..., gowns ... of dried elk or
+  bear skins, and skin helmets which came down over the forehead and
+  ears, ‘so a man could just see out of it’. The skin armor extended to
+  the ankles or lower; it was worn over one shoulder so that it
+  protected only the side of the body turned toward the enemy. Rod
+  armor, made of serviceberry withes twined together with buckskin
+  string, was high enough to come up to the neck under the chin and
+  extended two or three inches below the belt. The Plains Indian shield,
+  although found among the Surprise Valley Paiute and other Paiute
+  tribes to the east, was lacking among the Atsugewi,” and all other
+  tribes of the Lassen area.
+
+
+
+
+                               Chapter XI
+                         BASKETRY AND TEXTILES
+
+
+The outstanding art of the Indians of California was their basketry. In
+fact the excellence of California basketry generally is not exceeded
+elsewhere in North America. Size varies from that of a pea to that of a
+bushel basket. Both weave and ornamentation were very diversified.
+
+Basketry of the Lassen area, especially that of the Atsugewi and
+mountain Maidu, was of good quality. Both coiled and twined types of
+basketry (to be described below) were made by mountain Maidu, but the
+Atsugewi did not learn the art of coiled basketry from the Maidu until
+the early 1900’s. Yana and Yahi wove both types but twined baskets were
+by far the more numerous. This is due to the fact that these tribes were
+akin to the twining tribes of the north. Close contact with the
+neighboring Wintun tribes of the Sacramento Valley resulted in the
+addition of limited amount of coiling technique in their basketry making
+over the years.
+
+    [Illustration: Technique of the three willow rod (or rib) coiled
+    basketry (after Otis T. Mason). Note that the lashing strand anchors
+    the three new ribs “a”, “b”, and “c” to the top rib “d” of the
+    preceding three “d”, “e”, and “f” group]
+
+    [Illustration: Simple twined basketry technique employs two weft
+    (lashing) strands, but when overlaying with another material is done
+    two or more layers will make up each of the strands “a” and “b”
+    (modified from Otis T. Mason)]
+
+Coiled basketry itself had some technical variations with which we shall
+not concern ourselves. The coiling technique was characteristic of the
+central and southern part of the California area. Mountain Maidu used
+three willow rods in a parallel group which ran as a core in a
+continuous spiral starting at the center of the basket. This was the
+warp element. The bundle of three willow ribs was lashed to the
+preceding basketry by a strand or weft (filler) of the inner bark of
+redbud. This was accomplished by poking an awl through the preceding
+row, and separating the stitches. In doing so, the awl was passed under
+the topmost of the core or warp of three coiling willow ribs. A redbud
+bark strand was then slipped through the awl hole, thus lashing the
+three loose willow ribs down by passing the strand around them and
+through the next awl hole in the preceding row. Recent Atsugewi coiled
+basketry technique is similar in all details, having been learned from
+the Maidu.
+
+    [Illustration: Variations of the simple twined basketry technique:
+    a, method of starting the round root-cleaning basket; b, detail of
+    side wall of basket showing open work weave. (Garth)]
+
+Twined basketry consisted of willow ribs radiating from a common center.
+These twigs were the warp. The weft of filling and binding stitches were
+split pine root strands. Dixon states that mountain Maidu sometimes dyed
+pine root black by burying it in mud mixed with charcoal. Pine root was
+tightly woven in to make the bottom of the basket which was normally
+undecorated. More and more willow ribs were added as the basket became
+larger. The willow ribs were curved up when willow rib additions were
+decreased. As the sides began to be built up on these twined baskets,
+each pine root stitch, both inside and outside, was covered with a
+whitish strand of bear-grass or squaw-grass. The tops of baskets were
+often left unfinished after the unused willow warps were clipped off.
+The basket did not unravel in use. However, the best baskets were
+finished by adding a marginal strengthening ring of choke cherry or
+willow which was bound to the basket body firmly and neatly, usually by
+wrapping with strands of redbud bark. During weaving willow withes were
+fastened inside of the basket to help it retain its shape, but these
+were removed upon completion of the basket.
+
+    [Illustration: Side outline shapes of Maidu baskets (after Dixon).
+    The plan of virtually all Maidu baskets was circular. Twined storage
+    baskets are up to three feet in diameter for holding seed, meal,
+    etc. Open twined construction was used for storage of whole acorns,
+    fish, and meat. Flatish circular basketry plaque was for “vibration
+    sifting”.]
+
+            _FOOD BOWL                       _STORAGE
+             DIPPING                         COOKING_
+         GENERAL UTILITY_
+
+            _FOOD BOWL                       _STORAGE
+              DIPPER                         COOKING_
+         GENERAL UTILITY_
+
+            _COOKING_                        _STORAGE
+                                             COOKING_
+
+            _FOOD BOWL                       _STORAGE
+              DIPPER                         COOKING_
+         GENERAL UTILITY_
+
+            _COOKING_                        _BURDEN_
+
+            _FOOD BOWL                       _STORAGE
+              DIPPER                         COOKING_
+         GENERAL UTILITY_
+
+  _TRAYS or large BASKET COVER_       _TRAY or BASKET COVER_
+
+Some utility baskets were undecorated, being made merely of pine root
+and willow, or, if coiled, of redbud and willow. However, most baskets
+bore some designs. They were all named and were inspired by the objects
+of nature about these outdoor peoples, and not the product of their
+imaginations. Nevertheless, the designs are quite stylized, often to the
+extent that recognition of the inspiration is difficult or impossible.
+
+In the case of twined baskets the designs were made by substituting
+outer redbud bark for squaw-grass to produce a dull red instead of the
+white overlaid stitches of the rest of the basket. As a result of the
+double twining technique the designs were seen equally well on the
+inside and the outside of each basket. Black designs were of overlaid
+maidenhair fern (_Adiantum pedatum_) stems. However, mountain Maidu also
+used common bracken fern (_Pteris aquilinum_) for black designs. Indians
+to the north of the Atsugewi used roots and stems of certain sedges
+treated with charcoal and mud or with ashes and water to produce
+basketry materials of black and of warm henna-brown coloration
+respectively. These were used on occasion by Atsugewi. The bear-grass,
+redbud, and maidenhair fern decorative materials were most commonly used
+by all tribes of this area. Atsugewi are the only local Indians to have
+used feathers to adorn their baskets. They used the shiny iridescent
+blue-green feathers from the necks of male mallard ducks. This was not
+common, however, and by no means used as often nor developed to the fine
+art and diversity of the famous Pomo feathered basketry of the Clear
+Lake region of the California Coast Range. Atsugewi are also believed to
+have occasionally adorned some basketry work with shell beads and
+porcupine quills, but this must have been quite rare or more examples
+would have survived to the present day.
+
+Outer bark of redbud almost always decorated coiled baskets.
+
+Concerning Maidu basketry Dixon states that the vast majority of the
+articles are of the coiled type, twining technique being used only for
+burden baskets and hopper or grinding baskets. For the radial ribs of
+the former they used shoots of hazel (_Corylus rostrata_ var.
+_californica_) when available. He points out too, the frequent use of
+the feather, quail-tip, and arrow-point designs not only among the
+mountain Maidu, but among all Maidu. A characteristic of this group of
+Indians also, in contrast to other local tribes, is the tendency to
+confine one design to a basket rather than combining designs. Maidu
+employed a wide variety of designs. Many of them represent animals and
+plants. A considerable number of Maidu patterns exhibit a more or less
+obscure realism which becomes apparent only after one is informed as to
+what the design means. The Maidu show a tendency also toward arrangement
+of design elements in spiral or zigzag lines.
+
+    [Illustration: Atsugewi basket, twined and overlaid with bear-grass
+    and maiden hair fern.]
+
+    [Illustration: Maidu hopper, pounding, or milling basket of twined
+    construction on rock mortar slab. Diameter about eighteen inches
+    (after Dixon).]
+
+    [Illustration: Atsugewi general utility basket of twined
+    construction with lizard foot design. Underside shown to reveal dark
+    (actually tan-colored) area of bare split pine root weft without
+    bear-grass or maiden hair overlay.]
+
+    [Illustration: Coiled type Atsugewi hopper basket with flying geese
+    design. View shows pounding hole in bottom of basket, in this case
+    bound with buckskin.]
+
+Dixon noted that “mussel’s tongue” (the fresh water mussel) is one of
+the unique and peculiar basketry designs used by the Atsugewi.
+Representation of intestines and deer excrement are also worthy of
+special mention for this tribe. Other common Atsugewi designs in
+basketry decoration are lizard, deer rib, owl’s claw, and flying geese,
+as well as arrow-point. Two or more different designs are often combined
+on a single basket. Among Atsugewi and Achomawi there seems to be no
+restriction of certain patterns to baskets intended for special uses.
+Like mountain Maidu, zigzag and spiral arrangements are preferred,
+horizontal bands being rare. Curiously an Atsugewi design is often given
+different meaning by different individual Indians. This is in contrast
+to the uniformity of interpretation of a given design by all the Maidu
+individuals, normally.
+
+    [Illustration: Maidu open twined “tray” or plate-like basket about
+    ten inches long (after Dixon)]
+
+Yana tribes frequently substituted another material for willow ribs. The
+identity of this warp is not certain. Reliable students believe it to be
+hazelnut twigs, but to my knowledge that plant is scarce indeed even in
+the foothill territory. Yana and Yahi had some other peculiarities in
+their basketry. Designs were sometimes wrought in a negative way, that
+is by merely leaving off overlay so that the design was thereby defined
+in exposed pine root weft. Sapir and Spier found that these tribes also
+used alder bark for dying basketry decoration materials a red-brown. A
+reddish color was produced on peeled shield fern stems by passing them
+through the mouth while chewing dogwood bark. They dyed pine roots, too,
+on occasion with a red soil or with the powdery filling of spores from
+the inside of a fungus obtained from certain coniferous trees. These
+variations of basketry decoration do not seem to have been used by the
+Atsugewi and mountain Maidu.
+
+    [Illustration: Maidu fish-teeth design on coiled basket.]
+
+    [Illustration: Mountain Maidu geese-flying design on coiled basket.]
+
+    [Illustration: Atsugewi lizard’s claw or lizard’s foot design.]
+
+    [Illustration: Mountain Maidu mountains designs on twined baskets.
+    The right hand treatment may be repeated in reverse to the right
+    making a symmetrical pyramid shaped design outline.]
+
+    [Illustration: An interesting unsymmetrical flower design.]
+
+    [Illustration: Atsugewi intestines.]
+
+The basketry described above was all close-woven. In fact, so closely
+were the twined baskets made that they held water with little or no
+leakage even without linings of pitch or any other substance. There was
+no pottery of any kind in central or northern California.
+
+The art of basketry included also a third type—loose or open weaving,
+sometimes of tules. The latter were also used extensively for making
+mats for a variety of purposes. Open weaving at other times was done
+with willow withes, split juniper twigs, or of another material
+tentatively identified as hazel. Fish traps, carrying baskets, some
+storage baskets, and bags were not infrequently of this type of
+construction.
+
+All basketry materials had to be well soaked in water, as they were
+brittle when dry. After weaving and upon drying these materials set in
+place, making the basketry firm, strong, and resistant to unraveling.
+
+Collection of basketry materials was more arduous and required greater
+know-how than might be suspected. Willow withes were only taken from the
+particularly strong and supple shoots from Hinds or valley willow
+(_Salix hindsiana_) which grows along stream banks up to 3000 foot
+elevations and also from the similar sandbar, river, or grey willow
+(_Salix fluviatilis_ variety _argyrophylla_) which also lines streams,
+often growing in sandbars. These species are recognized by their long
+very narrow silvery leaves and a grey bark, furrowed when mature. Willow
+twigs were collected when the leaves were off of the stems in the spring
+and in the fall. At other times the twigs were more brittle. Spring
+picked willow withes “slipped” their bark easily, but those collected in
+the fall had to be scraped to remove the bark. The willow ribs were
+further dressed by scraping to uniform size.
+
+Pine roots of either ponderosa pine (_Pinus ponderosa_) or digger pine
+(_Pinus sabiniana_) were usually used. However not all trees had roots
+of suitable strength and flexibility, so that it was necessary to “shop
+around” for good roots. This involved digging holes to reach the roots
+and then testing these by tugging on small strands until suitable roots
+were located. Roots three or four inches in diameter were then cut off
+with a small obsidian axe, if the individual were so fortunate as to
+possess this rarity, or by using a sort of bone pick, or, more commonly,
+by slowly burning through the green root with a small fire. Root lengths
+of about four feet were gathered, taken home, and there roasted in hot
+ashes. This made the pine roots very soft. They were then split into
+quarters with digging sticks or stone choppers and finally were pulled
+apart into thin strips using hands and teeth. The resulting half inch
+wide strips were tied into bundles for storage. In use, these strips
+were well soaked in water. Pine root strands of proper width were easily
+split off by hand. The finer and smaller the basketry to be done,
+naturally, the narrower was the material split for making it.
+
+    [Illustration: Atsugewi twined basket, deer-rib and arrow point
+    designs. Both are frequently used.]
+
+    [Illustration: Pit River (used by Dixon to include Atsugewi) popular
+    mussels’ tongue designs.]
+
+    [Illustration: Mountain Maidu mountain-and-cloud design on coiled
+    basket.]
+
+    [Illustration: Atsugewi pine cone design]
+
+    [Illustration: Atsugewi deer-gut design on twined basket—also a
+    popular pattern.]
+
+    [Illustration: Another Atsugewi version of deer-gut design on twined
+    basket.]
+
+    [Illustration: Pit River (applied by Dixon to include also the
+    Atsugewi) deer excrement designs.]
+
+    [Illustration: Atsugewi flint design]
+
+The chief overlay material—already mentioned—was what we call bear-grass
+or squaw-grass. In truth this is not grass, but the leaf of a lily, the
+well known bear-grass of Mount Rainier National Park, scientifically
+known as _Xerophylum tenax_. This grows only in limited areas in this
+region, hence Atsugewi had to make long trips on foot to obtain it. In
+recent years, at least, bear-grass was to be found only in the territory
+of the Shasta and of the mountain Maidu: a few miles west of Mount
+Shasta and near Greenville in Plumas County. Bear-grass could be
+collected only during about two weeks in mid-July. Earlier it was too
+tender; later it was too brittle “like hay”. Only new central leaves of
+each plant were plucked. The heavy mid-rib had to be removed from each
+leaf with an awl before use.
+
+Maidenhair fern frond stems were picked in August.
+
+Redbud twigs collected in the spring would “slip” the red outer bark
+easily in a thin layer. This was used for overlay pattern making on
+twined baskets. The white inner bark, or, more properly, sapwood was
+then stripped off for binding material and as the white lashing weft for
+coiled baskets. In the case of fall-collected redbud twigs the red outer
+bark adhered to the sapwood. This was used as the lashing strand or weft
+where red designs were desired on coiled baskets.
+
+Apwaruge, the eastern division of the Atsugewi, often made baskets of
+tules. These were more flexible, softer baskets than those made by the
+westerners, the Atsuge, and so there was considerable exchange of
+baskets between the two divisions of the Atsugewi.
+
+Atsugewi occasionally made openwork baskets from split juniper too,
+especially for low scoop-shaped, round, or oval baskets for fishing,
+root cleaning, et cetera, but as indicated earlier, willow ribs were
+used for this purpose also.
+
+    [Illustration: (Yana) dogs ears]
+
+    [Illustration: Probably Yana House design]
+
+    [Illustration: Maidu quail tip design widely used but only on coiled
+    baskets.]
+
+    [Illustration: (Yana) crane’s leg]
+
+    [Illustration: (Atsugewi) meadow lark]
+
+    [Illustration: (Achomawi) flying geese or pine cone
+    (Yana) pine cone]
+
+    [Illustration: Maidu earthworm design on a coiled basket.]
+
+    [Illustration: Maidu bushes design on a coiled basket.]
+
+    [Illustration: Mountain Maidu duck’s-wing design on a coiled
+    basketry plaque.]
+
+    [Illustration: (Maidu) diamond
+    (Yana) wolf’s eye]
+
+    [Illustration: Mountain Maidu eye design.]
+
+    [Illustration: (Atsugewi) flint or arrowhead]
+
+    [Illustration: (Maidu) watersnake (?)
+    (Yana) bushes]
+
+    [Illustration: (Yana) bats]
+
+    [Illustration: Maidu design, probably sugar pine tree.]
+
+    [Illustration: A continuing zig-zag arrow feather design widely and
+    frequently used by Maidu in coiled basketry, sometimes this was
+    combined with the quail tip pattern.]
+
+    [Illustration: Single and double arrow point designs—the most
+    commonly used of all Maidu patterns. It was relatively easy to make
+    and very versatile.]
+
+    [Illustration: (Maidu) big tongues
+    (Yana) intestines]
+
+    [Illustration: (Maidu) quail tip
+    (Yana) root digger]
+
+    [Illustration: (Maidu) mountain
+    (Yana) root digger hand]
+
+    [Illustration: (Maidu) earthworm
+    (Yana) intestines]
+
+    [Illustration: (Maidu) earthworm
+    (Yana) intestines]
+
+    [Illustration: (Maidu) mountain
+    (Yana) root digger hand]
+
+    [Illustration: (Achomawi) mountain or bear’s foot
+    (Yana) root digger hand]
+
+    [Illustration: (Maidu) vine
+    (Yana) geese]
+
+    [Illustration: (Maidu) rattlesnake
+    (Yana) geese]
+
+    [Illustration: (Wintun) sucker tail
+    (Yana) long worms in rotten wood.]
+
+    [Illustration: (Yana) wolf’s eye]
+
+Basket styles varied little among the several tribes of the Lassen
+region. Bottle shapes were never made until after the coming of white
+man. Cooking baskets were bowl-shaped with high, convexly curved sides,
+sometimes nearly globular in form. Baskets from which food was eaten
+individually and general utility baskets were similarly shaped but
+smaller. Boiling baskets were sometimes without decoration; their
+dimensions of height and width were about equal. Storage baskets also
+had about the same shape, curving less, sometimes, but were large, being
+three feet or more in size. Some were of open work, but usually they
+were of close or tight weaving.
+
+Flattish bowls or somewhat curved trays were used for food platters as
+well as for winnowing, parching, and cleaning foods by chafing. Some
+were of open weave made of willow or hazel (?) only while others were
+closely woven.
+
+Basketry acorn grinding hoppers also called milling baskets or pounding
+baskets, were usually regular twined baskets of suitable size and shape:
+wide mouthed bowl or funnel-shaped. Having no central point from which
+to start the warp, because of the open bottoms, hopper baskets were
+started by twining three pine root wefts about the bases of many willow
+warps to make a circle about five inches in diameter. Additional warps
+were built up on the radiating ribs, proceeding then in the normal
+manner of twining. Twined hopper baskets were usually reinforced by
+lashing one or two strong rings of willow or serviceberry withes. They
+might also be bound with buckskin along the bottom edges for improved
+strength and durability as well as to decrease loss of acorn meal during
+the pounding process. In recent years both mountain Maidu and Atsugewi,
+also used coiling technique in making hopper baskets, for which purpose
+it is well suited.
+
+A recent innovation among Atsugewi has been the covering of bottles with
+basketry and also the weaving of oblong shaped closely twined and coiled
+baskets, as well as goblet shaped creations.
+
+  According to Garth, the seed beater “... was a paddle-shaped implement
+  from one and a half to two feet long with a willow warp and open work
+  twining, also of willow (spaced at three quarters of an inch between
+  rows) across the blade. The handle was wrapped either with willow
+  strips or with buckskin.”
+
+Another important use of basketry was in the construction of cradle
+boards, or more properly, basket cradles. These are generally known to
+present day Americans by the incorrect term papoose baskets. The cradle
+basket is discussed under the heading “Birth and Babies”.
+
+    [Illustration: (Yurok) flint
+    (Yana) zigzagging]
+
+    [Illustration: (Maidu) quail-tip
+    (Yana) “sitting up in a series”]
+
+    [Illustration: (Maidu) vine
+    (Yana) “braided”]
+
+    [Illustration: (Yana) mussels]
+
+    [Illustration: (Maidu) earthworm
+    (Yana) “braided”]
+
+    [Illustration: (Yana) mountains]
+
+    [Illustration: (Yurok) “sitting”
+    (Yana) “zigzagging and turning back”]
+
+    [Illustration: (Yana) wolf’s eye]
+
+    [Illustration: (Yana) trout or salmon tails]
+
+    [Illustration: (Yana) flint]
+
+    [Illustration: (Yana) guts]
+
+    [Illustration: (Atsugewi) skunk’s ear]
+
+Beautifully made basketry caps for women, finely twined, spreading
+bowl-shaped affairs were made by all tribes of the Lassen area. These
+were nicely decorated on the bottoms—or rather tops—as well as on the
+sides, a feature lacking on all other types of local baskets. Another
+unique feature of the basketry cap was the fact that the inside of the
+hat was abraded by rubbing so that none of the pattern remained visible
+because all of the overlay on the inside had been worn away. It is
+suspected that this made the inside of the hat less slippery on the hair
+so that it did not slip off the head so easily. Removal of the
+decoration from the inside of the basketry cap in no way altered the
+appearance or permanence of the outside decorative patterns.
+
+Mats were woven of viscid bulrush, more commonly called tule stalks
+(_Scirpus lacustris_ or _acutus_). According to Voegelin, Atsugewi
+sometimes sewed these together by piercing them with bone needles.
+However the more usual method of manufacture was that of lashing
+together the ends of parallel tule stalks laid next to each other. This
+was done with double cords or strands in the regular simple twining
+manner which shows up well in the sketch of Atsugewi tule leggings. Such
+mats were extensively used as bed mats or mattresses, as earth wall
+coverings, as doorway and ventilator hole hangings, and so on by all of
+the tribes of the Lassen region. Mountain Maidu also employed
+broad-leaved cat-tail (_Typha latifolia_) or narrow-leaved cat-tail
+(_Typha angustifolia_) for such purposes on occasion. This tribe also
+appears to have used a string weft in making at least some of the mats.
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter XII
+                       TANNING, CORDAGE, AND GLUE
+
+
+Mountain Maidu buried bear skins in wet ground, but hides generally were
+soaked about a week in water by local Indians. Mountain Maidu used ashes
+to help dehair skins other than deer, but this was not a practice common
+to other tribes. Stone, or more frequently, shaped deer rib or pelvic
+bones were used as dehairing scraper tools on skins. The hide was draped
+over an inclined post and was soaked and squeezed occasionally during
+the process of scraping.
+
+The tanning agent was a cooked soup of animal brains, particularly those
+of deer. This material might first have been mashed, mixed with dry
+moss, and then molded into small cakes for drying and storage. The deer
+brain agent was well rubbed into the cleaned, soaked skin. It was then
+allowed to soak overnight in the tanning solution. The next day while
+drying the skin in the sun, the operator stretched and worked the hide
+with his hands to make it soft and pliable.
+
+Among Atsugewi the skin was then smoked over a fire of moist rotten logs
+or green juniper boughs burning in a shallow pit. The skin was laid on a
+domed framework of willow branches arched over the fire. The hide was
+turned occasionally to insure uniform treatment. Mr. Garth believes that
+this smoking process was recently learned. It was not generally
+practiced by neighboring tribes, but produced superior buckskin which
+resisted stiffening as a result of subsequent wetting. Even Atsugewi did
+not smoke other skins.
+
+    [Illustration: Nets. a, b, stages in net making; c, tule float; d,
+    net shuttle.]
+
+Men did all this work as well as the hunting, skinning, and fashioning
+of garments from hides. Skins were sewn with bone awls and deer sinew
+thread which was made by rolling fine deer sinew strands on the thigh
+with the open hand.
+
+    [Illustration: Net making shuttle about fourteen inches long (after
+    Dixon)]
+
+    [Illustration: The usual Maidu knot for nets (after Dixon)]
+
+    [Illustration: Carrying net]
+
+Like other local tribes, the Maidu used many woven skin blankets. These
+were fashioned from one inch strips of rabbit fur, especially, but also
+of the skins of wildcat, cougar, geese, or crows. These were not tanned
+so that upon drying they twisted or curled like the strands of a rope
+with the fur or feather side out. Ends were tied together to form a long
+fur or feather covered rope. This was wound about two poles set upright
+in the ground six feet or so apart to form the warp for the blanket.
+More of the same material was then woven up and down as weft to produce
+a soft and very warm skin blanket which was also quite durable. When
+bird skins were employed a cord core was threaded thru the center of the
+twisted strands before weaving for greater strength.
+
+Mountain Maidu also did feather work like that of the Atsugewi, however
+foothill and valley Maidu did so to a greater extent and of a more
+elaborate nature.
+
+Willow, serviceberry, and redbud withes, and at lower elevations,
+lengths of wild grape vines were used for tying purposes. However,
+Indians also had need for strong and more versatile and more durable
+string, cord, and rope. These were usually made from vegetable fibers.
+Atsugewi and mountain Maidu used Indian hemp and milkweed but not nettle
+or iris fibers as did some other tribes. When mature, but before they
+became old and brittle, the plants were collected and dried, stripped of
+leaves, and the flesh was scraped and pounded off leaving the free
+fibers. String was made by placing two small bundles of fibers parallel
+and close together on the thigh of the leg. These were rolled up into
+two strands side by side with one stroke of the open hand moving either
+up or down the thigh. On the return stroke the two separate and now
+twisted strands were twisted together into one string. Stout cord was
+made by repeating the process, substituting two strings for the two
+bundles of loose fibers this time. To make rope the process was repeated
+several times, successively doubling the cordage product. As the cordage
+strands were twined together, the product was held in the left hand, the
+rolling being done by the right hand on the right thigh.
+
+Nets of good quality were fabricated in a variety of mesh sizes, the
+uniformity of which was controlled by use of squarish wooden blocks.
+Shuttles to hold the string for net tying were straight pieces of wood
+notched at each end and into which the strand was wrapped. As has been
+pointed out, nets were used chiefly for hunting, fishing, and carrying,
+although small nets were often worn in the hair by men.
+
+Adhesives were important in the economy of the Indians too. Pine pitch
+and glue made from the skins of fish were used. A solution of the latter
+was mixed by the mountain Maidu with certain internal organs of fish and
+boiled vegetable materials to improve the quality of their glue.
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter XIII
+                             TRANSPORTATION
+
+
+It was the lack of transportation rather than the existence of any which
+was important to the aboriginal Americans. This was responsible for the
+degree of isolation which was required to produce the variety of customs
+and languages in most parts of the “New World”. Introduction of the
+horse in historic times materially changed the habits of Plains Indians.
+Likewise the somewhat aggressive Modoc tribe to the north of the Pit
+River, whose conflict with the whites has been memorialized in Lava Beds
+National Monument today, became mobile, even prior to the gold rush
+days, through use of the horse. As a result the Modocs made a number of
+hit and run raids upon Atsugewi and other tribes and were able to carry
+off slaves. This was not the traditional mode of warfare.
+
+Transportation among Indians was by foot or by water until recent times.
+California Indians did not use dogs as beasts of burden as Plains
+Indians did and as the Eskimos still do. Women did general hauling; men,
+however, did most of the really heavy carrying. Women used the conical
+burden basket extensively, but the men did not. Both sexes used the
+buckskin pack strap which in the case of mountain Maidu passed over the
+top of the head. Atsugewi pack straps went over the forehead and also
+over the shoulder across the chest. The brimless basketry cap or hat was
+used with the packstrap especially among the women. Heavy loads were
+frequently carried by men upon the shoulder; such burdens were often
+rolled in mats or animal skins.
+
+Carrying nets made of twisted fibers were commonly employed by men and
+women among local tribes. Atsugewi used a folded buckskin bag sewed at
+the edges, with a handle on top, and opening at the side. Yana
+manufactured an open-work carrying basket too.
+
+In this region loads were never carried on the head, but on occasion
+might be suspended on a pole and carried between two men. The mountain
+Maidu also used a litter for the sick, but Atsugewi carried sick persons
+in burden baskets on their backs.
+
+In rough country crude trails were sometimes built, but this was not a
+common practice. Generally trails as such were not constructed, but
+where they existed they had developed as the result of long use along
+logical routes, in much the same manner as deer and other game trails
+develop.
+
+To cross streams advantage was taken of logs which had fallen of natural
+causes. On occasion single logs were felled by burning to serve as
+bridges. Yana at lower elevations frequently had large streams to cross
+and smaller trees to utilize. Two logs might be felled parallel and
+cross sticks lashed on with grapevine for better footing.
+
+    [Illustration: Boat Types of Native California (not to scale). a,
+    Yurok (northwestern California) river canoe; b, Klamath
+    (northeastern California) canoe; c, tule balsa.]
+
+    [Illustration: Distribution of Types of Native California Boat.]
+
+  a, Dugout canoe
+  b, Dugout canoe
+  c, Tule balsa
+
+    [Illustration: Atsugewi dug-out canoe on Hat Creek]
+
+In swimming most Indians used a pseudo-breast stroke or swam on their
+backs with a frog style stroke. Atsugewi also did a “dog paddle” keeping
+arms under water. Mountain Maidu used swimming techniques which embraced
+principles like those of white man’s side stroke and crawl. They jumped
+into the water feet first in preference to headfirst diving. When
+swimming under water to collect crawfish or mussels a rock was often
+tied loosely to the back.
+
+Water transportation was not of the same degree of importance to the
+tribes of the Lassen region that it was to Sacramento Valley, Coastal,
+and Northwestern Indians. Nevertheless Atsugewi used sharp or blunt
+ended canoes while that of the mountain Maidu had a shovel-like prow and
+stern. These were made from pine logs, usually windfalls about two feet
+in diameter and had a capacity of two to four persons. The logs were
+hollowed out by controlled burning so that the walls were an inch or two
+thick. Pitch was rubbed onto portions needing more burning. Water or mud
+were used to check burning and the charred wood was scraped out with
+rough angular stones. Local dugout canoes were rather crude affairs.
+Cracking of the wood was prevented by keeping the boats wet. They were
+propelled by an unadorned poling rod or by a single bladed square-ended
+paddle about three feet long. A raft, consisting of three or four logs
+lashed together, was used as well by all local tribes and propelled by
+poling.
+
+Atsugewi had another type of craft: the tule balsa—a five foot long
+raised prow affair made of bundles of tules lashed together. It might be
+poled or else pushed by a swimmer. Often this raft-like boat was towed
+by a rope of willow. Atsugewi occasionally ferried children or goods in
+baskets, while among mountain Maidu swimmers carried children on their
+backs and carried goods in one hand, raised above the water level,
+swimming with the other hand.
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter XIV
+                     DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PETS
+
+
+We are apt to think of Indians, especially Plains Indians, riding horses
+as part of the natural prehistoric scene, yet this was not the case.
+Although fossil remains in the rocks show clearly the development of the
+horse over a period of several millions of years on this continent, the
+horse, the camel, and the rhinoceros—to mention but a few of the
+spectacular mammals—became extinct on the American continents before the
+advent of prehistoric man. American Indians had never seen a horse until
+the coming of the Spanish to the New World in 1540. Likewise domestic
+cattle, sheep, goats, and chickens were unknown to the aborigines.
+
+The dog was widely distributed, however. Some tribes had large as well
+as small dogs of a variety of colors. In the Lassen area the dogs were
+all about the size of small coyotes, mostly with fairly short hair, but
+there are some reports of long haired dogs. Typically the dogs had small
+rather erect and pointed ears. Coloration was chiefly fawn colored to
+brown. Amongst Atsugewi, dogs were usually quite numerous, but certain
+villages seem to have had only a few. In such cases and among the
+mountain Maidu, who generally had only few dogs, they were borrowed for
+hunting. Dogs were almost always named.
+
+Dogs served to warn their owners of the approach of strangers to the
+village or camp. Mountain Maidu taught their dogs not to bark, but to
+“sniff” conspicuously as a signal of stranger approach.
+
+Tribes of the Lassen area did not normally keep dogs in their dwelling
+houses. Atsugewi built separate, domed, bark-covered dog houses, and
+mountain Maidu built two kinds of shelters for their dogs. One was a
+subterranean earth-covered dog house, and the other a conical affair of
+bark slab type construction.
+
+Dogs were widely used in hunting. They were efficient in catching
+rodents and other small mammals such as ground hogs. They were also
+useful for treeing mountain lions and were adept at bringing down
+wounded deer by jumping up and seizing the deers’ ears.
+
+Dogs were not often eaten by tribes in this section of California. Upon
+death, dogs were not buried, but the bodies were merely thrown out.
+
+Upon death of the dog’s owner, among Atsugewi, the dog was retained by
+the widow, but among mountain Maidu the dog was suspended in a tree
+because “It makes dog’s spirit glad”! Although not being generally
+considered in this account, it is curious that among Modoc and eastern
+Achomawi dogs were burned at the deaths of their owners.
+
+Bear cubs were commonly kept. Atsugewi also kept fawns and other small
+mammals as pets. Birds of various sorts were kept by certain tribes.
+Atsugewi plucked or cut wings of birds, especially of eagles whose
+feathers were prized for arrow making, and for ceremonial and decorative
+purposes.
+
+
+
+
+                               Chapter XV
+                                CLOTHING
+
+
+The members of all tribes, especially the Yana and Yahi, went bareheaded
+much of the time. However, basketry caps nearly hemispherical in shape
+and of fine tightly twined weave were worn regularly by Indian women.
+The caps were probably worn to prevent chafing of the pack straps
+originally, but Atsugewi women wore them most of the time. Such hats
+were well decorated with overlaid designs typical of the tribes under
+consideration. Those of Yana and Yahi were usually of tule with black
+and white overlay. Mountain Maidu made some coiled basketry caps, not
+infrequently employing tules or reeds.
+
+Men of all our tribes wore fur headbands on occasion and among Atsugewi,
+fur or buckskin caps too, especially in winter, when shallow bucket
+shaped skin hats of coyote, raccoon, mink and the like afforded
+protection against the rather intense cold.
+
+Eyeshades attached to a band around the head were worn by some Yana
+women so as not to see their sons-in-law! Atsugewi men and possibly
+others might wear side blinds when spearing fish at night to keep torch
+light out of their eyes.
+
+Children up to about six years of age ran about naked, and often the
+older men and women did likewise, particularly among the Maidu.
+
+Buckskin dresses were worn to some extent by the women of most local
+tribes. The mountain Maidu dress was tied at both shoulders and tied or
+belted at the waist. The garment was provided with flaps over the upper
+arms but lacked sleeves. Buckskin dresses were worn by some Indian women
+rich in worldly goods, and usually for special occasions. Recent
+buckskin dresses, of course, are sewn on sewing machines, neatly
+tailored, and follow the general pattern of the conventional dress,
+including regular sleeves.
+
+In normal everyday garb Indian women were naked above the waist. A
+wrap-around skirt, or, more frequently two narrow or wide aprons were
+worn. Sometimes one apron went around the hips, being tied in back and
+provided with a buckskin flap which covered the wearer’s buttocks. The
+Indian women’s aprons were commonly made of shredded incense-cedar,
+willow, or juniper bark, or of tules. In the case of Yana and Yahi
+women, frequently grass or shredded, spring-gathered, broad-leaf maple
+bark were used. The latter was a favorite valley Maidu skirt material.
+The double aprons might however be made of whole buckskin or of strips
+or cords of buckskin, and in winter furs might be used for the purpose.
+The double apron is recognized as the standard garb of California Indian
+women. That of the Maidu was often very narrow, being not much more than
+a front and a rear tassel.
+
+    [Illustration: A beautiful old Shasta buckskin woman’s wrap-around
+    apron ornamented with tan, black, and red vegetable fiber bound
+    slitting in the manner of coarse modern hemstitching, with strings
+    of olivella shells and shaped abalone pendants, and finished on the
+    bottom with long buckskin fringes. The garment is much like the more
+    pretentious aprons described for Atsugewi.]
+
+    [Illustration: Detail of ornamentation on the Shasta buckskin apron]
+
+    [Illustration: Mountain Maidu woman’s tassel-type of shredded bark
+    apron, about twenty two inches long. Some such aprons were
+    considerably wider (after Dixon).]
+
+    [Illustration: Woman’s basketry cap probably Atsugewi or Shasta.
+    Note the design placed on top as well as on the sides of the basket,
+    in contrast to other types of baskets. The bottoms of which are
+    devoid both of design and overlay materials and so present an
+    unadorned pine-root surface.]
+
+Women’s casual aprons and other clothing were not highly ornamented, but
+“dress-up” clothes might be fairly elaborately trimmed. Fringing of
+buckskin, spangles of shell money and ornaments, strings of shell beads,
+pine nuts, deer hoofs, and special white grass fringes commonly
+decorated their better clothes.
+
+In the summer some men, and particularly old ones wore nothing at all.
+Most others wore very little clothing besides a sort of loin covering of
+buckskin or fur which went between the legs and was held in place back
+and front by a belt about the waist. A crude buckskin shirt without
+sleeves was sometimes used.
+
+During winter above aprons, skirts, or loin covering other garments were
+worn. Then men commonly wore the sleeveless buckskin shirt. Both sexes
+usually wore robes of woven rabbit skins (usually imported by the
+Atsugewi), or made of deer or bear fur and worn with the hair side
+inside. Or else the robes were of a patchwork of small mammal skins sewn
+together. These same robes were frequently used for bedding at night. As
+a matter of fact almost any sort of skins available might be used as
+robes. These were tied on in a variety of ways. The wearers must have
+presented a rather motley appearance. On occasion small poncho style
+robes with a central hole for the head and neck clothed the upper bodies
+of local Indians during cold weather.
+
+    [Illustration: Atsugewi fringed buckskin dress of pioneer period]
+
+    [Illustration: An Atsugewi legging made of lashing tules together
+    with a simple twining stitch]
+
+    [Illustration: Maidu buckskin moccasin about eleven inches long
+    (after Dixon)]
+
+Thumbless mittens were made of cased skins of weasels, rats or small
+cottontail rabbits and tied at the wrist with a thong. Atsugewi also
+utilized their fur-lined quivers as muffs when hunting.
+
+California Indians spent much of the time barefoot, but wore buckskin
+moccasins at war, on long hunts or journeys. Different styles were made
+by each of the local tribes. None, however, were normally decorated.
+Mountain Maidu also made moccasins of fur with the hair side in, and
+Atsugewi stuffed pounded grass or grass into their footwear or wore
+grass or tule slippers inside their moccasins during the winter. Maidu
+put soft grass or sedges in their moccasins for added warmth. An extra
+sole of tougher leather such as elkskin was sometimes sewn onto the
+moccasin, but this was not customary.
+
+Occasionally open sandals held on by three or four thongs were worn by
+Atsugewi and Yana.
+
+    [Illustration: Maidu snowshoe with raw-hide lashings]
+
+    [Illustration: Snowshoe of about eighteen inches in diameter (after
+    Dixon)]
+
+Knee length leggings of various materials were common in winter. These
+were tied on with buckskin strips at ankle and knee. Yana used
+hip-length pantleg type leggings held on with waist bands. Atsugewi
+sometimes employed fur pieces, twined tule, or spiral wrap-around fur
+strip leggings. Maidu used deerhide leggings with the hair side inside.
+These went from ankles to above the knees where they were tied, and were
+held close to the leg by an outside spirally wound thong from top to
+bottom.
+
+Snowshoes were a necessity too in the rigorous climate of even the lower
+portions of the areas inhabited by tribes of the Lassen area,
+particularly in those of the Atsugewi and mountain Maidu. Snowshoes of
+the former Indians were circular in plan; those of the latter were oval.
+Snowshoes were fashioned from small green wooden limbs shaped while hot,
+and then crisscrossed with strips of buckskin or hide with the fur side
+down for better traction. Atsugewi used green juniper limbs for the
+purpose. Since the whole foot was bound firmly to this footgear, there
+was no heel play as in the case of white mans’ snowshoes.
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter XVI
+                      BEAUTY AND PERSONAL GROOMING
+
+
+  Of Atsugewi standards of beauty Garth states: “The ideal woman was
+  short but plump and solidly built so that she could do much work. A
+  slim woman was considered too weak, and a very tall woman was made fun
+  of and called lohkata (stick woman). Heavy breasts, a straight slim
+  nose, large eyes, long black hair, and small feet were all admirable
+  qualities. A girl with big feet was likely to be lazy, also a small
+  foot was desirable because it would not take so large a moccasin. A
+  mother pressed her girl child’s foot together to make it slender. The
+  ideal man was of average height and was heavy set. If a child had a
+  flat nose, his mother pinched it and tried to give it a higher bridge.
+  Bow legs, it was said, might be straightened by the mother when the
+  child was young. Also a child’s ears were pressed against his head; if
+  the ears stood out, this was thought to indicate poor hearing. A slim
+  hand indicated a lazy person; a short stubby hand signified a good
+  worker.”
+
+Garth also comments to the effect that evidently the ideals of Indian
+beauty had a very practical basis. The same general criteria of beauty
+and desirability of women seem to have prevailed among the other tribes
+of this region also, but Yana preferred a rather flat and broad faced
+feminine beauty.
+
+The hair of both men and women among California Indians was generally
+worn long. The tribes of the Lassen area were no exception. However,
+bangs on the forehead were known. Boys and girls let their hair hang
+loosely, except that Atsugewi sometimes cut small boys’ hair short to
+make it grow better later.
+
+Women usually parted their hair in the middle wearing it in two hanks,
+one hanging in front of each shoulder. Each was tied with a piece of
+rawhide. Women of Yana tribes often used strips of otter or mink fur for
+the purpose as did some Atsugewi. Yana women might add further
+decoration in the form of a small string of shell beads. Atsugewi women
+might paint their scalps at the part in the hair with red paint.
+
+The male Indian tied his hair in a bunch which hung down the back. All
+local tribes, except mountain Maidu, seem also to have frequently used a
+small mesh hairnet made of plant fibers with a buckskin band to hold a
+man’s hair in a sort of roll at the back of his head. Maidu called the
+net wee-kah. In preparation for war or for the hunt Yana men coiled
+their hair on their heads with well defined top knots. For dances and
+other special events, male Maidu and Yana, if rich, wore mesh bonnets
+thickly covered with white eagle down feathers tied in so that the net
+strands were not visible. Bone hairpins were sometimes used among Yana
+and mountain Maidu men.
+
+    [Illustration: Men’s hair net type of cap worn by adult males of all
+    Lassen area tribes, the wearer’s long hair being piled on top of the
+    head when worn as in upper sketch (after Dixon) with the loose
+    excess net allowed to fall straight down behind.]
+
+  _NET_
+  _BUCKSKIN_
+  _DRAWSTRING_
+  _CORD_
+
+Adults cut their hair off with stone knives to show grief and mourning
+when relatives died. Both men and women cropped their hair closely, but
+mountain Maidu women sometimes only trimmed it off to shoulder length.
+Singeing instead of cutting the hair was sometimes resorted to.
+
+For combing the hair, Atsugewi might use a single stick, a pine cone, or
+a teasle burr. Mountain Maidu might use stiff pine needles, but the item
+most commonly used by all tribes for the purpose was the porcupine tail.
+The animal’s tail was skinned out, stuffed with grass, and sewed shut at
+the open end. Sharp ends of the porcupine quills were blunted with hot
+stones.
+
+Hair was not dyed in this region. It was, however, rubbed with animal
+fat or bone marrow to make it look nicer by aboriginal standards.
+Atsugewi are said to have perfumed their hair on occasion with aromatic
+plant foliage. Hair and body lice were not uncommon; these were hunted
+and removed by hand. Maidu washed their hair frequently with common
+soaproot (_Chlorogalum pomeridianum_).
+
+Faces of adults were painted for a number of occasions. Black was used
+to some extent by both sexes to prevent sunburn and snow-blindness if
+long exposure in the bright sun were expected. Although Yana men and
+women used red and white paint when dancing, among our other tribes face
+paint was used chiefly by men for dances and ceremonies.
+
+    [Illustration: Porcupine tail comb about ten inches long (after
+    Dixon)]
+
+Paint pigments were mixed with animal fat, especially deer grease, or
+with marrow and applied with the fingers. It was smeared on upper arms,
+legs, chest, and cheeks. Atsugewi and mountain Maidu blackened their
+eyebrows. Red pigment was either red soil, usually roasted or burned to
+make the color brighter, or the spores from a fungus which grows on the
+bark of fir trees. The fungus material was dried over a slow fire to
+prepare it for use. Black pigment was universally charcoal. Ashes were
+not used as white pigment. Students of local tribes state that chalk was
+employed for white paint. However, chalk is lacking in the Lassen
+vicinity and it is highly probable that the suitable and readily
+available white diatomaceous earth deposits were used for this purpose
+instead. Atsugewi also used blue color which was obtained in rock form
+by trade with their northern Pit River or Achomawi neighbors.
+
+The light beards which started to grow on male Indians’ faces were
+universally removed completely by plucking with the fingers.
+
+Earlobe and nose piercing was generally practiced by both sexes. Among
+Atsugewi rims of their ears as well as the lobes were perforated in some
+instances.
+
+Tattooing was occasionally done by Yana, but not as commonly as among
+Atsugewi where women not infrequently wore tattooed vertical lines
+across their mouths. Both sexes commonly tattooed their cheeks with
+horizontal lines or with two or three lines radiating from the corners
+of the mouth. Arms and legs were also tattooed to a certain extent. The
+mutilation was done by rubbing charcoal into cuts which had been made
+with stone knives or by rubbing charcoal on the skin and then pricking
+it with bone awls or porcupine quills. However, even among Atsugewi,
+tattooing was by no means universal. Mountain Maidu women were sometimes
+tattooed with three, five, or seven vertical lines on the chin.
+
+Earrings were worn by nearly all men and women. Atsugewi employed bone
+rings, clamshell beads, feathers and even painted ear ornaments.
+Mountain Maidu and Yana usually used bone or wooden ones, plain or
+decorated with feathers or shells. Abalone, like other sea shells, were
+received only in trade and were fashioned into pendants for ears or
+noses.
+
+Nose piercing consisted of making a hole through the septum of the nose.
+This practice was popular among all local tribes. It was done to permit
+the wearing of jewelry although Yana ascribed a deeper meaning to the
+custom as well. They believed that no person would go to his equivalent
+of heaven unless the nose septum was pierced. Hence this was done to the
+dead and a stick inserted if it had not been done in life. Two-pointed
+bone nose-pins were popular inserts as were long narrow dentalium
+shells, or nose pendants of beads. Only among mountain Maidu were nose
+ornaments highly decorated.
+
+    [Illustration: Portion of Atsugewi (probably) necklace of dentalium
+    shells (one and one fourth inches long) and glass trader beads.]
+
+    [Illustration: Maidu necklaces: bear claw and insect perforated
+    acorn.]
+
+    [Illustration: Atsugewi necklace of clamshell disks and digger pine
+    nuts which are a full half inch long.]
+
+Necklaces were common adornments too, but local tribes did not use
+bracelets. Items used for necklaces were perhaps bear teeth and bear
+claws among Atsugewi and Yana. More commonly, certainly, and used by all
+of our tribes were olivella shells, shaped pieces of abalone shells,
+small animal and bird bone rings or tubes, clamshell discs, long
+tooth-shells (dentalia), and Digger Pine nuts which had been parched
+until blackened. Their ends had then been rubbed off or holes bored
+through ends or sides and cleaned out. Yana also made mussel shell disks
+locally, not only for necklaces but as ear pendants. In later years all
+tribes used glass trader beads, usually interspersed with native items.
+
+Maidu, especially their tribes of the lower elevations, went in for
+elaborate feather decorations and headdresses. Valley Maidu even had
+feather cloaks for ceremonial use.
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter XVII
+                                 WEALTH
+
+
+Among local tribes wealth was the direct result of skill and industry
+and was highly regarded by all. A person’s social status in the tribe
+varied directly with his wealth. Lazy persons not able to properly care
+for their own needs were considered as bums and looked down upon by all
+other members of the village. With wealth went a certain amount of
+power. Chiefs, although empowered by heritage, were always well to do,
+and the wealthiest men in smaller units acted in the capacity of
+head-men.
+
+As with modern man, money among Indians was an arbitrary medium of
+exchange, yet it was of more practical value to the Indians than our own
+coins are to us. Their money was prized not only for what it would buy
+in material things, but as possessing important decorative value as
+well.
+
+The long tooth-shell or dentalium was used whole and unmodified. It was
+the currency of the northwest California coast. The money of central and
+southern California was the clamshell disk. This was cut, smoothed into
+disk shapes about half an inch in diameter, and each was perforated with
+a central hole by means of which this money could be strung onto cords.
+In no case did local tribes travel the California coast to obtain these
+shell coins. Instead, this item found its way to Indians of the interior
+through progressive or step-by-step trading from coastal tribes through
+intermediate aboriginal traders.
+
+As we might expect, dentalia, having a northern origin, were secured by
+Atsugewi not from their neighbors to the south, but from the northern
+Yana in exchange for buckskins, arrows, wildcat skin quivers, and
+woodpecker scalps. The mountain Maidu did not have dentalia at all.
+
+Except for the central Yana custom of measuring the length of strings of
+clamshell disks, amounts of money were determined by counting and not by
+measuring length on arm tatoos as was so commonly the case in other
+parts of California. Skins of small mammals which had been skinned by
+making only one slit in the hind quarters and whose mouth openings had
+been tied shut, served as purses.
+
+All of our tribes used clamshell money. Among Yana clamshell disks were
+not as valuable as dentalia, and they were more common also among
+Atsugewi, the dentalia being used more for decoration than as money. The
+tribes of the Lassen region generally received the finished clamshell
+money; almost never did they manufacture this, although they did work
+traded abalone shell into jewelry pieces.
+
+Material wealth or treasure other than weapons, skins, baskets, and food
+also consisted largely of imported seashells. Whole olivella shells were
+commonly used as dress ornaments and also for paying shamans for
+services. Bone cylinders, columellae of shells, and especially polished
+cylinders of the mineral magnesite were highly prized. These might be
+used as the central piece of a necklace in the same manner that we might
+utilize a precious gem.
+
+
+
+
+                             Chapter XVIII
+                            CEREMONIAL DRESS
+
+
+All local tribes used the beautiful salmon colored feathers of the
+Red-shafted Flicker, a woodpecker also known to us by the name
+Yellowhammer. A headband of the bird’s feathers—the stiff quills—was
+worn on the forehead. Mountain Maidu doctors wore this item also as a
+belt. In addition Atsugewi made a full feather band which was worn in a
+variety of ways including hanging down the back. This was usually used
+only by the shamans.
+
+Another ceremonial item was the California or Acorn Woodpecker scalp
+headband. This usually had a buckskin strap base, however, mountain
+Maidu glued these gay feathered patches onto fur bands, Yana wore
+woodpecker scalps on buckskin as belts.
+
+Mountain Maidu made belts of bands on which the showy greenish feathered
+neck skins of male Mallard Ducks in mating plumage were strung.
+
+For ceremonial use it was generally customary to tuck small tufts of
+feathers into the top of the hair. Among Atsugewi, chiefs only used
+eagle feathers for this purpose. This tribe also fastened single
+feathers into the crown of buckskin caps in a radiating manner, and also
+onto strips hanging down the back. Sometimes feathers were tipped with
+small white feathers to make the former even more decorative. Feathers
+were also fastened to head nets in a number of ways which differed
+somewhat among our tribes. Among Atsugewi, women wore these on occasion,
+but generally it was the males who decked themselves with feathers.
+Feather plumes of various sorts, employing either twisted buckskin or
+stick bodies, were also in general use.
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter XIX
+                          TOBACCO AND SMOKING
+
+
+The knowledge and use of tobacco are among the important elements which
+our own culture of today has inherited from the Indians of North
+America. Of what benefit this has been is a debatable matter, but its
+effect has been profound, both on our customs and our economy.
+
+Local tribes used simple one piece wooden pipes of tubular design for
+the most part in smoking tobacco. Atsugewi and mountain Maidu commonly
+employed elder and other woods with a pithy and easily removed center.
+Although not otherwise being considered in this account, the Shasta
+Indian technique of pipe making is mentioned here because of its
+uniqueness. These folks hollowed pipe stems by soaking the end of a
+suitable stick in salmon oil. The larvae of the salmon fly were then
+introduced, and these worm-like creatures, eating the nourishing fishy
+core, would bore their ways lengthwise through the center of the
+heartwood where most of the salmon oil was concentrated. The Yana
+habitually used the wood of ash as pipe stock. Mountain Maidu found but
+did not manufacture a few simple stone pipe bowls also of tubular
+design. These had considerable spiritual significance and were treated
+with great care. Garth states that Atsugewi also had short stone pipes,
+tubular in shape, to which elder or rose wood extensions up to eleven
+inches in length were applied. Stone pipes were apparently not common in
+the Lassen region, however.
+
+    [Illustration: Steatite stone pipes were used without wooden stems,
+    each between three and four inches long. The holes in such pipes
+    were made by tapping a deer antler piece in the depression
+    containing some sand, a slow but effective boring process. This was
+    commonly done by Valley tribes.]
+
+    [Illustration: Yana reddish porous lava (dacite?) pipe, broken half,
+    both sides shown. Note funnel-shaped depression in the bottom of the
+    outside (lower half)]
+
+Pipes were used at social gatherings, after sweating, and at bed time.
+The pipes of the local tribes did not have any bends or curves. These
+straight tubular pipes were therefore most conveniently smoked when the
+Indians were reclining on their backs thus keeping the tobacco from
+falling out. Pipes were normally passed around, and used only by the
+men. However, women shamans of the mountain Maidu also smoked them.
+Shamans regularly used pipe smoking in ceremonies, especially when
+healing the sick.
+
+Tobacco grew wild and burning of brush was performed in certain
+localities to promote the growth of _Nicotiana_ plants. Tobacco was not
+cultivated, but mountain Maidu did collect and scatter seeds in
+favorable areas. Tobacco was prepared merely by collecting the leaves
+when fully developed but still green, then drying, preferably in the
+shade, and finally crumbling the cured leaf in the hand. Tobacco was
+carried in buckskin pouches usually. Atsugewi often added manzanita and
+deer grease to their smoking tobacco. Indians of this region did not
+chew tobacco nor did they eat it with lime as was the custom elsewhere
+in California. Native tobacco is quite strong.
+
+
+
+
+                               Chapter XX
+                             MUSIC AND ART
+
+
+Music of local tribes was limited indeed. It was usually made by men.
+Only Atsugewi among the Lassen tribes possessed the drum, and this is
+believed to have been of recent introduction. It was a tambourine type:
+flat, cylindrical, a foot or so across, and with buckskin shrunken over
+one end.
+
+The shamans of all tribes used cocoon rattles. These were made of large
+cocoons from which the moth pupae had been removed through a small hole.
+Pebbles or seeds were then inserted and usually five or six
+cocoons—among Atsugewi as many as thirty—were tied onto the end of a
+wooden handle and dried. Cocoon rattles were considered dangerous and
+were usually kept hidden out of doors, being used by shamans only when
+doctoring.
+
+A single split stick clapper was employed generally for all types of
+singing and dancing, not being reserved for any special type of person
+or ceremony.
+
+Deer-hoof rattles were made from the small hard “dew-claws” from the
+backs of deer legs. About twenty dew-claws were tied loosely with thongs
+to a strip of buckskin which was then wrapped about a stick with a plain
+handle. The deer-hoof rattle was operated by vigorously jerking it
+lengthwise, in and out. It was used exclusively in the important puberty
+rites when girls attained womanhood.
+
+    [Illustration: Deer-hoof rattle, length about ten inches (after
+    Dixon)]
+
+    [Illustration: Maidu split-stick clapper, twenty inches long]
+
+    [Illustration: Maidu cocoon rattle eight inches long]
+
+    [Illustration: Maidu bird-bone whistles]
+
+    [Illustration: Atsugewi deer-claw rattle]
+
+    [Illustration: Universal split-stick dancing rattle]
+
+    [Illustration: Maidu cocoon rattle]
+
+    [Illustration: Flute and bull-roarer of local manufacture]
+
+Atsugewi and Yana employed hunting bows as musical instruments by
+holding one end in the mouth and plucking the string with fingers.
+Mountain Maidu did so too, but like the others only for their own
+amusement.
+
+Bone, cane, and elder whistles were blown at dances. Flutes, the most
+tuneful of Indians’ instruments, were not played at ceremonies or at
+dances, curiously enough, but just for self amusement, or in the case of
+mountain Maidu also for courting pretty girls. Flute melodies were
+supposed to tell stories, but words were not sung to help the
+interpretation. Yana made a six-hole flute; other tribes of the Lassen
+area used a four hole model. In all cases they were open, reedless
+instruments blown at an angle across one end. The flute was most
+frequently made of elder wood—mountain Maidu burned the holes into it
+with live coals.
+
+Except for basketry designs art as such is virtually non-existent. A few
+simple designs were painted onto hunting bows, and some nose and ear
+pendants might be considered jewelry art forms, but of the lowest
+development. The application of face and body paints and tattooing were
+also simple examples of Indian art.
+
+There appear to be no cliff or cave paintings in the vicinity of Lassen
+Peak, but they are abundant in Lava Beds National Monument about 75
+miles to the north. A different matter is that of petroglyphs which, in
+California, usually have been made by striking or pecking smooth rock
+surfaces with small hard stones. Some of these are to be found in the
+Atsugewi and central Yana territories at lower elevation. However, these
+symbolic markings were not executed by the local tribes. Atsugewi
+believe them to have been made by mythological characters. It appears
+that the petroglyphs must have been made by the predecessors of the Hat
+Creek and Nozi Indians, for these people claim no knowledge of even the
+meaning of the rock writings. Shortly before going to press the first
+petroglyph known to come from the Lassen vicinity was found in the
+territory of the Southern Yana. The site is one where numerous obsidian
+chips and arrowpoints have been found on a gently south sloping, open
+forested portion of Lassen Volcanic National Park headquarters area at
+an elevation of almost 5000 feet and situated slightly west of the
+village of Mineral and just north of the north edge of Battle Creek
+Meadow.
+
+This find on a 10 inch boulder appears to be of ancient origin. The
+surface has weathered considerably yet not so much that the character of
+the carving has been altered. It is apparent that the quarter inch deep
+grooves have been made by rubbing rather than by pecking with hard
+rocks. This is all the more interesting since the boulder bearing the
+carving is of a tough hard and site lava. It is indeed unfortunate that
+the significance of this Battle Creek Meadows petroglyph is unknown. The
+authorities venture the opinion that the stone may have been used in
+puberty ceremonies. If so, whether by the Southern Yana or their
+predecessors we do not know either.
+
+    [Illustration: Battle Creek Meadows petroglyph about nine inches
+    long. The eye-shaped area A is a smooth flat one eighth of an inch
+    below the level of the rest of the rock surface. The grooves
+    bounding it are more than one quarter inch deep and of V-shaped
+    cross-section while the other markings are much shallower troughs
+    with rounded bottoms some being quite vague. B, C, D, and E indicate
+    deeper rounded depressions. F is a smooth and very uniform slightly
+    concave area.]
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter XXI
+                      GAMES AND SOCIAL GATHERINGS
+
+
+Heavy betting on games was the rule. Games were commonly played between
+neighboring villages or even on occasion with neighboring tribes.
+Gambling was an important element in these contests and large sums were
+bet. Sometimes nearly all of a person’s or even of a group’s possessions
+were at stake. Evaluation of the stakes in white man’s terms is
+difficult, but they are said frequently to have been of the order of
+several hundred dollars or even as much as a thousand dollars. Important
+games lasted more than one day—perhaps three or four days. The players
+caught brief rests only and were completely exhausted by the time the
+playing was over. Singing was the usual accompaniment and high quality
+rendition at games was much admired. Cheating was rare, maybe because it
+was supposed to bring subsequent bad luck.
+
+Most games were guessing games. There was considerable variety in the
+character and number of gambling stones or wooden sticks used, the
+manner of shuffling and other details. The sticks were shuffled and then
+concealed in the hands of one or several players on one side. The
+opposition had to determine the location of the marked stick or the
+arrangement of several. There were many spectators and excitement ran
+high. Women occasionally participated along with the men who were the
+main contestants. Counting sticks might be supplied to each side in
+equal number at the beginning. More often, however, the sticks were all
+placed in a common pile at the outset, the successful side taking a
+counting stick with each win. These scoring sticks were taken and
+surrendered as the tide of the game changed until one side had all. The
+game was won at this point.
+
+Ball games were played too. The ball was of buckskin stuffed with hair.
+The object was to kick the ball between the other team’s goal posts.
+Kicking ball races over given courses and back, or around a lake shore,
+were also indulged in. In some contests the men and youths on opposing
+sides would engage in restraining each other so that a number of
+individual or group wrestling bouts developed on the playing field.
+
+    [Illustration: Yana gambling bone, four inches long]
+
+There were foot races of distances either short or up to fifteen miles
+or so in length. Also archery contests and wrestling matches were held.
+In wrestling the object was to throw the opponent to the ground;
+tripping was not allowed. Contests in which heavy rocks were tossed,
+somewhat in the manner of today’s shot-put, and heavier rocks carried in
+competition over a designated line were other games in which the
+Atsugewi engaged.
+
+Shinny was played by women and children as well as by men, but adult
+sexes played separately in all of our tribes except Yana. Among them
+only men participated in this game. Mountain Maidu had three players on
+a side; Atsugewi had five players. Straight shinny sticks curved at the
+striking end were used and the puck was a hide affair. Mountain Maidu
+used a double ball puck. An attempt was made to keep the puck in the air
+in play. The object, of course, was to get the puck to go between the
+opponents’ goal posts. The Yana used a puck of two bones linked by a
+string several inches long. Running with the puck on the stick as well
+as hitting, and throwing it down the field were permitted.
+
+Children improvised a number of games in the same manner as our own
+children do today in copying their parents. They played house with
+limbless but dressed dolls, made and used toy bows and arrows, and made
+sling shots, too. They commonly tried juggling two stones in one hand,
+spun acorn tops by hand, and in some instances noise makers such as
+wooden buzzers and bull roarers were used. In play, loud noise was not
+condoned, however.
+
+Small feasts might occur at any time and were perhaps the most important
+social gatherings of Atsugewi. They were usually sparked by a temporary
+abundance of food. Dancing was not included.
+
+    [Illustration: Child’s acorn top]
+
+Mr. Garth describes the Atsugewi “... grand occasion ... held only when
+a large supply of food had been accumulated, was the bagapi or ‘big
+time’.... The chief called a meeting to decide on the date and then sent
+his people to various places for deer and other foods. Knotted strings
+(rokuki) with a knot tied for each intervening day before the festival
+were sent to other villages. By untying a knot each day other chieftains
+knew when to start for the host’s village. The host chief stood on the
+roof of his earth lodge and welcomed the visitor, calling each chief by
+name: ‘Don’t fall down. Step carefully. I’m glad you have come to see
+me. Don’t be in a hurry.’... Toward evening the visitors might give a
+dance, after which the host chief called everyone to eat. Large baskets
+containing acorn mush, meat, sunflower seeds, and other foods were
+placed on the ground. The host proffered baskets of food to each
+visiting chief who in turn then distributed the food to his people. In
+winter two tribal groups on opposite sides of the sweat house might have
+a competitive sweat dance, vying to see which could endure the heat
+longest. In summer the sweating was usually omitted, and games of chance
+were begun. In the several days that followed, foot racing, archery,
+weight lifting, and other contests were indulged in. Large bets were
+made by opposing sides on the outcome of each contest, and the losing
+side at the end of the week’s festivities often had little property
+left. Surplus food was divided among the guests before they departed.”
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter XXII
+                                 DANCES
+
+
+Mountain Maidu had more dances and more types of dances than other
+tribes of the Lassen area. Tribes of the Sacramento Valley had many more
+and more complicated dance ceremonies than ours did.
+
+Mountain Maidu had formalized sweat dances which were performed inside
+large dwelling lodges at night and were participated in by both sexes.
+As in the case of Yana, only one man, the leader, sang and hit the
+central pole rhythmically with a split stick rattle. The dancers
+performed simultaneously but in one spot until they were exhausted and
+took a cold swim afterwards.
+
+Of the less ceremonial Atsugewi sweat dance, Garth states:
+
+  “... Men danced naked except for circlets ... of twisted grass around
+  the waist, head and upper arm, and occasionally from one shoulder
+  diagonally across the chest.... Three or four lines of black or white
+  paint might be drawn across the chest and upper arm. Women wore a
+  skirt and only a small amount of paint. The dancing took place in the
+  combination sweat, dance, and dwelling house of the chief or head
+  man.... The fire was built high with dry mountain mahogany ..., pine
+  ..., and sometimes with willow ..., all woods which burned without
+  much smoke; the ventilator door was closed and the dance began. The
+  one singer sat in a corner and beat time with a split stick rattle....
+  Each of ten or twelve dancers might approach close to the fire to show
+  his ability to endure heat, pick up burning brands, one in each hand,
+  and alternately hit one upper arm and then the other with the brands.
+  The heat often became so intense that water had to be thrown on the
+  center post to prevent its catching fire. There was rivalry to see who
+  could stay inside longest, and after a time one man after another
+  emerged and dived into the icy water nearby or rolled in the snow.
+  There might be sweating three or four nights in succession on the
+  occasion of a communal hunt.”
+
+Mountain Maidu held a dance gathering each spring for Black Bear and
+Grizzly Bear. They believed that this dance had been done by animals in
+mythical “before Indian times”. This gathering lasted three days and
+nights, but the actual dance was in progress only one day and night.
+Only women danced but men participated in the ceremony dressed in bear
+robes. There was much feasting too.
+
+The pre- and post-war dances are discussed under the chapter on war.
+
+
+
+
+                             Chapter XXIII
+                    POLITICAL ORGANIZATION OF TRIBES
+
+
+Tribes, as we think of them, were non-existent as political units, and
+hence there were no tribal chiefs, but there were village chiefs, in the
+California province.
+
+The self governing unit was always a village or a group of small closely
+adjacent villages. This is the political unit which was governed by the
+chief. Villages might consist of from four to about twenty-five earth
+lodges and bark huts with populations of from twenty-five to a hundred
+or more persons. Influential leaders, usually of much wealth—but not
+necessarily so—were recognized as head-men, exercising considerable
+authority over the smaller villages or separated groups of houses near
+villages. However the head-man’s authority was subservient to that of
+the chief.
+
+Chieftainship was inherited through the father’s lineage, the oldest son
+being the first in succession. However, if the son were too young to
+take over, the deceased chief’s brother was temporarily in charge. The
+qualities of good character and knowledge were also important
+qualifications for chieftainship, and a chief could be deposed if he
+were not a good one. Tenure was normally for life, dependent upon
+satisfactory behavior and performance of his responsibilities.
+
+The chief’s relatives hunted and fished for him, but he fed visitors and
+provided most of the food for feasts. The chief always directed
+community economic activities such as group fishing, deer hunting, and
+root digging expeditions. For this reason chiefs had to know much about
+game, fish runs, ripening seasons, et cetera, and had to possess good
+judgement to insure success of group undertakings. Chiefs also spoke to
+their people mornings and evenings, and at ceremonies and the like.
+Chiefs furthermore declared days of rest when chores were done about
+home. Another function was to arbitrate quarrels among the people.
+
+Mountain Maidu villages had assistant chiefs besides, who were sons or
+brothers of the chiefs. This assistant advised the chief and substituted
+for him as the occasion demanded. A specific duty of his was the
+division of food at ceremonies.
+
+Some chiefs had secondary female chiefs who in the case of the Maidu
+were daughters, among Atsugewi the chiefs’ wives. A woman in this
+capacity supervised preparation of food for feasts and in Atsugewi
+villages might give orders to men.
+
+Atsugewi chiefs appointed clowns at ceremonies who were paid. Appointed
+messengers were a part of every chief’s staff. They were selected on the
+basis of both willingness to serve and ability. Maidu had about six
+messengers per village while the number varied among Atsugewi.
+Messengers were good speakers, reliable men, and were discharged if they
+failed in their duties. These included not only message running, but
+among Atsugewi, tending fires at ceremonies. For Maidu chiefs,
+messengers welcomed guests and traveled about gathering news and
+scouting. Special fire tenders were appointed in this tribe.
+
+Atsugewi chiefs seem to have possessed greater prestige and authority
+than those of the mountain Maidu, the Yana, and the Yahi. The decisions
+of Atsugewi chiefs were final, but these had to be diplomatic if the
+chief were to remain popular. If a chief were unpopular some of his
+people would move to another village leaving the first chief’s community
+numerically weaker. Chiefs were generally well obeyed by rich and poor
+alike. In return, chiefs unfailingly had the interests of their people
+at heart. Atsugewi chiefs, specifically, set examples of industry,
+behavior, and judgement for their people. No doubt this was generally
+true of the chiefs of units in other local tribes too.
+
+Because of the greater popularity, prestige, and consequently larger
+following of some individual chiefs, they were considerably more
+powerful than other chiefs in the same tribe. Such men were influential
+to some extent beyond the boundaries of their own territories.
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter XXIV
+                             WAR AND PEACE
+
+
+Wars were commonly small scale encounters and might be either within
+tribes or between tribes. Atsugewi were not often aggressive. Most
+tribes at one time or another had differences with neighboring tribes,
+but friendly relations were usually re-established soon. Certain tribes,
+however, were repeatedly or traditionally enemies, as for instance,
+Klamath, Paiute, or Modoc against Atsugewi; Washoe against mountain
+Maidu; Achomawi or Wintun against the Yana tribes; and mountain Maidu or
+Wintun against Yahi. Tribes sometimes helped each other in wars, and
+either payment or reciprocal aid was usually forthcoming.
+
+Causes of hostilities in the Lassen area were usually revenge for
+murders (if uncompensated), abduction of women and children, or insults
+to chiefs. Mountain Maidu, Yana, and Yahi also waged wars on account of
+poaching, rape, alleged witchcraft, and the like. All able bodied men
+normally went to war, but mountain Maidu left some at home to protect
+the women.
+
+Chiefs generally did not participate in the fighting although they often
+went along on the war expedition. Instead of leading the battles
+themselves, chiefs appointed special warrior leaders who were principal
+targets of the opposition. Such battle leaders were often head-men, but
+always were men competent to lead the fight and who had good arrow
+dodging power.
+
+Shamans habitually went to war, but did not fight actively except on
+occasion. They were busy singing during battle and urging the warriors
+on or exhorting supernatural help. The Atsugewi shaman reportedly
+“stayed behind a tree all the time giving out his power”.
+
+Preparation for war consisted of practicing dodging arrows, shooting
+arrows, in some cases at effigies, and in dancing. The main purpose of
+the preparation was to incite enthusiasm for the fight. This was so
+successful that quite a commotion developed in the community, to the
+extent that such incidents occurred as warriors with knives chasing
+women and a man shooting his own dog with an arrow! Preparatory war
+dances were held outside near the villages. Both men and women
+participated and shamans sang. Mountain Maidu sustained their dances for
+several days. Warriors spoke to their arrows addressing them as persons.
+Atsugewi men painted themselves with white and black stripes on faces,
+limbs, and bodies. Yana used red and white war paint. Mountain Maidu
+wore head nets and bands. Dried untanned skins of bear, elk, and such
+were worn at dances as well as in battle, as were waistcoat armors of
+strong vertical sticks lashed together. Leather helmets were worn by
+some warriors.
+
+The enemy was usually attacked just at dawn using the element of
+surprise to the fullest extent possible. Some battles were pre-arranged
+in which a number of participants faced each other in well formed lines.
+Such conflicts were subject to “calling off” if too many men were
+injured or killed. Serious raids, however, did not give quarter and men,
+women, and children were killed. Booty was taken and scalps, too, were
+stripped from fallen victims. Scalps were later burned by Atsugewi, but
+mountain Maidu dried human scalps on frames. This tribe also took entire
+heads from bodies on occasion. Prisoners were taken too: Atsugewi not
+infrequently adopted captured children. Captive women might be
+mistreated and raped, then killed. Adult prisoners might escape with
+relative ease because there was no suitable way to confine them
+permanently, and some were returned voluntarily.
+
+While the war party was away on its expedition, the women at home danced
+individually in the manner of the war dance. They sang and prayed to
+help the men at war. Atsugewi women dancers carried feathers, bows, and
+arrows, but rattles were not used in these morale dances.
+
+Upon return of the war party a victory dance was held in or near the
+village in the open air. Men and women danced independently, but
+together at the same time. Atsugewi men painted themselves red and white
+instead of the black and white used for the pre-war dance. They wore
+headdresses of all sorts and the warriors carried their bows, arrows,
+armor, and other fighting gear while dancing. The victory dance took
+place around a fire. Next to the fire Atsugewi planted a short pole on
+which the new scalps were displayed while mountain Maidu danced with the
+scalps secured to hand-carried sticks. It is worth noting that while
+some readers may consider this gloating over human scalps to be a
+primitive morbidity, it is true that often white men—the very pioneers
+we eulogize—took and coveted human scalps themselves.
+
+Warriors, particularly those who had killed adversaries, purified
+themselves by swimming, rubbing aromatic plants on their bodies, praying
+for luck. They did not eat meat for from a few to many days, depending
+on the tribe. Among Atsugewi they also sweated with the same end in
+view, and women brushed the men’s bodies with plant materials to aid the
+purification process.
+
+Surprisingly, the eating of hot foods and any form of meat was taboo to
+wounded warriors. This seems strange, since these are the very foods
+which we consider beneficial to injured persons.
+
+When an attack appeared likely upon an Atsugewi village, the whole
+population retired to high ground which was easily defended. Such sites
+were prepared in advance and might be considered crude forts as they
+were surrounded by rock walls and provided with shelters for the
+non-combatants.
+
+In intertribal wars there was usually no compensation as such made where
+the encounter had been motivated by the satisfaction of securing
+revenge. In the case of feuds or murders within the tribe payment was
+made to relatives of the slain. If persons on both sides were slain
+compensation was made for all the dead. The chief or head-man supervised
+the peace negotiations. Payment was usually in beads or money, but
+Atsugewi sometimes paid off in women or in the amount of the usual price
+of a bride. In this tribe too, the amount of compensation was made
+according to the wealth of the victim. A poor man’s life was not
+considered to be worth as much as a rich man’s. Atsugewi had a
+settlement dance meeting in which both sides were present and wore
+fighting regalia. These dancers disarmed themselves after the payment
+had been made.
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter XXV
+                            BIRTH AND BABIES
+
+
+The natural function of birth obviously varied only in details of
+handling the situation, delivery assistance, disposition of the
+afterbirth, and methods of cutting and treating the child’s umbilical
+cord. The baby was born in a separate hut which contained a trench
+heated with coals. These were covered with grass and pine needles or fir
+boughs. On this warm green bed the woman lay at least a part of the time
+during labor and also after delivery.
+
+Children were desired and a barren woman was looked down on socially.
+Inability to produce children was grounds for divorce. The behavior of
+both parents during pregnancy was believed to closely affect personality
+and health of the child.
+
+After giving birth, the mother remained in isolation for from nearly a
+week to a month or more. Many taboos were imposed upon her. Bathing in
+streams and sweat baths, eating fresh or dried meat or fish, grease, and
+often salt were forbidden to her. Most tribes of the Lassen area also
+prohibited combing of the mother’s hair by herself during the period of
+isolation. Also taboo was scratching herself with her hands, making
+baskets, preparing food, or traveling.
+
+    [Illustration: Front and side views of Atsugewi cradle basket for a
+    very young baby. (tseh-nay-gow)]
+
+    [Illustration: Atsugewi young baby carrying basket or teseh-nay-gow]
+
+There were restrictions on the father of the newly born child too. Among
+Atsugewi and Yana he stayed with the mother, but mountain Maidu fathers
+stayed away for periods of a week or less. Immediately after the birth
+had taken place, the father ran to the woods to break up and bring home
+quantities of fire-wood. Hunting and fishing of all kinds and traveling
+were taboo for several weeks in most cases. Atsugewi and mountain Maidu
+new fathers were also forbidden to smoke and gamble, and like their
+wives, were denied eating fresh or dried fish, meat, and grease for
+varying periods up to a month. Release from taboos occurred with
+sweating and bathing among Atsugewi and mountain Maidu. Fathers in these
+tribes also gave away the first kill when they resumed hunting.
+
+The mother generally massaged the infant to improve the shape and
+proportion of nose, face, limbs, and torso. Shedding of the baby’s
+umbilical cord was an important event which the Indians wished to occur
+as soon as possible. A variety of odd practices to this end were
+employed. The occurrence of the event relieved the parents of some, or
+in other cases of all, the post birth taboos. Among most of our tribes
+the dried cord was saved until the child reached manhood or womanhood.
+It was customarily secured to the cradle basket, but frequently was
+subsequently lost. Earlobes might be pierced in early infancy especially
+if the child were prone to cry much.
+
+    [Illustration: Atsugewi older baby carrying basket or yah-birr-dee.
+    Note the rounded bottom on A, a modernization. Partial illustration
+    B shows old style construction with a pointed bottom for thrusting
+    into the ground.]
+
+Two cradle baskets were used. Mountain Maidu made two of similar oval
+shape, but the first and smaller one was without a hood. Atsugewi and
+Yana tribes made two different types, but both with rounded carrying
+handles and sunshades on top. These were constructed of willow ribs,
+pine root, and buckskin. The first small basket was called tseh-nay-gow
+by Atsugewi and was used for several months. It was short and with a
+distinctly rounded basketry shelf or lip at its lower end. The larger
+baby basket was called yah-bih-dee and was practically identical to that
+of the mountain Maidu. This was made of the usual twined basketry
+materials, but was of different construction. Willow ribs were lashed
+onto a sturdy one-piece forked branch frame, the joint being at the
+bottom. The base or stem of this Y-piece stuck out below for several
+inches being sharpened so that it could be stuck into the ground near
+the mother in camp or when she was out digging roots in the fields.
+Boo-noo-koo-ee-menorra tells of an interesting modification of the
+yah-bih-dee today. Its frame is now simply rounded at the bottom instead
+of having the pointed end described above. “Most people have cars now a
+days” she says, “and that point poked a hole through the seat of the
+car. So now we make the round kind.” Our visitors to Lassen Volcanic
+National Park are always interested in names of the “papoose basket”.
+This term and the words moccasin, wampum, and so on are no doubt of
+Indian origin being the actual words or reasonable facsimiles thereof
+used by some eastern tribe for the objects concerned. English speaking
+Americans have adopted these names as meaning those particular articles
+for all Indian tribes. It may be recalled that earlier in this book, it
+was pointed out that each tribe had its own distinct language and so,
+obviously, each tribe would have had its own distinct names for these
+objects. Hence there is no all inclusive “Indian name” for the cradle
+basket or anything else.
+
+    [Illustration: Maidu baby carrying basket about thirty five inches
+    long.]
+
+The baby was wrapped in tanned buckskin or soft furs, normally wildcat
+by the Atsugewi. A pad of grass or padded bark was placed on the cradle
+board or basket and then the child was lashed into the tshe-nay-gow with
+buckskin straps in a sitting position on the sill with its feet hanging
+down. Most tribes used dry grass, pounded until soft, for diapers, but
+mountain Maidu used skin material for the purpose. Babies were kept in
+the cradle baskets until they were able to walk. The cradle frame was
+carried on the mother’s back with a tump-line passing over her forehead
+or chest. A series of larger cradle baskets were made as the child grew,
+usually three before the child was allowed to crawl or walk.
+
+The newborn infant was never fed the colostrum from its mother. The baby
+was either let go without food or given a cooked meat gruel for
+nourishment for the first two days or so until bonafide milk was
+produced in the mother’s breasts. Children were nursed as often as they
+wished and until they were quite large: even three or four years old.
+
+Names were given to children usually at the age of about a year. Yana
+waited even longer, however, until ages of four to six years before
+giving real names which for this tribe were habitually of a hereditary
+nature. In the meantime, temporary descriptive nicknames were given.
+Many real Atsugewi names had meanings, while those of mountain Maidu and
+Yana normally did not. Nevertheless, Yana and to a certain extent other
+Indians too, might acquire additional nicknames and descriptive names
+later in life, even in adulthood.
+
+Twins were unwanted among all local tribes, probably because of the
+double care and feeding responsibilities involved. Mountain Maidu
+thought that twins were bad luck and actually feared them. It was
+generally believed that twins were caused by the mother having eaten
+twinned nutmeats. These, therefore, were carefully avoided.
+
+Killing newborn babies whether illegitimate, twins, crippled, or when
+the mother died in childbirth, was practiced only on very rare
+occasions. Certainly infanticide was not the rule among any of the local
+tribes, but of course was practiced in certain other areas.
+
+    [Illustration: Yana baby cradle basket for young baby.]
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter XXVI
+                            ADULTHOOD RITES
+
+
+A girl’s attainment of puberty or womanhood was an event of obvious
+importance and it was recognized as such by all tribes of the Lassen
+region with extensive formal ritual and ceremony for each individual
+girl. Only the more important and generally employed taboos and rites
+are noted below. There was considerable variation in details of such
+matters even among the four tribes with which we are dealing.
+
+The girl was secluded in a separate hut for from three to six days and
+sometimes during the nights too. The taboos she observed during this
+time were much like those imposed on a mother giving birth, but were
+even more extensive. The young lady must eat from her own special
+baskets, not cross streams, avoid contacting men—especially hunters,
+refrain from gazing at the sun or moon, et cetera. Among things she must
+do were to wear a basketry cap, or special head bands among some tribes,
+and have her hair put up in two knobs wrapped over her shoulders. This
+had to be done for her as she was not allowed to touch her own hair.
+Carrying the deer-hoof rattle she must run races with other girls, and
+dance much also, scratch her head only with a special scratcher, have
+her earlobes pierced if this had not already been done, and frequently
+her nose septum was punctured too, being kept open by insertion of a
+round stick. Among Wintun tribes of the Sacramento Valley some taboos
+lasted for from one to three years!
+
+For several nights public dances were held which lasted all night. Since
+there was no special ritual for anyone but the girl for whom the dances
+were held, these ceremonies were of a joyous nature and were popular and
+well attended. In the middle of the night food provided by the girl’s
+family was served to all present. Singing with deer-hoof rattle
+accompaniment was carried on all night. Intimate affairs between couples
+were not unusual during such dances. During the daytime as well dances
+were held, but these were of short duration and participated in chiefly
+by the women of the village. At the end of the ordeal the girl bathed
+and was given new clothes, ending her taboos.
+
+There was no formal ceremony when boys attained manhood except that the
+youths were generally sent alone into the neighboring mountains for
+several days to seek special “powers” to give them skill and luck in
+certain pursuits such as deer hunting, archery, fighting, shamanism, and
+the like.
+
+During menstruation all women had to observe many taboos too. These
+included eating alone and living in seclusion. They could eat no meat or
+fish, fat, or salt, and must not cook. They must avoid sick persons and
+hunters, and could not scratch themselves except with the scratching
+stick. At the end of the taboo periods of four or five days, they
+usually bathed in streams for purification.
+
+Curiously, wives’ menstruations had to be observed by their husbands in
+a number of ways. Most common was prohibition of smoking, and they must
+eat lightly. Among mountain Maidu the husband could hunt and fish, but
+could not eat any flesh; among Atsugewi the reverse was true.
+
+
+
+
+                             Chapter XXVII
+                          MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE
+
+
+Marriage itself was not formalized with any ceremony. It was common
+practice for parents to arrange marriages when children were young and
+these arrangements, which involved some exchange of gifts or payment,
+were usually honored later. Most other marriages were arranged by
+parents later when the children had reached maturity and generally these
+recognized the children’s wishes. Both of these types of marriages were
+the basis for extensive exchange of presents and visits, details of
+which differed among the several tribes. In addition there was almost
+universal payment for the girl—about ten strings of clamshell disks was
+standard. The boy and girl became husband and wife simply upon starting
+to live together, but the new status was usually marked by a feast
+participated in by the families concerned. Generally there followed a
+period of residence of the couple with one or both of the in-laws. On
+occasion marriages grew from intimacies with no parental negotiations,
+but such matches were not well regarded by the community.
+
+Indian men frequently married women from other villages and occasionally
+even women from other tribes.
+
+If a wife died her sister was generally obliged to marry the widower.
+Likewise, if the husband died it was customary that his brother would
+marry the widow. A wise institution was the relationship of the husband
+and wife with their in-laws. Neither could speak to nor hand things
+directly to the in-law of opposite sex, or in some cases even to the
+brothers and sisters of the in-laws; such things had to be done by a
+third party. In some instances the mother-in-law even avoided looking at
+her son-in-law even though she might like him. Such arrangements no
+doubt prevented many arguments and quarrels, but as far as their own
+evaluation of these customs were concerned, the basis lay in the belief
+that a bear might eat either or both of the violators of the in-law
+taboos.
+
+The practice of having more than one wife at a time was common. One man
+might have three or four wives, but rarely had more than two at a time.
+Rich men or head-men and chiefs were most apt to have more than two
+wives.
+
+Divorce was simple indeed. The man just sent the girl back home if she
+were barren, lazy, promiscuous, or the like. If he had good reasons for
+wanting to get rid of his wife, her purchase price might be refunded by
+her family, or else the ex-wife’s sister might be sent to him in
+exchange, or, sometimes, in addition with no additional payment. On the
+other hand, the wife might leave her husband if she had been badly
+mistreated, or if the husband did not provide enough meat and clothing
+for the family or if he were unfaithful. In divorce the children were
+divided. Usually, but not always, the girls remained with their mother
+and the boys with their father. However, divorce was not common among
+Indians of this region.
+
+On the whole, morals were high and sexual deviations were infrequent,
+although the whole range of such practices were known to the aborigines.
+It appears beyond argument that divorces, moral laxity, and sexual
+aberrations increased with the coming of white man.
+
+
+
+
+                             Chapter XXVIII
+                            DEATH AND BURIAL
+
+
+Atsugewi and mountain Maidu left the corpse in the house for one day.
+They prepared it for burial by dressing it well and adding bead
+necklaces, then wrapping it in a hide. Yana did the same, washing the
+body first, and although also adorning the corpse with jewelry, they
+always removed decorative nose ornaments, replacing these with simple
+sticks. According to Voegelin, Atsugewi removed the body for burial
+prone and feet first through the wall of the house, but Garth states
+that the body was removed through the southern ventilator passage or
+through the regular entrance way in the roof.
+
+The mountain Maidu, Yana, Yahi, and usually the Atsugewi bent the body
+into a position called flexed. The arms were folded across the chest and
+the knees were drawn up against the stomach before wrapping the corpse
+in a robe which was then sewn shut. The mountain Maidu sometimes put the
+wrapped cadaver into a large basket. Voegelin was of the opinion that
+Atsugewi buried their dead lying flat on their backs, and if so, always
+with the head toward the east. It is thought that this prone burial
+might be a recent innovation learned from white man.
+
+Mourners among all of our local tribes wailed aloud and brought gifts
+for the dead. Women, especially the older ones, mourned vigorously. To
+quote Garth again on Atsugewi, of their mourning he states:
+
+  “The deceased’s close relatives mourned the hardest, but friends might
+  also mourn——‘to make them feel better.’ Mourners cried and rolled on
+  the ground, throwing dirt and hot ashes in their faces and hair. Some,
+  in their grief, tried to commit suicide, and a close watch had to be
+  kept over them to prevent their doing so. Favorite methods were to
+  swallow small bits of (obsidian) or to eat a certain kind of spider.
+  Mourners were warned not to cry around the house near the body but to
+  go to the hills to cry, and also not to look down when crying or to
+  cry too much. Otherwise they were subject to bad dreams in which
+  spirits would plague them and possibly kill them. A mourner might
+  acquire power at this time. A widow, with possibly a sister to help
+  her, would wail for a time at daybreak and again in the evening. This
+  lasted for two or three months, sometimes longer. A widower seldom
+  cried more than two or three weeks. The widow visited places at which
+  she had camped with her husband, broke up utensils left there, burned
+  down the brush where he was accustomed to cut wood, and piled up rocks
+  where they had slept together. A widower behaved in similar
+  fashion.... If death occurred in a village, no entertainments could be
+  held for a time; otherwise relatives of the deceased had the right to
+  break things up and throw them around. A man would not sing or attend
+  a ‘big time’ gathering until at least a year after death of a close
+  relative.”
+
+If the lodge were to be lived in again, after a person had died in it,
+Atsugewi brought in juniper boughs, and these were burned to purify the
+house. Bark huts, however, were always burned down after an occupant had
+died.
+
+Mountain Maidu children were kept away from the dead and from the
+funeral proceedings. In that tribe and probably among all local tribes,
+if the deceased were rich the funeral would be much larger and more
+pretentious than if the person had been poor. In the former case the
+ceremony was followed by a feast. Other tribes buried the dead in the
+evening generally within twenty-four hours after death, but Yana waited
+three or four days. Mountain Maidu grave diggers put grass in their
+mouths. Small shallow graves sufficed for poor people, in fact, among
+Atsugewi, at least, poor people were often buried in small depressions
+in lava flows and covered over with convenient rocks.
+
+Enroute to Atsugewi burials no one was permitted to look back, and water
+was sprinkled along the path to prevent the dead person’s spirit from
+returning to the village. At the grave the dead were asked aloud please
+not to look back, for if they did other members of their families would
+die soon.
+
+Cremation, that is, burning of corpses was rare among tribes of the
+Lassen area. At the battlefield and in other instances of death far from
+home, especially in the case of mountain Maidu, burning was done
+occasionally. After this the bones were collected, wrapped in buckskin,
+and then buried.
+
+The flexed bodies of the dead were always placed in graves facing
+eastward. Widows customarily attempted to throw themselves into the
+graves, but were restrained from doing so. A basket of water was
+invariably placed next to the body, and most personal property of the
+deceased was broken and also placed in the grave. The amount of property
+so disposed of varied with the tribe. Mountain Maidu and especially the
+Yana tribes put practically everything in the grave. The latter even
+went so far as to include many gifts of a nature not normally associated
+with the sex. Aprons and baskets, for instance, might be placed in a
+man’s burial. Among Atsugewi the relatives retained some of the property
+of the deceased. Atsugewi might place some food on the grave and mark it
+with a vertical stick, but it was not tended later, and the site was
+generally soon lost.
+
+In winter a person might be buried shallowly in the floor of a living
+house. Next spring the house would be torn down and the dirt walls caved
+in. There was variation not only between, but within tribes as to the
+final disposition of houses of the deceased. They might be burned down,
+a common practice, or they were torn down, abandoned, temporarily
+deserted, or torn down and rebuilt. If to be lived in again,
+purification of some sort was always practiced, either by burning
+juniper boughs in the house, smoking tobacco, bringing in aromatic
+plants, or treating the main beams. Among Yana tribes the family seems
+to have habitually abandoned the house right after the funeral and to
+have burned the whole thing including property and food of all the
+inmates, retaining only the barest necessities of life such as sleeping
+robes.
+
+Among Atsugewi all mourners had to deny themselves meat and fresh fish
+for one day; then they sweated and swam after the funeral. Mountain
+Maidu mourners, including all persons who had had any part in the
+funeral, had to undergo four or five days taboo on eating all flesh.
+They also had to eat alone and from separate dishes, do head scratching
+with special sticks only, were allowed no hunting, gambling,
+intercourse, or smoking. Purification of those persons contaminated by
+participation in burial included swimming and washing every day that the
+taboos were in effect.
+
+Only Atsugewi, of all local tribes, are said to have practiced suicide,
+though unquestionably it did occur on occasion among all California
+Indians.
+
+Mentioning the name of the deceased in the presence of his relatives was
+considered very poor taste, and was actually forbidden in some cases.
+
+It was forbidden that the widow touch the corpse, so that relatives had
+to prepare the body for burial. After the funeral, the widow always cut
+her hair off closely. If an Atsugewi, she made a belt out of it, and the
+hair belt was then often decorated with shells. In all local tribes the
+widow traditionally covered her whole head and face with pitch and
+covered this with white diatomaceous earth or black charcoal. Touching
+her head or face (the whole body for mountain Maidu) with fingers was
+taboo; she could do this only with the scratching stick which mountain
+Maidu widows wore around the neck. Raggedy, ill-looking clothes were
+worn by the survivor, and Atsugewi widows put pitch on old basketry caps
+to be worn. A mourning necklace was worn at all times, made of lumps of
+hard pitch strung onto a fiber string. This was worn until remarriage,
+which was usually two or three years for Atsugewi and one to three years
+for mountain Maidu. Pitch on the face and head was normally left on
+until it wore off of its own accord.
+
+The mourning conduct of grieving men who had lost their wives in death
+was not nearly so lengthy or as rigorous as was that of widows. Widowers
+cut their hair too, but among Atsugewi the only other observance
+required was abstinence of flesh eating for a day. Mountain Maidu
+widowers spent one sleepless night out in the mountains. Widowers did
+not generally sing at dances and at “big times” for about a year, but
+this was not compulsory. The Yana are said to have stayed away from
+dances for two or three years.
+
+Parents mourning the loss of children cut their hair slightly and placed
+some pitch on hair or faces. The Atsugewi mother observed a three day
+meat taboo and the Maidu father went to the hills to seek power.
+However, loss of a baby in birth or before its navel cord dropped off
+was considered a more serious situation. Such bereaved parents gave all
+of their belongings away in order to make a fresh start.
+
+Anniversary mourning rites were not conducted in the Lassen region. An
+exception was the rare instance among Atsugewi when a child was sick at
+a time just three years after the death of its parent. Under such
+circumstances a shaman sang over the child and the whole remaining
+family and relatives mourned, later washing themselves. With respect to
+the general lack of mourning anniversaries it is of interest that the
+foothill (northeast) Maidu held elaborate annual burnings for several
+years after death of relatives. At these great mourning dance ceremonies
+large quantities of valuable possessions were burned as sacrifices to
+honor the dead.
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter XXIX
+                       COUNTING, TIME, AND PLACE
+
+
+Counting on the fingers was usual practice. Mountain Maidu started with
+their thumbs while Atsugewi began on the little finger of one hand and
+counted across to that on the other hand, and toes were used for the
+purpose too. To help in counting, tribes also employed sticks to
+represent groups of numbers: Atsugewi used sticks to represent 1’s, 5’s,
+10’s, and hundreds. Yana frequently used a stick to represent the unit
+20. This is presumed to be a natural unit because it is the sum of all
+of a person’s fingers and toes.
+
+Time of day, of course, was not expressed in any unit like our hour, but
+roughly by the position of the sun in its daily course overhead. Seven
+to nine positions were referred to descriptively in this respect plus
+early, mid, and late night.
+
+Phases of the moon were most practical and were universally used as a
+longer measure of time. The succession of new moon cycles were named and
+an old man in the village customarily kept track of these by memory. As
+might be expected from this system, in which there was no recording,
+arguments ensued over just which moon or “month” was currently in
+effect. One full course of the moon’s phases takes just about a month,
+so the names for Indians’ moons corresponded nearly to our month names.
+
+All local tribes recognized four seasons. These were identified by the
+positions of certain stars among mountain Maidu, but more generally by
+the positions of the rising sun with respect to a certain peak, tree, or
+similar fixed object. Some Indians kept track of the seasons by watching
+the daily progression of a beam of sunlight coming through the smoke
+hole of a house and falling upon its floor or wall. The shortest day of
+the year naturally was marked by the most southerly progression of the
+sun. This was noted by the Indians, no doubt with joy in the realization
+that longer days and, somewhat later, warmer weather were to be
+expected. The year started with the beginning of November when Indians
+of the Lassen area had left the high elevation hunting grounds on the
+flanks of Lassen Peak, had collected their stores of acorn and salmon,
+and were warmly settled in their winter quarters. Mountain Maidu seem to
+have used names for only the nine moons most important to them.
+
+There was no calendar as such, but the number of days until a certain
+“big time” or other event was kept track of by either cutting off or
+untying one knot in a knotted cord or thong each day. Years were not
+recorded either, but were measured within the memory span as so many
+winters ago, or by relating time to some important event, such as a war
+which most persons might remember.
+
+Directions were pointed out, or in speech were referred to as sunrise
+and sunset for east and west respectively. Directions were commonly
+given with respect to features of the local geography: in the direction
+of such and such a village or toward a named river, spring, or mountain
+which was conspicuous or generally known. We must remember that the
+territories of our local tribes were small and that the terrain was
+intimately known. Specific names were not only given to the conspicuous
+features of the topography, but among Atsugewi, at least, virtually
+every flat, every draw, and every hill was specifically named, and these
+names were known to all members of the tribe. Names of places in the
+territories of other tribes were not known by the local names of those
+tribes. They were either translated or given its own entirely different
+set of names by the first tribe. In other words, each tribe had
+different names for all places—a very confusing situation. Dixon reports
+that Maidu recognized directions as we know them, but that the northeast
+or mountain Maidu had five: west, northwest (the direction of Lassen
+Peak), north, east, and south.
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter XXX
+                    CONCEPTS OF SUN, MOON, AND STARS
+
+
+Mountain Maidu and Atsugewi believed the sun to be a female human—the
+wife—and the moon to be a male human—the husband. This is a reversal of
+the sex ascribed to these bodies by some other tribes. They believed
+that the figure of a frog was visible in the moon.
+
+Atsugewi stated that Frog fought Moon and swallowed him and the next
+time that Moon swallowed Frog who is now in the center of the moon. When
+Moon and Frog fought, the former was not round, but crescent shaped.
+Yana stated that in the moon they could see Moon’s wife, Frog. Pine
+Marten snapped his evil father-in-law Moon into the sky by means of
+bending a springy tree ’way down and suddenly letting it go. He used the
+same system to snap Frog and her two daughters into the sky also.
+
+To Atsugewi, as to most tribes, the phases of the moon: new, full, and
+waning, represented birth, life, and death—repeated every four weeks,
+although, of course, none of the Indians had the concept of a “week”
+such as we have. All through the year Atsugewi greeted the new moon. Old
+persons shook themselves, and their clothes and bedding in its presence.
+Younger folks ran and jumped toward the moon. If the points or horns of
+the new moon crescent were vertical it was a bad omen indicating
+sickness or death. Babies were shown the new moon, and in the case of
+both Atsugewi and mountain Maidu, babies’ faces and arms were rubbed in
+the new moonlight to make them grow fast. All local tribes addressed the
+moon aloud in friendly terms as if it were a personal relative. The Yana
+prayed to it. In contrast to Atsugewi reaction to vertical position of
+the two moon points, the Yana and mountain Maidu accepted this as
+meaning good fortune and good weather ahead. To these tribes horizontal
+position of the moon crescent in the winter sky denoted that it was full
+of water and indicated pending rains or storms. At other seasons both
+horns up foretold of death. Yana thought that both sun and moon were
+feminine.
+
+After its daily trip across the sky, Atsugewi thought that the sun
+returned to the east in a blue cloud via the side of the earth. As the
+sun and the moon passed each other at the side of the earth, they
+decided on the weather for the following day. The moon supplied the cold
+and the sun the heat.
+
+Eclipses of sun and moon were believed by Yana to be due to their dogs
+devouring them. Atsugewi and mountain Maidu felt that the heavenly
+bodies were dying. The former were of the opinion that Lizard was eating
+Sun or Moon as the case might be. They shouted loudly, shot arrows into
+the air toward the eclipse and beat all available female dogs. Mountain
+Maidu thought that Frog was eating Moon or Sun.
+
+A reddish moon foretold of disaster and was a sign of war for Atsugewi,
+but to Yana it meant hot weather ahead.
+
+Only a few star groups of the night sky were named.
+
+Yana thought the constellation we call the Belt of Orion was Coyote’s
+arrow. All local tribes believed the Milky Way to be a road, or river in
+some cases, which was traveled by departing spirits or souls of the
+dead. Shooting or Falling stars, (more properly meteorites) presaged
+good weather to the Atsugewi who thought these were torches carried by
+spirits from one house to another in the sky. For this tribe too, a
+single conspicuous star—no doubt a planet—seen near the moon was an evil
+sign. If the star were on the left someone nearby would die soon; if it
+lay to the right of the moon someone farther away was doomed.
+
+Atsugewi called the Seven Sisters wir-etisu. These girls were seduced by
+a little rabbit boy at a puberty dance. They became ashamed and went up
+in the sky to become stars. The Big Dipper was called Coyote’s Cane.
+Maidu thought that stars were made of something soft like buckskin.
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter XXXI
+                           WEATHER PHENOMENA
+
+
+As mentioned in the preceding chapter, weather was determined by
+agreement between sun and moon, but it appears that many things could
+influence their decisions.
+
+Atsugewi assumed it to be the natural thing that it would sprinkle a
+little after a funeral. They also felt that rolling rocks down mountain
+sides or loud shouting in the mountains would cause rain. Furthermore
+they believed that the occurrence of precipitation could be influenced
+by shamans, if they felt like it, by smoking tobacco while looking at
+the sun. The nature of the spirit of a girl, whose ears were pierced at
+this time, was also thought to either cause it to rain or to stop doing
+so according to her spirit power.
+
+Rainbows brought good wild crops as far as the Atsugewi were concerned.
+However, both they and mountain Maidu were of the opinion that pointing
+with a finger at a rainbow, particularly among children would cause the
+finger to become crooked or to fall off.
+
+Thunder and lightning were feared by all tribes of the Lassen region. To
+Atsugewi thunder was the shouting of an old man who wears a rabbit skin
+and who goes about looking for women whom he kills. Mountain Maidu
+thought it to be due to an old man who lives up above and who was once a
+boy on earth, but who had been sent away because he was too fast and ate
+everything in sight. How he made the noise we do not know.
+
+  Also, according to Dixon, “Thunder is thought to be a man or boy of
+  miraculous abilities. He eats trees chiefly. Had it not been for
+  Mosquito, however, Thunder would have preyed on people. Mosquito
+  deceived him, and refused to let Thunder know whence the blood and
+  meat he brought came. Had Thunder found out that Mosquito obtained
+  these from people, they, and not the trees, would have been his prey.”
+  To Yana, thunder was a mythical dog originally: “... a child dug from
+  the ground who accompanied Flint Boy to the west in the guise of a
+  dog. He remained behind in the black storm clouds capping Bally
+  Mountain, a high peak west of Redding, whence his terrific bark could
+  be heard as thunder.”
+
+Atsugewi and mountain Maidu, fearing thunder and lightning, talked to
+them and told them to go away. Old men in the latter tribe carried
+burning sticks in a circle to help drive them away. Atsugewi placed
+skins, preferably raccoon, on sticks held up in the air. They would wave
+these around and call aloud words to the effect that there are: “Too
+many rattlesnakes here, go some other place!”. Not only that, but
+frequently during a thunder storm, especially if violent, they would run
+into open areas, and sometimes even jump into water. Lightning was
+thought to be the weapon of the old man, Thunder Person, mentioned
+above. It came out of his mouth. Apparently Thunder Person was thought
+to assume the form of a raccoon on occasion. Maidu also believed that it
+would thunder whenever a person was bitten by a rattlesnake or when a
+great man died or when a woman had a miscarriage.
+
+Whirlwinds were generally regarded as evil omens which sickened people
+with bad dreams and captured peoples’ shadows or spirits. Indians tried
+to dodge or hide from them. They spoke informally to whirlwinds.
+Mountain Maidu said that they put pains into people. Whenever possible,
+Maidu smoked tobacco when talking to whirlwinds. Atsugewi threw dirt and
+water at the dust devils in an effort to destroy them. Yana did
+likewise, but they did not believe that spirits were inside of
+whirlwinds.
+
+
+
+
+                             Chapter XXXII
+                           EARTHQUAKE BELIEFS
+
+
+Lassen Peak and its vicinity are subject to many local earthquakes
+today. The geologic nature of the area indicates that this has been so
+for thousands of years. Lassen Peak was known to the Atsugewi as
+Wicuhirdiki, which has no meaning. The area was thought to be inhabited
+by a powerful spirit, but Garth notes that there seemed to be no fear
+about hunting and fishing there, and the Indians apparently utilized the
+hot springs medicinally. Garth recorded one pertinent bit of Atsugewi
+(Apwaruge) myth as follows:
+
+  “There once was an earthquake that shook this country up and made
+  those boulders out on the flat shake. It shook so much that it made
+  people sick. There was a very old woman whose hair was almost green.
+  She picked up a rock and pounded it on another rock while she sang.
+  She was praying for the world to stop shaking. Soon she got an answer,
+  and the shaking ceased. Many people were killed. Those who lived in
+  canyons were covered by rocks that were shaken down.”
+
+Yana interpretation of the perplexing and frightening phenomenon of
+earthquakes is tied in, as we might expect, with mythology as follows,
+to quote from Sapir and Spier:
+
+  “A series of fabulous malignant beings were conceived as dwelling in
+  certain localities. In the Sacramento River were water grizzlies
+  (hat-en-na) which pulled fishermen down to devour (them).... They were
+  spotted black and white, like dogs. Somewhere (not specified) was a
+  serpent (e-k-u) which killed people. Near Terry’s mill were believed
+  to dwell malignant little beings (yo-yautsgi), like little children.
+  They often enticed people and ate them up. At a marshy spot and spring
+  on Round Mountain, called Ha-mupdi (?), dwelled a being called
+  Mo-s-ugi-yauna who caused the ground to shake when he was displeased.
+
+  “Once Mo-s-ugi-yauna made a little baby of himself and put himself in
+  the road of two women. One of them took it up and in sport gave it one
+  of her nipples to suck, though she was really without milk. The baby
+  kept sucking until the girl tried to take her breast away, but without
+  success. The baby kept sucking at her, sucked up her flesh, and at
+  last sucked up her whole body.
+
+  “This being was displeased if strangers came near and talked anything
+  but Yana. Once some Yreka Indians came and talked Chinook jargon at
+  that place, whereupon the earth began to shake violently. At last the
+  owner of the place cried out to Mo-s-ugi-yauna that it was not he who
+  had thus spoken and begged him ‘in the doctor way’ to stop, whereupon
+  he did.”
+
+
+
+
+                             Chapter XXXIII
+                   CREATION BELIEFS AND OTHER LEGENDS
+
+
+All local Indians believed in a mythical age when animals were persons
+and talked to each other. Both Atsugewi and mountain Maidu thought that
+floods played a part in the past scheme of things before people were
+created by gifted animal ancestors.
+
+  Garth relates that “Atsugewi mythology tells of the successive
+  creation of two former worlds, the first of which was destroyed by a
+  great flood and the second by a fire which Coyote instigated in an
+  attempt to kill his rival, Grey Fox. After this both Coyote and Grey
+  Fox descended from the heavens on a long rope to the primeval sea
+  below. Here Grey Fox took combings from his fur (in some accounts a
+  piece of sod) and proceeded to make land of it, stretching it to all
+  sides until the present earth was made, in concept a large island
+  floating in the sea. Grey Fox then created trees, animals, and finally
+  people. The sun and moon were two brothers whom Grey Fox told to mount
+  into the sky to light the world, the one during the day and the other
+  at night.... Grey Fox first wanted to create two moons and two suns,
+  but Coyote objected saying that it would be too hot. Grey Fox then
+  made only the sun and one moon.”
+
+  In a somewhat different version, Dixon has recorded that the Atsugewi
+  “... recount how, in the beginning, there was only the illimitable sea
+  and the cloudless sky. Slowly in the sky a tiny cloud began to form,
+  and grew till it reached considerable proportions. Then gradually it
+  condensed, and, becoming solid, became the Silver-Gray Fox, the
+  Creator. Then arose immediately a fog; and from this, as it condensed,
+  and coagulated as it were, arose Coyote. By a process of
+  long-continued and intense thought, the Creator created a canoe into
+  which both he and Coyote descended, and for long years floated and
+  drifted aimlessly therein, till, the canoe having become moss-grown
+  and decayed, they had, perforce, to consider the necessity of creating
+  a world whereon they might take refuge.”
+
+The Yana legends quoted below from Gifford and Klimek (first) and from
+Sapir and Spier are from the northern and central tribes, of that
+people. These legends are given in lieu of those of southern Yana and
+Yahi, with which this book should be concerned, because of the
+similarity of the culture of these four tribes. It is extremely unlikely
+that there would be very great differences in their legends and beliefs
+of creation. Obviously each tribe had its own unique details.
+
+  North Yana: “Coyote, assistant creator, was marplot (the evil schemer)
+  who brought death into the world as follows: Coyote, his two sons, and
+  other people went down-stream to get clamshells. The people played.
+  Coyote’s sons seized the clamshells and ran off with them. One escaped
+  with the stolen shells, but the other was killed. The Coyote boy who
+  escaped shouted to Old Man Coyote, who sat in his assembly house and
+  observed daily what transpired. Coyote boy told the old man his
+  brother was dead. Old Coyote then mourned for his son. Silver Fox told
+  him not to cry, but to clean the assembly house and bring in the dead
+  boy. They strewed the floor with straw and built fire. Silver Fox told
+  old Coyote to lie down and pretend to sleep. ‘Do not move,’ said
+  Silver Fox. This was to cause dead boy to revive. They started to cut
+  old Coyote’s belly to get back the spirit of his dead son. Old Coyote
+  shouted with pain and said: ‘Let him stay dead. The dead shall remain
+  dead.’ Thus he spoiled Silver Fox’s plan for resurrection.”
+
+  Central Yana: “... the creation of people took place at Wama-riwi, a
+  village at the cove north of Battle Creek and several miles west of
+  the present Shingletown, that is, roughly at the center of Yana
+  territory. Here in the beginning were Lizard and Cottontail (in
+  Dixon’s version, Lizard, Gray Squirrel, and Coyote; in Curtin’s,
+  Silkworm) who had no predecessors. Discussing how people shall be
+  made, Lizard lays down sticks which they carry to the four directions
+  to become neighboring Indian tribes. Realizing that they have omitted
+  those at the center, they put down bad (short) sticks there. Hence the
+  Yana are shorter than any of their neighbors: a view held by the Yana
+  and repeated by Powers as fact. In Dixon’s version (from the same
+  informant) Lizard carefully prepares three sticks for Atsugewi,
+  Wintun, and Achomawi, and as an afterthought, short sticks for the
+  Yana. The first three are placed to the east, west, and north; the
+  others are boiled to transform them into humans. Coyote refuses to
+  recognize them until they speak properly, that is, the Yana tongue.
+  Curtin’s version is quite different, although still the Yana are
+  created from sticks: his presumably Northern Yana informant, himself a
+  chief, placed the locale in his own country, at Round Mountain. Here
+  Silkworm puts down three sticks, for the Yana chief, a woman, and an
+  orphan, and a large number around the first for common people; he
+  instructs them how to procure food and admonishes that they obey the
+  chief.
+
+  “The origin of sex, or rather its proper attribution rests in the
+  circumstance that in the beginning, women were men; men were women.
+  The women were such poor hunters that people starved. To remedy this,
+  Cottontail placed stones in a fire; when the women were seated, the
+  stones burst, cutting their proper organs, and the women became men.
+  Hands were then webbed like Lizard’s. In order that they might handle
+  bows and pestles, Lizard, experimenting, cut his fingers apart. With
+  this as a model, he separated those of humans. (In Curtin’s version,
+  Water Lizard remedies the defect for himself alone.) In the beginning
+  when people died, they rose from their graves again. Coyote, who
+  objected to these improvements of human affairs, not only proposes
+  that they shall stay dead but stamps down a dead man who would rise.
+  When his own son dies, he changes his mind, but Lizard, Cottontail,
+  and Gray Squirrel will have none of it, so that death and mourning
+  were established forever.”
+
+  Again Garth is here quoted on Atsugewi beliefs: “As in most of
+  northern California there are numerous natural phenomena in Atsugewi
+  territory which marked some mythological event. A low cone-like rock
+  in Dixie Valley was said to be a basket belonging to Coyote. About
+  four miles south of Pittville on the old village site of Mawakasui was
+  an oblong rock ten feet or so in length which was said to be the
+  petrified remains of a lizard whom Butterfly had killed. The extremely
+  rough tongue of lava-covered land extending down the center of Hat
+  Creek Valley was created by Porcupine to impede Coyote with whom
+  Porcupine was running a race. Eagle Lake was said to have been
+  formerly in Atsuge territory, but Coyote tired of the manzanita
+  berries and camass roots which the people fed to him here, so he moved
+  the lake to the Apwaruge country. Here the people fed him epos roots
+  and treated him better.”
+
+  The Maidu concept of the world according to Dixon is that of “...
+  floating on the surface of a great sea, but anchored by five ropes
+  stretched by the Creator, which hold the island steady, and prevent it
+  from drifting about. Occasionally some being seizes these ropes and
+  shakes them, and this causes earthquakes. The world was flat when
+  first made from the bit of mud brought up from the depths of the
+  primeval sea by the turtle (turtle does not appear in the northeast or
+  mountain Maidu version) or from the robin’s nest floating in the sea.
+  Later the Creator and the Coyote went about over the world, making the
+  rivers and mountains. Coyote was in general responsible for the
+  latter, and for the extreme roughness of the country....” The
+  Creator’s stone canoe is said to be visible today on top of Keddie
+  Peak just north of Indian Valley (Greenville); also his and Coyote’s
+  dance houses may be seen as huge circular depressions at what is now
+  Durham (near Chico).
+
+  In his extensive collection of Maidu myths, Dixon observes that
+  “Throughout the myths there is nowhere any suggestion that the Maidu
+  had any knowledge of any other region, that they were immigrants in
+  the land where they live. This complete absence of any migration
+  tradition is a feature which is very characteristic, and serves to
+  differentiate the mythology not only of the Maidu, but of most
+  Californian tribes, from that of the Southwest, and much of the
+  eastern portion of the continent.”
+
+  He further states: “here the creation is a real beginning: beyond it,
+  there is nothing. In the beginning was only the great sea, calm and
+  unlimited, to which, down from the clear sky, the Creator came, or on
+  which he and Coyote were floating in a canoe. Of the origin of
+  previous place of abode of either Creator or Coyote, the Maidu know
+  nothing....”
+
+  “... the whole series of tales told by the stock ... appeared to
+  follow one another in a more or less regular and recognized order.
+  Beginning with the creation, a rather systematic chain of events leads
+  up to the appearance of the ancestors of the present Indians, with
+  whose coming the mythic cycle came to a close. This mythic era, the
+  be-be-ito, seems to fall into a number of periods, with each of which
+  a group or set of myths has to deal. First, we have the coming of
+  Ko-do-yan-pe (Earth-Namer or Creator) and Coyote, their discovery of
+  this world, and the preparation of it for the ‘first people’; next the
+  creation of these first people, and the making and planting of the
+  germs of the human race, the Indians, who were to come after; third,
+  the long period during which the first people were in conflict, and
+  were in the end changed to the various animals in the present world.
+  In this period Earth-Maker tries to put an end to Coyote, whose evil
+  ways and wishes are in direct contrast to his own.” Creator was always
+  dignified and striving to make life easy, happy, and deathless for
+  mankind, while Coyote, a trickster and amorous knave, worked with
+  continued success to render life difficult for man with the result
+  that man’s lot is to suffer and finally to die. This belief was
+  generally uniform among the tribes of the Lassen area. “... During
+  this period Earth-Maker strives for a last time in vain with Coyote,
+  his defeat, and disappearance toward the East coincident with the
+  appearance of the human race, which bursts forth from the spots where
+  the original pairs had been buried long before.” These potential human
+  beings had been made “... as tiny wooden figures by the Creator, and
+  planted here and there in pairs, that they might grow in secret and
+  safety during the time of monsters and great conflicts....”
+
+  In other myths also there is great similarity among the Maidu,
+  Atsugewi, Yana, and Yahi. Dixon says concerning “... The theft of
+  fire, for instance.... In all, the fire is held by a man and his
+  daughters, and is discovered largely through the agency of the Lizard;
+  the fire is watched and guarded by a sentinel bird, is stolen in
+  consequence of his sleeping while on guard, and pursuit by the women
+  is hindered by the strings of their skirts being cut as they sleep.
+  The fire is brought back by a group of animals, among whom the fire is
+  divided for safety; and the pursuers, who are usually Thunder, and his
+  two daughters Rain and Hail, are put to flight.”
+
+
+
+
+                             Chapter XXXIV
+                           MEDICAL TREATMENT
+
+
+The bulk of the important doctoring was done by shamans or medicine men.
+This was all based on supernatural faith and fear. As we know from
+advances of our modern civilization in the field of psychosomatic
+medicine, such “in the mind” cures were highly effective in practice.
+With all due respect to the modern medical profession, it is a foregone
+conclusion that from 50% to 75% of the patients of today’s general
+medical doctor are going to get well eventually without any bonafide
+medical treatment anyway. This percentage favored the shamans too.
+
+Besides shamans there were secondary Indian doctors called herbalists.
+Among Atsugewi, these persons did not have the power of shamans, and
+could not cure disease, but only check or weaken it. However, this class
+of doctor did administer various medicines internally and externally,
+and gave treatments which may actually have been—in some cases—of
+benefit beyond mere faith healing. These remedies were handed down, as
+was all Indian knowledge, by word of mouth from generation to
+generation. Old men taught the young.
+
+Herbalists were able to make snake bite victims recover; treatment
+included sucking the wound. Cauterization or burning of affected parts
+was practiced. Atsugewi treated rheumatism in patients with vapor baths
+in a trench of hot coals on which pine needles and yerba santa or
+mountain balm branches were placed, with a robe over all.
+
+Mountain Maidu smoked wild parsnip for headaches, colds, and wounds.
+Mountain Maidu and Atsugewi believed that toothaches were caused by the
+presence of worms in the teeth. Corrective poultices were placed on the
+cheek. Yana did this too, but placed a hot stone on the poultice, and
+also bit on a mole’s front foot, dried, to relieve the pain. Atsugewi
+often set the poultice on fire which might leave permanent scars.
+
+The seeds of rosinweed, a member of the sunflower family, were
+collected, then shelled, cooked, dried, and finally pounded. This
+medicine was taken for chills. Wild iris roots were chewed raw for
+coughing.
+
+Decoctions, that is, water in which plants had been boiled to extract
+their medicinal juices, were drunk. California angelica, a member of the
+parsley family, was used in this way for colds, diarrhea, headache, et
+cetera. This medication was popular with all local tribes for treating
+many ills.
+
+Yana used poultices of roots of bracken fern, pounded and warmed for
+application to burns. The bulbs of false solomon seal were pounded fine
+and also hot soap-root poultices were applied to swellings, pains, or
+boils. Peeled California angelica roots were crushed and laid on aching
+heads.
+
+Ground squirrel grease was used to soften rough hands and to relieve
+cracking of the skin from chapping.
+
+Atsugewi employed green leaves of chokecherry, pounded as poultices, for
+cuts, sores, and bruises. The boiled liquor of pounded chokecherry bark
+was used for bathing wounds to promote healing.
+
+They employed decoctions of wormwood to prevent blood poisoning and to
+treat cuts. Decoctions of greenleaf manzanita leaves were good for cuts
+and burns. Both oak bark and oak gall decoctions were drunk to prevent
+infection and catching colds and were given to women in childbirth.
+Atsugewi also chewed raw juniper berries as a treatment for colds.
+
+Obviously there was a host of other treatments as we know of a large
+variety of other plants, roots, and fruits which were used medicinally.
+
+Broken bones were set as best they could be set, and were bound up in
+simple but effective splints.
+
+For general good health Garth states that an Atsugewi “... man chewed
+the top shoot off a young pine tree. Especially was this done by a
+father after his wife bore a child.”
+
+In Yana sweat houses and probably in those of other tribes too, veins
+were cut with obsidian chips to “let the bad blood out” if a person felt
+ill.
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter XXXV
+                           SPIRITS AND GHOSTS
+
+
+Ghosts and spirits were one and the same, and were to local Indians as
+souls are conceived by white man, yet the Indian conception was more
+variable. Some spirits were good and others were evil, but all were
+feared and avoided whenever possible. They were frequently associated
+with omens and had somewhat the appearance of human beings. Among
+Atsugewi they were visible only to shamans, but were heard by nearly all
+persons. Yana commoners both saw and heard spirits, but only very
+rarely.
+
+The spirit left the body right after death. Mountain Maidu thought that
+it turned back once before going on. Yana believed that the spirit
+tarried in the vicinity of the body for a while, going to the south
+first briefly for a sort of trial or evaluation which included
+determination as to whether or not the nose septum had been pierced.
+Then, as all local Indians apparently agreed, the ghost or spirit went
+to a distant place in the west via the Milky Way. Yana thought that
+there was some distinction in destination of good and bad persons’
+ghosts, but our other tribes conceived only of one place for all spirits
+finally. We do not today have a very clear understanding of the
+aboriginal Indian concept of heaven except that people lived in this
+land of the dead in sweat houses, hunting, eating, loving, and sleeping,
+but with complete absence of sickness. Concepts of the life of spirits
+changed with the coming of the whites preceding even the advent of
+pioneer settler days. All information in that regard which students have
+been able to gain from informants in this region is decidedly flavored
+with Christian dogma.
+
+Spirits or ghosts returned to old haunts of the body on occasion or,
+more often, to the vicinity of the grave. For this reason burial grounds
+were usually well removed from villages. Bad smells would drive spirits
+away, while whistling and flowers attracted them. Fiber-wound crossed
+sticks were hung in sweat houses of Yana tribes to keep spirits out. All
+tribes of the Lassen area thought that ghosts visited the living in
+dreams and also considered it feasible that the spirits of people might
+go to visit those of the dead when the persons were asleep, or more
+commonly when the living were unconscious.
+
+Mountain Maidu didn’t speak much about ghosts, but if one had been
+making a nuisance of itself by visiting much in dreams, they fed it by
+having all members of the family throw small portions of food into the
+fire before commencing to eat their meals. Besides, a shaman was hired
+under these circumstances to sing for the dreamer. The same ceremony was
+observed by the Atsugewi. It was also the practice of the dreamer in
+this tribe to eat with a dog, spitting out some of the food, saying to
+the dog, “You better eat for me. Take that spirit away.” Atsugewi were
+evidently very conscious of ghosts for they spoke to them, spit out
+chewed epos roots for the spirits, smoked tobacco for them, burned hair
+and skin to repel them, and tobacco and feather bundles were hung near
+the house doorways for their benefit. New Atsugewi parents had a unique
+ritual at the time of their first meat eating after the taboos of
+childbirth—they chewed small amounts of meat and put this on their toes
+for the dogs to eat.
+
+  Garth says of Atsugewi spirit beliefs: “A man who was about to die,
+  whether he felt sick or not, had a peculiar odor about him. If he went
+  hunting, deer ran from him saying, ‘Phew, that man smells bad.’
+  Coyotes and dogs would come close to him and bark at him. He would die
+  unless a shaman could remove this aura of death from him.”
+
+There were many omens of a spirit nature which foretold calamity. To
+Atsugewi upon hearing the cries of certain animals at night, especially
+if an owl hooted at one, or if one saw a kingsnake, death was supposed
+to descend upon a relative.
+
+If evil spirits frightened a person and tried to steal his soul, the
+spirits could be foiled by standing with one’s feet widely spread apart.
+If followed by a ghost, a person might turn around, retracing his
+footsteps while the spirit continued in the direction one had been
+traveling initially.
+
+When a person was asleep his spirit could wander around. If, during
+these wanderings, a bad spirit caught the person’s spirit before he
+could awaken, the person was deprived of it.
+
+Also the spirit on occasion left a person voluntarily if it didn’t like
+the body, as for instance, if it smelled badly. When a person’s spirit
+or soul were gone, only the heart was left to keep him alive, and he
+would succumb easily to the first sickness. For this reason, Atsugewi
+shamans periodically examined all the people to see if any spirits were
+missing. When anyone was found lacking his spirit, the shaman had to
+work to bring it back, sucking it into the person’s head. If several
+spirits were missing at once, it was not easy to get the right spirit
+back into its own body. They didn’t know what would happen if a person
+got the wrong soul back into his body—but it wasn’t good.
+
+
+
+
+                             Chapter XXXVI
+                        SHAMANISM AND DOCTORING
+
+
+Shamans or doctors, more commonly known to modern Americans by the name
+medicine men, were important in the lives of all Indians but, among
+ours, probably to the highest degree among the Maidu. Whether we, with
+our scientific enlightenment today, are after all happier and of greater
+peace of mind, than the aborigines were or not, is a philosophical
+consideration beyond the scope of this book. The fact of the matter is
+that mankind in the past invariably has resorted to the supernatural to
+explain things not understood. Indians are a case in point—being totally
+without scientific explanations, mysticism and the supernatural pervaded
+their whole culture—their every day activities—to a point which to us
+today seems fantastic, yet understandable in a way. If you and I had
+been in the Indian’s place, might not we also have subscribed whole
+heartedly to these same beliefs with which we would have grown up, and
+which our loved and trusted elders had taught us in good faith?
+Shamanism gave to the Indians a feeling of comfort and, shall we say,
+security?—a sort of foundation of faith which all men must have for the
+living of reasonably satisfying lives.
+
+Shamans were men of influence in the village, with prestige second only
+to that of the chief. Women shamans were uncommon and usually possessed
+less potent power. The life of a shaman was precarious because if he
+failed to effect a high percentage of cures or if he were “proven”
+responsible for sending pains which caused death to persons, he might be
+killed—sometimes even with the advance approval of the chief, and
+without retaliation by the offending shaman’s relatives. When this was
+done, he was cut into pieces, not for the morbid reasons, the reader
+might suspect, but for the practical reason that the parts of his body
+could in this way be disposed of in widely scattered places. Otherwise
+there was the danger that he might, with the help of his power, be
+reassembled and again be able to continue his malpractice and to include
+his murderers among future victims.
+
+There were several kinds of shamans among the local Indians. Each tribe
+in the Lassen area had the all important Sucking Shaman. Atsugewi and
+mountain Maidu also had special Bear, Rattlesnake, and Weather Shamans
+while only Yana had Singing Shamans in addition.
+
+The power of shamans was much more potent than mere “luck” which came
+easily to the majority of ordinary mortals in dreams, during puberty
+ceremonies, and the like. This “luck” was a weak supernatural blessing
+which was not sought, but came voluntarily and gave the person skill and
+success in crafts and daily pursuits such as fishing, hunting certain
+animals or birds, canoe making, et cetera.
+
+It would be impractical in this book to give the complicated and
+voluminous details of all phases of shamanism as conceived and practiced
+by each of the four local tribes. The following information has been
+somewhat generalized in the hope that the reader will get the “feel” of
+the shaman concept which was essentially the same for all the tribes of
+the Lassen area.
+
+Power was usually sought by men desiring to be shamans, but all were not
+successful in such quests. On the other hand shamanistic power came to
+some voluntarily, and it was dangerous not to accept this power if it
+came to one. To refuse might cause death. One could tell when one was
+successful in getting power because one would bleed from the nose or
+mouth. He would also learn to sing and dance, and would receive
+instructions and paraphernalia from his guardian spirit.
+
+Shamanistic power could be acquired in a number of ways, not all of
+which applied to each tribe being considered. A rare means was by
+inheritance. If an old shaman had power and if this power or guardian
+spirit liked his son or nephew, it would say “Sometimes I’m going to
+play with that boy” and so it goes to the boy. At sundown the latter
+listens to it sing to him and he gets the power. The boy learns about it
+in the vision and from the old shaman’s instructions.
+
+    [Illustration: Small portions of yellow hammer or red-shafted quill
+    headbands.]
+
+Another infrequent way to gain power was involuntarily when seriously
+ill, while in a trance, or when dreaming.
+
+The third and usual method of acquiring the shamanistic power was by
+vision quest. It was a difficult ordeal. This might be undertaken at
+various times of life, but most commonly at or near puberty. In questing
+power there was no assurance of success, no matter how sincere a person
+might be, or how hard he might try. Successful shamans could quest
+repeatedly for additional powers.
+
+Youths were prepared for questing by being lectured to by fathers or
+uncles who also pierced their nose septa. Each youth went alone and
+unclothed into certain portions of the mountains for several days and
+nights. He slept little and fasted, eating little or nothing at all; all
+flesh was taboo. The questing usually included swimming in lakes or
+special pools and placing the nose piercing stick in an underwater
+niche, and (Yana) securing certain bird feathers. He built a fire,
+smoking his body over it, and cut himself deliberately. If successful,
+the power came to him in a trance or faint producing bleeding from the
+nose or mouth.
+
+The guardian spirit communicated with the novice, appearing in a vision
+usually. It gave instructions and taught its special ceremonial song. To
+shamans of some tribes the guardian spirit looked something like a
+human; to others it looked like a bug or like a small hair. This was the
+“pain” or poison object and yet was considered to be a guardian spirit
+at the same time. This is what the novice acquired in becoming a shaman.
+This pain or guardian spirit could come from any of many sources. It was
+alive and could talk, and gave the novice certain resultant powers. Most
+commonly powers were from animals such as coyote, bear, and the like,
+but also might come from sun, moon, wind, thunder and lightning, eagle,
+hawk, small birds, reptiles, frog, or oldman spirit.
+
+The novice then acquired what we might call magic feathers. There were
+several types including the popular salmon colored flicker feathers.
+Most important, however, was the feather tuft known as kaku among the
+Atsugewi. This allegedly was found in finished form and not made. So
+full of power was the kaku that it could not be kept in a house. It was
+placed outside securely tied to a willow branch beside a stream or
+hidden inside a hollow tree trunk. The kaku was able to move by itself
+so had to be tied down or placed under a rock. When the novice shaman
+discovered his kaku, the feathers were singing; when he died, blood
+dripped from its feathers!
+
+Upon his return to the village, the successful seeker stayed out of
+dwelling houses for a day or two. Among some tribes he was sick for this
+period. Universally he sweated and swam. Eating habits of the novice
+shaman varied in different cases, but were always as dictated by the
+specific instructions given to him by his guardian spirit. Invariably
+all forms of flesh were shunned. He smoked tobacco and gave his first
+hunting kill to an old man. During the novice period the new shaman was
+helped by old shamans at the fireside in the sweat house. He did much
+dancing, singing, handled hot coals and fire, bled from the mouth, and
+might fall into a trance.
+
+In contrast to herbalist doctors who gave private treatment, that of
+shamans was public and usually conducted indoors, preferably in sweat
+lodges. The shaman needed singing help and the more help and the more
+persons who attended his doctoring the better. Sucking Shamans were the
+most important and required official assistants. These included one or
+more interpreters to communicate with the lay helpers or supporters,
+while the shaman was doctoring, and an outside speaker to help call the
+shaman’s spirits. Doctoring could take from one to three days and
+nights.
+
+To diagnose the patient’s ills the shaman danced about, blowing smoke on
+him, and singing with the help of the audience. The shamans also drank
+water, sometimes with a tube, from portable stone mortars with spirit
+power. They often squirted water from their mouths. A whistle was used
+in some cases and often the supernatural powerful cocoon rattle. Among
+mountain Maidu herb medicines might be administered to the patient also.
+
+At length the shaman’s guardian spirit or pain told him the location of
+the disease object, and then he could see or feel it. Often the shaman
+learned further from the spirit just who it was who had sent the disease
+object to plague his patient.
+
+Curing the afflicted was accomplished next by the shaman’s sucking this
+pain or disease object out of some portion of the person’s body. The
+evil pain could be any curious small object and this the shaman
+exhibited to all present. The malignant pain was disposed of in a number
+of ways. It might be sent back to the owner who sent it, that is, the
+offending shaman. Or, it might be sent to his children who would be
+doomed because a shaman could not doctor his own pain. Other times the
+curing shaman would destroy the disease object by biting it and burning
+it or dispose of it by taking the pain into his own charmed body.
+
+When a whole community had been affected by a pain sent by an evil
+shaman, the pain usually hid in the bushes nearby. In such a case, the
+shaman had to be very powerful to get the best of the situation. First
+he conducted the ceremony of detection of one victim in the usual sweat
+house manner. Once the shaman found out where the trouble was, he went
+outdoors with the villagers to help in corraling the offending pain.
+Frequently only after a lengthy search was he successful in finding the
+pain and then capturing it. Upon taking it into his body it might be so
+powerful as to cause him to go into a trance. In this event his
+assistants had to support him bodily, and had to sing for him, otherwise
+the shaman might die. Without wishing to appear facetious or
+disparaging, it can be said that a good shaman had to be an excellent
+showman as well.
+
+Sucking Shamans were obligated to accept all cases which they were asked
+to treat. If they refused any and the afflicted died, then the shamans
+might be killed themselves by relatives of the persons who succumbed.
+The thinking was that if a shaman refused a case, he must have had
+something to do with making the person sick in the first place.
+
+Payment was always made to the shaman. The amount was determined by the
+patient’s relatives. They would take the offering to the shaman when
+engaging him, but payment was not made at that time. The shaman looked
+over the proffered payment and might ask for more or for a different
+kind of payment. To give himself a foolproof alibi in case of failure to
+cure, and to increase his prestige if he did cure, he might reply to the
+effect that “The beads already have the smell of death on them, but I’ll
+see what I can do about it.” The payment was placed near the patient
+during healing treatment and was not actually collected by the shaman if
+the patient died within a few weeks or months. The shaman’s assistants
+were also paid, but in lesser amounts.
+
+    [Illustration: Maidu shaman ceremonial neck pendant knife of
+    obsidian, nine and one half inches long (after Dixon)]
+
+Besides the main function of curing, other good powers of the shamans
+were the ability to foretell future events, to see what was going on at
+distant places, and to locate lost or stolen articles. Among certain
+tribes control of weather was also possible by Sucking Shamans—among
+others there were special shamans with weather power.
+
+Evil powers of Sucking Shamans could cause illness or death. This was
+done by talking to the pain and sending it to the victim. The shaman
+might put it on the end of a willow stick and point it at the person
+while singing and smoking tobacco. This could go on all night.
+Transmission of the pain to the intended victim was facilitated by
+contact, such as sneaking up behind him and touching him, or by putting
+the disease pain in his food or under his doorstep. The bad pain might
+also be dispatched by blowing it through a pipe or putting it in the
+victim’s pipe, or by talking to the shaman’s own animal spirit,
+injecting the pain into it and then sending the animal to the victim.
+This power animal might just take it to the intended person, or it might
+actually attack and bite him. If the evil pain had been successfully
+sent, and the intended dire results occurred, the relatives of the
+victim had a moral right to kill the offending shaman, without fear of
+retaliation. It seems that the culprit was usually recognized—obviously
+often mistakenly. It follows that shamans’ lives were somewhat
+precarious, not knowing who was going to find damning evidence against
+them.
+
+By somewhat the same means as described above shamans could steal a
+person’s spirit or soul, rendering that person liable to quick and sure
+death from the slightest accident or illness. Shamans could be hired to
+perform these evil powers.
+
+Singing Shamans were dreamers foretelling the future and telling the
+living what their dead relatives wanted them to do. The Singing Shaman
+was always male among mountain Maidu. Our other tribes did not have this
+specialist, instead such powers were in the repertoire of the Sucking
+Shaman.
+
+Among Yana and Yahi tribes, apparently, weather doctoring could be done
+by any shaman, and this was usually the case among Atsugewi. However,
+mountain Maidu had specialized Weather Shamans. These were men who were
+capable not only of producing rain, snow, or hail, but also fog and high
+winds, or ending any of these.
+
+Rattlesnake Shamans were generally women among Atsugewi and men among
+mountain Maidu. They could protect people from rattlesnakes or cure
+bites. The latter was accomplished by sucking which removed snakes and
+snakes’ teeth from the wound.
+
+Bear Shamans did not exist among Yana tribes. Among Atsugewi and
+mountain Maidu these were not specialists, instead bear power was an
+additional skill of Sucking Shamans. They were almost always men and
+pertained not to Black Bear, but only to the California Grizzly. They
+wore bear skin, hair, teeth, and claws and simulated the bear’s actions
+in treating patients. Bear Shamans were called primarily to minister to
+bear wounded persons from whom they sucked out bear blood and teeth.
+
+
+
+
+                             Chapter XXXVII
+                          MISCELLANEOUS MAGIC
+
+
+All tribes of the Lassen region exercised miscellaneous more or less
+supernatural powers which one might term magic.
+
+Examples were: carrying a turtleshell on one’s belt which rendered a
+person immune to rattlesnake strikes, or, among Maidu the rubbing of the
+root of _Angelica breweri_ on the legs to keep rattlesnakes away.
+Poisoning of persons could be done by some skilled people (not shamans)
+by rubbing an unspecified substance on their hands and then touching the
+victim’s body; this could drive him crazy or kill him.
+
+To mountain Maidu the number five was sacred and lucky according to
+Dixon.
+
+    [Illustration: Yana charmstones and a fir twig basket container for
+    such charms.]
+
+Charm stones, usually in pairs were found by many fortunate Indians.
+They were smooth and rounded and were especially effective if possessing
+rings or other special markings on them which were actually surface
+traces of mineral veins. Quartz crystals, rare in this volcanic region,
+were also highly prized as charm stones. An ideal storage place for
+charm stones in their special basketry containers was in a rattlesnake
+“den” where such snakes tended to hibernate in the winter. At any rate
+charm stones were kept hidden and the owner would secretly rub them on
+himself to gain good luck in gambling or in other pursuits which
+involved much in the way of chance.
+
+    [Illustration: Atsugewi charmstones]
+
+Prayers for a variety of reasons were offered simply by the individual.
+It was common practice every few days or so to make token food offerings
+at mealtime for no specific reason. The bits of food might be thrown to
+the east or into the fire.
+
+                            * * * * * * * *
+
+Thus ends this resume of the customs and beliefs of the tribes of the
+Lassen region—tribes virtually extinct as such today—tribes which once
+lived here among the scenic beauties of Lassen Volcanic National Park.
+We, the descendants of the relentless conquerors of these local Indians,
+come here now to enjoy ourselves and to refresh our bodies and spirits.
+As we do this on the lands of the vanquished, we owe them not only a
+moment of thoughtful reverence, but also whatever kindness and aid we
+are able to give their descendants.
+
+
+
+
+                              BIBLIOGRAPHY
+
+
+  Dixon, Roland B.: BASKETRY DESIGNS OF THE INDIANS OF NORTHERN
+          CALIFORNIA
+    Feb. 12, 1902, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History,
+          Vol. 17, Part 1
+  Dixon, Roland B.: MAIDU MYTHS
+    June 30, 1902, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History,
+          Vol. 17, Part 2
+  Dixon, Roland B.: THE NORTHERN MAIDU
+    May 1905, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, Vol.
+          17, Part 3
+  Garth, Thomas R.: KINSHIP TERMINOLOGY, MARRIAGE PRACTICES, AND
+          BEHAVIOR TOWARD KIN AMONG THE ATSUGEWI
+    July 1944, American Anthropologist, Vol. 46, No. 3
+  Garth, Thomas R.: EMPHASIS ON INDUSTRIOUSNESS AMONG THE ATSUGEWI
+    Oct. 1945, American Anthropologist, Vol. 47, No. 4
+  Garth, Thomas R.: ATSUGEWI ETHNOGRAPHY
+    Feb. 1953, Anthropological Records, University of California, Vol.
+          14, No. 2
+  Gifford, E. W. and Klimek, Stanislaw: CULTURE ELEMENT DISTRIBUTIONS:
+          II, YANA
+    1936, University of California Publications in American Archeology
+          and Ethnology, Vol. 37, No. 2
+  Heizer, R. F. and Whipple, M. A.: THE CALIFORNIA INDIANS
+    1951, University of California Press
+  Klimek, Stanislaw: CULTURE ELEMENT DISTRIBUTIONS: I, THE STRUCTURE OF
+          THE CALIFORNIA INDIAN CULTURE
+    1935, University of California Publications in American Archeology
+          and Ethnology
+  Kniffen, Fred B.: ACHOMAWI GEOGRAPHY
+    1928, University of California Publications in American Archeology
+          and Ethnology
+  Kroeber, A. L.: HANDBOOK OF THE INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA
+    1925, Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology,
+          Bulletin. No. 78
+  Kroeber, A. L.: CULTURE ELEMENT DISTRIBUTIONS: XV, SALT, DOGS, AND
+          TOBACCO
+    Feb. 1941, Anthropological Records, University of California, Vol.
+          6, No. 1
+  Mason, Otis T.: REPORT OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM
+    1902
+  Merriam, C. Hart: CLASSIFICATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE PIT RIVER
+          INDIAN TRIBES
+    Smithsonian Institute, Vol. 78, No. 3
+  Pope, Saxton T.: THE MEDICAL HISTORY OF ISHI
+    May 15, 1920, University of California Publications in American
+          Archeology and Ethnology, Vol. 13, No. 5
+  Sapir, Edward: THE POSITION OF YANA IN THE HOKAN STOCK
+    June 1917, University of California Publications in American
+          Archeology and Ethnology, Vol. 13, No. 1
+  Sapir, Edward and Spier, Leslie: NOTES ON THE CULTURE OF THE YANA
+    Sept. 1943, Anthropological Records, University of California, Vol.
+          3, No. 3
+  Sauer, Carl O.: EARLY RELATIONS OF MAN TO PLANTS
+    Jan. 1947, Geographical Review
+  Vogelin, Ermine W.: CULTURE ELEMENT DISTRIBUTIONS: XX, NORTHEAST
+          CALIFORNIA
+    June 1942, Anthropological Records, University of California, Vol.
+          7, No. 2
+  Waterman, T. T.: THE YANA INDIANS
+    Feb. 1918, University of California Publications in American
+          Archeology and Ethnology, Vol. 13, No. 2
+
+
+                                  ASK
+                             THE MAN IN THE
+                     NATIONAL PARK SERVICE UNIFORM
+
+                      _He’ll be glad to help you!_
+
+
+                              BE PROUD OF
+                     LASSEN VOLCANIC NATIONAL PARK!
+
+As a citizen of the United States it belongs to you. Keep it unspoiled
+for your next visit and for future generations by helping to:
+
+  1. Prevent forest fires.
+  2. Protect the flowers, the animal life, and the rock and mineral
+          formations.
+  3. Keep it clean.
+
+
+This booklet is one of a series prepared by the Loomis Museum
+Association, a non-profit distributing organization sponsored by the
+Naturalist Department of Lassen Volcanic National Park. The Association
+is dedicated to the accumulation and dissemination of information
+concerning the history and natural history of this park. Toward this end
+it has published the following books available by mail. The post office
+address is Mineral, California. During the summer, these publications
+are also available at the Loomis Museum sales desk at Manzanita Lake,
+Lassen Volcanic National Park.
+
+  GEOLOGY OF LASSEN’S LANDSCAPE, Schulz                               55¢
+  PICTORIAL HISTORY OF THE LASSEN VOLCANO, Loomis                     85¢
+  GUIDE TO LASSEN PEAK HIGHWAY, Schulz                                25¢
+  STORIES OF LASSEN’S PLACE NAMES, Schulz                             40¢
+  BIRDS OF LASSEN VOLCANIC NATIONAL PARK AND VICINITY, Stebbins       85¢
+  FISH AND FISHING IN LASSEN VOLCANIC NATIONAL PARK, Potts            40¢
+  INDIANS OF THE LASSEN AREA Schulz                                   85¢
+
+For mail orders please add 12% for postage and packing. If the addressee
+is in California also add 3% sales tax. Prices are subject to change
+without notice.
+
+    [Illustration: Association logo]
+
+
+
+
+                          Transcriber’s Notes
+
+
+—Silently corrected a few typos.
+
+—Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook
+  is public-domain in the country of publication.
+
+—In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by
+  _underscores_.
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 65605 ***
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-<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Indians of Lassen Volcanic National Park and Vicinity, by Paul E. Schulz</div>
-<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
-most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
-of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
-at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you
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-
-<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Indians of Lassen Volcanic National Park and Vicinity</p>
-<div style='display:table; margin-bottom:1em;'>
-<div style='display:table-row'>
-  <div style='display:table-cell; padding-right:0.5em'>Author:</div>
-  <div style='display:table-cell'>Paul E. Schulz</div>
-</div>
-</div>
-<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: June 13, 2021 [eBook #65605]</div>
-<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div>
-<div style='display:table; margin-bottom:1em;'>
-  <div style='display:table-row'>
-    <div style='display:table-cell; padding-right:0.5em; white-space:nowrap;'>Produced by:</div>
-    <div style='display:table-cell'>Stephen Hutcheson and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net </div>
-  </div>
-</div>
-<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INDIANS OF LASSEN VOLCANIC NATIONAL PARK AND VICINITY ***</div>
-<div id="cover" class="img">
-<img id="coverpage" src="images/cover.jpg" alt="Indians of Lassen Volcanic National Park and Vicinity" width="794" height="1225" />
-</div>
-<div class="box">
-<h1><span class="cur">INDIANS
-<br /><span class="smallest"><span class="smallest">OF</span>
-<br />LASSEN VOLCANIC NATIONAL PARK AND VICINITY</span></span></h1>
-<p class="center">by
-<br />Paul E. Schulz</p>
-<p class="tbcenter">Published by the</p>
-<p class="center">Loomis Museum Association
-<br />Lassen Volcanic National Park
-<br />Mineral, California</p>
-</div>
-<p class="tbcenter">Copyright
-<br />1954</p>
-<p class="center smaller">Printed in the United States of America
-<br />Susanville <i class="large b">Lassen Litho</i> California</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_I">I</div>
-<h2 id="c1"><span class="small"><i>PREFACE</i></span></h2>
-<p>It is with some temerity that the author, a geologist by training
-and an interpretive naturalist by occupation, undertakes to compile
-this booklet on Indians who once inhabited the vicinity of Lassen
-Peak.</p>
-<p>The main mission of a naturalist, as he functions in the National
-Park Service, is to act as an interpreter of technical information
-gathered together by research scientists. It is his obligation as
-well as his privilege to make these data of history and natural
-history available for visitors to units administered by the National
-Park Service of the United States Department of the Interior. The
-Park Naturalist is challenged to create in visitors an eager interest
-by presenting information in an appealing manner so that the great
-stories of the respective areas may be learned easily and
-pleasantly. In doing this, visitors gain fuller understanding and
-hence better appreciation of the significance of these areas. This
-leads to greater enjoyment of the scenic masterpieces, the scientific
-natural wonders, and the historic shrines of areas of the
-National Park System. Not only is the visitor&rsquo;s enjoyment enhanced
-by his active reception of the interpretive facilities and services
-offered him by the Federal Government, but his pride is stimulated
-in these areas which have been set aside for his own use as well
-as for the benefit of future generations. A citizen&rsquo;s pride in his
-park areas in turn develops a love of country. It also promotes a
-sense of responsibility which helps the National Park Service fight
-vandalism, fire carelessness, and litter carelessness to the ultimate
-benefit of all concerned.</p>
-<p>Little on the pages which follow may be classed as original
-material for it is in the role of interpreter that the undersigned has
-assembled information gleaned by qualified students.</p>
-<p>The term &ldquo;Amerind&rdquo; instead of the traditional word &ldquo;Indian&rdquo;
-was seriously considered for use in this book but finally rejected.
-Ever since Christopher Columbus&rsquo; historic mistake the word Indian
-has had a confusing two-fold meaning. Columbus, of course, thought
-that he had been successful in reaching India when his little fleet
-touched the shores of the New World. Hence he applied the word
-Indian to the people he found there, supposing them to be natives
-of India. The term Amerind is a coined contraction of the words:
-American Indian. The use of Amerind has been advocated by some
-authors to do away with confusion, and it does seem to be an
-excellent name, but it has not enjoyed wide usage by the American
-public.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_II">II</div>
-<p>I am deeply indebted to the following named persons whose
-research and learned writings have provided the bulk of the information
-contained in the present publication. The bibliography carries
-the titles of the specific references used.</p>
-<dl class="undent"><dt>Dr. Roland B. Dixon</dt>
-<dt>Mr. Thomas R. Garth</dt>
-<dt>Dr. E. W. Gifford</dt>
-<dt>Dr. Robert F. Heizer</dt>
-<dt>Dr. Stanislaw Klimek</dt>
-<dt>Dr. A. L. Kroeber</dt>
-<dt>Dr. Saxton T. Pope</dt>
-<dt>Dr. Carl O. Sauer</dt>
-<dt>Dr. Edward Sapir</dt>
-<dt>Dr. Leslie Spier</dt>
-<dt>Miss Erminie W. Voegelin</dt>
-<dt>Dr. T. T. Waterman</dt></dl>
-<p>Properly, specific credit should be given in the text for each
-fact and quotation taken from the works of others, but the result
-would in this case have been unwieldy and of no practical benefit
-to the readers whom this book is intended to reach. It is hoped
-that professional ethnologists into whose hands this volume may
-fall will forgive this unorthodox usage of the research results of
-serious students.</p>
-<p>Mrs. Selina La Marr (Boonookoo-ee-menorra) was a valuable
-and gracious informant. Thanks are due again to Dr. E. W. Gifford,
-Director of the Museum of Anthropology at the University of California,
-for many courtesies, including donation of a copy of Dixon&rsquo;s
-rare &ldquo;Yana Indians&rdquo; and also for his constructive perusal of the
-manuscript. Others who assisted the author were Mrs. Grace Schulz,
-Miss Lois Bell of the University of California &ldquo;University Explorer&rdquo;
-radio program, and Mr. Louis Caywood, National Park
-Service archeologist. Dr. J. H. Woolsey, M.D., earned gratitude of
-the author by donation of his personal copy of Pope&rsquo;s &ldquo;Medical
-History of Ishi&rdquo;. Miss Lilian Nisbet of the Tehama County Library
-was helpful in the securing of other reference materials.</p>
-<p>Most Californians are vitally interested in the Indians of this
-state, yet few are aware of the excellent California State Indian
-Museum operated by the Division of Beaches and Parks. The Indian
-Museum is open to the public daily, free of charge, in a separate
-building on the grounds of Sutter&rsquo;s Fort State Historical Monument
-in Sacramento. The author highly commends this museum to you.
-It contains a wealth of authentic materials which have been organized
-into handsome and exciting story-telling exhibits of first
-quality by Curator Jack Dyson.</p>
-<p class="jr1">Paul E. Schulz
-<br />Park Naturalist
-<br />Lassen Volcanic National Park
-<br />Fall 1954</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_III">III</div>
-<h2 id="c2"><span class="small"><i>CONTENTS</i></span></h2>
-<dl class="toc">
-<dt><a href="#c1">Preface</a> I</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c2">Contents</a> III</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c3">Prehistoric Man Comes to North America</a> 1</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c4">Early Cultures in North America</a> 4</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c5">The California Indians</a> 8</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c6">Indian Tribes of the Lassen Area</a> 16</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c7">Indian-Pioneer Conflict; the Ishi Story</a> 20</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c8">Hunting</a> 38</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c9">Fishing</a> 43</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c10">Gathering and Preparation of Other Foods</a> 48</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c11">Houses and Furnishings</a> 60</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c12">Household Implements, Tools, and Weapons</a> 66</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c13">Basketry and Textiles</a> 80</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c14">Tanning, Cordage, and Glue</a> 96</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c15">Transportation</a> 99</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c16">Domestic Animals and Pets</a> 103</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c17">Clothing</a> 105</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c18">Beauty and Personal Grooming</a> 111</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c19">Wealth</a> 117</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c20">Ceremonial Dress</a> 119</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c21">Tobacco and Smoking</a> 120</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c22">Music and Arts</a> 122</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c23">Games and Social Gatherings</a> 126</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c24">Dances</a> 129</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c25">Political Organization of Tribes</a> 131</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c26">War and Peace</a> 133</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c27">Birth and Babies</a> 136</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c28">Adulthood Rites</a> 141</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c29">Marriage and Divorce</a> 143</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c30">Death and Burial</a> 145</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c31">Counting, Time, and Place</a> 149</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c32">Concepts of Sun, Moon, and Stars</a> 151</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c33">Weather Phenomena</a> 153</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c34">Earthquake Beliefs</a> 155</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c35">Creation Beliefs and Other Legends</a> 157</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c36">Medical Treatment</a> 162</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c37">Spirits and Ghosts</a> 164</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c38">Shamanism and Doctoring</a> 166</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c39">Miscellaneous Magic</a> 173</dt>
-<dt><a href="#c40">Bibliography</a> 175</dt>
-</dl>
-<div class="img">
-<img src="images/p03.jpg" id="ncfig1" alt="Association logo" width="300" height="198" />
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_1">1</div>
-<h2 id="c3"><span class="small">Chapter I</span>
-<br />PREHISTORIC MAN COMES TO NORTH AMERICA</h2>
-<p>Archeological studies of human remains from all over the world
-have shown beyond serious question that man originated in the
-Eastern Hemisphere about a million years ago. Meager remnants
-of prehistoric skeletons of man and his tools, hearths, and debris
-heaps have been found in deposits of late Cenozoic time, Chapter
-Five of earth&rsquo;s history. This late Cenozoic period starting about
-a million years ago is called the Pleistocene or Ice Age. These
-discoveries show the orderly processes of survival of the fittest
-and of evolution developing successive generations of man with
-refined physical and mental qualities, ultimately producing modern
-man.</p>
-<p>During the Ice Age there were four separate times during which
-ice formation on all continents of the earth increased tremendously.
-Just what caused changes in climate to make this possible is not
-definitely known. Slight changes in amount of carbon dioxide in
-the air, which could have been affected by the amount of volcanic
-activity or by major changes in the amount of plant life in existence,
-may have affected the climate. Slight variations in the
-orbit of the earth in its course around the sun may also have had
-their influence. Even today it would require a drop of only a few
-degrees in the average annual temperature of the earth&rsquo;s climate
-to produce a large increase in ice formation. All that is required
-is that a little more snow falls each winter than will melt in the
-summer. Thus, each year the excess would gradually build up
-glaciers and continental ice sheets, producing another &ldquo;ice stage&rdquo;
-in a few thousands of years.</p>
-<p>The area of ice in the world today is relatively small: under
-6 million square miles, about the same as that existing during each
-of the four interglacial (warm climate) stages of the Pleistocene.
-During the four glacial stages of the Ice Age, continental ice sheets
-increased their areas by three or four times, also becoming larger
-in size in each successive cold cycle. The latest and most extensive
-of these glacial times, the Wisconsin Stage, actually saw
-two ice advances with a brief recession separating them about
-60,000 years ago.</p>
-<p>During each glacial stage tremendous amounts of water were
-removed from the oceans and deposited on the continents as ice
-fields. This involved amounts of as much as 20 million cubic miles
-of water, causing world-wide lowering of sea level of about 150 or
-200 feet. Today the sea between Alaska and Siberia is very
-<span class="pb" id="Page_2">2</span>
-shallow. It is not difficult to realize that lowered sea level during
-the glacial stages of the ice age drained the water from this and
-other shallow sea floors exposing these as land links or &ldquo;land
-bridges&rdquo; which extended between continents and islands. This
-state of affairs made possible the overland migration of man to the
-Western Hemisphere.</p>
-<p>In his illuminating paper &ldquo;Early Relations of Man to Plants&rdquo;
-Sauer has pointed out that early man&rsquo;s migrations to the New World
-were not the result of mere aimless wanderings. Peking Man of the
-first interglacial stage about 900,000 years ago in Asia used fire in
-established hearths. He ate both cooked meats and vegetables.
-This evidence indicates at least a semi-sedentary family life.
-Since he had learned to make himself more comfortable generally
-by remaining in one favorable place, it follows logically that even
-primitive Peking Man migrated only when he could improve his lot
-by doing so. He moved on only when he was forced to do so by a
-failing food supply or because of crowded conditions caused by
-increasing numbers of his fellow men. It is believed that not only
-Peking Man, but his descendants were as sedentary as their food
-supply allowed them to be. Dr. Sauer observes that</p>
-<blockquote>
-<p>&ldquo;... the history of human population (numbers) is a succession
-of higher and higher levels, each rise to a new level
-being brought about by the discovery of more food either
-through occupation of a new territory or through increase in
-food producing skill.&rdquo;</p>
-</blockquote>
-<p>The invention of a better tool, improved food preparation, discovery
-of new foods, better storage, or utilization would bring about
-this increase in food availability.</p>
-<p>Apparently the twin circumstances of the need for more food and
-the existence of a dry land connection between Asia and North
-America enabled a series of migrations of prehistoric men to the
-New World. The migrations did not occur just during one glacial
-stage, nor during the last 15 or 25,000 years as some have claimed,
-but continued interruptedly over a period of many thousands of
-years. Perhaps such migrations started as long ago as 300,000
-years&mdash;whenever land connections permitted and other conditions
-warranted. As a result, we find a number of stocks of Old World
-Man at various levels of cultural development coming into the
-Americas. Naturally a variety of plant and animal species migrated
-in both directions between the Old and New Worlds of their own
-accord, in addition to those which might have been brought along
-by prehistoric man.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_3">3</div>
-<p>A classic example of plant migration to the New World is that
-of California&rsquo;s celebrated redwoods. In China just a few years
-ago the little changed ancestors of these trees, the still-growing
-Metasequoia were discovered. In rocks of the most recent era
-(Chapter Five of earth&rsquo;s history) the step by step migration of the
-changing redwood ancestors can be followed by studying successively
-younger rock layers in Siberia, Alaska, and in Canada
-and northwest United States. These relics and imprints of the
-foliage, fruits, and even of wood texture of these ancient trees
-were covered by sands and muds, and thus preserved in stone as
-fossils. This has made it possible to identify the ancestral redwood
-species and to demonstrate their march to California. It is
-interesting to note how the redwoods changed in the process, evolving
-by degrees to cope with new conditions of climate and soil
-during their slow migrations. At length today two distinct and
-unique Sequoias are to be found living only in California. One,
-the Coast Redwood, has adapted itself to coastal fogs and reproduction
-by sprouting root shoots. The other, restricted to drier areas
-of the west slope of the Sierra, the Sierra Redwood or Big Tree,
-has its needles reduced to small scales to withstand the drier
-climate, and reproduces only by seed.</p>
-<p>Sauer observes that the stone implements of prehistoric man are
-the best preserved relics of his culture and are the most easily
-found. Unfortunately the less durable and less easily recognized
-relics of skin, bone, wood, and vegetable fibers which are equally
-or often even more important clues to the past, have been altered
-beyond recognition or completely destroyed. As a result these
-disappeared or their camouflaged remnants have been overlooked
-and passed unrecognized by even careful students seeking to learn
-the details of this fascinating story of the how&rsquo;s and why&rsquo;s and
-when&rsquo;s of your ancestors and mine in Europe and also of the Indians
-in Asia and in North America in general, and of those of the Lassen
-area in particular.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_4">4</div>
-<h2 id="c4"><span class="small">Chapter II</span>
-<br />EARLY CULTURES IN NORTH AMERICA</h2>
-<p>The fact that skeletons of primitive forms of man have so far
-not been discovered in the Western Hemisphere does not mean that
-ancestral forms preceding modern man did not migrate to the New
-World in remote times. It is that erroneous idea which has caused
-some persons to reason that man arrived here only in the final
-glacial stage. Good evidence has been presented to suggest that
-the sites he would have been most likely to inhabit might be submerged
-at present or may have been especially vulnerable to
-destruction by erosion.</p>
-<p>Certain primitive peoples of the New World (in South America)
-do no boiling of foods and do not have the dog, indicating very
-early immigration from the Old World. Dr. Sauer suggests a date
-during the third glacial stage, the Kansan, about 300,000 years
-ago instead of the Wisconsin Glacial Stage of 15,000 or 25,000
-years ago as some have contended.</p>
-<p>At the present level of archeological and paleontological knowledge
-of prehistoric man in North America, Sauer recognizes five
-basic early cultures. These are listed below in the order of their
-apparent appearances in the New World.</p>
-<p>The most primitive and oldest culture of man recognized to date
-is very difficult to detect, for its evidences were of a fragile nature.
-Few traces of it remain to be seen today. This first culture known
-in North America lacks both stone weapon points and grinding
-stones. These items were also found lacking in the cultures of
-some isolated contemporary peoples of both North and South
-America.</p>
-<p>The second oldest culture in North America was that of the
-Ancient Food Grinders which appears to have been widespread in
-the rather rainy climate of the Mississippi and Pacific regions of
-North America. These people built fireplaces or hearths&mdash;beds
-of collected stones. They used a grinding slab of stone on which
-a handstone was rubbed to crush hard seeds. This indicates a
-greater variety of foods than used in the earlier culture. A number
-of crude pounding tools such as choppers and scrapers were employed
-as were a few rude knives of stone. It is of interest and
-significance that use of the grinder and grinding slab disappeared
-completely from most or all of this area later. The well known
-metate and mano grinding devices of the Southwest were introduced
-much later, along with the growing of corn or maize, from the Central
-<span class="pb" id="Page_5">5</span>
-American region. Coiled basketry appears to be identified with
-this second culture too, such articles being essential as containers
-for collection of seeds, winnowing, et cetera. Studies of the
-evidence in the field show also that these peoples were sedentary
-to the extent of developing refuse mounds or middens. The fact
-that this culture is not found in Europe or in Asia indicates that
-it developed in the Western Hemisphere.</p>
-<p>About 35,000 years ago the third culture appears to have developed.
-It was one in which hunting was of major importance.
-These hunters were not nomads, however, for the building of hearths,
-accumulations of artifacts, and also the general use of seed grinding
-stones, all indicate rather sedentary habits. This culture is
-characterized by the presence of dart or spear throwers, an invention
-of European origin. This indicates more recent migrations
-from the Old World. These darts were stone tipped and propelled
-with a spear thrower or atlatl, making hunting of animal food much
-more effective than in the case of earlier cultures.</p>
-<p>The fourth culture is that known by the names Folsom and Yuma.
-In these people interest in plant foods and fibers was slight, for
-this was primarily a mobile hunting culture. The people were not
-sedentary, but moved around.</p>
-<p>Well after the disappearance of the glaciers of the Ice Age, late
-comers from the Old World brought a fifth culture to the Americas.
-These people used the bow and arrow with its small and finely
-worked stone point. Fish hooks were used and many stone implements
-were well polished. This too is the first culture of the New
-World with which the dog was associated.</p>
-<p>In Eastern North America, and particularly well known in the
-Southwest, are abundant archeological evidences from easily recognized
-prehistoric living sites. These reveal a succession of more
-recent cultures and changes within cultures, as well as movement
-of early peoples. In contrast there are relatively few recognized
-prehistoric sites in California which tell much about early customs
-and material culture of aboriginal man. Some productive areas
-which have been found are notably the following: The Farmington
-Reservoir area of Stanislaus County more than 4,000 years old&mdash;possibly
-much older, Kingsley Cave, the Santa Barbara area, and
-the off-shore islands to the southwest of it. There are also a few
-shell mounds in the Los Angeles&mdash;Ventura area and more numerous
-and extensive ones in the San Francisco Bay vicinity. Of the latter
-shell mounds A. L. Kroeber writes:</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_6">6</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig1">
-<img src="images/p04.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="1172" />
-<p class="pcap">AREAS AND SUBAREAS OF CULTURES
-IN AND ABOUT CALIFORNIA
-<br />after A. L. Kroeber</p>
-</div>
-<dl class="undent pcap"><dt>NORTHWESTERN CALIF.</dt>
-<dt>NORTH PACIFIC COAST AREA</dt>
-<dt>CENTRAL CALIFORNIA</dt>
-<dt>SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA</dt>
-<dt>PLATEAU AREA</dt>
-<dt>PLAINS AREA</dt>
-<dt>CALIFORNIA-GREAT BASIN AREA</dt>
-<dt>SOUTHWEST AREA</dt>
-<dt>LOWER COLORADO</dt></dl>
-<blockquote>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_7">7</div>
-<p>&ldquo;... all the classes of objects (shells, refuse, mortars,
-pestles, obsidian, charmstones, and bone awls) in question
-occur at the bottom, middle, and top of the mounds, and ...
-they occur with substantially the same frequency. In other
-words, the natives of the San Francisco region traded the same
-materials from the same localities one, two, or three thousand
-years ago as when they were discovered at the end of the
-eighteenth century. They ate the same food, in nearly the
-same proportions (only mammalian bones became more abundant
-in higher levels), prepared it in substantially the same manner,
-and sewed skins, rush mats, and coiled baskets similarly to
-their recent descendants. Even their religion was conservative,
-since the identical charms seem to have been regarded
-potent. In a word, the basis of culture remained identical
-during the whole of the shell-mound period.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;When it is remembered that ... the beginning of this
-period (occurred) more than 3,000 years ago, it is clear that
-we are here confronted by a historical fact of extraordinary
-importance. It means that at the time when Troy was besieged
-and Solomon was building the temple, at a period when even
-Greek civilization had not yet taken on the traits that we regard
-as characteristic, when only a few scattering foundations
-of specific modern culture were being laid and our own northern
-ancestors dwelled in unmitigated barbarism, the native
-Californian already lived in all essentials like his descendant
-of today. In Europe and Asia, change succeeded change of the
-profoundest type. On this far shore of the Pacific, civilization,
-such as it was, remained immutable in all fundamentals.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;... The permanence of Californian culture ... is of
-far more than local interest. It is a fact of significance in the
-history of civilization.&rdquo;</p>
-</blockquote>
-<p>Successive intrusions of different peoples and the isolation of
-the resultant developing Indian tribes, century after century, gave
-rise to many diverse languages. Although some were mere dialects,
-there were about 750 different North American Indian languages.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_8">8</div>
-<h2 id="c5"><span class="small">Chapter III</span>
-<br />THE CALIFORNIA INDIANS</h2>
-<p>Dr. A. L. Kroeber&rsquo;s map shows all tribes within the present
-political boundaries of the State of California. The tribes of the
-extreme northwest corner and those of the southern tip of the state
-are not typical of what we generally think of as &ldquo;California
-Indians&rdquo;.</p>
-<p>Although it may not be scientifically sound to do so, it is often
-convenient to refer to the Indian tribes of the California region
-collectively. The term &ldquo;Digger Indians&rdquo; is frequently used for
-this purpose with a somewhat disparaging connotation. The origin
-of this name is traceable to white traders and pioneers who observed
-that local Indians dug extensively for a number of food
-items, hence the name Digger was applied. However, this is a
-poor name as digging was but one of many methods the Indians
-used to secure food. Besides, digging was by no means peculiar
-to Indians of the California area. It is best, therefore, simply to
-use the term California Indians, if one wishes to refer to this group
-of tribes as a whole.</p>
-<p>In connection with the nickname Digger Indian, it is of interest
-to note that the California tribes used the conspicuous pine of the
-foothills, <i>Pinus sabiniana</i>, as a source of edible pine nuts and for
-other purposes too. Because the so called Digger Indians used
-these trees so much, the pioneers named the conifers Digger Pines,
-a name recognized today as the proper common name of that tree.</p>
-<p>California tribes are usually not considered high culturally
-among Indians generally, yet Yurok, Pomo, and Chumash are equal
-to any tribe in North America in wood, bone, steatite, obsidian,
-feather, and skin work, while local tribes of the Lassen area made
-basketry of a variety and quality unsurpassed elsewhere.</p>
-<p>Although there were local differences in food habits, the California
-Indians as a group had a highly diversified diet in contrast
-to the so-called one-food tribes in surrounding areas. Of course
-it is an over-simplification to speak of one-food tribes, for all
-ate quite a variety of foods. Yet, it is true that several cultures
-had been built upon the great abundance and importance of one
-particular food item as compared to all other foods eaten. North
-of California, Indians built their culture largely upon the salmon.
-To the east were tribes which depended upon the bison for most
-of their needs, and southeast of California the Southwest Indians
-built their culture around the all important maize or native corn.
-In any of these regional groups, if the main food item failed, disaster
-struck the tribes. In contrast, the Californians, with
-diversified eating habits, had four major food sources: fish, game,
-roots, and seeds or nuts. Each was important and the failure of
-any one caused hardship, but by no means the serious disaster
-which befell the more specialized groups of Indians if their main
-food supply item failed. If any one item of the California Indian
-diet were to be selected as the most important and universal food,
-one of the nuts, the acorn would have to be named.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_9">9</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig2">
-<img src="images/p05.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="1033" />
-<p class="pcap">INDIAN TRIBAL DISTRIBUTION IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
-<br />after A. L. Kroeber</p>
-</div>
-<dl class="undent pcap"><dt>TOLOWA</dt>
-<dt>YUROK</dt>
-<dt>KAROK</dt>
-<dd>UPPER</dd>
-<dd>LOWER</dd>
-<dt>SHASTAN</dt>
-<dd>SHASTA</dd>
-<dd>OKWANUCHU</dd>
-<dd>ACHOMAWI</dd>
-<dd>ATSUGEWI</dd>
-<dd>KORO MINU</dd>
-<dd>NEW RIVER</dd>
-<dt>MODOC</dt>
-<dt>NORTHERN PAIUTE</dt>
-<dt><span class="ss">LASSEN VOL. NAT. PARK</span></dt>
-<dt>PYOT</dt>
-<dt>WHILIOUT</dt>
-<dt>ATHABASCAN</dt>
-<dd>CHILULA</dd>
-<dd>HUPA</dd>
-<dd>NONGATL</dd>
-<dd>SINKYONE</dd>
-<dd>LASSIK</dd>
-<dd>WAILAKI</dd>
-<dd>KATO</dd>
-<dt>YUKI</dt>
-<dd>YUKI</dd>
-<dd>HUCHNOM</dd>
-<dd>COAST YUKI</dd>
-<dt>POMO</dt>
-<dd>N.</dd>
-<dd>C.</dd>
-<dd>S.W.</dd>
-<dd>E.</dd>
-<dd>S.E.</dd>
-<dt>WAPPO</dt>
-<dt>CHIMA RIKO</dt>
-<dt>WINTUN</dt>
-<dd>NORTHERN</dd>
-<dd>CENTRAL</dd>
-<dd>SOUTHWESTERN</dd>
-<dd>SOUTHEASTERN</dd>
-<dt>COSTANOAN</dt>
-<dd>SAN FRANCISCAN</dd>
-<dd>SANTA CLARA</dd>
-<dd>SANTA CRUZ</dd>
-<dt>YANA</dt>
-<dd>N.</dd>
-<dd>CENTRAL</dd>
-<dd>SOUTHERN</dd>
-<dd>YAHI</dd>
-<dt>MAIDU</dt>
-<dd>NORTHEASTERN</dd>
-<dd>NORTHWESTERN</dd>
-<dd>SOUTHERN</dd>
-<dt>WASHO</dt>
-<dt>MIWOK</dt>
-<dd>COAST MIWOK</dd>
-<dd>PLAINS</dd>
-<dd>NORTHERN</dd>
-<dd>CENTRAL</dd>
-<dd>SOUTHERN</dd>
-<dt>YOKUT</dt>
-<dd>NORTH VALLEY</dd></dl>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_10">10</div>
-<p>California Indians are often regarded to have been lazy and
-shiftless. To be sure there were such individuals, but we have
-that type of person in our midst too, and I dare say in equal or
-greater percentage. As a matter of fact, Indians generally could
-not afford to be lazy&mdash;there was no beneficent government to
-coddle them. It was largely a case of sink or swim. They had to
-provide their own shelter, food, and clothing as well as what amusement
-and extras&mdash;hardly to be called luxuries&mdash;they wished to
-enjoy. These things were all wrought from the wilderness with
-their own bare hands, using only wood, stone, and fire as tools.
-These native Americans lived in a stone-age culture. Metals, the
-wheel, domesticated herd animals, and agriculture were unknown
-to California Indians. Although there was some seasonal migration,
-there were no truly nomadic or wandering tribes in California.</p>
-<p>In California there were 103 separate tribes each speaking its
-own language. To be sure, some were mere dialects of others, but
-there were 21 tongues completely distinct from each other and
-mutually unintelligible. These belonged to several unrelated
-language families, as shown on the second map.</p>
-<p>As suggested above, Kroeber has shown that we are technically
-incorrect in referring to the California Indians as a single group
-of tribes. Within the political boundaries of the State of California
-there were actually three separate cultures with a number of subcultures,
-which were as follows: The small area in the northwest
-corner of the state, the Klamath River drainage, was occupied by
-the Northwest California Sub-culture, a part of the North Pacific
-Coast Culture which extended into British Columbia. The California-Great
-Basin Culture had three representatives in the state:
-the smallest or Lutuami Sub-culture, represented by the Modoc
-tribe only, extended down from the north across the east central
-portion of the northern boundary of California. The next larger was
-the Great Basin Sub-culture just east of the Cascade-Sierra backbone.
-The third and largest sub-culture of the California-Great
-Basin Culture was that of the Central California tribes (the Diggers
-of the pioneer), extending westward from the Cascade-Sierra crest
-to the Pacific Ocean across the bulk of the state. The fifth sub-culture
-is known as the Southern California comprising the area
-south of the Tehachapi Mountains from the coast east across the
-Colorado River, being a part of the Southwest Culture.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_11">11</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig3">
-<img src="images/p06.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="1033" />
-<p class="pcap"><span class="u">LINGUISTIC FAMILIES</span>
-<br />INDIAN LANGUAGE GROUPS OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
-and the families to which they belong, after A. L. Kroeber</p>
-</div>
-<dl class="undent pcap"><dt>Lutuamian</dt>
-<dd>LUTUAMI</dd>
-<dt>Hokan</dt>
-<dd>KAROK</dd>
-<dd>SHASTAN</dd>
-<dd>CHIMARIKO</dd>
-<dd>POMO</dd>
-<dd>WASHO</dd>
-<dd>YANA</dd>
-<dt>Shoshonian</dt>
-<dd>PAIUTE</dd>
-<dt>Penutian</dt>
-<dd>WINTUN</dd>
-<dd>MAIDU</dd>
-<dd>MIWOK</dd>
-<dd>YOKUT</dd>
-<dd>COSTANOAN</dd>
-<dt>Algonkian</dt>
-<dd>YUROK</dd>
-<dt>Athabascan</dt>
-<dd>ATHABASCAN</dd>
-<dt>Yukian</dt>
-<dd>YUKI</dd></dl>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_12">12</div>
-<p>Nevertheless, some generalities hold, and at the risk of the
-inaccuracy which is typical of generalizations, we might set forth
-the following customs as being characteristic of California Indians:</p>
-<p>Animal flesh bulked a smaller volume of food eaten than did
-vegetable materials&mdash;or, in the case of coastal peoples, than did
-seafoods. Dog and reptile flesh were considered poisonous or undesirable,
-but insects and worms were generally eaten. Acorns
-were the most important single food. All tribes utilized seeds of
-such plants as buckeye, grass, sedge, and sunflower family plants.
-All items, but the first, were collected with a basketry seed beater
-in a conical burden basket, parched, winnowed, ground, and eaten
-either dry, as unleavened bread, or as boiled mush.</p>
-<p>Although the fish hook and line were known throughout the area,
-most fishing was done by means of nets, weirs, use of poison, and
-harpoons thrust, but not thrown.</p>
-<p>Hunting with bow and arrow was most important. Disguise and
-dogs were used in the north, but surrounding the game was the
-common means of hunting in the south.</p>
-<p>The northern bow was short, broad, and sinew backed while
-southern Californians used long narrow bows without reinforcement.</p>
-<p>Arrows were usually two-piece and tipped with obsidian points.
-Three different arrow releases were used among California Indians.
-Northern arrows were straightened by use of a hole through a piece
-of wood or similar material, and were polished by use of horsetail
-stalks while a grooved squarish soapstone (steatite) did both jobs
-in the south.</p>
-<p>Basketry was highly developed, being California&rsquo;s best art form.
-The northern quarter of the area did twined basketry; coiled basketry
-prevailed elsewhere.</p>
-<p>Cloth was unknown, but woven rabbit skin strip blankets were
-universal, especially for bedding. Rush mats were twined and
-sewn.</p>
-<p>Pottery was unknown except for a very crude undecorated form
-in the San Joaquin Valley, an intrusion from the Southern California
-Sub-culture where pottery became important.</p>
-<p>Music of California was characterized by singing, rattles,
-whistles, split slap sticks, flute, and musical bow. The last two
-instruments were the only ones which were able to make real melodies,
-<span class="pb" id="Page_13">13</span>
-but amazingly, neither one was used for dances or ceremonies.
-California Indians were virtually without any drums&mdash;the exception
-being a single headed flat foot drum used in ceremonial sweathouse
-chambers of the tribes in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys.</p>
-<p>Dress of California women was a front and a back apron of skin&mdash;especially
-buckskin&mdash;or of plant fiber. Men wore nothing or a
-folded skin about the hips or between the legs. In bad weather both
-sexes used cape-like or wrap-around (over one arm and under the
-other) skin robes. In localized areas the brimless dome-shaped
-basketry cap was worn by women. Hair of both sexes was long (but
-shorn in mourning) and frequently put up in nets by men. Men removed
-their beards by pulling with their fingers.</p>
-<p>In mountain areas social and religious cults were lacking. In
-the extreme northwest corner wealth dances were held; in central
-California the secret society and Kuksu dances, in the south the
-Jimsonweed initiation system, and in the Colorado River area the
-dreamsong ceremony flourished.</p>
-<p>Houses varied from open enclosures and brush or bark shelters
-to frame structures more or less completely dug into the ground and
-covered with bark, brush, and dirt, usually with a roof entrance and
-or one to the south; this was the earth lodge. In the extreme northwest
-housing was not the earth lodge, but a structure built on top
-of the ground; hand-split planks were used in its construction.</p>
-<p>Sweat houses were of the earth lodge type, often of daily service
-and in northern areas, lived in too. Sweat houses of California were
-not heated by steam, but directly with fire.</p>
-<p>Boats generally were of rushes tied into balsa rafts or into boat
-shapes. In addition one-piece dugout canoes from tree logs were
-typical of the northern portion of California, becoming progressively
-more refined in workmanship and in design to the northwest. A
-unique lashed split board canoe was made by channel island tribes
-in the Santa Barbara vicinity.</p>
-<p>The tribe as a political unit, so common elsewhere in America,
-did not exist in California. What we call a tribe was actually a
-number of groups of Indians, each of whom had a chief, spoke the
-same language dialect, had the same customs, intermarried regularly,
-and were usually mutually friendly. There was no tribal
-chief as such.</p>
-<p>In the northwest portion of California wealth was so important
-that real chieftain leadership was lacking. In central and southern
-California the chief was a powerful local leader on a hereditary
-basis. Between the two extremes was a zone where tribes struck a
-compromise; the hereditary local chief had moderate authority and
-<span class="pb" id="Page_14">14</span>
-usually was well to do, but not necessarily so. Rich men in smaller
-political divisions were influential headmen under the local chief.</p>
-<p>Warfare was only for revenge and not for plunder or for a desire
-for distinction. Except for the Northwest Sub-culture, scalps were
-generally taken and included the victim&rsquo;s skin down to his eyes
-or nose, and including the ears. Not infrequently the whole head
-was taken by a victorious warrior. The weapon was the bow and
-arrow, with rocks employed in close combat. Such war implements
-as shields, clubs, spears (throwing), and tomahawks were not used.</p>
-<p>Guessing games, usually played by men, were universal, with
-variations, and heavy gambling was the rule. Shinny in several
-different forms was widely played.</p>
-<p>Shamans were employed for curing diseases which were believed
-due to the presence in the body of some foreign hostile object. This
-was removed by sucking accompanied by singing, dancing, and
-tobacco smoking.</p>
-<p>The girls&rsquo; adulthood or puberty ceremony and dance was important
-to all California tribes.</p>
-<p>Population figures even on the most scholarly basis, Kroeber
-states, are at best reasonable guesses. As nearly as can be determined
-there were originally about one million Indians in North
-America, three million in Central America, and three million in
-South America. California probably had about 133,000 Indians or
-nearly one per square mile. This is a density three or four times
-greater than for the whole of North America.</p>
-<p>Today the North American Indian population (including about
-30% half-breeds) is less than 10% of what it was. Over 90% of our
-Indians have been destroyed by wholesale killing at the hands
-of the white man, by new diseases, unfavorable changes in diet,
-clothing, and dwellings plus such Caucasian cultural factors as
-settlement, concentration, and the like. The decline in Indian
-population varied directly with the degree of civilized contact the
-several tribes experienced. It is interesting to note that virtually
-all of the Indians exposed to the Spanish missions commencing
-1769 are gone except for a few in the extreme south who were only
-partly missionized. Kroeber states:</p>
-<blockquote>
-<p>&ldquo;It must have caused many of the fathers a severe pang to
-realize, as they could not but do daily, that they were saving
-souls only at the inevitable cost of lives. And yet such was
-the overwhelming fact. The brute upshot of missionization,
-in spite of its kindly flavor and humanitarian root, was only
-one thing: death.&rdquo;</p>
-</blockquote>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_15">15</div>
-<p>Kroeber also points out that some tribes had much less resistance
-and hence suffered greater decline in population in response
-to equal white contact than others did. As in the case of other
-living things, there were favorable circumstances under which the
-Indian flourished&mdash;where life was relatively easy and secure.
-Such conditions produced virile stock and a rich culture both materially
-and spiritually&mdash;a condition found in broad valleys drained
-by the great rivers of California: the Klamath, the Sacramento, and
-the San Joaquin. As is also the case with specific plants and
-animals, Indians in less favorable sites lived submarginally&mdash;a
-difficult existence, poor in material and spiritual culture. Under
-such circumstances it takes just a small amount of additional unfavorable
-influence to make existence impossible. On this basis
-Kroeber explains the extinction or near extinction of poor mountain
-tribes upon contact with the whites while the Indians of the fertile
-valleys, although suffering more intensive Caucasian contact, were
-able to survive in reasonable numbers. This is a specific exception
-to the general observation made above that population decrease
-varied directly with the degree of contact. There are examples in
-California; the local one is the survival of valley Maidu and Wintun
-populations as compared to the surrounding mountain people with
-poorer cultures: the Yahi, Yana, Okwanuchu, Shasta, New River
-Shasta, Chimariko, and the Athabascan tribes of the west with
-survival percentages today of up to only 5% at best.</p>
-<p>There is another factor which caused greater devastation of the
-economically insecure mountain tribes. White settlers were able
-to use to their own advantage some of the labor, services, and even
-food which the valley Indians afforded them. Thus it was not to the
-interest of the whites to wipe out these Indians. On the other hand,
-the mountain tribes with a poorer economy were prone to steal livestock
-to supplement their food supplies as they had no means to
-gain wealth to enable them to buy from the whites. Such depredations
-were a major cause of retaliation by white man in the form of
-bloody punitive attacks on Indians from whom the settlers had
-nothing to gain.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_16">16</div>
-<h2 id="c6"><span class="small">Chapter IV</span>
-<br />INDIAN TRIBES OF THE LASSEN AREA</h2>
-<p>Lassen Peak with an elevation of 10,453 feet above sea level
-is the central high point of a somewhat topographically isolated
-mountain mass of volcanic origin. The slopes descending in all
-directions from Lassen Peak are clothed in coniferous forests,
-dotted with small lakes of glacial origin, and drained by a few fish
-bearing streams flowing radially from the mountain. There are also
-a few hot spring areas and some barren expanses where recent
-eruptions have produced mudflows and lavas. For the most part,
-game abounds in the Lassen highland, but the winters are snowy
-and severe, making it unsuitable for Indians to live there the year
-around.</p>
-<p>As shown on the map, parts of the lands of four distinct tribes
-of Indians lay within what are today the boundaries of Lassen
-Volcanic National Park. Permanent homes and villages of Atsugewi,
-Yana, Yahi and mountain Maidu tribes were at lower elevations in
-the Ponderosa Pine and Digger Pine belts, and situated near
-streams. There food was relatively easily available and winters
-were the least severe within the limits of the respective tribal
-territories.</p>
-<p>Each summer when deer migrated to higher elevations, the
-Indians also moved toward Lassen Peak to hunt and to fish trout,
-spending the whole summer in temporary camps.</p>
-<p>There was some contact between the four tribes during their
-sojourns in the uplands of the park area, but the activities of each
-Indian group were pretty well confined to its own territory. The
-four Lassen tribes did on occasion engage in small battles, but
-this was the exception rather than the rule&mdash;generally speaking
-they lived harmoniously as neighbors, and there was even
-occasional inter-marriage between tribes.</p>
-<p>These tribes all had simple hill or mountain cultures which,
-in spite of some difference of custom, were surprisingly alike. It
-is believed that this is due to the fact that the four tribes all lived
-under very similar conditions of environment&mdash;the same type of
-country in many respects. The similarity of their cultures is all the
-more interesting in that the Atsugewi were of the Hokan Family,
-speaking a Shastan language. Yana and Yahi, also of Hokan stock
-spoke Yana languages. The mountain Maidu were of the Penutian
-Family, speaking a Maidu language.</p>
-<p>According to the best available figures, some of which are only
-reasonable guesses, populations of the local tribes were probably
-about as follows:</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_17">17</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig4">
-<img src="images/p07.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="1000" />
-<p class="pcap">INDIAN TRIBAL AREAS OF THE LASSEN REGION
-<br />after A. L. Kroeber and T. R. Garth&mdash;note the boundaries of
-Lassen Volcanic National Park dashed in above and left of center
-of the map. Lassen Peak is at the junction of the Atsugewi, Yana,
-and Maidu territories.</p>
-</div>
-<dl class="undent pcap"><dt>ACHOMAWI</dt>
-<dt>SHASTAN</dt>
-<dd>OKWANUCHU</dd>
-<dt>NORTHERN WINTUN</dt>
-<dt>CENTRAL WINTUN</dt>
-<dt>S. E. WINTUN</dt>
-<dt>CENTRAL YANA</dt>
-<dt>NORTH (YANA)</dt>
-<dt>SOUTHERN YANA</dt>
-<dt>ATSUGEWI</dt>
-<dd>ATSUGE</dd>
-<dd>APWARUGE</dd>
-<dt>NORTHERN PAIUTE</dt>
-<dt>NORTHEASTERN MAIDU</dt>
-<dt>NORTHWESTERN MAIDU</dt>
-<dt>SOUTHERN MAIDU</dt>
-<dt>WASHO</dt></dl>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_18">18</div>
-<table class="center">
-<tr class="th"><th> </th><th>1770 </th><th>1910 </th><th>1950</th></tr>
-<tr><td class="l">Atsugewi </td><td class="r">1,000 </td><td class="r">250 </td><td class="r">75</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="l">Yana (north, central, s) </td><td class="r">750 </td><td class="r">25 </td><td class="r">10</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="l">Yahi </td><td class="r">275 </td><td class="r">5 </td><td class="r">none</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="l">Maidu (mountain) </td><td class="r">2,000 </td><td class="r">800 </td><td class="r">300</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="r">Totals </td><td class="r">4,025 </td><td class="r">1,080 </td><td class="r">385</td></tr>
-</table>
-<blockquote>
-<p>Garth states that: &ldquo;The Atsugewi are divided into two
-major groups, the Atsuge or pinetree-people, who occupy Hat
-Creek Valley, and the Apwaruge&mdash;from Apwariwa, the name of
-Dixie Valley&mdash;who live to the east in and around Dixie Valley.
-Sometimes the Apwaruge are called Mahoupani, juniper-tree-people,
-a name which reflects the dry and barren nature of
-their territory....</p>
-<p>&ldquo;... certain cultural differences (existed) between
-the eastern and western Atsugewi, who in most aspects of
-nonmaterial culture and in language are one people. In the
-western area there was more abundant rainfall and a fairly
-luxuriant growth of pines, oaks, and other trees. Here the
-Atsuge subsisted largely on acorns and fish; made twined
-basketry, using willow, pine root, <i>Xerophylum</i> grass, and redbud
-materials; and had bark houses and numerous other
-structures of bark. On the contrary, in the eastern area, which
-is comparatively arid and lacking in trees, the Apwaruge depended
-on the acorn less than did the Atsuge and fishing was
-less important, to judge by the scarcity or lack of nets, fish
-hooks, and harpoons; made inferior twined baskets of twisted
-tule with a different twist to the weave; as a rule had their
-houses covered with tule mats rather than with bark; and were
-much poorer than the Atsuge. This cultural distinction between
-the eastern and western areas is also found to the north among
-the Achomawi.&rdquo;</p>
-</blockquote>
-<p>Dixon&rsquo;s studies have revealed that the Maidu had no general
-name for themselves, remarkable as this may seem. The name
-Maidu was first used by Stephen Powers in 1877 in his volume
-&ldquo;TRIBES OF CALIFORNIA&rdquo;, a name he arbitrarily applied to these
-Indians since the word meant &ldquo;Indian&rdquo; or &ldquo;man&rdquo; in their language.
-The adjectives northwest or valley, northeast or mountain, and
-southern or foothill are applied to identify the three different cultures
-corresponding to the three distinct geographic provinces
-<span class="pb" id="Page_19">19</span>
-inhabited by the Maidu Indians as a whole. In a number of respects
-the culture of the mountain or northeast Maidu was more like that
-of their northern neighbors, the Atsugewi, than it was like that of
-the closely related southern and northwestern Maidu peoples.
-Obviously the factor of environment or characteristics of the land
-occupied is of extreme importance in creating such a situation.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_20">20</div>
-<h2 id="c7"><span class="small">Chapter V</span>
-<br />INDIAN&mdash;PIONEER CONFLICT AND THE STORY OF ISHI</h2>
-<p>Conflict&mdash;prolonged, tragic, and violent&mdash;flared during the
-period when Europeans wrested control of North America from the
-native Indian. In viewing the struggle between Indian and white
-man, feelings run high even today.</p>
-<p>What was it when Custer&rsquo;s contingent was wiped out?&mdash;when
-the Modocs inflicted such heavy losses on the American troops?&mdash;when
-the Navajo, Sioux, and others made their devastating raids
-on wagon trains and pioneer settlers? These were just as much a
-part of the war as were the exploits of Rogers&rsquo; Rangers, the indiscriminate
-slaying of Indian men, women, and children in the Yahi
-caves on Mill Creek, and the annihilation of large segments of
-Atsugewi and Yana tribes cornered at points northwest of the
-present Lassen Volcanic National Park area. War is never a pretty
-thing. Was the hit and run killing of white people by Indians any
-less defensible morally than white man&rsquo;s atrocities against the
-Indians, or, for that matter, than commando raids and atomic bombings
-of today? Our viewpoint on such matters in the past has all
-too often been that might makes right, since we have always been
-on the winning side. Until very recently we have followed the
-biased opinion of the colonists and pioneers of these United States:
-whenever we won, it was a glorious and righteous victory, but if
-the Indian emerged victorious, it was regarded as a dastardly
-massacre. It is a viewpoint readily understandable where a person&rsquo;s
-loved ones are involved&mdash;but not justifiable.</p>
-<p>Our veterans of recent wars will vouch for the fact that white
-man&rsquo;s wars can be primitive and violent when life and limb are at
-stake. We are hardly in a position to criticize the &ldquo;cruel and
-sneaking&rdquo; fighting methods of the Indians. Was it not use of Indian
-fighting methods which was so valuable to us in defeating the
-British in the colonial war for independence?</p>
-<p>Indians fought in the only way they knew&mdash;and a disheartening
-losing fight it was for them with bows and arrows against rifles.
-For each gain in weapons and technical know-how the Indians
-made, the whites made many. True, it cost Americans much in the
-way of lives, anguish, and money, but how small were these losses
-in comparison to those of the Indians. American Indians, the undisputed
-owners of this continent for thousands of years, were not
-only nearly exterminated, but in the end we took virtually all of
-their land by force and with it took away the means of self support
-<span class="pb" id="Page_21">21</span>
-as well without &ldquo;due process of law&rdquo;. We denied the Indian the
-right of &ldquo;life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness&rdquo;&mdash;the very
-things for which we as a nation stand. In all fairness, however, it
-should be stated that in recent years modest monetary retribution
-has been made by the U.S. Government to some of the surviving
-descendants.</p>
-<p>S. F. Cook has pointed out that Spanish contact with California
-Indians was a rather passive matter. Spanish penetrated deeply,
-but did not settle on Indian lands of appreciable size. The Spanish
-were present in small numbers, a population numbering perhaps
-4,000 by 1848. To be sure there was occasional bloodshed, but
-it was the exception in Spanish California rather than the rule, for
-the Spanish regarded Indians as an asset, a human resource which
-provided labor and even some food and materials. The Indians
-were a respected element in the social and economic structure of
-Hispanic California, having civic and legal rights. Even under
-the Spanish, was there a great reduction of the Indian population
-through limited warfare and displacement, but much more importantly
-through disease. Nevertheless, by 1845 a more or less satisfactory
-equilibrium seems to have evolved between the Spanish and the
-California Indians.</p>
-<p>In contrast the hordes of white immigrants who followed considered
-the Indians entirely useless and there was no place for the
-latter in the pioneers&rsquo; economy of material wealth. All good lands
-were taken from the Indians arbitrarily and as quickly as possible.
-However, it must be stated that there were exceptions to both the
-Spanish and Gringo relations with the California Indians, but, in
-general, the foregoing statements are accurate.</p>
-<p>How the conflict of pioneer versus Indian affected the Atsugewi
-is summarized for us by Garth as follows:</p>
-<blockquote>
-<p>&ldquo;The Atsugewi, because of their somewhat secluded mountain
-habitat, were spared contact with white civilization until
-the middle of the nineteenth century. Although there were
-vague reports of contact with Spanish explorers or Mexican
-bandits, these could not be verified. Peter Skene Ogden may
-have been the first white man to visit the area (1827-1828).
-Besides the trappers, Fremont, Greenwood, and other explorers
-probably skirted Atsugewi country. Peter Lassen passed
-through Achomawi-Atsugewi country in opening the Pit River
-Route of 1848. He was soon followed by a stream of white
-migration from the east which was devastating to the Indians
-and their culture. Prospectors entered the Lassen region in
-<span class="pb" id="Page_22">22</span>
-1851, and not long afterward came white settlers. By about
-1859 the Indians were felt to be a menace to the whites in the
-area and were rounded up by militia and taken to the Round
-Valley Indian Reservation. Unsatisfactory conditions at the
-Reservation caused most of them to leave in 1863 and return
-to their old haunts along Hat Creek and Dixie Valley.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;Joaquin Miller reports an uprising in 1867 of the Pit River
-and Modoc Indians, who had made up old differences and were
-now fighting together. A number of whites were massacred.
-Miller speaks of an Indian camp being made on Hat Creek in
-the war that followed. It is not thus improbable that the
-Atsuge participated in that war. After a year or so of fighting
-the Indians suffered a final crushing defeat and surrendered.
-This last engagement may be the one at Six Mile Hill, spoken
-of by informants, in which a large number of their people were
-cornered in a cave and massacred by soldiers. After this,
-many of the Indians were again removed to Round Valley.
-Those remaining and some who subsequently returned from the
-Reservation maintained friendly relations with the whites.
-Today most Atsugewi live on allotments in their old territory,
-the younger Indians often working for their white neighbors or
-for the lumber mills. The census of 1910 gives a population
-of 240 for &lsquo;Hat Creek Indians&rsquo;. This figure may also have
-included the Dixie Valley Atsugewi, since they are not mentioned
-in the census. The present population is probably half
-that or less.&rdquo;</p>
-</blockquote>
-<p>The Maidu also were decimated upon contact with white man.
-However, with only rare exception, Maidu accepted rather passively
-invasion of their territory with the attendant driving away of game
-and destruction of fish in the streams by mining operations in gold
-rush days. However, since the remnants of the Maidu were in the
-way of white mans&rsquo; developments, treaties were made in 1851 by
-which these Indians gave up all claims to their ancestral lands and
-were taken to short lived reservations in Amador, Nevada and
-Butte Counties, also later to the Round Valley Reservations in the
-Coast Range. A great many Maidu soon returned to their homes.
-In the late 50&rsquo;s and 60&rsquo;s a desultory war was waged on the Maidu
-by California State troops which further reduced the number of surviving
-Indians of this tribe.</p>
-<p>The management of the University of California&rsquo;s excellent
-informative &ldquo;UNIVERSITY EXPLORER&rdquo; radio program series has
-given permission to quote the following from its broadcasts. This
-<span class="pb" id="Page_23">23</span>
-material concerns the conflict of the closely related Yana and Yahi
-tribes with the whites and the fabulous story of Ishi. The script
-has been abridged and considerably rearranged:</p>
-<blockquote>
-<p>&ldquo;... The Yana way of life was a strange one to the white
-observer, but the tribes prospered under it until white emigration
-from the East threw them into conflict with a new and
-unfriendly people. The Indians, of course, resented the white
-incursion and revolted against it. That happened in all sections
-of the country where whites displaced Indians, but it
-would be hard to imagine a more inept way of handling the
-situation than that used by the white men in the Sacramento
-Valley. Some of the large land owners protected the Indians
-of their holdings; among them were General John Bidwell,
-one of the founders of Chico, (Peter Lassen on his Rancho
-Bosquejo between Mill and Deer Creeks), and John Sutter,
-on whose property the Gold Rush started. But they were exceptions.
-Most of the settlers apparently believed the only way
-to handle the natives was to compete with them in cruelty.
-One celebrated Indian-killer took great pride in a blanket he
-had made from Indian scalps. The whites had learned scalping
-from the Eastern Indians, but they themselves popularized
-it in California....</p>
-<p>&ldquo;The Indians often plundered settlers&rsquo; cabins and stole
-livestock. This was natural, since they regarded the whites
-as invaders. Unfortunately, the settlers&rsquo; retaliation frequently
-consisted of rounding up a gang of Indians and slaughtering
-them. And it didn&rsquo;t make too much difference whether they
-were the guilty Indians. Professor Waterman wrote that the
-Yahi expressed their resentment of the white men more
-violently than did the other Yana groups, but since the Yahi
-moved around more and displayed greater skill in hiding out,
-quite innocent groups of Indians often took the blame for the
-acts of the Yahi. Professor Waterman cited the case of one
-white posse which took to the trail following a series of
-Indian raids. The posse came upon an encampment of Indians
-and shot about forty of them. But the Indians had been camped
-in the same place for two nights, and the whites later found
-a couple of almost-empty whiskey barrels there. It doesn&rsquo;t
-stand to reason, Professor Waterman pointed out, that Indians
-skilled in warfare would be so careless after an attack on
-their enemies.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;As the animosity between white men and red men grew,
-the atrocities on both sides became revolting. White women
-<span class="pb" id="Page_24">24</span>
-and children were tortured and killed by the Yana. But the
-anthropologists who have studied this unpleasant phase of
-California history believe the whites invited such savage
-assaults by their own brutal mistreatment of the Indians.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;... The Yana gradually took to the woods as it became
-obvious that they were being outnumbered and decimated by
-the settlers in one massacre after another. By the late 1860&rsquo;s
-the Indians had been reduced in numbers and intimidated to
-the point where they no longer could be considered a serious
-menace to the people who had taken over their hunting
-grounds. By then the Indians&rsquo; crimes were more on the level
-of petty theft than major violence. The three Yana tribes had
-become almost extinct as social organizations, but a fair
-number of Yana-speaking individuals survived long after the
-turn of the century.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;With the Yahi tribe, however, it was a different story. For
-a long time the Yahi&mdash;then called the Mill Creeks, because
-area around that little stream was their principal hunting
-ground&mdash;for a long time, the Yahi were believed to have been
-wiped out in a final massacre in 1865.... In 1871, a group
-of cattle-herders in Tehama County found a spot where
-Indians apparently had wounded a steer. The whites used
-dogs to follow the steer&rsquo;s bloody trail, and cornered some
-thirty Indians in a hillside cave. They promptly slaughtered
-the Indians, including several children. The settlers&rsquo; peculiar
-idea of mercy was pointed out by Professor Waterman&rsquo;s informant,
-who noted that one of the cattle-herders could not
-bear to kill the children with his .56 caliber rifle&mdash;&lsquo;it tore
-them up so bad&rsquo; he said. So he did it instead with a .38 caliber
-revolver.... They call the rock shelter Kingsley Cave
-after Norman Kingsley, the settler who ... supposedly ...
-shot the Indian children. The Kingsley Cave site was apparently
-used for a long time. Grinding tools of two different
-cultural periods were found ... (by University of California
-Archeological Survey staff excavations currently investigating
-the site).</p>
-<p>(The Yahi were thought to have been completely wiped out
-by this last unjustified atrocity, but in 1908) &ldquo;... surveyors
-for a power company in the hilly country around Deer Creek
-reported they had caught a glimpse of a naked Indian standing
-poised near the stream with a double-pronged primitive fishing
-spear. Next day, other members of the party were startled
-when an arrow came whistling through the underbrush at them&mdash;a
-<span class="pb" id="Page_25">25</span>
-stone-tipped arrow like those used by the supposedly
-extinct Indians. The surveyors kept on pushing ahead, until
-they came upon a cleverly concealed camp in the tangled
-woods. There they found a middle-aged woman and two aged
-and feeble Indians, a man and a woman. The old woman,
-hiding under a pile of rabbit skins, apparently wanted water,
-and the surveyors gave her some after the old man and the
-other woman had hidden in the underbrush. The surveyors
-also carried off all the blankets, bows and arrows and other
-articles in sight; but when they returned next day to make
-some sort of restitution, the Indians had disappeared. They
-were never seen again, even though the University later sent
-anthropologists in search of them....</p>
-<p>&ldquo;... with the dawn of a clear August day in 1911....
-The butchering crew of a slaughterhouse near Oroville were
-awakened ... by a furious barking of the dogs at the corral.
-They rushed into the corral to find a man crouching in the
-mud, surrounded by the slaughterhouse shepherd dogs. The
-butchers called off the dogs to get a closer look at their guest&mdash;and
-a most unusual guest he was.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;The man&rsquo;s only clothing was a piece of torn, dirty canvas
-across his shoulders. His skin was sunburned to a copper
-brown, his hair was clipped close to the skull, and he obviously
-was suffering from severe malnutrition. His body
-was emaciated and his cheeks clung to the bones to accentuate
-his furiously glaring eyes.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;But the strangest thing about this man was his speech.
-It was like nothing the butchers had ever heard.... The
-sheriff tried English and Spanish, then several Indian dialects.
-But he was unable to draw any intelligible response from his
-prisoner. For lack of a better place to put him, the sheriff
-locked him in the jail cell reserved for mental cases, even
-though the man from the slaughterhouse appeared to be more
-lost than insane.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;The &lsquo;Wild Man of Oroville&rsquo; made good newspaper copy,
-and clippings about his mysterious discovery caused much
-excitement in the department of anthropology at the University
-of California. It was a good thing that the news reached the
-University when it did. The frightened wild man was cowering
-in his cell, refusing to accept food from his captors whom he
-obviously distrusted, while the sheriff vainly tried to identify
-him.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;The late Professor T. T. Waterman was especially excited.
-<span class="pb" id="Page_26">26</span>
-So excited, in fact, that he stuffed a few clothes in
-his suitcase, quickly picked out a list of words from the files
-on California Indian languages, and caught the first train to
-Oroville for an interview with the prisoner.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;The reason for Professor Waterman&rsquo;s excitement was that
-he believed the Oroville prisoner was a Yahi Indian. If this
-guess was correct, Waterman would have a major anthropological
-find. For anthropologists are concerned with origins,
-development and variegated cultures of mankind; and if the
-frightened prisoner in Oroville turned out to be a Yahi, Professor
-Waterman and his colleagues would have a living
-encyclopedia of the language, customs, and habits of a people
-who were believed to be extinct ... he might be one of the
-little band reported at Deer Creek (in 1908), perhaps the man
-with the fishing spear.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;The task of determining whether the prisoner was Yahi was
-complicated by the fact that no one knew the Yahi language.
-This doesn&rsquo;t sound like an insuperable stumbling block, until
-you remember that the California Indian languages were
-numerous and distinct; there were over one hundred dialects,
-many of them mutually unintelligible. These dialects were
-classified into eighteen major language groups, which in turn
-made up six entirely different language families. These six
-language families apparently are completely unrelated&mdash;a
-strange circumstance, when you consider that almost all of
-the languages of Europe can be traced to common origins.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;However, Professor Waterman was fortunate in one respect.
-A fairly extensive word-list had been collected from
-the dialect of the Nozi Indians who had once lived just to the
-north of the Yahi and were their nearest relatives. Both the
-Yahi and the Nozi belonged to the Yana language stock, which
-stemmed from the widespread Hokan family. So Professor
-Waterman relied on Nozi words to make the identification.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;At first, the prisoner in Oroville seemed as frightened
-of Professor Waterman as he had been of all the other white
-men. Patiently, the anthropologist proceeded through his list
-of Nozi words, but the captive Indian apparently recognized
-none of them. At last, though, the professor pointed to the
-wooden frame of the Indian&rsquo;s cot, and pronounced the word
-&lsquo;si&rsquo;wi&rsquo;ni,&rsquo; which according to his list meant &lsquo;yellow pine&rsquo;.
-Immediately, the Indian relaxed. His harried, unhappy look
-turned to beaming good cheer, and he acted as if he had found
-a long-lost friend. Pointing to his cot, he repeated Professor
-<span class="pb" id="Page_27">27</span>
-Waterman&rsquo;s word &lsquo;si&rsquo;wi&rsquo;ni&rsquo; several times, as if agreeing
-that, yes, his cot was yellow pine. His own language differed
-from that of the Nozi, but some of the vocabulary was the
-same. Professor Waterman had struck upon one of the right
-words; later, he pronounced more familiar words, and it was
-established that the Indian was a Yahi. He also managed to
-explain that he called himself &lsquo;Ishi&rsquo;, which meant simply,
-&lsquo;I am a man&rsquo;.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;Professor Waterman was naturally elated with his new-found
-acquaintance. The Butte County sheriff was equally
-elated to be rid of his difficult charge, so Ishi was taken to
-the Museum, then located in San Francisco, for further study
-and interrogation.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;Thus it happened that this human relic of the Stone Age
-came to live at a modern university. The Regents of the
-University gave Ishi some official status by appointing him an
-assistant janitor at $25 a month. But his value to the University
-did not come from dexterity with a mop and broom;
-he was valued because he could tell the anthropologists about
-his people, preserving knowledge which otherwise would have
-died with his fellow-tribesmen.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;Ishi adapted himself well to this new life, and he was a
-friendly and popular fixture at the museum for five years. He
-picked up the white man&rsquo;s ways by watching the people around
-him; at his first civilized dinner, he imitated his hosts&rsquo;
-motions and managed a knife and fork far more skilfully than
-most of us can handle chopsticks in a Chinese restaurant.
-He was delighted and awe-stricken by many of the developments
-of civilization; but the things that impressed him most
-were not what the anthropologists had expected. Electric
-lights, airplanes, and automobiles made little impression;
-they were completely beyond his range of experience, and he
-dismissed them as &lsquo;white man&rsquo;s magic&rsquo;, worthy of little attention.
-The tall buildings in downtown San Francisco did not
-startle him; as he explained, his own country had cliffs and
-crags just as high. But what really amazed him about the city
-were the enormous crowds of people on the streets. He had
-seen people before, of course, but never more than twenty or
-thirty in one place.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;In general, the things that Ishi considered most remarkable
-were things which approached something in his own
-experience. He knew how hard it was to start a fire by friction,
-so pocket matches were indeed a wonder. Water faucets
-<span class="pb" id="Page_28">28</span>
-which could be turned on and off were likewise marvelous;
-why, the white man could make a spring, right there in the
-house! One of the first modern devices to catch Ishi&rsquo;s babbled
-attention was an ordinary window roller shade. He tried to
-push it aside, but it flipped back; he lifted it, but it fell down.
-Finally someone showed him how to give it a little tug and
-let it roll itself up, and Ishi was amazed. A half-hour later,
-he was still trying to figure out what had happened to the
-shade.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;Ishi and his hosts learned to communicate with each other
-fairly adequately; he never became accustomed to formal
-grammar, but he picked up a vocabulary large enough to express
-his wishes and his comments about the things around
-him. Actually, the anthropologists admitted, Ishi learned to
-speak English far better than any of them were able to learn
-Yahi. They suspected that some of his vocabulary was
-acquired from the school children who used to visit him, for
-it included a fair sampling of most unacademic slang.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;There were some things Ishi didn&rsquo;t like to talk about&mdash;the
-death of his relatives and the last horrible years around
-Deer Creek before he wandered to the Oroville slaughterhouse&mdash;were
-subjects he found too painful. Besides, there was
-a tribal taboo against mentioning the names of the dead. His
-close-cropped head, incidentally, was the result of burning
-off his hair in mourning for his mother and sister, in accordance
-with tribal custom.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;But the knowledge which Ishi passed on was rich and
-varied.... Among the contributions for which Ishi is remembered
-are some of the finest arrowheads and spear tips in
-existence; he made these for the University Museum both of
-modern bottle glass and from the natural materials.... In
-fact, Ishi was the source of almost all that is known of Yahi
-life. He gladly described the customs of his people, and he
-enjoyed chipping out Stone Age weapons and showing how
-they were used. With primitive drawings, he tried to tell the
-story of the massacre which wiped out most of his tribe....</p>
-<p>&ldquo;Ishi&rsquo;s own life ended in March 1916, when he died of
-tuberculosis. He was then believed to be in his 50&rsquo;s. Those
-who knew him at the University considered his death a great
-loss&mdash;not only because of what he had contributed to
-anthropology, but because he had a natural friendliness and
-dignity which made him a beloved personality. Professor
-A. L. Kroeber once told me: &lsquo;The manner in which he acquitted
-<span class="pb" id="Page_29">29</span>
-himself, both from the scientific and social points of view,
-was so admirable that everyone who chanced to meet him
-counted it a privilege to be his friend&rsquo;. And Ishi had the
-comforting knowledge that his departure from this earth would
-not be a completely alien one. Because he had passed on
-the elements of his culture, it was possible to bury him with
-all the ceremony of his own people. His bows and arrows
-were laid beside him, and some bowls of food were placed in
-the grave so he would not grow hungry on his long journey
-to the Happy Hunting Ground....</p>
-<p>&ldquo;Ishi was not only the last survivor of the Yahi ... but
-he was also believed to (have been) the last representative
-of the Stone Age in the United States.&rdquo;</p>
-</blockquote>
-<p>While not apropos to the subject of this chapter, &ldquo;Pioneer Conflict...&rdquo;
-we digress with some quotations from Pope&rsquo;s &ldquo;Medical
-History of Ishi&rdquo; to give the reader a better understanding of this
-last of the Mill Creek Indians, his character, and his beliefs.</p>
-<blockquote>
-<p>&ldquo;... Ishi himself later made the statement that he was
-not sick but had no food. White men had taken his bow and
-arrows; game was scarce, and he had no means of procuring
-it. He had strayed from his usual trail, between Deer Creek
-and ... Lassen (Peak). The railroad on one side and a
-large river on the other kept him from making his way to the
-refuge of the hills. His fear of trains and automobiles seems
-to have been considerable in those days.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;Upon being captured, Ishi, according to his own account,
-was handcuffed, confronted by guns and pistols, and intimidated
-to such an extent that he vomited with fear....</p>
-<p>&ldquo;About this time (fall, 1912) I became instructor in surgery
-in the University Medical School, and thus came in contact
-with the Indian.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;From the first weeks of our intimacy a strong friendship
-grew up between us, and I was from that time on his physician,
-his confidant, and his companion in archery....</p>
-<p>&ldquo;The Museum (of Anthropology) is near the Hospital, and
-since Ishi had been made a more or less privileged character
-in the hospital wards, he often came into the surgical department.
-Here he quietly helped the nurses clean instruments,
-or amused the internes and nurses by singing his Indian
-songs, or carried on primitive conversation by means of a very
-complex mixture of gesture, Yana dialect, and the few scraps
-of English he had acquired in his contact with us.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;His affability and pleasant disposition made him a universal
-<span class="pb" id="Page_30">30</span>
-favorite. He visited the sick in the wards with a gentle
-and sympathetic look which spoke more clearly than words.
-He came to the women&rsquo;s wards quite regularly, and with his
-hands folded before him, he would go from bed to bed like a
-visiting physician, looking at each patient with quiet concern
-or with a fleeting smile that was very kindly received and
-understood.</p>
-</blockquote>
-<h3>&ldquo;ISHI&rsquo;S MEDICAL BELIEFS&rdquo;</h3>
-<blockquote>
-<p>&ldquo;Women&mdash;Ishi had many of our own obsolete superstitions
-regarding women. One criticism he made of white man&rsquo;s civilization
-was the unbridled liberty we give menstruating
-women. The &lsquo;Sako mahale&rsquo;, as he designated them, were a
-cause of much ill luck and sickness. They should be in
-seclusion during this period. In fact, he often commented on
-the number of sick men that came to the hospital. I asked
-him what he thought made so many men sick. He said it was
-&lsquo;Sako mahale, too much wowi (houses), too much automobile,&rsquo;
-and last but most important of all, the &lsquo;Coyote doctor&rsquo;, or
-evil spirit.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;Dogs&mdash;Playing with dogs, and letting them lick one&rsquo;s
-hand, Ishi said was very bad. He assured me that to let babies
-play with dogs this way led to paralysis. It is interesting to
-note that Dr. R. H. Gibson of Fort Gibson, Alaska, has reported
-the coincidence of poliomyelitis among the Tanana
-Indians and the occurrence of distempers in dogs.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;Rattlesnakes&mdash;Ishi&rsquo;s treatment for rattlesnake bite was
-to bind a toad or frog on the affected area. This is interesting
-in the light of the experiments of Madame Phisalix of the
-Pasteur Institute, who demonstrated the antidotal properties
-of salamandrin, an extract obtained from salamander skin,
-and the natural immunity that the salamander has to viper
-venom. Macht and Abel have obtained a similar powerful
-alkaloid from the toad <i>Bufo nigra</i>, called bufagin, which has
-some of the properties of strychnin and adrenalin. It has been
-used as an arrow poison by South American aborigines. Experiments
-which I conducted with salamandrin as an antidote
-to crotalin, show that it has a pronounced protective and
-curative value in the immunization of guinea pigs and in their
-cure after being bitten by the rattlesnake. It is, however, too
-dangerous and potent a poison itself to be of any practical
-value.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;When out camping we killed and cooked a rattlesnake or
-<span class="pb" id="Page_31">31</span>
-&lsquo;kemna&rsquo;. Ishi refused not only to taste it, but also to eat
-from the dishes in which it had been cooked. We ate it, and
-found that it tasted like rabbit or fish. Ishi expected us to
-die. That we did not do so he could only explain on the
-grounds that I was a medicine man and used magic protection.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;Moon&mdash;Ishi held the superstition common among uneducated
-Caucasians, that it is unwholesome to sleep with the
-moon shining on one&rsquo;s face, so he covered his head completely
-under his blankets when sleeping in the open.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;Hygiene&mdash;Ishi had wholesome notions of hygiene. When
-out hunting he has several times stopped me from drinking
-water from a stream which he thought had been contaminated
-by dwelling houses above.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;His residence in the Museum caused many misgivings in
-his mind. The presence of all the bones of the dead, their
-belongings, and the mummies were ever a source of anxiety
-to him. He locked his bedroom door at night to keep out
-spirits. When we stored our camping provender temporarily in
-the Museum bone room, Ishi was not only disgusted but genuinely
-alarmed. It was only after the reassurance that the
-&lsquo;bunch a mi si tee&rsquo; could not enter through the tin of the cans
-that he was relieved.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;Surgery&mdash;On some of his visits to the University Hospital,
-Ishi gazed through the glass-panelled door of the
-operating room and watched the less grewsome scenes therein,
-wondering no doubt what was the meaning of this work ...
-and his questions afterward, though few and imperfectly
-understood, showed that he marveled most at the anaesthetic
-and that he debated the advisability of such surgical work.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;Once he saw me remove a diseased kidney. He viewed
-the sleeping man with deep wonder. He seemed interested at
-the methods we employed to prevent hemorrhage. For days
-afterwards he asked me if the patient still lived, and seemed
-incredulous when I said he did. When he saw an operation for
-the removal of tonsils he asked me why it was done. I told
-him of the pain and soreness which was indicative of disease,
-and necessitated the operation. He conveyed to me the information
-that among his people tonsillitis was cured by
-rubbing honey on the neck, and blowing ashes down the throat
-through a hollow stick or quill; no operations were necessary.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;The only surgical operation with which he seemed familiar
-was scarification. This was accomplished by means of small
-flakes of obsidian and had as its purpose the strengthening
-<span class="pb" id="Page_32">32</span>
-of the arms and legs of men about to go out on a hunt.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;Herbs&mdash;His own knowledge of the use of medicinal
-herbs was considerable, as we learned later when he went
-back to Deer Creek canyon with us on a three weeks&rsquo; camping
-trip, here he designated scores of plants that were of technical,
-medicinal, or economic value. But he put very little
-faith in these things. The use of herbs and drugs seems to
-have been the province of old women in the tribe.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;There was a hole in the septum of his nose which he had
-used as a receptacle for a small piece of wood, as well as for
-holding ornaments. When he had a cold he placed in this
-spot a twig of baywood or juniper, and indicated to me that
-this was medicine. It served very much with him as menthol
-inhalers do with us. Its influence was largely psychic but
-agreeable.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;Magic&mdash;The real medicine was magic. The mysteries of
-the k&rsquo;uwi, or medicine man, were of much greater value than
-mere dosing. Their favorite charms seem to have been either
-blowing of smoke and ashes in certain directions to wield a
-protective or curative influence, or the passing of coals of
-fire through themselves or their patients by means of sleight
-of hand. They also sucked out small bits of obsidian or cactus
-thorns from their clients, averring that these were the etiological
-factors of sickness.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;The principal cause of pain, according to Ishi, was the
-entrance of these spines, thorns, bee stings, or, as he called
-them, &lsquo;pins&rsquo;, into the human frame. The medicine man sucked
-them out, or plucked them while they were floating in the air
-in the vicinity of the sick man. They were then deposited in
-a small container, usually made of the dried trachea of a bird,
-or of a large artery. The ends of this tube were sealed with
-pitch or some form of a stopper and the whole thing taken
-possession of by the doctor, thus keeping the &lsquo;materia
-morbosa&rsquo; where it could do no further harm.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;The fact that I was able to do sleight of hand: vanish
-coins, change eggs into paper, swallow impossible objects at
-will, and perform similar parlor magic, convinced Ishi that
-I was a real doctor, much more than any medication or surgery
-at my command. He came, nevertheless, to our clinic whenever
-he had a headache, or a bruised member, or lumbago, and
-accepted our services with due faith.</p>
-</blockquote>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_33">33</div>
-<h3>&ldquo;ISHI&rsquo;S PERSONAL HABITS&rdquo;</h3>
-<blockquote>
-<p>&ldquo;Sleep&mdash;... he slept between blankets in preference
-to sheets. He had several flannelette nightshirts but he preferred
-to sleep naked....</p>
-<p>&ldquo;Clothing&mdash;... At first he was offered moccasins, but
-refused to wear them. He wanted to be like other people.
-Usually he wore a bright colored necktie and sometimes a hat,
-when he was going down town ... cotton shirts and (cotton)
-trousers were his choice. He used a pocket handkerchief in
-the most approved manner, and because of his frequent colds
-he needed it often.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;Modesty&mdash;Ishi, strange to say, was very modest. Although
-he went practically naked in the wilds, and, as
-described by Waterman, upon his first appearance in Deer
-Creek Canyon he was seen altogether nude, nevertheless,
-his first request after being captured was for a pair of overalls.
-He was quite careful to cover his genitalia; when
-changing clothes, assumed protective attitudes, and when
-swimming in the mountain streams with us wore an improvised
-breech clout even though his white companions abandoned
-this last vestige of respectability.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;Toilet&mdash;When well he bathed nearly every day, and he
-always washed his hands before meals. He was very tidy and
-cleanly in all his personal habits. When camping, he was the
-only man in our outfit who got up regularly and bathed in the
-cold mountain stream every morning.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;Ishi was an expert swimmer.... He used a side stroke
-and sometimes a modified breast stroke, but no overhand or
-fancy strokes; nor did he dive. He swam under water with
-great facility and for long distances. The rapids of Deer
-Creek were rather full yet he swam them, and carried my young
-son hanging to his hair.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;When he was sick he resented being bathed except when
-ordered by the nurse or doctor. Like many other primitive
-people, he considered bathing injurious in the presence of
-fever. He never attempted to take a sweat bath while in
-civilization, but often spoke of them. I never saw him brush
-his teeth, but he rubbed them with his finger, and they always
-seemed clean. He washed his mouth out with water after
-meals.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;His beard was sparse but he plucked it systematically
-by catching individual hairs between the blade of a dull jack-knife
-and his thumb. In his native state he used a sort of
-<span class="pb" id="Page_34">34</span>
-tweezers made of a split piece of wood. He did this work
-without the use of a mirror.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;He combed and brushed his hair daily. He washed it
-frequently.... At first he had no dandruff, but after two or
-three years&rsquo; contact with the whites he had some dry seborrhoea,
-and began to get a trifle gray at the temples ... he
-used grease on his scalp when in his native state; whereas
-bay leaves and bay nuts he said were heated and reduced to
-a semi-solid state, when they were rubbed on the body after
-the sweat bath. Here they acted as a soporific, or, as he said,
-like whiskey, and the person thus anointed fell into a sweet
-slumber. The same substance was rubbed on moccasins to
-make them waterproof.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;On one occasion he contracted ring worm, probably from
-a wandering cat. He was given a sulphur salve for this, and
-after its cure he still used the ointment to soften his hands....
-He was not susceptible to &lsquo;poison oak&rsquo; ... nor to sunburn.
-His skin bleached out considerably while in San Francisco,
-and became darker when exposed to sunlight.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;... (he) seemed to have the same fondness for sweet-scented
-soap that Orientals manifest.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;His personal belongings he kept in a most orderly manner,
-everything in his box being properly folded and arranged with
-care. Articles which he kept outside of this box he wrapped
-in newspaper and laid in systematic arrangement on shelves
-in his room.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;In working on arrows or flaking obsidian, he was careful
-to place newspapers on the floor to catch his chips. In fact,
-neatness and order seemed to be part of his self-education.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;In the preparation of food and the washing of dishes he
-was very orderly and clean.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;Diet&mdash;... After a certain period of this luxury (eating
-heavily) he discerned the folly of this course and began eating
-less, when his metabolism returned to a more normal
-balance. Part of this increase was due to the large quantities
-of water he drank. Being unaccustomed to salt, our seasoning
-was excessive and led to increased hydration of his bodily
-tissues. He had a great fondness for sweets.... He tried
-and liked nearly all kinds of foods, but seemed to have an
-aversion for custards, blanc manges, and similar slimy confections,
-nor could he be persuaded to drink milk. He
-contended that this was made for babies, while he said that
-butter ruined the singing voice....</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_35">35</div>
-<p>&ldquo;Matches he took up with evident delight; they were such
-a contrast to the laborious methods of the fire drill, or of
-nursing embers, which he employed in the wilds.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;... His meat he boiled only about ten minutes, eating
-it practically without seasoning.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;His own food in the wilds seems to have been fish, game,
-acorn meal, berries, and many roots. Prominent among these
-latter was the bulb of the <i>Brodiaea</i>. The Indian could go out
-on an apparently barren hillside and with a sharp stick dig up
-enough <i>Brodiaea</i> bulbs in an hour to furnish food for a good
-meal. These roots are globular in shape, with the appearance
-of an onion, ranging in size from a cherry to a very small
-potato. The flavor when raw is like that of a potato, and when
-cooked like a roasted chestnut.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;Alcohol&mdash;... Ishi himself had no liking for strong
-drink, although at one time he purchased a few bottles of beer
-and drank small quantities diluted with sugar and water. He
-called it medicine. His response to my query regarding
-whiskey was, &lsquo;Whiskey-tee crazy-aunatee, die man.&rsquo;</p>
-<p>&ldquo;Tobacco&mdash;Occasionally Ishi smoked a cigarette, and
-he knew the use of tobacco, having had access to the native
-herb in the wilds. But he seldom smoked more than a few
-cigarettes a day, and frequently went weeks without any. He
-disapproved of young people smoking. He chewed tobacco at
-times, and spat copiously. Both of these indulgences, however,
-he resorted to only when invited by some congenial
-friend.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;Etiquette&mdash;Although uncultured, he very quickly learned
-the proper use of knife, fork, and spoon. His table manners
-were of the very best. He often ate at my home, where he was
-extremely diffident; watched what others did and then followed
-their examples, using great delicacy of manner. His attitude
-toward my wife or any other woman member of the household
-was one of quiet disinterest. Apparently his sense of propriety
-prompted him to ignore her. If spoken to, he would
-reply with courtesy and brevity, but otherwise he appeared
-not to see her.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;When he wanted to show his disapproval of anything very
-strongly, he went through the pantomime of vomiting.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;Thrift&mdash;As janitor in the Museum, he was making a
-competent income, understood the value of money, was very
-thrifty and saving, and looked forward to the day when he
-could buy a horse and wagon. This seemed to be the acme
-<span class="pb" id="Page_36">36</span>
-of worldly possession to him. He was very happy and well
-contented, working a little, playing enough, and surrounded
-by friends.</p>
-</blockquote>
-<h3>&ldquo;ISHI&rsquo;S DISPOSITION AND MENTALITY&rdquo;</h3>
-<blockquote>
-<p>&ldquo;Disposition&mdash;In disposition the Yahi was always calm
-and amiable. Never have I seen him vehement or angry. Upon
-rare occasions he showed that he was displeased. If someone
-who he thought had no privilege touched his belongings, he
-remonstrated with some show of excitement. Although he had
-lived in part by stealing from the cabins of men who had
-usurped his country, he had the most exacting conscience
-concerning the ownership of property. He would never think
-of touching anything that belonged to another person, and
-even remonstrated with me if I picked up a pencil that belonged
-to one of the Museum force. He was too generous with
-his gifts of arms, arrow-heads, and similar objects of his
-handicraft.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;His temperament was philosophical, analytical, reserved,
-and cheerful. He probably looked upon us as extremely smart.
-While we knew many things, we had no knowledge of nature,
-no reserve; we were all busy-bodies. We were, in fact,
-sophisticated children.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;His conception of immortality was that of his tribe, but
-he seemed to grasp the Christian concept and asked me many
-questions concerning the hereafter. He rather doubted that
-the White God cared much about having Indians with Him, and
-he did not seem to feel that women were properly eligible to
-Heaven. He once saw a moving picture of the Passion Play.
-It affected him deeply. But he misconstrued the crucifixion
-and assumed that Christ was a &lsquo;bad man&rsquo;.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;Use of tools&mdash;He was quite adept in the use of such
-simple tools as a knife, handsaw, file, and hatchet. He early
-discovered the advantages of a small bench vise, and it took
-the place of his big toe in holding objects thereafter....
-Journeys were measured by days or sleeps ... (he) was
-awe-struck when I took him to a sawmill where large cedar
-logs were brought in and rapidly sawed up into small bits to
-be used in making lead pencils. It would have taken hours
-for him to fell even a small tree, and an interminable length
-of time to split it. But here was a miracle of work done in a
-few minutes. It impressed him greatly....&rdquo;</p>
-</blockquote>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_37">37</div>
-<p>In concluding remarks on Indian conflict with pioneer, a word
-concerning Indian reservations will not be amiss. The author does
-best again in quoting, this time from Kroeber:</p>
-<blockquote>
-<p>&ldquo;The first reservations established by Federal officers in
-California were little else than bull pens. They were founded
-on the principle, not of attempting to do something for the
-native, but of getting him out of the white man&rsquo;s way as
-cheaply and hurriedly as possible. The reason that the high
-death rate that must have prevailed among these makeshift
-assemblages was not reported on more emphatically is that
-the Indians kept running away even faster than they could die.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;The few reservations that were made permanent have on
-the whole had a conserving influence on the population after
-they once settled into a semblance of reasonable order. They
-did little enough for the Indian directly; but they gave him a
-place which he could call his own, and where he could exist
-in security and in contact with his own kind....&rdquo;</p>
-</blockquote>
-<p>Despite certain undesirable features of Indian Reservations, the
-general conclusion is that for a number of tribes survival has been
-considerably greater today than would have been the case if the
-Indians had had to shift for themselves in competition with the
-whites.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_38">38</div>
-<h2 id="c8"><span class="small">Chapter VI</span>
-<br />HUNTING</h2>
-<p>Hunting was obviously a very important activity of the Lassen
-Indians, not only for survival, but as a means of acquiring the comfort
-and security which success brought. Also a good hunter was
-held in high esteem socially.</p>
-<p>Deer were most sought and the hunter went to considerable effort
-to get &ldquo;deer power&rdquo; (a sort of guardian spirit) to possess him.
-This gave him skill and good luck. Generally only men hunted,
-sometimes individually, at other times in small or large groups.</p>
-<p>Before going hunting tobacco was often smoked ceremonially
-with prayers and singing while the shaman (medicine man) supervised
-and the hunters&rsquo; bodies were anointed with medicine. Weapons
-to be used were smoked over a fire, while the hunters talked to
-their bows and arrows about the coming hunt. Frequently Atsugewi,
-Yana, and Yahi hunters also cut themselves until they bled. This
-was true especially if their marksmanship had not been good of
-late. Cuts were made in the forearm and charcoal was rubbed in.
-They often took sweat baths too before hunting, but the Maidu did
-not. The latter, however, offered shell beads to help increase deer
-power. Atsugewi hunters left offerings of paint, tobacco, and eagle-down
-at certain spots in the mountains for luck.</p>
-<p>After a youth killed his first game, Maidu and Atsugewi switched
-him, a bow string being commonly used. Then the Atsugewi father
-talked to his son, blew smoke on him, and sent him out alone into
-the mountains for at least five days to seek power. Yana and Yahi
-youths were not permitted to touch, skin, or eat any of their first
-kill of each kind of animal, lest it spoil their luck. In these tribes
-the father skinned the animal and dressed the hide, teaching his
-son how this was done.</p>
-<p>After hunting there were often cleansing activities and ceremonies,
-and usually a division of meat although a lone hunter could
-retain all of it. It was considered quite bad to come home empty
-handed. After a bear had been killed he was spoken to kindly and
-in sympathetic terms. Deer eyes were often eaten to give good
-sharp eyesight to the eater.</p>
-<p>In a popular method of deer hunting by all Indians of the Lassen
-area, a deer head disguise was worn by the hunter. He approached
-his quarry cautiously using screening bushes and moving his
-antlered head above them to simulate a buck feeding. Sometimes
-the hunter carried brush along in front of himself. The mountain
-<span class="pb" id="Page_39">39</span>
-Maidu always used the whole deerskin for disguise. When close
-enough the hunter would shoot with bow and arrow. Since this was a
-nearly silent weapon, there was no noise to startle the deer, and
-so it was sometimes possible to slay two or three deer on one
-occasion.</p>
-<p>Atsugewi hunters might encircle a small brush covered or wooded
-mountain. They set many fires, leaving non-burning gaps where
-bowmen hid in holes. The deer were shot as they came out of the
-burning area.</p>
-<p>Mountain Maidu sometimes concealed themselves in pits near
-deer licks where they shot the animals in moonlight.</p>
-<p>Another hunting method was to drive deer along fences built
-of brush or stone or along ropes to which bunches of tules were tied
-as hanging streamers. Strategically placed hunters in shallow pits
-shot the driven deer as they passed through openings which had
-been left. Dogs were frequently used in hunting out and in driving
-deer.</p>
-<p>The brush deer-blind along a well traveled deer trail was used
-too, as well as hanging a noose in the deer trail to snare the deer.
-Still another means of taking deer was like that of the northern
-neighbors of the Atsugewi, the Pit River Tribe or Achomawi. They
-employed a six or seven foot deep pit about nine feet long dug
-with slightly undercut side walls. This opening was covered and
-concealed with poles, brush, and dirt. As the deer trotted along
-established trails over the disguised pitfalls they fell through.
-Or, deer might be driven to such pits, sometimes with the aid of
-converging walls or fences in conjunction with pitfalls. Deer
-trapped in these pitfalls were killed by strangling from above with
-ropes.</p>
-<p>Another popular way to secure deer was to follow the animal for
-one or more days. The pursuing Indian carried a small amount of
-food which he ate to sustain himself while moving. The deer, although
-swifter afoot than the hunter, was persistently followed at
-a steady pace. The animal did not get a chance to feed properly
-nor to rest. At length the deer became weakened to the point where
-the hunter could approach and shoot it at close range.</p>
-<p>If a hunter were fairly close to a deer and it was moving, he
-might shout at it, causing the deer to stop momentarily out of
-curiosity. This provided a better chance of bringing the quarry
-down with bow and arrow. Deer were sometimes lured closer by
-whistling with lips, blowing on a leaf or grass blade held in the
-hands, or by imitating the cry of a fawn. A hunter is said occasionally
-<span class="pb" id="Page_40">40</span>
-to have been able to sing to a group of deer, holding their
-attention while he cautiously approached within arrow range.</p>
-<p>If practical, deer or other game was killed by driving the animals
-over cliffs. Elk, mountain sheep, antelope, and reportedly occasionally
-even bison were hunted by one or more of the means. Except
-for the case of mountain sheep, such animals were probably rare
-within the territories of the tribes being considered.</p>
-<p>Meat of such large game was prepared for eating after skinning
-by roasting in the earth pit ovens to be described in succeeding
-chapters or by cutting up and boiling. Much venison and the like
-was also stored for winter use. In this case the meat was cut into
-strips and dried in the sun or on wooden frames over fires. This
-was not a smoking, but rather a drying process. Such jerked meat
-was stored in large, tightly woven baskets. Meat fresh or dried was
-almost invariably eaten with acorn mush.</p>
-<p>Bear hunting was common among tribes of the Lassen area. The
-American Black Bear is not aggressive and by no means always
-black. He is of moderately large size and often is light or dark
-brown in color. Indians liked to hunt the Black Bear in winter,
-two hunters entering the hibernating den. One carried a torch and
-the other a bow and arrow. They rolled a large block of wood in
-front of them and shot the bear at point blank range, then quickly
-ran out. Wounded, frightened, and in a semi-stupor, the bear usually
-stumbled over the wooden block. If he did not die in the den, but
-came out, he was shot by other waiting hunters. Mountain Maidu
-instead of entering the den smoked the bear out with pitchy torches
-planted at the den entrance.</p>
-<p>The California Grizzly was much larger, fiercer, and more
-aggressive. This grizzly is now extinct, but was common especially
-in the foothill and lower mountain slopes of California before the
-coming of the white man. Grizzlies were normally engaged only
-by a large group of hunters and after considerable ceremonial preparation.
-Hunters never entered the den. Two stout poles were
-crossed in front of the opening with one or two men holding each&mdash;a
-dangerous job. The bear was spoken to nicely and urged to
-come out which he usually soon did. As the bear started to climb
-over the poles at the den entrance, the Indians pushed up forcing
-the bear&rsquo;s body against the roof so that he could most easily be
-shot. If this maneuver was not successful, a brave hunter enticed
-the bear to pursue him while the others shot arrows into the grizzly.
-Especially sharp and heavily poisoned arrow points were used on
-grizzly bear by the Atsugewi.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_41">41</div>
-<p>It was believed that a man who drank fresh bear blood would be
-very healthy thereafter, if he were strong enough. If he were weak,
-however, drinking the blood would kill him promptly.</p>
-<p>Mountain lion were tracked, sometimes with dogs, sometimes in
-the snow, then treed and shot. Wildcats were generally killed in
-the same way. A hunter might coax a mountain lion to leap at him
-by simulating a deer feeding, using the deer head and skin disguise,
-but this was a dangerous practice.</p>
-<p>Except in the eastern part of Atsugewi territory where the
-Apwaruge lived, rabbits were not plentiful. Yana, Yahi, and Maidu
-hunted them more, driving cottontail, snowshoe, and jack rabbits
-into long nets and clubbing them to death. In the winter rabbits
-were sometimes tracked and shot with bow and untipped arrows.</p>
-<p>Other small mammals were shot, caught by dogs, and dug,
-smoked, or drowned out of burrows. A stick split at the end was
-thrust into a burrow and by twisting was entangled in the creature&rsquo;s
-fur sufficiently to drag him out. Ground squirrels could be outrun
-and killed by stepping on them. Skunks, badgers, rats, and more
-often porcupines were eaten&mdash;the latter being clubbed or stoned
-to death.</p>
-<p>Small and medium sized animals were also caught under stone
-or log deadfalls which were propped up to drop on the victim while
-it was traveling along a runway, crossing a stream on a log, or
-when the animal pulled on a baited trigger. Similar placing was
-used for setting spring snares which took advantage of bent tree
-limbs for power. Long fences with nooses placed in gaps were used
-for rabbits, quail, and the like, and on occasion for creatures as
-large as deer. Some nooses were even operated by hand from a
-place of hiding.</p>
-<p>Birds of all sorts were caught too, but live or imitation decoys
-were never employed as lures. Woodpeckers were removed from the
-nest by hand or else a noose was hung around the nest opening.
-Some birds were taken in basketry traps. Waterfowl were shot with
-bow and arrow and the young were run down. Eggs were also taken.
-Some ducks were speared at night from canoes or driven into nets
-by use of a canoe with fire at one end. Frequently nets or snares
-were suspended at intervals just above a stream where waterfowl
-commonly alighted. Ducks and geese were also driven into the
-traps in taking off from the water.</p>
-<p>Grouse and small birds like robins and blackbirds were shot
-with blunt or untipped arrows, usually of one-piece construction.</p>
-<p>It is interesting to note that in contrast to other local tribes, the
-<span class="pb" id="Page_42">42</span>
-Yana and Yahi tribes did not employ the following hunting techniques:
-burning brush, using bird snaring booths, nets for ducks,
-geese, rabbits, or deer, nor was game driven into enclosures or
-quail secured by use of net traps or drive fences. Furthermore Yana
-and Yahi did not believe that game was immortal.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig5">
-<img src="images/p09.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="403" />
-<p class="pcap">Atsugewi Snare set on a log lying across a stream.</p>
-</div>
-<p>It was not an uncommon practice, especially among the mountain
-Maidu, to frequently burn off their lands to make for easier travel
-and to minimize the possibility of ambush by enemies. The
-frequent &ldquo;light&rdquo; burnings do not seem to have generated enough
-heat to have destroyed the forests. Never the less this practice
-is not regarded as a wise conservation as it is definitely injurious
-to tree and much other plant reproduction as well as being destructive
-of organic material in the soil, damaging the watershed and
-being unfavorable to certain animal species, as well as accelerating
-erosion.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_43">43</div>
-<h2 id="c9"><span class="small">Chapter VII</span>
-<br />FISHING</h2>
-<p>Fishes were one of the four important food categories consumed
-by Indians of the Lassen region. Land-locked and other non-migratory
-Rainbow Trout were abundantly available in mountain
-streams and in some lakes. Steelhead Trout penetrated the territories
-of our four tribes too. Salmon, however, did not go so far
-upstream, only rarely coming up Hat Creek, for instance, into
-Atsugewi lands. For the most part this tribe of Indians visited the
-Pit River to the north in the autumn. They paid the Achomawi,
-through whose territory this fine salmon stream flowed, for the
-privilege of catching salmon by giving up a share of the catch to
-them. The larger streams in south Yana, Yahi, and mountain Maidu
-country contained salmon and steelhead, but it seems that these
-tribes also made bargains with the Valley Indians for salmon fishing
-privileges or else made fishing forays to the Sacramento River.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig6">
-<img src="images/p09a.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="575" />
-<p class="pcap">Atsugewi Bow-type net.
-This kind was usually used
-in small streams where it
-covered the full width of the
-stream bed. Fish were
-commonly driven into it,
-then the handle was raised.</p>
-</div>
-<p>Gill nets about three feet high and as much as 30 feet long were
-commonly used. Spawning trout in the spring were speared in large
-numbers. Although old informants have denied the practice,
-Boonookoo-ee-menorra (Mrs. Selina La Marr of the Atsugewi) tells
-of catching Rainbow Trout by hand from Manzanita Creek banks
-about fifty years ago when her family came up in the summer to
-fish. Trout were speared by the Atsugewi with two pointed or four
-<span class="pb" id="Page_44">44</span>
-pointed spears instead of the common single pointed version. Bone
-or Serviceberry wood might be used for the tips. Spears were used
-not only from stream banks, but, especially at night, from a canoe
-equipped with a torch in front. One man or more would spear the
-fish while a person, sometimes a woman, paddled the craft from the
-rear. The torch consisted of four mountain-mahogany sticks bound
-together with pitch down the center.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig7">
-<img src="images/p10.jpg" alt="" width="519" height="600" />
-<p class="pcap">A northeast Maidu bow-fish
-net about forty inches long.
-It was used for fish other
-than salmon. Northwest and
-southern Maidu did not use
-such nets, employing seine
-nets instead (after Dixon).</p>
-</div>
-<p>It is interesting to note that the practice of shooting fish with
-bow and arrow was not carried on by any tribes of the Lassen area,
-although the eastern people of the Pit River Indians (Achomawi),
-the western Shasta, Wintu, and foothill Maidu did do so.</p>
-<p>Only Atsugewi, of the tribes we are considering, trapped fish
-in converging weirs into which fish might be driven. In the autumn,
-streams were sometimes diverted by damming. The fish trapped
-in the ponds remaining were scooped out with baskets or nets.
-Mountain Maidu drove fish into traps and caught lamprey eels in
-dip or scoop nets. Bow-type nets illustrated in the text were used
-with the bow bent ends down resting on the bed of the stream, the
-pole being raised to trap the fish. The net was preferably as wide
-as the stream.</p>
-<p>All local tribes fished with lines and hooks which were made
-by lashing a sharp piece of bone to a section of twig, at an acute
-angle. Atsugewi and mountain Maidu also used a &ldquo;gorge&rdquo; for
-<span class="pb" id="Page_45">45</span>
-angling. This was a slender piece of bone two or three inches
-long fastened near the middle and sharpened at both ends. Hooks
-were sometimes baited with meat, grasshoppers, or large flies, but
-man-made &ldquo;flies&rdquo; as fishermen know them today were not used.
-Sometimes meat or grasshopper bait was used by Atsugewi on fish-lines
-without any hook. Atsugewi women occasionally fished with
-baskets and with hook and line. Hooks were often tied in a series
-on a line attached either on both banks of the stream or to a pole
-secured in the bank or tied to tules or to brush, and left over night.
-A series of basket traps was sometimes likewise stretched across
-a stream.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig8">
-<img src="images/p10a.jpg" alt="" width="169" height="500" />
-<p class="pcap">A Klamath fish hook similar to those
-used by local tribes. Single barbed
-hooks were also employed.</p>
-</div>
-<p>Salmon fishing was done largely with harpoons which differ from
-spears in having one or more movable barbs or toggles of bone.
-These opened when the harpoon was pulled back (outward in the
-victim) thus securing the catch all the more firmly. This was
-necessary for such large and heavy fish as salmon. Yana tribes
-caught their salmon with either hook and line or by spearing with
-a two pointed harpoon.</p>
-<p>Natural falls were favored fishing sites. There Indians caught
-salmon and steelhead trout as the fish attempted to scale the falls.
-Long handled nets were used. Atsugewi went so far as to build
-scaffoldings to assist either in this method of fishing or from which
-to harpoon large fish. In the latter case many whitish rocks, where
-available, were thrown into the stream to build up a light colored
-bottom for better visibility in harpooning or spearing.</p>
-<p>After the fish were caught they were killed by striking with a
-stick as a general practice. Mountain Maidu sometimes killed fish
-<span class="pb" id="Page_46">46</span>
-by striking their heads on rocks. The central Yana, interestingly
-enough, killed fish by biting them!</p>
-<p>In quiet portions of streams fish were poisoned by placing
-certain pounded plant materials in the water. Yana and Yahi used
-crushed Soaproot; Atsugewi used pulverized Wild Parsley. Wild
-Parsley application made the water bluish, and caused the fish
-soon to rise to the surface of the water floating belly-up. Where
-suitable quiet pools did not exist in a stream, they were sometimes
-formed by the Indians through temporary damming. Buckeye nut
-pulp, which is poisonous, was not used in this area for poisoning
-fish.</p>
-<p>Long basketry fish traps, usually constructed by men, were also
-utilized. The design and proportions of these varied with the tribe.</p>
-<p>Each of the Lassen area tribes had taboos which prevented
-youths, and in the case of Atsugewi, their parents too, from eating
-the first fish each youth caught.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig9">
-<img src="images/p11.jpg" alt="" width="877" height="293" />
-<p class="pcap">Plan of Maidu open basketry fish trap (after Dixon) several feet long.
-The pointed end was untied to extract the fish.</p>
-</div>
-<p>Chubs and minnows, spurned by white man, were driven into
-nets and eaten. At lower elevations, where waters were warmer
-and sluggish, suckers provided a common source of food fish. The
-Indians also not infrequently dove for crawfish and fresh water
-mussels. These were gathered in net sacks by male Indians of all
-local tribes. Yana and Yahi roasted mussels but did not boil them
-and never dried them for later use. A flat rock might be carried on
-the shoulders to assist the diving Indians.</p>
-<p>Some fish were cooked by roasting over coals or by boiling.
-Most trout, however, were cleaned, head and backbone removed,
-and then strung up on poles to dry. No salt was used in the process.
-The dried fish was carried to camp or village in large
-baskets. Dried trout was tied into small bales for storage and
-placed in baskets or in pits dug in the ground for safe-keeping.
-Salmon were usually cooked in earth pit ovens, then dried and
-<span class="pb" id="Page_47">47</span>
-crumbed by Atsugewi and mountain Maidu for later use. This was
-of necessity an autumnal activity. Yana and Yahi stored their
-salmon in dried slabs, pulverizing it as needed.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig10">
-<img src="images/p11a.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="364" />
-<p class="pcap">Atsugewi basketry fish trap (after Garth).</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_48">48</div>
-<h2 id="c10"><span class="small">Chapter VIII</span>
-<br />GATHERING AND PREPARATION OF OTHER FOODS</h2>
-<p>As has been pointed out earlier under &ldquo;California Indians&rdquo;,
-these tribes had a common food pattern. Although there was some
-difference in the relative importance of the four major types of food
-to the several tribes due to varying availability, the California
-Indians ate (1) game, especially deer, (2) fish, particularly salmon
-and trout, (3) roots and bulbs which the women dug, and (4) fruits
-and seeds of a wide variety, the most important of which were
-acorns.</p>
-<p>Besides fish and venison, many kinds of flesh food were eaten
-by the Indians of the Lassen area: fox, wolf, grizzly and black
-bear, skunk, raccoon, porcupine, rabbit, owl, fish, fresh water
-mussel, and turtle being most common. They also ate with apparent
-relish a variety of insects and the like including crickets,
-grasshoppers, angleworms, red ant eggs, and yellow-jacket larvae.</p>
-<p>Game which was not eaten by either Atsugewi or mountain Maidu
-was coyote, elk, antelope, and all snakes and lizards. The last
-two items were almost universally shunned by California Indians.
-Many California tribes including Yana and Yahi refused to eat dog
-meat, some of them believing canine flesh to be poisonous. That
-mountain Maidu was one of the few tribes which ate dog flesh whenever
-it was available is denied by Dixon. Atsugewi ate it only as
-a last resort when rare, near-famine conditions prevailed or during
-times of severe epidemic. Canine flesh was believed by them to
-be a powerful and perhaps somewhat dangerous medicine. Buzzards
-seem to have been about the only birds which were not eaten.</p>
-<p>Each tribe had certain taboos on eating game. An Atsugewi
-did not, for example, eat wildcat, gopher, hawk, lamprey eel, or
-caterpillars. Mountain Maidu did not eat mountain lion, badger,
-raven, or crawfish.</p>
-<p>Heart of deer was taboo to all males among Atsugewi and to
-all children and youths of the mountain Maidu. The foetus of all
-animals and also deer fawns could not be eaten by any except
-Atsugewi, Yana, and Yahi old men and old women. Animal foetus
-was, however, allowed as food to all mountain Maidu adults. Bear
-foetus was skinned by Atsugewi and fed to old women because it
-was so tender. Likewise, Yana and Yahi made foetus soup for old
-folks to eat. Deer liver was taboo to Atsugewi boys and youths.
-Taboo also among Atsugewi was the eating of fish and deer meat
-together. Among mountain Maidu the eating of salt on bear meat
-<span class="pb" id="Page_49">49</span>
-was prohibited. Many other food combinations were outlawed by
-these and other California tribes.</p>
-<p>Deer backbone was ground up and eaten dry by mountain Maidu
-or molded into small cakes, then baked and eaten while Atsugewi
-would dry deer backbones with meat still adhering, grind it up, and
-then boil the meal before eating it. Yana also ate pulverized meal
-of other bones after cooking. Marrow was relished; it was a special
-delicacy for Yana children.</p>
-<p>Securing of large game and fish and their preparation has been
-described earlier.</p>
-<p>Such animals as wildcat, raccoons, foxes, et cetera were skinned
-and cooked in earth ovens by all local tribes. These were pits
-sometimes as much as six feet wide and lined with rocks. A large
-fire was built in the pit to thoroughly heat the rock lining, after
-which any unburned debris was removed. The animal to be roasted
-was laid in the pit on a layer of green pine needles, or various
-other leaves, depending upon the tribe. A large heated rock was
-placed inside the body cavity and smaller hot rocks were wedged
-under the fore and hind legs which were then all tied tightly together.
-A flat heated rock might be placed on top of the carcass
-and the whole was covered with pine needles and the like, and
-finally with hot ashes and sometimes dirt. The roasting proceeded
-for half a day or so. Blood and fat might be placed in the intestine
-membranes of larger animals (especially wildcat) to form sausage
-and cooked in ashes. Mountain Maidu also boiled blood for eating.</p>
-<p>Quills of porcupine and hair of badger, squirrel, or other small
-mammals might be singed off before cooking instead of skinning the
-animals. Ground squirrels were sometimes merely gutted and then
-roasted in ashes without further preparation. When Yana (and probably
-Yahi) did this, they then skinned the ground squirrels after
-cooking and mashed the whole bodies by pounding before eating
-them. Rabbits were roasted over coals and broken into pieces for
-eating. Both mountain Maidu and Atsugewi sometimes broiled small
-mammals on a single stick over coals.</p>
-<p>Turtles were cooked alive in hot ashes. If they crawled out
-they were pushed back in again.</p>
-<p>Duck eggs were boiled in baskets using hot rocks&mdash;cooked
-they would keep for a week or two. Yana tribes roasted quail eggs
-in ashes. Birds were gutted, feathers singed off in flames and
-roasted on sticks or roasted in oven pits. Roasting was invariably
-used for the large birds such as ducks, geese, and swans.</p>
-<p>Atsugewi practiced some fascinating gathering techniques in
-<span class="pb" id="Page_50">50</span>
-which they were not unique. Insects were gathered by both men
-and women. Grasshoppers and crickets not infrequently appeared
-in large numbers. These were collected early in the morning while
-still sluggish with cold. When very abundant they were scraped with
-sticks from branches of bushes into large burden baskets. During
-the heat of the day grasshoppers were effectively collected by
-singeing them. Some tribes merely burned dry grassy fields after
-which the insects were easily picked up. Atsugewi made a long
-willow &ldquo;rope&rdquo; to which many bunches of dry grass were fastened.
-This was set afire and men carrying this blazing band stretched
-tightly between them ran across open grassland where the grasshoppers
-were numerous. The insects jumped into the flames and
-were thus killed. Yana pulverized grasshoppers and other insects
-without cooking them.</p>
-<p>Atsugewi roasted crickets in the pit oven. These were then
-dried two days and finally eaten or stored. If they had been stored,
-they were pounded before being eaten.</p>
-<p>Salmon flies were plentiful along Pit River and Lost Creek (outside
-of the park). These were hand picked from the banks early in
-the morning. The wings were removed and the bodies boiled before
-eating by the Atsugewi.</p>
-<p>When yellow-jackets, always carnivorous (meat eaters), were
-seen buzzing about, Atsugewi would tie a white flower petal to
-a grasshopper leg. When the yellow-jacket picked this morsel up
-and flew away with it toward its nest, the Indians would run after
-the yellow-jacket which was easy to follow on account of the conspicuous
-flower petal it carried along. Thus yellow-jacket nests
-were found. A line was marked around the nest area with the
-fingers. This line was supposed to increase the size of the nest.
-Pine needles were then stacked over the nest and burned to kill
-the winged insects. This done, the nest was dug up and roasted
-alongside a fire, thus cooking the maggot-like grubs inside. These
-were considered to be quite a delicacy. According to Dixon,
-mountain Maidu young folks were denied this delicacy, but not so
-among the Yana. Dried grasshoppers, crickets, and yellow-jacket
-larvae were foods often used as items of trade.</p>
-<p>Angleworms were collected by first driving a digging stick a
-few inches into the moist soil, then moving the top about. The
-consequent disturbing of the ground made the worms crawl out.
-Although other California tribes made angleworm soup, Atsugewi,
-Yana, and probably Yahi sometimes roasted angleworms between
-hot rocks. Maidu reportedly dried worms for eating.</p>
-<p>Red ant eggs were eaten by Indians too. Atsugewi baked them
-<span class="pb" id="Page_51">51</span>
-in earth pit ovens, while mountain Maidu parched them with coals.
-Mountain Maidu also ate certain caterpillars, but the other tribes
-of the Lassen area did not.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig11">
-<img src="images/p12.jpg" alt="" width="502" height="591" />
-<p class="pcap">A. Sharpened iron rod
-digging stick with pine
-cross piece wrapped in
-coarse cotton cloth used
-for about forty years by
-Mrs. Mullen of Hat Creek.
-Length about four feet.</p>
-<p class="pcapc">B. Another recent mountain
-mahogany digging stick
-made by Mr. and Mrs.
-Lyman LaMarr (Boonookoo-ee-menorra).
-The point of
-the green wood was
-toughened in flame. Stick
-three and one half feet
-long.</p>
-</div>
-<p>Indians of this region did not carry on any agriculture, that is
-they did not plant crops for food or other purposes, but collected
-those which grew wild. It was, however, a common practice to burn
-some areas over regularly to stimulate growth of edible seed producing
-plants. Women always gathered the vegetable materials and
-prepared them for use.</p>
-<p>Roots and bulbs provided vital foods to the aborigines also.
-These were procured with a digging stick. In this region it was
-blunt at the top with a tapered point at the digging end. Atsugewi
-fastened a short cross piece on top to serve as a handle. The
-digging stick was made by this tribe of green mountain-mahogany
-wood with the digging point hardened by scorching in the flame.
-<span class="pb" id="Page_52">52</span>
-After the coming of white man, the same design was retained, but
-an iron rod replaced the mountain-mahogany digging shaft.</p>
-<p>In use, the digging stick was thrust into the ground next to the
-plant whose root was to be secured. The handle portion was worked
-sideways a couple of times, then pulled downward toward the
-operator. The point very effectively brought the root out of the
-ground. Roots were customarily tossed into a large cone-shaped
-carrying basket which was held in place on the digging woman&rsquo;s
-back by a chest band over her chest. Some of the load in the basket
-might also be supported by a band from the basket over the Indian
-woman&rsquo;s forehead.</p>
-<p>Roots were cleaned by rubbing (sometimes with sand) in a shallow
-bowl-shaped basket of a rough coarse mesh weave of willow
-ribs, like that used for cleaning acorns. The whole was dipped in
-water frequently. Rubbing usually continued until the skins were
-entirely removed.</p>
-<p>The most important item of this type collected in large amount
-for food is known as epos locally, or &ldquo;peh-ts-koo&rdquo; among the old
-Atsugewi. The plant belongs to the parsley family and stands one
-to two feet high. Actually, probably more than one species was
-eaten by Indians of the Lassen area. These plants are not unlike
-except in detail. All had sweet carrot-like taproots about two
-inches long. Garth states that Atsugewi ate the species <i>Pteridendia
-bolanden</i> which apparently corresponds to the botanists&rsquo; <i>Perideridia
-bolanderi</i> or <i>Eulophus bolanderi</i>; also probably <i>Carum</i> or <i>Perideridia
-oregona</i> and <i>californica</i>. Common English names for epos are squaw
-root or yampah. Epos roots were dried and stored, then ground up
-for use. This food item was made into either soup or bread. The
-finished product had a fine sweet meaty or nutty taste, and was
-held in high esteem. Obviously this constituted an important
-vegetable in the diet.</p>
-<p>At least two kinds of camas bulbs and <i>brodeia</i> bulbs were
-roasted in the earth pit oven, ground to pulp, shaped into cakes,
-and rebaked. These were then either eaten or dried and stored.
-The latter process was not employed by mountain Maidu. If the
-baked camas cakes were stored, they would be soaked with water
-before eating. Camas cakes were not made into soup.</p>
-<p>Tiger lily bulbs were roasted in earth pit ovens and eaten
-immediately. They were a highly prized food.</p>
-<p>Wild onion was used too, but usually with other root foods as
-a flavoring.</p>
-<p>The foregoing are but a few of the most extensively eaten roots.
-<span class="pb" id="Page_53">53</span>
-Many others, especially those of the lily and parsley families,
-were used by tribes of the Lassen region.</p>
-<p>Yana tribes robbed gophers of stores of edible roots and bulbs.
-These were found by probing for burrows and digging out the
-animals&rsquo; food storage chambers. Men usually did this, which is an
-exception to the general rule that women only collected vegetable
-materials.</p>
-<p>Acorns were probably the most important single food of California
-Indians. Surprisingly, this was true even in eastern parts of
-the territories of the Atsugewi (Apwaruge), mountain Maidu, and
-others where acorns were scarce or wanting entirely. Indians
-frequently traded for acorns or made long journeys for them. Acorns
-of the black oak were generally preferred over other kinds. Nearly
-all varieties were used for food on occasion, however. It is interesting
-to note that Modoc and Klamath Indians were exceptions
-in not using acorns for food.</p>
-<p>In the fall, usually in September, acorns were gathered by women
-after the ripe nuts had been knocked from the oaks with long poles,
-or by men and young agile girls climbing the trees to strike the
-fruit with straight sticks or staves. To aid in climbing large smooth
-tree trunks, Atsugewi men used sapling ladders on which part of
-branches were left attached to serve for footholds. Mountain Maidu
-on the other hand used a very unique two poled ladder with buckskin
-rungs. Acorns were carried to villages by women in stages,
-using baskets about the size of nail kegs.</p>
-<p>First spring food gathering each year was marked by rites in
-which the shamans, or medicine men, conducted praying ceremonies.
-Atsugewi conducted three of these. In May first epos roots were
-gathered and sung over by shamans. They examined the roots and
-prophesied whether the women who had dug them were going to be
-sick. Those who were going to be sick dug roots all day. In the
-evening these were dumped into piles and women shamans sang
-over these for half the night to make the threatened women healthy.
-Each woman gatherer participating then took home the roots she
-had dug leaving some for the shamans, who cooked and ate them.
-A second first food ceremony consisted of a ceremonial feast of
-fruit and vegetable materials with fish which the men brought.
-In the third such rite, root digging women threw away the first roots
-they dug that season and prayed to the effect: &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t make me
-poor. Give me good luck. You may have this one.&rdquo;</p>
-<p>In autumn, mountain Maidu held their first fruit ceremonies.
-Large groups of women went out to gather acorns. Acorn mush was
-made immediately of the first batch collected. The shamans ate
-<span class="pb" id="Page_54">54</span>
-some and prayed. Portions of this batch were then eaten by the
-rest of the assemblage. After that it was all right for anyone to
-gather and to use acorns of the new crop.</p>
-<p>Local tribes stored acorns in the shell either indoors in large
-baskets or outside in pits or in large hoppers or granaries covered
-with bark. The details of these varied with the several tribes.
-Maidu except for the &ldquo;mountain tribe&rdquo; and Yana shelled, split,
-and slightly dried some of their acorns, and placed them in basketry
-storage bins lined with broadleafed maple leaves. Maidu ate
-twelve different kinds of acorns, but the favorites were the black
-oak (<i>Quercus kelloggii</i>), <i>golden cup oak</i> maul, or canyon oak
-(<i>Quercus chrysolepis</i>), and sierra live oak (<i>Quercus wislizenii</i>)
-acorns.</p>
-<p>In preparation, acorns were cracked by up-ending each on a
-flat rock and striking the point with any convenient small stone.
-Sometimes small acorns were cracked with the teeth. Though
-usually a woman&rsquo;s job, young folks and men might help with the
-task.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig12">
-<img src="images/p13.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="473" />
-<p class="pcap">Basaltic lava mortar from Yana territory, about ten inches high.</p>
-</div>
-<p>The thin brownish skin which covers the acorn kernels was removed
-by rubbing vigorously in rough porous baskets made entirely
-of willow ribs. Water was not used. Indians of the Lassen area
-did not employ stone mortars for grinding acorns as was the practice
-in other parts of California. Stone mortars were always found, not
-made, and were used for ceremonial purposes, in the belief that
-<span class="pb" id="Page_55">55</span>
-these had been made by Coyote. However, Maidu families cherished
-portable stone mortars. They were kept buried at some distance
-from the dwelling, and dug up for occasional inspection. Bed-rock
-acorn pounding holes are not found in this region either except for
-the Maidu area. Instead, acorn meats were placed in hopper baskets
-lacking bottoms. This basketry mortar hopper rested with the small
-open end down on a heavy flat stone. The pounding basket was
-held in place by the Indian woman&rsquo;s knees as she sat in front of
-and straddling it. In one hand she wielded a stone pestle, flat on
-the grinding end. With the other hand she stirred the acorn material
-so that the coarse pieces worked toward the center to get the full
-impact of the pounding. The hopper basket was not always used,
-by the mountain Maidu, the pounding often being done merely on a
-flat rock slab, the woman&rsquo;s free hand continually brushing the
-acorn material back to the center. Acorn meal was ground until it
-was as fine as flour. The coarse pieces were separated from the
-fine by a process which employed a flattish piece of wood or bark
-a foot or so across. Sometimes a basketry plaque was used. A
-portion of ground meal was placed on this tray which was held
-firmly at one side and inclined toward the operator. The other edge
-of the plaque was shaken, causing the coarse material to roll into
-a container held in the lap for repounding while the fine flour remained
-on the plaque. A small brush, generally made from the
-pounded and dried root of the soap-plant, was used to brush the
-flour off and into the cooking basket. Mountain Maidu, according
-to Voegelin, actually did sift acorn meal through open-work baskets
-though this was not a common practice even among members of
-this tribe.</p>
-<p>White oak and some other acorn flour could be used for cooking
-without further preparation. Atsugewi preferred black oak acorns
-which had to be leached to remove the bitter tannic acid before
-using. To do this the flour was placed in a shallow depression on
-clean sand over porous earth, usually, but Yana used loosely
-woven baskets for the purpose, and in recent times it has become
-common practice to place cloth flour sacking over a screen or
-sieve. Cold water was poured over the meal until it was nearly
-free of bitterness. Warm water was then employed briefly, but hot
-water was never used, for it would make the flour tend to jell.
-Sand was removed from the bottom of the flour by touching the
-bottom of a handful of the moist material to water. The flour held
-together, but the sand grains dropped off. The flour could be dried
-and stored at this point, but was usually used as it was prepared.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_56">56</div>
-<p>Portions of about two or three quarts of acorn flour were placed
-in cooking baskets a foot or more in diameter. Water was added
-and then hot stones were dropped in. These smoothly rounded
-stones, of any shape and from one and a half to three inches in
-diameter, had been heated in an open fire. They were quickly dipped
-into water to remove ashes before being put into the mush cooking
-basket. The method of handling these cooking stones seems to
-have varied. Present day Atsugewi say a small looped stick was
-used, but old informants stated that two forked sticks were employed.
-Stirring had to be continuous lest the cooking stones scorch
-the basket. Atsugewi used any convenient stick for this, but Yana
-had a small oak paddle. After boiling a short while the acorn mush
-became light greyish or brownish in color; when cooled it jellied
-quite firmly. Acorn mush was commonly eaten warm with meat,
-from small individual baskets. Spoons were unknown in the Lassen
-area so acorn mush was eaten with index and second fingers.
-Mountain Maidu made their acorn mush of a more liquid consistency
-so that it was often consumed by drinking.</p>
-<p>Acorn bread was made by using less water and adding a small
-amount of reddish iron-bearing or blackish salt-bearing soil by
-Atsugewi, but mountain Maidu left this ingredient out. The paste
-was molded into biscuit or loaf-shaped forms, wrapped in leaves
-and baked all night in earth pit ovens. Yana sometimes added red
-soil to their acorn bread making it brightly colored. Usually black
-oak acorns were used for bread by the Yana tribes and white oak
-for soup.</p>
-<p>That acorns are a fine food is indicated by the following analysis
-of the uncooked meal. The proportions vary somewhat, but not
-importantly among the several kinds of acorns used: 21% fat, 5%
-protein, 62% carbohydrate, and 14% water, mineral, and fiber. In
-cooked acorn mush the proportions remain the same relatively, except,
-of course, for the greatly increased water content.</p>
-<p>Buckeye nuts, not used much by Atsugewi, were important to
-other Indians of California, especially those residing at lower
-elevations. These fruits were gathered when ripe, then shelled,
-pounded and soaked in loosely woven baskets until the poisonous
-juice was leached out. The pulpy mass was next squeezed to remove
-excess water. Unlike acorn meal buckeye pulp was eaten
-uncooked. Yana crushed their buckeyes with their feet and leached
-the material in creeks, though sometimes hot water was used.</p>
-<p>Nuts of digger pine and sugar pine were highly regarded as food.
-Men climbed trees and picked digger pine cones or shook limbs to
-<span class="pb" id="Page_57">57</span>
-dislodge sugar pine cones. The cones were placed on end and
-covered with dry grass which was burned, ridding the cones of
-pitch. After this heat treatment, sugar pine nuts came out easily
-when cone scales were pulled back. After singeing the heavy
-digger pine cones were hit with rocks to obtain the large nuts they
-contained.</p>
-<p>The white sweet crusty deposit occasionally found on the bark
-of sugar pines was relished as candy by Atsugewi. However, it had
-a laxative property which mountain Maidu recognized and reputedly
-employed as such.</p>
-<p>A variety of small plant seeds also provided tasty nutrition.
-Several members of the sunflower family including balsam root
-species and mules ears, and others were used by all local tribes.
-Such seeds were usually collected by beating them with paddle-shaped
-basketry seed beaters into burden baskets. They were then
-parched with coals in flat trays, placed in flat baskets and worked
-about with stones until freed of skins. Seeds were winnowed by
-tossing them up allowing wind to carry hulls and skins away. The
-seeds were then pulverized with a small stone or muller, being
-rolled or rubbed on a larger rock slab generally referred to as a
-metate. Such seeds were eaten dry by Atsugewi, Yana, and Yahi
-without grinding, or the flour might be moistened and molded into
-cakes about the size of biscuits and eaten without further cooking.
-However, Yana also cooked certain sunflower seeds and the yellow
-blossoming heads of the small (<i>Helianthella</i>) sunflower were themselves
-cooked and eaten.</p>
-<p>Clover tops were collected in summer and eaten fresh by all
-local tribes. Mountain Maidu also baked them in earth pit ovens,
-then dried and stored the material to be recooked in winter for
-making soup. Atsugewi cooked clover roots in ovens. Young thistle
-stalks were eaten raw as was the foliage of several carrot-like
-plants. Mushrooms, fresh, roasted, or dried were eaten also. Young
-soap-plant stems were eaten fresh or baked and dried for winter
-use by Yana tribes.</p>
-<p>Manzanita berries were gathered by all Indians of the Lassen
-region in July and August. These berries were knocked into burden
-baskets with a stick. They were dried, stored in pits, pounded
-when needed, and sifted as fine meal. This was moistened and
-molded into biscuit-sized cakes and put away until wanted. Either
-fresh flour or the cakes were eaten plain or put into water and
-drunk. One investigator reported fermentation of manzanita cider
-and its use as a mild intoxicant, but this appears to have been the
-exception rather than the rule. The drink, of lemonade-like character,
-<span class="pb" id="Page_58">58</span>
-was usually consumed fresh. Manzanita cider was conveyed
-to the mouth by dipping a deer tail sop into the liquid, and then by
-sucking it. Small cakes were made of a mixture of manzanita and
-wild plum flours. Yana and Yahi also ate manzanita berries as such
-either fresh, or roasted and dried.</p>
-<p>Red berries of skunk or squaw bush were gathered in midsummer,
-washed, dried, and stored. They were pounded into flour in a mortar
-basket, mixed with manzanita flour and drunk. Elderberries were
-mashed and mixed with manzanita flour and stored as cakes.</p>
-<p>Wild plums were prepared by removing seeds. These were then
-eaten fresh or dried for storage.</p>
-<p>Chokecherries and service berries were put into baskets when
-ripe and mashed. The paste was eaten without cooking.</p>
-<p>Gooseberries, huckleberries, currants, Oregon-grape, buckthorn,
-juniper, thimble, and elderberries were eaten fresh, too, but juniper
-fruits might be dried and pounded into flour and stored.</p>
-<p>Another item used as food was salt which mountain Maidu and
-Yana gathered locally in mineral form. The Atsugewi also imported
-it from Round Mountain in North Yana territory or made expeditions
-to this site to gather the dark salt material from a certain marsh.
-This salty earth was shaped into black loaves and dried. It was
-not only used for flavoring, but the black soil was also eaten as
-such by some individuals. Atsugewi had a local source of salt,
-however, by collecting fine whitish crystals in the early mornings
-from the blades of salt grass which was run between the fingers.
-Atsugewi used salt for salmon and venison in cooking, but not in
-drying processes.</p>
-<p>Pine pitch was chewed, but Atsugewi also used milkweed chewing
-gum.</p>
-<p>As for eating customs, Atsugewi ate three meals each day.
-Mountain Maidu just prepared two real meals. Hands were washed
-after eating deer and bear meats. Mountain Maidu wiped faces and
-hands with bark and grass after eating.</p>
-<p>There was a well defined division of labor among California
-Indians. Men would carry water for unusually long distances or
-heavy logs for firewood, but women usually carried water, wood,
-acorn and root crops, and the like. In the case of moving camp,
-however, men carried the heaviest burdens. The most important
-division of labor was the delegation to men of all activities concerning
-animals and animal products, and to women all pertaining
-to vegetable materials. Women, for instance, collected materials
-for basketry and made all the baskets, except that men often made
-basketry fish traps and nets. Women dug roots and cooked all food
-<span class="pb" id="Page_59">59</span>
-except meat which men normally cooked. Exception to this rule
-was necessarily made when men were away on hunting trips or at
-war. Men usually built the houses, made moccasins and skin
-clothing too.</p>
-<p>Among Atsugewi and mountain Maidu only men made fire, but
-this was accomplished by both sexes among the Yana and Yahi.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_60">60</div>
-<h2 id="c11"><span class="small">CHAPTER IX</span>
-<br />HOUSES AND FURNISHINGS</h2>
-<p>The Atsugewi used earth-covered lodges as their permanent
-winter dwellings. These varied in size from about nine feet in
-length, for a single family, to more than thirty feet in length for
-a chief&rsquo;s house which was usually larger than other houses. Most
-frequently houses were about twenty feet long and somewhat
-narrower, being occupied by three to five families. The earth lodge
-was elliptical in shape with one center post planted firmly in the
-earth floor somewhat back of true center. This supported beams
-running to two smaller secondary posts and to earth shoulders
-which resulted from excavation of the entire floor to a depth of
-about three feet. On the beams other poles or rafters and bark slabs
-(usually of incense-cedar) were laid. The whole sloping roof was
-then covered with pine needles and a layer of earth.</p>
-<p>The main entrance was through a hole about in the center of the
-roof. Over this a heavy mat was placed in bad weather. This opening
-also served as a smoke hole. A ladder made of two poles with
-cross pieces tied on with serviceberry withes was used inside.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig13">
-<img src="images/p14.jpg" alt="" width="719" height="800" />
-<p class="pcap">The Northeast (mountain)
-Maidu earth lodge plan used
-only three primary posts
-plus secondary entrance
-posts.</p>
-</div>
-<dl class="undent pcap"><dt>logs or poles</dt>
-<dt>a fireplace</dt>
-<dt>b mainpost with forked top</dt>
-<dt>c front posts with forked tops</dt></dl>
-<p>A secondary entrance of small size, used by children, was built
-<span class="pb" id="Page_61">61</span>
-horizontally at ground level on the south (front) end of the house. It
-projected tunnel-like a short distance beyond the lodge outside wall.
-The main purpose of this ground-level opening was to act as a ventilator
-duct to supply draft for proper burning of the cooking and house
-warming fire which burned in front of the center post. At night the
-ventilator duct was closed. This reduced air supply, causing the
-fire to burn very slowly. Glowing coals developed as a result.
-These produced reduced but adequate heat for the occupants who
-slept with their feet to the fire. Men did all of the house construction
-work except for excavation. The women did this with digging
-sticks and wooden or basketry scoops with which they threw the
-dirt out of the pit. Excavation of the floor of the lodge not only
-made it easier to construct a strong house, but contributed materially
-to the warmth of the standard winter house.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig14">
-<img src="images/p14a.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="613" />
-<p class="pcap">Typical winter house of the local permanent Indian villages at lower
-elevations.</p>
-</div>
-<p>There was no furniture as such. Each family used an assigned
-portion of the house, and cooked its own food, but utilized the
-central communal fire. A thin layer of grass, carefully kept away
-from the fire, covered the floor. The Indians slept on the floor on
-mats made of tule. During the day these and the sleeping blankets
-were rolled up and provided the only seats. However, sitting
-<span class="pb" id="Page_62">62</span>
-usually consisted of squatting on the floor.</p>
-<p>Blankets of deer and elk skin were generally used. Atsugewi
-also used loose tule or grass blankets and all our tribes employed
-both woven rabbit skin and patchwork rabbit or fox blankets. Yana
-in addition to all the foregoing utilized bear skins; sometimes they
-removed the hair from their blankets.</p>
-<p>Atsugewi pillows were of bundles of leaves or grass while those
-of the mountain Maidu were harder, being merely piles of small
-poles, blocks of wood, or rocks.</p>
-<p>Interior earth walls of the houses were sometimes hung with tule
-mats or skins fastened with pegs to prevent dirt from sloughing off
-and rolling onto the floor. A few shelves might also be provided
-by laying wooden slabs on sticks driven into the dirt walls.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig15">
-<img src="images/p15.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="562" />
-<p class="pcap">Atsugewi bark house</p>
-</div>
-<p>There were other less substantial winter houses consisting
-either of small double lean-tos of bark slabs or conical houses on
-frameworks of slender poles and with shallow excavations. Some
-dirt was thrown against the outside walls for added warmth. Lazy
-people, who were usually consequently poor in the necessities and
-comforts of normal Indian life, lived in this more flimsy type of
-house. Also, women when indisposed repaired to such huts. A
-doorway was left in the siding to be closed by a tule mat in these
-little houses. They were also equipped with small smoke holes
-<span class="pb" id="Page_63">63</span>
-for central fires.</p>
-<p>Atsugewi summer houses as such really did not exist. Summer
-camps were little more than circular enclosures of brush, juniper,
-or other conifer limbs or of rock. These were ten or fifteen feet
-across with openings to the east. There was no roof, although
-branches and bark slabs might be put over crude frames in rainy
-weather. If a person were caught in a sudden shower he might make
-a temporary shelter by leaning bark slabs, if available, against a
-large rock or log lying on the ground.</p>
-<p>Atsugewi did not have any separate sweat houses nor dancing
-or assembly chambers, but used the larger earth lodge houses for
-these purposes. The largest belonged to chiefs and to other well-to-do
-Indians. Heat for sweating was provided directly by fire and
-not by production of steam as was the case with Plains Indians
-who threw water on hot stones. In recent years, however, after
-introduction of the horse, Atsugewi learned the latter technique and
-also constructed Plains Indian type sweat houses of one to three
-person capacity. These were dome shaped, and built of willow
-poles set in the ground in a circle. The tops were bent over and
-tied down, and this framework was covered with skins.</p>
-<p>Old type sweating was for men only, but Indian women&mdash;usually
-wives&mdash;also sweated with men in the new style separate sweat
-houses. Old time Atsugewi purposes in sweating were for gaining
-success in hunting, in gambling, and for general good luck. Some
-praying was done, but there were no formalized ceremonies or
-dances amongst the Atsugewi. Men sometimes slept in sweat
-houses.</p>
-<p>In the case of all local tribes sweating was followed by a cold
-plunge, if available nearby. Lacking this facility, a cold sponge
-bath was taken.</p>
-<p>The mountain Maidu earth lodge for dwelling and sweating was
-similar to that of the Atsugewi. However, northeast Maidu earth
-lodges &ldquo;koom&rdquo; were simpler and smaller than those of northwest
-and southern Maidu. Three posts, often forked were used in place
-of 10 or 11 employed for valley lodges. Excavation was about
-three feet deep, circular in plan, and from 18 to 40 feet across.
-A large flat stone was placed upright at the foot of the mainpost
-between it and the fire in the center. The vertical walls of the
-excavation were usually covered or lined with vertically placed
-whole or split logs or with bark slabs. Logs were lain horizontally
-on the three posts as indicated on the accompanying sketch. Radial
-rafters supporting the roof were placed on these beams and sloping
-downward to the ground surface outside as well as to two small
-<span class="pb" id="Page_64">64</span>
-posts at the small openway or ventilator passage. Cross poles
-were placed horizontally on the rafters and on these, large pieces
-of bark, branches, and pine needles were successively laid. Lastly,
-a heavy covering of soil 8 to 20 inches thick was heaped on the
-structure. On top in the center a smokehole was left, large enough
-to serve as the main entrance originally, but after the coming of
-white man, the smokehole was made smaller, and, instead, the
-originally small ventilator tunnel which sloped from floor level up
-to the ground surface outside was enlarged, thus supplanting the
-smokehole as the main entrance. Originally a ladder of two poles
-with cross pieces tied on with grapevine or other withes gave
-vertical access from the floor to the smokehole entrance. Dixon
-reports that a notched log was sometimes used for the purpose
-among mountain Maidu.</p>
-<p>The koom or lodge was occupied from November to March and
-was situated on the edges of wide meadows in mountain Maidu
-areas. At lower elevation occupancy was more or less continuous.</p>
-<p>Mountain Maidu did not have separate sweat houses. They always
-used a large earth dwelling lodge for the purpose. This was
-similar to the Atsugewi practice. These Maidu did, however, have
-a formalized sweat dance. Also different from the Atsugewi was the
-practice of men using the sweat house for gambling, handicraft
-work, and competitive singing.</p>
-<p>The &ldquo;hoe-bow&rdquo; of the mountain Maidu was a hut, 8 to 15 feet
-in diameter and excavated 12 to 15 inches deep. Two main poles
-were securely tied near the end. From the resulting &ldquo;V&rdquo; at the
-top, shorter poles were laid to a pair of slender posts about three
-feet high and set about three feet apart along the edge of the excavation.
-Against this frame branches, bark, and leaves were piled
-and earth was heaped around the bottom. The doors of all such
-bark huts opened to the south and were hung with a skin or tule
-mat.</p>
-<p>The rude summer shelter or shade provider was just like that of
-the Atsugewi.</p>
-<p>Information on Yahi house details are somewhat scanty, but in
-all probability they were small conical bark-covered huts while
-some larger earth lodges were built to house several families&mdash;in
-general similar, but perhaps smaller than those of the other tribes
-of the Lassen area. The large pretentious lodge, constructed
-solely for sweating and ceremonies, of the Sacramento Valley tribes
-seems to have been lacking among all of our local tribes.</p>
-<p>The common bark hut dwelling of the Yana was apparently built
-<span class="pb" id="Page_65">65</span>
-over a circular depression two feet deep, the top of the house rising
-about six feet above the ground. It was probably like the mountain
-Maidu huts, being a series of poles resting on the edges of the excavation.
-These met and were tied at the top to form a cone of low
-slope, although some informants claimed that the posts were set
-so firmly that tying together was omitted. The frames were covered
-with pine and incense-cedar bark slabs leaving a smoke hole near
-each apex. Earth was probably banked on the lower sloping walls.
-Entrance was never through the smoke hole as in the case of
-Atsugewi and some mountain Maidu earth lodge houses, but by
-means of a small door at ground level on the south side. The entrance
-was protected by a little covered way extending outward
-three feet from the house wall, and decked over by a gable roof of
-low pitch. A ramp of low pitch extended from the floor of the house
-through this antechamber to the ground level outside as no steps
-were constructed.</p>
-<p>The Yana lodge houses were not numerous. The ground plan
-was long, usually wedge or oval in outline and designed for several
-families, each with its own fire. As with the other tribes discussed
-in this booklet, such buildings also served as sweat houses. A
-ladder consisting of a notched log extended down from the smoke
-hole to the floor. One, two, or three center posts with radiating
-rafters and shorter side posts were employed. The Yana followed
-the Atsugewi practice of providing each earth lodge with a south
-facing, ground level, tunnel-like ventilator entrance of small size.
-It is possible that Yana did have a few special sweating lodges
-of the same design, but the matter is debatable. During sweating
-Yana men talked and played; the main purpose of sweating was to
-make men strong.</p>
-<p>It has already been pointed out that all four tribes which used
-what is now Lassen Volcanic National Park did so only during the
-summer. During their high mountain sojourn, the local Indians did
-not live in houses as such. There, residence during the three or
-four summer months was in temporary camps, usually roofless
-circular areas to accommodate several families. These were fenced
-in with brush and were entered by one or more openings somewhat
-in the same manner as campsites reserved for visitors at their
-permanent villages at lower elevations. Four-posted horizontal
-roofs, to provide shade, were sometimes constructed too. Yana
-seem to have made a lean-to or hut with grass and bark covering
-for summer roofs.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_66">66</div>
-<h2 id="c12"><span class="small">Chapter X</span>
-<br />HOUSEHOLD TOOLS, IMPLEMENTS, AND WEAPONS</h2>
-<p>Implements for grinding foods were important. Mountain Maidu,
-in fact all Maidu tribes, ground some acorns on flat bed rock. When
-the resultant holes which eventually developed in the rock surfaces
-became deep, they were abandoned as the acorn meal tended to
-pack into hard lumps at the bottoms thereof. A heavy flat stone
-grinding slab was most frequently used. However, all Lassen area
-tribes had portable stone mortar bowls too. The Atsugewi and
-mountain Maidu did not make these nor did they use them for grinding
-food. Such portable stone mortars were found, evidently having
-been fashioned by more ancient tribes. Supernatural powers were
-ascribed to these mortars, and they were used only by shamans or
-medicine men. The Maidu thought that stone mortar bowls were
-made by Coyote at the time of creation and scattered over the world
-for the use of mankind. Others believed the mortars to have been
-&ldquo;first people&rdquo; originally, who were turned to stones in this form
-upon the coming of the Indian people at which time other &ldquo;first
-people&rdquo; were transformed into animals.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig16">
-<img src="images/p16.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="478" />
-<p class="pcap">Northeast Maidu soapstone bowl
-six inches wide&mdash;a rare article (after Dixon)</p>
-</div>
-<p>As has been described under the preparation of acorn mush,
-local tribes used the flat stone pounding slab under an open
-bottomed hopper basket, most commonly. The hopper basket of
-the Atsugewi and mountain Maidu was usually of twined construction
-and bound often with buckskin about the basal edge. Mountain
-Maidu sometimes employed their coiling technique in making the
-acorn pounding basket. It was from this tribe, at the turn of the
-<span class="pb" id="Page_67">67</span>
-century, that Atsugewi learned to make their pounding hopper
-baskets of the stronger coiled construction.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig17">
-<img src="images/p16a.jpg" alt="" width="402" height="670" />
-<p class="pcap">Maidu stone axe head,
-5 inches long (after Dixon)</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig18">
-<img src="images/p16b.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="700" />
-<p class="pcap">One of several seed
-beater types used locally</p>
-</div>
-<p>Pestles of stone were long, smoothed, and sometimes flattened
-on the sides. This resulted from use of these implements also as
-rubbing or mulling stones for processing small seeds on flat slabs
-without employment of basket hoppers. The pestles were always
-without the ornamentation used by certain other California tribes.
-The pounding end of the food grinding pestles are ever so slightly
-convex&mdash;their grinding surfaces are nearly flat. This is in contrast
-to pestles used in the deep bowl-shaped portable stone
-mortars for ceremonial purposes. The grinding ends of these pestles
-were strongly rounded, nearly hemispherical in shape.</p>
-<p>The muller or small seed crusher used on the flat grinding slab
-without a hopper basket was of oval or rectangular shape, and it
-too was unornamented.</p>
-<p>Small brushes used in miscellaneous food preparation were made
-of pounded dried soap-plant bulb fibers.</p>
-<p>Hot rocks for cooking were usually handled with two sticks.
-None of our tribes used spoons. Crude obsidian knives with, or
-more commonly without, bone handles were used for many chores.</p>
-<p>Yana used split cobble stones for cutting and scraping operations.
-Their stone knives sometimes had wrapped buckskin handles.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_68">68</div>
-<p>Bone awls, usually with wrapped handles, were commonly used
-for sewing buckskin and other hides. Atsugewi are said by some to
-have had both eyed and open notched needles of bone for sewing
-skins and tule mats.</p>
-<p>The wooden shuttle for net weaving was a stick notched at both
-ends and was used by all of the local tribes. A squarish wooden
-net mesh spacer permitted nets to be properly made.</p>
-<p>Mountain Maidu used deer antler wedges for splitting wood while
-Atsugewi used wooden wedges&mdash;especially of mountain-mahogany.
-Wedges were usually driven with simple wooden clubs, though rocks
-might be employed for the purpose.</p>
-<p>Drills for boring holes in shell work and for making pipes and
-the like were used by Atsugewi only. Such drills were wooden
-shafts with stone points. These were rotated by rolling the shaft
-between the palms of the hands. Where the drill was not in use,
-holes were made in pieces of wood with live coals. Sometimes
-unfinished clamshell money was received in trade perhaps at a discount.
-Such pieces were strung tightly onto a cord and the whole
-string was then rolled between two flat stones thus grinding the
-shell edges to make the well formed disks characteristic of clam
-shell money.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig19">
-<img src="images/p17.jpg" alt="" width="408" height="538" />
-<p class="pcap">Soap-root fiber acorn meal
-brush about 6 inches long
-(after Dixon)</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig20">
-<img src="images/p17a.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="596" />
-<p class="pcap">A lava pestle, flat ended food
-pounder, about 10 inches long</p>
-</div>
-<p>Fire making drills were of greater importance. All local tribes
-employed them. Those of this area were one-piece hand rotated
-<span class="pb" id="Page_69">69</span>
-affairs which did not utilize the labor saving drill bow of the midwest.
-A long buckeye wood stick about half an inch thick was
-twirled on a notched block of incense-cedar or juniper wood. A
-bed of dry shredded grass and incense-cedar or other flammable
-tinder was used to nourish the spark into flame. Both sexes made
-fire among the Yana and Yahi, but unless the men were away,
-Atsugewi and mountain Maidu women did not make fire. Buckeye
-was uncommon or lacking in the areas of the latter tribes, so this
-material had to be traded from the Yana and Yahi. Buckeye fire
-making sticks commanded quite a price, a piece two feet long often
-selling for ten completed arrows. Since fire making required much
-effort and skill, fire was rarely allowed to go out. A &ldquo;slow match&rdquo;
-consisting of a piece of punky wood in which the fire smouldered
-was usually carried along.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig21">
-<img src="images/p17b.jpg" alt="" width="401" height="599" />
-<p class="pcap">Maidu bone awls or basket &ldquo;needles&rdquo;
-about 6 inches long</p>
-</div>
-<p>It was as true in prehistoric America as it is today that weapons
-were essential to existence. Weapons were necessary not only for
-warfare&mdash;whether aggressive or defensive&mdash;but for the securing
-of game for food since domestication of animals was not practiced.</p>
-<p>The bow and arrow was the only important weapon of California
-Indians. Local bows were rather short and quite broad in cross-section.
-We quote Garth&rsquo;s &ldquo;Atsugewi Ethnography&rdquo; on the subject
-as follows:</p>
-<blockquote>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_70">70</div>
-<p>&ldquo;... The best bows were made by the Atsuge, who had
-a supply of yew wood ... along the western borders of their
-territory. The Paiute were anxious to trade for Atsuge bows
-and considered them much superior to their own. In making the
-bow a piece of yew wood was selected, split, and shaved down
-with flints and pumice stone to the required form and thickness.
-After it had been wrapped in green grass and roasted in
-hot ashes, the bow was bent to required shape (recurved tips
-with a slight incurve at the middle), which it retained when
-it cooled off. Sinew, taken from the back of a deer, was
-softened by chewing and was then glued on the back of the
-bow in short strips, which were rubbed out as flat as possible
-with a smooth piece of bone. Salmon skins were boiled to
-make the glue.</p>
-</blockquote>
-<div class="img" id="fig22">
-<img src="images/p18.jpg" alt="" width="374" height="594" />
-<p class="pcap">Yahi making fire by twirling buckeye
-rod on Incense-cedar block</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig23">
-<img src="images/p18a.jpg" alt="" width="136" height="731" />
-<p class="pcap">Maidu fire drill of buckeye
-(right) about 28 inches long.
-In the two inch wide Incense-cedar
-slab note the
-cut notches with a deeper
-twirling hole at the head of
-each.</p>
-</div>
-<blockquote>
-<p>&ldquo;The designs painted in green and red on the backs of
-<span class="pb" id="Page_71">71</span>
-bows are among the few examples of masculine art. The painting
-was done with a feather tip. The sinew for the bowstring
-... was chewed to make it soft and then it was made into a
-two-ply cord by rolling it with the open hand on the thigh.
-After salmon glue was rubbed in to make the fibers stick together,
-the string was stretched by tying a rock to one end and
-allowing it to hang down from some support. A tassel ... of
-mole skin might be attached to the end of the bow for decoration....</p>
-</blockquote>
-<div class="img" id="fig24">
-<img src="images/p18c.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="703" />
-<p class="pcap">Indian Jack Harding
-after photo by Williams</p>
-<p class="pcapc">&ldquo;Montgomery Creek&rdquo; Indian, part white&mdash;good archer</p>
-<p class="pcapc">An Atsugewi type bow characteristically short, broad, sinew backed
-and held at 45 degree angle in shooting. Note the painted decoration</p>
-</div>
-<blockquote>
-<p>&ldquo;... Flint tipped arrows ... were made of cane or rose
-and had foreshafts of Serviceberry, or they might be entirely of
-Service wood. Cane arrows ... with a sharp-pointed foreshaft
-of Serviceberry were commonly used for small animals
-and birds. Such arrows might be unfeathered ... (an informant)
-recalled a bird arrow ... with a barbed wooden point.
-Deer-bone pointed arrows were sometimes used for killing
-deer and other game. Voegelin reports that these arrows were
-also sometimes barbed. Flint-tipped arrows were about thirty
-<span class="pb" id="Page_72">72</span>
-inches long ... arrows for small game were somewhat shorter
-than flint-tipped arrows ... the wood was ordinarily dried
-before it was used. The end of the Serviceberry foreshaft was
-cut into a dowel which was inserted in the soft pithy center of
-the main shaft, the juncture being wrapped with sinew. A
-notch one-fourth of an inch deep was cut in the butt. A
-laterally notched obsidian arrow point was inserted in the split
-end of the foreshaft and bound on with cross lashings of
-sinew. The binding was ordinarily waterproofed with pitch.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;Two small grooved pumice stones were used to smooth
-arrow shafts. The foreshaft was painted red as an indication
-that poison had been applied to the point. Other bands or
-stripes of color toward the nock end of the arrow served as
-ownership marks ... the stripes might run spirally as on a
-stick of candy ... all kinds of colors being used for painting
-arrows. Feathers were split along the midrib and were glued
-to the shaft, about a finger&rsquo;s width below the butt, with pitch.
-Sinew wrapping bound down each end of the feathers, three of
-which&mdash;about four inches long&mdash;were used to an arrow. The
-edge of the feather was burned smooth with a hot coal.
-Feathers of hawks or similar birds were used on ordinary
-arrows, but for the finest arrows&mdash;those to be used for bear
-and deer&mdash;eagle feathers were employed. An arrow wrench
-of bone or wood was used for straightening arrows; or they
-might simply be straightened by using the teeth as a vise. A
-flat antelope horn might be perforated and used as an arrow
-wrench.... (John La Mar) had a small triangular stone with
-a hole in the center ... which, he said was heated in the
-fire and used for straightening cane arrows.</p>
-</blockquote>
-<div class="img" id="fig25">
-<img src="images/p19.jpg" alt="" width="809" height="252" />
-<p class="pcap">Maidu bow 40 inches long and two inches wide, deer sinew backed and
-painted with powdered greenish rock from Oregon mixed with Salmon glue.
-Two arrows are obsidian tipped. (after Dixon)</p>
-</div>
-<blockquote>
-<p>&ldquo;Although the flint points themselves were considered
-<span class="pb" id="Page_73">73</span>
-poisonous, an arrow poison was often used for larger game
-as well as in war. The usual method of making poison was
-to take the liver or pancreas of a deer and allow it to rot;
-the material was then smeared on the arrow point....&rdquo;</p>
-</blockquote>
-<p>Rattlesnake poison was also employed; however none of the
-poisoned arrow concoctions were very effective except to start
-infection of wounds inflicted by arrow points so treated.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig26">
-<img src="images/p19a.jpg" alt="" width="681" height="431" />
-<p class="pcap">Painted Atsugewi bows (after Garth)</p>
-</div>
-<dl class="undent pcap"><dt>a. Goose Valley, design in red (Apwaruge)</dt>
-<dt>b. Goose Valley, design in red (Apwaruge)</dt>
-<dt>c. Drawn by Dave Brown (Atsuge) with outer lines red, inner lines green</dt></dl>
-<p>Arrow points found in the park area, in the territory of both
-Atsugewi and mountain Maidu are most frequently of obsidian, but
-sometimes are of a dense dull black basalt lava. The term flint
-is a very loose one, being applied to obsidian, chert, opal, chalcedony,
-and even to the dense basalt, noted above, in common usage.</p>
-<p>Mountain Maidu imported yew wood as this did not commonly
-grow in their own territory. This tribe, however, also manufactured
-its own bows. In practically all respects bow and arrow design and
-execution were identical to that of the Atsugewi. Those of Yana
-and Yahi were similar too. All tribes of the Lassen area fashioned
-arrow points with barbs. In addition mountain Maidu flaked points
-without barbs but with basal stems for attachment were made.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_74">74</div>
-<h4>MOUNTAIN MAIDU STONE POINTS</h4>
-<div class="img" id="fig27">
-<img src="images/p20.jpg" alt="" width="207" height="298" />
-<p class="pcap">Dull black obsidian much more convex on one side than on
-the other. From near Corral Meadow; one and one half inches.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig28">
-<img src="images/p20a.jpg" alt="" width="155" height="259" />
-<p class="pcap">Black obsidian near Little Willow Lake; one and one half inches long.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig29">
-<img src="images/p20d.jpg" alt="" width="133" height="316" />
-<p class="pcap">Dense black basalt from Terminal Geyser; one and five eighths inches.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig30">
-<img src="images/p20e.jpg" alt="" width="133" height="169" />
-<p class="pcap">Black obsidian near Little Willow Lake, one inch long.</p>
-</div>
-<h4>ATSUGEWI KNIFE (?) AND ARROW POINT</h4>
-<div class="img" id="fig31">
-<img src="images/p20f.jpg" alt="" width="181" height="585" />
-<p class="pcap">Black obsidian
-spear point or
-knife from south
-shore of Summit
-Lake; four inches.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig32">
-<img src="images/p20g.jpg" alt="" width="137" height="284" />
-<p class="pcap">Dark gray banded
-point from Northeast
-shore Snag
-Lake; two inches.</p>
-</div>
-<h4>SOUTHERN YANA POINTS</h4>
-<div class="img" id="fig33">
-<img src="images/p20h.jpg" alt="" width="159" height="163" />
-<p class="pcap">Dark gray obsidian
-point from Battle
-Creek Meadows.
-Note unusually
-strong asymmetry
-in two planes; one
-inch long.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig34">
-<img src="images/p20k.jpg" alt="" width="228" height="520" />
-<p class="pcap">Coarse gray lava
-knife (?) from Battle
-Creek Meadows;
-Three and one half
-inches long.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_75">75</div>
-<p>The bow was most frequently held in shooting at an angle of
-about 45 degrees with the arrow on top. Mountain Maidu used that
-style, too, or else held the bow horizontally with the arrow on top
-except in case of war when the arrow was held on the underside of
-the bow. Gifford and Klimak reveal that northern and central Yana
-held the bow horizontally. Sapir and Spier found that the Yana
-tribes proper (not Yahi), however held bows vertically in shooting.
-All tribes considered except Yahi used the primary release of the
-arrow in shooting. In this method the arrow was held between the
-index and third fingers, which caught and pulled back the string.
-The thumb held the other side of the arrow. The Yahi, on the other
-hand used the Mongolian release; grasping the arrow with the thumb
-and unbent first joints of the first and second fingers.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig35">
-<img src="images/p20m.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="72" />
-<p class="pcap">Maidu bone arrow point flaker about ten inches long (after Dixon)</p>
-</div>
-<blockquote>
-<p>&ldquo;... the arrow was let fly between the index and third
-finger of the left hand, which held the bow. Many arrow points
-were uniface and curved slightly to one side.... A hunter,
-when shooting at a distant object, turned the arrow so that the
-point curved up; when shooting an object close by, he turned
-the arrow so that the point curved down. A hunter carried at
-least one arrow in his left hand with his bow. Extra arrows
-were carried in a quiver ... (made of) coyote, raccoon, or
-other skins. Ordinarily the hunter carried his quiver on his
-back, but if he wanted to be able to reach the arrows easily,
-he hung it on his ... shoulder so that it fell under his left
-armpit. Arrows were taken from the quiver with the right
-hand.&rdquo;</p>
-</blockquote>
-<p>Inside the quiver, at the bottom, a cushion of dry
-grass was placed to prevent the stone points from chipping each
-other.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig36">
-<img src="images/p20n.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="407" />
-<p class="pcap">Maidu arrow-straightener
-and smoother of sandstone
-about three inches long
-(after Dixon)</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_76">76</div>
-<h4>YAHI STONE POINTS</h4>
-<div class="img" id="fig37">
-<img src="images/p21.jpg" alt="" width="83" height="118" />
-<p class="pcap">Nearly colorless
-obsidian south of
-Sulphur Works;
-three quarters inch.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig38">
-<img src="images/p21a.jpg" alt="" width="81" height="169" />
-<p class="pcap">Off-white chalcedony
-point south of
-Sulphur Works area;
-one and one half
-inches.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig39">
-<img src="images/p21c.jpg" alt="" width="133" height="219" />
-<p class="pcap">Black obsidian one
-and one quarter
-inches long and a
-full one half inch
-thick.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig40">
-<img src="images/p21e.jpg" alt="" width="291" height="442" />
-<p class="pcap">Three inch point of coarse
-gray lava from Mill Creek
-Canyon.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig41">
-<img src="images/p21g.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="307" />
-<p class="pcap">Black obsidian. South of
-Sulphur Works, one and
-one half inches.</p>
-</div>
-<hr class="dwide" />
-<div class="img" id="fig42">
-<img src="images/p21h.jpg" alt="" width="783" height="343" />
-<p class="pcap">Yana arrow points one and one half to two inches long. The materials
-used are mostly black obsidian, also dark grey and buff obsidian. One
-is of dense black basalt.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_77">77</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig43">
-<img src="images/p21k.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="395" />
-<p class="pcap">A pair of Yana arrow smoother and
-straightening stones made of porous
-glassy (pre-Lassen?) dacite pumice,
-length about two and one half inches</p>
-</div>
-<p>War clubs were not used. Atsugewi claim to have had a stone
-axe, sharpened by chipping and lashed with sinew to a split oak
-or mountain-mahogany handle a foot or so long. It was used for
-chopping roots and small trees on occasion, but the stone axe was
-certainly not widely used by California Indians, and even among
-Atsugewi it may have been unknown until the coming of white man,
-or knowledge of it may have been gained from Plains Indians after
-the advent of the horse. The tomahawk, so important to Indians of
-eastern and midwestern North America, was unknown to California
-Indians. Trees were normally felled and cut by controlled burning.</p>
-<p>Four-foot spears, tipped with large flaked stone points for fighting
-at close quarters, were used by all local tribes on occasion,
-but were not numerous. Only the Yana are believed to have thrown
-the weapon; the more common usage seems to have been by energetically
-thrusting it.</p>
-<p>Knives or daggers as fighting implements were made of chipped
-obsidian but were quite rare. A short, crude, one edged, stone
-knife was used widely as a general utility implement, but not in
-combat nor in killing game. Yana Indians also employed a mussel
-shell knife for light delicate work around camp. Atsugewi and
-mountain Maidu sometimes affixed wooden handles to their obsidian
-knives. These two tribes also fashioned knives of sharpened bone
-and horn.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig44">
-<img src="images/p21m.jpg" alt="" width="528" height="111" />
-<p class="pcap">A wooden arrow straightener from
-northern California (Yurok)</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig45">
-<img src="images/p21n.jpg" alt="" width="286" height="171" />
-<p class="pcap">Atsugewi stone arrow-straightener</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_78">78</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig46">
-<img src="images/p22.jpg" alt="" width="432" height="870" />
-<p class="pcap">Mountain Maidu arrow quiver
-made of an inside-out small mammal skin.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig47">
-<img src="images/p22c.jpg" alt="" width="444" height="878" />
-<p class="pcap">Atsugewi cased fox skin quiver made
-by slitting animal&rsquo;s skin along its
-hind legs, turning skin inside out,
-and finally sewing the mouth and eye
-openings shut.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig48">
-<img src="images/p22c1.jpg" alt="" width="425" height="775" />
-<p class="pcap"><span class="center">4&frac12; inches  <span class="hst">7 inches</span></span>
-<br />Maidu stone knives of obsidian,
-one with a wooden and sinew handle
-(after Dixon)</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig49">
-<img src="images/p22d.jpg" alt="" width="406" height="764" />
-<p class="pcap">A warrior in stick armor
-and fur helmet</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_79">79</div>
-<p>Of equipment for warfare, Garth states:</p>
-<blockquote>
-<p>&ldquo;Defensive armor included rod armor ..., gowns ...
-of dried elk or bear skins, and skin helmets which came down
-over the forehead and ears, &lsquo;so a man could just see out of it&rsquo;.
-The skin armor extended to the ankles or lower; it was worn
-over one shoulder so that it protected only the side of the body
-turned toward the enemy. Rod armor, made of serviceberry
-withes twined together with buckskin string, was high enough
-to come up to the neck under the chin and extended two or
-three inches below the belt. The Plains Indian shield, although
-found among the Surprise Valley Paiute and other Paiute tribes
-to the east, was lacking among the Atsugewi,&rdquo; and all other
-tribes of the Lassen area.</p>
-</blockquote>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_80">80</div>
-<h2 id="c13"><span class="small">Chapter XI</span>
-<br />BASKETRY AND TEXTILES</h2>
-<p>The outstanding art of the Indians of California was their
-basketry. In fact the excellence of California basketry generally
-is not exceeded elsewhere in North America. Size varies from that
-of a pea to that of a bushel basket. Both weave and ornamentation
-were very diversified.</p>
-<p>Basketry of the Lassen area, especially that of the Atsugewi
-and mountain Maidu, was of good quality. Both coiled and twined
-types of basketry (to be described below) were made by mountain
-Maidu, but the Atsugewi did not learn the art of coiled basketry
-from the Maidu until the early 1900&rsquo;s. Yana and Yahi wove both
-types but twined baskets were by far the more numerous. This is
-due to the fact that these tribes were akin to the twining tribes of
-the north. Close contact with the neighboring Wintun tribes of the
-Sacramento Valley resulted in the addition of limited amount of
-coiling technique in their basketry making over the years.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig50">
-<img src="images/p23.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="414" />
-<p class="pcap">Technique of the three willow
-rod (or rib) coiled basketry
-(after Otis T. Mason). Note that
-the lashing strand anchors the
-three new ribs &ldquo;a&rdquo;, &ldquo;b&rdquo;, and
-&ldquo;c&rdquo; to the top rib &ldquo;d&rdquo; of the
-preceding three &ldquo;d&rdquo;, &ldquo;e&rdquo;, and
-&ldquo;f&rdquo; group</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig51">
-<img src="images/p23a.jpg" alt="" width="505" height="309" />
-<p class="pcap">Simple twined basketry technique
-employs two weft (lashing)
-strands, but when overlaying
-with another material is
-done two or more layers will
-make up each of the strands
-&ldquo;a&rdquo; and &ldquo;b&rdquo; (modified from
-Otis T. Mason)</p>
-</div>
-<p>Coiled basketry itself had some technical variations with which
-we shall not concern ourselves. The coiling technique was characteristic
-of the central and southern part of the California area.
-Mountain Maidu used three willow rods in a parallel group which
-ran as a core in a continuous spiral starting at the center of the
-basket. This was the warp element. The bundle of three willow
-ribs was lashed to the preceding basketry by a strand or weft (filler)
-of the inner bark of redbud. This was accomplished by poking an
-awl through the preceding row, and separating the stitches. In
-<span class="pb" id="Page_81">81</span>
-doing so, the awl was passed under the topmost of the core or warp
-of three coiling willow ribs. A redbud bark strand was then slipped
-through the awl hole, thus lashing the three loose willow ribs down
-by passing the strand around them and through the next awl hole in
-the preceding row. Recent Atsugewi coiled basketry technique is
-similar in all details, having been learned from the Maidu.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig52">
-<img src="images/p23c.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="557" />
-<p class="pcap">Variations of the simple twined basketry technique: a, method of
-starting the round root-cleaning basket; b, detail of side wall of
-basket showing open work weave. (Garth)</p>
-</div>
-<p>Twined basketry consisted of willow ribs radiating from a
-common center. These twigs were the warp. The weft of filling
-and binding stitches were split pine root strands. Dixon states
-that mountain Maidu sometimes dyed pine root black by burying it
-in mud mixed with charcoal. Pine root was tightly woven in to make
-the bottom of the basket which was normally undecorated. More
-and more willow ribs were added as the basket became larger. The
-willow ribs were curved up when willow rib additions were decreased.
-As the sides began to be built up on these twined baskets,
-each pine root stitch, both inside and outside, was covered with a
-whitish strand of bear-grass or squaw-grass. The tops of baskets
-were often left unfinished after the unused willow warps were
-clipped off. The basket did not unravel in use. However, the best
-baskets were finished by adding a marginal strengthening ring of
-choke cherry or willow which was bound to the basket body firmly
-and neatly, usually by wrapping with strands of redbud bark. During
-weaving willow withes were fastened inside of the basket to help
-it retain its shape, but these were removed upon completion of the
-basket.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_82">82</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig53">
-<img src="images/p24.jpg" alt="" width="732" height="1000" />
-<p class="pcap">Side outline shapes of Maidu baskets (after Dixon). The plan of virtually
-all Maidu baskets was circular. Twined storage baskets are up to three
-feet in diameter for holding seed, meal, etc. Open twined construction
-was used for storage of whole acorns, fish, and meat. Flatish circular
-basketry plaque was for &ldquo;vibration sifting&rdquo;.</p>
-</div>
-<table class="center">
-<tr><td class="c"><i class="ssn">FOOD BOWL<br />DIPPING<br />GENERAL UTILITY</i> </td><td class="c"><i class="ssn">STORAGE<br />COOKING</i></td></tr>
-<tr><td class="c"><i class="ssn">FOOD BOWL<br />DIPPER<br />GENERAL UTILITY</i> </td><td class="c"><i class="ssn">STORAGE<br />COOKING</i></td></tr>
-<tr><td class="c"><i class="ssn">COOKING</i> </td><td class="c"><i class="ssn">STORAGE<br />COOKING</i></td></tr>
-<tr><td class="c"><i class="ssn">FOOD BOWL<br />DIPPER<br />GENERAL UTILITY</i> </td><td class="c"><i class="ssn">STORAGE<br />COOKING</i></td></tr>
-<tr><td class="c"><i class="ssn">COOKING</i> </td><td class="c"><i class="ssn">BURDEN</i></td></tr>
-<tr><td class="c"><i class="ssn">FOOD BOWL<br />DIPPER<br />GENERAL UTILITY</i> </td><td class="c"><i class="ssn">STORAGE<br />COOKING</i></td></tr>
-<tr><td class="c"><i class="ssn">TRAYS or large BASKET COVER</i> </td><td class="c"><i class="ssn">TRAY or BASKET COVER</i></td></tr>
-</table>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_83">83</div>
-<p>Some utility baskets were undecorated, being made merely of
-pine root and willow, or, if coiled, of redbud and willow. However,
-most baskets bore some designs. They were all named and were
-inspired by the objects of nature about these outdoor peoples, and
-not the product of their imaginations. Nevertheless, the designs
-are quite stylized, often to the extent that recognition of the inspiration
-is difficult or impossible.</p>
-<p>In the case of twined baskets the designs were made by substituting
-outer redbud bark for squaw-grass to produce a dull red
-instead of the white overlaid stitches of the rest of the basket.
-As a result of the double twining technique the designs were seen
-equally well on the inside and the outside of each basket. Black
-designs were of overlaid maidenhair fern (<i>Adiantum pedatum</i>) stems.
-However, mountain Maidu also used common bracken fern (<i>Pteris
-aquilinum</i>) for black designs. Indians to the north of the Atsugewi
-used roots and stems of certain sedges treated with charcoal and
-mud or with ashes and water to produce basketry materials of black
-and of warm henna-brown coloration respectively. These were
-used on occasion by Atsugewi. The bear-grass, redbud, and maidenhair
-fern decorative materials were most commonly used by all
-tribes of this area. Atsugewi are the only local Indians to have
-used feathers to adorn their baskets. They used the shiny iridescent
-blue-green feathers from the necks of male mallard ducks. This
-was not common, however, and by no means used as often nor
-developed to the fine art and diversity of the famous Pomo feathered
-basketry of the Clear Lake region of the California Coast Range.
-Atsugewi are also believed to have occasionally adorned some
-basketry work with shell beads and porcupine quills, but this must
-have been quite rare or more examples would have survived to the
-present day.</p>
-<p>Outer bark of redbud almost always decorated coiled baskets.</p>
-<p>Concerning Maidu basketry Dixon states that the vast majority
-of the articles are of the coiled type, twining technique being used
-only for burden baskets and hopper or grinding baskets. For the
-radial ribs of the former they used shoots of hazel (<i>Corylus
-rostrata</i> var. <i>californica</i>) when available. He points out too, the
-frequent use of the feather, quail-tip, and arrow-point designs not
-only among the mountain Maidu, but among all Maidu. A characteristic
-of this group of Indians also, in contrast to other local
-tribes, is the tendency to confine one design to a basket rather than
-combining designs. Maidu employed a wide variety of designs.
-Many of them represent animals and plants. A considerable number
-of Maidu patterns exhibit a more or less obscure realism which
-becomes apparent only after one is informed as to what the design
-means. The Maidu show a tendency also toward arrangement of
-design elements in spiral or zigzag lines.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_84">84</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig54">
-<img src="images/p25.jpg" alt="" width="491" height="375" />
-<p class="pcap">Atsugewi basket, twined
-and overlaid with bear-grass
-and maiden hair fern.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig55">
-<img src="images/p25a.jpg" alt="" width="617" height="473" />
-<p class="pcap">Maidu hopper, pounding,
-or milling basket of
-twined construction on
-rock mortar slab.
-Diameter about eighteen
-inches (after Dixon).</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig56">
-<img src="images/p25h.jpg" alt="" width="488" height="440" />
-<p class="pcap">Atsugewi general utility
-basket of twined construction
-with lizard foot design.
-Underside shown to reveal
-dark (actually tan-colored)
-area of bare split pine root
-weft without bear-grass or
-maiden hair overlay.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig57">
-<img src="images/p25k.jpg" alt="" width="697" height="637" />
-<p class="pcap">Coiled type Atsugewi
-hopper basket with flying
-geese design. View
-shows pounding hole in
-bottom of basket, in this
-case bound with buckskin.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_85">85</div>
-<p>Dixon noted that &ldquo;mussel&rsquo;s tongue&rdquo; (the fresh water mussel)
-is one of the unique and peculiar basketry designs used by the
-Atsugewi. Representation of intestines and deer excrement are also
-worthy of special mention for this tribe. Other common Atsugewi
-designs in basketry decoration are lizard, deer rib, owl&rsquo;s claw, and
-flying geese, as well as arrow-point. Two or more different designs
-are often combined on a single basket. Among Atsugewi and
-Achomawi there seems to be no restriction of certain patterns to
-baskets intended for special uses. Like mountain Maidu, zigzag
-and spiral arrangements are preferred, horizontal bands being rare.
-Curiously an Atsugewi design is often given different meaning by
-different individual Indians. This is in contrast to the uniformity
-of interpretation of a given design by all the Maidu individuals,
-normally.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig58">
-<img src="images/p25m.jpg" alt="" width="832" height="442" />
-<p class="pcap">Maidu open twined &ldquo;tray&rdquo; or plate-like basket about ten inches long
-(after Dixon)</p>
-</div>
-<p>Yana tribes frequently substituted another material for willow
-ribs. The identity of this warp is not certain. Reliable students
-believe it to be hazelnut twigs, but to my knowledge that plant is
-scarce indeed even in the foothill territory. Yana and Yahi had
-some other peculiarities in their basketry. Designs were sometimes
-wrought in a negative way, that is by merely leaving off
-overlay so that the design was thereby defined in exposed pine
-root weft. Sapir and Spier found that these tribes also used alder
-bark for dying basketry decoration materials a red-brown. A reddish
-color was produced on peeled shield fern stems by passing them
-through the mouth while chewing dogwood bark. They dyed pine
-roots, too, on occasion with a red soil or with the powdery filling
-of spores from the inside of a fungus obtained from certain coniferous
-trees. These variations of basketry decoration do not seem to
-have been used by the Atsugewi and mountain Maidu.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_86">86</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig59">
-<img src="images/p26.jpg" alt="" width="342" height="246" />
-<p class="pcap">Maidu fish-teeth design on
-coiled basket.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig60">
-<img src="images/p26a.jpg" alt="" width="513" height="233" />
-<p class="pcap">Mountain Maidu geese-flying
-design on coiled basket.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig61">
-<img src="images/p26d.jpg" alt="" width="392" height="494" />
-<p class="pcap">Atsugewi lizard&rsquo;s claw or
-lizard&rsquo;s foot design.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig62">
-<img src="images/p26e.jpg" alt="" width="514" height="242" />
-<p class="pcap">Mountain Maidu mountains
-designs on twined baskets.
-The right hand treatment may
-be repeated in reverse to the
-right making a symmetrical
-pyramid shaped design outline.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig63">
-<img src="images/p26f.jpg" alt="" width="528" height="344" />
-<p class="pcap">An interesting unsymmetrical
-flower design.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig64">
-<img src="images/p26h.jpg" alt="" width="598" height="439" />
-<p class="pcap">Atsugewi intestines.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_87">87</div>
-<p>The basketry described above was all close-woven. In fact,
-so closely were the twined baskets made that they held water with
-little or no leakage even without linings of pitch or any other substance.
-There was no pottery of any kind in central or northern
-California.</p>
-<p>The art of basketry included also a third type&mdash;loose or open
-weaving, sometimes of tules. The latter were also used extensively
-for making mats for a variety of purposes. Open weaving at other
-times was done with willow withes, split juniper twigs, or of
-another material tentatively identified as hazel. Fish traps, carrying
-baskets, some storage baskets, and bags were not infrequently
-of this type of construction.</p>
-<p>All basketry materials had to be well soaked in water, as they
-were brittle when dry. After weaving and upon drying these materials
-set in place, making the basketry firm, strong, and resistant
-to unraveling.</p>
-<p>Collection of basketry materials was more arduous and required
-greater know-how than might be suspected. Willow withes were
-only taken from the particularly strong and supple shoots from Hinds
-or valley willow (<i>Salix hindsiana</i>) which grows along stream banks
-up to 3000 foot elevations and also from the similar sandbar, river,
-or grey willow (<i>Salix fluviatilis</i> variety <i>argyrophylla</i>) which also
-lines streams, often growing in sandbars. These species are
-recognized by their long very narrow silvery leaves and a grey bark,
-furrowed when mature. Willow twigs were collected when the leaves
-were off of the stems in the spring and in the fall. At other times
-the twigs were more brittle. Spring picked willow withes &ldquo;slipped&rdquo;
-their bark easily, but those collected in the fall had to be scraped
-to remove the bark. The willow ribs were further dressed by scraping
-to uniform size.</p>
-<p>Pine roots of either ponderosa pine (<i>Pinus ponderosa</i>) or digger
-pine (<i>Pinus sabiniana</i>) were usually used. However not all trees
-had roots of suitable strength and flexibility, so that it was necessary
-to &ldquo;shop around&rdquo; for good roots. This involved digging holes
-to reach the roots and then testing these by tugging on small
-strands until suitable roots were located. Roots three or four inches
-in diameter were then cut off with a small obsidian axe, if the individual
-were so fortunate as to possess this rarity, or by using a sort
-of bone pick, or, more commonly, by slowly burning through the green
-root with a small fire. Root lengths of about four feet were gathered,
-taken home, and there roasted in hot ashes. This made the pine
-roots very soft. They were then split into quarters with digging
-sticks or stone choppers and finally were pulled apart into thin
-strips using hands and teeth. The resulting half inch wide strips
-were tied into bundles for storage. In use, these strips were well
-soaked in water. Pine root strands of proper width were easily
-split off by hand. The finer and smaller the basketry to be done,
-naturally, the narrower was the material split for making it.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_88">88</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig65">
-<img src="images/p27.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="224" />
-<p class="pcap">Atsugewi twined basket, deer-rib
-and arrow point designs.
-Both are frequently used.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig66">
-<img src="images/p27a.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="345" />
-<p class="pcap">Pit River (used by Dixon to include
-Atsugewi) popular mussels&rsquo; tongue
-designs.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig67">
-<img src="images/p27d.jpg" alt="" width="499" height="704" />
-<p class="pcap">Mountain Maidu mountain-and-cloud
-design on
-coiled basket.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig68">
-<img src="images/p27f.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="268" />
-<p class="pcap">Atsugewi pine cone design</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig69">
-<img src="images/p27g.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="409" />
-<p class="pcap">Atsugewi deer-gut design on
-twined basket&mdash;also a popular
-pattern.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig70">
-<img src="images/p27h.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="122" />
-<p class="pcap">Another Atsugewi version of
-deer-gut design on twined
-basket.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig71">
-<img src="images/p27k.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="267" />
-<p class="pcap">Pit River (applied by Dixon to
-include also the Atsugewi) deer
-excrement designs.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig72">
-<img src="images/p27m.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="441" />
-<p class="pcap">Atsugewi flint design</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_89">89</div>
-<p>The chief overlay material&mdash;already mentioned&mdash;was what
-we call bear-grass or squaw-grass. In truth this is not grass, but
-the leaf of a lily, the well known bear-grass of Mount Rainier
-National Park, scientifically known as <i>Xerophylum tenax</i>. This
-grows only in limited areas in this region, hence Atsugewi had to
-make long trips on foot to obtain it. In recent years, at least, bear-grass
-was to be found only in the territory of the Shasta and of the
-mountain Maidu: a few miles west of Mount Shasta and near Greenville
-in Plumas County. Bear-grass could be collected only during
-about two weeks in mid-July. Earlier it was too tender; later it
-was too brittle &ldquo;like hay&rdquo;. Only new central leaves of each plant
-were plucked. The heavy mid-rib had to be removed from each
-leaf with an awl before use.</p>
-<p>Maidenhair fern frond stems were picked in August.</p>
-<p>Redbud twigs collected in the spring would &ldquo;slip&rdquo; the red outer
-bark easily in a thin layer. This was used for overlay pattern
-making on twined baskets. The white inner bark, or, more properly,
-sapwood was then stripped off for binding material and as the white
-lashing weft for coiled baskets. In the case of fall-collected redbud
-twigs the red outer bark adhered to the sapwood. This was
-used as the lashing strand or weft where red designs were desired
-on coiled baskets.</p>
-<p>Apwaruge, the eastern division of the Atsugewi, often made
-baskets of tules. These were more flexible, softer baskets than
-those made by the westerners, the Atsuge, and so there was considerable
-exchange of baskets between the two divisions of the
-Atsugewi.</p>
-<p>Atsugewi occasionally made openwork baskets from split juniper
-too, especially for low scoop-shaped, round, or oval baskets for
-fishing, root cleaning, et cetera, but as indicated earlier, willow
-ribs were used for this purpose also.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_90">90</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig73">
-<img src="images/p28.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="168" />
-<p class="pcap">(Yana) dogs ears</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig74">
-<img src="images/p28a.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="290" />
-<p class="pcap">Probably Yana House design</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig75">
-<img src="images/p28b.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="549" />
-<p class="pcap">Maidu quail tip design widely
-used but only on coiled baskets.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig76">
-<img src="images/p28c.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="323" />
-<p class="pcap">(Yana) crane&rsquo;s leg</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig77">
-<img src="images/p28d.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="77" />
-<p class="pcap">(Atsugewi) meadow lark</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig78">
-<img src="images/p28e.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="250" />
-<p class="pcap">(Achomawi)  flying geese or pine cone
-<br />(Yana)  pine cone</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig79">
-<img src="images/p28f.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="160" />
-<p class="pcap">Maidu earthworm design on a coiled basket.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig80">
-<img src="images/p28g.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="347" />
-<p class="pcap">Maidu bushes design on a coiled basket.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig81">
-<img src="images/p28h.jpg" alt="" width="348" height="601" />
-<p class="pcap">Mountain Maidu
-duck&rsquo;s-wing design
-on a coiled basketry
-plaque.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_91">91</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig82">
-<img src="images/p28j.jpg" alt="" width="396" height="394" />
-<p class="pcap">(Maidu)  diamond
-<br />(Yana)  wolf&rsquo;s eye</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig83">
-<img src="images/p28k.jpg" alt="" width="172" height="501" />
-<p class="pcap">Mountain Maidu
-eye design.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig84">
-<img src="images/p28m.jpg" alt="" width="332" height="399" />
-<p class="pcap">(Atsugewi) flint or
-arrowhead</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig85">
-<img src="images/p28n.jpg" alt="" width="342" height="294" />
-<p class="pcap">(Maidu)  watersnake (?)
-<br />(Yana)  bushes</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig86">
-<img src="images/p28p.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="133" />
-<p class="pcap">(Yana) bats</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig87">
-<img src="images/p28r.jpg" alt="" width="341" height="299" />
-<p class="pcap">Maidu design,
-probably sugar
-pine tree.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig88">
-<img src="images/p28s.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="241" />
-<p class="pcap">A continuing zig-zag arrow feather design
-widely and frequently used by Maidu in coiled
-basketry, sometimes this was combined with
-the quail tip pattern.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig89">
-<img src="images/p28t.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="295" />
-<p class="pcap">Single and double arrow point designs&mdash;the most commonly used of all
-Maidu patterns. It was relatively easy to make and very versatile.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_92">92</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig90">
-<img src="images/p29.jpg" alt="" width="414" height="208" />
-<p class="pcap">(Maidu) big tongues
-<br />(Yana)  intestines</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig91">
-<img src="images/p29a.jpg" alt="" width="570" height="248" />
-<p class="pcap">(Maidu) quail tip
-<br />(Yana)  root digger</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig92">
-<img src="images/p29c.jpg" alt="" width="296" height="232" />
-<p class="pcap">(Maidu) mountain
-<br />(Yana)  root digger hand</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig93">
-<img src="images/p29d.jpg" alt="" width="328" height="160" />
-<p class="pcap">(Maidu) earthworm
-<br />(Yana)  intestines</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig94">
-<img src="images/p29e.jpg" alt="" width="396" height="170" />
-<p class="pcap">(Maidu) earthworm
-<br />(Yana)  intestines</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig95">
-<img src="images/p29f.jpg" alt="" width="316" height="298" />
-<p class="pcap">(Maidu) mountain
-<br />(Yana) root digger hand</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig96">
-<img src="images/p29g.jpg" alt="" width="444" height="262" />
-<p class="pcap">(Achomawi) mountain or bear&rsquo;s foot
-<br />(Yana) root digger hand</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig97">
-<img src="images/p29h.jpg" alt="" width="474" height="250" />
-<p class="pcap">(Maidu) vine
-<br />(Yana) geese</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig98">
-<img src="images/p29j.jpg" alt="" width="411" height="256" />
-<p class="pcap">(Maidu) rattlesnake
-<br />(Yana)  geese</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig99">
-<img src="images/p29k.jpg" alt="" width="399" height="228" />
-<p class="pcap">(Wintun) sucker tail
-<br />(Yana)  long worms in rotten wood.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig100">
-<img src="images/p29m.jpg" alt="" width="618" height="224" />
-<p class="pcap">(Yana) wolf&rsquo;s eye</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_93">93</div>
-<p>Basket styles varied little among the several tribes of the
-Lassen region. Bottle shapes were never made until after the
-coming of white man. Cooking baskets were bowl-shaped with
-high, convexly curved sides, sometimes nearly globular in form.
-Baskets from which food was eaten individually and general utility
-baskets were similarly shaped but smaller. Boiling baskets were
-sometimes without decoration; their dimensions of height and width
-were about equal. Storage baskets also had about the same shape,
-curving less, sometimes, but were large, being three feet or more
-in size. Some were of open work, but usually they were of close
-or tight weaving.</p>
-<p>Flattish bowls or somewhat curved trays were used for food
-platters as well as for winnowing, parching, and cleaning foods by
-chafing. Some were of open weave made of willow or hazel (?) only
-while others were closely woven.</p>
-<p>Basketry acorn grinding hoppers also called milling baskets or
-pounding baskets, were usually regular twined baskets of suitable
-size and shape: wide mouthed bowl or funnel-shaped. Having no
-central point from which to start the warp, because of the open
-bottoms, hopper baskets were started by twining three pine root
-wefts about the bases of many willow warps to make a circle about
-five inches in diameter. Additional warps were built up on the
-radiating ribs, proceeding then in the normal manner of twining.
-Twined hopper baskets were usually reinforced by lashing one or
-two strong rings of willow or serviceberry withes. They might also
-be bound with buckskin along the bottom edges for improved
-strength and durability as well as to decrease loss of acorn meal
-during the pounding process. In recent years both mountain Maidu
-and Atsugewi, also used coiling technique in making hopper
-baskets, for which purpose it is well suited.</p>
-<p>A recent innovation among Atsugewi has been the covering of
-bottles with basketry and also the weaving of oblong shaped closely
-twined and coiled baskets, as well as goblet shaped creations.</p>
-<blockquote>
-<p>According to Garth, the seed beater &ldquo;... was a paddle-shaped
-implement from one and a half to two feet long with a
-willow warp and open work twining, also of willow (spaced at
-three quarters of an inch between rows) across the blade. The
-handle was wrapped either with willow strips or with
-buckskin.&rdquo;</p>
-</blockquote>
-<p>Another important use of basketry was in the construction of
-cradle boards, or more properly, basket cradles. These are generally
-known to present day Americans by the incorrect term papoose
-baskets. The cradle basket is discussed under the heading &ldquo;Birth
-and Babies&rdquo;.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_94">94</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig101">
-<img src="images/p30.jpg" alt="" width="594" height="166" />
-<p class="pcap">(Yurok) flint
-<br />(Yana) zigzagging</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig102">
-<img src="images/p30a.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="384" />
-<p class="pcap">(Maidu) quail-tip
-<br />(Yana) &ldquo;sitting up in a series&rdquo;</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig103">
-<img src="images/p30b.jpg" alt="" width="652" height="388" />
-<p class="pcap">(Maidu) vine
-<br />(Yana) &ldquo;braided&rdquo;</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig104">
-<img src="images/p30c.jpg" alt="" width="550" height="106" />
-<p class="pcap">(Yana) mussels</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig105">
-<img src="images/p30d.jpg" alt="" width="413" height="439" />
-<p class="pcap">(Maidu) earthworm
-<br />(Yana) &ldquo;braided&rdquo;</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig106">
-<img src="images/p30e.jpg" alt="" width="268" height="266" />
-<p class="pcap">(Yana) mountains</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig107">
-<img src="images/p30f.jpg" alt="" width="386" height="341" />
-<p class="pcap">(Yurok) &ldquo;sitting&rdquo;
-<br />(Yana) &ldquo;zigzagging and turning back&rdquo;</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig108">
-<img src="images/p30g.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="231" />
-<p class="pcap">(Yana) wolf&rsquo;s eye</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig109">
-<img src="images/p30h.jpg" alt="" width="362" height="228" />
-<p class="pcap">(Yana) trout or salmon tails</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig110">
-<img src="images/p30k.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="258" />
-<p class="pcap">(Yana) flint</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig111">
-<img src="images/p30m.jpg" alt="" width="546" height="274" />
-<p class="pcap">(Yana) guts</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig112">
-<img src="images/p30n.jpg" alt="" width="616" height="318" />
-<p class="pcap">(Atsugewi) skunk&rsquo;s ear</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_95">95</div>
-<p>Beautifully made basketry caps for women, finely twined, spreading
-bowl-shaped affairs were made by all tribes of the Lassen
-area. These were nicely decorated on the bottoms&mdash;or rather
-tops&mdash;as well as on the sides, a feature lacking on all other types
-of local baskets. Another unique feature of the basketry cap was
-the fact that the inside of the hat was abraded by rubbing so that
-none of the pattern remained visible because all of the overlay on
-the inside had been worn away. It is suspected that this made the
-inside of the hat less slippery on the hair so that it did not slip
-off the head so easily. Removal of the decoration from the inside
-of the basketry cap in no way altered the appearance or permanence
-of the outside decorative patterns.</p>
-<p>Mats were woven of viscid bulrush, more commonly called tule
-stalks (<i>Scirpus lacustris</i> or <i>acutus</i>). According to Voegelin,
-Atsugewi sometimes sewed these together by piercing them with
-bone needles. However the more usual method of manufacture was
-that of lashing together the ends of parallel tule stalks laid next
-to each other. This was done with double cords or strands in the
-regular simple twining manner which shows up well in the sketch
-of Atsugewi tule leggings. Such mats were extensively used as
-bed mats or mattresses, as earth wall coverings, as doorway and
-ventilator hole hangings, and so on by all of the tribes of the
-Lassen region. Mountain Maidu also employed broad-leaved cat-tail
-(<i>Typha latifolia</i>) or narrow-leaved cat-tail (<i>Typha angustifolia</i>)
-for such purposes on occasion. This tribe also appears to have
-used a string weft in making at least some of the mats.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_96">96</div>
-<h2 id="c14"><span class="small">Chapter XII</span>
-<br />TANNING, CORDAGE, AND GLUE</h2>
-<p>Mountain Maidu buried bear skins in wet ground, but hides
-generally were soaked about a week in water by local Indians.
-Mountain Maidu used ashes to help dehair skins other than deer,
-but this was not a practice common to other tribes. Stone, or more
-frequently, shaped deer rib or pelvic bones were used as dehairing
-scraper tools on skins. The hide was draped over an inclined post
-and was soaked and squeezed occasionally during the process of
-scraping.</p>
-<p>The tanning agent was a cooked soup of animal brains, particularly
-those of deer. This material might first have been mashed,
-mixed with dry moss, and then molded into small cakes for drying
-and storage. The deer brain agent was well rubbed into the cleaned,
-soaked skin. It was then allowed to soak overnight in the tanning
-solution. The next day while drying the skin in the sun, the operator
-stretched and worked the hide with his hands to make it soft
-and pliable.</p>
-<p>Among Atsugewi the skin was then smoked over a fire of moist
-rotten logs or green juniper boughs burning in a shallow pit. The
-skin was laid on a domed framework of willow branches arched
-over the fire. The hide was turned occasionally to insure uniform
-treatment. Mr. Garth believes that this smoking process was recently
-learned. It was not generally practiced by neighboring tribes,
-but produced superior buckskin which resisted stiffening as a result
-of subsequent wetting. Even Atsugewi did not smoke other skins.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig113">
-<img src="images/p31.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="568" />
-<p class="pcap">Nets. a, b, stages in net making; c, tule float; d, net shuttle.</p>
-</div>
-<p>Men did all this work as well as the hunting, skinning, and
-fashioning of garments from hides. Skins were sewn with bone
-awls and deer sinew thread which was made by rolling fine deer
-<span class="pb" id="Page_97">97</span>
-sinew strands on the thigh with the open hand.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig114">
-<img src="images/p31d.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="216" />
-<p class="pcap">Net making shuttle about fourteen
-inches long (after Dixon)</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig115">
-<img src="images/p31e.jpg" alt="" width="202" height="317" />
-<p class="pcap">The usual Maidu knot
-for nets (after Dixon)</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig116">
-<img src="images/p31f.jpg" alt="" width="231" height="800" />
-<p class="pcap">Carrying net</p>
-</div>
-<p>Like other local tribes, the Maidu used many woven skin
-blankets. These were fashioned from one inch strips of rabbit fur,
-especially, but also of the skins of wildcat, cougar, geese, or crows.
-These were not tanned so that upon drying they twisted or curled
-like the strands of a rope with the fur or feather side out. Ends
-were tied together to form a long fur or feather covered rope. This
-was wound about two poles set upright in the ground six feet or so
-apart to form the warp for the blanket. More of the same material
-was then woven up and down as weft to produce a soft and very
-warm skin blanket which was also quite durable. When bird skins
-were employed a cord core was threaded thru the center of the
-twisted strands before weaving for greater strength.</p>
-<p>Mountain Maidu also did feather work like that of the Atsugewi,
-however foothill and valley Maidu did so to a greater extent and
-of a more elaborate nature.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_98">98</div>
-<p>Willow, serviceberry, and redbud withes, and at lower elevations,
-lengths of wild grape vines were used for tying purposes.
-However, Indians also had need for strong and more versatile and
-more durable string, cord, and rope. These were usually made from
-vegetable fibers. Atsugewi and mountain Maidu used Indian hemp
-and milkweed but not nettle or iris fibers as did some other tribes.
-When mature, but before they became old and brittle, the plants
-were collected and dried, stripped of leaves, and the flesh was
-scraped and pounded off leaving the free fibers. String was made
-by placing two small bundles of fibers parallel and close together
-on the thigh of the leg. These were rolled up into two strands side
-by side with one stroke of the open hand moving either up or down
-the thigh. On the return stroke the two separate and now twisted
-strands were twisted together into one string. Stout cord was made
-by repeating the process, substituting two strings for the two
-bundles of loose fibers this time. To make rope the process
-was repeated several times, successively doubling the cordage
-product. As the cordage strands were twined together, the product
-was held in the left hand, the rolling being done by the right hand
-on the right thigh.</p>
-<p>Nets of good quality were fabricated in a variety of mesh sizes,
-the uniformity of which was controlled by use of squarish wooden
-blocks. Shuttles to hold the string for net tying were straight pieces
-of wood notched at each end and into which the strand was wrapped.
-As has been pointed out, nets were used chiefly for hunting, fishing,
-and carrying, although small nets were often worn in the hair
-by men.</p>
-<p>Adhesives were important in the economy of the Indians too.
-Pine pitch and glue made from the skins of fish were used. A
-solution of the latter was mixed by the mountain Maidu with certain
-internal organs of fish and boiled vegetable materials to improve
-the quality of their glue.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_99">99</div>
-<h2 id="c15"><span class="small">Chapter XIII</span>
-<br />TRANSPORTATION</h2>
-<p>It was the lack of transportation rather than the existence of any
-which was important to the aboriginal Americans. This was responsible
-for the degree of isolation which was required to produce
-the variety of customs and languages in most parts of the &ldquo;New
-World&rdquo;. Introduction of the horse in historic times materially
-changed the habits of Plains Indians. Likewise the somewhat
-aggressive Modoc tribe to the north of the Pit River, whose conflict
-with the whites has been memorialized in Lava Beds National
-Monument today, became mobile, even prior to the gold rush days,
-through use of the horse. As a result the Modocs made a number of
-hit and run raids upon Atsugewi and other tribes and were able to
-carry off slaves. This was not the traditional mode of warfare.</p>
-<p>Transportation among Indians was by foot or by water until recent
-times. California Indians did not use dogs as beasts of burden as
-Plains Indians did and as the Eskimos still do. Women did general
-hauling; men, however, did most of the really heavy carrying.
-Women used the conical burden basket extensively, but the men did
-not. Both sexes used the buckskin pack strap which in the case
-of mountain Maidu passed over the top of the head. Atsugewi pack
-straps went over the forehead and also over the shoulder across
-the chest. The brimless basketry cap or hat was used with the
-packstrap especially among the women. Heavy loads were frequently
-carried by men upon the shoulder; such burdens were often rolled
-in mats or animal skins.</p>
-<p>Carrying nets made of twisted fibers were commonly employed
-by men and women among local tribes. Atsugewi used a folded
-buckskin bag sewed at the edges, with a handle on top, and opening
-at the side. Yana manufactured an open-work carrying basket too.</p>
-<p>In this region loads were never carried on the head, but on
-occasion might be suspended on a pole and carried between two
-men. The mountain Maidu also used a litter for the sick, but
-Atsugewi carried sick persons in burden baskets on their backs.</p>
-<p>In rough country crude trails were sometimes built, but this was
-not a common practice. Generally trails as such were not constructed,
-but where they existed they had developed as the result of long
-use along logical routes, in much the same manner as deer and other
-game trails develop.</p>
-<p>To cross streams advantage was taken of logs which had fallen
-of natural causes. On occasion single logs were felled by burning
-to serve as bridges. Yana at lower elevations frequently had large
-streams to cross and smaller trees to utilize. Two logs might be
-felled parallel and cross sticks lashed on with grapevine for better
-footing.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_100">100</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig117">
-<img src="images/p32.jpg" alt="" width="687" height="800" />
-<p class="pcap">Boat Types of Native
-California (not to scale).
-a, Yurok (northwestern
-California) river canoe; b,
-Klamath (northeastern
-California) canoe; c, tule
-balsa.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig118">
-<img src="images/p32a.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="971" />
-<p class="pcap">Distribution of Types
-of Native California
-Boat.</p>
-</div>
-<dl class="undent pcap"><dt>a, Dugout canoe</dt>
-<dt>b, Dugout canoe</dt>
-<dt>c, Tule balsa</dt></dl>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_101">101</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig119">
-<img src="images/p32c.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="699" />
-<p class="pcap">Atsugewi dug-out canoe on Hat Creek</p>
-</div>
-<p>In swimming most Indians used a pseudo-breast stroke or swam
-on their backs with a frog style stroke. Atsugewi also did a &ldquo;dog
-paddle&rdquo; keeping arms under water. Mountain Maidu used swimming
-techniques which embraced principles like those of white man&rsquo;s
-side stroke and crawl. They jumped into the water feet first in
-preference to headfirst diving. When swimming under water to
-collect crawfish or mussels a rock was often tied loosely to the
-back.</p>
-<p>Water transportation was not of the same degree of importance
-to the tribes of the Lassen region that it was to Sacramento Valley,
-Coastal, and Northwestern Indians. Nevertheless Atsugewi used
-sharp or blunt ended canoes while that of the mountain Maidu had
-a shovel-like prow and stern. These were made from pine logs,
-usually windfalls about two feet in diameter and had a capacity of
-<span class="pb" id="Page_102">102</span>
-two to four persons. The logs were hollowed out by controlled
-burning so that the walls were an inch or two thick. Pitch was
-rubbed onto portions needing more burning. Water or mud were used
-to check burning and the charred wood was scraped out with rough
-angular stones. Local dugout canoes were rather crude affairs.
-Cracking of the wood was prevented by keeping the boats wet. They
-were propelled by an unadorned poling rod or by a single bladed
-square-ended paddle about three feet long. A raft, consisting of
-three or four logs lashed together, was used as well by all local
-tribes and propelled by poling.</p>
-<p>Atsugewi had another type of craft: the tule balsa&mdash;a five foot
-long raised prow affair made of bundles of tules lashed together.
-It might be poled or else pushed by a swimmer. Often this raft-like
-boat was towed by a rope of willow. Atsugewi occasionally ferried
-children or goods in baskets, while among mountain Maidu swimmers
-carried children on their backs and carried goods in one hand,
-raised above the water level, swimming with the other hand.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_103">103</div>
-<h2 id="c16"><span class="small">Chapter XIV</span>
-<br />DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PETS</h2>
-<p>We are apt to think of Indians, especially Plains Indians, riding
-horses as part of the natural prehistoric scene, yet this was not
-the case. Although fossil remains in the rocks show clearly
-the development of the horse over a period of several millions
-of years on this continent, the horse, the camel, and the rhinoceros&mdash;to
-mention but a few of the spectacular mammals&mdash;became
-extinct on the American continents before the advent of prehistoric
-man. American Indians had never seen a horse until the coming
-of the Spanish to the New World in 1540. Likewise domestic cattle,
-sheep, goats, and chickens were unknown to the aborigines.</p>
-<p>The dog was widely distributed, however. Some tribes had large
-as well as small dogs of a variety of colors. In the Lassen area
-the dogs were all about the size of small coyotes, mostly with fairly
-short hair, but there are some reports of long haired dogs. Typically
-the dogs had small rather erect and pointed ears. Coloration was
-chiefly fawn colored to brown. Amongst Atsugewi, dogs were
-usually quite numerous, but certain villages seem to have had only
-a few. In such cases and among the mountain Maidu, who generally
-had only few dogs, they were borrowed for hunting. Dogs were
-almost always named.</p>
-<p>Dogs served to warn their owners of the approach of strangers
-to the village or camp. Mountain Maidu taught their dogs not to
-bark, but to &ldquo;sniff&rdquo; conspicuously as a signal of stranger approach.</p>
-<p>Tribes of the Lassen area did not normally keep dogs in their
-dwelling houses. Atsugewi built separate, domed, bark-covered
-dog houses, and mountain Maidu built two kinds of shelters for
-their dogs. One was a subterranean earth-covered dog house, and
-the other a conical affair of bark slab type construction.</p>
-<p>Dogs were widely used in hunting. They were efficient in catching
-rodents and other small mammals such as ground hogs. They
-were also useful for treeing mountain lions and were adept at
-bringing down wounded deer by jumping up and seizing the deers&rsquo;
-ears.</p>
-<p>Dogs were not often eaten by tribes in this section of California.
-Upon death, dogs were not buried, but the bodies were merely thrown
-out.</p>
-<p>Upon death of the dog&rsquo;s owner, among Atsugewi, the dog was
-retained by the widow, but among mountain Maidu the dog was suspended
-in a tree because &ldquo;It makes dog&rsquo;s spirit glad&rdquo;! Although
-<span class="pb" id="Page_104">104</span>
-not being generally considered in this account, it is curious that
-among Modoc and eastern Achomawi dogs were burned at the deaths
-of their owners.</p>
-<p>Bear cubs were commonly kept. Atsugewi also kept fawns and
-other small mammals as pets. Birds of various sorts were kept by
-certain tribes. Atsugewi plucked or cut wings of birds, especially
-of eagles whose feathers were prized for arrow making, and for
-ceremonial and decorative purposes.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_105">105</div>
-<h2 id="c17"><span class="small">Chapter XV</span>
-<br />CLOTHING</h2>
-<p>The members of all tribes, especially the Yana and Yahi, went
-bareheaded much of the time. However, basketry caps nearly
-hemispherical in shape and of fine tightly twined weave were worn
-regularly by Indian women. The caps were probably worn to prevent
-chafing of the pack straps originally, but Atsugewi women wore
-them most of the time. Such hats were well decorated with overlaid
-designs typical of the tribes under consideration. Those of Yana
-and Yahi were usually of tule with black and white overlay.
-Mountain Maidu made some coiled basketry caps, not infrequently
-employing tules or reeds.</p>
-<p>Men of all our tribes wore fur headbands on occasion and among
-Atsugewi, fur or buckskin caps too, especially in winter, when
-shallow bucket shaped skin hats of coyote, raccoon, mink and the
-like afforded protection against the rather intense cold.</p>
-<p>Eyeshades attached to a band around the head were worn by
-some Yana women so as not to see their sons-in-law! Atsugewi
-men and possibly others might wear side blinds when spearing fish
-at night to keep torch light out of their eyes.</p>
-<p>Children up to about six years of age ran about naked, and often
-the older men and women did likewise, particularly among the
-Maidu.</p>
-<p>Buckskin dresses were worn to some extent by the women of
-most local tribes. The mountain Maidu dress was tied at both
-shoulders and tied or belted at the waist. The garment was provided
-with flaps over the upper arms but lacked sleeves. Buckskin
-dresses were worn by some Indian women rich in worldly goods,
-and usually for special occasions. Recent buckskin dresses, of
-course, are sewn on sewing machines, neatly tailored, and follow
-the general pattern of the conventional dress, including regular
-sleeves.</p>
-<p>In normal everyday garb Indian women were naked above the
-waist. A wrap-around skirt, or, more frequently two narrow or wide
-aprons were worn. Sometimes one apron went around the hips, being
-tied in back and provided with a buckskin flap which covered the
-wearer&rsquo;s buttocks. The Indian women&rsquo;s aprons were commonly made
-of shredded incense-cedar, willow, or juniper bark, or of tules. In
-the case of Yana and Yahi women, frequently grass or shredded,
-spring-gathered, broad-leaf maple bark were used. The latter was
-a favorite valley Maidu skirt material. The double aprons might
-however be made of whole buckskin or of strips or cords of buckskin,
-and in winter furs might be used for the purpose. The double
-apron is recognized as the standard garb of California Indian
-women. That of the Maidu was often very narrow, being not much
-more than a front and a rear tassel.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_106">106</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig120">
-<img src="images/p33.jpg" alt="" width="812" height="776" />
-<p class="pcap">A beautiful old Shasta buckskin
-woman&rsquo;s wrap-around
-apron ornamented with tan,
-black, and red vegetable fiber
-bound slitting in the manner
-of coarse modern hemstitching,
-with strings of olivella shells
-and shaped abalone pendants,
-and finished on the bottom
-with long buckskin fringes.
-The garment is much like the
-more pretentious aprons
-described for Atsugewi.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig121">
-<img src="images/p33a.jpg" alt="" width="492" height="796" />
-<p class="pcap">Detail of ornamentation on the Shasta buckskin apron</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig122">
-<img src="images/p33b.jpg" alt="" width="193" height="590" />
-<p class="pcap">Mountain Maidu woman&rsquo;s
-tassel-type of shredded
-bark apron, about twenty
-two inches long. Some such
-aprons were considerably
-wider (after Dixon).</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_107">107</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig123">
-<img src="images/p33f.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="592" />
-<p class="pcap">Woman&rsquo;s basketry cap probably Atsugewi or Shasta. Note the design
-placed on top as well as on the sides of the basket, in contrast to other
-types of baskets. The bottoms of which are devoid both of design and
-overlay materials and so present an unadorned pine-root surface.</p>
-</div>
-<p>Women&rsquo;s casual aprons and other clothing were not highly
-ornamented, but &ldquo;dress-up&rdquo; clothes might be fairly elaborately
-trimmed. Fringing of buckskin, spangles of shell money and ornaments,
-strings of shell beads, pine nuts, deer hoofs, and special
-white grass fringes commonly decorated their better clothes.</p>
-<p>In the summer some men, and particularly old ones wore nothing
-at all. Most others wore very little clothing besides a sort of loin
-covering of buckskin or fur which went between the legs and was
-held in place back and front by a belt about the waist. A crude
-buckskin shirt without sleeves was sometimes used.</p>
-<p>During winter above aprons, skirts, or loin covering other garments
-were worn. Then men commonly wore the sleeveless buckskin
-shirt. Both sexes usually wore robes of woven rabbit skins (usually
-imported by the Atsugewi), or made of deer or bear fur and worn
-with the hair side inside. Or else the robes were of a patchwork
-<span class="pb" id="Page_108">108</span>
-of small mammal skins sewn together. These same robes were
-frequently used for bedding at night. As a matter of fact almost
-any sort of skins available might be used as robes. These were
-tied on in a variety of ways. The wearers must have presented a
-rather motley appearance. On occasion small poncho style robes
-with a central hole for the head and neck clothed the upper bodies
-of local Indians during cold weather.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig124">
-<img src="images/p34.jpg" alt="" width="454" height="700" />
-<p class="pcap">Atsugewi fringed buckskin dress of
-pioneer period</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig125">
-<img src="images/p34a.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="572" />
-<p class="pcap">An Atsugewi legging made of lashing
-tules together with a simple twining
-stitch</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig126">
-<img src="images/p34g.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="264" />
-<p class="pcap">Maidu buckskin moccasin
-about eleven inches long
-(after Dixon)</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_109">109</div>
-<p>Thumbless mittens were made of cased skins of weasels, rats
-or small cottontail rabbits and tied at the wrist with a thong.
-Atsugewi also utilized their fur-lined quivers as muffs when
-hunting.</p>
-<p>California Indians spent much of the time barefoot, but wore
-buckskin moccasins at war, on long hunts or journeys. Different
-styles were made by each of the local tribes. None, however, were
-normally decorated. Mountain Maidu also made moccasins of fur
-with the hair side in, and Atsugewi stuffed pounded grass or grass
-into their footwear or wore grass or tule slippers inside their
-moccasins during the winter. Maidu put soft grass or sedges in
-their moccasins for added warmth. An extra sole of tougher leather
-such as elkskin was sometimes sewn onto the moccasin, but this
-was not customary.</p>
-<p>Occasionally open sandals held on by three or four thongs were
-worn by Atsugewi and Yana.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig127">
-<img src="images/p34h.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="799" />
-<p class="pcap">Maidu snowshoe with
-raw-hide lashings</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig128">
-<img src="images/p34m.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="467" />
-<p class="pcap">Snowshoe of about eighteen inches in
-diameter (after Dixon)</p>
-</div>
-<p>Knee length leggings of various materials were common in
-winter. These were tied on with buckskin strips at ankle and knee.
-Yana used hip-length pantleg type leggings held on with waist
-<span class="pb" id="Page_110">110</span>
-bands. Atsugewi sometimes employed fur pieces, twined tule, or
-spiral wrap-around fur strip leggings. Maidu used deerhide leggings
-with the hair side inside. These went from ankles to above the
-knees where they were tied, and were held close to the leg by an
-outside spirally wound thong from top to bottom.</p>
-<p>Snowshoes were a necessity too in the rigorous climate of even
-the lower portions of the areas inhabited by tribes of the Lassen
-area, particularly in those of the Atsugewi and mountain Maidu.
-Snowshoes of the former Indians were circular in plan; those of the
-latter were oval. Snowshoes were fashioned from small green
-wooden limbs shaped while hot, and then crisscrossed with strips
-of buckskin or hide with the fur side down for better traction.
-Atsugewi used green juniper limbs for the purpose. Since the whole
-foot was bound firmly to this footgear, there was no heel play as
-in the case of white mans&rsquo; snowshoes.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_111">111</div>
-<h2 id="c18"><span class="small">Chapter XVI</span>
-<br />BEAUTY AND PERSONAL GROOMING</h2>
-<blockquote>
-<p>Of Atsugewi standards of beauty Garth states: &ldquo;The ideal
-woman was short but plump and solidly built so that she could
-do much work. A slim woman was considered too weak, and
-a very tall woman was made fun of and called lohkata (stick
-woman). Heavy breasts, a straight slim nose, large eyes,
-long black hair, and small feet were all admirable qualities.
-A girl with big feet was likely to be lazy, also a small foot
-was desirable because it would not take so large a moccasin.
-A mother pressed her girl child&rsquo;s foot together to make it
-slender. The ideal man was of average height and was heavy
-set. If a child had a flat nose, his mother pinched it and tried
-to give it a higher bridge. Bow legs, it was said, might be
-straightened by the mother when the child was young. Also
-a child&rsquo;s ears were pressed against his head; if the ears stood
-out, this was thought to indicate poor hearing. A slim hand
-indicated a lazy person; a short stubby hand signified a good
-worker.&rdquo;</p>
-</blockquote>
-<p>Garth also comments to the effect that evidently the ideals of
-Indian beauty had a very practical basis. The same general criteria
-of beauty and desirability of women seem to have prevailed among
-the other tribes of this region also, but Yana preferred a rather flat
-and broad faced feminine beauty.</p>
-<p>The hair of both men and women among California Indians was
-generally worn long. The tribes of the Lassen area were no exception.
-However, bangs on the forehead were known. Boys and girls
-let their hair hang loosely, except that Atsugewi sometimes cut
-small boys&rsquo; hair short to make it grow better later.</p>
-<p>Women usually parted their hair in the middle wearing it in two
-hanks, one hanging in front of each shoulder. Each was tied with
-a piece of rawhide. Women of Yana tribes often used strips of otter
-or mink fur for the purpose as did some Atsugewi. Yana women
-might add further decoration in the form of a small string of shell
-beads. Atsugewi women might paint their scalps at the part in the
-hair with red paint.</p>
-<p>The male Indian tied his hair in a bunch which hung down the
-back. All local tribes, except mountain Maidu, seem also to have
-frequently used a small mesh hairnet made of plant fibers with a
-buckskin band to hold a man&rsquo;s hair in a sort of roll at the back of
-his head. Maidu called the net wee-kah. In preparation for war or
-<span class="pb" id="Page_112">112</span>
-for the hunt Yana men coiled their hair on their heads with well
-defined top knots. For dances and other special events, male
-Maidu and Yana, if rich, wore mesh bonnets thickly covered with
-white eagle down feathers tied in so that the net strands were not
-visible. Bone hairpins were sometimes used among Yana and
-mountain Maidu men.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig129">
-<img src="images/p35.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="822" />
-<p class="pcap">Men&rsquo;s hair net type of cap worn by adult males of all Lassen area
-tribes, the wearer&rsquo;s long hair being piled on top of the head when worn
-as in upper sketch (after Dixon) with the loose excess net allowed to
-fall straight down behind.</p>
-</div>
-<dl class="undent pcap"><dt><i>NET</i></dt>
-<dt><i>BUCKSKIN</i></dt>
-<dt><i>DRAWSTRING</i></dt>
-<dt><i>CORD</i></dt></dl>
-<p>Adults cut their hair off with stone knives to show grief and
-mourning when relatives died. Both men and women cropped their
-hair closely, but mountain Maidu women sometimes only trimmed it
-off to shoulder length. Singeing instead of cutting the hair was
-sometimes resorted to.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_113">113</div>
-<p>For combing the hair, Atsugewi might use a single stick, a pine
-cone, or a teasle burr. Mountain Maidu might use stiff pine needles,
-but the item most commonly used by all tribes for the purpose was
-the porcupine tail. The animal&rsquo;s tail was skinned out, stuffed with
-grass, and sewed shut at the open end. Sharp ends of the porcupine
-quills were blunted with hot stones.</p>
-<p>Hair was not dyed in this region. It was, however, rubbed with
-animal fat or bone marrow to make it look nicer by aboriginal
-standards. Atsugewi are said to have perfumed their hair on occasion
-with aromatic plant foliage. Hair and body lice were not
-uncommon; these were hunted and removed by hand. Maidu washed
-their hair frequently with common soaproot (<i>Chlorogalum pomeridianum</i>).</p>
-<p>Faces of adults were painted for a number of occasions. Black
-was used to some extent by both sexes to prevent sunburn and
-snow-blindness if long exposure in the bright sun were expected.
-Although Yana men and women used red and white paint when
-dancing, among our other tribes face paint was used chiefly by men
-for dances and ceremonies.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig130">
-<img src="images/p35d.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="516" />
-<p class="pcap">Porcupine tail comb about ten inches long (after Dixon)</p>
-</div>
-<p>Paint pigments were mixed with animal fat, especially deer
-grease, or with marrow and applied with the fingers. It was smeared
-on upper arms, legs, chest, and cheeks. Atsugewi and mountain
-Maidu blackened their eyebrows. Red pigment was either red soil,
-usually roasted or burned to make the color brighter, or the spores
-from a fungus which grows on the bark of fir trees. The fungus
-<span class="pb" id="Page_114">114</span>
-material was dried over a slow fire to prepare it for use. Black
-pigment was universally charcoal. Ashes were not used as white
-pigment. Students of local tribes state that chalk was employed
-for white paint. However, chalk is lacking in the Lassen vicinity
-and it is highly probable that the suitable and readily available
-white diatomaceous earth deposits were used for this purpose
-instead. Atsugewi also used blue color which was obtained in
-rock form by trade with their northern Pit River or Achomawi
-neighbors.</p>
-<p>The light beards which started to grow on male Indians&rsquo; faces
-were universally removed completely by plucking with the fingers.</p>
-<p>Earlobe and nose piercing was generally practiced by both
-sexes. Among Atsugewi rims of their ears as well as the lobes
-were perforated in some instances.</p>
-<p>Tattooing was occasionally done by Yana, but not as commonly
-as among Atsugewi where women not infrequently wore tattooed
-vertical lines across their mouths. Both sexes commonly tattooed
-their cheeks with horizontal lines or with two or three lines radiating
-from the corners of the mouth. Arms and legs were also
-tattooed to a certain extent. The mutilation was done by rubbing
-charcoal into cuts which had been made with stone knives or by
-rubbing charcoal on the skin and then pricking it with bone awls
-or porcupine quills. However, even among Atsugewi, tattooing was
-by no means universal. Mountain Maidu women were sometimes
-tattooed with three, five, or seven vertical lines on the chin.</p>
-<p>Earrings were worn by nearly all men and women. Atsugewi
-employed bone rings, clamshell beads, feathers and even painted
-ear ornaments. Mountain Maidu and Yana usually used bone or
-wooden ones, plain or decorated with feathers or shells. Abalone,
-like other sea shells, were received only in trade and were
-fashioned into pendants for ears or noses.</p>
-<p>Nose piercing consisted of making a hole through the septum
-of the nose. This practice was popular among all local tribes. It
-was done to permit the wearing of jewelry although Yana ascribed
-a deeper meaning to the custom as well. They believed that no
-person would go to his equivalent of heaven unless the nose
-septum was pierced. Hence this was done to the dead and a stick
-inserted if it had not been done in life. Two-pointed bone nose-pins
-were popular inserts as were long narrow dentalium shells,
-or nose pendants of beads. Only among mountain Maidu were nose
-ornaments highly decorated.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_115">115</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig131">
-<img src="images/p36.jpg" alt="" width="684" height="503" />
-<p class="pcap">Portion of Atsugewi (probably)
-necklace of dentalium shells (one
-and one fourth inches long) and glass
-trader beads.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig132">
-<img src="images/p36a.jpg" alt="" width="543" height="252" />
-<p class="pcap">Maidu necklaces: bear claw and
-insect perforated acorn.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig133">
-<img src="images/p36d.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="427" />
-<p class="pcap">Atsugewi necklace of clamshell
-disks and digger pine
-nuts which are a full half
-inch long.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_116">116</div>
-<p>Necklaces were common adornments too, but local tribes did
-not use bracelets. Items used for necklaces were perhaps bear
-teeth and bear claws among Atsugewi and Yana. More commonly,
-certainly, and used by all of our tribes were olivella shells, shaped
-pieces of abalone shells, small animal and bird bone rings or tubes,
-clamshell discs, long tooth-shells (dentalia), and Digger Pine
-nuts which had been parched until blackened. Their ends had then
-been rubbed off or holes bored through ends or sides and cleaned
-out. Yana also made mussel shell disks locally, not only for necklaces
-but as ear pendants. In later years all tribes used glass
-trader beads, usually interspersed with native items.</p>
-<p>Maidu, especially their tribes of the lower elevations, went in for
-elaborate feather decorations and headdresses. Valley Maidu even
-had feather cloaks for ceremonial use.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_117">117</div>
-<h2 id="c19"><span class="small">Chapter XVII</span>
-<br />WEALTH</h2>
-<p>Among local tribes wealth was the direct result of skill and
-industry and was highly regarded by all. A person&rsquo;s social status
-in the tribe varied directly with his wealth. Lazy persons not able
-to properly care for their own needs were considered as bums and
-looked down upon by all other members of the village. With wealth
-went a certain amount of power. Chiefs, although empowered by
-heritage, were always well to do, and the wealthiest men in smaller
-units acted in the capacity of head-men.</p>
-<p>As with modern man, money among Indians was an arbitrary
-medium of exchange, yet it was of more practical value to the
-Indians than our own coins are to us. Their money was prized not
-only for what it would buy in material things, but as possessing
-important decorative value as well.</p>
-<p>The long tooth-shell or dentalium was used whole and unmodified.
-It was the currency of the northwest California coast. The
-money of central and southern California was the clamshell disk.
-This was cut, smoothed into disk shapes about half an inch in diameter,
-and each was perforated with a central hole by means of
-which this money could be strung onto cords. In no case did local
-tribes travel the California coast to obtain these shell coins. Instead,
-this item found its way to Indians of the interior through
-progressive or step-by-step trading from coastal tribes through intermediate
-aboriginal traders.</p>
-<p>As we might expect, dentalia, having a northern origin, were
-secured by Atsugewi not from their neighbors to the south, but from
-the northern Yana in exchange for buckskins, arrows, wildcat skin
-quivers, and woodpecker scalps. The mountain Maidu did not have
-dentalia at all.</p>
-<p>Except for the central Yana custom of measuring the length of
-strings of clamshell disks, amounts of money were determined by
-counting and not by measuring length on arm tatoos as was so
-commonly the case in other parts of California. Skins of small
-mammals which had been skinned by making only one slit in the
-hind quarters and whose mouth openings had been tied shut, served
-as purses.</p>
-<p>All of our tribes used clamshell money. Among Yana clamshell
-disks were not as valuable as dentalia, and they were more common
-also among Atsugewi, the dentalia being used more for decoration
-than as money. The tribes of the Lassen region generally received
-<span class="pb" id="Page_118">118</span>
-the finished clamshell money; almost never did they manufacture
-this, although they did work traded abalone shell into jewelry
-pieces.</p>
-<p>Material wealth or treasure other than weapons, skins, baskets,
-and food also consisted largely of imported seashells. Whole
-olivella shells were commonly used as dress ornaments and also
-for paying shamans for services. Bone cylinders, columellae of
-shells, and especially polished cylinders of the mineral magnesite
-were highly prized. These might be used as the central piece of
-a necklace in the same manner that we might utilize a precious
-gem.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_119">119</div>
-<h2 id="c20"><span class="small">Chapter XVIII</span>
-<br />CEREMONIAL DRESS</h2>
-<p>All local tribes used the beautiful salmon colored feathers of
-the Red-shafted Flicker, a woodpecker also known to us by the
-name Yellowhammer. A headband of the bird&rsquo;s feathers&mdash;the stiff
-quills&mdash;was worn on the forehead. Mountain Maidu doctors wore
-this item also as a belt. In addition Atsugewi made a full feather
-band which was worn in a variety of ways including hanging down
-the back. This was usually used only by the shamans.</p>
-<p>Another ceremonial item was the California or Acorn Woodpecker
-scalp headband. This usually had a buckskin strap base, however,
-mountain Maidu glued these gay feathered patches onto fur bands,
-Yana wore woodpecker scalps on buckskin as belts.</p>
-<p>Mountain Maidu made belts of bands on which the showy greenish
-feathered neck skins of male Mallard Ducks in mating plumage
-were strung.</p>
-<p>For ceremonial use it was generally customary to tuck small
-tufts of feathers into the top of the hair. Among Atsugewi, chiefs
-only used eagle feathers for this purpose. This tribe also fastened
-single feathers into the crown of buckskin caps in a radiating
-manner, and also onto strips hanging down the back. Sometimes
-feathers were tipped with small white feathers to make the former
-even more decorative. Feathers were also fastened to head nets
-in a number of ways which differed somewhat among our tribes.
-Among Atsugewi, women wore these on occasion, but generally it
-was the males who decked themselves with feathers. Feather
-plumes of various sorts, employing either twisted buckskin or stick
-bodies, were also in general use.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_120">120</div>
-<h2 id="c21"><span class="small">Chapter XIX</span>
-<br />TOBACCO AND SMOKING</h2>
-<p>The knowledge and use of tobacco are among the important
-elements which our own culture of today has inherited from the
-Indians of North America. Of what benefit this has been is a debatable
-matter, but its effect has been profound, both on our customs
-and our economy.</p>
-<p>Local tribes used simple one piece wooden pipes of tubular
-design for the most part in smoking tobacco. Atsugewi and mountain
-Maidu commonly employed elder and other woods with a pithy
-and easily removed center. Although not otherwise being considered
-in this account, the Shasta Indian technique of pipe making is
-mentioned here because of its uniqueness. These folks hollowed
-pipe stems by soaking the end of a suitable stick in salmon oil.
-The larvae of the salmon fly were then introduced, and these worm-like
-creatures, eating the nourishing fishy core, would bore their
-ways lengthwise through the center of the heartwood where most
-of the salmon oil was concentrated. The Yana habitually used the
-wood of ash as pipe stock. Mountain Maidu found but did not manufacture
-a few simple stone pipe bowls also of tubular design. These
-had considerable spiritual significance and were treated with great
-care. Garth states that Atsugewi also had short stone pipes,
-tubular in shape, to which elder or rose wood extensions up to
-eleven inches in length were applied. Stone pipes were apparently
-not common in the Lassen region, however.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig134">
-<img src="images/p37.jpg" alt="" width="573" height="410" />
-<p class="pcap">Steatite stone pipes were used without wooden stems, each between
-three and four inches long. The holes in such pipes were made by
-tapping a deer antler piece in the depression containing some sand,
-a slow but effective boring process. This was commonly done by
-Valley tribes.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_121">121</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig135">
-<img src="images/p37a.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="613" />
-<p class="pcap">Yana reddish porous lava
-(dacite?) pipe, broken half,
-both sides shown. Note
-funnel-shaped depression
-in the bottom of the outside
-(lower half)</p>
-</div>
-<p>Pipes were used at social gatherings, after sweating, and at
-bed time. The pipes of the local tribes did not have any bends or
-curves. These straight tubular pipes were therefore most conveniently
-smoked when the Indians were reclining on their backs
-thus keeping the tobacco from falling out. Pipes were normally
-passed around, and used only by the men. However, women shamans
-of the mountain Maidu also smoked them. Shamans regularly used
-pipe smoking in ceremonies, especially when healing the sick.</p>
-<p>Tobacco grew wild and burning of brush was performed in certain
-localities to promote the growth of <i>Nicotiana</i> plants. Tobacco
-was not cultivated, but mountain Maidu did collect and scatter
-seeds in favorable areas. Tobacco was prepared merely by collecting
-the leaves when fully developed but still green, then drying,
-preferably in the shade, and finally crumbling the cured leaf in the
-hand. Tobacco was carried in buckskin pouches usually. Atsugewi
-often added manzanita and deer grease to their smoking tobacco.
-Indians of this region did not chew tobacco nor did they eat it with
-lime as was the custom elsewhere in California. Native tobacco
-is quite strong.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_122">122</div>
-<h2 id="c22"><span class="small">Chapter XX</span>
-<br />MUSIC AND ART</h2>
-<p>Music of local tribes was limited indeed. It was usually made
-by men. Only Atsugewi among the Lassen tribes possessed the
-drum, and this is believed to have been of recent introduction. It
-was a tambourine type: flat, cylindrical, a foot or so across, and
-with buckskin shrunken over one end.</p>
-<p>The shamans of all tribes used cocoon rattles. These were
-made of large cocoons from which the moth pupae had been removed
-through a small hole. Pebbles or seeds were then inserted and
-usually five or six cocoons&mdash;among Atsugewi as many as thirty&mdash;were
-tied onto the end of a wooden handle and dried. Cocoon
-rattles were considered dangerous and were usually kept hidden out
-of doors, being used by shamans only when doctoring.</p>
-<p>A single split stick clapper was employed generally for all types
-of singing and dancing, not being reserved for any special type of
-person or ceremony.</p>
-<p>Deer-hoof rattles were made from the small hard &ldquo;dew-claws&rdquo;
-from the backs of deer legs. About twenty dew-claws were tied
-loosely with thongs to a strip of buckskin which was then wrapped
-about a stick with a plain handle. The deer-hoof rattle was operated
-by vigorously jerking it lengthwise, in and out. It was used
-exclusively in the important puberty rites when girls attained
-womanhood.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig136">
-<img src="images/p38.jpg" alt="" width="286" height="534" />
-<p class="pcap">Deer-hoof rattle, length
-about ten inches (after
-Dixon)</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_123">123</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig137">
-<img src="images/p38d.jpg" alt="" width="154" height="1102" />
-<p class="pcap">Maidu split-stick
-clapper, twenty
-inches long</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig138">
-<img src="images/p38e.jpg" alt="" width="210" height="404" />
-<p class="pcap">Maidu cocoon rattle
-eight inches long</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig139">
-<img src="images/p38f.jpg" alt="" width="100" height="470" />
-<p class="pcap">Maidu bird-bone
-whistles</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig140">
-<img src="images/p38g.jpg" alt="" width="184" height="462" />
-<p class="pcap">Atsugewi deer-claw rattle</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig141">
-<img src="images/p38h.jpg" alt="" width="78" height="504" />
-<p class="pcap">Universal split-stick dancing
-rattle</p>
-</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig142">
-<img src="images/p38m.jpg" alt="" width="112" height="412" />
-<p class="pcap">Maidu cocoon rattle</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_124">124</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig143">
-<img src="images/p39.jpg" alt="" width="677" height="284" />
-<p class="pcap">Flute and bull-roarer of local manufacture</p>
-</div>
-<p>Atsugewi and Yana employed hunting bows as musical instruments
-by holding one end in the mouth and plucking the string with
-fingers. Mountain Maidu did so too, but like the others only for
-their own amusement.</p>
-<p>Bone, cane, and elder whistles were blown at dances. Flutes,
-the most tuneful of Indians&rsquo; instruments, were not played at ceremonies
-or at dances, curiously enough, but just for self amusement,
-or in the case of mountain Maidu also for courting pretty girls. Flute
-melodies were supposed to tell stories, but words were not sung
-to help the interpretation. Yana made a six-hole flute; other tribes
-of the Lassen area used a four hole model. In all cases they were
-open, reedless instruments blown at an angle across one end. The
-flute was most frequently made of elder wood&mdash;mountain Maidu
-burned the holes into it with live coals.</p>
-<p>Except for basketry designs art as such is virtually non-existent.
-A few simple designs were painted onto hunting bows, and some
-nose and ear pendants might be considered jewelry art forms, but
-of the lowest development. The application of face and body paints
-and tattooing were also simple examples of Indian art.</p>
-<p>There appear to be no cliff or cave paintings in the vicinity of
-Lassen Peak, but they are abundant in Lava Beds National Monument
-about 75 miles to the north. A different matter is that of
-petroglyphs which, in California, usually have been made by striking
-or pecking smooth rock surfaces with small hard stones. Some of
-these are to be found in the Atsugewi and central Yana territories
-at lower elevation. However, these symbolic markings were not
-executed by the local tribes. Atsugewi believe them to have been
-made by mythological characters. It appears that the petroglyphs
-must have been made by the predecessors of the Hat Creek and
-Nozi Indians, for these people claim no knowledge of even the
-meaning of the rock writings. Shortly before going to press the
-<span class="pb" id="Page_125">125</span>
-first petroglyph known to come from the Lassen vicinity was found
-in the territory of the Southern Yana. The site is one where numerous
-obsidian chips and arrowpoints have been found on a gently
-south sloping, open forested portion of Lassen Volcanic National
-Park headquarters area at an elevation of almost 5000 feet and
-situated slightly west of the village of Mineral and just north of
-the north edge of Battle Creek Meadow.</p>
-<p>This find on a 10 inch boulder appears to be of ancient origin.
-The surface has weathered considerably yet not so much that the
-character of the carving has been altered. It is apparent that the
-quarter inch deep grooves have been made by rubbing rather than
-by pecking with hard rocks. This is all the more interesting since
-the boulder bearing the carving is of a tough hard and site lava.
-It is indeed unfortunate that the significance of this Battle Creek
-Meadows petroglyph is unknown. The authorities venture the
-opinion that the stone may have been used in puberty ceremonies.
-If so, whether by the Southern Yana or their predecessors we do
-not know either.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig144">
-<img src="images/p39a.jpg" alt="" width="688" height="508" />
-<p class="pcap">Battle Creek Meadows petroglyph about nine inches long. The eye-shaped
-area A is a smooth flat one eighth of an inch below the level of the rest
-of the rock surface. The grooves bounding it are more than one quarter
-inch deep and of V-shaped cross-section while the other markings are
-much shallower troughs with rounded bottoms some being quite vague. B,
-C, D, and E indicate deeper rounded depressions. F is a smooth and very
-uniform slightly concave area.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_126">126</div>
-<h2 id="c23"><span class="small">Chapter XXI</span>
-<br />GAMES AND SOCIAL GATHERINGS</h2>
-<p>Heavy betting on games was the rule. Games were commonly
-played between neighboring villages or even on occasion with
-neighboring tribes. Gambling was an important element in these
-contests and large sums were bet. Sometimes nearly all of a
-person&rsquo;s or even of a group&rsquo;s possessions were at stake.
-Evaluation of the stakes in white man&rsquo;s terms is difficult, but they
-are said frequently to have been of the order of several hundred
-dollars or even as much as a thousand dollars. Important games
-lasted more than one day&mdash;perhaps three or four days. The players
-caught brief rests only and were completely exhausted by the
-time the playing was over. Singing was the usual accompaniment
-and high quality rendition at games was much admired. Cheating was
-rare, maybe because it was supposed to bring subsequent bad luck.</p>
-<p>Most games were guessing games. There was considerable
-variety in the character and number of gambling stones or wooden
-sticks used, the manner of shuffling and other details. The sticks
-were shuffled and then concealed in the hands of one or several
-players on one side. The opposition had to determine the location
-of the marked stick or the arrangement of several. There were
-many spectators and excitement ran high. Women occasionally
-participated along with the men who were the main contestants.
-Counting sticks might be supplied to each side in equal number at
-the beginning. More often, however, the sticks were all placed in
-a common pile at the outset, the successful side taking a counting
-stick with each win. These scoring sticks were taken and surrendered
-as the tide of the game changed until one side had all.
-The game was won at this point.</p>
-<p>Ball games were played too. The ball was of buckskin stuffed
-with hair. The object was to kick the ball between the other team&rsquo;s
-goal posts. Kicking ball races over given courses and back, or
-around a lake shore, were also indulged in. In some contests the
-men and youths on opposing sides would engage in restraining each
-other so that a number of individual or group wrestling bouts
-developed on the playing field.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig145">
-<img src="images/p40.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="125" />
-<p class="pcap">Yana gambling bone, four inches long</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_127">127</div>
-<p>There were foot races of distances either short or up to fifteen
-miles or so in length. Also archery contests and wrestling matches
-were held. In wrestling the object was to throw the opponent to
-the ground; tripping was not allowed. Contests in which heavy
-rocks were tossed, somewhat in the manner of today&rsquo;s shot-put,
-and heavier rocks carried in competition over a designated line
-were other games in which the Atsugewi engaged.</p>
-<p>Shinny was played by women and children as well as by men,
-but adult sexes played separately in all of our tribes except Yana.
-Among them only men participated in this game. Mountain Maidu
-had three players on a side; Atsugewi had five players. Straight
-shinny sticks curved at the striking end were used and the puck
-was a hide affair. Mountain Maidu used a double ball puck. An
-attempt was made to keep the puck in the air in play. The object,
-of course, was to get the puck to go between the opponents&rsquo; goal
-posts. The Yana used a puck of two bones linked by a string
-several inches long. Running with the puck on the stick as well
-as hitting, and throwing it down the field were permitted.</p>
-<p>Children improvised a number of games in the
-same manner as our own children do today in copying
-their parents. They played house with limbless
-but dressed dolls, made and used toy bows and
-arrows, and made sling shots, too. They commonly
-tried juggling two stones in one hand, spun acorn
-tops by hand, and in some instances noise makers
-such as wooden buzzers and bull roarers were
-used. In play, loud noise was not condoned, however.</p>
-<p>Small feasts might occur at any time and were
-perhaps the most important social gatherings of
-Atsugewi. They were usually sparked by a temporary
-abundance of food. Dancing was not included.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig146">
-<img src="images/p40a.jpg" alt="" width="154" height="499" />
-<p class="pcap">Child&rsquo;s
-acorn top</p>
-</div>
-<p>Mr. Garth describes the Atsugewi &ldquo;... grand occasion
-... held only when a large supply of food had been accumulated,
-was the bagapi or &lsquo;big time&rsquo;.... The chief called a
-meeting to decide on the date and then sent his people to
-various places for deer and other foods. Knotted strings
-(rokuki) with a knot tied for each intervening day before the
-festival were sent to other villages. By untying a knot each
-day other chieftains knew when to start for the host&rsquo;s village.
-The host chief stood on the roof of his earth lodge and
-welcomed the visitor, calling each chief by name: &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t fall
-<span class="pb" id="Page_128">128</span>
-down. Step carefully. I&rsquo;m glad you have come to see me.
-Don&rsquo;t be in a hurry.&rsquo;... Toward evening the visitors might
-give a dance, after which the host chief called everyone to
-eat. Large baskets containing acorn mush, meat, sunflower
-seeds, and other foods were placed on the ground. The host
-proffered baskets of food to each visiting chief who in turn
-then distributed the food to his people. In winter two tribal
-groups on opposite sides of the sweat house might have a
-competitive sweat dance, vying to see which could endure the
-heat longest. In summer the sweating was usually omitted,
-and games of chance were begun. In the several days that
-followed, foot racing, archery, weight lifting, and other contests
-were indulged in. Large bets were made by opposing
-sides on the outcome of each contest, and the losing side at
-the end of the week&rsquo;s festivities often had little property left.
-Surplus food was divided among the guests before they
-departed.&rdquo;</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_129">129</div>
-<h2 id="c24"><span class="small">Chapter XXII</span>
-<br />DANCES</h2>
-<p>Mountain Maidu had more dances and more types of dances than
-other tribes of the Lassen area. Tribes of the Sacramento Valley
-had many more and more complicated dance ceremonies than ours
-did.</p>
-<p>Mountain Maidu had formalized sweat dances which were performed
-inside large dwelling lodges at night and were participated
-in by both sexes. As in the case of Yana, only one man, the leader,
-sang and hit the central pole rhythmically with a split stick rattle.
-The dancers performed simultaneously but in one spot until they
-were exhausted and took a cold swim afterwards.</p>
-<p>Of the less ceremonial Atsugewi sweat dance, Garth states:</p>
-<blockquote>
-<p>&ldquo;... Men danced naked except for circlets ... of
-twisted grass around the waist, head and upper arm, and occasionally
-from one shoulder diagonally across the chest....
-Three or four lines of black or white paint might be drawn
-across the chest and upper arm. Women wore a skirt and only
-a small amount of paint. The dancing took place in the combination
-sweat, dance, and dwelling house of the chief or head
-man.... The fire was built high with dry mountain mahogany
-..., pine ..., and sometimes with willow ..., all
-woods which burned without much smoke; the ventilator door
-was closed and the dance began. The one singer sat in a
-corner and beat time with a split stick rattle.... Each of ten
-or twelve dancers might approach close to the fire to show
-his ability to endure heat, pick up burning brands, one in each
-hand, and alternately hit one upper arm and then the other with
-the brands. The heat often became so intense that water had
-to be thrown on the center post to prevent its catching fire.
-There was rivalry to see who could stay inside longest, and
-after a time one man after another emerged and dived into the
-icy water nearby or rolled in the snow. There might be sweating
-three or four nights in succession on the occasion of a
-communal hunt.&rdquo;</p>
-</blockquote>
-<p>Mountain Maidu held a dance gathering each spring for Black
-Bear and Grizzly Bear. They believed that this dance had been
-done by animals in mythical &ldquo;before Indian times&rdquo;. This gathering
-lasted three days and nights, but the actual dance was in progress
-only one day and night. Only women danced but men participated
-in the ceremony dressed in bear robes. There was much feasting
-<span class="pb" id="Page_130">130</span>
-too.</p>
-<p>The pre- and post-war dances are discussed under the chapter
-on war.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_131">131</div>
-<h2 id="c25"><span class="small">Chapter XXIII</span>
-<br />POLITICAL ORGANIZATION OF TRIBES</h2>
-<p>Tribes, as we think of them, were non-existent as political
-units, and hence there were no tribal chiefs, but there were village
-chiefs, in the California province.</p>
-<p>The self governing unit was always a village or a group of small
-closely adjacent villages. This is the political unit which was
-governed by the chief. Villages might consist of from four to about
-twenty-five earth lodges and bark huts with populations of from
-twenty-five to a hundred or more persons. Influential leaders,
-usually of much wealth&mdash;but not necessarily so&mdash;were recognized
-as head-men, exercising considerable authority over the smaller
-villages or separated groups of houses near villages. However the
-head-man&rsquo;s authority was subservient to that of the chief.</p>
-<p>Chieftainship was inherited through the father&rsquo;s lineage, the
-oldest son being the first in succession. However, if the son were
-too young to take over, the deceased chief&rsquo;s brother was temporarily
-in charge. The qualities of good character and knowledge were also
-important qualifications for chieftainship, and a chief could be
-deposed if he were not a good one. Tenure was normally for life,
-dependent upon satisfactory behavior and performance of his responsibilities.</p>
-<p>The chief&rsquo;s relatives hunted and fished for him, but he fed
-visitors and provided most of the food for feasts. The chief always
-directed community economic activities such as group fishing, deer
-hunting, and root digging expeditions. For this reason chiefs had
-to know much about game, fish runs, ripening seasons, et cetera,
-and had to possess good judgement to insure success of group
-undertakings. Chiefs also spoke to their people mornings and
-evenings, and at ceremonies and the like. Chiefs furthermore declared
-days of rest when chores were done about home. Another
-function was to arbitrate quarrels among the people.</p>
-<p>Mountain Maidu villages had assistant chiefs besides, who were
-sons or brothers of the chiefs. This assistant advised the chief
-and substituted for him as the occasion demanded. A specific duty
-of his was the division of food at ceremonies.</p>
-<p>Some chiefs had secondary female chiefs who in the case of
-the Maidu were daughters, among Atsugewi the chiefs&rsquo; wives. A
-woman in this capacity supervised preparation of food for feasts
-and in Atsugewi villages might give orders to men.</p>
-<p>Atsugewi chiefs appointed clowns at ceremonies who were paid.
-<span class="pb" id="Page_132">132</span>
-Appointed messengers were a part of every chief&rsquo;s staff. They
-were selected on the basis of both willingness to serve and ability.
-Maidu had about six messengers per village while the number varied
-among Atsugewi. Messengers were good speakers, reliable men,
-and were discharged if they failed in their duties. These included
-not only message running, but among Atsugewi, tending fires at
-ceremonies. For Maidu chiefs, messengers welcomed guests and
-traveled about gathering news and scouting. Special fire tenders
-were appointed in this tribe.</p>
-<p>Atsugewi chiefs seem to have possessed greater prestige and
-authority than those of the mountain Maidu, the Yana, and the Yahi.
-The decisions of Atsugewi chiefs were final, but these had to be
-diplomatic if the chief were to remain popular. If a chief were unpopular
-some of his people would move to another village leaving
-the first chief&rsquo;s community numerically weaker. Chiefs were generally
-well obeyed by rich and poor alike. In return, chiefs unfailingly
-had the interests of their people at heart. Atsugewi chiefs,
-specifically, set examples of industry, behavior, and judgement
-for their people. No doubt this was generally true of the chiefs
-of units in other local tribes too.</p>
-<p>Because of the greater popularity, prestige, and consequently
-larger following of some individual chiefs, they were considerably
-more powerful than other chiefs in the same tribe. Such men were
-influential to some extent beyond the boundaries of their own territories.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_133">133</div>
-<h2 id="c26"><span class="small">Chapter XXIV</span>
-<br />WAR AND PEACE</h2>
-<p>Wars were commonly small scale encounters and might be either
-within tribes or between tribes. Atsugewi were not often aggressive.
-Most tribes at one time or another had differences with neighboring
-tribes, but friendly relations were usually re-established soon.
-Certain tribes, however, were repeatedly or traditionally enemies,
-as for instance, Klamath, Paiute, or Modoc against Atsugewi;
-Washoe against mountain Maidu; Achomawi or Wintun against the
-Yana tribes; and mountain Maidu or Wintun against Yahi. Tribes
-sometimes helped each other in wars, and either payment or reciprocal
-aid was usually forthcoming.</p>
-<p>Causes of hostilities in the Lassen area were usually revenge
-for murders (if uncompensated), abduction of women and children,
-or insults to chiefs. Mountain Maidu, Yana, and Yahi also waged
-wars on account of poaching, rape, alleged witchcraft, and the like.
-All able bodied men normally went to war, but mountain Maidu left
-some at home to protect the women.</p>
-<p>Chiefs generally did not participate in the fighting although
-they often went along on the war expedition. Instead of leading
-the battles themselves, chiefs appointed special warrior leaders
-who were principal targets of the opposition. Such battle leaders
-were often head-men, but always were men competent to lead the
-fight and who had good arrow dodging power.</p>
-<p>Shamans habitually went to war, but did not fight actively except
-on occasion. They were busy singing during battle and urging
-the warriors on or exhorting supernatural help. The Atsugewi
-shaman reportedly &ldquo;stayed behind a tree all the time giving out
-his power&rdquo;.</p>
-<p>Preparation for war consisted of practicing dodging arrows,
-shooting arrows, in some cases at effigies, and in dancing. The
-main purpose of the preparation was to incite enthusiasm for the
-fight. This was so successful that quite a commotion developed
-in the community, to the extent that such incidents occurred
-as warriors with knives chasing women and a man shooting his own
-dog with an arrow! Preparatory war dances were held outside near
-the villages. Both men and women participated and shamans sang.
-Mountain Maidu sustained their dances for several days. Warriors
-spoke to their arrows addressing them as persons. Atsugewi men
-painted themselves with white and black stripes on faces, limbs,
-and bodies. Yana used red and white war paint. Mountain Maidu
-<span class="pb" id="Page_134">134</span>
-wore head nets and bands. Dried untanned skins of bear, elk, and
-such were worn at dances as well as in battle, as were waistcoat
-armors of strong vertical sticks lashed together. Leather helmets
-were worn by some warriors.</p>
-<p>The enemy was usually attacked just at dawn using the element
-of surprise to the fullest extent possible. Some battles were pre-arranged
-in which a number of participants faced each other in well
-formed lines. Such conflicts were subject to &ldquo;calling off&rdquo; if too
-many men were injured or killed. Serious raids, however, did
-not give quarter and men, women, and children were killed. Booty
-was taken and scalps, too, were stripped from fallen victims.
-Scalps were later burned by Atsugewi, but mountain Maidu dried
-human scalps on frames. This tribe also took entire heads from
-bodies on occasion. Prisoners were taken too: Atsugewi not infrequently
-adopted captured children. Captive women might be
-mistreated and raped, then killed. Adult prisoners might escape
-with relative ease because there was no suitable way to confine
-them permanently, and some were returned voluntarily.</p>
-<p>While the war party was away on its expedition, the women at
-home danced individually in the manner of the war dance. They
-sang and prayed to help the men at war. Atsugewi women dancers
-carried feathers, bows, and arrows, but rattles were not used in
-these morale dances.</p>
-<p>Upon return of the war party a victory dance was held in or near
-the village in the open air. Men and women danced independently,
-but together at the same time. Atsugewi men painted themselves
-red and white instead of the black and white used for the pre-war
-dance. They wore headdresses of all sorts and the warriors
-carried their bows, arrows, armor, and other fighting gear while
-dancing. The victory dance took place around a fire. Next to the fire
-Atsugewi planted a short pole on which the new scalps were displayed
-while mountain Maidu danced with the scalps secured to
-hand-carried sticks. It is worth noting that while some readers
-may consider this gloating over human scalps to be a primitive
-morbidity, it is true that often white men&mdash;the very pioneers we
-eulogize&mdash;took and coveted human scalps themselves.</p>
-<p>Warriors, particularly those who had killed adversaries, purified
-themselves by swimming, rubbing aromatic plants on their bodies,
-praying for luck. They did not eat meat for from a few to many days,
-depending on the tribe. Among Atsugewi they also sweated with
-the same end in view, and women brushed the men&rsquo;s bodies with
-plant materials to aid the purification process.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_135">135</div>
-<p>Surprisingly, the eating of hot foods and any form of meat was
-taboo to wounded warriors. This seems strange, since these are
-the very foods which we consider beneficial to injured persons.</p>
-<p>When an attack appeared likely upon an Atsugewi village, the
-whole population retired to high ground which was easily defended.
-Such sites were prepared in advance and might be considered crude
-forts as they were surrounded by rock walls and provided with
-shelters for the non-combatants.</p>
-<p>In intertribal wars there was usually no compensation as such
-made where the encounter had been motivated by the satisfaction
-of securing revenge. In the case of feuds or murders within the
-tribe payment was made to relatives of the slain. If persons on
-both sides were slain compensation was made for all the dead.
-The chief or head-man supervised the peace negotiations. Payment
-was usually in beads or money, but Atsugewi sometimes paid off
-in women or in the amount of the usual price of a bride. In this
-tribe too, the amount of compensation was made according to the
-wealth of the victim. A poor man&rsquo;s life was not considered to be
-worth as much as a rich man&rsquo;s. Atsugewi had a settlement dance
-meeting in which both sides were present and wore fighting regalia.
-These dancers disarmed themselves after the payment had been
-made.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_136">136</div>
-<h2 id="c27"><span class="small">Chapter XXV</span>
-<br />BIRTH AND BABIES</h2>
-<p>The natural function of birth obviously varied only in details
-of handling the situation, delivery assistance, disposition of the
-afterbirth, and methods of cutting and treating the child&rsquo;s umbilical
-cord. The baby was born in a separate hut which contained a trench
-heated with coals. These were covered with grass and pine needles
-or fir boughs. On this warm green bed the woman lay at least a
-part of the time during labor and also after delivery.</p>
-<p>Children were desired and a barren woman was looked down on
-socially. Inability to produce children was grounds for divorce.
-The behavior of both parents during pregnancy was believed to
-closely affect personality and health of the child.</p>
-<p>After giving birth, the mother remained in isolation for from nearly
-a week to a month or more. Many taboos were imposed upon her.
-Bathing in streams and sweat baths, eating fresh or dried meat or
-fish, grease, and often salt were forbidden to her. Most tribes of
-the Lassen area also prohibited combing of the mother&rsquo;s hair by
-herself during the period of isolation. Also taboo was scratching
-herself with her hands, making baskets, preparing food, or traveling.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig147">
-<img src="images/p41.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="436" />
-<p class="pcap">Front and side views of Atsugewi cradle basket for a very young baby.
-(tseh-nay-gow)</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_137">137</div>
-<div class="img" id="fig148">
-<img src="images/p41a.jpg" alt="" width="466" height="600" />
-<p class="pcap">Atsugewi young baby carrying basket or teseh-nay-gow</p>
-</div>
-<p>There were restrictions on the father of the newly born child
-too. Among Atsugewi and Yana he stayed with the mother, but
-mountain Maidu fathers stayed away for periods of a week or less.
-Immediately after the birth had taken place, the father ran to the
-woods to break up and bring home quantities of fire-wood. Hunting
-and fishing of all kinds and traveling were taboo for several weeks
-in most cases. Atsugewi and mountain Maidu new fathers were also
-forbidden to smoke and gamble, and like their wives, were denied
-eating fresh or dried fish, meat, and grease for varying periods up
-to a month. Release from taboos occurred with sweating and bathing
-among Atsugewi and mountain Maidu. Fathers in these tribes
-also gave away the first kill when they resumed hunting.</p>
-<p>The mother generally massaged the infant to improve the shape
-and proportion of nose, face, limbs, and torso. Shedding of the
-baby&rsquo;s umbilical cord was an important event which the Indians
-wished to occur as soon as possible. A variety of odd practices to
-this end were employed. The occurrence of the event relieved the
-parents of some, or in other cases of all, the post birth taboos.
-Among most of our tribes the dried cord was saved until the child
-reached manhood or womanhood. It was customarily secured to the
-cradle basket, but frequently was subsequently lost. Earlobes
-<span class="pb" id="Page_138">138</span>
-might be pierced in early infancy especially if the child were prone
-to cry much.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig149">
-<img src="images/p42.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="541" />
-<p class="pcap">Atsugewi older baby carrying basket or yah-birr-dee. Note the rounded
-bottom on A, a modernization. Partial illustration B shows old style construction
-with a pointed bottom for thrusting into the ground.</p>
-</div>
-<p>Two cradle baskets were used. Mountain Maidu made two of
-similar oval shape, but the first and smaller one was without a
-hood. Atsugewi and Yana tribes made two different types, but both
-with rounded carrying handles and sunshades on top. These were
-constructed of willow ribs, pine root, and buckskin. The first small
-basket was called tseh-nay-gow by Atsugewi and was used for
-several months. It was short and with a distinctly rounded basketry
-shelf or lip at its lower end. The larger baby basket was called
-yah-bih-dee and was practically identical to that of the mountain
-Maidu. This was made of the usual twined basketry materials, but
-was of different construction. Willow ribs were lashed onto a sturdy
-one-piece forked branch frame, the joint being at the bottom. The
-base or stem of this Y-piece stuck out below for several inches
-being sharpened so that it could be stuck into the ground near the
-<span class="pb" id="Page_139">139</span>
-mother in camp or when she was out digging roots in the fields.
-Boo-noo-koo-ee-menorra tells of an interesting modification of
-the yah-bih-dee today. Its frame is now simply rounded at the
-bottom instead of having the pointed end described above. &ldquo;Most
-people have cars now a days&rdquo; she says, &ldquo;and that point poked a
-hole through the seat of the car. So now we make the round kind.&rdquo;
-Our visitors to Lassen Volcanic National Park are always interested
-in names of the &ldquo;papoose basket&rdquo;. This term and the words
-moccasin, wampum, and so on are no doubt of Indian origin being
-the actual words or reasonable facsimiles thereof used by some
-eastern tribe for the objects concerned. English speaking Americans
-have adopted these names as meaning those particular articles for
-all Indian tribes. It may be recalled that earlier in this book, it
-was pointed out that each tribe had its own distinct language and
-so, obviously, each tribe would have had its own distinct names
-for these objects. Hence there is no all inclusive &ldquo;Indian name&rdquo;
-for the cradle basket or anything else.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig150">
-<img src="images/p42c.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="282" />
-<p class="pcap">Maidu baby carrying basket about thirty five inches long.</p>
-</div>
-<p>The baby was wrapped in tanned buckskin or soft furs, normally
-wildcat by the Atsugewi. A pad of grass or padded bark was placed
-on the cradle board or basket and then the child was lashed into
-the tshe-nay-gow with buckskin straps in a sitting position on the
-sill with its feet hanging down. Most tribes used dry grass, pounded
-until soft, for diapers, but mountain Maidu used skin material for
-the purpose. Babies were kept in the cradle baskets until they
-were able to walk. The cradle frame was carried on the mother&rsquo;s
-back with a tump-line passing over her forehead or chest. A series
-of larger cradle baskets were made as the child grew, usually three
-before the child was allowed to crawl or walk.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_140">140</div>
-<p>The newborn infant was never fed the colostrum from its mother.
-The baby was either let go without food or given a cooked meat
-gruel for nourishment for the first two days or so until bonafide
-milk was produced in the mother&rsquo;s breasts. Children were nursed
-as often as they wished and until they were quite large: even three
-or four years old.</p>
-<p>Names were given to children usually at the age of about a year.
-Yana waited even longer, however, until ages of four to six years
-before giving real names which for this tribe were habitually of a
-hereditary nature. In the meantime, temporary descriptive nicknames
-were given. Many real Atsugewi names had meanings, while those
-of mountain Maidu and Yana normally did not. Nevertheless, Yana
-and to a certain extent other Indians too, might acquire additional
-nicknames and descriptive names later in life, even in adulthood.</p>
-<p>Twins were unwanted among all local tribes, probably because
-of the double care and feeding responsibilities involved. Mountain
-Maidu thought that twins were bad luck and actually feared them.
-It was generally believed that twins were caused by the mother
-having eaten twinned nutmeats. These, therefore, were carefully
-avoided.</p>
-<p>Killing newborn babies whether illegitimate, twins, crippled,
-or when the mother died in childbirth, was practiced only on very
-rare occasions. Certainly infanticide was not the rule among any
-of the local tribes, but of course was practiced in certain other
-areas.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig151">
-<img src="images/p43.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="414" />
-<p class="pcap">Yana baby cradle basket for young baby.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_141">141</div>
-<h2 id="c28"><span class="small">Chapter XXVI</span>
-<br />ADULTHOOD RITES</h2>
-<p>A girl&rsquo;s attainment of puberty or womanhood was an event of
-obvious importance and it was recognized as such by all tribes of
-the Lassen region with extensive formal ritual and ceremony for
-each individual girl. Only the more important and generally employed
-taboos and rites are noted below. There was considerable
-variation in details of such matters even among the four tribes with
-which we are dealing.</p>
-<p>The girl was secluded in a separate hut for from three to six
-days and sometimes during the nights too. The taboos she observed
-during this time were much like those imposed on a mother giving
-birth, but were even more extensive. The young lady must eat from
-her own special baskets, not cross streams, avoid contacting men&mdash;especially
-hunters, refrain from gazing at the sun or moon, et
-cetera. Among things she must do were to wear a basketry cap, or
-special head bands among some tribes, and have her hair put up in
-two knobs wrapped over her shoulders. This had to be done for her
-as she was not allowed to touch her own hair. Carrying the deer-hoof
-rattle she must run races with other girls, and dance much
-also, scratch her head only with a special scratcher, have her
-earlobes pierced if this had not already been done, and frequently
-her nose septum was punctured too, being kept open by insertion of
-a round stick. Among Wintun tribes of the Sacramento Valley some
-taboos lasted for from one to three years!</p>
-<p>For several nights public dances were held which lasted all
-night. Since there was no special ritual for anyone but the girl for
-whom the dances were held, these ceremonies were of a joyous
-nature and were popular and well attended. In the middle of the
-night food provided by the girl&rsquo;s family was served to all present.
-Singing with deer-hoof rattle accompaniment was carried on all
-night. Intimate affairs between couples were not unusual during
-such dances. During the daytime as well dances were held, but
-these were of short duration and participated in chiefly by the
-women of the village. At the end of the ordeal the girl bathed and
-was given new clothes, ending her taboos.</p>
-<p>There was no formal ceremony when boys attained manhood except
-that the youths were generally sent alone into the neighboring
-mountains for several days to seek special &ldquo;powers&rdquo; to give them
-skill and luck in certain pursuits such as deer hunting, archery,
-fighting, shamanism, and the like.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_142">142</div>
-<p>During menstruation all women had to observe many taboos too.
-These included eating alone and living in seclusion. They could
-eat no meat or fish, fat, or salt, and must not cook. They must
-avoid sick persons and hunters, and could not scratch themselves
-except with the scratching stick. At the end of the taboo periods
-of four or five days, they usually bathed in streams for purification.</p>
-<p>Curiously, wives&rsquo; menstruations had to be observed by their
-husbands in a number of ways. Most common was prohibition of
-smoking, and they must eat lightly. Among mountain Maidu the
-husband could hunt and fish, but could not eat any flesh; among
-Atsugewi the reverse was true.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_143">143</div>
-<h2 id="c29"><span class="small">Chapter XXVII</span>
-<br />MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE</h2>
-<p>Marriage itself was not formalized with any ceremony. It was
-common practice for parents to arrange marriages when children
-were young and these arrangements, which involved some exchange
-of gifts or payment, were usually honored later. Most other
-marriages were arranged by parents later when the children had
-reached maturity and generally these recognized the children&rsquo;s
-wishes. Both of these types of marriages were the basis for extensive
-exchange of presents and visits, details of which differed
-among the several tribes. In addition there was almost universal
-payment for the girl&mdash;about ten strings of clamshell disks was
-standard. The boy and girl became husband and wife simply upon
-starting to live together, but the new status was usually marked by
-a feast participated in by the families concerned. Generally there
-followed a period of residence of the couple with one or both of the
-in-laws. On occasion marriages grew from intimacies with no
-parental negotiations, but such matches were not well regarded by
-the community.</p>
-<p>Indian men frequently married women from other villages and
-occasionally even women from other tribes.</p>
-<p>If a wife died her sister was generally obliged to marry the
-widower. Likewise, if the husband died it was customary that his
-brother would marry the widow. A wise institution was the relationship
-of the husband and wife with their in-laws. Neither could
-speak to nor hand things directly to the in-law of opposite sex,
-or in some cases even to the brothers and sisters of the in-laws;
-such things had to be done by a third party. In some instances the
-mother-in-law even avoided looking at her son-in-law even though
-she might like him. Such arrangements no doubt prevented many
-arguments and quarrels, but as far as their own evaluation of these
-customs were concerned, the basis lay in the belief that a bear
-might eat either or both of the violators of the in-law taboos.</p>
-<p>The practice of having more than one wife at a time was common.
-One man might have three or four wives, but rarely had more than
-two at a time. Rich men or head-men and chiefs were most apt to
-have more than two wives.</p>
-<p>Divorce was simple indeed. The man just sent the girl back
-home if she were barren, lazy, promiscuous, or the like. If he had
-good reasons for wanting to get rid of his wife, her purchase price
-might be refunded by her family, or else the ex-wife&rsquo;s sister might
-<span class="pb" id="Page_144">144</span>
-be sent to him in exchange, or, sometimes, in addition with no
-additional payment. On the other hand, the wife might leave her
-husband if she had been badly mistreated, or if the husband did not
-provide enough meat and clothing for the family or if he were unfaithful.
-In divorce the children were divided. Usually, but not
-always, the girls remained with their mother and the boys with their
-father. However, divorce was not common among Indians of this
-region.</p>
-<p>On the whole, morals were high and sexual deviations were infrequent,
-although the whole range of such practices were known to
-the aborigines. It appears beyond argument that divorces, moral
-laxity, and sexual aberrations increased with the coming of white
-man.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_145">145</div>
-<h2 id="c30"><span class="small">Chapter XXVIII</span>
-<br />DEATH AND BURIAL</h2>
-<p>Atsugewi and mountain Maidu left the corpse in the house for
-one day. They prepared it for burial by dressing it well and adding
-bead necklaces, then wrapping it in a hide. Yana did the same,
-washing the body first, and although also adorning the corpse with
-jewelry, they always removed decorative nose ornaments, replacing
-these with simple sticks. According to Voegelin, Atsugewi removed
-the body for burial prone and feet first through the wall of
-the house, but Garth states that the body was removed through the
-southern ventilator passage or through the regular entrance way
-in the roof.</p>
-<p>The mountain Maidu, Yana, Yahi, and usually the Atsugewi bent
-the body into a position called flexed. The arms were folded across
-the chest and the knees were drawn up against the stomach before
-wrapping the corpse in a robe which was then sewn shut. The
-mountain Maidu sometimes put the wrapped cadaver into a large
-basket. Voegelin was of the opinion that Atsugewi buried their
-dead lying flat on their backs, and if so, always with the head toward
-the east. It is thought that this prone burial might be a
-recent innovation learned from white man.</p>
-<p>Mourners among all of our local tribes wailed aloud and brought
-gifts for the dead. Women, especially the older ones, mourned
-vigorously. To quote Garth again on Atsugewi, of their mourning
-he states:</p>
-<blockquote>
-<p>&ldquo;The deceased&rsquo;s close relatives mourned the hardest, but
-friends might also mourn&mdash;&mdash;&lsquo;to make them feel better.&rsquo;
-Mourners cried and rolled on the ground, throwing dirt and hot
-ashes in their faces and hair. Some, in their grief, tried to
-commit suicide, and a close watch had to be kept over them
-to prevent their doing so. Favorite methods were to swallow
-small bits of (obsidian) or to eat a certain kind of spider.
-Mourners were warned not to cry around the house near the
-body but to go to the hills to cry, and also not to look down
-when crying or to cry too much. Otherwise they were subject
-to bad dreams in which spirits would plague them and possibly
-kill them. A mourner might acquire power at this time. A
-widow, with possibly a sister to help her, would wail for a
-time at daybreak and again in the evening. This lasted for
-two or three months, sometimes longer. A widower seldom
-cried more than two or three weeks. The widow visited places
-<span class="pb" id="Page_146">146</span>
-at which she had camped with her husband, broke up utensils
-left there, burned down the brush where he was accustomed
-to cut wood, and piled up rocks where they had slept together.
-A widower behaved in similar fashion.... If death occurred in
-a village, no entertainments could be held for a time; otherwise
-relatives of the deceased had the right to break things
-up and throw them around. A man would not sing or attend a
-&lsquo;big time&rsquo; gathering until at least a year after death of a close
-relative.&rdquo;</p>
-</blockquote>
-<p>If the lodge were to be lived in again, after a person had died
-in it, Atsugewi brought in juniper boughs, and these were burned
-to purify the house. Bark huts, however, were always burned down
-after an occupant had died.</p>
-<p>Mountain Maidu children were kept away from the dead and from
-the funeral proceedings. In that tribe and probably among all local
-tribes, if the deceased were rich the funeral would be much larger
-and more pretentious than if the person had been poor. In the
-former case the ceremony was followed by a feast. Other tribes
-buried the dead in the evening generally within twenty-four hours
-after death, but Yana waited three or four days. Mountain Maidu
-grave diggers put grass in their mouths. Small shallow graves
-sufficed for poor people, in fact, among Atsugewi, at least, poor
-people were often buried in small depressions in lava flows and
-covered over with convenient rocks.</p>
-<p>Enroute to Atsugewi burials no one was permitted to look back,
-and water was sprinkled along the path to prevent the dead person&rsquo;s
-spirit from returning to the village. At the grave the dead were
-asked aloud please not to look back, for if they did other members
-of their families would die soon.</p>
-<p>Cremation, that is, burning of corpses was rare among tribes of
-the Lassen area. At the battlefield and in other instances of death
-far from home, especially in the case of mountain Maidu, burning
-was done occasionally. After this the bones were collected,
-wrapped in buckskin, and then buried.</p>
-<p>The flexed bodies of the dead were always placed in graves
-facing eastward. Widows customarily attempted to throw themselves
-into the graves, but were restrained from doing so. A basket
-of water was invariably placed next to the body, and most personal
-property of the deceased was broken and also placed in the grave.
-The amount of property so disposed of varied with the tribe.
-Mountain Maidu and especially the Yana tribes put practically everything
-in the grave. The latter even went so far as to include many
-<span class="pb" id="Page_147">147</span>
-gifts of a nature not normally associated with the sex. Aprons and
-baskets, for instance, might be placed in a man&rsquo;s burial. Among
-Atsugewi the relatives retained some of the property of the deceased.
-Atsugewi might place some food on the grave and mark it with a
-vertical stick, but it was not tended later, and the site was generally
-soon lost.</p>
-<p>In winter a person might be buried shallowly in the floor of a
-living house. Next spring the house would be torn down and the
-dirt walls caved in. There was variation not only between, but
-within tribes as to the final disposition of houses of the deceased.
-They might be burned down, a common practice, or they were torn
-down, abandoned, temporarily deserted, or torn down and rebuilt.
-If to be lived in again, purification of some sort was always
-practiced, either by burning juniper boughs in the house, smoking
-tobacco, bringing in aromatic plants, or treating the main beams.
-Among Yana tribes the family seems to have habitually abandoned
-the house right after the funeral and to have burned the whole thing
-including property and food of all the inmates, retaining only the
-barest necessities of life such as sleeping robes.</p>
-<p>Among Atsugewi all mourners had to deny themselves meat and
-fresh fish for one day; then they sweated and swam after the funeral.
-Mountain Maidu mourners, including all persons who had had any
-part in the funeral, had to undergo four or five days taboo on eating
-all flesh. They also had to eat alone and from separate dishes,
-do head scratching with special sticks only, were allowed no hunting,
-gambling, intercourse, or smoking. Purification of those
-persons contaminated by participation in burial included swimming
-and washing every day that the taboos were in effect.</p>
-<p>Only Atsugewi, of all local tribes, are said to have practiced
-suicide, though unquestionably it did occur on occasion among all
-California Indians.</p>
-<p>Mentioning the name of the deceased in the presence of his
-relatives was considered very poor taste, and was actually forbidden
-in some cases.</p>
-<p>It was forbidden that the widow touch the corpse, so that relatives
-had to prepare the body for burial. After the funeral, the
-widow always cut her hair off closely. If an Atsugewi, she made
-a belt out of it, and the hair belt was then often decorated with
-shells. In all local tribes the widow traditionally covered her
-whole head and face with pitch and covered this with white diatomaceous
-earth or black charcoal. Touching her head or face (the
-whole body for mountain Maidu) with fingers was taboo; she could
-<span class="pb" id="Page_148">148</span>
-do this only with the scratching stick which mountain Maidu widows
-wore around the neck. Raggedy, ill-looking clothes were worn by
-the survivor, and Atsugewi widows put pitch on old basketry caps
-to be worn. A mourning necklace was worn at all times, made of
-lumps of hard pitch strung onto a fiber string. This was worn until
-remarriage, which was usually two or three years for Atsugewi and
-one to three years for mountain Maidu. Pitch on the face and head
-was normally left on until it wore off of its own accord.</p>
-<p>The mourning conduct of grieving men who had lost their wives
-in death was not nearly so lengthy or as rigorous as was that of
-widows. Widowers cut their hair too, but among Atsugewi the only
-other observance required was abstinence of flesh eating for a day.
-Mountain Maidu widowers spent one sleepless night out in the
-mountains. Widowers did not generally sing at dances and at &ldquo;big
-times&rdquo; for about a year, but this was not compulsory. The Yana
-are said to have stayed away from dances for two or three years.</p>
-<p>Parents mourning the loss of children cut their hair slightly and
-placed some pitch on hair or faces. The Atsugewi mother observed
-a three day meat taboo and the Maidu father went to the hills to
-seek power. However, loss of a baby in birth or before its navel
-cord dropped off was considered a more serious situation. Such
-bereaved parents gave all of their belongings away in order to make
-a fresh start.</p>
-<p>Anniversary mourning rites were not conducted in the Lassen
-region. An exception was the rare instance among Atsugewi when
-a child was sick at a time just three years after the death of its
-parent. Under such circumstances a shaman sang over the child
-and the whole remaining family and relatives mourned, later washing
-themselves. With respect to the general lack of mourning anniversaries
-it is of interest that the foothill (northeast) Maidu held
-elaborate annual burnings for several years after death of relatives.
-At these great mourning dance ceremonies large quantities of
-valuable possessions were burned as sacrifices to honor the dead.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_149">149</div>
-<h2 id="c31"><span class="small">Chapter XXIX</span>
-<br />COUNTING, TIME, AND PLACE</h2>
-<p>Counting on the fingers was usual practice. Mountain Maidu
-started with their thumbs while Atsugewi began on the little finger
-of one hand and counted across to that on the other hand, and toes
-were used for the purpose too. To help in counting, tribes also
-employed sticks to represent groups of numbers: Atsugewi used
-sticks to represent 1&rsquo;s, 5&rsquo;s, 10&rsquo;s, and hundreds. Yana frequently
-used a stick to represent the unit 20. This is presumed to be a
-natural unit because it is the sum of all of a person&rsquo;s fingers and
-toes.</p>
-<p>Time of day, of course, was not expressed in any unit like our
-hour, but roughly by the position of the sun in its daily course overhead.
-Seven to nine positions were referred to descriptively in this
-respect plus early, mid, and late night.</p>
-<p>Phases of the moon were most practical and were universally
-used as a longer measure of time. The succession of new moon
-cycles were named and an old man in the village customarily kept
-track of these by memory. As might be expected from this system,
-in which there was no recording, arguments ensued over just which
-moon or &ldquo;month&rdquo; was currently in effect. One full course of the
-moon&rsquo;s phases takes just about a month, so the names for Indians&rsquo;
-moons corresponded nearly to our month names.</p>
-<p>All local tribes recognized four seasons. These were identified
-by the positions of certain stars among mountain Maidu, but more
-generally by the positions of the rising sun with respect to a certain
-peak, tree, or similar fixed object. Some Indians kept track of the
-seasons by watching the daily progression of a beam of sunlight
-coming through the smoke hole of a house and falling upon its floor
-or wall. The shortest day of the year naturally was marked by the
-most southerly progression of the sun. This was noted by the
-Indians, no doubt with joy in the realization that longer days and,
-somewhat later, warmer weather were to be expected. The year
-started with the beginning of November when Indians of the Lassen
-area had left the high elevation hunting grounds on the flanks of
-Lassen Peak, had collected their stores of acorn and salmon, and
-were warmly settled in their winter quarters. Mountain Maidu seem
-to have used names for only the nine moons most important to them.</p>
-<p>There was no calendar as such, but the number of days until a
-certain &ldquo;big time&rdquo; or other event was kept track of by either cutting
-off or untying one knot in a knotted cord or thong each day. Years
-<span class="pb" id="Page_150">150</span>
-were not recorded either, but were measured within the memory span
-as so many winters ago, or by relating time to some important event,
-such as a war which most persons might remember.</p>
-<p>Directions were pointed out, or in speech were referred to as
-sunrise and sunset for east and west respectively. Directions were
-commonly given with respect to features of the local geography: in
-the direction of such and such a village or toward a named river,
-spring, or mountain which was conspicuous or generally known.
-We must remember that the territories of our local tribes were small
-and that the terrain was intimately known. Specific names were not
-only given to the conspicuous features of the topography, but among
-Atsugewi, at least, virtually every flat, every draw, and every hill
-was specifically named, and these names were known to all members
-of the tribe. Names of places in the territories of other tribes were
-not known by the local names of those tribes. They were either
-translated or given its own entirely different set of names by the
-first tribe. In other words, each tribe had different names for all
-places&mdash;a very confusing situation. Dixon reports that Maidu
-recognized directions as we know them, but that the northeast or
-mountain Maidu had five: west, northwest (the direction of Lassen
-Peak), north, east, and south.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_151">151</div>
-<h2 id="c32"><span class="small">Chapter XXX</span>
-<br />CONCEPTS OF SUN, MOON, AND STARS</h2>
-<p>Mountain Maidu and Atsugewi believed the sun to be a female
-human&mdash;the wife&mdash;and the moon to be a male human&mdash;the
-husband. This is a reversal of the sex ascribed to these bodies by
-some other tribes. They believed that the figure of a frog was
-visible in the moon.</p>
-<p>Atsugewi stated that Frog fought Moon and swallowed him and
-the next time that Moon swallowed Frog who is now in the center
-of the moon. When Moon and Frog fought, the former was not round,
-but crescent shaped. Yana stated that in the moon they could see
-Moon&rsquo;s wife, Frog. Pine Marten snapped his evil father-in-law
-Moon into the sky by means of bending a springy tree &rsquo;way down
-and suddenly letting it go. He used the same system to snap Frog
-and her two daughters into the sky also.</p>
-<p>To Atsugewi, as to most tribes, the phases of the moon: new,
-full, and waning, represented birth, life, and death&mdash;repeated
-every four weeks, although, of course, none of the Indians had the
-concept of a &ldquo;week&rdquo; such as we have. All through the year
-Atsugewi greeted the new moon. Old persons shook themselves,
-and their clothes and bedding in its presence. Younger folks ran
-and jumped toward the moon. If the points or horns of the new moon
-crescent were vertical it was a bad omen indicating sickness or
-death. Babies were shown the new moon, and in the case of both
-Atsugewi and mountain Maidu, babies&rsquo; faces and arms were rubbed
-in the new moonlight to make them grow fast. All local tribes
-addressed the moon aloud in friendly terms as if it were a personal
-relative. The Yana prayed to it. In contrast to Atsugewi reaction
-to vertical position of the two moon points, the Yana and mountain
-Maidu accepted this as meaning good fortune and good weather
-ahead. To these tribes horizontal position of the moon crescent in
-the winter sky denoted that it was full of water and indicated pending
-rains or storms. At other seasons both horns up foretold of
-death. Yana thought that both sun and moon were feminine.</p>
-<p>After its daily trip across the sky, Atsugewi thought that the
-sun returned to the east in a blue cloud via the side of the earth.
-As the sun and the moon passed each other at the side of the earth,
-they decided on the weather for the following day. The moon
-supplied the cold and the sun the heat.</p>
-<p>Eclipses of sun and moon were believed by Yana to be due to
-their dogs devouring them. Atsugewi and mountain Maidu felt that
-<span class="pb" id="Page_152">152</span>
-the heavenly bodies were dying. The former were of the opinion
-that Lizard was eating Sun or Moon as the case might be. They
-shouted loudly, shot arrows into the air toward the eclipse and beat
-all available female dogs. Mountain Maidu thought that Frog was
-eating Moon or Sun.</p>
-<p>A reddish moon foretold of disaster and was a sign of war for
-Atsugewi, but to Yana it meant hot weather ahead.</p>
-<p>Only a few star groups of the night sky were named.</p>
-<p>Yana thought the constellation we call the Belt of Orion was
-Coyote&rsquo;s arrow. All local tribes believed the Milky Way to be a
-road, or river in some cases, which was traveled by departing spirits
-or souls of the dead. Shooting or Falling stars, (more properly
-meteorites) presaged good weather to the Atsugewi who thought
-these were torches carried by spirits from one house to another in
-the sky. For this tribe too, a single conspicuous star&mdash;no doubt
-a planet&mdash;seen near the moon was an evil sign. If the star were
-on the left someone nearby would die soon; if it lay to the right of
-the moon someone farther away was doomed.</p>
-<p>Atsugewi called the Seven Sisters wir-etisu. These girls were
-seduced by a little rabbit boy at a puberty dance. They became
-ashamed and went up in the sky to become stars. The Big Dipper
-was called Coyote&rsquo;s Cane. Maidu thought that stars were made of
-something soft like buckskin.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_153">153</div>
-<h2 id="c33"><span class="small">Chapter XXXI</span>
-<br />WEATHER PHENOMENA</h2>
-<p>As mentioned in the preceding chapter, weather was determined
-by agreement between sun and moon, but it appears that many things
-could influence their decisions.</p>
-<p>Atsugewi assumed it to be the natural thing that it would sprinkle
-a little after a funeral. They also felt that rolling rocks down
-mountain sides or loud shouting in the mountains would cause rain.
-Furthermore they believed that the occurrence of precipitation could
-be influenced by shamans, if they felt like it, by smoking tobacco
-while looking at the sun. The nature of the spirit of a girl, whose
-ears were pierced at this time, was also thought to either cause
-it to rain or to stop doing so according to her spirit power.</p>
-<p>Rainbows brought good wild crops as far as the Atsugewi were
-concerned. However, both they and mountain Maidu were of the
-opinion that pointing with a finger at a rainbow, particularly among
-children would cause the finger to become crooked or to fall off.</p>
-<p>Thunder and lightning were feared by all tribes of the Lassen
-region. To Atsugewi thunder was the shouting of an old man who
-wears a rabbit skin and who goes about looking for women whom
-he kills. Mountain Maidu thought it to be due to an old man who
-lives up above and who was once a boy on earth, but who had been
-sent away because he was too fast and ate everything in sight.
-How he made the noise we do not know.</p>
-<blockquote>
-<p>Also, according to Dixon, &ldquo;Thunder is thought to be a man
-or boy of miraculous abilities. He eats trees chiefly. Had it
-not been for Mosquito, however, Thunder would have preyed on
-people. Mosquito deceived him, and refused to let Thunder
-know whence the blood and meat he brought came. Had Thunder
-found out that Mosquito obtained these from people, they, and
-not the trees, would have been his prey.&rdquo; To Yana, thunder
-was a mythical dog originally: &ldquo;... a child dug from the
-ground who accompanied Flint Boy to the west in the guise of
-a dog. He remained behind in the black storm clouds capping
-Bally Mountain, a high peak west of Redding, whence his
-terrific bark could be heard as thunder.&rdquo;</p>
-</blockquote>
-<p>Atsugewi and mountain Maidu, fearing thunder and lightning,
-talked to them and told them to go away. Old men in the latter tribe
-carried burning sticks in a circle to help drive them away. Atsugewi
-placed skins, preferably raccoon, on sticks held up in the air. They
-would wave these around and call aloud words to the effect that
-<span class="pb" id="Page_154">154</span>
-there are: &ldquo;Too many rattlesnakes here, go some other place!&rdquo;.
-Not only that, but frequently during a thunder storm, especially if
-violent, they would run into open areas, and sometimes even jump
-into water. Lightning was thought to be the weapon of the old man,
-Thunder Person, mentioned above. It came out of his mouth. Apparently
-Thunder Person was thought to assume the form of a
-raccoon on occasion. Maidu also believed that it would thunder
-whenever a person was bitten by a rattlesnake or when a great man
-died or when a woman had a miscarriage.</p>
-<p>Whirlwinds were generally regarded as evil omens which sickened
-people with bad dreams and captured peoples&rsquo; shadows or spirits.
-Indians tried to dodge or hide from them. They spoke informally to
-whirlwinds. Mountain Maidu said that they put pains into people.
-Whenever possible, Maidu smoked tobacco when talking to whirlwinds.
-Atsugewi threw dirt and water at the dust devils in an effort
-to destroy them. Yana did likewise, but they did not believe that
-spirits were inside of whirlwinds.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_155">155</div>
-<h2 id="c34"><span class="small">Chapter XXXII</span>
-<br />EARTHQUAKE BELIEFS</h2>
-<p>Lassen Peak and its vicinity are subject to many local earthquakes
-today. The geologic nature of the area indicates that this
-has been so for thousands of years. Lassen Peak was known to
-the Atsugewi as Wicuhirdiki, which has no meaning. The area was
-thought to be inhabited by a powerful spirit, but Garth notes that
-there seemed to be no fear about hunting and fishing there, and the
-Indians apparently utilized the hot springs medicinally. Garth
-recorded one pertinent bit of Atsugewi (Apwaruge) myth as follows:</p>
-<blockquote>
-<p>&ldquo;There once was an earthquake that shook this country
-up and made those boulders out on the flat shake. It shook
-so much that it made people sick. There was a very old
-woman whose hair was almost green. She picked up a rock
-and pounded it on another rock while she sang. She was
-praying for the world to stop shaking. Soon she got an
-answer, and the shaking ceased. Many people were killed.
-Those who lived in canyons were covered by rocks that were
-shaken down.&rdquo;</p>
-</blockquote>
-<p>Yana interpretation of the perplexing and frightening phenomenon
-of earthquakes is tied in, as we might expect, with mythology as
-follows, to quote from Sapir and Spier:</p>
-<blockquote>
-<p>&ldquo;A series of fabulous malignant beings were conceived
-as dwelling in certain localities. In the Sacramento River
-were water grizzlies (hat-en-na) which pulled fishermen
-down to devour (them).... They were spotted black and
-white, like dogs. Somewhere (not specified) was a serpent
-(e-k-u) which killed people. Near Terry&rsquo;s mill were believed
-to dwell malignant little beings (yo-yautsgi), like little
-children. They often enticed people and ate them up. At a
-marshy spot and spring on Round Mountain, called Ha-mupdi
-(?), dwelled a being called Mo-s-ugi-yauna who
-caused the ground to shake when he was displeased.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;Once Mo-s-ugi-yauna made a little baby of himself
-and put himself in the road of two women. One of them took
-it up and in sport gave it one of her nipples to suck, though
-she was really without milk. The baby kept sucking until
-the girl tried to take her breast away, but without success.
-The baby kept sucking at her, sucked up her flesh, and at
-last sucked up her whole body.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;This being was displeased if strangers came near and
-<span class="pb" id="Page_156">156</span>
-talked anything but Yana. Once some Yreka Indians came
-and talked Chinook jargon at that place, whereupon the earth
-began to shake violently. At last the owner of the place
-cried out to Mo-s-ugi-yauna that it was not he who had thus
-spoken and begged him &lsquo;in the doctor way&rsquo; to stop, whereupon
-he did.&rdquo;</p>
-</blockquote>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_157">157</div>
-<h2 id="c35"><span class="small">Chapter XXXIII</span>
-<br />CREATION BELIEFS AND OTHER LEGENDS</h2>
-<p>All local Indians believed in a mythical age when animals were
-persons and talked to each other. Both Atsugewi and mountain
-Maidu thought that floods played a part in the past scheme of things
-before people were created by gifted animal ancestors.</p>
-<blockquote>
-<p>Garth relates that &ldquo;Atsugewi mythology tells of the successive
-creation of two former worlds, the first of which was
-destroyed by a great flood and the second by a fire which
-Coyote instigated in an attempt to kill his rival, Grey Fox.
-After this both Coyote and Grey Fox descended from the
-heavens on a long rope to the primeval sea below. Here
-Grey Fox took combings from his fur (in some accounts a
-piece of sod) and proceeded to make land of it, stretching
-it to all sides until the present earth was made, in concept
-a large island floating in the sea. Grey Fox then created
-trees, animals, and finally people. The sun and moon were
-two brothers whom Grey Fox told to mount into the sky to
-light the world, the one during the day and the other at
-night.... Grey Fox first wanted to create two moons and
-two suns, but Coyote objected saying that it would be too
-hot. Grey Fox then made only the sun and one moon.&rdquo;</p>
-<p>In a somewhat different version, Dixon has recorded that
-the Atsugewi &ldquo;... recount how, in the beginning, there was
-only the illimitable sea and the cloudless sky. Slowly in the
-sky a tiny cloud began to form, and grew till it reached considerable
-proportions. Then gradually it condensed, and,
-becoming solid, became the Silver-Gray Fox, the Creator.
-Then arose immediately a fog; and from this, as it condensed,
-and coagulated as it were, arose Coyote. By a process of
-long-continued and intense thought, the Creator created a
-canoe into which both he and Coyote descended, and for long
-years floated and drifted aimlessly therein, till, the canoe
-having become moss-grown and decayed, they had, perforce, to
-consider the necessity of creating a world whereon they
-might take refuge.&rdquo;</p>
-</blockquote>
-<p>The Yana legends quoted below from Gifford and Klimek (first)
-and from Sapir and Spier are from the northern and central tribes,
-of that people. These legends are given in lieu of those of southern
-Yana and Yahi, with which this book should be concerned, because
-of the similarity of the culture of these four tribes. It is extremely
-<span class="pb" id="Page_158">158</span>
-unlikely that there would be very great differences in their legends
-and beliefs of creation. Obviously each tribe had its own unique
-details.</p>
-<blockquote>
-<p>North Yana: &ldquo;Coyote, assistant creator, was marplot (the
-evil schemer) who brought death into the world as follows:
-Coyote, his two sons, and other people went down-stream
-to get clamshells. The people played. Coyote&rsquo;s sons seized
-the clamshells and ran off with them. One escaped with the
-stolen shells, but the other was killed. The Coyote boy who
-escaped shouted to Old Man Coyote, who sat in his assembly
-house and observed daily what transpired. Coyote boy told
-the old man his brother was dead. Old Coyote then mourned
-for his son. Silver Fox told him not to cry, but to clean the
-assembly house and bring in the dead boy. They strewed the
-floor with straw and built fire. Silver Fox told old Coyote to
-lie down and pretend to sleep. &lsquo;Do not move,&rsquo; said Silver
-Fox. This was to cause dead boy to revive. They started to
-cut old Coyote&rsquo;s belly to get back the spirit of his dead son.
-Old Coyote shouted with pain and said: &lsquo;Let him stay dead.
-The dead shall remain dead.&rsquo; Thus he spoiled Silver Fox&rsquo;s
-plan for resurrection.&rdquo;</p>
-<p>Central Yana: &ldquo;... the creation of people took place at
-Wama-riwi, a village at the cove north of Battle Creek and
-several miles west of the present Shingletown, that is,
-roughly at the center of Yana territory. Here in the beginning
-were Lizard and Cottontail (in Dixon&rsquo;s version, Lizard, Gray
-Squirrel, and Coyote; in Curtin&rsquo;s, Silkworm) who had no
-predecessors. Discussing how people shall be made, Lizard
-lays down sticks which they carry to the four directions to
-become neighboring Indian tribes. Realizing that they have
-omitted those at the center, they put down bad (short) sticks
-there. Hence the Yana are shorter than any of their neighbors:
-a view held by the Yana and repeated by Powers as fact.
-In Dixon&rsquo;s version (from the same informant) Lizard carefully
-prepares three sticks for Atsugewi, Wintun, and
-Achomawi, and as an afterthought, short sticks for the Yana.
-The first three are placed to the east, west, and north; the
-others are boiled to transform them into humans. Coyote
-refuses to recognize them until they speak properly, that is,
-the Yana tongue. Curtin&rsquo;s version is quite different, although
-still the Yana are created from sticks: his presumably Northern
-Yana informant, himself a chief, placed the locale in his
-own country, at Round Mountain. Here Silkworm puts down
-<span class="pb" id="Page_159">159</span>
-three sticks, for the Yana chief, a woman, and an orphan,
-and a large number around the first for common people; he
-instructs them how to procure food and admonishes that they
-obey the chief.</p>
-<p>&ldquo;The origin of sex, or rather its proper attribution rests
-in the circumstance that in the beginning, women were men;
-men were women. The women were such poor hunters that
-people starved. To remedy this, Cottontail placed stones in
-a fire; when the women were seated, the stones burst, cutting
-their proper organs, and the women became men. Hands
-were then webbed like Lizard&rsquo;s. In order that they might
-handle bows and pestles, Lizard, experimenting, cut his
-fingers apart. With this as a model, he separated those of
-humans. (In Curtin&rsquo;s version, Water Lizard remedies the
-defect for himself alone.) In the beginning when people
-died, they rose from their graves again. Coyote, who objected
-to these improvements of human affairs, not only proposes
-that they shall stay dead but stamps down a dead man who
-would rise. When his own son dies, he changes his mind, but
-Lizard, Cottontail, and Gray Squirrel will have none of it,
-so that death and mourning were established forever.&rdquo;</p>
-<p>Again Garth is here quoted on Atsugewi beliefs: &ldquo;As in
-most of northern California there are numerous natural
-phenomena in Atsugewi territory which marked some mythological
-event. A low cone-like rock in Dixie Valley was
-said to be a basket belonging to Coyote. About four miles
-south of Pittville on the old village site of Mawakasui was
-an oblong rock ten feet or so in length which was said to be
-the petrified remains of a lizard whom Butterfly had killed.
-The extremely rough tongue of lava-covered land extending
-down the center of Hat Creek Valley was created by Porcupine
-to impede Coyote with whom Porcupine was running a
-race. Eagle Lake was said to have been formerly in Atsuge
-territory, but Coyote tired of the manzanita berries and
-camass roots which the people fed to him here, so he moved
-the lake to the Apwaruge country. Here the people fed him
-epos roots and treated him better.&rdquo;</p>
-<p>The Maidu concept of the world according to Dixon is that
-of &ldquo;... floating on the surface of a great sea, but anchored
-by five ropes stretched by the Creator, which hold the island
-steady, and prevent it from drifting about. Occasionally some
-being seizes these ropes and shakes them, and this causes
-<span class="pb" id="Page_160">160</span>
-earthquakes. The world was flat when first made from the
-bit of mud brought up from the depths of the primeval sea by
-the turtle (turtle does not appear in the northeast or mountain
-Maidu version) or from the robin&rsquo;s nest floating in the sea.
-Later the Creator and the Coyote went about over the world,
-making the rivers and mountains. Coyote was in general
-responsible for the latter, and for the extreme roughness of
-the country....&rdquo; The Creator&rsquo;s stone canoe is said to be
-visible today on top of Keddie Peak just north of Indian
-Valley (Greenville); also his and Coyote&rsquo;s dance houses
-may be seen as huge circular depressions at what is now
-Durham (near Chico).</p>
-<p>In his extensive collection of Maidu myths, Dixon observes
-that &ldquo;Throughout the myths there is nowhere any
-suggestion that the Maidu had any knowledge of any other
-region, that they were immigrants in the land where they
-live. This complete absence of any migration tradition is a
-feature which is very characteristic, and serves to differentiate
-the mythology not only of the Maidu, but of most
-Californian tribes, from that of the Southwest, and much of
-the eastern portion of the continent.&rdquo;</p>
-<p>He further states: &ldquo;here the creation is a real beginning:
-beyond it, there is nothing. In the beginning was only the
-great sea, calm and unlimited, to which, down from the clear
-sky, the Creator came, or on which he and Coyote were floating
-in a canoe. Of the origin of previous place of abode of
-either Creator or Coyote, the Maidu know nothing....&rdquo;</p>
-<p>&ldquo;... the whole series of tales told by the stock ...
-appeared to follow one another in a more or less regular and
-recognized order. Beginning with the creation, a rather
-systematic chain of events leads up to the appearance of the
-ancestors of the present Indians, with whose coming the
-mythic cycle came to a close. This mythic era, the be-be-ito,
-seems to fall into a number of periods, with each of
-which a group or set of myths has to deal. First, we have
-the coming of Ko-do-yan-pe (Earth-Namer or Creator) and
-Coyote, their discovery of this world, and the preparation of
-it for the &lsquo;first people&rsquo;; next the creation of these first
-people, and the making and planting of the germs of the
-human race, the Indians, who were to come after; third, the
-long period during which the first people were in conflict,
-and were in the end changed to the various animals in the
-present world. In this period Earth-Maker tries to put an
-<span class="pb" id="Page_161">161</span>
-end to Coyote, whose evil ways and wishes are in direct
-contrast to his own.&rdquo; Creator was always dignified and striving
-to make life easy, happy, and deathless for mankind,
-while Coyote, a trickster and amorous knave, worked with
-continued success to render life difficult for man with the
-result that man&rsquo;s lot is to suffer and finally to die. This
-belief was generally uniform among the tribes of the Lassen
-area. &ldquo;... During this period Earth-Maker strives for a
-last time in vain with Coyote, his defeat, and disappearance
-toward the East coincident with the appearance of the human
-race, which bursts forth from the spots where the original
-pairs had been buried long before.&rdquo; These potential human
-beings had been made &ldquo;... as tiny wooden figures by the
-Creator, and planted here and there in pairs, that they might
-grow in secret and safety during the time of monsters and
-great conflicts....&rdquo;</p>
-<p>In other myths also there is great similarity among the
-Maidu, Atsugewi, Yana, and Yahi. Dixon says concerning
-&ldquo;... The theft of fire, for instance.... In all, the fire
-is held by a man and his daughters, and is discovered largely
-through the agency of the Lizard; the fire is watched and
-guarded by a sentinel bird, is stolen in consequence of his
-sleeping while on guard, and pursuit by the women is hindered
-by the strings of their skirts being cut as they sleep.
-The fire is brought back by a group of animals, among whom
-the fire is divided for safety; and the pursuers, who are
-usually Thunder, and his two daughters Rain and Hail, are
-put to flight.&rdquo;</p>
-</blockquote>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_162">162</div>
-<h2 id="c36"><span class="small">Chapter XXXIV</span>
-<br />MEDICAL TREATMENT</h2>
-<p>The bulk of the important doctoring was done by shamans or
-medicine men. This was all based on supernatural faith and fear.
-As we know from advances of our modern civilization in the field
-of psychosomatic medicine, such &ldquo;in the mind&rdquo; cures were highly
-effective in practice. With all due respect to the modern medical
-profession, it is a foregone conclusion that from 50% to 75% of the
-patients of today&rsquo;s general medical doctor are going to get well
-eventually without any bonafide medical treatment anyway. This
-percentage favored the shamans too.</p>
-<p>Besides shamans there were secondary Indian doctors called
-herbalists. Among Atsugewi, these persons did not have the power
-of shamans, and could not cure disease, but only check or weaken
-it. However, this class of doctor did administer various medicines
-internally and externally, and gave treatments which may actually
-have been&mdash;in some cases&mdash;of benefit beyond mere faith healing.
-These remedies were handed down, as was all Indian
-knowledge, by word of mouth from generation to generation. Old
-men taught the young.</p>
-<p>Herbalists were able to make snake bite victims recover; treatment
-included sucking the wound. Cauterization or burning of
-affected parts was practiced. Atsugewi treated rheumatism in
-patients with vapor baths in a trench of hot coals on which pine
-needles and yerba santa or mountain balm branches were placed,
-with a robe over all.</p>
-<p>Mountain Maidu smoked wild parsnip for headaches, colds, and
-wounds. Mountain Maidu and Atsugewi believed that toothaches
-were caused by the presence of worms in the teeth. Corrective
-poultices were placed on the cheek. Yana did this too, but placed
-a hot stone on the poultice, and also bit on a mole&rsquo;s front foot,
-dried, to relieve the pain. Atsugewi often set the poultice on fire
-which might leave permanent scars.</p>
-<p>The seeds of rosinweed, a member of the sunflower family, were
-collected, then shelled, cooked, dried, and finally pounded. This
-medicine was taken for chills. Wild iris roots were chewed raw for
-coughing.</p>
-<p>Decoctions, that is, water in which plants had been boiled to
-extract their medicinal juices, were drunk. California angelica, a
-member of the parsley family, was used in this way for colds, diarrhea,
-headache, et cetera. This medication was popular with all
-<span class="pb" id="Page_163">163</span>
-local tribes for treating many ills.</p>
-<p>Yana used poultices of roots of bracken fern, pounded and warmed
-for application to burns. The bulbs of false solomon seal were
-pounded fine and also hot soap-root poultices were applied to
-swellings, pains, or boils. Peeled California angelica roots were
-crushed and laid on aching heads.</p>
-<p>Ground squirrel grease was used to soften rough hands and to
-relieve cracking of the skin from chapping.</p>
-<p>Atsugewi employed green leaves of chokecherry, pounded as
-poultices, for cuts, sores, and bruises. The boiled liquor of pounded
-chokecherry bark was used for bathing wounds to promote healing.</p>
-<p>They employed decoctions of wormwood to prevent blood poisoning
-and to treat cuts. Decoctions of greenleaf manzanita leaves
-were good for cuts and burns. Both oak bark and oak gall decoctions
-were drunk to prevent infection and catching colds and
-were given to women in childbirth. Atsugewi also chewed raw
-juniper berries as a treatment for colds.</p>
-<p>Obviously there was a host of other treatments as we know of
-a large variety of other plants, roots, and fruits which were used
-medicinally.</p>
-<p>Broken bones were set as best they could be set, and were
-bound up in simple but effective splints.</p>
-<p>For general good health Garth states that an Atsugewi &ldquo;...
-man chewed the top shoot off a young pine tree. Especially was
-this done by a father after his wife bore a child.&rdquo;</p>
-<p>In Yana sweat houses and probably in those of other tribes too,
-veins were cut with obsidian chips to &ldquo;let the bad blood out&rdquo; if
-a person felt ill.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_164">164</div>
-<h2 id="c37"><span class="small">Chapter XXXV</span>
-<br />SPIRITS AND GHOSTS</h2>
-<p>Ghosts and spirits were one and the same, and were to local
-Indians as souls are conceived by white man, yet the Indian conception
-was more variable. Some spirits were good and others were
-evil, but all were feared and avoided whenever possible. They
-were frequently associated with omens and had somewhat the
-appearance of human beings. Among Atsugewi they were visible
-only to shamans, but were heard by nearly all persons. Yana commoners
-both saw and heard spirits, but only very rarely.</p>
-<p>The spirit left the body right after death. Mountain Maidu thought
-that it turned back once before going on. Yana believed that the
-spirit tarried in the vicinity of the body for a while, going to the
-south first briefly for a sort of trial or evaluation which included
-determination as to whether or not the nose septum had been
-pierced. Then, as all local Indians apparently agreed, the ghost or
-spirit went to a distant place in the west via the Milky Way. Yana
-thought that there was some distinction in destination of good and
-bad persons&rsquo; ghosts, but our other tribes conceived only of one
-place for all spirits finally. We do not today have a very clear
-understanding of the aboriginal Indian concept of heaven except
-that people lived in this land of the dead in sweat houses, hunting,
-eating, loving, and sleeping, but with complete absence of sickness.
-Concepts of the life of spirits changed with the coming of
-the whites preceding even the advent of pioneer settler days. All
-information in that regard which students have been able to gain
-from informants in this region is decidedly flavored with Christian
-dogma.</p>
-<p>Spirits or ghosts returned to old haunts of the body on occasion
-or, more often, to the vicinity of the grave. For this reason burial
-grounds were usually well removed from villages. Bad smells
-would drive spirits away, while whistling and flowers attracted
-them. Fiber-wound crossed sticks were hung in sweat houses of
-Yana tribes to keep spirits out. All tribes of the Lassen area
-thought that ghosts visited the living in dreams and also considered
-it feasible that the spirits of people might go to visit those of the
-dead when the persons were asleep, or more commonly when the
-living were unconscious.</p>
-<p>Mountain Maidu didn&rsquo;t speak much about ghosts, but if one had
-been making a nuisance of itself by visiting much in dreams, they
-fed it by having all members of the family throw small portions of
-<span class="pb" id="Page_165">165</span>
-food into the fire before commencing to eat their meals. Besides,
-a shaman was hired under these circumstances to sing for the
-dreamer. The same ceremony was observed by the Atsugewi. It
-was also the practice of the dreamer in this tribe to eat with a dog,
-spitting out some of the food, saying to the dog, &ldquo;You better eat
-for me. Take that spirit away.&rdquo; Atsugewi were evidently very
-conscious of ghosts for they spoke to them, spit out chewed epos
-roots for the spirits, smoked tobacco for them, burned hair and skin
-to repel them, and tobacco and feather bundles were hung near the
-house doorways for their benefit. New Atsugewi parents had a
-unique ritual at the time of their first meat eating after the taboos
-of childbirth&mdash;they chewed small amounts of meat and put this on
-their toes for the dogs to eat.</p>
-<blockquote>
-<p>Garth says of Atsugewi spirit beliefs: &ldquo;A man who was
-about to die, whether he felt sick or not, had a peculiar
-odor about him. If he went hunting, deer ran from him saying,
-&lsquo;Phew, that man smells bad.&rsquo; Coyotes and dogs would
-come close to him and bark at him. He would die unless a
-shaman could remove this aura of death from him.&rdquo;</p>
-</blockquote>
-<p>There were many omens of a spirit nature which foretold calamity.
-To Atsugewi upon hearing the cries of certain animals at night,
-especially if an owl hooted at one, or if one saw a kingsnake, death
-was supposed to descend upon a relative.</p>
-<p>If evil spirits frightened a person and tried to steal his soul,
-the spirits could be foiled by standing with one&rsquo;s feet widely spread
-apart. If followed by a ghost, a person might turn around, retracing
-his footsteps while the spirit continued in the direction one had
-been traveling initially.</p>
-<p>When a person was asleep his spirit could wander around. If,
-during these wanderings, a bad spirit caught the person&rsquo;s spirit
-before he could awaken, the person was deprived of it.</p>
-<p>Also the spirit on occasion left a person voluntarily if it didn&rsquo;t
-like the body, as for instance, if it smelled badly. When a person&rsquo;s
-spirit or soul were gone, only the heart was left to keep him alive,
-and he would succumb easily to the first sickness. For this reason,
-Atsugewi shamans periodically examined all the people to see if
-any spirits were missing. When anyone was found lacking his spirit,
-the shaman had to work to bring it back, sucking it into the person&rsquo;s
-head. If several spirits were missing at once, it was not easy to
-get the right spirit back into its own body. They didn&rsquo;t know what
-would happen if a person got the wrong soul back into his body&mdash;but
-it wasn&rsquo;t good.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_166">166</div>
-<h2 id="c38"><span class="small">Chapter XXXVI</span>
-<br />SHAMANISM AND DOCTORING</h2>
-<p>Shamans or doctors, more commonly known to modern Americans
-by the name medicine men, were important in the lives of all Indians
-but, among ours, probably to the highest degree among the Maidu.
-Whether we, with our scientific enlightenment today, are after all
-happier and of greater peace of mind, than the aborigines were or
-not, is a philosophical consideration beyond the scope of this book.
-The fact of the matter is that mankind in the past invariably has
-resorted to the supernatural to explain things not understood.
-Indians are a case in point&mdash;being totally without scientific explanations,
-mysticism and the supernatural pervaded their whole
-culture&mdash;their every day activities&mdash;to a point which to us today
-seems fantastic, yet understandable in a way. If you and I had been
-in the Indian&rsquo;s place, might not we also have subscribed whole
-heartedly to these same beliefs with which we would have grown up,
-and which our loved and trusted elders had taught us in good faith?
-Shamanism gave to the Indians a feeling of comfort and, shall we
-say, security?&mdash;a sort of foundation of faith which all men must
-have for the living of reasonably satisfying lives.</p>
-<p>Shamans were men of influence in the village, with prestige
-second only to that of the chief. Women shamans were uncommon
-and usually possessed less potent power. The life of a shaman
-was precarious because if he failed to effect a high percentage of
-cures or if he were &ldquo;proven&rdquo; responsible for sending pains which
-caused death to persons, he might be killed&mdash;sometimes even with
-the advance approval of the chief, and without retaliation by the
-offending shaman&rsquo;s relatives. When this was done, he was cut into
-pieces, not for the morbid reasons, the reader might suspect, but
-for the practical reason that the parts of his body could in this way
-be disposed of in widely scattered places. Otherwise there was the
-danger that he might, with the help of his power, be reassembled
-and again be able to continue his malpractice and to include his
-murderers among future victims.</p>
-<p>There were several kinds of shamans among the local Indians.
-Each tribe in the Lassen area had the all important Sucking Shaman.
-Atsugewi and mountain Maidu also had special Bear, Rattlesnake,
-and Weather Shamans while only Yana had Singing Shamans in
-addition.</p>
-<p>The power of shamans was much more potent than mere &ldquo;luck&rdquo;
-which came easily to the majority of ordinary mortals in dreams,
-<span class="pb" id="Page_167">167</span>
-during puberty ceremonies, and the like. This &ldquo;luck&rdquo; was a weak
-supernatural blessing which was not sought, but came voluntarily
-and gave the person skill and success in crafts and daily pursuits
-such as fishing, hunting certain animals or birds, canoe making,
-et cetera.</p>
-<p>It would be impractical in this book to give the complicated and
-voluminous details of all phases of shamanism as conceived and
-practiced by each of the four local tribes. The following information
-has been somewhat generalized in the hope that the reader will get
-the &ldquo;feel&rdquo; of the shaman concept which was essentially the same
-for all the tribes of the Lassen area.</p>
-<p>Power was usually sought by men desiring to be shamans, but
-all were not successful in such quests. On the other hand shamanistic
-power came to some voluntarily, and it was dangerous not to
-accept this power if it came to one. To refuse might cause death.
-One could tell when one was successful in getting power because
-one would bleed from the nose or mouth. He would also learn to
-sing and dance, and would receive instructions and paraphernalia
-from his guardian spirit.</p>
-<p>Shamanistic power could be acquired in a number of ways, not
-all of which applied to each tribe being considered. A rare means
-was by inheritance. If an old shaman had power and if this power
-or guardian spirit liked his son or nephew, it would say &ldquo;Sometimes
-I&rsquo;m going to play with that boy&rdquo; and so it goes to the boy. At sundown
-the latter listens to it sing to him and he gets the power. The
-boy learns about it in the vision and from the old shaman&rsquo;s instructions.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig152">
-<img src="images/p44.jpg" alt="" width="449" height="501" />
-<p class="pcap">Small portions of yellow hammer or red-shafted quill headbands.</p>
-</div>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_168">168</div>
-<p>Another infrequent way to gain power was involuntarily when
-seriously ill, while in a trance, or when dreaming.</p>
-<p>The third and usual method of acquiring the shamanistic power
-was by vision quest. It was a difficult ordeal. This might be undertaken
-at various times of life, but most commonly at or near puberty.
-In questing power there was no assurance of success, no matter
-how sincere a person might be, or how hard he might try. Successful
-shamans could quest repeatedly for additional powers.</p>
-<p>Youths were prepared for questing by being lectured to by fathers
-or uncles who also pierced their nose septa. Each youth went alone
-and unclothed into certain portions of the mountains for several
-days and nights. He slept little and fasted, eating little or nothing
-at all; all flesh was taboo. The questing usually included swimming
-in lakes or special pools and placing the nose piercing stick
-in an underwater niche, and (Yana) securing certain bird feathers.
-He built a fire, smoking his body over it, and cut himself deliberately.
-If successful, the power came to him in a trance or faint
-producing bleeding from the nose or mouth.</p>
-<p>The guardian spirit communicated with the novice, appearing in
-a vision usually. It gave instructions and taught its special ceremonial
-song. To shamans of some tribes the guardian spirit looked
-something like a human; to others it looked like a bug or like a
-small hair. This was the &ldquo;pain&rdquo; or poison object and yet was
-considered to be a guardian spirit at the same time. This is what
-the novice acquired in becoming a shaman. This pain or guardian
-spirit could come from any of many sources. It was alive and could
-talk, and gave the novice certain resultant powers. Most commonly
-powers were from animals such as coyote, bear, and the like, but
-also might come from sun, moon, wind, thunder and lightning, eagle,
-hawk, small birds, reptiles, frog, or oldman spirit.</p>
-<p>The novice then acquired what we might call magic feathers.
-There were several types including the popular salmon colored
-flicker feathers. Most important, however, was the feather tuft
-known as kaku among the Atsugewi. This allegedly was found
-in finished form and not made. So full of power was the kaku that
-it could not be kept in a house. It was placed outside securely
-tied to a willow branch beside a stream or hidden inside a hollow
-tree trunk. The kaku was able to move by itself so had to be tied
-down or placed under a rock. When the novice shaman discovered
-his kaku, the feathers were singing; when he died, blood dripped
-from its feathers!</p>
-<p>Upon his return to the village, the successful seeker stayed out
-<span class="pb" id="Page_169">169</span>
-of dwelling houses for a day or two. Among some tribes he was
-sick for this period. Universally he sweated and swam. Eating
-habits of the novice shaman varied in different cases, but were
-always as dictated by the specific instructions given to him by his
-guardian spirit. Invariably all forms of flesh were shunned. He
-smoked tobacco and gave his first hunting kill to an old man.
-During the novice period the new shaman was helped by old shamans
-at the fireside in the sweat house. He did much dancing, singing,
-handled hot coals and fire, bled from the mouth, and might fall into
-a trance.</p>
-<p>In contrast to herbalist doctors who gave private treatment, that
-of shamans was public and usually conducted indoors, preferably
-in sweat lodges. The shaman needed singing help and the more
-help and the more persons who attended his doctoring the better.
-Sucking Shamans were the most important and required official
-assistants. These included one or more interpreters to communicate
-with the lay helpers or supporters, while the shaman was doctoring,
-and an outside speaker to help call the shaman&rsquo;s spirits. Doctoring
-could take from one to three days and nights.</p>
-<p>To diagnose the patient&rsquo;s ills the shaman danced about, blowing
-smoke on him, and singing with the help of the audience. The
-shamans also drank water, sometimes with a tube, from portable
-stone mortars with spirit power. They often squirted water from
-their mouths. A whistle was used in some cases and often the
-supernatural powerful cocoon rattle. Among mountain Maidu herb
-medicines might be administered to the patient also.</p>
-<p>At length the shaman&rsquo;s guardian spirit or pain told him the
-location of the disease object, and then he could see or feel it.
-Often the shaman learned further from the spirit just who it was who
-had sent the disease object to plague his patient.</p>
-<p>Curing the afflicted was accomplished next by the shaman&rsquo;s
-sucking this pain or disease object out of some portion of the
-person&rsquo;s body. The evil pain could be any curious small object
-and this the shaman exhibited to all present. The malignant pain
-was disposed of in a number of ways. It might be sent back to the
-owner who sent it, that is, the offending shaman. Or, it might be
-sent to his children who would be doomed because a shaman could
-not doctor his own pain. Other times the curing shaman would
-destroy the disease object by biting it and burning it or dispose of
-it by taking the pain into his own charmed body.</p>
-<p>When a whole community had been affected by a pain sent by
-an evil shaman, the pain usually hid in the bushes nearby. In such
-<span class="pb" id="Page_170">170</span>
-a case, the shaman had to be very powerful to
-get the best of the situation. First he conducted
-the ceremony of detection of one victim
-in the usual sweat house manner. Once the
-shaman found out where the trouble was, he
-went outdoors with the villagers to help in
-corraling the offending pain. Frequently only
-after a lengthy search was he successful in
-finding the pain and then capturing it. Upon
-taking it into his body it might be so powerful
-as to cause him to go into a trance. In this
-event his assistants had to support him bodily,
-and had to sing for him, otherwise the shaman
-might die. Without wishing to appear facetious
-or disparaging, it can be said that a good
-shaman had to be an excellent showman as
-well.</p>
-<p>Sucking Shamans were obligated to accept
-all cases which they were asked to treat. If
-they refused any and the afflicted died, then
-the shamans might be killed themselves by
-relatives of the persons who succumbed. The
-thinking was that if a shaman refused a case,
-he must have had something to do with making
-the person sick in the first place.</p>
-<p>Payment was always made to the shaman.
-The amount was determined by the patient&rsquo;s
-relatives. They would take the offering to the
-shaman when engaging him, but payment was
-not made at that time. The shaman looked
-over the proffered payment and might ask for more or for a different
-kind of payment. To give himself a foolproof alibi in case of failure
-to cure, and to increase his prestige if he did cure, he might reply
-to the effect that &ldquo;The beads already have the smell of death on
-them, but I&rsquo;ll see what I can do about it.&rdquo; The payment was placed
-near the patient during healing treatment and was not actually
-collected by the shaman if the patient died within a few weeks or
-months. The shaman&rsquo;s assistants were also paid, but in lesser
-amounts.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig153">
-<img src="images/p45.jpg" alt="" width="124" height="499" />
-<p class="pcap">Maidu shaman
-ceremonial neck
-pendant knife of
-obsidian, nine and
-one half inches
-long (after Dixon)</p>
-</div>
-<p>Besides the main function of curing, other good powers of the
-shamans were the ability to foretell future events, to see what was
-going on at distant places, and to locate lost or stolen articles.
-Among certain tribes control of weather was also possible by Sucking
-<span class="pb" id="Page_171">171</span>
-Shamans&mdash;among others there were special shamans with
-weather power.</p>
-<p>Evil powers of Sucking Shamans could cause illness or death.
-This was done by talking to the pain and sending it to the victim.
-The shaman might put it on the end of a willow stick and point it
-at the person while singing and smoking tobacco. This could go
-on all night. Transmission of the pain to the intended victim was
-facilitated by contact, such as sneaking up behind him and touching
-him, or by putting the disease pain in his food or under his doorstep.
-The bad pain might also be dispatched by blowing it through
-a pipe or putting it in the victim&rsquo;s pipe, or by talking to the
-shaman&rsquo;s own animal spirit, injecting the pain into it and then sending
-the animal to the victim. This power animal might just take
-it to the intended person, or it might actually attack and bite him.
-If the evil pain had been successfully sent, and the intended dire
-results occurred, the relatives of the victim had a moral right to
-kill the offending shaman, without fear of retaliation. It seems that
-the culprit was usually recognized&mdash;obviously often mistakenly.
-It follows that shamans&rsquo; lives were somewhat precarious, not knowing
-who was going to find damning evidence against them.</p>
-<p>By somewhat the same means as described above shamans could
-steal a person&rsquo;s spirit or soul, rendering that person liable to
-quick and sure death from the slightest accident or illness.
-Shamans could be hired to perform these evil powers.</p>
-<p>Singing Shamans were dreamers foretelling the future and telling
-the living what their dead relatives wanted them to do. The
-Singing Shaman was always male among mountain Maidu. Our other
-tribes did not have this specialist, instead such powers were in
-the repertoire of the Sucking Shaman.</p>
-<p>Among Yana and Yahi tribes, apparently, weather doctoring
-could be done by any shaman, and this was usually the case among
-Atsugewi. However, mountain Maidu had specialized Weather
-Shamans. These were men who were capable not only of producing
-rain, snow, or hail, but also fog and high winds, or ending any of
-these.</p>
-<p>Rattlesnake Shamans were generally women among Atsugewi
-and men among mountain Maidu. They could protect people from
-rattlesnakes or cure bites. The latter was accomplished by sucking
-which removed snakes and snakes&rsquo; teeth from the wound.</p>
-<p>Bear Shamans did not exist among Yana tribes. Among Atsugewi
-and mountain Maidu these were not specialists, instead bear power
-was an additional skill of Sucking Shamans. They were almost
-<span class="pb" id="Page_172">172</span>
-always men and pertained not to Black Bear, but only to the California
-Grizzly. They wore bear skin, hair, teeth, and claws and
-simulated the bear&rsquo;s actions in treating patients. Bear Shamans
-were called primarily to minister to bear wounded persons from
-whom they sucked out bear blood and teeth.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_173">173</div>
-<h2 id="c39"><span class="small">Chapter XXXVII</span>
-<br />MISCELLANEOUS MAGIC</h2>
-<p>All tribes of the Lassen region exercised miscellaneous more or
-less supernatural powers which one might term magic.</p>
-<p>Examples were: carrying a turtleshell on one&rsquo;s belt which
-rendered a person immune to rattlesnake strikes, or, among Maidu
-the rubbing of the root of <i>Angelica breweri</i> on the legs to keep
-rattlesnakes away. Poisoning of persons could be done by some
-skilled people (not shamans) by rubbing an unspecified substance
-on their hands and then touching the victim&rsquo;s body; this could drive
-him crazy or kill him.</p>
-<p>To mountain Maidu the number five was sacred and lucky according
-to Dixon.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig154">
-<img src="images/p46.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="442" />
-<p class="pcap">Yana charmstones and a fir twig basket container for such charms.</p>
-</div>
-<p>Charm stones, usually in pairs were found by many fortunate
-Indians. They were smooth and rounded and were especially effective
-if possessing rings or other special markings on them which
-were actually surface traces of mineral veins. Quartz crystals, rare
-in this volcanic region, were also highly prized as charm stones.
-An ideal storage place for charm stones in their special basketry
-containers was in a rattlesnake &ldquo;den&rdquo; where such snakes tended
-<span class="pb" id="Page_174">174</span>
-to hibernate in the winter. At any rate charm stones were kept hidden
-and the owner would secretly rub them on himself to gain good
-luck in gambling or in other pursuits which involved much in the
-way of chance.</p>
-<div class="img" id="fig155">
-<img src="images/p47.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="185" />
-<p class="pcap">Atsugewi charmstones</p>
-</div>
-<p>Prayers for a variety of reasons were offered simply by the individual.
-It was common practice every few days or so to make
-token food offerings at mealtime for no specific reason. The bits
-of food might be thrown to the east or into the fire.</p>
-<p class="center"><span class="gs">* * * * * * * *</span></p>
-<p>Thus ends this resume of the customs and beliefs of the tribes
-of the Lassen region&mdash;tribes virtually extinct as such today&mdash;tribes
-which once lived here among the scenic beauties of Lassen
-Volcanic National Park. We, the descendants of the relentless
-conquerors of these local Indians, come here now to enjoy ourselves
-and to refresh our bodies and spirits. As we do this on the lands
-of the vanquished, we owe them not only a moment of thoughtful
-reverence, but also whatever kindness and aid we are able to give
-their descendants.</p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_175">175</div>
-<h2 id="c40"><span class="small">BIBLIOGRAPHY</span></h2>
-<dl class="undent"><dt>Dixon, Roland B.: BASKETRY DESIGNS OF THE INDIANS OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA</dt>
-<dd>Feb. 12, 1902, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, Vol. 17, Part 1</dd>
-<dt>Dixon, Roland B.: MAIDU MYTHS</dt>
-<dd>June 30, 1902, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, Vol. 17, Part 2</dd>
-<dt>Dixon, Roland B.: THE NORTHERN MAIDU</dt>
-<dd>May 1905, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, Vol. 17, Part 3</dd>
-<dt>Garth, Thomas R.: KINSHIP TERMINOLOGY, MARRIAGE PRACTICES, AND BEHAVIOR TOWARD KIN AMONG THE ATSUGEWI</dt>
-<dd>July 1944, American Anthropologist, Vol. 46, No. 3</dd>
-<dt>Garth, Thomas R.: EMPHASIS ON INDUSTRIOUSNESS AMONG THE ATSUGEWI</dt>
-<dd>Oct. 1945, American Anthropologist, Vol. 47, No. 4</dd>
-<dt>Garth, Thomas R.: ATSUGEWI ETHNOGRAPHY</dt>
-<dd>Feb. 1953, Anthropological Records, University of California, Vol. 14, No. 2</dd>
-<dt>Gifford, E. W. and Klimek, Stanislaw: CULTURE ELEMENT DISTRIBUTIONS: II, YANA</dt>
-<dd>1936, University of California Publications in American Archeology and Ethnology, Vol. 37, No. 2</dd>
-<dt>Heizer, R. F. and Whipple, M. A.: THE CALIFORNIA INDIANS</dt>
-<dd>1951, University of California Press</dd>
-<dt>Klimek, Stanislaw: CULTURE ELEMENT DISTRIBUTIONS: I, THE STRUCTURE OF THE CALIFORNIA INDIAN CULTURE</dt>
-<dd>1935, University of California Publications in American Archeology and Ethnology</dd>
-<dt>Kniffen, Fred B.: ACHOMAWI GEOGRAPHY</dt>
-<dd>1928, University of California Publications in American Archeology and Ethnology</dd>
-<dt>Kroeber, A. L.: HANDBOOK OF THE INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA</dt>
-<dd>1925, Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin. No. 78</dd>
-<dt>Kroeber, A. L.: CULTURE ELEMENT DISTRIBUTIONS: XV, SALT, DOGS, AND TOBACCO</dt>
-<dd>Feb. 1941, Anthropological Records, University of California, Vol. 6, No. 1</dd>
-<dt class="pb" id="Page_176">176</dt>
-<dt>Mason, Otis T.: REPORT OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM</dt>
-<dd>1902</dd>
-<dt>Merriam, C. Hart: CLASSIFICATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE PIT RIVER INDIAN TRIBES</dt>
-<dd>Smithsonian Institute, Vol. 78, No. 3</dd>
-<dt>Pope, Saxton T.: THE MEDICAL HISTORY OF ISHI</dt>
-<dd>May 15, 1920, University of California Publications in American Archeology and Ethnology, Vol. 13, No. 5</dd>
-<dt>Sapir, Edward: THE POSITION OF YANA IN THE HOKAN STOCK</dt>
-<dd>June 1917, University of California Publications in American Archeology and Ethnology, Vol. 13, No. 1</dd>
-<dt>Sapir, Edward and Spier, Leslie: NOTES ON THE CULTURE OF THE YANA</dt>
-<dd>Sept. 1943, Anthropological Records, University of California, Vol. 3, No. 3</dd>
-<dt>Sauer, Carl O.: EARLY RELATIONS OF MAN TO PLANTS</dt>
-<dd>Jan. 1947, Geographical Review</dd>
-<dt>Vogelin, Ermine W.: CULTURE ELEMENT DISTRIBUTIONS: XX, NORTHEAST CALIFORNIA</dt>
-<dd>June 1942, Anthropological Records, University of California, Vol. 7, No. 2</dd>
-<dt>Waterman, T. T.: THE YANA INDIANS</dt>
-<dd>Feb. 1918, University of California Publications in American Archeology and Ethnology, Vol. 13, No. 2</dd></dl>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_177">177</div>
-<p class="tbcenter"><span class="ss">ASK
-<br />THE MAN IN THE
-<br />NATIONAL PARK SERVICE UNIFORM</span></p>
-<p class="center"><i class="ss">He&rsquo;ll be glad to help you!</i></p>
-<div class="pb" id="Page_178">178</div>
-<p class="tbcenter"><span class="ss">BE PROUD OF
-<br />LASSEN VOLCANIC NATIONAL PARK!</span></p>
-<p>As a citizen of the United States it belongs to you.
-Keep it unspoiled for your next visit and for future
-generations by helping to:</p>
-<dl class="undent"><dt>1. Prevent forest fires.</dt>
-<dt>2. Protect the flowers, the animal life, and the rock and mineral formations.</dt>
-<dt>3. Keep it clean.</dt></dl>
-<hr class="dwide" />
-<p class="tb">This booklet is one of a series prepared by the
-Loomis Museum Association, a non-profit distributing
-organization sponsored by the Naturalist Department
-of Lassen Volcanic National Park. The Association
-is dedicated to the accumulation and dissemination
-of information concerning the history and natural
-history of this park. Toward this end it has published
-the following books available by mail. The post
-office address is Mineral, California. During the
-summer, these publications are also available at the
-Loomis Museum sales desk at Manzanita Lake, Lassen
-Volcanic National Park.</p>
-<table class="center">
-<tr><td class="l">GEOLOGY OF LASSEN&rsquo;S LANDSCAPE, Schulz </td><td class="r">55&cent;</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="l">PICTORIAL HISTORY OF THE LASSEN VOLCANO, Loomis </td><td class="r">85&cent;</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="l">GUIDE TO LASSEN PEAK HIGHWAY, Schulz </td><td class="r">25&cent;</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="l">STORIES OF LASSEN&rsquo;S PLACE NAMES, Schulz </td><td class="r">40&cent;</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="l">BIRDS OF LASSEN VOLCANIC NATIONAL PARK AND VICINITY, Stebbins </td><td class="r">85&cent;</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="l">FISH AND FISHING IN LASSEN VOLCANIC NATIONAL PARK, Potts </td><td class="r">40&cent;</td></tr>
-<tr><td class="l">INDIANS OF THE LASSEN AREA Schulz </td><td class="r">85&cent;</td></tr>
-</table>
-<p>For mail orders please add 12% for postage and
-packing. If the addressee is in California also add
-3% sales tax. Prices are subject to change without
-notice.</p>
-<div class="img">
-<img src="images/p50.jpg" id="ncfig2" alt="Association logo" width="300" height="279" />
-</div>
-<h2>Transcriber&rsquo;s Notes</h2>
-<ul>
-<li>Silently corrected a few typos.</li>
-<li>Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook is public-domain in the country of publication.</li>
-<li>In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by _underscores_.</li>
-</ul>
-<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INDIANS OF LASSEN VOLCANIC NATIONAL PARK AND VICINITY ***</div>
-<div style='text-align:left'>
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+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 65605 ***</div>
+<div id="cover" class="img">
+<img id="coverpage" src="images/cover.jpg" alt="Indians of Lassen Volcanic National Park and Vicinity" width="794" height="1225" />
+</div>
+<div class="box">
+<h1><span class="cur">INDIANS
+<br /><span class="smallest"><span class="smallest">OF</span>
+<br />LASSEN VOLCANIC NATIONAL PARK AND VICINITY</span></span></h1>
+<p class="center">by
+<br />Paul E. Schulz</p>
+<p class="tbcenter">Published by the</p>
+<p class="center">Loomis Museum Association
+<br />Lassen Volcanic National Park
+<br />Mineral, California</p>
+</div>
+<p class="tbcenter">Copyright
+<br />1954</p>
+<p class="center smaller">Printed in the United States of America
+<br />Susanville <i class="large b">Lassen Litho</i> California</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_I">I</div>
+<h2 id="c1"><span class="small"><i>PREFACE</i></span></h2>
+<p>It is with some temerity that the author, a geologist by training
+and an interpretive naturalist by occupation, undertakes to compile
+this booklet on Indians who once inhabited the vicinity of Lassen
+Peak.</p>
+<p>The main mission of a naturalist, as he functions in the National
+Park Service, is to act as an interpreter of technical information
+gathered together by research scientists. It is his obligation as
+well as his privilege to make these data of history and natural
+history available for visitors to units administered by the National
+Park Service of the United States Department of the Interior. The
+Park Naturalist is challenged to create in visitors an eager interest
+by presenting information in an appealing manner so that the great
+stories of the respective areas may be learned easily and
+pleasantly. In doing this, visitors gain fuller understanding and
+hence better appreciation of the significance of these areas. This
+leads to greater enjoyment of the scenic masterpieces, the scientific
+natural wonders, and the historic shrines of areas of the
+National Park System. Not only is the visitor&rsquo;s enjoyment enhanced
+by his active reception of the interpretive facilities and services
+offered him by the Federal Government, but his pride is stimulated
+in these areas which have been set aside for his own use as well
+as for the benefit of future generations. A citizen&rsquo;s pride in his
+park areas in turn develops a love of country. It also promotes a
+sense of responsibility which helps the National Park Service fight
+vandalism, fire carelessness, and litter carelessness to the ultimate
+benefit of all concerned.</p>
+<p>Little on the pages which follow may be classed as original
+material for it is in the role of interpreter that the undersigned has
+assembled information gleaned by qualified students.</p>
+<p>The term &ldquo;Amerind&rdquo; instead of the traditional word &ldquo;Indian&rdquo;
+was seriously considered for use in this book but finally rejected.
+Ever since Christopher Columbus&rsquo; historic mistake the word Indian
+has had a confusing two-fold meaning. Columbus, of course, thought
+that he had been successful in reaching India when his little fleet
+touched the shores of the New World. Hence he applied the word
+Indian to the people he found there, supposing them to be natives
+of India. The term Amerind is a coined contraction of the words:
+American Indian. The use of Amerind has been advocated by some
+authors to do away with confusion, and it does seem to be an
+excellent name, but it has not enjoyed wide usage by the American
+public.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_II">II</div>
+<p>I am deeply indebted to the following named persons whose
+research and learned writings have provided the bulk of the information
+contained in the present publication. The bibliography carries
+the titles of the specific references used.</p>
+<dl class="undent"><dt>Dr. Roland B. Dixon</dt>
+<dt>Mr. Thomas R. Garth</dt>
+<dt>Dr. E. W. Gifford</dt>
+<dt>Dr. Robert F. Heizer</dt>
+<dt>Dr. Stanislaw Klimek</dt>
+<dt>Dr. A. L. Kroeber</dt>
+<dt>Dr. Saxton T. Pope</dt>
+<dt>Dr. Carl O. Sauer</dt>
+<dt>Dr. Edward Sapir</dt>
+<dt>Dr. Leslie Spier</dt>
+<dt>Miss Erminie W. Voegelin</dt>
+<dt>Dr. T. T. Waterman</dt></dl>
+<p>Properly, specific credit should be given in the text for each
+fact and quotation taken from the works of others, but the result
+would in this case have been unwieldy and of no practical benefit
+to the readers whom this book is intended to reach. It is hoped
+that professional ethnologists into whose hands this volume may
+fall will forgive this unorthodox usage of the research results of
+serious students.</p>
+<p>Mrs. Selina La Marr (Boonookoo-ee-menorra) was a valuable
+and gracious informant. Thanks are due again to Dr. E. W. Gifford,
+Director of the Museum of Anthropology at the University of California,
+for many courtesies, including donation of a copy of Dixon&rsquo;s
+rare &ldquo;Yana Indians&rdquo; and also for his constructive perusal of the
+manuscript. Others who assisted the author were Mrs. Grace Schulz,
+Miss Lois Bell of the University of California &ldquo;University Explorer&rdquo;
+radio program, and Mr. Louis Caywood, National Park
+Service archeologist. Dr. J. H. Woolsey, M.D., earned gratitude of
+the author by donation of his personal copy of Pope&rsquo;s &ldquo;Medical
+History of Ishi&rdquo;. Miss Lilian Nisbet of the Tehama County Library
+was helpful in the securing of other reference materials.</p>
+<p>Most Californians are vitally interested in the Indians of this
+state, yet few are aware of the excellent California State Indian
+Museum operated by the Division of Beaches and Parks. The Indian
+Museum is open to the public daily, free of charge, in a separate
+building on the grounds of Sutter&rsquo;s Fort State Historical Monument
+in Sacramento. The author highly commends this museum to you.
+It contains a wealth of authentic materials which have been organized
+into handsome and exciting story-telling exhibits of first
+quality by Curator Jack Dyson.</p>
+<p class="jr1">Paul E. Schulz
+<br />Park Naturalist
+<br />Lassen Volcanic National Park
+<br />Fall 1954</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_III">III</div>
+<h2 id="c2"><span class="small"><i>CONTENTS</i></span></h2>
+<dl class="toc">
+<dt><a href="#c1">Preface</a> I</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c2">Contents</a> III</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c3">Prehistoric Man Comes to North America</a> 1</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c4">Early Cultures in North America</a> 4</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c5">The California Indians</a> 8</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c6">Indian Tribes of the Lassen Area</a> 16</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c7">Indian-Pioneer Conflict; the Ishi Story</a> 20</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c8">Hunting</a> 38</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c9">Fishing</a> 43</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c10">Gathering and Preparation of Other Foods</a> 48</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c11">Houses and Furnishings</a> 60</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c12">Household Implements, Tools, and Weapons</a> 66</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c13">Basketry and Textiles</a> 80</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c14">Tanning, Cordage, and Glue</a> 96</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c15">Transportation</a> 99</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c16">Domestic Animals and Pets</a> 103</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c17">Clothing</a> 105</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c18">Beauty and Personal Grooming</a> 111</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c19">Wealth</a> 117</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c20">Ceremonial Dress</a> 119</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c21">Tobacco and Smoking</a> 120</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c22">Music and Arts</a> 122</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c23">Games and Social Gatherings</a> 126</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c24">Dances</a> 129</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c25">Political Organization of Tribes</a> 131</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c26">War and Peace</a> 133</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c27">Birth and Babies</a> 136</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c28">Adulthood Rites</a> 141</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c29">Marriage and Divorce</a> 143</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c30">Death and Burial</a> 145</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c31">Counting, Time, and Place</a> 149</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c32">Concepts of Sun, Moon, and Stars</a> 151</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c33">Weather Phenomena</a> 153</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c34">Earthquake Beliefs</a> 155</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c35">Creation Beliefs and Other Legends</a> 157</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c36">Medical Treatment</a> 162</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c37">Spirits and Ghosts</a> 164</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c38">Shamanism and Doctoring</a> 166</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c39">Miscellaneous Magic</a> 173</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c40">Bibliography</a> 175</dt>
+</dl>
+<div class="img">
+<img src="images/p03.jpg" id="ncfig1" alt="Association logo" width="300" height="198" />
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_1">1</div>
+<h2 id="c3"><span class="small">Chapter I</span>
+<br />PREHISTORIC MAN COMES TO NORTH AMERICA</h2>
+<p>Archeological studies of human remains from all over the world
+have shown beyond serious question that man originated in the
+Eastern Hemisphere about a million years ago. Meager remnants
+of prehistoric skeletons of man and his tools, hearths, and debris
+heaps have been found in deposits of late Cenozoic time, Chapter
+Five of earth&rsquo;s history. This late Cenozoic period starting about
+a million years ago is called the Pleistocene or Ice Age. These
+discoveries show the orderly processes of survival of the fittest
+and of evolution developing successive generations of man with
+refined physical and mental qualities, ultimately producing modern
+man.</p>
+<p>During the Ice Age there were four separate times during which
+ice formation on all continents of the earth increased tremendously.
+Just what caused changes in climate to make this possible is not
+definitely known. Slight changes in amount of carbon dioxide in
+the air, which could have been affected by the amount of volcanic
+activity or by major changes in the amount of plant life in existence,
+may have affected the climate. Slight variations in the
+orbit of the earth in its course around the sun may also have had
+their influence. Even today it would require a drop of only a few
+degrees in the average annual temperature of the earth&rsquo;s climate
+to produce a large increase in ice formation. All that is required
+is that a little more snow falls each winter than will melt in the
+summer. Thus, each year the excess would gradually build up
+glaciers and continental ice sheets, producing another &ldquo;ice stage&rdquo;
+in a few thousands of years.</p>
+<p>The area of ice in the world today is relatively small: under
+6 million square miles, about the same as that existing during each
+of the four interglacial (warm climate) stages of the Pleistocene.
+During the four glacial stages of the Ice Age, continental ice sheets
+increased their areas by three or four times, also becoming larger
+in size in each successive cold cycle. The latest and most extensive
+of these glacial times, the Wisconsin Stage, actually saw
+two ice advances with a brief recession separating them about
+60,000 years ago.</p>
+<p>During each glacial stage tremendous amounts of water were
+removed from the oceans and deposited on the continents as ice
+fields. This involved amounts of as much as 20 million cubic miles
+of water, causing world-wide lowering of sea level of about 150 or
+200 feet. Today the sea between Alaska and Siberia is very
+<span class="pb" id="Page_2">2</span>
+shallow. It is not difficult to realize that lowered sea level during
+the glacial stages of the ice age drained the water from this and
+other shallow sea floors exposing these as land links or &ldquo;land
+bridges&rdquo; which extended between continents and islands. This
+state of affairs made possible the overland migration of man to the
+Western Hemisphere.</p>
+<p>In his illuminating paper &ldquo;Early Relations of Man to Plants&rdquo;
+Sauer has pointed out that early man&rsquo;s migrations to the New World
+were not the result of mere aimless wanderings. Peking Man of the
+first interglacial stage about 900,000 years ago in Asia used fire in
+established hearths. He ate both cooked meats and vegetables.
+This evidence indicates at least a semi-sedentary family life.
+Since he had learned to make himself more comfortable generally
+by remaining in one favorable place, it follows logically that even
+primitive Peking Man migrated only when he could improve his lot
+by doing so. He moved on only when he was forced to do so by a
+failing food supply or because of crowded conditions caused by
+increasing numbers of his fellow men. It is believed that not only
+Peking Man, but his descendants were as sedentary as their food
+supply allowed them to be. Dr. Sauer observes that</p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>&ldquo;... the history of human population (numbers) is a succession
+of higher and higher levels, each rise to a new level
+being brought about by the discovery of more food either
+through occupation of a new territory or through increase in
+food producing skill.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>The invention of a better tool, improved food preparation, discovery
+of new foods, better storage, or utilization would bring about
+this increase in food availability.</p>
+<p>Apparently the twin circumstances of the need for more food and
+the existence of a dry land connection between Asia and North
+America enabled a series of migrations of prehistoric men to the
+New World. The migrations did not occur just during one glacial
+stage, nor during the last 15 or 25,000 years as some have claimed,
+but continued interruptedly over a period of many thousands of
+years. Perhaps such migrations started as long ago as 300,000
+years&mdash;whenever land connections permitted and other conditions
+warranted. As a result, we find a number of stocks of Old World
+Man at various levels of cultural development coming into the
+Americas. Naturally a variety of plant and animal species migrated
+in both directions between the Old and New Worlds of their own
+accord, in addition to those which might have been brought along
+by prehistoric man.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_3">3</div>
+<p>A classic example of plant migration to the New World is that
+of California&rsquo;s celebrated redwoods. In China just a few years
+ago the little changed ancestors of these trees, the still-growing
+Metasequoia were discovered. In rocks of the most recent era
+(Chapter Five of earth&rsquo;s history) the step by step migration of the
+changing redwood ancestors can be followed by studying successively
+younger rock layers in Siberia, Alaska, and in Canada
+and northwest United States. These relics and imprints of the
+foliage, fruits, and even of wood texture of these ancient trees
+were covered by sands and muds, and thus preserved in stone as
+fossils. This has made it possible to identify the ancestral redwood
+species and to demonstrate their march to California. It is
+interesting to note how the redwoods changed in the process, evolving
+by degrees to cope with new conditions of climate and soil
+during their slow migrations. At length today two distinct and
+unique Sequoias are to be found living only in California. One,
+the Coast Redwood, has adapted itself to coastal fogs and reproduction
+by sprouting root shoots. The other, restricted to drier areas
+of the west slope of the Sierra, the Sierra Redwood or Big Tree,
+has its needles reduced to small scales to withstand the drier
+climate, and reproduces only by seed.</p>
+<p>Sauer observes that the stone implements of prehistoric man are
+the best preserved relics of his culture and are the most easily
+found. Unfortunately the less durable and less easily recognized
+relics of skin, bone, wood, and vegetable fibers which are equally
+or often even more important clues to the past, have been altered
+beyond recognition or completely destroyed. As a result these
+disappeared or their camouflaged remnants have been overlooked
+and passed unrecognized by even careful students seeking to learn
+the details of this fascinating story of the how&rsquo;s and why&rsquo;s and
+when&rsquo;s of your ancestors and mine in Europe and also of the Indians
+in Asia and in North America in general, and of those of the Lassen
+area in particular.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_4">4</div>
+<h2 id="c4"><span class="small">Chapter II</span>
+<br />EARLY CULTURES IN NORTH AMERICA</h2>
+<p>The fact that skeletons of primitive forms of man have so far
+not been discovered in the Western Hemisphere does not mean that
+ancestral forms preceding modern man did not migrate to the New
+World in remote times. It is that erroneous idea which has caused
+some persons to reason that man arrived here only in the final
+glacial stage. Good evidence has been presented to suggest that
+the sites he would have been most likely to inhabit might be submerged
+at present or may have been especially vulnerable to
+destruction by erosion.</p>
+<p>Certain primitive peoples of the New World (in South America)
+do no boiling of foods and do not have the dog, indicating very
+early immigration from the Old World. Dr. Sauer suggests a date
+during the third glacial stage, the Kansan, about 300,000 years
+ago instead of the Wisconsin Glacial Stage of 15,000 or 25,000
+years ago as some have contended.</p>
+<p>At the present level of archeological and paleontological knowledge
+of prehistoric man in North America, Sauer recognizes five
+basic early cultures. These are listed below in the order of their
+apparent appearances in the New World.</p>
+<p>The most primitive and oldest culture of man recognized to date
+is very difficult to detect, for its evidences were of a fragile nature.
+Few traces of it remain to be seen today. This first culture known
+in North America lacks both stone weapon points and grinding
+stones. These items were also found lacking in the cultures of
+some isolated contemporary peoples of both North and South
+America.</p>
+<p>The second oldest culture in North America was that of the
+Ancient Food Grinders which appears to have been widespread in
+the rather rainy climate of the Mississippi and Pacific regions of
+North America. These people built fireplaces or hearths&mdash;beds
+of collected stones. They used a grinding slab of stone on which
+a handstone was rubbed to crush hard seeds. This indicates a
+greater variety of foods than used in the earlier culture. A number
+of crude pounding tools such as choppers and scrapers were employed
+as were a few rude knives of stone. It is of interest and
+significance that use of the grinder and grinding slab disappeared
+completely from most or all of this area later. The well known
+metate and mano grinding devices of the Southwest were introduced
+much later, along with the growing of corn or maize, from the Central
+<span class="pb" id="Page_5">5</span>
+American region. Coiled basketry appears to be identified with
+this second culture too, such articles being essential as containers
+for collection of seeds, winnowing, et cetera. Studies of the
+evidence in the field show also that these peoples were sedentary
+to the extent of developing refuse mounds or middens. The fact
+that this culture is not found in Europe or in Asia indicates that
+it developed in the Western Hemisphere.</p>
+<p>About 35,000 years ago the third culture appears to have developed.
+It was one in which hunting was of major importance.
+These hunters were not nomads, however, for the building of hearths,
+accumulations of artifacts, and also the general use of seed grinding
+stones, all indicate rather sedentary habits. This culture is
+characterized by the presence of dart or spear throwers, an invention
+of European origin. This indicates more recent migrations
+from the Old World. These darts were stone tipped and propelled
+with a spear thrower or atlatl, making hunting of animal food much
+more effective than in the case of earlier cultures.</p>
+<p>The fourth culture is that known by the names Folsom and Yuma.
+In these people interest in plant foods and fibers was slight, for
+this was primarily a mobile hunting culture. The people were not
+sedentary, but moved around.</p>
+<p>Well after the disappearance of the glaciers of the Ice Age, late
+comers from the Old World brought a fifth culture to the Americas.
+These people used the bow and arrow with its small and finely
+worked stone point. Fish hooks were used and many stone implements
+were well polished. This too is the first culture of the New
+World with which the dog was associated.</p>
+<p>In Eastern North America, and particularly well known in the
+Southwest, are abundant archeological evidences from easily recognized
+prehistoric living sites. These reveal a succession of more
+recent cultures and changes within cultures, as well as movement
+of early peoples. In contrast there are relatively few recognized
+prehistoric sites in California which tell much about early customs
+and material culture of aboriginal man. Some productive areas
+which have been found are notably the following: The Farmington
+Reservoir area of Stanislaus County more than 4,000 years old&mdash;possibly
+much older, Kingsley Cave, the Santa Barbara area, and
+the off-shore islands to the southwest of it. There are also a few
+shell mounds in the Los Angeles&mdash;Ventura area and more numerous
+and extensive ones in the San Francisco Bay vicinity. Of the latter
+shell mounds A. L. Kroeber writes:</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_6">6</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig1">
+<img src="images/p04.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="1172" />
+<p class="pcap">AREAS AND SUBAREAS OF CULTURES
+IN AND ABOUT CALIFORNIA
+<br />after A. L. Kroeber</p>
+</div>
+<dl class="undent pcap"><dt>NORTHWESTERN CALIF.</dt>
+<dt>NORTH PACIFIC COAST AREA</dt>
+<dt>CENTRAL CALIFORNIA</dt>
+<dt>SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA</dt>
+<dt>PLATEAU AREA</dt>
+<dt>PLAINS AREA</dt>
+<dt>CALIFORNIA-GREAT BASIN AREA</dt>
+<dt>SOUTHWEST AREA</dt>
+<dt>LOWER COLORADO</dt></dl>
+<blockquote>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_7">7</div>
+<p>&ldquo;... all the classes of objects (shells, refuse, mortars,
+pestles, obsidian, charmstones, and bone awls) in question
+occur at the bottom, middle, and top of the mounds, and ...
+they occur with substantially the same frequency. In other
+words, the natives of the San Francisco region traded the same
+materials from the same localities one, two, or three thousand
+years ago as when they were discovered at the end of the
+eighteenth century. They ate the same food, in nearly the
+same proportions (only mammalian bones became more abundant
+in higher levels), prepared it in substantially the same manner,
+and sewed skins, rush mats, and coiled baskets similarly to
+their recent descendants. Even their religion was conservative,
+since the identical charms seem to have been regarded
+potent. In a word, the basis of culture remained identical
+during the whole of the shell-mound period.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;When it is remembered that ... the beginning of this
+period (occurred) more than 3,000 years ago, it is clear that
+we are here confronted by a historical fact of extraordinary
+importance. It means that at the time when Troy was besieged
+and Solomon was building the temple, at a period when even
+Greek civilization had not yet taken on the traits that we regard
+as characteristic, when only a few scattering foundations
+of specific modern culture were being laid and our own northern
+ancestors dwelled in unmitigated barbarism, the native
+Californian already lived in all essentials like his descendant
+of today. In Europe and Asia, change succeeded change of the
+profoundest type. On this far shore of the Pacific, civilization,
+such as it was, remained immutable in all fundamentals.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;... The permanence of Californian culture ... is of
+far more than local interest. It is a fact of significance in the
+history of civilization.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Successive intrusions of different peoples and the isolation of
+the resultant developing Indian tribes, century after century, gave
+rise to many diverse languages. Although some were mere dialects,
+there were about 750 different North American Indian languages.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_8">8</div>
+<h2 id="c5"><span class="small">Chapter III</span>
+<br />THE CALIFORNIA INDIANS</h2>
+<p>Dr. A. L. Kroeber&rsquo;s map shows all tribes within the present
+political boundaries of the State of California. The tribes of the
+extreme northwest corner and those of the southern tip of the state
+are not typical of what we generally think of as &ldquo;California
+Indians&rdquo;.</p>
+<p>Although it may not be scientifically sound to do so, it is often
+convenient to refer to the Indian tribes of the California region
+collectively. The term &ldquo;Digger Indians&rdquo; is frequently used for
+this purpose with a somewhat disparaging connotation. The origin
+of this name is traceable to white traders and pioneers who observed
+that local Indians dug extensively for a number of food
+items, hence the name Digger was applied. However, this is a
+poor name as digging was but one of many methods the Indians
+used to secure food. Besides, digging was by no means peculiar
+to Indians of the California area. It is best, therefore, simply to
+use the term California Indians, if one wishes to refer to this group
+of tribes as a whole.</p>
+<p>In connection with the nickname Digger Indian, it is of interest
+to note that the California tribes used the conspicuous pine of the
+foothills, <i>Pinus sabiniana</i>, as a source of edible pine nuts and for
+other purposes too. Because the so called Digger Indians used
+these trees so much, the pioneers named the conifers Digger Pines,
+a name recognized today as the proper common name of that tree.</p>
+<p>California tribes are usually not considered high culturally
+among Indians generally, yet Yurok, Pomo, and Chumash are equal
+to any tribe in North America in wood, bone, steatite, obsidian,
+feather, and skin work, while local tribes of the Lassen area made
+basketry of a variety and quality unsurpassed elsewhere.</p>
+<p>Although there were local differences in food habits, the California
+Indians as a group had a highly diversified diet in contrast
+to the so-called one-food tribes in surrounding areas. Of course
+it is an over-simplification to speak of one-food tribes, for all
+ate quite a variety of foods. Yet, it is true that several cultures
+had been built upon the great abundance and importance of one
+particular food item as compared to all other foods eaten. North
+of California, Indians built their culture largely upon the salmon.
+To the east were tribes which depended upon the bison for most
+of their needs, and southeast of California the Southwest Indians
+built their culture around the all important maize or native corn.
+In any of these regional groups, if the main food item failed, disaster
+struck the tribes. In contrast, the Californians, with
+diversified eating habits, had four major food sources: fish, game,
+roots, and seeds or nuts. Each was important and the failure of
+any one caused hardship, but by no means the serious disaster
+which befell the more specialized groups of Indians if their main
+food supply item failed. If any one item of the California Indian
+diet were to be selected as the most important and universal food,
+one of the nuts, the acorn would have to be named.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_9">9</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig2">
+<img src="images/p05.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="1033" />
+<p class="pcap">INDIAN TRIBAL DISTRIBUTION IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
+<br />after A. L. Kroeber</p>
+</div>
+<dl class="undent pcap"><dt>TOLOWA</dt>
+<dt>YUROK</dt>
+<dt>KAROK</dt>
+<dd>UPPER</dd>
+<dd>LOWER</dd>
+<dt>SHASTAN</dt>
+<dd>SHASTA</dd>
+<dd>OKWANUCHU</dd>
+<dd>ACHOMAWI</dd>
+<dd>ATSUGEWI</dd>
+<dd>KORO MINU</dd>
+<dd>NEW RIVER</dd>
+<dt>MODOC</dt>
+<dt>NORTHERN PAIUTE</dt>
+<dt><span class="ss">LASSEN VOL. NAT. PARK</span></dt>
+<dt>PYOT</dt>
+<dt>WHILIOUT</dt>
+<dt>ATHABASCAN</dt>
+<dd>CHILULA</dd>
+<dd>HUPA</dd>
+<dd>NONGATL</dd>
+<dd>SINKYONE</dd>
+<dd>LASSIK</dd>
+<dd>WAILAKI</dd>
+<dd>KATO</dd>
+<dt>YUKI</dt>
+<dd>YUKI</dd>
+<dd>HUCHNOM</dd>
+<dd>COAST YUKI</dd>
+<dt>POMO</dt>
+<dd>N.</dd>
+<dd>C.</dd>
+<dd>S.W.</dd>
+<dd>E.</dd>
+<dd>S.E.</dd>
+<dt>WAPPO</dt>
+<dt>CHIMA RIKO</dt>
+<dt>WINTUN</dt>
+<dd>NORTHERN</dd>
+<dd>CENTRAL</dd>
+<dd>SOUTHWESTERN</dd>
+<dd>SOUTHEASTERN</dd>
+<dt>COSTANOAN</dt>
+<dd>SAN FRANCISCAN</dd>
+<dd>SANTA CLARA</dd>
+<dd>SANTA CRUZ</dd>
+<dt>YANA</dt>
+<dd>N.</dd>
+<dd>CENTRAL</dd>
+<dd>SOUTHERN</dd>
+<dd>YAHI</dd>
+<dt>MAIDU</dt>
+<dd>NORTHEASTERN</dd>
+<dd>NORTHWESTERN</dd>
+<dd>SOUTHERN</dd>
+<dt>WASHO</dt>
+<dt>MIWOK</dt>
+<dd>COAST MIWOK</dd>
+<dd>PLAINS</dd>
+<dd>NORTHERN</dd>
+<dd>CENTRAL</dd>
+<dd>SOUTHERN</dd>
+<dt>YOKUT</dt>
+<dd>NORTH VALLEY</dd></dl>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_10">10</div>
+<p>California Indians are often regarded to have been lazy and
+shiftless. To be sure there were such individuals, but we have
+that type of person in our midst too, and I dare say in equal or
+greater percentage. As a matter of fact, Indians generally could
+not afford to be lazy&mdash;there was no beneficent government to
+coddle them. It was largely a case of sink or swim. They had to
+provide their own shelter, food, and clothing as well as what amusement
+and extras&mdash;hardly to be called luxuries&mdash;they wished to
+enjoy. These things were all wrought from the wilderness with
+their own bare hands, using only wood, stone, and fire as tools.
+These native Americans lived in a stone-age culture. Metals, the
+wheel, domesticated herd animals, and agriculture were unknown
+to California Indians. Although there was some seasonal migration,
+there were no truly nomadic or wandering tribes in California.</p>
+<p>In California there were 103 separate tribes each speaking its
+own language. To be sure, some were mere dialects of others, but
+there were 21 tongues completely distinct from each other and
+mutually unintelligible. These belonged to several unrelated
+language families, as shown on the second map.</p>
+<p>As suggested above, Kroeber has shown that we are technically
+incorrect in referring to the California Indians as a single group
+of tribes. Within the political boundaries of the State of California
+there were actually three separate cultures with a number of subcultures,
+which were as follows: The small area in the northwest
+corner of the state, the Klamath River drainage, was occupied by
+the Northwest California Sub-culture, a part of the North Pacific
+Coast Culture which extended into British Columbia. The California-Great
+Basin Culture had three representatives in the state:
+the smallest or Lutuami Sub-culture, represented by the Modoc
+tribe only, extended down from the north across the east central
+portion of the northern boundary of California. The next larger was
+the Great Basin Sub-culture just east of the Cascade-Sierra backbone.
+The third and largest sub-culture of the California-Great
+Basin Culture was that of the Central California tribes (the Diggers
+of the pioneer), extending westward from the Cascade-Sierra crest
+to the Pacific Ocean across the bulk of the state. The fifth sub-culture
+is known as the Southern California comprising the area
+south of the Tehachapi Mountains from the coast east across the
+Colorado River, being a part of the Southwest Culture.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_11">11</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig3">
+<img src="images/p06.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="1033" />
+<p class="pcap"><span class="u">LINGUISTIC FAMILIES</span>
+<br />INDIAN LANGUAGE GROUPS OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
+and the families to which they belong, after A. L. Kroeber</p>
+</div>
+<dl class="undent pcap"><dt>Lutuamian</dt>
+<dd>LUTUAMI</dd>
+<dt>Hokan</dt>
+<dd>KAROK</dd>
+<dd>SHASTAN</dd>
+<dd>CHIMARIKO</dd>
+<dd>POMO</dd>
+<dd>WASHO</dd>
+<dd>YANA</dd>
+<dt>Shoshonian</dt>
+<dd>PAIUTE</dd>
+<dt>Penutian</dt>
+<dd>WINTUN</dd>
+<dd>MAIDU</dd>
+<dd>MIWOK</dd>
+<dd>YOKUT</dd>
+<dd>COSTANOAN</dd>
+<dt>Algonkian</dt>
+<dd>YUROK</dd>
+<dt>Athabascan</dt>
+<dd>ATHABASCAN</dd>
+<dt>Yukian</dt>
+<dd>YUKI</dd></dl>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_12">12</div>
+<p>Nevertheless, some generalities hold, and at the risk of the
+inaccuracy which is typical of generalizations, we might set forth
+the following customs as being characteristic of California Indians:</p>
+<p>Animal flesh bulked a smaller volume of food eaten than did
+vegetable materials&mdash;or, in the case of coastal peoples, than did
+seafoods. Dog and reptile flesh were considered poisonous or undesirable,
+but insects and worms were generally eaten. Acorns
+were the most important single food. All tribes utilized seeds of
+such plants as buckeye, grass, sedge, and sunflower family plants.
+All items, but the first, were collected with a basketry seed beater
+in a conical burden basket, parched, winnowed, ground, and eaten
+either dry, as unleavened bread, or as boiled mush.</p>
+<p>Although the fish hook and line were known throughout the area,
+most fishing was done by means of nets, weirs, use of poison, and
+harpoons thrust, but not thrown.</p>
+<p>Hunting with bow and arrow was most important. Disguise and
+dogs were used in the north, but surrounding the game was the
+common means of hunting in the south.</p>
+<p>The northern bow was short, broad, and sinew backed while
+southern Californians used long narrow bows without reinforcement.</p>
+<p>Arrows were usually two-piece and tipped with obsidian points.
+Three different arrow releases were used among California Indians.
+Northern arrows were straightened by use of a hole through a piece
+of wood or similar material, and were polished by use of horsetail
+stalks while a grooved squarish soapstone (steatite) did both jobs
+in the south.</p>
+<p>Basketry was highly developed, being California&rsquo;s best art form.
+The northern quarter of the area did twined basketry; coiled basketry
+prevailed elsewhere.</p>
+<p>Cloth was unknown, but woven rabbit skin strip blankets were
+universal, especially for bedding. Rush mats were twined and
+sewn.</p>
+<p>Pottery was unknown except for a very crude undecorated form
+in the San Joaquin Valley, an intrusion from the Southern California
+Sub-culture where pottery became important.</p>
+<p>Music of California was characterized by singing, rattles,
+whistles, split slap sticks, flute, and musical bow. The last two
+instruments were the only ones which were able to make real melodies,
+<span class="pb" id="Page_13">13</span>
+but amazingly, neither one was used for dances or ceremonies.
+California Indians were virtually without any drums&mdash;the exception
+being a single headed flat foot drum used in ceremonial sweathouse
+chambers of the tribes in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys.</p>
+<p>Dress of California women was a front and a back apron of skin&mdash;especially
+buckskin&mdash;or of plant fiber. Men wore nothing or a
+folded skin about the hips or between the legs. In bad weather both
+sexes used cape-like or wrap-around (over one arm and under the
+other) skin robes. In localized areas the brimless dome-shaped
+basketry cap was worn by women. Hair of both sexes was long (but
+shorn in mourning) and frequently put up in nets by men. Men removed
+their beards by pulling with their fingers.</p>
+<p>In mountain areas social and religious cults were lacking. In
+the extreme northwest corner wealth dances were held; in central
+California the secret society and Kuksu dances, in the south the
+Jimsonweed initiation system, and in the Colorado River area the
+dreamsong ceremony flourished.</p>
+<p>Houses varied from open enclosures and brush or bark shelters
+to frame structures more or less completely dug into the ground and
+covered with bark, brush, and dirt, usually with a roof entrance and
+or one to the south; this was the earth lodge. In the extreme northwest
+housing was not the earth lodge, but a structure built on top
+of the ground; hand-split planks were used in its construction.</p>
+<p>Sweat houses were of the earth lodge type, often of daily service
+and in northern areas, lived in too. Sweat houses of California were
+not heated by steam, but directly with fire.</p>
+<p>Boats generally were of rushes tied into balsa rafts or into boat
+shapes. In addition one-piece dugout canoes from tree logs were
+typical of the northern portion of California, becoming progressively
+more refined in workmanship and in design to the northwest. A
+unique lashed split board canoe was made by channel island tribes
+in the Santa Barbara vicinity.</p>
+<p>The tribe as a political unit, so common elsewhere in America,
+did not exist in California. What we call a tribe was actually a
+number of groups of Indians, each of whom had a chief, spoke the
+same language dialect, had the same customs, intermarried regularly,
+and were usually mutually friendly. There was no tribal
+chief as such.</p>
+<p>In the northwest portion of California wealth was so important
+that real chieftain leadership was lacking. In central and southern
+California the chief was a powerful local leader on a hereditary
+basis. Between the two extremes was a zone where tribes struck a
+compromise; the hereditary local chief had moderate authority and
+<span class="pb" id="Page_14">14</span>
+usually was well to do, but not necessarily so. Rich men in smaller
+political divisions were influential headmen under the local chief.</p>
+<p>Warfare was only for revenge and not for plunder or for a desire
+for distinction. Except for the Northwest Sub-culture, scalps were
+generally taken and included the victim&rsquo;s skin down to his eyes
+or nose, and including the ears. Not infrequently the whole head
+was taken by a victorious warrior. The weapon was the bow and
+arrow, with rocks employed in close combat. Such war implements
+as shields, clubs, spears (throwing), and tomahawks were not used.</p>
+<p>Guessing games, usually played by men, were universal, with
+variations, and heavy gambling was the rule. Shinny in several
+different forms was widely played.</p>
+<p>Shamans were employed for curing diseases which were believed
+due to the presence in the body of some foreign hostile object. This
+was removed by sucking accompanied by singing, dancing, and
+tobacco smoking.</p>
+<p>The girls&rsquo; adulthood or puberty ceremony and dance was important
+to all California tribes.</p>
+<p>Population figures even on the most scholarly basis, Kroeber
+states, are at best reasonable guesses. As nearly as can be determined
+there were originally about one million Indians in North
+America, three million in Central America, and three million in
+South America. California probably had about 133,000 Indians or
+nearly one per square mile. This is a density three or four times
+greater than for the whole of North America.</p>
+<p>Today the North American Indian population (including about
+30% half-breeds) is less than 10% of what it was. Over 90% of our
+Indians have been destroyed by wholesale killing at the hands
+of the white man, by new diseases, unfavorable changes in diet,
+clothing, and dwellings plus such Caucasian cultural factors as
+settlement, concentration, and the like. The decline in Indian
+population varied directly with the degree of civilized contact the
+several tribes experienced. It is interesting to note that virtually
+all of the Indians exposed to the Spanish missions commencing
+1769 are gone except for a few in the extreme south who were only
+partly missionized. Kroeber states:</p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>&ldquo;It must have caused many of the fathers a severe pang to
+realize, as they could not but do daily, that they were saving
+souls only at the inevitable cost of lives. And yet such was
+the overwhelming fact. The brute upshot of missionization,
+in spite of its kindly flavor and humanitarian root, was only
+one thing: death.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_15">15</div>
+<p>Kroeber also points out that some tribes had much less resistance
+and hence suffered greater decline in population in response
+to equal white contact than others did. As in the case of other
+living things, there were favorable circumstances under which the
+Indian flourished&mdash;where life was relatively easy and secure.
+Such conditions produced virile stock and a rich culture both materially
+and spiritually&mdash;a condition found in broad valleys drained
+by the great rivers of California: the Klamath, the Sacramento, and
+the San Joaquin. As is also the case with specific plants and
+animals, Indians in less favorable sites lived submarginally&mdash;a
+difficult existence, poor in material and spiritual culture. Under
+such circumstances it takes just a small amount of additional unfavorable
+influence to make existence impossible. On this basis
+Kroeber explains the extinction or near extinction of poor mountain
+tribes upon contact with the whites while the Indians of the fertile
+valleys, although suffering more intensive Caucasian contact, were
+able to survive in reasonable numbers. This is a specific exception
+to the general observation made above that population decrease
+varied directly with the degree of contact. There are examples in
+California; the local one is the survival of valley Maidu and Wintun
+populations as compared to the surrounding mountain people with
+poorer cultures: the Yahi, Yana, Okwanuchu, Shasta, New River
+Shasta, Chimariko, and the Athabascan tribes of the west with
+survival percentages today of up to only 5% at best.</p>
+<p>There is another factor which caused greater devastation of the
+economically insecure mountain tribes. White settlers were able
+to use to their own advantage some of the labor, services, and even
+food which the valley Indians afforded them. Thus it was not to the
+interest of the whites to wipe out these Indians. On the other hand,
+the mountain tribes with a poorer economy were prone to steal livestock
+to supplement their food supplies as they had no means to
+gain wealth to enable them to buy from the whites. Such depredations
+were a major cause of retaliation by white man in the form of
+bloody punitive attacks on Indians from whom the settlers had
+nothing to gain.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_16">16</div>
+<h2 id="c6"><span class="small">Chapter IV</span>
+<br />INDIAN TRIBES OF THE LASSEN AREA</h2>
+<p>Lassen Peak with an elevation of 10,453 feet above sea level
+is the central high point of a somewhat topographically isolated
+mountain mass of volcanic origin. The slopes descending in all
+directions from Lassen Peak are clothed in coniferous forests,
+dotted with small lakes of glacial origin, and drained by a few fish
+bearing streams flowing radially from the mountain. There are also
+a few hot spring areas and some barren expanses where recent
+eruptions have produced mudflows and lavas. For the most part,
+game abounds in the Lassen highland, but the winters are snowy
+and severe, making it unsuitable for Indians to live there the year
+around.</p>
+<p>As shown on the map, parts of the lands of four distinct tribes
+of Indians lay within what are today the boundaries of Lassen
+Volcanic National Park. Permanent homes and villages of Atsugewi,
+Yana, Yahi and mountain Maidu tribes were at lower elevations in
+the Ponderosa Pine and Digger Pine belts, and situated near
+streams. There food was relatively easily available and winters
+were the least severe within the limits of the respective tribal
+territories.</p>
+<p>Each summer when deer migrated to higher elevations, the
+Indians also moved toward Lassen Peak to hunt and to fish trout,
+spending the whole summer in temporary camps.</p>
+<p>There was some contact between the four tribes during their
+sojourns in the uplands of the park area, but the activities of each
+Indian group were pretty well confined to its own territory. The
+four Lassen tribes did on occasion engage in small battles, but
+this was the exception rather than the rule&mdash;generally speaking
+they lived harmoniously as neighbors, and there was even
+occasional inter-marriage between tribes.</p>
+<p>These tribes all had simple hill or mountain cultures which,
+in spite of some difference of custom, were surprisingly alike. It
+is believed that this is due to the fact that the four tribes all lived
+under very similar conditions of environment&mdash;the same type of
+country in many respects. The similarity of their cultures is all the
+more interesting in that the Atsugewi were of the Hokan Family,
+speaking a Shastan language. Yana and Yahi, also of Hokan stock
+spoke Yana languages. The mountain Maidu were of the Penutian
+Family, speaking a Maidu language.</p>
+<p>According to the best available figures, some of which are only
+reasonable guesses, populations of the local tribes were probably
+about as follows:</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_17">17</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig4">
+<img src="images/p07.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="1000" />
+<p class="pcap">INDIAN TRIBAL AREAS OF THE LASSEN REGION
+<br />after A. L. Kroeber and T. R. Garth&mdash;note the boundaries of
+Lassen Volcanic National Park dashed in above and left of center
+of the map. Lassen Peak is at the junction of the Atsugewi, Yana,
+and Maidu territories.</p>
+</div>
+<dl class="undent pcap"><dt>ACHOMAWI</dt>
+<dt>SHASTAN</dt>
+<dd>OKWANUCHU</dd>
+<dt>NORTHERN WINTUN</dt>
+<dt>CENTRAL WINTUN</dt>
+<dt>S. E. WINTUN</dt>
+<dt>CENTRAL YANA</dt>
+<dt>NORTH (YANA)</dt>
+<dt>SOUTHERN YANA</dt>
+<dt>ATSUGEWI</dt>
+<dd>ATSUGE</dd>
+<dd>APWARUGE</dd>
+<dt>NORTHERN PAIUTE</dt>
+<dt>NORTHEASTERN MAIDU</dt>
+<dt>NORTHWESTERN MAIDU</dt>
+<dt>SOUTHERN MAIDU</dt>
+<dt>WASHO</dt></dl>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_18">18</div>
+<table class="center">
+<tr class="th"><th> </th><th>1770 </th><th>1910 </th><th>1950</th></tr>
+<tr><td class="l">Atsugewi </td><td class="r">1,000 </td><td class="r">250 </td><td class="r">75</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="l">Yana (north, central, s) </td><td class="r">750 </td><td class="r">25 </td><td class="r">10</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="l">Yahi </td><td class="r">275 </td><td class="r">5 </td><td class="r">none</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="l">Maidu (mountain) </td><td class="r">2,000 </td><td class="r">800 </td><td class="r">300</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="r">Totals </td><td class="r">4,025 </td><td class="r">1,080 </td><td class="r">385</td></tr>
+</table>
+<blockquote>
+<p>Garth states that: &ldquo;The Atsugewi are divided into two
+major groups, the Atsuge or pinetree-people, who occupy Hat
+Creek Valley, and the Apwaruge&mdash;from Apwariwa, the name of
+Dixie Valley&mdash;who live to the east in and around Dixie Valley.
+Sometimes the Apwaruge are called Mahoupani, juniper-tree-people,
+a name which reflects the dry and barren nature of
+their territory....</p>
+<p>&ldquo;... certain cultural differences (existed) between
+the eastern and western Atsugewi, who in most aspects of
+nonmaterial culture and in language are one people. In the
+western area there was more abundant rainfall and a fairly
+luxuriant growth of pines, oaks, and other trees. Here the
+Atsuge subsisted largely on acorns and fish; made twined
+basketry, using willow, pine root, <i>Xerophylum</i> grass, and redbud
+materials; and had bark houses and numerous other
+structures of bark. On the contrary, in the eastern area, which
+is comparatively arid and lacking in trees, the Apwaruge depended
+on the acorn less than did the Atsuge and fishing was
+less important, to judge by the scarcity or lack of nets, fish
+hooks, and harpoons; made inferior twined baskets of twisted
+tule with a different twist to the weave; as a rule had their
+houses covered with tule mats rather than with bark; and were
+much poorer than the Atsuge. This cultural distinction between
+the eastern and western areas is also found to the north among
+the Achomawi.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Dixon&rsquo;s studies have revealed that the Maidu had no general
+name for themselves, remarkable as this may seem. The name
+Maidu was first used by Stephen Powers in 1877 in his volume
+&ldquo;TRIBES OF CALIFORNIA&rdquo;, a name he arbitrarily applied to these
+Indians since the word meant &ldquo;Indian&rdquo; or &ldquo;man&rdquo; in their language.
+The adjectives northwest or valley, northeast or mountain, and
+southern or foothill are applied to identify the three different cultures
+corresponding to the three distinct geographic provinces
+<span class="pb" id="Page_19">19</span>
+inhabited by the Maidu Indians as a whole. In a number of respects
+the culture of the mountain or northeast Maidu was more like that
+of their northern neighbors, the Atsugewi, than it was like that of
+the closely related southern and northwestern Maidu peoples.
+Obviously the factor of environment or characteristics of the land
+occupied is of extreme importance in creating such a situation.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_20">20</div>
+<h2 id="c7"><span class="small">Chapter V</span>
+<br />INDIAN&mdash;PIONEER CONFLICT AND THE STORY OF ISHI</h2>
+<p>Conflict&mdash;prolonged, tragic, and violent&mdash;flared during the
+period when Europeans wrested control of North America from the
+native Indian. In viewing the struggle between Indian and white
+man, feelings run high even today.</p>
+<p>What was it when Custer&rsquo;s contingent was wiped out?&mdash;when
+the Modocs inflicted such heavy losses on the American troops?&mdash;when
+the Navajo, Sioux, and others made their devastating raids
+on wagon trains and pioneer settlers? These were just as much a
+part of the war as were the exploits of Rogers&rsquo; Rangers, the indiscriminate
+slaying of Indian men, women, and children in the Yahi
+caves on Mill Creek, and the annihilation of large segments of
+Atsugewi and Yana tribes cornered at points northwest of the
+present Lassen Volcanic National Park area. War is never a pretty
+thing. Was the hit and run killing of white people by Indians any
+less defensible morally than white man&rsquo;s atrocities against the
+Indians, or, for that matter, than commando raids and atomic bombings
+of today? Our viewpoint on such matters in the past has all
+too often been that might makes right, since we have always been
+on the winning side. Until very recently we have followed the
+biased opinion of the colonists and pioneers of these United States:
+whenever we won, it was a glorious and righteous victory, but if
+the Indian emerged victorious, it was regarded as a dastardly
+massacre. It is a viewpoint readily understandable where a person&rsquo;s
+loved ones are involved&mdash;but not justifiable.</p>
+<p>Our veterans of recent wars will vouch for the fact that white
+man&rsquo;s wars can be primitive and violent when life and limb are at
+stake. We are hardly in a position to criticize the &ldquo;cruel and
+sneaking&rdquo; fighting methods of the Indians. Was it not use of Indian
+fighting methods which was so valuable to us in defeating the
+British in the colonial war for independence?</p>
+<p>Indians fought in the only way they knew&mdash;and a disheartening
+losing fight it was for them with bows and arrows against rifles.
+For each gain in weapons and technical know-how the Indians
+made, the whites made many. True, it cost Americans much in the
+way of lives, anguish, and money, but how small were these losses
+in comparison to those of the Indians. American Indians, the undisputed
+owners of this continent for thousands of years, were not
+only nearly exterminated, but in the end we took virtually all of
+their land by force and with it took away the means of self support
+<span class="pb" id="Page_21">21</span>
+as well without &ldquo;due process of law&rdquo;. We denied the Indian the
+right of &ldquo;life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness&rdquo;&mdash;the very
+things for which we as a nation stand. In all fairness, however, it
+should be stated that in recent years modest monetary retribution
+has been made by the U.S. Government to some of the surviving
+descendants.</p>
+<p>S. F. Cook has pointed out that Spanish contact with California
+Indians was a rather passive matter. Spanish penetrated deeply,
+but did not settle on Indian lands of appreciable size. The Spanish
+were present in small numbers, a population numbering perhaps
+4,000 by 1848. To be sure there was occasional bloodshed, but
+it was the exception in Spanish California rather than the rule, for
+the Spanish regarded Indians as an asset, a human resource which
+provided labor and even some food and materials. The Indians
+were a respected element in the social and economic structure of
+Hispanic California, having civic and legal rights. Even under
+the Spanish, was there a great reduction of the Indian population
+through limited warfare and displacement, but much more importantly
+through disease. Nevertheless, by 1845 a more or less satisfactory
+equilibrium seems to have evolved between the Spanish and the
+California Indians.</p>
+<p>In contrast the hordes of white immigrants who followed considered
+the Indians entirely useless and there was no place for the
+latter in the pioneers&rsquo; economy of material wealth. All good lands
+were taken from the Indians arbitrarily and as quickly as possible.
+However, it must be stated that there were exceptions to both the
+Spanish and Gringo relations with the California Indians, but, in
+general, the foregoing statements are accurate.</p>
+<p>How the conflict of pioneer versus Indian affected the Atsugewi
+is summarized for us by Garth as follows:</p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>&ldquo;The Atsugewi, because of their somewhat secluded mountain
+habitat, were spared contact with white civilization until
+the middle of the nineteenth century. Although there were
+vague reports of contact with Spanish explorers or Mexican
+bandits, these could not be verified. Peter Skene Ogden may
+have been the first white man to visit the area (1827-1828).
+Besides the trappers, Fremont, Greenwood, and other explorers
+probably skirted Atsugewi country. Peter Lassen passed
+through Achomawi-Atsugewi country in opening the Pit River
+Route of 1848. He was soon followed by a stream of white
+migration from the east which was devastating to the Indians
+and their culture. Prospectors entered the Lassen region in
+<span class="pb" id="Page_22">22</span>
+1851, and not long afterward came white settlers. By about
+1859 the Indians were felt to be a menace to the whites in the
+area and were rounded up by militia and taken to the Round
+Valley Indian Reservation. Unsatisfactory conditions at the
+Reservation caused most of them to leave in 1863 and return
+to their old haunts along Hat Creek and Dixie Valley.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Joaquin Miller reports an uprising in 1867 of the Pit River
+and Modoc Indians, who had made up old differences and were
+now fighting together. A number of whites were massacred.
+Miller speaks of an Indian camp being made on Hat Creek in
+the war that followed. It is not thus improbable that the
+Atsuge participated in that war. After a year or so of fighting
+the Indians suffered a final crushing defeat and surrendered.
+This last engagement may be the one at Six Mile Hill, spoken
+of by informants, in which a large number of their people were
+cornered in a cave and massacred by soldiers. After this,
+many of the Indians were again removed to Round Valley.
+Those remaining and some who subsequently returned from the
+Reservation maintained friendly relations with the whites.
+Today most Atsugewi live on allotments in their old territory,
+the younger Indians often working for their white neighbors or
+for the lumber mills. The census of 1910 gives a population
+of 240 for &lsquo;Hat Creek Indians&rsquo;. This figure may also have
+included the Dixie Valley Atsugewi, since they are not mentioned
+in the census. The present population is probably half
+that or less.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>The Maidu also were decimated upon contact with white man.
+However, with only rare exception, Maidu accepted rather passively
+invasion of their territory with the attendant driving away of game
+and destruction of fish in the streams by mining operations in gold
+rush days. However, since the remnants of the Maidu were in the
+way of white mans&rsquo; developments, treaties were made in 1851 by
+which these Indians gave up all claims to their ancestral lands and
+were taken to short lived reservations in Amador, Nevada and
+Butte Counties, also later to the Round Valley Reservations in the
+Coast Range. A great many Maidu soon returned to their homes.
+In the late 50&rsquo;s and 60&rsquo;s a desultory war was waged on the Maidu
+by California State troops which further reduced the number of surviving
+Indians of this tribe.</p>
+<p>The management of the University of California&rsquo;s excellent
+informative &ldquo;UNIVERSITY EXPLORER&rdquo; radio program series has
+given permission to quote the following from its broadcasts. This
+<span class="pb" id="Page_23">23</span>
+material concerns the conflict of the closely related Yana and Yahi
+tribes with the whites and the fabulous story of Ishi. The script
+has been abridged and considerably rearranged:</p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>&ldquo;... The Yana way of life was a strange one to the white
+observer, but the tribes prospered under it until white emigration
+from the East threw them into conflict with a new and
+unfriendly people. The Indians, of course, resented the white
+incursion and revolted against it. That happened in all sections
+of the country where whites displaced Indians, but it
+would be hard to imagine a more inept way of handling the
+situation than that used by the white men in the Sacramento
+Valley. Some of the large land owners protected the Indians
+of their holdings; among them were General John Bidwell,
+one of the founders of Chico, (Peter Lassen on his Rancho
+Bosquejo between Mill and Deer Creeks), and John Sutter,
+on whose property the Gold Rush started. But they were exceptions.
+Most of the settlers apparently believed the only way
+to handle the natives was to compete with them in cruelty.
+One celebrated Indian-killer took great pride in a blanket he
+had made from Indian scalps. The whites had learned scalping
+from the Eastern Indians, but they themselves popularized
+it in California....</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The Indians often plundered settlers&rsquo; cabins and stole
+livestock. This was natural, since they regarded the whites
+as invaders. Unfortunately, the settlers&rsquo; retaliation frequently
+consisted of rounding up a gang of Indians and slaughtering
+them. And it didn&rsquo;t make too much difference whether they
+were the guilty Indians. Professor Waterman wrote that the
+Yahi expressed their resentment of the white men more
+violently than did the other Yana groups, but since the Yahi
+moved around more and displayed greater skill in hiding out,
+quite innocent groups of Indians often took the blame for the
+acts of the Yahi. Professor Waterman cited the case of one
+white posse which took to the trail following a series of
+Indian raids. The posse came upon an encampment of Indians
+and shot about forty of them. But the Indians had been camped
+in the same place for two nights, and the whites later found
+a couple of almost-empty whiskey barrels there. It doesn&rsquo;t
+stand to reason, Professor Waterman pointed out, that Indians
+skilled in warfare would be so careless after an attack on
+their enemies.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;As the animosity between white men and red men grew,
+the atrocities on both sides became revolting. White women
+<span class="pb" id="Page_24">24</span>
+and children were tortured and killed by the Yana. But the
+anthropologists who have studied this unpleasant phase of
+California history believe the whites invited such savage
+assaults by their own brutal mistreatment of the Indians.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;... The Yana gradually took to the woods as it became
+obvious that they were being outnumbered and decimated by
+the settlers in one massacre after another. By the late 1860&rsquo;s
+the Indians had been reduced in numbers and intimidated to
+the point where they no longer could be considered a serious
+menace to the people who had taken over their hunting
+grounds. By then the Indians&rsquo; crimes were more on the level
+of petty theft than major violence. The three Yana tribes had
+become almost extinct as social organizations, but a fair
+number of Yana-speaking individuals survived long after the
+turn of the century.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;With the Yahi tribe, however, it was a different story. For
+a long time the Yahi&mdash;then called the Mill Creeks, because
+area around that little stream was their principal hunting
+ground&mdash;for a long time, the Yahi were believed to have been
+wiped out in a final massacre in 1865.... In 1871, a group
+of cattle-herders in Tehama County found a spot where
+Indians apparently had wounded a steer. The whites used
+dogs to follow the steer&rsquo;s bloody trail, and cornered some
+thirty Indians in a hillside cave. They promptly slaughtered
+the Indians, including several children. The settlers&rsquo; peculiar
+idea of mercy was pointed out by Professor Waterman&rsquo;s informant,
+who noted that one of the cattle-herders could not
+bear to kill the children with his .56 caliber rifle&mdash;&lsquo;it tore
+them up so bad&rsquo; he said. So he did it instead with a .38 caliber
+revolver.... They call the rock shelter Kingsley Cave
+after Norman Kingsley, the settler who ... supposedly ...
+shot the Indian children. The Kingsley Cave site was apparently
+used for a long time. Grinding tools of two different
+cultural periods were found ... (by University of California
+Archeological Survey staff excavations currently investigating
+the site).</p>
+<p>(The Yahi were thought to have been completely wiped out
+by this last unjustified atrocity, but in 1908) &ldquo;... surveyors
+for a power company in the hilly country around Deer Creek
+reported they had caught a glimpse of a naked Indian standing
+poised near the stream with a double-pronged primitive fishing
+spear. Next day, other members of the party were startled
+when an arrow came whistling through the underbrush at them&mdash;a
+<span class="pb" id="Page_25">25</span>
+stone-tipped arrow like those used by the supposedly
+extinct Indians. The surveyors kept on pushing ahead, until
+they came upon a cleverly concealed camp in the tangled
+woods. There they found a middle-aged woman and two aged
+and feeble Indians, a man and a woman. The old woman,
+hiding under a pile of rabbit skins, apparently wanted water,
+and the surveyors gave her some after the old man and the
+other woman had hidden in the underbrush. The surveyors
+also carried off all the blankets, bows and arrows and other
+articles in sight; but when they returned next day to make
+some sort of restitution, the Indians had disappeared. They
+were never seen again, even though the University later sent
+anthropologists in search of them....</p>
+<p>&ldquo;... with the dawn of a clear August day in 1911....
+The butchering crew of a slaughterhouse near Oroville were
+awakened ... by a furious barking of the dogs at the corral.
+They rushed into the corral to find a man crouching in the
+mud, surrounded by the slaughterhouse shepherd dogs. The
+butchers called off the dogs to get a closer look at their guest&mdash;and
+a most unusual guest he was.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The man&rsquo;s only clothing was a piece of torn, dirty canvas
+across his shoulders. His skin was sunburned to a copper
+brown, his hair was clipped close to the skull, and he obviously
+was suffering from severe malnutrition. His body
+was emaciated and his cheeks clung to the bones to accentuate
+his furiously glaring eyes.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;But the strangest thing about this man was his speech.
+It was like nothing the butchers had ever heard.... The
+sheriff tried English and Spanish, then several Indian dialects.
+But he was unable to draw any intelligible response from his
+prisoner. For lack of a better place to put him, the sheriff
+locked him in the jail cell reserved for mental cases, even
+though the man from the slaughterhouse appeared to be more
+lost than insane.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The &lsquo;Wild Man of Oroville&rsquo; made good newspaper copy,
+and clippings about his mysterious discovery caused much
+excitement in the department of anthropology at the University
+of California. It was a good thing that the news reached the
+University when it did. The frightened wild man was cowering
+in his cell, refusing to accept food from his captors whom he
+obviously distrusted, while the sheriff vainly tried to identify
+him.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The late Professor T. T. Waterman was especially excited.
+<span class="pb" id="Page_26">26</span>
+So excited, in fact, that he stuffed a few clothes in
+his suitcase, quickly picked out a list of words from the files
+on California Indian languages, and caught the first train to
+Oroville for an interview with the prisoner.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The reason for Professor Waterman&rsquo;s excitement was that
+he believed the Oroville prisoner was a Yahi Indian. If this
+guess was correct, Waterman would have a major anthropological
+find. For anthropologists are concerned with origins,
+development and variegated cultures of mankind; and if the
+frightened prisoner in Oroville turned out to be a Yahi, Professor
+Waterman and his colleagues would have a living
+encyclopedia of the language, customs, and habits of a people
+who were believed to be extinct ... he might be one of the
+little band reported at Deer Creek (in 1908), perhaps the man
+with the fishing spear.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The task of determining whether the prisoner was Yahi was
+complicated by the fact that no one knew the Yahi language.
+This doesn&rsquo;t sound like an insuperable stumbling block, until
+you remember that the California Indian languages were
+numerous and distinct; there were over one hundred dialects,
+many of them mutually unintelligible. These dialects were
+classified into eighteen major language groups, which in turn
+made up six entirely different language families. These six
+language families apparently are completely unrelated&mdash;a
+strange circumstance, when you consider that almost all of
+the languages of Europe can be traced to common origins.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;However, Professor Waterman was fortunate in one respect.
+A fairly extensive word-list had been collected from
+the dialect of the Nozi Indians who had once lived just to the
+north of the Yahi and were their nearest relatives. Both the
+Yahi and the Nozi belonged to the Yana language stock, which
+stemmed from the widespread Hokan family. So Professor
+Waterman relied on Nozi words to make the identification.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;At first, the prisoner in Oroville seemed as frightened
+of Professor Waterman as he had been of all the other white
+men. Patiently, the anthropologist proceeded through his list
+of Nozi words, but the captive Indian apparently recognized
+none of them. At last, though, the professor pointed to the
+wooden frame of the Indian&rsquo;s cot, and pronounced the word
+&lsquo;si&rsquo;wi&rsquo;ni,&rsquo; which according to his list meant &lsquo;yellow pine&rsquo;.
+Immediately, the Indian relaxed. His harried, unhappy look
+turned to beaming good cheer, and he acted as if he had found
+a long-lost friend. Pointing to his cot, he repeated Professor
+<span class="pb" id="Page_27">27</span>
+Waterman&rsquo;s word &lsquo;si&rsquo;wi&rsquo;ni&rsquo; several times, as if agreeing
+that, yes, his cot was yellow pine. His own language differed
+from that of the Nozi, but some of the vocabulary was the
+same. Professor Waterman had struck upon one of the right
+words; later, he pronounced more familiar words, and it was
+established that the Indian was a Yahi. He also managed to
+explain that he called himself &lsquo;Ishi&rsquo;, which meant simply,
+&lsquo;I am a man&rsquo;.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Professor Waterman was naturally elated with his new-found
+acquaintance. The Butte County sheriff was equally
+elated to be rid of his difficult charge, so Ishi was taken to
+the Museum, then located in San Francisco, for further study
+and interrogation.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Thus it happened that this human relic of the Stone Age
+came to live at a modern university. The Regents of the
+University gave Ishi some official status by appointing him an
+assistant janitor at $25 a month. But his value to the University
+did not come from dexterity with a mop and broom;
+he was valued because he could tell the anthropologists about
+his people, preserving knowledge which otherwise would have
+died with his fellow-tribesmen.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ishi adapted himself well to this new life, and he was a
+friendly and popular fixture at the museum for five years. He
+picked up the white man&rsquo;s ways by watching the people around
+him; at his first civilized dinner, he imitated his hosts&rsquo;
+motions and managed a knife and fork far more skilfully than
+most of us can handle chopsticks in a Chinese restaurant.
+He was delighted and awe-stricken by many of the developments
+of civilization; but the things that impressed him most
+were not what the anthropologists had expected. Electric
+lights, airplanes, and automobiles made little impression;
+they were completely beyond his range of experience, and he
+dismissed them as &lsquo;white man&rsquo;s magic&rsquo;, worthy of little attention.
+The tall buildings in downtown San Francisco did not
+startle him; as he explained, his own country had cliffs and
+crags just as high. But what really amazed him about the city
+were the enormous crowds of people on the streets. He had
+seen people before, of course, but never more than twenty or
+thirty in one place.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;In general, the things that Ishi considered most remarkable
+were things which approached something in his own
+experience. He knew how hard it was to start a fire by friction,
+so pocket matches were indeed a wonder. Water faucets
+<span class="pb" id="Page_28">28</span>
+which could be turned on and off were likewise marvelous;
+why, the white man could make a spring, right there in the
+house! One of the first modern devices to catch Ishi&rsquo;s babbled
+attention was an ordinary window roller shade. He tried to
+push it aside, but it flipped back; he lifted it, but it fell down.
+Finally someone showed him how to give it a little tug and
+let it roll itself up, and Ishi was amazed. A half-hour later,
+he was still trying to figure out what had happened to the
+shade.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ishi and his hosts learned to communicate with each other
+fairly adequately; he never became accustomed to formal
+grammar, but he picked up a vocabulary large enough to express
+his wishes and his comments about the things around
+him. Actually, the anthropologists admitted, Ishi learned to
+speak English far better than any of them were able to learn
+Yahi. They suspected that some of his vocabulary was
+acquired from the school children who used to visit him, for
+it included a fair sampling of most unacademic slang.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;There were some things Ishi didn&rsquo;t like to talk about&mdash;the
+death of his relatives and the last horrible years around
+Deer Creek before he wandered to the Oroville slaughterhouse&mdash;were
+subjects he found too painful. Besides, there was
+a tribal taboo against mentioning the names of the dead. His
+close-cropped head, incidentally, was the result of burning
+off his hair in mourning for his mother and sister, in accordance
+with tribal custom.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;But the knowledge which Ishi passed on was rich and
+varied.... Among the contributions for which Ishi is remembered
+are some of the finest arrowheads and spear tips in
+existence; he made these for the University Museum both of
+modern bottle glass and from the natural materials.... In
+fact, Ishi was the source of almost all that is known of Yahi
+life. He gladly described the customs of his people, and he
+enjoyed chipping out Stone Age weapons and showing how
+they were used. With primitive drawings, he tried to tell the
+story of the massacre which wiped out most of his tribe....</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ishi&rsquo;s own life ended in March 1916, when he died of
+tuberculosis. He was then believed to be in his 50&rsquo;s. Those
+who knew him at the University considered his death a great
+loss&mdash;not only because of what he had contributed to
+anthropology, but because he had a natural friendliness and
+dignity which made him a beloved personality. Professor
+A. L. Kroeber once told me: &lsquo;The manner in which he acquitted
+<span class="pb" id="Page_29">29</span>
+himself, both from the scientific and social points of view,
+was so admirable that everyone who chanced to meet him
+counted it a privilege to be his friend&rsquo;. And Ishi had the
+comforting knowledge that his departure from this earth would
+not be a completely alien one. Because he had passed on
+the elements of his culture, it was possible to bury him with
+all the ceremony of his own people. His bows and arrows
+were laid beside him, and some bowls of food were placed in
+the grave so he would not grow hungry on his long journey
+to the Happy Hunting Ground....</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ishi was not only the last survivor of the Yahi ... but
+he was also believed to (have been) the last representative
+of the Stone Age in the United States.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>While not apropos to the subject of this chapter, &ldquo;Pioneer Conflict...&rdquo;
+we digress with some quotations from Pope&rsquo;s &ldquo;Medical
+History of Ishi&rdquo; to give the reader a better understanding of this
+last of the Mill Creek Indians, his character, and his beliefs.</p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>&ldquo;... Ishi himself later made the statement that he was
+not sick but had no food. White men had taken his bow and
+arrows; game was scarce, and he had no means of procuring
+it. He had strayed from his usual trail, between Deer Creek
+and ... Lassen (Peak). The railroad on one side and a
+large river on the other kept him from making his way to the
+refuge of the hills. His fear of trains and automobiles seems
+to have been considerable in those days.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Upon being captured, Ishi, according to his own account,
+was handcuffed, confronted by guns and pistols, and intimidated
+to such an extent that he vomited with fear....</p>
+<p>&ldquo;About this time (fall, 1912) I became instructor in surgery
+in the University Medical School, and thus came in contact
+with the Indian.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;From the first weeks of our intimacy a strong friendship
+grew up between us, and I was from that time on his physician,
+his confidant, and his companion in archery....</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The Museum (of Anthropology) is near the Hospital, and
+since Ishi had been made a more or less privileged character
+in the hospital wards, he often came into the surgical department.
+Here he quietly helped the nurses clean instruments,
+or amused the internes and nurses by singing his Indian
+songs, or carried on primitive conversation by means of a very
+complex mixture of gesture, Yana dialect, and the few scraps
+of English he had acquired in his contact with us.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;His affability and pleasant disposition made him a universal
+<span class="pb" id="Page_30">30</span>
+favorite. He visited the sick in the wards with a gentle
+and sympathetic look which spoke more clearly than words.
+He came to the women&rsquo;s wards quite regularly, and with his
+hands folded before him, he would go from bed to bed like a
+visiting physician, looking at each patient with quiet concern
+or with a fleeting smile that was very kindly received and
+understood.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<h3>&ldquo;ISHI&rsquo;S MEDICAL BELIEFS&rdquo;</h3>
+<blockquote>
+<p>&ldquo;Women&mdash;Ishi had many of our own obsolete superstitions
+regarding women. One criticism he made of white man&rsquo;s civilization
+was the unbridled liberty we give menstruating
+women. The &lsquo;Sako mahale&rsquo;, as he designated them, were a
+cause of much ill luck and sickness. They should be in
+seclusion during this period. In fact, he often commented on
+the number of sick men that came to the hospital. I asked
+him what he thought made so many men sick. He said it was
+&lsquo;Sako mahale, too much wowi (houses), too much automobile,&rsquo;
+and last but most important of all, the &lsquo;Coyote doctor&rsquo;, or
+evil spirit.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Dogs&mdash;Playing with dogs, and letting them lick one&rsquo;s
+hand, Ishi said was very bad. He assured me that to let babies
+play with dogs this way led to paralysis. It is interesting to
+note that Dr. R. H. Gibson of Fort Gibson, Alaska, has reported
+the coincidence of poliomyelitis among the Tanana
+Indians and the occurrence of distempers in dogs.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Rattlesnakes&mdash;Ishi&rsquo;s treatment for rattlesnake bite was
+to bind a toad or frog on the affected area. This is interesting
+in the light of the experiments of Madame Phisalix of the
+Pasteur Institute, who demonstrated the antidotal properties
+of salamandrin, an extract obtained from salamander skin,
+and the natural immunity that the salamander has to viper
+venom. Macht and Abel have obtained a similar powerful
+alkaloid from the toad <i>Bufo nigra</i>, called bufagin, which has
+some of the properties of strychnin and adrenalin. It has been
+used as an arrow poison by South American aborigines. Experiments
+which I conducted with salamandrin as an antidote
+to crotalin, show that it has a pronounced protective and
+curative value in the immunization of guinea pigs and in their
+cure after being bitten by the rattlesnake. It is, however, too
+dangerous and potent a poison itself to be of any practical
+value.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;When out camping we killed and cooked a rattlesnake or
+<span class="pb" id="Page_31">31</span>
+&lsquo;kemna&rsquo;. Ishi refused not only to taste it, but also to eat
+from the dishes in which it had been cooked. We ate it, and
+found that it tasted like rabbit or fish. Ishi expected us to
+die. That we did not do so he could only explain on the
+grounds that I was a medicine man and used magic protection.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Moon&mdash;Ishi held the superstition common among uneducated
+Caucasians, that it is unwholesome to sleep with the
+moon shining on one&rsquo;s face, so he covered his head completely
+under his blankets when sleeping in the open.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Hygiene&mdash;Ishi had wholesome notions of hygiene. When
+out hunting he has several times stopped me from drinking
+water from a stream which he thought had been contaminated
+by dwelling houses above.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;His residence in the Museum caused many misgivings in
+his mind. The presence of all the bones of the dead, their
+belongings, and the mummies were ever a source of anxiety
+to him. He locked his bedroom door at night to keep out
+spirits. When we stored our camping provender temporarily in
+the Museum bone room, Ishi was not only disgusted but genuinely
+alarmed. It was only after the reassurance that the
+&lsquo;bunch a mi si tee&rsquo; could not enter through the tin of the cans
+that he was relieved.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Surgery&mdash;On some of his visits to the University Hospital,
+Ishi gazed through the glass-panelled door of the
+operating room and watched the less grewsome scenes therein,
+wondering no doubt what was the meaning of this work ...
+and his questions afterward, though few and imperfectly
+understood, showed that he marveled most at the anaesthetic
+and that he debated the advisability of such surgical work.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Once he saw me remove a diseased kidney. He viewed
+the sleeping man with deep wonder. He seemed interested at
+the methods we employed to prevent hemorrhage. For days
+afterwards he asked me if the patient still lived, and seemed
+incredulous when I said he did. When he saw an operation for
+the removal of tonsils he asked me why it was done. I told
+him of the pain and soreness which was indicative of disease,
+and necessitated the operation. He conveyed to me the information
+that among his people tonsillitis was cured by
+rubbing honey on the neck, and blowing ashes down the throat
+through a hollow stick or quill; no operations were necessary.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The only surgical operation with which he seemed familiar
+was scarification. This was accomplished by means of small
+flakes of obsidian and had as its purpose the strengthening
+<span class="pb" id="Page_32">32</span>
+of the arms and legs of men about to go out on a hunt.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Herbs&mdash;His own knowledge of the use of medicinal
+herbs was considerable, as we learned later when he went
+back to Deer Creek canyon with us on a three weeks&rsquo; camping
+trip, here he designated scores of plants that were of technical,
+medicinal, or economic value. But he put very little
+faith in these things. The use of herbs and drugs seems to
+have been the province of old women in the tribe.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;There was a hole in the septum of his nose which he had
+used as a receptacle for a small piece of wood, as well as for
+holding ornaments. When he had a cold he placed in this
+spot a twig of baywood or juniper, and indicated to me that
+this was medicine. It served very much with him as menthol
+inhalers do with us. Its influence was largely psychic but
+agreeable.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Magic&mdash;The real medicine was magic. The mysteries of
+the k&rsquo;uwi, or medicine man, were of much greater value than
+mere dosing. Their favorite charms seem to have been either
+blowing of smoke and ashes in certain directions to wield a
+protective or curative influence, or the passing of coals of
+fire through themselves or their patients by means of sleight
+of hand. They also sucked out small bits of obsidian or cactus
+thorns from their clients, averring that these were the etiological
+factors of sickness.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The principal cause of pain, according to Ishi, was the
+entrance of these spines, thorns, bee stings, or, as he called
+them, &lsquo;pins&rsquo;, into the human frame. The medicine man sucked
+them out, or plucked them while they were floating in the air
+in the vicinity of the sick man. They were then deposited in
+a small container, usually made of the dried trachea of a bird,
+or of a large artery. The ends of this tube were sealed with
+pitch or some form of a stopper and the whole thing taken
+possession of by the doctor, thus keeping the &lsquo;materia
+morbosa&rsquo; where it could do no further harm.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The fact that I was able to do sleight of hand: vanish
+coins, change eggs into paper, swallow impossible objects at
+will, and perform similar parlor magic, convinced Ishi that
+I was a real doctor, much more than any medication or surgery
+at my command. He came, nevertheless, to our clinic whenever
+he had a headache, or a bruised member, or lumbago, and
+accepted our services with due faith.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_33">33</div>
+<h3>&ldquo;ISHI&rsquo;S PERSONAL HABITS&rdquo;</h3>
+<blockquote>
+<p>&ldquo;Sleep&mdash;... he slept between blankets in preference
+to sheets. He had several flannelette nightshirts but he preferred
+to sleep naked....</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Clothing&mdash;... At first he was offered moccasins, but
+refused to wear them. He wanted to be like other people.
+Usually he wore a bright colored necktie and sometimes a hat,
+when he was going down town ... cotton shirts and (cotton)
+trousers were his choice. He used a pocket handkerchief in
+the most approved manner, and because of his frequent colds
+he needed it often.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Modesty&mdash;Ishi, strange to say, was very modest. Although
+he went practically naked in the wilds, and, as
+described by Waterman, upon his first appearance in Deer
+Creek Canyon he was seen altogether nude, nevertheless,
+his first request after being captured was for a pair of overalls.
+He was quite careful to cover his genitalia; when
+changing clothes, assumed protective attitudes, and when
+swimming in the mountain streams with us wore an improvised
+breech clout even though his white companions abandoned
+this last vestige of respectability.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Toilet&mdash;When well he bathed nearly every day, and he
+always washed his hands before meals. He was very tidy and
+cleanly in all his personal habits. When camping, he was the
+only man in our outfit who got up regularly and bathed in the
+cold mountain stream every morning.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ishi was an expert swimmer.... He used a side stroke
+and sometimes a modified breast stroke, but no overhand or
+fancy strokes; nor did he dive. He swam under water with
+great facility and for long distances. The rapids of Deer
+Creek were rather full yet he swam them, and carried my young
+son hanging to his hair.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;When he was sick he resented being bathed except when
+ordered by the nurse or doctor. Like many other primitive
+people, he considered bathing injurious in the presence of
+fever. He never attempted to take a sweat bath while in
+civilization, but often spoke of them. I never saw him brush
+his teeth, but he rubbed them with his finger, and they always
+seemed clean. He washed his mouth out with water after
+meals.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;His beard was sparse but he plucked it systematically
+by catching individual hairs between the blade of a dull jack-knife
+and his thumb. In his native state he used a sort of
+<span class="pb" id="Page_34">34</span>
+tweezers made of a split piece of wood. He did this work
+without the use of a mirror.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He combed and brushed his hair daily. He washed it
+frequently.... At first he had no dandruff, but after two or
+three years&rsquo; contact with the whites he had some dry seborrhoea,
+and began to get a trifle gray at the temples ... he
+used grease on his scalp when in his native state; whereas
+bay leaves and bay nuts he said were heated and reduced to
+a semi-solid state, when they were rubbed on the body after
+the sweat bath. Here they acted as a soporific, or, as he said,
+like whiskey, and the person thus anointed fell into a sweet
+slumber. The same substance was rubbed on moccasins to
+make them waterproof.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;On one occasion he contracted ring worm, probably from
+a wandering cat. He was given a sulphur salve for this, and
+after its cure he still used the ointment to soften his hands....
+He was not susceptible to &lsquo;poison oak&rsquo; ... nor to sunburn.
+His skin bleached out considerably while in San Francisco,
+and became darker when exposed to sunlight.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;... (he) seemed to have the same fondness for sweet-scented
+soap that Orientals manifest.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;His personal belongings he kept in a most orderly manner,
+everything in his box being properly folded and arranged with
+care. Articles which he kept outside of this box he wrapped
+in newspaper and laid in systematic arrangement on shelves
+in his room.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;In working on arrows or flaking obsidian, he was careful
+to place newspapers on the floor to catch his chips. In fact,
+neatness and order seemed to be part of his self-education.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;In the preparation of food and the washing of dishes he
+was very orderly and clean.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Diet&mdash;... After a certain period of this luxury (eating
+heavily) he discerned the folly of this course and began eating
+less, when his metabolism returned to a more normal
+balance. Part of this increase was due to the large quantities
+of water he drank. Being unaccustomed to salt, our seasoning
+was excessive and led to increased hydration of his bodily
+tissues. He had a great fondness for sweets.... He tried
+and liked nearly all kinds of foods, but seemed to have an
+aversion for custards, blanc manges, and similar slimy confections,
+nor could he be persuaded to drink milk. He
+contended that this was made for babies, while he said that
+butter ruined the singing voice....</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_35">35</div>
+<p>&ldquo;Matches he took up with evident delight; they were such
+a contrast to the laborious methods of the fire drill, or of
+nursing embers, which he employed in the wilds.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;... His meat he boiled only about ten minutes, eating
+it practically without seasoning.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;His own food in the wilds seems to have been fish, game,
+acorn meal, berries, and many roots. Prominent among these
+latter was the bulb of the <i>Brodiaea</i>. The Indian could go out
+on an apparently barren hillside and with a sharp stick dig up
+enough <i>Brodiaea</i> bulbs in an hour to furnish food for a good
+meal. These roots are globular in shape, with the appearance
+of an onion, ranging in size from a cherry to a very small
+potato. The flavor when raw is like that of a potato, and when
+cooked like a roasted chestnut.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Alcohol&mdash;... Ishi himself had no liking for strong
+drink, although at one time he purchased a few bottles of beer
+and drank small quantities diluted with sugar and water. He
+called it medicine. His response to my query regarding
+whiskey was, &lsquo;Whiskey-tee crazy-aunatee, die man.&rsquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Tobacco&mdash;Occasionally Ishi smoked a cigarette, and
+he knew the use of tobacco, having had access to the native
+herb in the wilds. But he seldom smoked more than a few
+cigarettes a day, and frequently went weeks without any. He
+disapproved of young people smoking. He chewed tobacco at
+times, and spat copiously. Both of these indulgences, however,
+he resorted to only when invited by some congenial
+friend.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Etiquette&mdash;Although uncultured, he very quickly learned
+the proper use of knife, fork, and spoon. His table manners
+were of the very best. He often ate at my home, where he was
+extremely diffident; watched what others did and then followed
+their examples, using great delicacy of manner. His attitude
+toward my wife or any other woman member of the household
+was one of quiet disinterest. Apparently his sense of propriety
+prompted him to ignore her. If spoken to, he would
+reply with courtesy and brevity, but otherwise he appeared
+not to see her.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;When he wanted to show his disapproval of anything very
+strongly, he went through the pantomime of vomiting.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Thrift&mdash;As janitor in the Museum, he was making a
+competent income, understood the value of money, was very
+thrifty and saving, and looked forward to the day when he
+could buy a horse and wagon. This seemed to be the acme
+<span class="pb" id="Page_36">36</span>
+of worldly possession to him. He was very happy and well
+contented, working a little, playing enough, and surrounded
+by friends.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<h3>&ldquo;ISHI&rsquo;S DISPOSITION AND MENTALITY&rdquo;</h3>
+<blockquote>
+<p>&ldquo;Disposition&mdash;In disposition the Yahi was always calm
+and amiable. Never have I seen him vehement or angry. Upon
+rare occasions he showed that he was displeased. If someone
+who he thought had no privilege touched his belongings, he
+remonstrated with some show of excitement. Although he had
+lived in part by stealing from the cabins of men who had
+usurped his country, he had the most exacting conscience
+concerning the ownership of property. He would never think
+of touching anything that belonged to another person, and
+even remonstrated with me if I picked up a pencil that belonged
+to one of the Museum force. He was too generous with
+his gifts of arms, arrow-heads, and similar objects of his
+handicraft.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;His temperament was philosophical, analytical, reserved,
+and cheerful. He probably looked upon us as extremely smart.
+While we knew many things, we had no knowledge of nature,
+no reserve; we were all busy-bodies. We were, in fact,
+sophisticated children.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;His conception of immortality was that of his tribe, but
+he seemed to grasp the Christian concept and asked me many
+questions concerning the hereafter. He rather doubted that
+the White God cared much about having Indians with Him, and
+he did not seem to feel that women were properly eligible to
+Heaven. He once saw a moving picture of the Passion Play.
+It affected him deeply. But he misconstrued the crucifixion
+and assumed that Christ was a &lsquo;bad man&rsquo;.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Use of tools&mdash;He was quite adept in the use of such
+simple tools as a knife, handsaw, file, and hatchet. He early
+discovered the advantages of a small bench vise, and it took
+the place of his big toe in holding objects thereafter....
+Journeys were measured by days or sleeps ... (he) was
+awe-struck when I took him to a sawmill where large cedar
+logs were brought in and rapidly sawed up into small bits to
+be used in making lead pencils. It would have taken hours
+for him to fell even a small tree, and an interminable length
+of time to split it. But here was a miracle of work done in a
+few minutes. It impressed him greatly....&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_37">37</div>
+<p>In concluding remarks on Indian conflict with pioneer, a word
+concerning Indian reservations will not be amiss. The author does
+best again in quoting, this time from Kroeber:</p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>&ldquo;The first reservations established by Federal officers in
+California were little else than bull pens. They were founded
+on the principle, not of attempting to do something for the
+native, but of getting him out of the white man&rsquo;s way as
+cheaply and hurriedly as possible. The reason that the high
+death rate that must have prevailed among these makeshift
+assemblages was not reported on more emphatically is that
+the Indians kept running away even faster than they could die.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The few reservations that were made permanent have on
+the whole had a conserving influence on the population after
+they once settled into a semblance of reasonable order. They
+did little enough for the Indian directly; but they gave him a
+place which he could call his own, and where he could exist
+in security and in contact with his own kind....&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Despite certain undesirable features of Indian Reservations, the
+general conclusion is that for a number of tribes survival has been
+considerably greater today than would have been the case if the
+Indians had had to shift for themselves in competition with the
+whites.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_38">38</div>
+<h2 id="c8"><span class="small">Chapter VI</span>
+<br />HUNTING</h2>
+<p>Hunting was obviously a very important activity of the Lassen
+Indians, not only for survival, but as a means of acquiring the comfort
+and security which success brought. Also a good hunter was
+held in high esteem socially.</p>
+<p>Deer were most sought and the hunter went to considerable effort
+to get &ldquo;deer power&rdquo; (a sort of guardian spirit) to possess him.
+This gave him skill and good luck. Generally only men hunted,
+sometimes individually, at other times in small or large groups.</p>
+<p>Before going hunting tobacco was often smoked ceremonially
+with prayers and singing while the shaman (medicine man) supervised
+and the hunters&rsquo; bodies were anointed with medicine. Weapons
+to be used were smoked over a fire, while the hunters talked to
+their bows and arrows about the coming hunt. Frequently Atsugewi,
+Yana, and Yahi hunters also cut themselves until they bled. This
+was true especially if their marksmanship had not been good of
+late. Cuts were made in the forearm and charcoal was rubbed in.
+They often took sweat baths too before hunting, but the Maidu did
+not. The latter, however, offered shell beads to help increase deer
+power. Atsugewi hunters left offerings of paint, tobacco, and eagle-down
+at certain spots in the mountains for luck.</p>
+<p>After a youth killed his first game, Maidu and Atsugewi switched
+him, a bow string being commonly used. Then the Atsugewi father
+talked to his son, blew smoke on him, and sent him out alone into
+the mountains for at least five days to seek power. Yana and Yahi
+youths were not permitted to touch, skin, or eat any of their first
+kill of each kind of animal, lest it spoil their luck. In these tribes
+the father skinned the animal and dressed the hide, teaching his
+son how this was done.</p>
+<p>After hunting there were often cleansing activities and ceremonies,
+and usually a division of meat although a lone hunter could
+retain all of it. It was considered quite bad to come home empty
+handed. After a bear had been killed he was spoken to kindly and
+in sympathetic terms. Deer eyes were often eaten to give good
+sharp eyesight to the eater.</p>
+<p>In a popular method of deer hunting by all Indians of the Lassen
+area, a deer head disguise was worn by the hunter. He approached
+his quarry cautiously using screening bushes and moving his
+antlered head above them to simulate a buck feeding. Sometimes
+the hunter carried brush along in front of himself. The mountain
+<span class="pb" id="Page_39">39</span>
+Maidu always used the whole deerskin for disguise. When close
+enough the hunter would shoot with bow and arrow. Since this was a
+nearly silent weapon, there was no noise to startle the deer, and
+so it was sometimes possible to slay two or three deer on one
+occasion.</p>
+<p>Atsugewi hunters might encircle a small brush covered or wooded
+mountain. They set many fires, leaving non-burning gaps where
+bowmen hid in holes. The deer were shot as they came out of the
+burning area.</p>
+<p>Mountain Maidu sometimes concealed themselves in pits near
+deer licks where they shot the animals in moonlight.</p>
+<p>Another hunting method was to drive deer along fences built
+of brush or stone or along ropes to which bunches of tules were tied
+as hanging streamers. Strategically placed hunters in shallow pits
+shot the driven deer as they passed through openings which had
+been left. Dogs were frequently used in hunting out and in driving
+deer.</p>
+<p>The brush deer-blind along a well traveled deer trail was used
+too, as well as hanging a noose in the deer trail to snare the deer.
+Still another means of taking deer was like that of the northern
+neighbors of the Atsugewi, the Pit River Tribe or Achomawi. They
+employed a six or seven foot deep pit about nine feet long dug
+with slightly undercut side walls. This opening was covered and
+concealed with poles, brush, and dirt. As the deer trotted along
+established trails over the disguised pitfalls they fell through.
+Or, deer might be driven to such pits, sometimes with the aid of
+converging walls or fences in conjunction with pitfalls. Deer
+trapped in these pitfalls were killed by strangling from above with
+ropes.</p>
+<p>Another popular way to secure deer was to follow the animal for
+one or more days. The pursuing Indian carried a small amount of
+food which he ate to sustain himself while moving. The deer, although
+swifter afoot than the hunter, was persistently followed at
+a steady pace. The animal did not get a chance to feed properly
+nor to rest. At length the deer became weakened to the point where
+the hunter could approach and shoot it at close range.</p>
+<p>If a hunter were fairly close to a deer and it was moving, he
+might shout at it, causing the deer to stop momentarily out of
+curiosity. This provided a better chance of bringing the quarry
+down with bow and arrow. Deer were sometimes lured closer by
+whistling with lips, blowing on a leaf or grass blade held in the
+hands, or by imitating the cry of a fawn. A hunter is said occasionally
+<span class="pb" id="Page_40">40</span>
+to have been able to sing to a group of deer, holding their
+attention while he cautiously approached within arrow range.</p>
+<p>If practical, deer or other game was killed by driving the animals
+over cliffs. Elk, mountain sheep, antelope, and reportedly occasionally
+even bison were hunted by one or more of the means. Except
+for the case of mountain sheep, such animals were probably rare
+within the territories of the tribes being considered.</p>
+<p>Meat of such large game was prepared for eating after skinning
+by roasting in the earth pit ovens to be described in succeeding
+chapters or by cutting up and boiling. Much venison and the like
+was also stored for winter use. In this case the meat was cut into
+strips and dried in the sun or on wooden frames over fires. This
+was not a smoking, but rather a drying process. Such jerked meat
+was stored in large, tightly woven baskets. Meat fresh or dried was
+almost invariably eaten with acorn mush.</p>
+<p>Bear hunting was common among tribes of the Lassen area. The
+American Black Bear is not aggressive and by no means always
+black. He is of moderately large size and often is light or dark
+brown in color. Indians liked to hunt the Black Bear in winter,
+two hunters entering the hibernating den. One carried a torch and
+the other a bow and arrow. They rolled a large block of wood in
+front of them and shot the bear at point blank range, then quickly
+ran out. Wounded, frightened, and in a semi-stupor, the bear usually
+stumbled over the wooden block. If he did not die in the den, but
+came out, he was shot by other waiting hunters. Mountain Maidu
+instead of entering the den smoked the bear out with pitchy torches
+planted at the den entrance.</p>
+<p>The California Grizzly was much larger, fiercer, and more
+aggressive. This grizzly is now extinct, but was common especially
+in the foothill and lower mountain slopes of California before the
+coming of the white man. Grizzlies were normally engaged only
+by a large group of hunters and after considerable ceremonial preparation.
+Hunters never entered the den. Two stout poles were
+crossed in front of the opening with one or two men holding each&mdash;a
+dangerous job. The bear was spoken to nicely and urged to
+come out which he usually soon did. As the bear started to climb
+over the poles at the den entrance, the Indians pushed up forcing
+the bear&rsquo;s body against the roof so that he could most easily be
+shot. If this maneuver was not successful, a brave hunter enticed
+the bear to pursue him while the others shot arrows into the grizzly.
+Especially sharp and heavily poisoned arrow points were used on
+grizzly bear by the Atsugewi.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_41">41</div>
+<p>It was believed that a man who drank fresh bear blood would be
+very healthy thereafter, if he were strong enough. If he were weak,
+however, drinking the blood would kill him promptly.</p>
+<p>Mountain lion were tracked, sometimes with dogs, sometimes in
+the snow, then treed and shot. Wildcats were generally killed in
+the same way. A hunter might coax a mountain lion to leap at him
+by simulating a deer feeding, using the deer head and skin disguise,
+but this was a dangerous practice.</p>
+<p>Except in the eastern part of Atsugewi territory where the
+Apwaruge lived, rabbits were not plentiful. Yana, Yahi, and Maidu
+hunted them more, driving cottontail, snowshoe, and jack rabbits
+into long nets and clubbing them to death. In the winter rabbits
+were sometimes tracked and shot with bow and untipped arrows.</p>
+<p>Other small mammals were shot, caught by dogs, and dug,
+smoked, or drowned out of burrows. A stick split at the end was
+thrust into a burrow and by twisting was entangled in the creature&rsquo;s
+fur sufficiently to drag him out. Ground squirrels could be outrun
+and killed by stepping on them. Skunks, badgers, rats, and more
+often porcupines were eaten&mdash;the latter being clubbed or stoned
+to death.</p>
+<p>Small and medium sized animals were also caught under stone
+or log deadfalls which were propped up to drop on the victim while
+it was traveling along a runway, crossing a stream on a log, or
+when the animal pulled on a baited trigger. Similar placing was
+used for setting spring snares which took advantage of bent tree
+limbs for power. Long fences with nooses placed in gaps were used
+for rabbits, quail, and the like, and on occasion for creatures as
+large as deer. Some nooses were even operated by hand from a
+place of hiding.</p>
+<p>Birds of all sorts were caught too, but live or imitation decoys
+were never employed as lures. Woodpeckers were removed from the
+nest by hand or else a noose was hung around the nest opening.
+Some birds were taken in basketry traps. Waterfowl were shot with
+bow and arrow and the young were run down. Eggs were also taken.
+Some ducks were speared at night from canoes or driven into nets
+by use of a canoe with fire at one end. Frequently nets or snares
+were suspended at intervals just above a stream where waterfowl
+commonly alighted. Ducks and geese were also driven into the
+traps in taking off from the water.</p>
+<p>Grouse and small birds like robins and blackbirds were shot
+with blunt or untipped arrows, usually of one-piece construction.</p>
+<p>It is interesting to note that in contrast to other local tribes, the
+<span class="pb" id="Page_42">42</span>
+Yana and Yahi tribes did not employ the following hunting techniques:
+burning brush, using bird snaring booths, nets for ducks,
+geese, rabbits, or deer, nor was game driven into enclosures or
+quail secured by use of net traps or drive fences. Furthermore Yana
+and Yahi did not believe that game was immortal.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig5">
+<img src="images/p09.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="403" />
+<p class="pcap">Atsugewi Snare set on a log lying across a stream.</p>
+</div>
+<p>It was not an uncommon practice, especially among the mountain
+Maidu, to frequently burn off their lands to make for easier travel
+and to minimize the possibility of ambush by enemies. The
+frequent &ldquo;light&rdquo; burnings do not seem to have generated enough
+heat to have destroyed the forests. Never the less this practice
+is not regarded as a wise conservation as it is definitely injurious
+to tree and much other plant reproduction as well as being destructive
+of organic material in the soil, damaging the watershed and
+being unfavorable to certain animal species, as well as accelerating
+erosion.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_43">43</div>
+<h2 id="c9"><span class="small">Chapter VII</span>
+<br />FISHING</h2>
+<p>Fishes were one of the four important food categories consumed
+by Indians of the Lassen region. Land-locked and other non-migratory
+Rainbow Trout were abundantly available in mountain
+streams and in some lakes. Steelhead Trout penetrated the territories
+of our four tribes too. Salmon, however, did not go so far
+upstream, only rarely coming up Hat Creek, for instance, into
+Atsugewi lands. For the most part this tribe of Indians visited the
+Pit River to the north in the autumn. They paid the Achomawi,
+through whose territory this fine salmon stream flowed, for the
+privilege of catching salmon by giving up a share of the catch to
+them. The larger streams in south Yana, Yahi, and mountain Maidu
+country contained salmon and steelhead, but it seems that these
+tribes also made bargains with the Valley Indians for salmon fishing
+privileges or else made fishing forays to the Sacramento River.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig6">
+<img src="images/p09a.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="575" />
+<p class="pcap">Atsugewi Bow-type net.
+This kind was usually used
+in small streams where it
+covered the full width of the
+stream bed. Fish were
+commonly driven into it,
+then the handle was raised.</p>
+</div>
+<p>Gill nets about three feet high and as much as 30 feet long were
+commonly used. Spawning trout in the spring were speared in large
+numbers. Although old informants have denied the practice,
+Boonookoo-ee-menorra (Mrs. Selina La Marr of the Atsugewi) tells
+of catching Rainbow Trout by hand from Manzanita Creek banks
+about fifty years ago when her family came up in the summer to
+fish. Trout were speared by the Atsugewi with two pointed or four
+<span class="pb" id="Page_44">44</span>
+pointed spears instead of the common single pointed version. Bone
+or Serviceberry wood might be used for the tips. Spears were used
+not only from stream banks, but, especially at night, from a canoe
+equipped with a torch in front. One man or more would spear the
+fish while a person, sometimes a woman, paddled the craft from the
+rear. The torch consisted of four mountain-mahogany sticks bound
+together with pitch down the center.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig7">
+<img src="images/p10.jpg" alt="" width="519" height="600" />
+<p class="pcap">A northeast Maidu bow-fish
+net about forty inches long.
+It was used for fish other
+than salmon. Northwest and
+southern Maidu did not use
+such nets, employing seine
+nets instead (after Dixon).</p>
+</div>
+<p>It is interesting to note that the practice of shooting fish with
+bow and arrow was not carried on by any tribes of the Lassen area,
+although the eastern people of the Pit River Indians (Achomawi),
+the western Shasta, Wintu, and foothill Maidu did do so.</p>
+<p>Only Atsugewi, of the tribes we are considering, trapped fish
+in converging weirs into which fish might be driven. In the autumn,
+streams were sometimes diverted by damming. The fish trapped
+in the ponds remaining were scooped out with baskets or nets.
+Mountain Maidu drove fish into traps and caught lamprey eels in
+dip or scoop nets. Bow-type nets illustrated in the text were used
+with the bow bent ends down resting on the bed of the stream, the
+pole being raised to trap the fish. The net was preferably as wide
+as the stream.</p>
+<p>All local tribes fished with lines and hooks which were made
+by lashing a sharp piece of bone to a section of twig, at an acute
+angle. Atsugewi and mountain Maidu also used a &ldquo;gorge&rdquo; for
+<span class="pb" id="Page_45">45</span>
+angling. This was a slender piece of bone two or three inches
+long fastened near the middle and sharpened at both ends. Hooks
+were sometimes baited with meat, grasshoppers, or large flies, but
+man-made &ldquo;flies&rdquo; as fishermen know them today were not used.
+Sometimes meat or grasshopper bait was used by Atsugewi on fish-lines
+without any hook. Atsugewi women occasionally fished with
+baskets and with hook and line. Hooks were often tied in a series
+on a line attached either on both banks of the stream or to a pole
+secured in the bank or tied to tules or to brush, and left over night.
+A series of basket traps was sometimes likewise stretched across
+a stream.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig8">
+<img src="images/p10a.jpg" alt="" width="169" height="500" />
+<p class="pcap">A Klamath fish hook similar to those
+used by local tribes. Single barbed
+hooks were also employed.</p>
+</div>
+<p>Salmon fishing was done largely with harpoons which differ from
+spears in having one or more movable barbs or toggles of bone.
+These opened when the harpoon was pulled back (outward in the
+victim) thus securing the catch all the more firmly. This was
+necessary for such large and heavy fish as salmon. Yana tribes
+caught their salmon with either hook and line or by spearing with
+a two pointed harpoon.</p>
+<p>Natural falls were favored fishing sites. There Indians caught
+salmon and steelhead trout as the fish attempted to scale the falls.
+Long handled nets were used. Atsugewi went so far as to build
+scaffoldings to assist either in this method of fishing or from which
+to harpoon large fish. In the latter case many whitish rocks, where
+available, were thrown into the stream to build up a light colored
+bottom for better visibility in harpooning or spearing.</p>
+<p>After the fish were caught they were killed by striking with a
+stick as a general practice. Mountain Maidu sometimes killed fish
+<span class="pb" id="Page_46">46</span>
+by striking their heads on rocks. The central Yana, interestingly
+enough, killed fish by biting them!</p>
+<p>In quiet portions of streams fish were poisoned by placing
+certain pounded plant materials in the water. Yana and Yahi used
+crushed Soaproot; Atsugewi used pulverized Wild Parsley. Wild
+Parsley application made the water bluish, and caused the fish
+soon to rise to the surface of the water floating belly-up. Where
+suitable quiet pools did not exist in a stream, they were sometimes
+formed by the Indians through temporary damming. Buckeye nut
+pulp, which is poisonous, was not used in this area for poisoning
+fish.</p>
+<p>Long basketry fish traps, usually constructed by men, were also
+utilized. The design and proportions of these varied with the tribe.</p>
+<p>Each of the Lassen area tribes had taboos which prevented
+youths, and in the case of Atsugewi, their parents too, from eating
+the first fish each youth caught.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig9">
+<img src="images/p11.jpg" alt="" width="877" height="293" />
+<p class="pcap">Plan of Maidu open basketry fish trap (after Dixon) several feet long.
+The pointed end was untied to extract the fish.</p>
+</div>
+<p>Chubs and minnows, spurned by white man, were driven into
+nets and eaten. At lower elevations, where waters were warmer
+and sluggish, suckers provided a common source of food fish. The
+Indians also not infrequently dove for crawfish and fresh water
+mussels. These were gathered in net sacks by male Indians of all
+local tribes. Yana and Yahi roasted mussels but did not boil them
+and never dried them for later use. A flat rock might be carried on
+the shoulders to assist the diving Indians.</p>
+<p>Some fish were cooked by roasting over coals or by boiling.
+Most trout, however, were cleaned, head and backbone removed,
+and then strung up on poles to dry. No salt was used in the process.
+The dried fish was carried to camp or village in large
+baskets. Dried trout was tied into small bales for storage and
+placed in baskets or in pits dug in the ground for safe-keeping.
+Salmon were usually cooked in earth pit ovens, then dried and
+<span class="pb" id="Page_47">47</span>
+crumbed by Atsugewi and mountain Maidu for later use. This was
+of necessity an autumnal activity. Yana and Yahi stored their
+salmon in dried slabs, pulverizing it as needed.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig10">
+<img src="images/p11a.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="364" />
+<p class="pcap">Atsugewi basketry fish trap (after Garth).</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_48">48</div>
+<h2 id="c10"><span class="small">Chapter VIII</span>
+<br />GATHERING AND PREPARATION OF OTHER FOODS</h2>
+<p>As has been pointed out earlier under &ldquo;California Indians&rdquo;,
+these tribes had a common food pattern. Although there was some
+difference in the relative importance of the four major types of food
+to the several tribes due to varying availability, the California
+Indians ate (1) game, especially deer, (2) fish, particularly salmon
+and trout, (3) roots and bulbs which the women dug, and (4) fruits
+and seeds of a wide variety, the most important of which were
+acorns.</p>
+<p>Besides fish and venison, many kinds of flesh food were eaten
+by the Indians of the Lassen area: fox, wolf, grizzly and black
+bear, skunk, raccoon, porcupine, rabbit, owl, fish, fresh water
+mussel, and turtle being most common. They also ate with apparent
+relish a variety of insects and the like including crickets,
+grasshoppers, angleworms, red ant eggs, and yellow-jacket larvae.</p>
+<p>Game which was not eaten by either Atsugewi or mountain Maidu
+was coyote, elk, antelope, and all snakes and lizards. The last
+two items were almost universally shunned by California Indians.
+Many California tribes including Yana and Yahi refused to eat dog
+meat, some of them believing canine flesh to be poisonous. That
+mountain Maidu was one of the few tribes which ate dog flesh whenever
+it was available is denied by Dixon. Atsugewi ate it only as
+a last resort when rare, near-famine conditions prevailed or during
+times of severe epidemic. Canine flesh was believed by them to
+be a powerful and perhaps somewhat dangerous medicine. Buzzards
+seem to have been about the only birds which were not eaten.</p>
+<p>Each tribe had certain taboos on eating game. An Atsugewi
+did not, for example, eat wildcat, gopher, hawk, lamprey eel, or
+caterpillars. Mountain Maidu did not eat mountain lion, badger,
+raven, or crawfish.</p>
+<p>Heart of deer was taboo to all males among Atsugewi and to
+all children and youths of the mountain Maidu. The foetus of all
+animals and also deer fawns could not be eaten by any except
+Atsugewi, Yana, and Yahi old men and old women. Animal foetus
+was, however, allowed as food to all mountain Maidu adults. Bear
+foetus was skinned by Atsugewi and fed to old women because it
+was so tender. Likewise, Yana and Yahi made foetus soup for old
+folks to eat. Deer liver was taboo to Atsugewi boys and youths.
+Taboo also among Atsugewi was the eating of fish and deer meat
+together. Among mountain Maidu the eating of salt on bear meat
+<span class="pb" id="Page_49">49</span>
+was prohibited. Many other food combinations were outlawed by
+these and other California tribes.</p>
+<p>Deer backbone was ground up and eaten dry by mountain Maidu
+or molded into small cakes, then baked and eaten while Atsugewi
+would dry deer backbones with meat still adhering, grind it up, and
+then boil the meal before eating it. Yana also ate pulverized meal
+of other bones after cooking. Marrow was relished; it was a special
+delicacy for Yana children.</p>
+<p>Securing of large game and fish and their preparation has been
+described earlier.</p>
+<p>Such animals as wildcat, raccoons, foxes, et cetera were skinned
+and cooked in earth ovens by all local tribes. These were pits
+sometimes as much as six feet wide and lined with rocks. A large
+fire was built in the pit to thoroughly heat the rock lining, after
+which any unburned debris was removed. The animal to be roasted
+was laid in the pit on a layer of green pine needles, or various
+other leaves, depending upon the tribe. A large heated rock was
+placed inside the body cavity and smaller hot rocks were wedged
+under the fore and hind legs which were then all tied tightly together.
+A flat heated rock might be placed on top of the carcass
+and the whole was covered with pine needles and the like, and
+finally with hot ashes and sometimes dirt. The roasting proceeded
+for half a day or so. Blood and fat might be placed in the intestine
+membranes of larger animals (especially wildcat) to form sausage
+and cooked in ashes. Mountain Maidu also boiled blood for eating.</p>
+<p>Quills of porcupine and hair of badger, squirrel, or other small
+mammals might be singed off before cooking instead of skinning the
+animals. Ground squirrels were sometimes merely gutted and then
+roasted in ashes without further preparation. When Yana (and probably
+Yahi) did this, they then skinned the ground squirrels after
+cooking and mashed the whole bodies by pounding before eating
+them. Rabbits were roasted over coals and broken into pieces for
+eating. Both mountain Maidu and Atsugewi sometimes broiled small
+mammals on a single stick over coals.</p>
+<p>Turtles were cooked alive in hot ashes. If they crawled out
+they were pushed back in again.</p>
+<p>Duck eggs were boiled in baskets using hot rocks&mdash;cooked
+they would keep for a week or two. Yana tribes roasted quail eggs
+in ashes. Birds were gutted, feathers singed off in flames and
+roasted on sticks or roasted in oven pits. Roasting was invariably
+used for the large birds such as ducks, geese, and swans.</p>
+<p>Atsugewi practiced some fascinating gathering techniques in
+<span class="pb" id="Page_50">50</span>
+which they were not unique. Insects were gathered by both men
+and women. Grasshoppers and crickets not infrequently appeared
+in large numbers. These were collected early in the morning while
+still sluggish with cold. When very abundant they were scraped with
+sticks from branches of bushes into large burden baskets. During
+the heat of the day grasshoppers were effectively collected by
+singeing them. Some tribes merely burned dry grassy fields after
+which the insects were easily picked up. Atsugewi made a long
+willow &ldquo;rope&rdquo; to which many bunches of dry grass were fastened.
+This was set afire and men carrying this blazing band stretched
+tightly between them ran across open grassland where the grasshoppers
+were numerous. The insects jumped into the flames and
+were thus killed. Yana pulverized grasshoppers and other insects
+without cooking them.</p>
+<p>Atsugewi roasted crickets in the pit oven. These were then
+dried two days and finally eaten or stored. If they had been stored,
+they were pounded before being eaten.</p>
+<p>Salmon flies were plentiful along Pit River and Lost Creek (outside
+of the park). These were hand picked from the banks early in
+the morning. The wings were removed and the bodies boiled before
+eating by the Atsugewi.</p>
+<p>When yellow-jackets, always carnivorous (meat eaters), were
+seen buzzing about, Atsugewi would tie a white flower petal to
+a grasshopper leg. When the yellow-jacket picked this morsel up
+and flew away with it toward its nest, the Indians would run after
+the yellow-jacket which was easy to follow on account of the conspicuous
+flower petal it carried along. Thus yellow-jacket nests
+were found. A line was marked around the nest area with the
+fingers. This line was supposed to increase the size of the nest.
+Pine needles were then stacked over the nest and burned to kill
+the winged insects. This done, the nest was dug up and roasted
+alongside a fire, thus cooking the maggot-like grubs inside. These
+were considered to be quite a delicacy. According to Dixon,
+mountain Maidu young folks were denied this delicacy, but not so
+among the Yana. Dried grasshoppers, crickets, and yellow-jacket
+larvae were foods often used as items of trade.</p>
+<p>Angleworms were collected by first driving a digging stick a
+few inches into the moist soil, then moving the top about. The
+consequent disturbing of the ground made the worms crawl out.
+Although other California tribes made angleworm soup, Atsugewi,
+Yana, and probably Yahi sometimes roasted angleworms between
+hot rocks. Maidu reportedly dried worms for eating.</p>
+<p>Red ant eggs were eaten by Indians too. Atsugewi baked them
+<span class="pb" id="Page_51">51</span>
+in earth pit ovens, while mountain Maidu parched them with coals.
+Mountain Maidu also ate certain caterpillars, but the other tribes
+of the Lassen area did not.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig11">
+<img src="images/p12.jpg" alt="" width="502" height="591" />
+<p class="pcap">A. Sharpened iron rod
+digging stick with pine
+cross piece wrapped in
+coarse cotton cloth used
+for about forty years by
+Mrs. Mullen of Hat Creek.
+Length about four feet.</p>
+<p class="pcapc">B. Another recent mountain
+mahogany digging stick
+made by Mr. and Mrs.
+Lyman LaMarr (Boonookoo-ee-menorra).
+The point of
+the green wood was
+toughened in flame. Stick
+three and one half feet
+long.</p>
+</div>
+<p>Indians of this region did not carry on any agriculture, that is
+they did not plant crops for food or other purposes, but collected
+those which grew wild. It was, however, a common practice to burn
+some areas over regularly to stimulate growth of edible seed producing
+plants. Women always gathered the vegetable materials and
+prepared them for use.</p>
+<p>Roots and bulbs provided vital foods to the aborigines also.
+These were procured with a digging stick. In this region it was
+blunt at the top with a tapered point at the digging end. Atsugewi
+fastened a short cross piece on top to serve as a handle. The
+digging stick was made by this tribe of green mountain-mahogany
+wood with the digging point hardened by scorching in the flame.
+<span class="pb" id="Page_52">52</span>
+After the coming of white man, the same design was retained, but
+an iron rod replaced the mountain-mahogany digging shaft.</p>
+<p>In use, the digging stick was thrust into the ground next to the
+plant whose root was to be secured. The handle portion was worked
+sideways a couple of times, then pulled downward toward the
+operator. The point very effectively brought the root out of the
+ground. Roots were customarily tossed into a large cone-shaped
+carrying basket which was held in place on the digging woman&rsquo;s
+back by a chest band over her chest. Some of the load in the basket
+might also be supported by a band from the basket over the Indian
+woman&rsquo;s forehead.</p>
+<p>Roots were cleaned by rubbing (sometimes with sand) in a shallow
+bowl-shaped basket of a rough coarse mesh weave of willow
+ribs, like that used for cleaning acorns. The whole was dipped in
+water frequently. Rubbing usually continued until the skins were
+entirely removed.</p>
+<p>The most important item of this type collected in large amount
+for food is known as epos locally, or &ldquo;peh-ts-koo&rdquo; among the old
+Atsugewi. The plant belongs to the parsley family and stands one
+to two feet high. Actually, probably more than one species was
+eaten by Indians of the Lassen area. These plants are not unlike
+except in detail. All had sweet carrot-like taproots about two
+inches long. Garth states that Atsugewi ate the species <i>Pteridendia
+bolanden</i> which apparently corresponds to the botanists&rsquo; <i>Perideridia
+bolanderi</i> or <i>Eulophus bolanderi</i>; also probably <i>Carum</i> or <i>Perideridia
+oregona</i> and <i>californica</i>. Common English names for epos are squaw
+root or yampah. Epos roots were dried and stored, then ground up
+for use. This food item was made into either soup or bread. The
+finished product had a fine sweet meaty or nutty taste, and was
+held in high esteem. Obviously this constituted an important
+vegetable in the diet.</p>
+<p>At least two kinds of camas bulbs and <i>brodeia</i> bulbs were
+roasted in the earth pit oven, ground to pulp, shaped into cakes,
+and rebaked. These were then either eaten or dried and stored.
+The latter process was not employed by mountain Maidu. If the
+baked camas cakes were stored, they would be soaked with water
+before eating. Camas cakes were not made into soup.</p>
+<p>Tiger lily bulbs were roasted in earth pit ovens and eaten
+immediately. They were a highly prized food.</p>
+<p>Wild onion was used too, but usually with other root foods as
+a flavoring.</p>
+<p>The foregoing are but a few of the most extensively eaten roots.
+<span class="pb" id="Page_53">53</span>
+Many others, especially those of the lily and parsley families,
+were used by tribes of the Lassen region.</p>
+<p>Yana tribes robbed gophers of stores of edible roots and bulbs.
+These were found by probing for burrows and digging out the
+animals&rsquo; food storage chambers. Men usually did this, which is an
+exception to the general rule that women only collected vegetable
+materials.</p>
+<p>Acorns were probably the most important single food of California
+Indians. Surprisingly, this was true even in eastern parts of
+the territories of the Atsugewi (Apwaruge), mountain Maidu, and
+others where acorns were scarce or wanting entirely. Indians
+frequently traded for acorns or made long journeys for them. Acorns
+of the black oak were generally preferred over other kinds. Nearly
+all varieties were used for food on occasion, however. It is interesting
+to note that Modoc and Klamath Indians were exceptions
+in not using acorns for food.</p>
+<p>In the fall, usually in September, acorns were gathered by women
+after the ripe nuts had been knocked from the oaks with long poles,
+or by men and young agile girls climbing the trees to strike the
+fruit with straight sticks or staves. To aid in climbing large smooth
+tree trunks, Atsugewi men used sapling ladders on which part of
+branches were left attached to serve for footholds. Mountain Maidu
+on the other hand used a very unique two poled ladder with buckskin
+rungs. Acorns were carried to villages by women in stages,
+using baskets about the size of nail kegs.</p>
+<p>First spring food gathering each year was marked by rites in
+which the shamans, or medicine men, conducted praying ceremonies.
+Atsugewi conducted three of these. In May first epos roots were
+gathered and sung over by shamans. They examined the roots and
+prophesied whether the women who had dug them were going to be
+sick. Those who were going to be sick dug roots all day. In the
+evening these were dumped into piles and women shamans sang
+over these for half the night to make the threatened women healthy.
+Each woman gatherer participating then took home the roots she
+had dug leaving some for the shamans, who cooked and ate them.
+A second first food ceremony consisted of a ceremonial feast of
+fruit and vegetable materials with fish which the men brought.
+In the third such rite, root digging women threw away the first roots
+they dug that season and prayed to the effect: &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t make me
+poor. Give me good luck. You may have this one.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>In autumn, mountain Maidu held their first fruit ceremonies.
+Large groups of women went out to gather acorns. Acorn mush was
+made immediately of the first batch collected. The shamans ate
+<span class="pb" id="Page_54">54</span>
+some and prayed. Portions of this batch were then eaten by the
+rest of the assemblage. After that it was all right for anyone to
+gather and to use acorns of the new crop.</p>
+<p>Local tribes stored acorns in the shell either indoors in large
+baskets or outside in pits or in large hoppers or granaries covered
+with bark. The details of these varied with the several tribes.
+Maidu except for the &ldquo;mountain tribe&rdquo; and Yana shelled, split,
+and slightly dried some of their acorns, and placed them in basketry
+storage bins lined with broadleafed maple leaves. Maidu ate
+twelve different kinds of acorns, but the favorites were the black
+oak (<i>Quercus kelloggii</i>), <i>golden cup oak</i> maul, or canyon oak
+(<i>Quercus chrysolepis</i>), and sierra live oak (<i>Quercus wislizenii</i>)
+acorns.</p>
+<p>In preparation, acorns were cracked by up-ending each on a
+flat rock and striking the point with any convenient small stone.
+Sometimes small acorns were cracked with the teeth. Though
+usually a woman&rsquo;s job, young folks and men might help with the
+task.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig12">
+<img src="images/p13.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="473" />
+<p class="pcap">Basaltic lava mortar from Yana territory, about ten inches high.</p>
+</div>
+<p>The thin brownish skin which covers the acorn kernels was removed
+by rubbing vigorously in rough porous baskets made entirely
+of willow ribs. Water was not used. Indians of the Lassen area
+did not employ stone mortars for grinding acorns as was the practice
+in other parts of California. Stone mortars were always found, not
+made, and were used for ceremonial purposes, in the belief that
+<span class="pb" id="Page_55">55</span>
+these had been made by Coyote. However, Maidu families cherished
+portable stone mortars. They were kept buried at some distance
+from the dwelling, and dug up for occasional inspection. Bed-rock
+acorn pounding holes are not found in this region either except for
+the Maidu area. Instead, acorn meats were placed in hopper baskets
+lacking bottoms. This basketry mortar hopper rested with the small
+open end down on a heavy flat stone. The pounding basket was
+held in place by the Indian woman&rsquo;s knees as she sat in front of
+and straddling it. In one hand she wielded a stone pestle, flat on
+the grinding end. With the other hand she stirred the acorn material
+so that the coarse pieces worked toward the center to get the full
+impact of the pounding. The hopper basket was not always used,
+by the mountain Maidu, the pounding often being done merely on a
+flat rock slab, the woman&rsquo;s free hand continually brushing the
+acorn material back to the center. Acorn meal was ground until it
+was as fine as flour. The coarse pieces were separated from the
+fine by a process which employed a flattish piece of wood or bark
+a foot or so across. Sometimes a basketry plaque was used. A
+portion of ground meal was placed on this tray which was held
+firmly at one side and inclined toward the operator. The other edge
+of the plaque was shaken, causing the coarse material to roll into
+a container held in the lap for repounding while the fine flour remained
+on the plaque. A small brush, generally made from the
+pounded and dried root of the soap-plant, was used to brush the
+flour off and into the cooking basket. Mountain Maidu, according
+to Voegelin, actually did sift acorn meal through open-work baskets
+though this was not a common practice even among members of
+this tribe.</p>
+<p>White oak and some other acorn flour could be used for cooking
+without further preparation. Atsugewi preferred black oak acorns
+which had to be leached to remove the bitter tannic acid before
+using. To do this the flour was placed in a shallow depression on
+clean sand over porous earth, usually, but Yana used loosely
+woven baskets for the purpose, and in recent times it has become
+common practice to place cloth flour sacking over a screen or
+sieve. Cold water was poured over the meal until it was nearly
+free of bitterness. Warm water was then employed briefly, but hot
+water was never used, for it would make the flour tend to jell.
+Sand was removed from the bottom of the flour by touching the
+bottom of a handful of the moist material to water. The flour held
+together, but the sand grains dropped off. The flour could be dried
+and stored at this point, but was usually used as it was prepared.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_56">56</div>
+<p>Portions of about two or three quarts of acorn flour were placed
+in cooking baskets a foot or more in diameter. Water was added
+and then hot stones were dropped in. These smoothly rounded
+stones, of any shape and from one and a half to three inches in
+diameter, had been heated in an open fire. They were quickly dipped
+into water to remove ashes before being put into the mush cooking
+basket. The method of handling these cooking stones seems to
+have varied. Present day Atsugewi say a small looped stick was
+used, but old informants stated that two forked sticks were employed.
+Stirring had to be continuous lest the cooking stones scorch
+the basket. Atsugewi used any convenient stick for this, but Yana
+had a small oak paddle. After boiling a short while the acorn mush
+became light greyish or brownish in color; when cooled it jellied
+quite firmly. Acorn mush was commonly eaten warm with meat,
+from small individual baskets. Spoons were unknown in the Lassen
+area so acorn mush was eaten with index and second fingers.
+Mountain Maidu made their acorn mush of a more liquid consistency
+so that it was often consumed by drinking.</p>
+<p>Acorn bread was made by using less water and adding a small
+amount of reddish iron-bearing or blackish salt-bearing soil by
+Atsugewi, but mountain Maidu left this ingredient out. The paste
+was molded into biscuit or loaf-shaped forms, wrapped in leaves
+and baked all night in earth pit ovens. Yana sometimes added red
+soil to their acorn bread making it brightly colored. Usually black
+oak acorns were used for bread by the Yana tribes and white oak
+for soup.</p>
+<p>That acorns are a fine food is indicated by the following analysis
+of the uncooked meal. The proportions vary somewhat, but not
+importantly among the several kinds of acorns used: 21% fat, 5%
+protein, 62% carbohydrate, and 14% water, mineral, and fiber. In
+cooked acorn mush the proportions remain the same relatively, except,
+of course, for the greatly increased water content.</p>
+<p>Buckeye nuts, not used much by Atsugewi, were important to
+other Indians of California, especially those residing at lower
+elevations. These fruits were gathered when ripe, then shelled,
+pounded and soaked in loosely woven baskets until the poisonous
+juice was leached out. The pulpy mass was next squeezed to remove
+excess water. Unlike acorn meal buckeye pulp was eaten
+uncooked. Yana crushed their buckeyes with their feet and leached
+the material in creeks, though sometimes hot water was used.</p>
+<p>Nuts of digger pine and sugar pine were highly regarded as food.
+Men climbed trees and picked digger pine cones or shook limbs to
+<span class="pb" id="Page_57">57</span>
+dislodge sugar pine cones. The cones were placed on end and
+covered with dry grass which was burned, ridding the cones of
+pitch. After this heat treatment, sugar pine nuts came out easily
+when cone scales were pulled back. After singeing the heavy
+digger pine cones were hit with rocks to obtain the large nuts they
+contained.</p>
+<p>The white sweet crusty deposit occasionally found on the bark
+of sugar pines was relished as candy by Atsugewi. However, it had
+a laxative property which mountain Maidu recognized and reputedly
+employed as such.</p>
+<p>A variety of small plant seeds also provided tasty nutrition.
+Several members of the sunflower family including balsam root
+species and mules ears, and others were used by all local tribes.
+Such seeds were usually collected by beating them with paddle-shaped
+basketry seed beaters into burden baskets. They were then
+parched with coals in flat trays, placed in flat baskets and worked
+about with stones until freed of skins. Seeds were winnowed by
+tossing them up allowing wind to carry hulls and skins away. The
+seeds were then pulverized with a small stone or muller, being
+rolled or rubbed on a larger rock slab generally referred to as a
+metate. Such seeds were eaten dry by Atsugewi, Yana, and Yahi
+without grinding, or the flour might be moistened and molded into
+cakes about the size of biscuits and eaten without further cooking.
+However, Yana also cooked certain sunflower seeds and the yellow
+blossoming heads of the small (<i>Helianthella</i>) sunflower were themselves
+cooked and eaten.</p>
+<p>Clover tops were collected in summer and eaten fresh by all
+local tribes. Mountain Maidu also baked them in earth pit ovens,
+then dried and stored the material to be recooked in winter for
+making soup. Atsugewi cooked clover roots in ovens. Young thistle
+stalks were eaten raw as was the foliage of several carrot-like
+plants. Mushrooms, fresh, roasted, or dried were eaten also. Young
+soap-plant stems were eaten fresh or baked and dried for winter
+use by Yana tribes.</p>
+<p>Manzanita berries were gathered by all Indians of the Lassen
+region in July and August. These berries were knocked into burden
+baskets with a stick. They were dried, stored in pits, pounded
+when needed, and sifted as fine meal. This was moistened and
+molded into biscuit-sized cakes and put away until wanted. Either
+fresh flour or the cakes were eaten plain or put into water and
+drunk. One investigator reported fermentation of manzanita cider
+and its use as a mild intoxicant, but this appears to have been the
+exception rather than the rule. The drink, of lemonade-like character,
+<span class="pb" id="Page_58">58</span>
+was usually consumed fresh. Manzanita cider was conveyed
+to the mouth by dipping a deer tail sop into the liquid, and then by
+sucking it. Small cakes were made of a mixture of manzanita and
+wild plum flours. Yana and Yahi also ate manzanita berries as such
+either fresh, or roasted and dried.</p>
+<p>Red berries of skunk or squaw bush were gathered in midsummer,
+washed, dried, and stored. They were pounded into flour in a mortar
+basket, mixed with manzanita flour and drunk. Elderberries were
+mashed and mixed with manzanita flour and stored as cakes.</p>
+<p>Wild plums were prepared by removing seeds. These were then
+eaten fresh or dried for storage.</p>
+<p>Chokecherries and service berries were put into baskets when
+ripe and mashed. The paste was eaten without cooking.</p>
+<p>Gooseberries, huckleberries, currants, Oregon-grape, buckthorn,
+juniper, thimble, and elderberries were eaten fresh, too, but juniper
+fruits might be dried and pounded into flour and stored.</p>
+<p>Another item used as food was salt which mountain Maidu and
+Yana gathered locally in mineral form. The Atsugewi also imported
+it from Round Mountain in North Yana territory or made expeditions
+to this site to gather the dark salt material from a certain marsh.
+This salty earth was shaped into black loaves and dried. It was
+not only used for flavoring, but the black soil was also eaten as
+such by some individuals. Atsugewi had a local source of salt,
+however, by collecting fine whitish crystals in the early mornings
+from the blades of salt grass which was run between the fingers.
+Atsugewi used salt for salmon and venison in cooking, but not in
+drying processes.</p>
+<p>Pine pitch was chewed, but Atsugewi also used milkweed chewing
+gum.</p>
+<p>As for eating customs, Atsugewi ate three meals each day.
+Mountain Maidu just prepared two real meals. Hands were washed
+after eating deer and bear meats. Mountain Maidu wiped faces and
+hands with bark and grass after eating.</p>
+<p>There was a well defined division of labor among California
+Indians. Men would carry water for unusually long distances or
+heavy logs for firewood, but women usually carried water, wood,
+acorn and root crops, and the like. In the case of moving camp,
+however, men carried the heaviest burdens. The most important
+division of labor was the delegation to men of all activities concerning
+animals and animal products, and to women all pertaining
+to vegetable materials. Women, for instance, collected materials
+for basketry and made all the baskets, except that men often made
+basketry fish traps and nets. Women dug roots and cooked all food
+<span class="pb" id="Page_59">59</span>
+except meat which men normally cooked. Exception to this rule
+was necessarily made when men were away on hunting trips or at
+war. Men usually built the houses, made moccasins and skin
+clothing too.</p>
+<p>Among Atsugewi and mountain Maidu only men made fire, but
+this was accomplished by both sexes among the Yana and Yahi.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_60">60</div>
+<h2 id="c11"><span class="small">CHAPTER IX</span>
+<br />HOUSES AND FURNISHINGS</h2>
+<p>The Atsugewi used earth-covered lodges as their permanent
+winter dwellings. These varied in size from about nine feet in
+length, for a single family, to more than thirty feet in length for
+a chief&rsquo;s house which was usually larger than other houses. Most
+frequently houses were about twenty feet long and somewhat
+narrower, being occupied by three to five families. The earth lodge
+was elliptical in shape with one center post planted firmly in the
+earth floor somewhat back of true center. This supported beams
+running to two smaller secondary posts and to earth shoulders
+which resulted from excavation of the entire floor to a depth of
+about three feet. On the beams other poles or rafters and bark slabs
+(usually of incense-cedar) were laid. The whole sloping roof was
+then covered with pine needles and a layer of earth.</p>
+<p>The main entrance was through a hole about in the center of the
+roof. Over this a heavy mat was placed in bad weather. This opening
+also served as a smoke hole. A ladder made of two poles with
+cross pieces tied on with serviceberry withes was used inside.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig13">
+<img src="images/p14.jpg" alt="" width="719" height="800" />
+<p class="pcap">The Northeast (mountain)
+Maidu earth lodge plan used
+only three primary posts
+plus secondary entrance
+posts.</p>
+</div>
+<dl class="undent pcap"><dt>logs or poles</dt>
+<dt>a fireplace</dt>
+<dt>b mainpost with forked top</dt>
+<dt>c front posts with forked tops</dt></dl>
+<p>A secondary entrance of small size, used by children, was built
+<span class="pb" id="Page_61">61</span>
+horizontally at ground level on the south (front) end of the house. It
+projected tunnel-like a short distance beyond the lodge outside wall.
+The main purpose of this ground-level opening was to act as a ventilator
+duct to supply draft for proper burning of the cooking and house
+warming fire which burned in front of the center post. At night the
+ventilator duct was closed. This reduced air supply, causing the
+fire to burn very slowly. Glowing coals developed as a result.
+These produced reduced but adequate heat for the occupants who
+slept with their feet to the fire. Men did all of the house construction
+work except for excavation. The women did this with digging
+sticks and wooden or basketry scoops with which they threw the
+dirt out of the pit. Excavation of the floor of the lodge not only
+made it easier to construct a strong house, but contributed materially
+to the warmth of the standard winter house.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig14">
+<img src="images/p14a.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="613" />
+<p class="pcap">Typical winter house of the local permanent Indian villages at lower
+elevations.</p>
+</div>
+<p>There was no furniture as such. Each family used an assigned
+portion of the house, and cooked its own food, but utilized the
+central communal fire. A thin layer of grass, carefully kept away
+from the fire, covered the floor. The Indians slept on the floor on
+mats made of tule. During the day these and the sleeping blankets
+were rolled up and provided the only seats. However, sitting
+<span class="pb" id="Page_62">62</span>
+usually consisted of squatting on the floor.</p>
+<p>Blankets of deer and elk skin were generally used. Atsugewi
+also used loose tule or grass blankets and all our tribes employed
+both woven rabbit skin and patchwork rabbit or fox blankets. Yana
+in addition to all the foregoing utilized bear skins; sometimes they
+removed the hair from their blankets.</p>
+<p>Atsugewi pillows were of bundles of leaves or grass while those
+of the mountain Maidu were harder, being merely piles of small
+poles, blocks of wood, or rocks.</p>
+<p>Interior earth walls of the houses were sometimes hung with tule
+mats or skins fastened with pegs to prevent dirt from sloughing off
+and rolling onto the floor. A few shelves might also be provided
+by laying wooden slabs on sticks driven into the dirt walls.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig15">
+<img src="images/p15.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="562" />
+<p class="pcap">Atsugewi bark house</p>
+</div>
+<p>There were other less substantial winter houses consisting
+either of small double lean-tos of bark slabs or conical houses on
+frameworks of slender poles and with shallow excavations. Some
+dirt was thrown against the outside walls for added warmth. Lazy
+people, who were usually consequently poor in the necessities and
+comforts of normal Indian life, lived in this more flimsy type of
+house. Also, women when indisposed repaired to such huts. A
+doorway was left in the siding to be closed by a tule mat in these
+little houses. They were also equipped with small smoke holes
+<span class="pb" id="Page_63">63</span>
+for central fires.</p>
+<p>Atsugewi summer houses as such really did not exist. Summer
+camps were little more than circular enclosures of brush, juniper,
+or other conifer limbs or of rock. These were ten or fifteen feet
+across with openings to the east. There was no roof, although
+branches and bark slabs might be put over crude frames in rainy
+weather. If a person were caught in a sudden shower he might make
+a temporary shelter by leaning bark slabs, if available, against a
+large rock or log lying on the ground.</p>
+<p>Atsugewi did not have any separate sweat houses nor dancing
+or assembly chambers, but used the larger earth lodge houses for
+these purposes. The largest belonged to chiefs and to other well-to-do
+Indians. Heat for sweating was provided directly by fire and
+not by production of steam as was the case with Plains Indians
+who threw water on hot stones. In recent years, however, after
+introduction of the horse, Atsugewi learned the latter technique and
+also constructed Plains Indian type sweat houses of one to three
+person capacity. These were dome shaped, and built of willow
+poles set in the ground in a circle. The tops were bent over and
+tied down, and this framework was covered with skins.</p>
+<p>Old type sweating was for men only, but Indian women&mdash;usually
+wives&mdash;also sweated with men in the new style separate sweat
+houses. Old time Atsugewi purposes in sweating were for gaining
+success in hunting, in gambling, and for general good luck. Some
+praying was done, but there were no formalized ceremonies or
+dances amongst the Atsugewi. Men sometimes slept in sweat
+houses.</p>
+<p>In the case of all local tribes sweating was followed by a cold
+plunge, if available nearby. Lacking this facility, a cold sponge
+bath was taken.</p>
+<p>The mountain Maidu earth lodge for dwelling and sweating was
+similar to that of the Atsugewi. However, northeast Maidu earth
+lodges &ldquo;koom&rdquo; were simpler and smaller than those of northwest
+and southern Maidu. Three posts, often forked were used in place
+of 10 or 11 employed for valley lodges. Excavation was about
+three feet deep, circular in plan, and from 18 to 40 feet across.
+A large flat stone was placed upright at the foot of the mainpost
+between it and the fire in the center. The vertical walls of the
+excavation were usually covered or lined with vertically placed
+whole or split logs or with bark slabs. Logs were lain horizontally
+on the three posts as indicated on the accompanying sketch. Radial
+rafters supporting the roof were placed on these beams and sloping
+downward to the ground surface outside as well as to two small
+<span class="pb" id="Page_64">64</span>
+posts at the small openway or ventilator passage. Cross poles
+were placed horizontally on the rafters and on these, large pieces
+of bark, branches, and pine needles were successively laid. Lastly,
+a heavy covering of soil 8 to 20 inches thick was heaped on the
+structure. On top in the center a smokehole was left, large enough
+to serve as the main entrance originally, but after the coming of
+white man, the smokehole was made smaller, and, instead, the
+originally small ventilator tunnel which sloped from floor level up
+to the ground surface outside was enlarged, thus supplanting the
+smokehole as the main entrance. Originally a ladder of two poles
+with cross pieces tied on with grapevine or other withes gave
+vertical access from the floor to the smokehole entrance. Dixon
+reports that a notched log was sometimes used for the purpose
+among mountain Maidu.</p>
+<p>The koom or lodge was occupied from November to March and
+was situated on the edges of wide meadows in mountain Maidu
+areas. At lower elevation occupancy was more or less continuous.</p>
+<p>Mountain Maidu did not have separate sweat houses. They always
+used a large earth dwelling lodge for the purpose. This was
+similar to the Atsugewi practice. These Maidu did, however, have
+a formalized sweat dance. Also different from the Atsugewi was the
+practice of men using the sweat house for gambling, handicraft
+work, and competitive singing.</p>
+<p>The &ldquo;hoe-bow&rdquo; of the mountain Maidu was a hut, 8 to 15 feet
+in diameter and excavated 12 to 15 inches deep. Two main poles
+were securely tied near the end. From the resulting &ldquo;V&rdquo; at the
+top, shorter poles were laid to a pair of slender posts about three
+feet high and set about three feet apart along the edge of the excavation.
+Against this frame branches, bark, and leaves were piled
+and earth was heaped around the bottom. The doors of all such
+bark huts opened to the south and were hung with a skin or tule
+mat.</p>
+<p>The rude summer shelter or shade provider was just like that of
+the Atsugewi.</p>
+<p>Information on Yahi house details are somewhat scanty, but in
+all probability they were small conical bark-covered huts while
+some larger earth lodges were built to house several families&mdash;in
+general similar, but perhaps smaller than those of the other tribes
+of the Lassen area. The large pretentious lodge, constructed
+solely for sweating and ceremonies, of the Sacramento Valley tribes
+seems to have been lacking among all of our local tribes.</p>
+<p>The common bark hut dwelling of the Yana was apparently built
+<span class="pb" id="Page_65">65</span>
+over a circular depression two feet deep, the top of the house rising
+about six feet above the ground. It was probably like the mountain
+Maidu huts, being a series of poles resting on the edges of the excavation.
+These met and were tied at the top to form a cone of low
+slope, although some informants claimed that the posts were set
+so firmly that tying together was omitted. The frames were covered
+with pine and incense-cedar bark slabs leaving a smoke hole near
+each apex. Earth was probably banked on the lower sloping walls.
+Entrance was never through the smoke hole as in the case of
+Atsugewi and some mountain Maidu earth lodge houses, but by
+means of a small door at ground level on the south side. The entrance
+was protected by a little covered way extending outward
+three feet from the house wall, and decked over by a gable roof of
+low pitch. A ramp of low pitch extended from the floor of the house
+through this antechamber to the ground level outside as no steps
+were constructed.</p>
+<p>The Yana lodge houses were not numerous. The ground plan
+was long, usually wedge or oval in outline and designed for several
+families, each with its own fire. As with the other tribes discussed
+in this booklet, such buildings also served as sweat houses. A
+ladder consisting of a notched log extended down from the smoke
+hole to the floor. One, two, or three center posts with radiating
+rafters and shorter side posts were employed. The Yana followed
+the Atsugewi practice of providing each earth lodge with a south
+facing, ground level, tunnel-like ventilator entrance of small size.
+It is possible that Yana did have a few special sweating lodges
+of the same design, but the matter is debatable. During sweating
+Yana men talked and played; the main purpose of sweating was to
+make men strong.</p>
+<p>It has already been pointed out that all four tribes which used
+what is now Lassen Volcanic National Park did so only during the
+summer. During their high mountain sojourn, the local Indians did
+not live in houses as such. There, residence during the three or
+four summer months was in temporary camps, usually roofless
+circular areas to accommodate several families. These were fenced
+in with brush and were entered by one or more openings somewhat
+in the same manner as campsites reserved for visitors at their
+permanent villages at lower elevations. Four-posted horizontal
+roofs, to provide shade, were sometimes constructed too. Yana
+seem to have made a lean-to or hut with grass and bark covering
+for summer roofs.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_66">66</div>
+<h2 id="c12"><span class="small">Chapter X</span>
+<br />HOUSEHOLD TOOLS, IMPLEMENTS, AND WEAPONS</h2>
+<p>Implements for grinding foods were important. Mountain Maidu,
+in fact all Maidu tribes, ground some acorns on flat bed rock. When
+the resultant holes which eventually developed in the rock surfaces
+became deep, they were abandoned as the acorn meal tended to
+pack into hard lumps at the bottoms thereof. A heavy flat stone
+grinding slab was most frequently used. However, all Lassen area
+tribes had portable stone mortar bowls too. The Atsugewi and
+mountain Maidu did not make these nor did they use them for grinding
+food. Such portable stone mortars were found, evidently having
+been fashioned by more ancient tribes. Supernatural powers were
+ascribed to these mortars, and they were used only by shamans or
+medicine men. The Maidu thought that stone mortar bowls were
+made by Coyote at the time of creation and scattered over the world
+for the use of mankind. Others believed the mortars to have been
+&ldquo;first people&rdquo; originally, who were turned to stones in this form
+upon the coming of the Indian people at which time other &ldquo;first
+people&rdquo; were transformed into animals.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig16">
+<img src="images/p16.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="478" />
+<p class="pcap">Northeast Maidu soapstone bowl
+six inches wide&mdash;a rare article (after Dixon)</p>
+</div>
+<p>As has been described under the preparation of acorn mush,
+local tribes used the flat stone pounding slab under an open
+bottomed hopper basket, most commonly. The hopper basket of
+the Atsugewi and mountain Maidu was usually of twined construction
+and bound often with buckskin about the basal edge. Mountain
+Maidu sometimes employed their coiling technique in making the
+acorn pounding basket. It was from this tribe, at the turn of the
+<span class="pb" id="Page_67">67</span>
+century, that Atsugewi learned to make their pounding hopper
+baskets of the stronger coiled construction.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig17">
+<img src="images/p16a.jpg" alt="" width="402" height="670" />
+<p class="pcap">Maidu stone axe head,
+5 inches long (after Dixon)</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig18">
+<img src="images/p16b.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="700" />
+<p class="pcap">One of several seed
+beater types used locally</p>
+</div>
+<p>Pestles of stone were long, smoothed, and sometimes flattened
+on the sides. This resulted from use of these implements also as
+rubbing or mulling stones for processing small seeds on flat slabs
+without employment of basket hoppers. The pestles were always
+without the ornamentation used by certain other California tribes.
+The pounding end of the food grinding pestles are ever so slightly
+convex&mdash;their grinding surfaces are nearly flat. This is in contrast
+to pestles used in the deep bowl-shaped portable stone
+mortars for ceremonial purposes. The grinding ends of these pestles
+were strongly rounded, nearly hemispherical in shape.</p>
+<p>The muller or small seed crusher used on the flat grinding slab
+without a hopper basket was of oval or rectangular shape, and it
+too was unornamented.</p>
+<p>Small brushes used in miscellaneous food preparation were made
+of pounded dried soap-plant bulb fibers.</p>
+<p>Hot rocks for cooking were usually handled with two sticks.
+None of our tribes used spoons. Crude obsidian knives with, or
+more commonly without, bone handles were used for many chores.</p>
+<p>Yana used split cobble stones for cutting and scraping operations.
+Their stone knives sometimes had wrapped buckskin handles.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_68">68</div>
+<p>Bone awls, usually with wrapped handles, were commonly used
+for sewing buckskin and other hides. Atsugewi are said by some to
+have had both eyed and open notched needles of bone for sewing
+skins and tule mats.</p>
+<p>The wooden shuttle for net weaving was a stick notched at both
+ends and was used by all of the local tribes. A squarish wooden
+net mesh spacer permitted nets to be properly made.</p>
+<p>Mountain Maidu used deer antler wedges for splitting wood while
+Atsugewi used wooden wedges&mdash;especially of mountain-mahogany.
+Wedges were usually driven with simple wooden clubs, though rocks
+might be employed for the purpose.</p>
+<p>Drills for boring holes in shell work and for making pipes and
+the like were used by Atsugewi only. Such drills were wooden
+shafts with stone points. These were rotated by rolling the shaft
+between the palms of the hands. Where the drill was not in use,
+holes were made in pieces of wood with live coals. Sometimes
+unfinished clamshell money was received in trade perhaps at a discount.
+Such pieces were strung tightly onto a cord and the whole
+string was then rolled between two flat stones thus grinding the
+shell edges to make the well formed disks characteristic of clam
+shell money.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig19">
+<img src="images/p17.jpg" alt="" width="408" height="538" />
+<p class="pcap">Soap-root fiber acorn meal
+brush about 6 inches long
+(after Dixon)</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig20">
+<img src="images/p17a.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="596" />
+<p class="pcap">A lava pestle, flat ended food
+pounder, about 10 inches long</p>
+</div>
+<p>Fire making drills were of greater importance. All local tribes
+employed them. Those of this area were one-piece hand rotated
+<span class="pb" id="Page_69">69</span>
+affairs which did not utilize the labor saving drill bow of the midwest.
+A long buckeye wood stick about half an inch thick was
+twirled on a notched block of incense-cedar or juniper wood. A
+bed of dry shredded grass and incense-cedar or other flammable
+tinder was used to nourish the spark into flame. Both sexes made
+fire among the Yana and Yahi, but unless the men were away,
+Atsugewi and mountain Maidu women did not make fire. Buckeye
+was uncommon or lacking in the areas of the latter tribes, so this
+material had to be traded from the Yana and Yahi. Buckeye fire
+making sticks commanded quite a price, a piece two feet long often
+selling for ten completed arrows. Since fire making required much
+effort and skill, fire was rarely allowed to go out. A &ldquo;slow match&rdquo;
+consisting of a piece of punky wood in which the fire smouldered
+was usually carried along.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig21">
+<img src="images/p17b.jpg" alt="" width="401" height="599" />
+<p class="pcap">Maidu bone awls or basket &ldquo;needles&rdquo;
+about 6 inches long</p>
+</div>
+<p>It was as true in prehistoric America as it is today that weapons
+were essential to existence. Weapons were necessary not only for
+warfare&mdash;whether aggressive or defensive&mdash;but for the securing
+of game for food since domestication of animals was not practiced.</p>
+<p>The bow and arrow was the only important weapon of California
+Indians. Local bows were rather short and quite broad in cross-section.
+We quote Garth&rsquo;s &ldquo;Atsugewi Ethnography&rdquo; on the subject
+as follows:</p>
+<blockquote>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_70">70</div>
+<p>&ldquo;... The best bows were made by the Atsuge, who had
+a supply of yew wood ... along the western borders of their
+territory. The Paiute were anxious to trade for Atsuge bows
+and considered them much superior to their own. In making the
+bow a piece of yew wood was selected, split, and shaved down
+with flints and pumice stone to the required form and thickness.
+After it had been wrapped in green grass and roasted in
+hot ashes, the bow was bent to required shape (recurved tips
+with a slight incurve at the middle), which it retained when
+it cooled off. Sinew, taken from the back of a deer, was
+softened by chewing and was then glued on the back of the
+bow in short strips, which were rubbed out as flat as possible
+with a smooth piece of bone. Salmon skins were boiled to
+make the glue.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="img" id="fig22">
+<img src="images/p18.jpg" alt="" width="374" height="594" />
+<p class="pcap">Yahi making fire by twirling buckeye
+rod on Incense-cedar block</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig23">
+<img src="images/p18a.jpg" alt="" width="136" height="731" />
+<p class="pcap">Maidu fire drill of buckeye
+(right) about 28 inches long.
+In the two inch wide Incense-cedar
+slab note the
+cut notches with a deeper
+twirling hole at the head of
+each.</p>
+</div>
+<blockquote>
+<p>&ldquo;The designs painted in green and red on the backs of
+<span class="pb" id="Page_71">71</span>
+bows are among the few examples of masculine art. The painting
+was done with a feather tip. The sinew for the bowstring
+... was chewed to make it soft and then it was made into a
+two-ply cord by rolling it with the open hand on the thigh.
+After salmon glue was rubbed in to make the fibers stick together,
+the string was stretched by tying a rock to one end and
+allowing it to hang down from some support. A tassel ... of
+mole skin might be attached to the end of the bow for decoration....</p>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="img" id="fig24">
+<img src="images/p18c.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="703" />
+<p class="pcap">Indian Jack Harding
+after photo by Williams</p>
+<p class="pcapc">&ldquo;Montgomery Creek&rdquo; Indian, part white&mdash;good archer</p>
+<p class="pcapc">An Atsugewi type bow characteristically short, broad, sinew backed
+and held at 45 degree angle in shooting. Note the painted decoration</p>
+</div>
+<blockquote>
+<p>&ldquo;... Flint tipped arrows ... were made of cane or rose
+and had foreshafts of Serviceberry, or they might be entirely of
+Service wood. Cane arrows ... with a sharp-pointed foreshaft
+of Serviceberry were commonly used for small animals
+and birds. Such arrows might be unfeathered ... (an informant)
+recalled a bird arrow ... with a barbed wooden point.
+Deer-bone pointed arrows were sometimes used for killing
+deer and other game. Voegelin reports that these arrows were
+also sometimes barbed. Flint-tipped arrows were about thirty
+<span class="pb" id="Page_72">72</span>
+inches long ... arrows for small game were somewhat shorter
+than flint-tipped arrows ... the wood was ordinarily dried
+before it was used. The end of the Serviceberry foreshaft was
+cut into a dowel which was inserted in the soft pithy center of
+the main shaft, the juncture being wrapped with sinew. A
+notch one-fourth of an inch deep was cut in the butt. A
+laterally notched obsidian arrow point was inserted in the split
+end of the foreshaft and bound on with cross lashings of
+sinew. The binding was ordinarily waterproofed with pitch.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Two small grooved pumice stones were used to smooth
+arrow shafts. The foreshaft was painted red as an indication
+that poison had been applied to the point. Other bands or
+stripes of color toward the nock end of the arrow served as
+ownership marks ... the stripes might run spirally as on a
+stick of candy ... all kinds of colors being used for painting
+arrows. Feathers were split along the midrib and were glued
+to the shaft, about a finger&rsquo;s width below the butt, with pitch.
+Sinew wrapping bound down each end of the feathers, three of
+which&mdash;about four inches long&mdash;were used to an arrow. The
+edge of the feather was burned smooth with a hot coal.
+Feathers of hawks or similar birds were used on ordinary
+arrows, but for the finest arrows&mdash;those to be used for bear
+and deer&mdash;eagle feathers were employed. An arrow wrench
+of bone or wood was used for straightening arrows; or they
+might simply be straightened by using the teeth as a vise. A
+flat antelope horn might be perforated and used as an arrow
+wrench.... (John La Mar) had a small triangular stone with
+a hole in the center ... which, he said was heated in the
+fire and used for straightening cane arrows.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="img" id="fig25">
+<img src="images/p19.jpg" alt="" width="809" height="252" />
+<p class="pcap">Maidu bow 40 inches long and two inches wide, deer sinew backed and
+painted with powdered greenish rock from Oregon mixed with Salmon glue.
+Two arrows are obsidian tipped. (after Dixon)</p>
+</div>
+<blockquote>
+<p>&ldquo;Although the flint points themselves were considered
+<span class="pb" id="Page_73">73</span>
+poisonous, an arrow poison was often used for larger game
+as well as in war. The usual method of making poison was
+to take the liver or pancreas of a deer and allow it to rot;
+the material was then smeared on the arrow point....&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Rattlesnake poison was also employed; however none of the
+poisoned arrow concoctions were very effective except to start
+infection of wounds inflicted by arrow points so treated.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig26">
+<img src="images/p19a.jpg" alt="" width="681" height="431" />
+<p class="pcap">Painted Atsugewi bows (after Garth)</p>
+</div>
+<dl class="undent pcap"><dt>a. Goose Valley, design in red (Apwaruge)</dt>
+<dt>b. Goose Valley, design in red (Apwaruge)</dt>
+<dt>c. Drawn by Dave Brown (Atsuge) with outer lines red, inner lines green</dt></dl>
+<p>Arrow points found in the park area, in the territory of both
+Atsugewi and mountain Maidu are most frequently of obsidian, but
+sometimes are of a dense dull black basalt lava. The term flint
+is a very loose one, being applied to obsidian, chert, opal, chalcedony,
+and even to the dense basalt, noted above, in common usage.</p>
+<p>Mountain Maidu imported yew wood as this did not commonly
+grow in their own territory. This tribe, however, also manufactured
+its own bows. In practically all respects bow and arrow design and
+execution were identical to that of the Atsugewi. Those of Yana
+and Yahi were similar too. All tribes of the Lassen area fashioned
+arrow points with barbs. In addition mountain Maidu flaked points
+without barbs but with basal stems for attachment were made.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_74">74</div>
+<h4>MOUNTAIN MAIDU STONE POINTS</h4>
+<div class="img" id="fig27">
+<img src="images/p20.jpg" alt="" width="207" height="298" />
+<p class="pcap">Dull black obsidian much more convex on one side than on
+the other. From near Corral Meadow; one and one half inches.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig28">
+<img src="images/p20a.jpg" alt="" width="155" height="259" />
+<p class="pcap">Black obsidian near Little Willow Lake; one and one half inches long.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig29">
+<img src="images/p20d.jpg" alt="" width="133" height="316" />
+<p class="pcap">Dense black basalt from Terminal Geyser; one and five eighths inches.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig30">
+<img src="images/p20e.jpg" alt="" width="133" height="169" />
+<p class="pcap">Black obsidian near Little Willow Lake, one inch long.</p>
+</div>
+<h4>ATSUGEWI KNIFE (?) AND ARROW POINT</h4>
+<div class="img" id="fig31">
+<img src="images/p20f.jpg" alt="" width="181" height="585" />
+<p class="pcap">Black obsidian
+spear point or
+knife from south
+shore of Summit
+Lake; four inches.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig32">
+<img src="images/p20g.jpg" alt="" width="137" height="284" />
+<p class="pcap">Dark gray banded
+point from Northeast
+shore Snag
+Lake; two inches.</p>
+</div>
+<h4>SOUTHERN YANA POINTS</h4>
+<div class="img" id="fig33">
+<img src="images/p20h.jpg" alt="" width="159" height="163" />
+<p class="pcap">Dark gray obsidian
+point from Battle
+Creek Meadows.
+Note unusually
+strong asymmetry
+in two planes; one
+inch long.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig34">
+<img src="images/p20k.jpg" alt="" width="228" height="520" />
+<p class="pcap">Coarse gray lava
+knife (?) from Battle
+Creek Meadows;
+Three and one half
+inches long.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_75">75</div>
+<p>The bow was most frequently held in shooting at an angle of
+about 45 degrees with the arrow on top. Mountain Maidu used that
+style, too, or else held the bow horizontally with the arrow on top
+except in case of war when the arrow was held on the underside of
+the bow. Gifford and Klimak reveal that northern and central Yana
+held the bow horizontally. Sapir and Spier found that the Yana
+tribes proper (not Yahi), however held bows vertically in shooting.
+All tribes considered except Yahi used the primary release of the
+arrow in shooting. In this method the arrow was held between the
+index and third fingers, which caught and pulled back the string.
+The thumb held the other side of the arrow. The Yahi, on the other
+hand used the Mongolian release; grasping the arrow with the thumb
+and unbent first joints of the first and second fingers.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig35">
+<img src="images/p20m.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="72" />
+<p class="pcap">Maidu bone arrow point flaker about ten inches long (after Dixon)</p>
+</div>
+<blockquote>
+<p>&ldquo;... the arrow was let fly between the index and third
+finger of the left hand, which held the bow. Many arrow points
+were uniface and curved slightly to one side.... A hunter,
+when shooting at a distant object, turned the arrow so that the
+point curved up; when shooting an object close by, he turned
+the arrow so that the point curved down. A hunter carried at
+least one arrow in his left hand with his bow. Extra arrows
+were carried in a quiver ... (made of) coyote, raccoon, or
+other skins. Ordinarily the hunter carried his quiver on his
+back, but if he wanted to be able to reach the arrows easily,
+he hung it on his ... shoulder so that it fell under his left
+armpit. Arrows were taken from the quiver with the right
+hand.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Inside the quiver, at the bottom, a cushion of dry
+grass was placed to prevent the stone points from chipping each
+other.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig36">
+<img src="images/p20n.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="407" />
+<p class="pcap">Maidu arrow-straightener
+and smoother of sandstone
+about three inches long
+(after Dixon)</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_76">76</div>
+<h4>YAHI STONE POINTS</h4>
+<div class="img" id="fig37">
+<img src="images/p21.jpg" alt="" width="83" height="118" />
+<p class="pcap">Nearly colorless
+obsidian south of
+Sulphur Works;
+three quarters inch.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig38">
+<img src="images/p21a.jpg" alt="" width="81" height="169" />
+<p class="pcap">Off-white chalcedony
+point south of
+Sulphur Works area;
+one and one half
+inches.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig39">
+<img src="images/p21c.jpg" alt="" width="133" height="219" />
+<p class="pcap">Black obsidian one
+and one quarter
+inches long and a
+full one half inch
+thick.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig40">
+<img src="images/p21e.jpg" alt="" width="291" height="442" />
+<p class="pcap">Three inch point of coarse
+gray lava from Mill Creek
+Canyon.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig41">
+<img src="images/p21g.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="307" />
+<p class="pcap">Black obsidian. South of
+Sulphur Works, one and
+one half inches.</p>
+</div>
+<hr class="dwide" />
+<div class="img" id="fig42">
+<img src="images/p21h.jpg" alt="" width="783" height="343" />
+<p class="pcap">Yana arrow points one and one half to two inches long. The materials
+used are mostly black obsidian, also dark grey and buff obsidian. One
+is of dense black basalt.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_77">77</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig43">
+<img src="images/p21k.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="395" />
+<p class="pcap">A pair of Yana arrow smoother and
+straightening stones made of porous
+glassy (pre-Lassen?) dacite pumice,
+length about two and one half inches</p>
+</div>
+<p>War clubs were not used. Atsugewi claim to have had a stone
+axe, sharpened by chipping and lashed with sinew to a split oak
+or mountain-mahogany handle a foot or so long. It was used for
+chopping roots and small trees on occasion, but the stone axe was
+certainly not widely used by California Indians, and even among
+Atsugewi it may have been unknown until the coming of white man,
+or knowledge of it may have been gained from Plains Indians after
+the advent of the horse. The tomahawk, so important to Indians of
+eastern and midwestern North America, was unknown to California
+Indians. Trees were normally felled and cut by controlled burning.</p>
+<p>Four-foot spears, tipped with large flaked stone points for fighting
+at close quarters, were used by all local tribes on occasion,
+but were not numerous. Only the Yana are believed to have thrown
+the weapon; the more common usage seems to have been by energetically
+thrusting it.</p>
+<p>Knives or daggers as fighting implements were made of chipped
+obsidian but were quite rare. A short, crude, one edged, stone
+knife was used widely as a general utility implement, but not in
+combat nor in killing game. Yana Indians also employed a mussel
+shell knife for light delicate work around camp. Atsugewi and
+mountain Maidu sometimes affixed wooden handles to their obsidian
+knives. These two tribes also fashioned knives of sharpened bone
+and horn.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig44">
+<img src="images/p21m.jpg" alt="" width="528" height="111" />
+<p class="pcap">A wooden arrow straightener from
+northern California (Yurok)</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig45">
+<img src="images/p21n.jpg" alt="" width="286" height="171" />
+<p class="pcap">Atsugewi stone arrow-straightener</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_78">78</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig46">
+<img src="images/p22.jpg" alt="" width="432" height="870" />
+<p class="pcap">Mountain Maidu arrow quiver
+made of an inside-out small mammal skin.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig47">
+<img src="images/p22c.jpg" alt="" width="444" height="878" />
+<p class="pcap">Atsugewi cased fox skin quiver made
+by slitting animal&rsquo;s skin along its
+hind legs, turning skin inside out,
+and finally sewing the mouth and eye
+openings shut.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig48">
+<img src="images/p22c1.jpg" alt="" width="425" height="775" />
+<p class="pcap"><span class="center">4&frac12; inches  <span class="hst">7 inches</span></span>
+<br />Maidu stone knives of obsidian,
+one with a wooden and sinew handle
+(after Dixon)</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig49">
+<img src="images/p22d.jpg" alt="" width="406" height="764" />
+<p class="pcap">A warrior in stick armor
+and fur helmet</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_79">79</div>
+<p>Of equipment for warfare, Garth states:</p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>&ldquo;Defensive armor included rod armor ..., gowns ...
+of dried elk or bear skins, and skin helmets which came down
+over the forehead and ears, &lsquo;so a man could just see out of it&rsquo;.
+The skin armor extended to the ankles or lower; it was worn
+over one shoulder so that it protected only the side of the body
+turned toward the enemy. Rod armor, made of serviceberry
+withes twined together with buckskin string, was high enough
+to come up to the neck under the chin and extended two or
+three inches below the belt. The Plains Indian shield, although
+found among the Surprise Valley Paiute and other Paiute tribes
+to the east, was lacking among the Atsugewi,&rdquo; and all other
+tribes of the Lassen area.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_80">80</div>
+<h2 id="c13"><span class="small">Chapter XI</span>
+<br />BASKETRY AND TEXTILES</h2>
+<p>The outstanding art of the Indians of California was their
+basketry. In fact the excellence of California basketry generally
+is not exceeded elsewhere in North America. Size varies from that
+of a pea to that of a bushel basket. Both weave and ornamentation
+were very diversified.</p>
+<p>Basketry of the Lassen area, especially that of the Atsugewi
+and mountain Maidu, was of good quality. Both coiled and twined
+types of basketry (to be described below) were made by mountain
+Maidu, but the Atsugewi did not learn the art of coiled basketry
+from the Maidu until the early 1900&rsquo;s. Yana and Yahi wove both
+types but twined baskets were by far the more numerous. This is
+due to the fact that these tribes were akin to the twining tribes of
+the north. Close contact with the neighboring Wintun tribes of the
+Sacramento Valley resulted in the addition of limited amount of
+coiling technique in their basketry making over the years.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig50">
+<img src="images/p23.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="414" />
+<p class="pcap">Technique of the three willow
+rod (or rib) coiled basketry
+(after Otis T. Mason). Note that
+the lashing strand anchors the
+three new ribs &ldquo;a&rdquo;, &ldquo;b&rdquo;, and
+&ldquo;c&rdquo; to the top rib &ldquo;d&rdquo; of the
+preceding three &ldquo;d&rdquo;, &ldquo;e&rdquo;, and
+&ldquo;f&rdquo; group</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig51">
+<img src="images/p23a.jpg" alt="" width="505" height="309" />
+<p class="pcap">Simple twined basketry technique
+employs two weft (lashing)
+strands, but when overlaying
+with another material is
+done two or more layers will
+make up each of the strands
+&ldquo;a&rdquo; and &ldquo;b&rdquo; (modified from
+Otis T. Mason)</p>
+</div>
+<p>Coiled basketry itself had some technical variations with which
+we shall not concern ourselves. The coiling technique was characteristic
+of the central and southern part of the California area.
+Mountain Maidu used three willow rods in a parallel group which
+ran as a core in a continuous spiral starting at the center of the
+basket. This was the warp element. The bundle of three willow
+ribs was lashed to the preceding basketry by a strand or weft (filler)
+of the inner bark of redbud. This was accomplished by poking an
+awl through the preceding row, and separating the stitches. In
+<span class="pb" id="Page_81">81</span>
+doing so, the awl was passed under the topmost of the core or warp
+of three coiling willow ribs. A redbud bark strand was then slipped
+through the awl hole, thus lashing the three loose willow ribs down
+by passing the strand around them and through the next awl hole in
+the preceding row. Recent Atsugewi coiled basketry technique is
+similar in all details, having been learned from the Maidu.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig52">
+<img src="images/p23c.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="557" />
+<p class="pcap">Variations of the simple twined basketry technique: a, method of
+starting the round root-cleaning basket; b, detail of side wall of
+basket showing open work weave. (Garth)</p>
+</div>
+<p>Twined basketry consisted of willow ribs radiating from a
+common center. These twigs were the warp. The weft of filling
+and binding stitches were split pine root strands. Dixon states
+that mountain Maidu sometimes dyed pine root black by burying it
+in mud mixed with charcoal. Pine root was tightly woven in to make
+the bottom of the basket which was normally undecorated. More
+and more willow ribs were added as the basket became larger. The
+willow ribs were curved up when willow rib additions were decreased.
+As the sides began to be built up on these twined baskets,
+each pine root stitch, both inside and outside, was covered with a
+whitish strand of bear-grass or squaw-grass. The tops of baskets
+were often left unfinished after the unused willow warps were
+clipped off. The basket did not unravel in use. However, the best
+baskets were finished by adding a marginal strengthening ring of
+choke cherry or willow which was bound to the basket body firmly
+and neatly, usually by wrapping with strands of redbud bark. During
+weaving willow withes were fastened inside of the basket to help
+it retain its shape, but these were removed upon completion of the
+basket.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_82">82</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig53">
+<img src="images/p24.jpg" alt="" width="732" height="1000" />
+<p class="pcap">Side outline shapes of Maidu baskets (after Dixon). The plan of virtually
+all Maidu baskets was circular. Twined storage baskets are up to three
+feet in diameter for holding seed, meal, etc. Open twined construction
+was used for storage of whole acorns, fish, and meat. Flatish circular
+basketry plaque was for &ldquo;vibration sifting&rdquo;.</p>
+</div>
+<table class="center">
+<tr><td class="c"><i class="ssn">FOOD BOWL<br />DIPPING<br />GENERAL UTILITY</i> </td><td class="c"><i class="ssn">STORAGE<br />COOKING</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="c"><i class="ssn">FOOD BOWL<br />DIPPER<br />GENERAL UTILITY</i> </td><td class="c"><i class="ssn">STORAGE<br />COOKING</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="c"><i class="ssn">COOKING</i> </td><td class="c"><i class="ssn">STORAGE<br />COOKING</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="c"><i class="ssn">FOOD BOWL<br />DIPPER<br />GENERAL UTILITY</i> </td><td class="c"><i class="ssn">STORAGE<br />COOKING</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="c"><i class="ssn">COOKING</i> </td><td class="c"><i class="ssn">BURDEN</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="c"><i class="ssn">FOOD BOWL<br />DIPPER<br />GENERAL UTILITY</i> </td><td class="c"><i class="ssn">STORAGE<br />COOKING</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="c"><i class="ssn">TRAYS or large BASKET COVER</i> </td><td class="c"><i class="ssn">TRAY or BASKET COVER</i></td></tr>
+</table>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_83">83</div>
+<p>Some utility baskets were undecorated, being made merely of
+pine root and willow, or, if coiled, of redbud and willow. However,
+most baskets bore some designs. They were all named and were
+inspired by the objects of nature about these outdoor peoples, and
+not the product of their imaginations. Nevertheless, the designs
+are quite stylized, often to the extent that recognition of the inspiration
+is difficult or impossible.</p>
+<p>In the case of twined baskets the designs were made by substituting
+outer redbud bark for squaw-grass to produce a dull red
+instead of the white overlaid stitches of the rest of the basket.
+As a result of the double twining technique the designs were seen
+equally well on the inside and the outside of each basket. Black
+designs were of overlaid maidenhair fern (<i>Adiantum pedatum</i>) stems.
+However, mountain Maidu also used common bracken fern (<i>Pteris
+aquilinum</i>) for black designs. Indians to the north of the Atsugewi
+used roots and stems of certain sedges treated with charcoal and
+mud or with ashes and water to produce basketry materials of black
+and of warm henna-brown coloration respectively. These were
+used on occasion by Atsugewi. The bear-grass, redbud, and maidenhair
+fern decorative materials were most commonly used by all
+tribes of this area. Atsugewi are the only local Indians to have
+used feathers to adorn their baskets. They used the shiny iridescent
+blue-green feathers from the necks of male mallard ducks. This
+was not common, however, and by no means used as often nor
+developed to the fine art and diversity of the famous Pomo feathered
+basketry of the Clear Lake region of the California Coast Range.
+Atsugewi are also believed to have occasionally adorned some
+basketry work with shell beads and porcupine quills, but this must
+have been quite rare or more examples would have survived to the
+present day.</p>
+<p>Outer bark of redbud almost always decorated coiled baskets.</p>
+<p>Concerning Maidu basketry Dixon states that the vast majority
+of the articles are of the coiled type, twining technique being used
+only for burden baskets and hopper or grinding baskets. For the
+radial ribs of the former they used shoots of hazel (<i>Corylus
+rostrata</i> var. <i>californica</i>) when available. He points out too, the
+frequent use of the feather, quail-tip, and arrow-point designs not
+only among the mountain Maidu, but among all Maidu. A characteristic
+of this group of Indians also, in contrast to other local
+tribes, is the tendency to confine one design to a basket rather than
+combining designs. Maidu employed a wide variety of designs.
+Many of them represent animals and plants. A considerable number
+of Maidu patterns exhibit a more or less obscure realism which
+becomes apparent only after one is informed as to what the design
+means. The Maidu show a tendency also toward arrangement of
+design elements in spiral or zigzag lines.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_84">84</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig54">
+<img src="images/p25.jpg" alt="" width="491" height="375" />
+<p class="pcap">Atsugewi basket, twined
+and overlaid with bear-grass
+and maiden hair fern.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig55">
+<img src="images/p25a.jpg" alt="" width="617" height="473" />
+<p class="pcap">Maidu hopper, pounding,
+or milling basket of
+twined construction on
+rock mortar slab.
+Diameter about eighteen
+inches (after Dixon).</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig56">
+<img src="images/p25h.jpg" alt="" width="488" height="440" />
+<p class="pcap">Atsugewi general utility
+basket of twined construction
+with lizard foot design.
+Underside shown to reveal
+dark (actually tan-colored)
+area of bare split pine root
+weft without bear-grass or
+maiden hair overlay.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig57">
+<img src="images/p25k.jpg" alt="" width="697" height="637" />
+<p class="pcap">Coiled type Atsugewi
+hopper basket with flying
+geese design. View
+shows pounding hole in
+bottom of basket, in this
+case bound with buckskin.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_85">85</div>
+<p>Dixon noted that &ldquo;mussel&rsquo;s tongue&rdquo; (the fresh water mussel)
+is one of the unique and peculiar basketry designs used by the
+Atsugewi. Representation of intestines and deer excrement are also
+worthy of special mention for this tribe. Other common Atsugewi
+designs in basketry decoration are lizard, deer rib, owl&rsquo;s claw, and
+flying geese, as well as arrow-point. Two or more different designs
+are often combined on a single basket. Among Atsugewi and
+Achomawi there seems to be no restriction of certain patterns to
+baskets intended for special uses. Like mountain Maidu, zigzag
+and spiral arrangements are preferred, horizontal bands being rare.
+Curiously an Atsugewi design is often given different meaning by
+different individual Indians. This is in contrast to the uniformity
+of interpretation of a given design by all the Maidu individuals,
+normally.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig58">
+<img src="images/p25m.jpg" alt="" width="832" height="442" />
+<p class="pcap">Maidu open twined &ldquo;tray&rdquo; or plate-like basket about ten inches long
+(after Dixon)</p>
+</div>
+<p>Yana tribes frequently substituted another material for willow
+ribs. The identity of this warp is not certain. Reliable students
+believe it to be hazelnut twigs, but to my knowledge that plant is
+scarce indeed even in the foothill territory. Yana and Yahi had
+some other peculiarities in their basketry. Designs were sometimes
+wrought in a negative way, that is by merely leaving off
+overlay so that the design was thereby defined in exposed pine
+root weft. Sapir and Spier found that these tribes also used alder
+bark for dying basketry decoration materials a red-brown. A reddish
+color was produced on peeled shield fern stems by passing them
+through the mouth while chewing dogwood bark. They dyed pine
+roots, too, on occasion with a red soil or with the powdery filling
+of spores from the inside of a fungus obtained from certain coniferous
+trees. These variations of basketry decoration do not seem to
+have been used by the Atsugewi and mountain Maidu.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_86">86</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig59">
+<img src="images/p26.jpg" alt="" width="342" height="246" />
+<p class="pcap">Maidu fish-teeth design on
+coiled basket.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig60">
+<img src="images/p26a.jpg" alt="" width="513" height="233" />
+<p class="pcap">Mountain Maidu geese-flying
+design on coiled basket.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig61">
+<img src="images/p26d.jpg" alt="" width="392" height="494" />
+<p class="pcap">Atsugewi lizard&rsquo;s claw or
+lizard&rsquo;s foot design.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig62">
+<img src="images/p26e.jpg" alt="" width="514" height="242" />
+<p class="pcap">Mountain Maidu mountains
+designs on twined baskets.
+The right hand treatment may
+be repeated in reverse to the
+right making a symmetrical
+pyramid shaped design outline.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig63">
+<img src="images/p26f.jpg" alt="" width="528" height="344" />
+<p class="pcap">An interesting unsymmetrical
+flower design.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig64">
+<img src="images/p26h.jpg" alt="" width="598" height="439" />
+<p class="pcap">Atsugewi intestines.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_87">87</div>
+<p>The basketry described above was all close-woven. In fact,
+so closely were the twined baskets made that they held water with
+little or no leakage even without linings of pitch or any other substance.
+There was no pottery of any kind in central or northern
+California.</p>
+<p>The art of basketry included also a third type&mdash;loose or open
+weaving, sometimes of tules. The latter were also used extensively
+for making mats for a variety of purposes. Open weaving at other
+times was done with willow withes, split juniper twigs, or of
+another material tentatively identified as hazel. Fish traps, carrying
+baskets, some storage baskets, and bags were not infrequently
+of this type of construction.</p>
+<p>All basketry materials had to be well soaked in water, as they
+were brittle when dry. After weaving and upon drying these materials
+set in place, making the basketry firm, strong, and resistant
+to unraveling.</p>
+<p>Collection of basketry materials was more arduous and required
+greater know-how than might be suspected. Willow withes were
+only taken from the particularly strong and supple shoots from Hinds
+or valley willow (<i>Salix hindsiana</i>) which grows along stream banks
+up to 3000 foot elevations and also from the similar sandbar, river,
+or grey willow (<i>Salix fluviatilis</i> variety <i>argyrophylla</i>) which also
+lines streams, often growing in sandbars. These species are
+recognized by their long very narrow silvery leaves and a grey bark,
+furrowed when mature. Willow twigs were collected when the leaves
+were off of the stems in the spring and in the fall. At other times
+the twigs were more brittle. Spring picked willow withes &ldquo;slipped&rdquo;
+their bark easily, but those collected in the fall had to be scraped
+to remove the bark. The willow ribs were further dressed by scraping
+to uniform size.</p>
+<p>Pine roots of either ponderosa pine (<i>Pinus ponderosa</i>) or digger
+pine (<i>Pinus sabiniana</i>) were usually used. However not all trees
+had roots of suitable strength and flexibility, so that it was necessary
+to &ldquo;shop around&rdquo; for good roots. This involved digging holes
+to reach the roots and then testing these by tugging on small
+strands until suitable roots were located. Roots three or four inches
+in diameter were then cut off with a small obsidian axe, if the individual
+were so fortunate as to possess this rarity, or by using a sort
+of bone pick, or, more commonly, by slowly burning through the green
+root with a small fire. Root lengths of about four feet were gathered,
+taken home, and there roasted in hot ashes. This made the pine
+roots very soft. They were then split into quarters with digging
+sticks or stone choppers and finally were pulled apart into thin
+strips using hands and teeth. The resulting half inch wide strips
+were tied into bundles for storage. In use, these strips were well
+soaked in water. Pine root strands of proper width were easily
+split off by hand. The finer and smaller the basketry to be done,
+naturally, the narrower was the material split for making it.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_88">88</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig65">
+<img src="images/p27.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="224" />
+<p class="pcap">Atsugewi twined basket, deer-rib
+and arrow point designs.
+Both are frequently used.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig66">
+<img src="images/p27a.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="345" />
+<p class="pcap">Pit River (used by Dixon to include
+Atsugewi) popular mussels&rsquo; tongue
+designs.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig67">
+<img src="images/p27d.jpg" alt="" width="499" height="704" />
+<p class="pcap">Mountain Maidu mountain-and-cloud
+design on
+coiled basket.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig68">
+<img src="images/p27f.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="268" />
+<p class="pcap">Atsugewi pine cone design</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig69">
+<img src="images/p27g.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="409" />
+<p class="pcap">Atsugewi deer-gut design on
+twined basket&mdash;also a popular
+pattern.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig70">
+<img src="images/p27h.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="122" />
+<p class="pcap">Another Atsugewi version of
+deer-gut design on twined
+basket.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig71">
+<img src="images/p27k.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="267" />
+<p class="pcap">Pit River (applied by Dixon to
+include also the Atsugewi) deer
+excrement designs.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig72">
+<img src="images/p27m.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="441" />
+<p class="pcap">Atsugewi flint design</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_89">89</div>
+<p>The chief overlay material&mdash;already mentioned&mdash;was what
+we call bear-grass or squaw-grass. In truth this is not grass, but
+the leaf of a lily, the well known bear-grass of Mount Rainier
+National Park, scientifically known as <i>Xerophylum tenax</i>. This
+grows only in limited areas in this region, hence Atsugewi had to
+make long trips on foot to obtain it. In recent years, at least, bear-grass
+was to be found only in the territory of the Shasta and of the
+mountain Maidu: a few miles west of Mount Shasta and near Greenville
+in Plumas County. Bear-grass could be collected only during
+about two weeks in mid-July. Earlier it was too tender; later it
+was too brittle &ldquo;like hay&rdquo;. Only new central leaves of each plant
+were plucked. The heavy mid-rib had to be removed from each
+leaf with an awl before use.</p>
+<p>Maidenhair fern frond stems were picked in August.</p>
+<p>Redbud twigs collected in the spring would &ldquo;slip&rdquo; the red outer
+bark easily in a thin layer. This was used for overlay pattern
+making on twined baskets. The white inner bark, or, more properly,
+sapwood was then stripped off for binding material and as the white
+lashing weft for coiled baskets. In the case of fall-collected redbud
+twigs the red outer bark adhered to the sapwood. This was
+used as the lashing strand or weft where red designs were desired
+on coiled baskets.</p>
+<p>Apwaruge, the eastern division of the Atsugewi, often made
+baskets of tules. These were more flexible, softer baskets than
+those made by the westerners, the Atsuge, and so there was considerable
+exchange of baskets between the two divisions of the
+Atsugewi.</p>
+<p>Atsugewi occasionally made openwork baskets from split juniper
+too, especially for low scoop-shaped, round, or oval baskets for
+fishing, root cleaning, et cetera, but as indicated earlier, willow
+ribs were used for this purpose also.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_90">90</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig73">
+<img src="images/p28.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="168" />
+<p class="pcap">(Yana) dogs ears</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig74">
+<img src="images/p28a.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="290" />
+<p class="pcap">Probably Yana House design</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig75">
+<img src="images/p28b.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="549" />
+<p class="pcap">Maidu quail tip design widely
+used but only on coiled baskets.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig76">
+<img src="images/p28c.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="323" />
+<p class="pcap">(Yana) crane&rsquo;s leg</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig77">
+<img src="images/p28d.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="77" />
+<p class="pcap">(Atsugewi) meadow lark</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig78">
+<img src="images/p28e.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="250" />
+<p class="pcap">(Achomawi)  flying geese or pine cone
+<br />(Yana)  pine cone</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig79">
+<img src="images/p28f.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="160" />
+<p class="pcap">Maidu earthworm design on a coiled basket.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig80">
+<img src="images/p28g.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="347" />
+<p class="pcap">Maidu bushes design on a coiled basket.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig81">
+<img src="images/p28h.jpg" alt="" width="348" height="601" />
+<p class="pcap">Mountain Maidu
+duck&rsquo;s-wing design
+on a coiled basketry
+plaque.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_91">91</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig82">
+<img src="images/p28j.jpg" alt="" width="396" height="394" />
+<p class="pcap">(Maidu)  diamond
+<br />(Yana)  wolf&rsquo;s eye</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig83">
+<img src="images/p28k.jpg" alt="" width="172" height="501" />
+<p class="pcap">Mountain Maidu
+eye design.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig84">
+<img src="images/p28m.jpg" alt="" width="332" height="399" />
+<p class="pcap">(Atsugewi) flint or
+arrowhead</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig85">
+<img src="images/p28n.jpg" alt="" width="342" height="294" />
+<p class="pcap">(Maidu)  watersnake (?)
+<br />(Yana)  bushes</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig86">
+<img src="images/p28p.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="133" />
+<p class="pcap">(Yana) bats</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig87">
+<img src="images/p28r.jpg" alt="" width="341" height="299" />
+<p class="pcap">Maidu design,
+probably sugar
+pine tree.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig88">
+<img src="images/p28s.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="241" />
+<p class="pcap">A continuing zig-zag arrow feather design
+widely and frequently used by Maidu in coiled
+basketry, sometimes this was combined with
+the quail tip pattern.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig89">
+<img src="images/p28t.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="295" />
+<p class="pcap">Single and double arrow point designs&mdash;the most commonly used of all
+Maidu patterns. It was relatively easy to make and very versatile.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_92">92</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig90">
+<img src="images/p29.jpg" alt="" width="414" height="208" />
+<p class="pcap">(Maidu) big tongues
+<br />(Yana)  intestines</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig91">
+<img src="images/p29a.jpg" alt="" width="570" height="248" />
+<p class="pcap">(Maidu) quail tip
+<br />(Yana)  root digger</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig92">
+<img src="images/p29c.jpg" alt="" width="296" height="232" />
+<p class="pcap">(Maidu) mountain
+<br />(Yana)  root digger hand</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig93">
+<img src="images/p29d.jpg" alt="" width="328" height="160" />
+<p class="pcap">(Maidu) earthworm
+<br />(Yana)  intestines</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig94">
+<img src="images/p29e.jpg" alt="" width="396" height="170" />
+<p class="pcap">(Maidu) earthworm
+<br />(Yana)  intestines</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig95">
+<img src="images/p29f.jpg" alt="" width="316" height="298" />
+<p class="pcap">(Maidu) mountain
+<br />(Yana) root digger hand</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig96">
+<img src="images/p29g.jpg" alt="" width="444" height="262" />
+<p class="pcap">(Achomawi) mountain or bear&rsquo;s foot
+<br />(Yana) root digger hand</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig97">
+<img src="images/p29h.jpg" alt="" width="474" height="250" />
+<p class="pcap">(Maidu) vine
+<br />(Yana) geese</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig98">
+<img src="images/p29j.jpg" alt="" width="411" height="256" />
+<p class="pcap">(Maidu) rattlesnake
+<br />(Yana)  geese</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig99">
+<img src="images/p29k.jpg" alt="" width="399" height="228" />
+<p class="pcap">(Wintun) sucker tail
+<br />(Yana)  long worms in rotten wood.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig100">
+<img src="images/p29m.jpg" alt="" width="618" height="224" />
+<p class="pcap">(Yana) wolf&rsquo;s eye</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_93">93</div>
+<p>Basket styles varied little among the several tribes of the
+Lassen region. Bottle shapes were never made until after the
+coming of white man. Cooking baskets were bowl-shaped with
+high, convexly curved sides, sometimes nearly globular in form.
+Baskets from which food was eaten individually and general utility
+baskets were similarly shaped but smaller. Boiling baskets were
+sometimes without decoration; their dimensions of height and width
+were about equal. Storage baskets also had about the same shape,
+curving less, sometimes, but were large, being three feet or more
+in size. Some were of open work, but usually they were of close
+or tight weaving.</p>
+<p>Flattish bowls or somewhat curved trays were used for food
+platters as well as for winnowing, parching, and cleaning foods by
+chafing. Some were of open weave made of willow or hazel (?) only
+while others were closely woven.</p>
+<p>Basketry acorn grinding hoppers also called milling baskets or
+pounding baskets, were usually regular twined baskets of suitable
+size and shape: wide mouthed bowl or funnel-shaped. Having no
+central point from which to start the warp, because of the open
+bottoms, hopper baskets were started by twining three pine root
+wefts about the bases of many willow warps to make a circle about
+five inches in diameter. Additional warps were built up on the
+radiating ribs, proceeding then in the normal manner of twining.
+Twined hopper baskets were usually reinforced by lashing one or
+two strong rings of willow or serviceberry withes. They might also
+be bound with buckskin along the bottom edges for improved
+strength and durability as well as to decrease loss of acorn meal
+during the pounding process. In recent years both mountain Maidu
+and Atsugewi, also used coiling technique in making hopper
+baskets, for which purpose it is well suited.</p>
+<p>A recent innovation among Atsugewi has been the covering of
+bottles with basketry and also the weaving of oblong shaped closely
+twined and coiled baskets, as well as goblet shaped creations.</p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>According to Garth, the seed beater &ldquo;... was a paddle-shaped
+implement from one and a half to two feet long with a
+willow warp and open work twining, also of willow (spaced at
+three quarters of an inch between rows) across the blade. The
+handle was wrapped either with willow strips or with
+buckskin.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Another important use of basketry was in the construction of
+cradle boards, or more properly, basket cradles. These are generally
+known to present day Americans by the incorrect term papoose
+baskets. The cradle basket is discussed under the heading &ldquo;Birth
+and Babies&rdquo;.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_94">94</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig101">
+<img src="images/p30.jpg" alt="" width="594" height="166" />
+<p class="pcap">(Yurok) flint
+<br />(Yana) zigzagging</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig102">
+<img src="images/p30a.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="384" />
+<p class="pcap">(Maidu) quail-tip
+<br />(Yana) &ldquo;sitting up in a series&rdquo;</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig103">
+<img src="images/p30b.jpg" alt="" width="652" height="388" />
+<p class="pcap">(Maidu) vine
+<br />(Yana) &ldquo;braided&rdquo;</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig104">
+<img src="images/p30c.jpg" alt="" width="550" height="106" />
+<p class="pcap">(Yana) mussels</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig105">
+<img src="images/p30d.jpg" alt="" width="413" height="439" />
+<p class="pcap">(Maidu) earthworm
+<br />(Yana) &ldquo;braided&rdquo;</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig106">
+<img src="images/p30e.jpg" alt="" width="268" height="266" />
+<p class="pcap">(Yana) mountains</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig107">
+<img src="images/p30f.jpg" alt="" width="386" height="341" />
+<p class="pcap">(Yurok) &ldquo;sitting&rdquo;
+<br />(Yana) &ldquo;zigzagging and turning back&rdquo;</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig108">
+<img src="images/p30g.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="231" />
+<p class="pcap">(Yana) wolf&rsquo;s eye</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig109">
+<img src="images/p30h.jpg" alt="" width="362" height="228" />
+<p class="pcap">(Yana) trout or salmon tails</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig110">
+<img src="images/p30k.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="258" />
+<p class="pcap">(Yana) flint</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig111">
+<img src="images/p30m.jpg" alt="" width="546" height="274" />
+<p class="pcap">(Yana) guts</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig112">
+<img src="images/p30n.jpg" alt="" width="616" height="318" />
+<p class="pcap">(Atsugewi) skunk&rsquo;s ear</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_95">95</div>
+<p>Beautifully made basketry caps for women, finely twined, spreading
+bowl-shaped affairs were made by all tribes of the Lassen
+area. These were nicely decorated on the bottoms&mdash;or rather
+tops&mdash;as well as on the sides, a feature lacking on all other types
+of local baskets. Another unique feature of the basketry cap was
+the fact that the inside of the hat was abraded by rubbing so that
+none of the pattern remained visible because all of the overlay on
+the inside had been worn away. It is suspected that this made the
+inside of the hat less slippery on the hair so that it did not slip
+off the head so easily. Removal of the decoration from the inside
+of the basketry cap in no way altered the appearance or permanence
+of the outside decorative patterns.</p>
+<p>Mats were woven of viscid bulrush, more commonly called tule
+stalks (<i>Scirpus lacustris</i> or <i>acutus</i>). According to Voegelin,
+Atsugewi sometimes sewed these together by piercing them with
+bone needles. However the more usual method of manufacture was
+that of lashing together the ends of parallel tule stalks laid next
+to each other. This was done with double cords or strands in the
+regular simple twining manner which shows up well in the sketch
+of Atsugewi tule leggings. Such mats were extensively used as
+bed mats or mattresses, as earth wall coverings, as doorway and
+ventilator hole hangings, and so on by all of the tribes of the
+Lassen region. Mountain Maidu also employed broad-leaved cat-tail
+(<i>Typha latifolia</i>) or narrow-leaved cat-tail (<i>Typha angustifolia</i>)
+for such purposes on occasion. This tribe also appears to have
+used a string weft in making at least some of the mats.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_96">96</div>
+<h2 id="c14"><span class="small">Chapter XII</span>
+<br />TANNING, CORDAGE, AND GLUE</h2>
+<p>Mountain Maidu buried bear skins in wet ground, but hides
+generally were soaked about a week in water by local Indians.
+Mountain Maidu used ashes to help dehair skins other than deer,
+but this was not a practice common to other tribes. Stone, or more
+frequently, shaped deer rib or pelvic bones were used as dehairing
+scraper tools on skins. The hide was draped over an inclined post
+and was soaked and squeezed occasionally during the process of
+scraping.</p>
+<p>The tanning agent was a cooked soup of animal brains, particularly
+those of deer. This material might first have been mashed,
+mixed with dry moss, and then molded into small cakes for drying
+and storage. The deer brain agent was well rubbed into the cleaned,
+soaked skin. It was then allowed to soak overnight in the tanning
+solution. The next day while drying the skin in the sun, the operator
+stretched and worked the hide with his hands to make it soft
+and pliable.</p>
+<p>Among Atsugewi the skin was then smoked over a fire of moist
+rotten logs or green juniper boughs burning in a shallow pit. The
+skin was laid on a domed framework of willow branches arched
+over the fire. The hide was turned occasionally to insure uniform
+treatment. Mr. Garth believes that this smoking process was recently
+learned. It was not generally practiced by neighboring tribes,
+but produced superior buckskin which resisted stiffening as a result
+of subsequent wetting. Even Atsugewi did not smoke other skins.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig113">
+<img src="images/p31.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="568" />
+<p class="pcap">Nets. a, b, stages in net making; c, tule float; d, net shuttle.</p>
+</div>
+<p>Men did all this work as well as the hunting, skinning, and
+fashioning of garments from hides. Skins were sewn with bone
+awls and deer sinew thread which was made by rolling fine deer
+<span class="pb" id="Page_97">97</span>
+sinew strands on the thigh with the open hand.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig114">
+<img src="images/p31d.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="216" />
+<p class="pcap">Net making shuttle about fourteen
+inches long (after Dixon)</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig115">
+<img src="images/p31e.jpg" alt="" width="202" height="317" />
+<p class="pcap">The usual Maidu knot
+for nets (after Dixon)</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig116">
+<img src="images/p31f.jpg" alt="" width="231" height="800" />
+<p class="pcap">Carrying net</p>
+</div>
+<p>Like other local tribes, the Maidu used many woven skin
+blankets. These were fashioned from one inch strips of rabbit fur,
+especially, but also of the skins of wildcat, cougar, geese, or crows.
+These were not tanned so that upon drying they twisted or curled
+like the strands of a rope with the fur or feather side out. Ends
+were tied together to form a long fur or feather covered rope. This
+was wound about two poles set upright in the ground six feet or so
+apart to form the warp for the blanket. More of the same material
+was then woven up and down as weft to produce a soft and very
+warm skin blanket which was also quite durable. When bird skins
+were employed a cord core was threaded thru the center of the
+twisted strands before weaving for greater strength.</p>
+<p>Mountain Maidu also did feather work like that of the Atsugewi,
+however foothill and valley Maidu did so to a greater extent and
+of a more elaborate nature.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_98">98</div>
+<p>Willow, serviceberry, and redbud withes, and at lower elevations,
+lengths of wild grape vines were used for tying purposes.
+However, Indians also had need for strong and more versatile and
+more durable string, cord, and rope. These were usually made from
+vegetable fibers. Atsugewi and mountain Maidu used Indian hemp
+and milkweed but not nettle or iris fibers as did some other tribes.
+When mature, but before they became old and brittle, the plants
+were collected and dried, stripped of leaves, and the flesh was
+scraped and pounded off leaving the free fibers. String was made
+by placing two small bundles of fibers parallel and close together
+on the thigh of the leg. These were rolled up into two strands side
+by side with one stroke of the open hand moving either up or down
+the thigh. On the return stroke the two separate and now twisted
+strands were twisted together into one string. Stout cord was made
+by repeating the process, substituting two strings for the two
+bundles of loose fibers this time. To make rope the process
+was repeated several times, successively doubling the cordage
+product. As the cordage strands were twined together, the product
+was held in the left hand, the rolling being done by the right hand
+on the right thigh.</p>
+<p>Nets of good quality were fabricated in a variety of mesh sizes,
+the uniformity of which was controlled by use of squarish wooden
+blocks. Shuttles to hold the string for net tying were straight pieces
+of wood notched at each end and into which the strand was wrapped.
+As has been pointed out, nets were used chiefly for hunting, fishing,
+and carrying, although small nets were often worn in the hair
+by men.</p>
+<p>Adhesives were important in the economy of the Indians too.
+Pine pitch and glue made from the skins of fish were used. A
+solution of the latter was mixed by the mountain Maidu with certain
+internal organs of fish and boiled vegetable materials to improve
+the quality of their glue.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_99">99</div>
+<h2 id="c15"><span class="small">Chapter XIII</span>
+<br />TRANSPORTATION</h2>
+<p>It was the lack of transportation rather than the existence of any
+which was important to the aboriginal Americans. This was responsible
+for the degree of isolation which was required to produce
+the variety of customs and languages in most parts of the &ldquo;New
+World&rdquo;. Introduction of the horse in historic times materially
+changed the habits of Plains Indians. Likewise the somewhat
+aggressive Modoc tribe to the north of the Pit River, whose conflict
+with the whites has been memorialized in Lava Beds National
+Monument today, became mobile, even prior to the gold rush days,
+through use of the horse. As a result the Modocs made a number of
+hit and run raids upon Atsugewi and other tribes and were able to
+carry off slaves. This was not the traditional mode of warfare.</p>
+<p>Transportation among Indians was by foot or by water until recent
+times. California Indians did not use dogs as beasts of burden as
+Plains Indians did and as the Eskimos still do. Women did general
+hauling; men, however, did most of the really heavy carrying.
+Women used the conical burden basket extensively, but the men did
+not. Both sexes used the buckskin pack strap which in the case
+of mountain Maidu passed over the top of the head. Atsugewi pack
+straps went over the forehead and also over the shoulder across
+the chest. The brimless basketry cap or hat was used with the
+packstrap especially among the women. Heavy loads were frequently
+carried by men upon the shoulder; such burdens were often rolled
+in mats or animal skins.</p>
+<p>Carrying nets made of twisted fibers were commonly employed
+by men and women among local tribes. Atsugewi used a folded
+buckskin bag sewed at the edges, with a handle on top, and opening
+at the side. Yana manufactured an open-work carrying basket too.</p>
+<p>In this region loads were never carried on the head, but on
+occasion might be suspended on a pole and carried between two
+men. The mountain Maidu also used a litter for the sick, but
+Atsugewi carried sick persons in burden baskets on their backs.</p>
+<p>In rough country crude trails were sometimes built, but this was
+not a common practice. Generally trails as such were not constructed,
+but where they existed they had developed as the result of long
+use along logical routes, in much the same manner as deer and other
+game trails develop.</p>
+<p>To cross streams advantage was taken of logs which had fallen
+of natural causes. On occasion single logs were felled by burning
+to serve as bridges. Yana at lower elevations frequently had large
+streams to cross and smaller trees to utilize. Two logs might be
+felled parallel and cross sticks lashed on with grapevine for better
+footing.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_100">100</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig117">
+<img src="images/p32.jpg" alt="" width="687" height="800" />
+<p class="pcap">Boat Types of Native
+California (not to scale).
+a, Yurok (northwestern
+California) river canoe; b,
+Klamath (northeastern
+California) canoe; c, tule
+balsa.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig118">
+<img src="images/p32a.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="971" />
+<p class="pcap">Distribution of Types
+of Native California
+Boat.</p>
+</div>
+<dl class="undent pcap"><dt>a, Dugout canoe</dt>
+<dt>b, Dugout canoe</dt>
+<dt>c, Tule balsa</dt></dl>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_101">101</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig119">
+<img src="images/p32c.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="699" />
+<p class="pcap">Atsugewi dug-out canoe on Hat Creek</p>
+</div>
+<p>In swimming most Indians used a pseudo-breast stroke or swam
+on their backs with a frog style stroke. Atsugewi also did a &ldquo;dog
+paddle&rdquo; keeping arms under water. Mountain Maidu used swimming
+techniques which embraced principles like those of white man&rsquo;s
+side stroke and crawl. They jumped into the water feet first in
+preference to headfirst diving. When swimming under water to
+collect crawfish or mussels a rock was often tied loosely to the
+back.</p>
+<p>Water transportation was not of the same degree of importance
+to the tribes of the Lassen region that it was to Sacramento Valley,
+Coastal, and Northwestern Indians. Nevertheless Atsugewi used
+sharp or blunt ended canoes while that of the mountain Maidu had
+a shovel-like prow and stern. These were made from pine logs,
+usually windfalls about two feet in diameter and had a capacity of
+<span class="pb" id="Page_102">102</span>
+two to four persons. The logs were hollowed out by controlled
+burning so that the walls were an inch or two thick. Pitch was
+rubbed onto portions needing more burning. Water or mud were used
+to check burning and the charred wood was scraped out with rough
+angular stones. Local dugout canoes were rather crude affairs.
+Cracking of the wood was prevented by keeping the boats wet. They
+were propelled by an unadorned poling rod or by a single bladed
+square-ended paddle about three feet long. A raft, consisting of
+three or four logs lashed together, was used as well by all local
+tribes and propelled by poling.</p>
+<p>Atsugewi had another type of craft: the tule balsa&mdash;a five foot
+long raised prow affair made of bundles of tules lashed together.
+It might be poled or else pushed by a swimmer. Often this raft-like
+boat was towed by a rope of willow. Atsugewi occasionally ferried
+children or goods in baskets, while among mountain Maidu swimmers
+carried children on their backs and carried goods in one hand,
+raised above the water level, swimming with the other hand.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_103">103</div>
+<h2 id="c16"><span class="small">Chapter XIV</span>
+<br />DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PETS</h2>
+<p>We are apt to think of Indians, especially Plains Indians, riding
+horses as part of the natural prehistoric scene, yet this was not
+the case. Although fossil remains in the rocks show clearly
+the development of the horse over a period of several millions
+of years on this continent, the horse, the camel, and the rhinoceros&mdash;to
+mention but a few of the spectacular mammals&mdash;became
+extinct on the American continents before the advent of prehistoric
+man. American Indians had never seen a horse until the coming
+of the Spanish to the New World in 1540. Likewise domestic cattle,
+sheep, goats, and chickens were unknown to the aborigines.</p>
+<p>The dog was widely distributed, however. Some tribes had large
+as well as small dogs of a variety of colors. In the Lassen area
+the dogs were all about the size of small coyotes, mostly with fairly
+short hair, but there are some reports of long haired dogs. Typically
+the dogs had small rather erect and pointed ears. Coloration was
+chiefly fawn colored to brown. Amongst Atsugewi, dogs were
+usually quite numerous, but certain villages seem to have had only
+a few. In such cases and among the mountain Maidu, who generally
+had only few dogs, they were borrowed for hunting. Dogs were
+almost always named.</p>
+<p>Dogs served to warn their owners of the approach of strangers
+to the village or camp. Mountain Maidu taught their dogs not to
+bark, but to &ldquo;sniff&rdquo; conspicuously as a signal of stranger approach.</p>
+<p>Tribes of the Lassen area did not normally keep dogs in their
+dwelling houses. Atsugewi built separate, domed, bark-covered
+dog houses, and mountain Maidu built two kinds of shelters for
+their dogs. One was a subterranean earth-covered dog house, and
+the other a conical affair of bark slab type construction.</p>
+<p>Dogs were widely used in hunting. They were efficient in catching
+rodents and other small mammals such as ground hogs. They
+were also useful for treeing mountain lions and were adept at
+bringing down wounded deer by jumping up and seizing the deers&rsquo;
+ears.</p>
+<p>Dogs were not often eaten by tribes in this section of California.
+Upon death, dogs were not buried, but the bodies were merely thrown
+out.</p>
+<p>Upon death of the dog&rsquo;s owner, among Atsugewi, the dog was
+retained by the widow, but among mountain Maidu the dog was suspended
+in a tree because &ldquo;It makes dog&rsquo;s spirit glad&rdquo;! Although
+<span class="pb" id="Page_104">104</span>
+not being generally considered in this account, it is curious that
+among Modoc and eastern Achomawi dogs were burned at the deaths
+of their owners.</p>
+<p>Bear cubs were commonly kept. Atsugewi also kept fawns and
+other small mammals as pets. Birds of various sorts were kept by
+certain tribes. Atsugewi plucked or cut wings of birds, especially
+of eagles whose feathers were prized for arrow making, and for
+ceremonial and decorative purposes.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_105">105</div>
+<h2 id="c17"><span class="small">Chapter XV</span>
+<br />CLOTHING</h2>
+<p>The members of all tribes, especially the Yana and Yahi, went
+bareheaded much of the time. However, basketry caps nearly
+hemispherical in shape and of fine tightly twined weave were worn
+regularly by Indian women. The caps were probably worn to prevent
+chafing of the pack straps originally, but Atsugewi women wore
+them most of the time. Such hats were well decorated with overlaid
+designs typical of the tribes under consideration. Those of Yana
+and Yahi were usually of tule with black and white overlay.
+Mountain Maidu made some coiled basketry caps, not infrequently
+employing tules or reeds.</p>
+<p>Men of all our tribes wore fur headbands on occasion and among
+Atsugewi, fur or buckskin caps too, especially in winter, when
+shallow bucket shaped skin hats of coyote, raccoon, mink and the
+like afforded protection against the rather intense cold.</p>
+<p>Eyeshades attached to a band around the head were worn by
+some Yana women so as not to see their sons-in-law! Atsugewi
+men and possibly others might wear side blinds when spearing fish
+at night to keep torch light out of their eyes.</p>
+<p>Children up to about six years of age ran about naked, and often
+the older men and women did likewise, particularly among the
+Maidu.</p>
+<p>Buckskin dresses were worn to some extent by the women of
+most local tribes. The mountain Maidu dress was tied at both
+shoulders and tied or belted at the waist. The garment was provided
+with flaps over the upper arms but lacked sleeves. Buckskin
+dresses were worn by some Indian women rich in worldly goods,
+and usually for special occasions. Recent buckskin dresses, of
+course, are sewn on sewing machines, neatly tailored, and follow
+the general pattern of the conventional dress, including regular
+sleeves.</p>
+<p>In normal everyday garb Indian women were naked above the
+waist. A wrap-around skirt, or, more frequently two narrow or wide
+aprons were worn. Sometimes one apron went around the hips, being
+tied in back and provided with a buckskin flap which covered the
+wearer&rsquo;s buttocks. The Indian women&rsquo;s aprons were commonly made
+of shredded incense-cedar, willow, or juniper bark, or of tules. In
+the case of Yana and Yahi women, frequently grass or shredded,
+spring-gathered, broad-leaf maple bark were used. The latter was
+a favorite valley Maidu skirt material. The double aprons might
+however be made of whole buckskin or of strips or cords of buckskin,
+and in winter furs might be used for the purpose. The double
+apron is recognized as the standard garb of California Indian
+women. That of the Maidu was often very narrow, being not much
+more than a front and a rear tassel.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_106">106</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig120">
+<img src="images/p33.jpg" alt="" width="812" height="776" />
+<p class="pcap">A beautiful old Shasta buckskin
+woman&rsquo;s wrap-around
+apron ornamented with tan,
+black, and red vegetable fiber
+bound slitting in the manner
+of coarse modern hemstitching,
+with strings of olivella shells
+and shaped abalone pendants,
+and finished on the bottom
+with long buckskin fringes.
+The garment is much like the
+more pretentious aprons
+described for Atsugewi.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig121">
+<img src="images/p33a.jpg" alt="" width="492" height="796" />
+<p class="pcap">Detail of ornamentation on the Shasta buckskin apron</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig122">
+<img src="images/p33b.jpg" alt="" width="193" height="590" />
+<p class="pcap">Mountain Maidu woman&rsquo;s
+tassel-type of shredded
+bark apron, about twenty
+two inches long. Some such
+aprons were considerably
+wider (after Dixon).</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_107">107</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig123">
+<img src="images/p33f.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="592" />
+<p class="pcap">Woman&rsquo;s basketry cap probably Atsugewi or Shasta. Note the design
+placed on top as well as on the sides of the basket, in contrast to other
+types of baskets. The bottoms of which are devoid both of design and
+overlay materials and so present an unadorned pine-root surface.</p>
+</div>
+<p>Women&rsquo;s casual aprons and other clothing were not highly
+ornamented, but &ldquo;dress-up&rdquo; clothes might be fairly elaborately
+trimmed. Fringing of buckskin, spangles of shell money and ornaments,
+strings of shell beads, pine nuts, deer hoofs, and special
+white grass fringes commonly decorated their better clothes.</p>
+<p>In the summer some men, and particularly old ones wore nothing
+at all. Most others wore very little clothing besides a sort of loin
+covering of buckskin or fur which went between the legs and was
+held in place back and front by a belt about the waist. A crude
+buckskin shirt without sleeves was sometimes used.</p>
+<p>During winter above aprons, skirts, or loin covering other garments
+were worn. Then men commonly wore the sleeveless buckskin
+shirt. Both sexes usually wore robes of woven rabbit skins (usually
+imported by the Atsugewi), or made of deer or bear fur and worn
+with the hair side inside. Or else the robes were of a patchwork
+<span class="pb" id="Page_108">108</span>
+of small mammal skins sewn together. These same robes were
+frequently used for bedding at night. As a matter of fact almost
+any sort of skins available might be used as robes. These were
+tied on in a variety of ways. The wearers must have presented a
+rather motley appearance. On occasion small poncho style robes
+with a central hole for the head and neck clothed the upper bodies
+of local Indians during cold weather.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig124">
+<img src="images/p34.jpg" alt="" width="454" height="700" />
+<p class="pcap">Atsugewi fringed buckskin dress of
+pioneer period</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig125">
+<img src="images/p34a.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="572" />
+<p class="pcap">An Atsugewi legging made of lashing
+tules together with a simple twining
+stitch</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig126">
+<img src="images/p34g.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="264" />
+<p class="pcap">Maidu buckskin moccasin
+about eleven inches long
+(after Dixon)</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_109">109</div>
+<p>Thumbless mittens were made of cased skins of weasels, rats
+or small cottontail rabbits and tied at the wrist with a thong.
+Atsugewi also utilized their fur-lined quivers as muffs when
+hunting.</p>
+<p>California Indians spent much of the time barefoot, but wore
+buckskin moccasins at war, on long hunts or journeys. Different
+styles were made by each of the local tribes. None, however, were
+normally decorated. Mountain Maidu also made moccasins of fur
+with the hair side in, and Atsugewi stuffed pounded grass or grass
+into their footwear or wore grass or tule slippers inside their
+moccasins during the winter. Maidu put soft grass or sedges in
+their moccasins for added warmth. An extra sole of tougher leather
+such as elkskin was sometimes sewn onto the moccasin, but this
+was not customary.</p>
+<p>Occasionally open sandals held on by three or four thongs were
+worn by Atsugewi and Yana.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig127">
+<img src="images/p34h.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="799" />
+<p class="pcap">Maidu snowshoe with
+raw-hide lashings</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig128">
+<img src="images/p34m.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="467" />
+<p class="pcap">Snowshoe of about eighteen inches in
+diameter (after Dixon)</p>
+</div>
+<p>Knee length leggings of various materials were common in
+winter. These were tied on with buckskin strips at ankle and knee.
+Yana used hip-length pantleg type leggings held on with waist
+<span class="pb" id="Page_110">110</span>
+bands. Atsugewi sometimes employed fur pieces, twined tule, or
+spiral wrap-around fur strip leggings. Maidu used deerhide leggings
+with the hair side inside. These went from ankles to above the
+knees where they were tied, and were held close to the leg by an
+outside spirally wound thong from top to bottom.</p>
+<p>Snowshoes were a necessity too in the rigorous climate of even
+the lower portions of the areas inhabited by tribes of the Lassen
+area, particularly in those of the Atsugewi and mountain Maidu.
+Snowshoes of the former Indians were circular in plan; those of the
+latter were oval. Snowshoes were fashioned from small green
+wooden limbs shaped while hot, and then crisscrossed with strips
+of buckskin or hide with the fur side down for better traction.
+Atsugewi used green juniper limbs for the purpose. Since the whole
+foot was bound firmly to this footgear, there was no heel play as
+in the case of white mans&rsquo; snowshoes.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_111">111</div>
+<h2 id="c18"><span class="small">Chapter XVI</span>
+<br />BEAUTY AND PERSONAL GROOMING</h2>
+<blockquote>
+<p>Of Atsugewi standards of beauty Garth states: &ldquo;The ideal
+woman was short but plump and solidly built so that she could
+do much work. A slim woman was considered too weak, and
+a very tall woman was made fun of and called lohkata (stick
+woman). Heavy breasts, a straight slim nose, large eyes,
+long black hair, and small feet were all admirable qualities.
+A girl with big feet was likely to be lazy, also a small foot
+was desirable because it would not take so large a moccasin.
+A mother pressed her girl child&rsquo;s foot together to make it
+slender. The ideal man was of average height and was heavy
+set. If a child had a flat nose, his mother pinched it and tried
+to give it a higher bridge. Bow legs, it was said, might be
+straightened by the mother when the child was young. Also
+a child&rsquo;s ears were pressed against his head; if the ears stood
+out, this was thought to indicate poor hearing. A slim hand
+indicated a lazy person; a short stubby hand signified a good
+worker.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Garth also comments to the effect that evidently the ideals of
+Indian beauty had a very practical basis. The same general criteria
+of beauty and desirability of women seem to have prevailed among
+the other tribes of this region also, but Yana preferred a rather flat
+and broad faced feminine beauty.</p>
+<p>The hair of both men and women among California Indians was
+generally worn long. The tribes of the Lassen area were no exception.
+However, bangs on the forehead were known. Boys and girls
+let their hair hang loosely, except that Atsugewi sometimes cut
+small boys&rsquo; hair short to make it grow better later.</p>
+<p>Women usually parted their hair in the middle wearing it in two
+hanks, one hanging in front of each shoulder. Each was tied with
+a piece of rawhide. Women of Yana tribes often used strips of otter
+or mink fur for the purpose as did some Atsugewi. Yana women
+might add further decoration in the form of a small string of shell
+beads. Atsugewi women might paint their scalps at the part in the
+hair with red paint.</p>
+<p>The male Indian tied his hair in a bunch which hung down the
+back. All local tribes, except mountain Maidu, seem also to have
+frequently used a small mesh hairnet made of plant fibers with a
+buckskin band to hold a man&rsquo;s hair in a sort of roll at the back of
+his head. Maidu called the net wee-kah. In preparation for war or
+<span class="pb" id="Page_112">112</span>
+for the hunt Yana men coiled their hair on their heads with well
+defined top knots. For dances and other special events, male
+Maidu and Yana, if rich, wore mesh bonnets thickly covered with
+white eagle down feathers tied in so that the net strands were not
+visible. Bone hairpins were sometimes used among Yana and
+mountain Maidu men.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig129">
+<img src="images/p35.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="822" />
+<p class="pcap">Men&rsquo;s hair net type of cap worn by adult males of all Lassen area
+tribes, the wearer&rsquo;s long hair being piled on top of the head when worn
+as in upper sketch (after Dixon) with the loose excess net allowed to
+fall straight down behind.</p>
+</div>
+<dl class="undent pcap"><dt><i>NET</i></dt>
+<dt><i>BUCKSKIN</i></dt>
+<dt><i>DRAWSTRING</i></dt>
+<dt><i>CORD</i></dt></dl>
+<p>Adults cut their hair off with stone knives to show grief and
+mourning when relatives died. Both men and women cropped their
+hair closely, but mountain Maidu women sometimes only trimmed it
+off to shoulder length. Singeing instead of cutting the hair was
+sometimes resorted to.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_113">113</div>
+<p>For combing the hair, Atsugewi might use a single stick, a pine
+cone, or a teasle burr. Mountain Maidu might use stiff pine needles,
+but the item most commonly used by all tribes for the purpose was
+the porcupine tail. The animal&rsquo;s tail was skinned out, stuffed with
+grass, and sewed shut at the open end. Sharp ends of the porcupine
+quills were blunted with hot stones.</p>
+<p>Hair was not dyed in this region. It was, however, rubbed with
+animal fat or bone marrow to make it look nicer by aboriginal
+standards. Atsugewi are said to have perfumed their hair on occasion
+with aromatic plant foliage. Hair and body lice were not
+uncommon; these were hunted and removed by hand. Maidu washed
+their hair frequently with common soaproot (<i>Chlorogalum pomeridianum</i>).</p>
+<p>Faces of adults were painted for a number of occasions. Black
+was used to some extent by both sexes to prevent sunburn and
+snow-blindness if long exposure in the bright sun were expected.
+Although Yana men and women used red and white paint when
+dancing, among our other tribes face paint was used chiefly by men
+for dances and ceremonies.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig130">
+<img src="images/p35d.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="516" />
+<p class="pcap">Porcupine tail comb about ten inches long (after Dixon)</p>
+</div>
+<p>Paint pigments were mixed with animal fat, especially deer
+grease, or with marrow and applied with the fingers. It was smeared
+on upper arms, legs, chest, and cheeks. Atsugewi and mountain
+Maidu blackened their eyebrows. Red pigment was either red soil,
+usually roasted or burned to make the color brighter, or the spores
+from a fungus which grows on the bark of fir trees. The fungus
+<span class="pb" id="Page_114">114</span>
+material was dried over a slow fire to prepare it for use. Black
+pigment was universally charcoal. Ashes were not used as white
+pigment. Students of local tribes state that chalk was employed
+for white paint. However, chalk is lacking in the Lassen vicinity
+and it is highly probable that the suitable and readily available
+white diatomaceous earth deposits were used for this purpose
+instead. Atsugewi also used blue color which was obtained in
+rock form by trade with their northern Pit River or Achomawi
+neighbors.</p>
+<p>The light beards which started to grow on male Indians&rsquo; faces
+were universally removed completely by plucking with the fingers.</p>
+<p>Earlobe and nose piercing was generally practiced by both
+sexes. Among Atsugewi rims of their ears as well as the lobes
+were perforated in some instances.</p>
+<p>Tattooing was occasionally done by Yana, but not as commonly
+as among Atsugewi where women not infrequently wore tattooed
+vertical lines across their mouths. Both sexes commonly tattooed
+their cheeks with horizontal lines or with two or three lines radiating
+from the corners of the mouth. Arms and legs were also
+tattooed to a certain extent. The mutilation was done by rubbing
+charcoal into cuts which had been made with stone knives or by
+rubbing charcoal on the skin and then pricking it with bone awls
+or porcupine quills. However, even among Atsugewi, tattooing was
+by no means universal. Mountain Maidu women were sometimes
+tattooed with three, five, or seven vertical lines on the chin.</p>
+<p>Earrings were worn by nearly all men and women. Atsugewi
+employed bone rings, clamshell beads, feathers and even painted
+ear ornaments. Mountain Maidu and Yana usually used bone or
+wooden ones, plain or decorated with feathers or shells. Abalone,
+like other sea shells, were received only in trade and were
+fashioned into pendants for ears or noses.</p>
+<p>Nose piercing consisted of making a hole through the septum
+of the nose. This practice was popular among all local tribes. It
+was done to permit the wearing of jewelry although Yana ascribed
+a deeper meaning to the custom as well. They believed that no
+person would go to his equivalent of heaven unless the nose
+septum was pierced. Hence this was done to the dead and a stick
+inserted if it had not been done in life. Two-pointed bone nose-pins
+were popular inserts as were long narrow dentalium shells,
+or nose pendants of beads. Only among mountain Maidu were nose
+ornaments highly decorated.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_115">115</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig131">
+<img src="images/p36.jpg" alt="" width="684" height="503" />
+<p class="pcap">Portion of Atsugewi (probably)
+necklace of dentalium shells (one
+and one fourth inches long) and glass
+trader beads.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig132">
+<img src="images/p36a.jpg" alt="" width="543" height="252" />
+<p class="pcap">Maidu necklaces: bear claw and
+insect perforated acorn.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig133">
+<img src="images/p36d.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="427" />
+<p class="pcap">Atsugewi necklace of clamshell
+disks and digger pine
+nuts which are a full half
+inch long.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_116">116</div>
+<p>Necklaces were common adornments too, but local tribes did
+not use bracelets. Items used for necklaces were perhaps bear
+teeth and bear claws among Atsugewi and Yana. More commonly,
+certainly, and used by all of our tribes were olivella shells, shaped
+pieces of abalone shells, small animal and bird bone rings or tubes,
+clamshell discs, long tooth-shells (dentalia), and Digger Pine
+nuts which had been parched until blackened. Their ends had then
+been rubbed off or holes bored through ends or sides and cleaned
+out. Yana also made mussel shell disks locally, not only for necklaces
+but as ear pendants. In later years all tribes used glass
+trader beads, usually interspersed with native items.</p>
+<p>Maidu, especially their tribes of the lower elevations, went in for
+elaborate feather decorations and headdresses. Valley Maidu even
+had feather cloaks for ceremonial use.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_117">117</div>
+<h2 id="c19"><span class="small">Chapter XVII</span>
+<br />WEALTH</h2>
+<p>Among local tribes wealth was the direct result of skill and
+industry and was highly regarded by all. A person&rsquo;s social status
+in the tribe varied directly with his wealth. Lazy persons not able
+to properly care for their own needs were considered as bums and
+looked down upon by all other members of the village. With wealth
+went a certain amount of power. Chiefs, although empowered by
+heritage, were always well to do, and the wealthiest men in smaller
+units acted in the capacity of head-men.</p>
+<p>As with modern man, money among Indians was an arbitrary
+medium of exchange, yet it was of more practical value to the
+Indians than our own coins are to us. Their money was prized not
+only for what it would buy in material things, but as possessing
+important decorative value as well.</p>
+<p>The long tooth-shell or dentalium was used whole and unmodified.
+It was the currency of the northwest California coast. The
+money of central and southern California was the clamshell disk.
+This was cut, smoothed into disk shapes about half an inch in diameter,
+and each was perforated with a central hole by means of
+which this money could be strung onto cords. In no case did local
+tribes travel the California coast to obtain these shell coins. Instead,
+this item found its way to Indians of the interior through
+progressive or step-by-step trading from coastal tribes through intermediate
+aboriginal traders.</p>
+<p>As we might expect, dentalia, having a northern origin, were
+secured by Atsugewi not from their neighbors to the south, but from
+the northern Yana in exchange for buckskins, arrows, wildcat skin
+quivers, and woodpecker scalps. The mountain Maidu did not have
+dentalia at all.</p>
+<p>Except for the central Yana custom of measuring the length of
+strings of clamshell disks, amounts of money were determined by
+counting and not by measuring length on arm tatoos as was so
+commonly the case in other parts of California. Skins of small
+mammals which had been skinned by making only one slit in the
+hind quarters and whose mouth openings had been tied shut, served
+as purses.</p>
+<p>All of our tribes used clamshell money. Among Yana clamshell
+disks were not as valuable as dentalia, and they were more common
+also among Atsugewi, the dentalia being used more for decoration
+than as money. The tribes of the Lassen region generally received
+<span class="pb" id="Page_118">118</span>
+the finished clamshell money; almost never did they manufacture
+this, although they did work traded abalone shell into jewelry
+pieces.</p>
+<p>Material wealth or treasure other than weapons, skins, baskets,
+and food also consisted largely of imported seashells. Whole
+olivella shells were commonly used as dress ornaments and also
+for paying shamans for services. Bone cylinders, columellae of
+shells, and especially polished cylinders of the mineral magnesite
+were highly prized. These might be used as the central piece of
+a necklace in the same manner that we might utilize a precious
+gem.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_119">119</div>
+<h2 id="c20"><span class="small">Chapter XVIII</span>
+<br />CEREMONIAL DRESS</h2>
+<p>All local tribes used the beautiful salmon colored feathers of
+the Red-shafted Flicker, a woodpecker also known to us by the
+name Yellowhammer. A headband of the bird&rsquo;s feathers&mdash;the stiff
+quills&mdash;was worn on the forehead. Mountain Maidu doctors wore
+this item also as a belt. In addition Atsugewi made a full feather
+band which was worn in a variety of ways including hanging down
+the back. This was usually used only by the shamans.</p>
+<p>Another ceremonial item was the California or Acorn Woodpecker
+scalp headband. This usually had a buckskin strap base, however,
+mountain Maidu glued these gay feathered patches onto fur bands,
+Yana wore woodpecker scalps on buckskin as belts.</p>
+<p>Mountain Maidu made belts of bands on which the showy greenish
+feathered neck skins of male Mallard Ducks in mating plumage
+were strung.</p>
+<p>For ceremonial use it was generally customary to tuck small
+tufts of feathers into the top of the hair. Among Atsugewi, chiefs
+only used eagle feathers for this purpose. This tribe also fastened
+single feathers into the crown of buckskin caps in a radiating
+manner, and also onto strips hanging down the back. Sometimes
+feathers were tipped with small white feathers to make the former
+even more decorative. Feathers were also fastened to head nets
+in a number of ways which differed somewhat among our tribes.
+Among Atsugewi, women wore these on occasion, but generally it
+was the males who decked themselves with feathers. Feather
+plumes of various sorts, employing either twisted buckskin or stick
+bodies, were also in general use.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_120">120</div>
+<h2 id="c21"><span class="small">Chapter XIX</span>
+<br />TOBACCO AND SMOKING</h2>
+<p>The knowledge and use of tobacco are among the important
+elements which our own culture of today has inherited from the
+Indians of North America. Of what benefit this has been is a debatable
+matter, but its effect has been profound, both on our customs
+and our economy.</p>
+<p>Local tribes used simple one piece wooden pipes of tubular
+design for the most part in smoking tobacco. Atsugewi and mountain
+Maidu commonly employed elder and other woods with a pithy
+and easily removed center. Although not otherwise being considered
+in this account, the Shasta Indian technique of pipe making is
+mentioned here because of its uniqueness. These folks hollowed
+pipe stems by soaking the end of a suitable stick in salmon oil.
+The larvae of the salmon fly were then introduced, and these worm-like
+creatures, eating the nourishing fishy core, would bore their
+ways lengthwise through the center of the heartwood where most
+of the salmon oil was concentrated. The Yana habitually used the
+wood of ash as pipe stock. Mountain Maidu found but did not manufacture
+a few simple stone pipe bowls also of tubular design. These
+had considerable spiritual significance and were treated with great
+care. Garth states that Atsugewi also had short stone pipes,
+tubular in shape, to which elder or rose wood extensions up to
+eleven inches in length were applied. Stone pipes were apparently
+not common in the Lassen region, however.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig134">
+<img src="images/p37.jpg" alt="" width="573" height="410" />
+<p class="pcap">Steatite stone pipes were used without wooden stems, each between
+three and four inches long. The holes in such pipes were made by
+tapping a deer antler piece in the depression containing some sand,
+a slow but effective boring process. This was commonly done by
+Valley tribes.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_121">121</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig135">
+<img src="images/p37a.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="613" />
+<p class="pcap">Yana reddish porous lava
+(dacite?) pipe, broken half,
+both sides shown. Note
+funnel-shaped depression
+in the bottom of the outside
+(lower half)</p>
+</div>
+<p>Pipes were used at social gatherings, after sweating, and at
+bed time. The pipes of the local tribes did not have any bends or
+curves. These straight tubular pipes were therefore most conveniently
+smoked when the Indians were reclining on their backs
+thus keeping the tobacco from falling out. Pipes were normally
+passed around, and used only by the men. However, women shamans
+of the mountain Maidu also smoked them. Shamans regularly used
+pipe smoking in ceremonies, especially when healing the sick.</p>
+<p>Tobacco grew wild and burning of brush was performed in certain
+localities to promote the growth of <i>Nicotiana</i> plants. Tobacco
+was not cultivated, but mountain Maidu did collect and scatter
+seeds in favorable areas. Tobacco was prepared merely by collecting
+the leaves when fully developed but still green, then drying,
+preferably in the shade, and finally crumbling the cured leaf in the
+hand. Tobacco was carried in buckskin pouches usually. Atsugewi
+often added manzanita and deer grease to their smoking tobacco.
+Indians of this region did not chew tobacco nor did they eat it with
+lime as was the custom elsewhere in California. Native tobacco
+is quite strong.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_122">122</div>
+<h2 id="c22"><span class="small">Chapter XX</span>
+<br />MUSIC AND ART</h2>
+<p>Music of local tribes was limited indeed. It was usually made
+by men. Only Atsugewi among the Lassen tribes possessed the
+drum, and this is believed to have been of recent introduction. It
+was a tambourine type: flat, cylindrical, a foot or so across, and
+with buckskin shrunken over one end.</p>
+<p>The shamans of all tribes used cocoon rattles. These were
+made of large cocoons from which the moth pupae had been removed
+through a small hole. Pebbles or seeds were then inserted and
+usually five or six cocoons&mdash;among Atsugewi as many as thirty&mdash;were
+tied onto the end of a wooden handle and dried. Cocoon
+rattles were considered dangerous and were usually kept hidden out
+of doors, being used by shamans only when doctoring.</p>
+<p>A single split stick clapper was employed generally for all types
+of singing and dancing, not being reserved for any special type of
+person or ceremony.</p>
+<p>Deer-hoof rattles were made from the small hard &ldquo;dew-claws&rdquo;
+from the backs of deer legs. About twenty dew-claws were tied
+loosely with thongs to a strip of buckskin which was then wrapped
+about a stick with a plain handle. The deer-hoof rattle was operated
+by vigorously jerking it lengthwise, in and out. It was used
+exclusively in the important puberty rites when girls attained
+womanhood.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig136">
+<img src="images/p38.jpg" alt="" width="286" height="534" />
+<p class="pcap">Deer-hoof rattle, length
+about ten inches (after
+Dixon)</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_123">123</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig137">
+<img src="images/p38d.jpg" alt="" width="154" height="1102" />
+<p class="pcap">Maidu split-stick
+clapper, twenty
+inches long</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig138">
+<img src="images/p38e.jpg" alt="" width="210" height="404" />
+<p class="pcap">Maidu cocoon rattle
+eight inches long</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig139">
+<img src="images/p38f.jpg" alt="" width="100" height="470" />
+<p class="pcap">Maidu bird-bone
+whistles</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig140">
+<img src="images/p38g.jpg" alt="" width="184" height="462" />
+<p class="pcap">Atsugewi deer-claw rattle</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig141">
+<img src="images/p38h.jpg" alt="" width="78" height="504" />
+<p class="pcap">Universal split-stick dancing
+rattle</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig142">
+<img src="images/p38m.jpg" alt="" width="112" height="412" />
+<p class="pcap">Maidu cocoon rattle</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_124">124</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig143">
+<img src="images/p39.jpg" alt="" width="677" height="284" />
+<p class="pcap">Flute and bull-roarer of local manufacture</p>
+</div>
+<p>Atsugewi and Yana employed hunting bows as musical instruments
+by holding one end in the mouth and plucking the string with
+fingers. Mountain Maidu did so too, but like the others only for
+their own amusement.</p>
+<p>Bone, cane, and elder whistles were blown at dances. Flutes,
+the most tuneful of Indians&rsquo; instruments, were not played at ceremonies
+or at dances, curiously enough, but just for self amusement,
+or in the case of mountain Maidu also for courting pretty girls. Flute
+melodies were supposed to tell stories, but words were not sung
+to help the interpretation. Yana made a six-hole flute; other tribes
+of the Lassen area used a four hole model. In all cases they were
+open, reedless instruments blown at an angle across one end. The
+flute was most frequently made of elder wood&mdash;mountain Maidu
+burned the holes into it with live coals.</p>
+<p>Except for basketry designs art as such is virtually non-existent.
+A few simple designs were painted onto hunting bows, and some
+nose and ear pendants might be considered jewelry art forms, but
+of the lowest development. The application of face and body paints
+and tattooing were also simple examples of Indian art.</p>
+<p>There appear to be no cliff or cave paintings in the vicinity of
+Lassen Peak, but they are abundant in Lava Beds National Monument
+about 75 miles to the north. A different matter is that of
+petroglyphs which, in California, usually have been made by striking
+or pecking smooth rock surfaces with small hard stones. Some of
+these are to be found in the Atsugewi and central Yana territories
+at lower elevation. However, these symbolic markings were not
+executed by the local tribes. Atsugewi believe them to have been
+made by mythological characters. It appears that the petroglyphs
+must have been made by the predecessors of the Hat Creek and
+Nozi Indians, for these people claim no knowledge of even the
+meaning of the rock writings. Shortly before going to press the
+<span class="pb" id="Page_125">125</span>
+first petroglyph known to come from the Lassen vicinity was found
+in the territory of the Southern Yana. The site is one where numerous
+obsidian chips and arrowpoints have been found on a gently
+south sloping, open forested portion of Lassen Volcanic National
+Park headquarters area at an elevation of almost 5000 feet and
+situated slightly west of the village of Mineral and just north of
+the north edge of Battle Creek Meadow.</p>
+<p>This find on a 10 inch boulder appears to be of ancient origin.
+The surface has weathered considerably yet not so much that the
+character of the carving has been altered. It is apparent that the
+quarter inch deep grooves have been made by rubbing rather than
+by pecking with hard rocks. This is all the more interesting since
+the boulder bearing the carving is of a tough hard and site lava.
+It is indeed unfortunate that the significance of this Battle Creek
+Meadows petroglyph is unknown. The authorities venture the
+opinion that the stone may have been used in puberty ceremonies.
+If so, whether by the Southern Yana or their predecessors we do
+not know either.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig144">
+<img src="images/p39a.jpg" alt="" width="688" height="508" />
+<p class="pcap">Battle Creek Meadows petroglyph about nine inches long. The eye-shaped
+area A is a smooth flat one eighth of an inch below the level of the rest
+of the rock surface. The grooves bounding it are more than one quarter
+inch deep and of V-shaped cross-section while the other markings are
+much shallower troughs with rounded bottoms some being quite vague. B,
+C, D, and E indicate deeper rounded depressions. F is a smooth and very
+uniform slightly concave area.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_126">126</div>
+<h2 id="c23"><span class="small">Chapter XXI</span>
+<br />GAMES AND SOCIAL GATHERINGS</h2>
+<p>Heavy betting on games was the rule. Games were commonly
+played between neighboring villages or even on occasion with
+neighboring tribes. Gambling was an important element in these
+contests and large sums were bet. Sometimes nearly all of a
+person&rsquo;s or even of a group&rsquo;s possessions were at stake.
+Evaluation of the stakes in white man&rsquo;s terms is difficult, but they
+are said frequently to have been of the order of several hundred
+dollars or even as much as a thousand dollars. Important games
+lasted more than one day&mdash;perhaps three or four days. The players
+caught brief rests only and were completely exhausted by the
+time the playing was over. Singing was the usual accompaniment
+and high quality rendition at games was much admired. Cheating was
+rare, maybe because it was supposed to bring subsequent bad luck.</p>
+<p>Most games were guessing games. There was considerable
+variety in the character and number of gambling stones or wooden
+sticks used, the manner of shuffling and other details. The sticks
+were shuffled and then concealed in the hands of one or several
+players on one side. The opposition had to determine the location
+of the marked stick or the arrangement of several. There were
+many spectators and excitement ran high. Women occasionally
+participated along with the men who were the main contestants.
+Counting sticks might be supplied to each side in equal number at
+the beginning. More often, however, the sticks were all placed in
+a common pile at the outset, the successful side taking a counting
+stick with each win. These scoring sticks were taken and surrendered
+as the tide of the game changed until one side had all.
+The game was won at this point.</p>
+<p>Ball games were played too. The ball was of buckskin stuffed
+with hair. The object was to kick the ball between the other team&rsquo;s
+goal posts. Kicking ball races over given courses and back, or
+around a lake shore, were also indulged in. In some contests the
+men and youths on opposing sides would engage in restraining each
+other so that a number of individual or group wrestling bouts
+developed on the playing field.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig145">
+<img src="images/p40.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="125" />
+<p class="pcap">Yana gambling bone, four inches long</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_127">127</div>
+<p>There were foot races of distances either short or up to fifteen
+miles or so in length. Also archery contests and wrestling matches
+were held. In wrestling the object was to throw the opponent to
+the ground; tripping was not allowed. Contests in which heavy
+rocks were tossed, somewhat in the manner of today&rsquo;s shot-put,
+and heavier rocks carried in competition over a designated line
+were other games in which the Atsugewi engaged.</p>
+<p>Shinny was played by women and children as well as by men,
+but adult sexes played separately in all of our tribes except Yana.
+Among them only men participated in this game. Mountain Maidu
+had three players on a side; Atsugewi had five players. Straight
+shinny sticks curved at the striking end were used and the puck
+was a hide affair. Mountain Maidu used a double ball puck. An
+attempt was made to keep the puck in the air in play. The object,
+of course, was to get the puck to go between the opponents&rsquo; goal
+posts. The Yana used a puck of two bones linked by a string
+several inches long. Running with the puck on the stick as well
+as hitting, and throwing it down the field were permitted.</p>
+<p>Children improvised a number of games in the
+same manner as our own children do today in copying
+their parents. They played house with limbless
+but dressed dolls, made and used toy bows and
+arrows, and made sling shots, too. They commonly
+tried juggling two stones in one hand, spun acorn
+tops by hand, and in some instances noise makers
+such as wooden buzzers and bull roarers were
+used. In play, loud noise was not condoned, however.</p>
+<p>Small feasts might occur at any time and were
+perhaps the most important social gatherings of
+Atsugewi. They were usually sparked by a temporary
+abundance of food. Dancing was not included.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig146">
+<img src="images/p40a.jpg" alt="" width="154" height="499" />
+<p class="pcap">Child&rsquo;s
+acorn top</p>
+</div>
+<p>Mr. Garth describes the Atsugewi &ldquo;... grand occasion
+... held only when a large supply of food had been accumulated,
+was the bagapi or &lsquo;big time&rsquo;.... The chief called a
+meeting to decide on the date and then sent his people to
+various places for deer and other foods. Knotted strings
+(rokuki) with a knot tied for each intervening day before the
+festival were sent to other villages. By untying a knot each
+day other chieftains knew when to start for the host&rsquo;s village.
+The host chief stood on the roof of his earth lodge and
+welcomed the visitor, calling each chief by name: &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t fall
+<span class="pb" id="Page_128">128</span>
+down. Step carefully. I&rsquo;m glad you have come to see me.
+Don&rsquo;t be in a hurry.&rsquo;... Toward evening the visitors might
+give a dance, after which the host chief called everyone to
+eat. Large baskets containing acorn mush, meat, sunflower
+seeds, and other foods were placed on the ground. The host
+proffered baskets of food to each visiting chief who in turn
+then distributed the food to his people. In winter two tribal
+groups on opposite sides of the sweat house might have a
+competitive sweat dance, vying to see which could endure the
+heat longest. In summer the sweating was usually omitted,
+and games of chance were begun. In the several days that
+followed, foot racing, archery, weight lifting, and other contests
+were indulged in. Large bets were made by opposing
+sides on the outcome of each contest, and the losing side at
+the end of the week&rsquo;s festivities often had little property left.
+Surplus food was divided among the guests before they
+departed.&rdquo;</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_129">129</div>
+<h2 id="c24"><span class="small">Chapter XXII</span>
+<br />DANCES</h2>
+<p>Mountain Maidu had more dances and more types of dances than
+other tribes of the Lassen area. Tribes of the Sacramento Valley
+had many more and more complicated dance ceremonies than ours
+did.</p>
+<p>Mountain Maidu had formalized sweat dances which were performed
+inside large dwelling lodges at night and were participated
+in by both sexes. As in the case of Yana, only one man, the leader,
+sang and hit the central pole rhythmically with a split stick rattle.
+The dancers performed simultaneously but in one spot until they
+were exhausted and took a cold swim afterwards.</p>
+<p>Of the less ceremonial Atsugewi sweat dance, Garth states:</p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>&ldquo;... Men danced naked except for circlets ... of
+twisted grass around the waist, head and upper arm, and occasionally
+from one shoulder diagonally across the chest....
+Three or four lines of black or white paint might be drawn
+across the chest and upper arm. Women wore a skirt and only
+a small amount of paint. The dancing took place in the combination
+sweat, dance, and dwelling house of the chief or head
+man.... The fire was built high with dry mountain mahogany
+..., pine ..., and sometimes with willow ..., all
+woods which burned without much smoke; the ventilator door
+was closed and the dance began. The one singer sat in a
+corner and beat time with a split stick rattle.... Each of ten
+or twelve dancers might approach close to the fire to show
+his ability to endure heat, pick up burning brands, one in each
+hand, and alternately hit one upper arm and then the other with
+the brands. The heat often became so intense that water had
+to be thrown on the center post to prevent its catching fire.
+There was rivalry to see who could stay inside longest, and
+after a time one man after another emerged and dived into the
+icy water nearby or rolled in the snow. There might be sweating
+three or four nights in succession on the occasion of a
+communal hunt.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Mountain Maidu held a dance gathering each spring for Black
+Bear and Grizzly Bear. They believed that this dance had been
+done by animals in mythical &ldquo;before Indian times&rdquo;. This gathering
+lasted three days and nights, but the actual dance was in progress
+only one day and night. Only women danced but men participated
+in the ceremony dressed in bear robes. There was much feasting
+<span class="pb" id="Page_130">130</span>
+too.</p>
+<p>The pre- and post-war dances are discussed under the chapter
+on war.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_131">131</div>
+<h2 id="c25"><span class="small">Chapter XXIII</span>
+<br />POLITICAL ORGANIZATION OF TRIBES</h2>
+<p>Tribes, as we think of them, were non-existent as political
+units, and hence there were no tribal chiefs, but there were village
+chiefs, in the California province.</p>
+<p>The self governing unit was always a village or a group of small
+closely adjacent villages. This is the political unit which was
+governed by the chief. Villages might consist of from four to about
+twenty-five earth lodges and bark huts with populations of from
+twenty-five to a hundred or more persons. Influential leaders,
+usually of much wealth&mdash;but not necessarily so&mdash;were recognized
+as head-men, exercising considerable authority over the smaller
+villages or separated groups of houses near villages. However the
+head-man&rsquo;s authority was subservient to that of the chief.</p>
+<p>Chieftainship was inherited through the father&rsquo;s lineage, the
+oldest son being the first in succession. However, if the son were
+too young to take over, the deceased chief&rsquo;s brother was temporarily
+in charge. The qualities of good character and knowledge were also
+important qualifications for chieftainship, and a chief could be
+deposed if he were not a good one. Tenure was normally for life,
+dependent upon satisfactory behavior and performance of his responsibilities.</p>
+<p>The chief&rsquo;s relatives hunted and fished for him, but he fed
+visitors and provided most of the food for feasts. The chief always
+directed community economic activities such as group fishing, deer
+hunting, and root digging expeditions. For this reason chiefs had
+to know much about game, fish runs, ripening seasons, et cetera,
+and had to possess good judgement to insure success of group
+undertakings. Chiefs also spoke to their people mornings and
+evenings, and at ceremonies and the like. Chiefs furthermore declared
+days of rest when chores were done about home. Another
+function was to arbitrate quarrels among the people.</p>
+<p>Mountain Maidu villages had assistant chiefs besides, who were
+sons or brothers of the chiefs. This assistant advised the chief
+and substituted for him as the occasion demanded. A specific duty
+of his was the division of food at ceremonies.</p>
+<p>Some chiefs had secondary female chiefs who in the case of
+the Maidu were daughters, among Atsugewi the chiefs&rsquo; wives. A
+woman in this capacity supervised preparation of food for feasts
+and in Atsugewi villages might give orders to men.</p>
+<p>Atsugewi chiefs appointed clowns at ceremonies who were paid.
+<span class="pb" id="Page_132">132</span>
+Appointed messengers were a part of every chief&rsquo;s staff. They
+were selected on the basis of both willingness to serve and ability.
+Maidu had about six messengers per village while the number varied
+among Atsugewi. Messengers were good speakers, reliable men,
+and were discharged if they failed in their duties. These included
+not only message running, but among Atsugewi, tending fires at
+ceremonies. For Maidu chiefs, messengers welcomed guests and
+traveled about gathering news and scouting. Special fire tenders
+were appointed in this tribe.</p>
+<p>Atsugewi chiefs seem to have possessed greater prestige and
+authority than those of the mountain Maidu, the Yana, and the Yahi.
+The decisions of Atsugewi chiefs were final, but these had to be
+diplomatic if the chief were to remain popular. If a chief were unpopular
+some of his people would move to another village leaving
+the first chief&rsquo;s community numerically weaker. Chiefs were generally
+well obeyed by rich and poor alike. In return, chiefs unfailingly
+had the interests of their people at heart. Atsugewi chiefs,
+specifically, set examples of industry, behavior, and judgement
+for their people. No doubt this was generally true of the chiefs
+of units in other local tribes too.</p>
+<p>Because of the greater popularity, prestige, and consequently
+larger following of some individual chiefs, they were considerably
+more powerful than other chiefs in the same tribe. Such men were
+influential to some extent beyond the boundaries of their own territories.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_133">133</div>
+<h2 id="c26"><span class="small">Chapter XXIV</span>
+<br />WAR AND PEACE</h2>
+<p>Wars were commonly small scale encounters and might be either
+within tribes or between tribes. Atsugewi were not often aggressive.
+Most tribes at one time or another had differences with neighboring
+tribes, but friendly relations were usually re-established soon.
+Certain tribes, however, were repeatedly or traditionally enemies,
+as for instance, Klamath, Paiute, or Modoc against Atsugewi;
+Washoe against mountain Maidu; Achomawi or Wintun against the
+Yana tribes; and mountain Maidu or Wintun against Yahi. Tribes
+sometimes helped each other in wars, and either payment or reciprocal
+aid was usually forthcoming.</p>
+<p>Causes of hostilities in the Lassen area were usually revenge
+for murders (if uncompensated), abduction of women and children,
+or insults to chiefs. Mountain Maidu, Yana, and Yahi also waged
+wars on account of poaching, rape, alleged witchcraft, and the like.
+All able bodied men normally went to war, but mountain Maidu left
+some at home to protect the women.</p>
+<p>Chiefs generally did not participate in the fighting although
+they often went along on the war expedition. Instead of leading
+the battles themselves, chiefs appointed special warrior leaders
+who were principal targets of the opposition. Such battle leaders
+were often head-men, but always were men competent to lead the
+fight and who had good arrow dodging power.</p>
+<p>Shamans habitually went to war, but did not fight actively except
+on occasion. They were busy singing during battle and urging
+the warriors on or exhorting supernatural help. The Atsugewi
+shaman reportedly &ldquo;stayed behind a tree all the time giving out
+his power&rdquo;.</p>
+<p>Preparation for war consisted of practicing dodging arrows,
+shooting arrows, in some cases at effigies, and in dancing. The
+main purpose of the preparation was to incite enthusiasm for the
+fight. This was so successful that quite a commotion developed
+in the community, to the extent that such incidents occurred
+as warriors with knives chasing women and a man shooting his own
+dog with an arrow! Preparatory war dances were held outside near
+the villages. Both men and women participated and shamans sang.
+Mountain Maidu sustained their dances for several days. Warriors
+spoke to their arrows addressing them as persons. Atsugewi men
+painted themselves with white and black stripes on faces, limbs,
+and bodies. Yana used red and white war paint. Mountain Maidu
+<span class="pb" id="Page_134">134</span>
+wore head nets and bands. Dried untanned skins of bear, elk, and
+such were worn at dances as well as in battle, as were waistcoat
+armors of strong vertical sticks lashed together. Leather helmets
+were worn by some warriors.</p>
+<p>The enemy was usually attacked just at dawn using the element
+of surprise to the fullest extent possible. Some battles were pre-arranged
+in which a number of participants faced each other in well
+formed lines. Such conflicts were subject to &ldquo;calling off&rdquo; if too
+many men were injured or killed. Serious raids, however, did
+not give quarter and men, women, and children were killed. Booty
+was taken and scalps, too, were stripped from fallen victims.
+Scalps were later burned by Atsugewi, but mountain Maidu dried
+human scalps on frames. This tribe also took entire heads from
+bodies on occasion. Prisoners were taken too: Atsugewi not infrequently
+adopted captured children. Captive women might be
+mistreated and raped, then killed. Adult prisoners might escape
+with relative ease because there was no suitable way to confine
+them permanently, and some were returned voluntarily.</p>
+<p>While the war party was away on its expedition, the women at
+home danced individually in the manner of the war dance. They
+sang and prayed to help the men at war. Atsugewi women dancers
+carried feathers, bows, and arrows, but rattles were not used in
+these morale dances.</p>
+<p>Upon return of the war party a victory dance was held in or near
+the village in the open air. Men and women danced independently,
+but together at the same time. Atsugewi men painted themselves
+red and white instead of the black and white used for the pre-war
+dance. They wore headdresses of all sorts and the warriors
+carried their bows, arrows, armor, and other fighting gear while
+dancing. The victory dance took place around a fire. Next to the fire
+Atsugewi planted a short pole on which the new scalps were displayed
+while mountain Maidu danced with the scalps secured to
+hand-carried sticks. It is worth noting that while some readers
+may consider this gloating over human scalps to be a primitive
+morbidity, it is true that often white men&mdash;the very pioneers we
+eulogize&mdash;took and coveted human scalps themselves.</p>
+<p>Warriors, particularly those who had killed adversaries, purified
+themselves by swimming, rubbing aromatic plants on their bodies,
+praying for luck. They did not eat meat for from a few to many days,
+depending on the tribe. Among Atsugewi they also sweated with
+the same end in view, and women brushed the men&rsquo;s bodies with
+plant materials to aid the purification process.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_135">135</div>
+<p>Surprisingly, the eating of hot foods and any form of meat was
+taboo to wounded warriors. This seems strange, since these are
+the very foods which we consider beneficial to injured persons.</p>
+<p>When an attack appeared likely upon an Atsugewi village, the
+whole population retired to high ground which was easily defended.
+Such sites were prepared in advance and might be considered crude
+forts as they were surrounded by rock walls and provided with
+shelters for the non-combatants.</p>
+<p>In intertribal wars there was usually no compensation as such
+made where the encounter had been motivated by the satisfaction
+of securing revenge. In the case of feuds or murders within the
+tribe payment was made to relatives of the slain. If persons on
+both sides were slain compensation was made for all the dead.
+The chief or head-man supervised the peace negotiations. Payment
+was usually in beads or money, but Atsugewi sometimes paid off
+in women or in the amount of the usual price of a bride. In this
+tribe too, the amount of compensation was made according to the
+wealth of the victim. A poor man&rsquo;s life was not considered to be
+worth as much as a rich man&rsquo;s. Atsugewi had a settlement dance
+meeting in which both sides were present and wore fighting regalia.
+These dancers disarmed themselves after the payment had been
+made.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_136">136</div>
+<h2 id="c27"><span class="small">Chapter XXV</span>
+<br />BIRTH AND BABIES</h2>
+<p>The natural function of birth obviously varied only in details
+of handling the situation, delivery assistance, disposition of the
+afterbirth, and methods of cutting and treating the child&rsquo;s umbilical
+cord. The baby was born in a separate hut which contained a trench
+heated with coals. These were covered with grass and pine needles
+or fir boughs. On this warm green bed the woman lay at least a
+part of the time during labor and also after delivery.</p>
+<p>Children were desired and a barren woman was looked down on
+socially. Inability to produce children was grounds for divorce.
+The behavior of both parents during pregnancy was believed to
+closely affect personality and health of the child.</p>
+<p>After giving birth, the mother remained in isolation for from nearly
+a week to a month or more. Many taboos were imposed upon her.
+Bathing in streams and sweat baths, eating fresh or dried meat or
+fish, grease, and often salt were forbidden to her. Most tribes of
+the Lassen area also prohibited combing of the mother&rsquo;s hair by
+herself during the period of isolation. Also taboo was scratching
+herself with her hands, making baskets, preparing food, or traveling.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig147">
+<img src="images/p41.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="436" />
+<p class="pcap">Front and side views of Atsugewi cradle basket for a very young baby.
+(tseh-nay-gow)</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_137">137</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig148">
+<img src="images/p41a.jpg" alt="" width="466" height="600" />
+<p class="pcap">Atsugewi young baby carrying basket or teseh-nay-gow</p>
+</div>
+<p>There were restrictions on the father of the newly born child
+too. Among Atsugewi and Yana he stayed with the mother, but
+mountain Maidu fathers stayed away for periods of a week or less.
+Immediately after the birth had taken place, the father ran to the
+woods to break up and bring home quantities of fire-wood. Hunting
+and fishing of all kinds and traveling were taboo for several weeks
+in most cases. Atsugewi and mountain Maidu new fathers were also
+forbidden to smoke and gamble, and like their wives, were denied
+eating fresh or dried fish, meat, and grease for varying periods up
+to a month. Release from taboos occurred with sweating and bathing
+among Atsugewi and mountain Maidu. Fathers in these tribes
+also gave away the first kill when they resumed hunting.</p>
+<p>The mother generally massaged the infant to improve the shape
+and proportion of nose, face, limbs, and torso. Shedding of the
+baby&rsquo;s umbilical cord was an important event which the Indians
+wished to occur as soon as possible. A variety of odd practices to
+this end were employed. The occurrence of the event relieved the
+parents of some, or in other cases of all, the post birth taboos.
+Among most of our tribes the dried cord was saved until the child
+reached manhood or womanhood. It was customarily secured to the
+cradle basket, but frequently was subsequently lost. Earlobes
+<span class="pb" id="Page_138">138</span>
+might be pierced in early infancy especially if the child were prone
+to cry much.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig149">
+<img src="images/p42.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="541" />
+<p class="pcap">Atsugewi older baby carrying basket or yah-birr-dee. Note the rounded
+bottom on A, a modernization. Partial illustration B shows old style construction
+with a pointed bottom for thrusting into the ground.</p>
+</div>
+<p>Two cradle baskets were used. Mountain Maidu made two of
+similar oval shape, but the first and smaller one was without a
+hood. Atsugewi and Yana tribes made two different types, but both
+with rounded carrying handles and sunshades on top. These were
+constructed of willow ribs, pine root, and buckskin. The first small
+basket was called tseh-nay-gow by Atsugewi and was used for
+several months. It was short and with a distinctly rounded basketry
+shelf or lip at its lower end. The larger baby basket was called
+yah-bih-dee and was practically identical to that of the mountain
+Maidu. This was made of the usual twined basketry materials, but
+was of different construction. Willow ribs were lashed onto a sturdy
+one-piece forked branch frame, the joint being at the bottom. The
+base or stem of this Y-piece stuck out below for several inches
+being sharpened so that it could be stuck into the ground near the
+<span class="pb" id="Page_139">139</span>
+mother in camp or when she was out digging roots in the fields.
+Boo-noo-koo-ee-menorra tells of an interesting modification of
+the yah-bih-dee today. Its frame is now simply rounded at the
+bottom instead of having the pointed end described above. &ldquo;Most
+people have cars now a days&rdquo; she says, &ldquo;and that point poked a
+hole through the seat of the car. So now we make the round kind.&rdquo;
+Our visitors to Lassen Volcanic National Park are always interested
+in names of the &ldquo;papoose basket&rdquo;. This term and the words
+moccasin, wampum, and so on are no doubt of Indian origin being
+the actual words or reasonable facsimiles thereof used by some
+eastern tribe for the objects concerned. English speaking Americans
+have adopted these names as meaning those particular articles for
+all Indian tribes. It may be recalled that earlier in this book, it
+was pointed out that each tribe had its own distinct language and
+so, obviously, each tribe would have had its own distinct names
+for these objects. Hence there is no all inclusive &ldquo;Indian name&rdquo;
+for the cradle basket or anything else.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig150">
+<img src="images/p42c.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="282" />
+<p class="pcap">Maidu baby carrying basket about thirty five inches long.</p>
+</div>
+<p>The baby was wrapped in tanned buckskin or soft furs, normally
+wildcat by the Atsugewi. A pad of grass or padded bark was placed
+on the cradle board or basket and then the child was lashed into
+the tshe-nay-gow with buckskin straps in a sitting position on the
+sill with its feet hanging down. Most tribes used dry grass, pounded
+until soft, for diapers, but mountain Maidu used skin material for
+the purpose. Babies were kept in the cradle baskets until they
+were able to walk. The cradle frame was carried on the mother&rsquo;s
+back with a tump-line passing over her forehead or chest. A series
+of larger cradle baskets were made as the child grew, usually three
+before the child was allowed to crawl or walk.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_140">140</div>
+<p>The newborn infant was never fed the colostrum from its mother.
+The baby was either let go without food or given a cooked meat
+gruel for nourishment for the first two days or so until bonafide
+milk was produced in the mother&rsquo;s breasts. Children were nursed
+as often as they wished and until they were quite large: even three
+or four years old.</p>
+<p>Names were given to children usually at the age of about a year.
+Yana waited even longer, however, until ages of four to six years
+before giving real names which for this tribe were habitually of a
+hereditary nature. In the meantime, temporary descriptive nicknames
+were given. Many real Atsugewi names had meanings, while those
+of mountain Maidu and Yana normally did not. Nevertheless, Yana
+and to a certain extent other Indians too, might acquire additional
+nicknames and descriptive names later in life, even in adulthood.</p>
+<p>Twins were unwanted among all local tribes, probably because
+of the double care and feeding responsibilities involved. Mountain
+Maidu thought that twins were bad luck and actually feared them.
+It was generally believed that twins were caused by the mother
+having eaten twinned nutmeats. These, therefore, were carefully
+avoided.</p>
+<p>Killing newborn babies whether illegitimate, twins, crippled,
+or when the mother died in childbirth, was practiced only on very
+rare occasions. Certainly infanticide was not the rule among any
+of the local tribes, but of course was practiced in certain other
+areas.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig151">
+<img src="images/p43.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="414" />
+<p class="pcap">Yana baby cradle basket for young baby.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_141">141</div>
+<h2 id="c28"><span class="small">Chapter XXVI</span>
+<br />ADULTHOOD RITES</h2>
+<p>A girl&rsquo;s attainment of puberty or womanhood was an event of
+obvious importance and it was recognized as such by all tribes of
+the Lassen region with extensive formal ritual and ceremony for
+each individual girl. Only the more important and generally employed
+taboos and rites are noted below. There was considerable
+variation in details of such matters even among the four tribes with
+which we are dealing.</p>
+<p>The girl was secluded in a separate hut for from three to six
+days and sometimes during the nights too. The taboos she observed
+during this time were much like those imposed on a mother giving
+birth, but were even more extensive. The young lady must eat from
+her own special baskets, not cross streams, avoid contacting men&mdash;especially
+hunters, refrain from gazing at the sun or moon, et
+cetera. Among things she must do were to wear a basketry cap, or
+special head bands among some tribes, and have her hair put up in
+two knobs wrapped over her shoulders. This had to be done for her
+as she was not allowed to touch her own hair. Carrying the deer-hoof
+rattle she must run races with other girls, and dance much
+also, scratch her head only with a special scratcher, have her
+earlobes pierced if this had not already been done, and frequently
+her nose septum was punctured too, being kept open by insertion of
+a round stick. Among Wintun tribes of the Sacramento Valley some
+taboos lasted for from one to three years!</p>
+<p>For several nights public dances were held which lasted all
+night. Since there was no special ritual for anyone but the girl for
+whom the dances were held, these ceremonies were of a joyous
+nature and were popular and well attended. In the middle of the
+night food provided by the girl&rsquo;s family was served to all present.
+Singing with deer-hoof rattle accompaniment was carried on all
+night. Intimate affairs between couples were not unusual during
+such dances. During the daytime as well dances were held, but
+these were of short duration and participated in chiefly by the
+women of the village. At the end of the ordeal the girl bathed and
+was given new clothes, ending her taboos.</p>
+<p>There was no formal ceremony when boys attained manhood except
+that the youths were generally sent alone into the neighboring
+mountains for several days to seek special &ldquo;powers&rdquo; to give them
+skill and luck in certain pursuits such as deer hunting, archery,
+fighting, shamanism, and the like.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_142">142</div>
+<p>During menstruation all women had to observe many taboos too.
+These included eating alone and living in seclusion. They could
+eat no meat or fish, fat, or salt, and must not cook. They must
+avoid sick persons and hunters, and could not scratch themselves
+except with the scratching stick. At the end of the taboo periods
+of four or five days, they usually bathed in streams for purification.</p>
+<p>Curiously, wives&rsquo; menstruations had to be observed by their
+husbands in a number of ways. Most common was prohibition of
+smoking, and they must eat lightly. Among mountain Maidu the
+husband could hunt and fish, but could not eat any flesh; among
+Atsugewi the reverse was true.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_143">143</div>
+<h2 id="c29"><span class="small">Chapter XXVII</span>
+<br />MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE</h2>
+<p>Marriage itself was not formalized with any ceremony. It was
+common practice for parents to arrange marriages when children
+were young and these arrangements, which involved some exchange
+of gifts or payment, were usually honored later. Most other
+marriages were arranged by parents later when the children had
+reached maturity and generally these recognized the children&rsquo;s
+wishes. Both of these types of marriages were the basis for extensive
+exchange of presents and visits, details of which differed
+among the several tribes. In addition there was almost universal
+payment for the girl&mdash;about ten strings of clamshell disks was
+standard. The boy and girl became husband and wife simply upon
+starting to live together, but the new status was usually marked by
+a feast participated in by the families concerned. Generally there
+followed a period of residence of the couple with one or both of the
+in-laws. On occasion marriages grew from intimacies with no
+parental negotiations, but such matches were not well regarded by
+the community.</p>
+<p>Indian men frequently married women from other villages and
+occasionally even women from other tribes.</p>
+<p>If a wife died her sister was generally obliged to marry the
+widower. Likewise, if the husband died it was customary that his
+brother would marry the widow. A wise institution was the relationship
+of the husband and wife with their in-laws. Neither could
+speak to nor hand things directly to the in-law of opposite sex,
+or in some cases even to the brothers and sisters of the in-laws;
+such things had to be done by a third party. In some instances the
+mother-in-law even avoided looking at her son-in-law even though
+she might like him. Such arrangements no doubt prevented many
+arguments and quarrels, but as far as their own evaluation of these
+customs were concerned, the basis lay in the belief that a bear
+might eat either or both of the violators of the in-law taboos.</p>
+<p>The practice of having more than one wife at a time was common.
+One man might have three or four wives, but rarely had more than
+two at a time. Rich men or head-men and chiefs were most apt to
+have more than two wives.</p>
+<p>Divorce was simple indeed. The man just sent the girl back
+home if she were barren, lazy, promiscuous, or the like. If he had
+good reasons for wanting to get rid of his wife, her purchase price
+might be refunded by her family, or else the ex-wife&rsquo;s sister might
+<span class="pb" id="Page_144">144</span>
+be sent to him in exchange, or, sometimes, in addition with no
+additional payment. On the other hand, the wife might leave her
+husband if she had been badly mistreated, or if the husband did not
+provide enough meat and clothing for the family or if he were unfaithful.
+In divorce the children were divided. Usually, but not
+always, the girls remained with their mother and the boys with their
+father. However, divorce was not common among Indians of this
+region.</p>
+<p>On the whole, morals were high and sexual deviations were infrequent,
+although the whole range of such practices were known to
+the aborigines. It appears beyond argument that divorces, moral
+laxity, and sexual aberrations increased with the coming of white
+man.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_145">145</div>
+<h2 id="c30"><span class="small">Chapter XXVIII</span>
+<br />DEATH AND BURIAL</h2>
+<p>Atsugewi and mountain Maidu left the corpse in the house for
+one day. They prepared it for burial by dressing it well and adding
+bead necklaces, then wrapping it in a hide. Yana did the same,
+washing the body first, and although also adorning the corpse with
+jewelry, they always removed decorative nose ornaments, replacing
+these with simple sticks. According to Voegelin, Atsugewi removed
+the body for burial prone and feet first through the wall of
+the house, but Garth states that the body was removed through the
+southern ventilator passage or through the regular entrance way
+in the roof.</p>
+<p>The mountain Maidu, Yana, Yahi, and usually the Atsugewi bent
+the body into a position called flexed. The arms were folded across
+the chest and the knees were drawn up against the stomach before
+wrapping the corpse in a robe which was then sewn shut. The
+mountain Maidu sometimes put the wrapped cadaver into a large
+basket. Voegelin was of the opinion that Atsugewi buried their
+dead lying flat on their backs, and if so, always with the head toward
+the east. It is thought that this prone burial might be a
+recent innovation learned from white man.</p>
+<p>Mourners among all of our local tribes wailed aloud and brought
+gifts for the dead. Women, especially the older ones, mourned
+vigorously. To quote Garth again on Atsugewi, of their mourning
+he states:</p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>&ldquo;The deceased&rsquo;s close relatives mourned the hardest, but
+friends might also mourn&mdash;&mdash;&lsquo;to make them feel better.&rsquo;
+Mourners cried and rolled on the ground, throwing dirt and hot
+ashes in their faces and hair. Some, in their grief, tried to
+commit suicide, and a close watch had to be kept over them
+to prevent their doing so. Favorite methods were to swallow
+small bits of (obsidian) or to eat a certain kind of spider.
+Mourners were warned not to cry around the house near the
+body but to go to the hills to cry, and also not to look down
+when crying or to cry too much. Otherwise they were subject
+to bad dreams in which spirits would plague them and possibly
+kill them. A mourner might acquire power at this time. A
+widow, with possibly a sister to help her, would wail for a
+time at daybreak and again in the evening. This lasted for
+two or three months, sometimes longer. A widower seldom
+cried more than two or three weeks. The widow visited places
+<span class="pb" id="Page_146">146</span>
+at which she had camped with her husband, broke up utensils
+left there, burned down the brush where he was accustomed
+to cut wood, and piled up rocks where they had slept together.
+A widower behaved in similar fashion.... If death occurred in
+a village, no entertainments could be held for a time; otherwise
+relatives of the deceased had the right to break things
+up and throw them around. A man would not sing or attend a
+&lsquo;big time&rsquo; gathering until at least a year after death of a close
+relative.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>If the lodge were to be lived in again, after a person had died
+in it, Atsugewi brought in juniper boughs, and these were burned
+to purify the house. Bark huts, however, were always burned down
+after an occupant had died.</p>
+<p>Mountain Maidu children were kept away from the dead and from
+the funeral proceedings. In that tribe and probably among all local
+tribes, if the deceased were rich the funeral would be much larger
+and more pretentious than if the person had been poor. In the
+former case the ceremony was followed by a feast. Other tribes
+buried the dead in the evening generally within twenty-four hours
+after death, but Yana waited three or four days. Mountain Maidu
+grave diggers put grass in their mouths. Small shallow graves
+sufficed for poor people, in fact, among Atsugewi, at least, poor
+people were often buried in small depressions in lava flows and
+covered over with convenient rocks.</p>
+<p>Enroute to Atsugewi burials no one was permitted to look back,
+and water was sprinkled along the path to prevent the dead person&rsquo;s
+spirit from returning to the village. At the grave the dead were
+asked aloud please not to look back, for if they did other members
+of their families would die soon.</p>
+<p>Cremation, that is, burning of corpses was rare among tribes of
+the Lassen area. At the battlefield and in other instances of death
+far from home, especially in the case of mountain Maidu, burning
+was done occasionally. After this the bones were collected,
+wrapped in buckskin, and then buried.</p>
+<p>The flexed bodies of the dead were always placed in graves
+facing eastward. Widows customarily attempted to throw themselves
+into the graves, but were restrained from doing so. A basket
+of water was invariably placed next to the body, and most personal
+property of the deceased was broken and also placed in the grave.
+The amount of property so disposed of varied with the tribe.
+Mountain Maidu and especially the Yana tribes put practically everything
+in the grave. The latter even went so far as to include many
+<span class="pb" id="Page_147">147</span>
+gifts of a nature not normally associated with the sex. Aprons and
+baskets, for instance, might be placed in a man&rsquo;s burial. Among
+Atsugewi the relatives retained some of the property of the deceased.
+Atsugewi might place some food on the grave and mark it with a
+vertical stick, but it was not tended later, and the site was generally
+soon lost.</p>
+<p>In winter a person might be buried shallowly in the floor of a
+living house. Next spring the house would be torn down and the
+dirt walls caved in. There was variation not only between, but
+within tribes as to the final disposition of houses of the deceased.
+They might be burned down, a common practice, or they were torn
+down, abandoned, temporarily deserted, or torn down and rebuilt.
+If to be lived in again, purification of some sort was always
+practiced, either by burning juniper boughs in the house, smoking
+tobacco, bringing in aromatic plants, or treating the main beams.
+Among Yana tribes the family seems to have habitually abandoned
+the house right after the funeral and to have burned the whole thing
+including property and food of all the inmates, retaining only the
+barest necessities of life such as sleeping robes.</p>
+<p>Among Atsugewi all mourners had to deny themselves meat and
+fresh fish for one day; then they sweated and swam after the funeral.
+Mountain Maidu mourners, including all persons who had had any
+part in the funeral, had to undergo four or five days taboo on eating
+all flesh. They also had to eat alone and from separate dishes,
+do head scratching with special sticks only, were allowed no hunting,
+gambling, intercourse, or smoking. Purification of those
+persons contaminated by participation in burial included swimming
+and washing every day that the taboos were in effect.</p>
+<p>Only Atsugewi, of all local tribes, are said to have practiced
+suicide, though unquestionably it did occur on occasion among all
+California Indians.</p>
+<p>Mentioning the name of the deceased in the presence of his
+relatives was considered very poor taste, and was actually forbidden
+in some cases.</p>
+<p>It was forbidden that the widow touch the corpse, so that relatives
+had to prepare the body for burial. After the funeral, the
+widow always cut her hair off closely. If an Atsugewi, she made
+a belt out of it, and the hair belt was then often decorated with
+shells. In all local tribes the widow traditionally covered her
+whole head and face with pitch and covered this with white diatomaceous
+earth or black charcoal. Touching her head or face (the
+whole body for mountain Maidu) with fingers was taboo; she could
+<span class="pb" id="Page_148">148</span>
+do this only with the scratching stick which mountain Maidu widows
+wore around the neck. Raggedy, ill-looking clothes were worn by
+the survivor, and Atsugewi widows put pitch on old basketry caps
+to be worn. A mourning necklace was worn at all times, made of
+lumps of hard pitch strung onto a fiber string. This was worn until
+remarriage, which was usually two or three years for Atsugewi and
+one to three years for mountain Maidu. Pitch on the face and head
+was normally left on until it wore off of its own accord.</p>
+<p>The mourning conduct of grieving men who had lost their wives
+in death was not nearly so lengthy or as rigorous as was that of
+widows. Widowers cut their hair too, but among Atsugewi the only
+other observance required was abstinence of flesh eating for a day.
+Mountain Maidu widowers spent one sleepless night out in the
+mountains. Widowers did not generally sing at dances and at &ldquo;big
+times&rdquo; for about a year, but this was not compulsory. The Yana
+are said to have stayed away from dances for two or three years.</p>
+<p>Parents mourning the loss of children cut their hair slightly and
+placed some pitch on hair or faces. The Atsugewi mother observed
+a three day meat taboo and the Maidu father went to the hills to
+seek power. However, loss of a baby in birth or before its navel
+cord dropped off was considered a more serious situation. Such
+bereaved parents gave all of their belongings away in order to make
+a fresh start.</p>
+<p>Anniversary mourning rites were not conducted in the Lassen
+region. An exception was the rare instance among Atsugewi when
+a child was sick at a time just three years after the death of its
+parent. Under such circumstances a shaman sang over the child
+and the whole remaining family and relatives mourned, later washing
+themselves. With respect to the general lack of mourning anniversaries
+it is of interest that the foothill (northeast) Maidu held
+elaborate annual burnings for several years after death of relatives.
+At these great mourning dance ceremonies large quantities of
+valuable possessions were burned as sacrifices to honor the dead.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_149">149</div>
+<h2 id="c31"><span class="small">Chapter XXIX</span>
+<br />COUNTING, TIME, AND PLACE</h2>
+<p>Counting on the fingers was usual practice. Mountain Maidu
+started with their thumbs while Atsugewi began on the little finger
+of one hand and counted across to that on the other hand, and toes
+were used for the purpose too. To help in counting, tribes also
+employed sticks to represent groups of numbers: Atsugewi used
+sticks to represent 1&rsquo;s, 5&rsquo;s, 10&rsquo;s, and hundreds. Yana frequently
+used a stick to represent the unit 20. This is presumed to be a
+natural unit because it is the sum of all of a person&rsquo;s fingers and
+toes.</p>
+<p>Time of day, of course, was not expressed in any unit like our
+hour, but roughly by the position of the sun in its daily course overhead.
+Seven to nine positions were referred to descriptively in this
+respect plus early, mid, and late night.</p>
+<p>Phases of the moon were most practical and were universally
+used as a longer measure of time. The succession of new moon
+cycles were named and an old man in the village customarily kept
+track of these by memory. As might be expected from this system,
+in which there was no recording, arguments ensued over just which
+moon or &ldquo;month&rdquo; was currently in effect. One full course of the
+moon&rsquo;s phases takes just about a month, so the names for Indians&rsquo;
+moons corresponded nearly to our month names.</p>
+<p>All local tribes recognized four seasons. These were identified
+by the positions of certain stars among mountain Maidu, but more
+generally by the positions of the rising sun with respect to a certain
+peak, tree, or similar fixed object. Some Indians kept track of the
+seasons by watching the daily progression of a beam of sunlight
+coming through the smoke hole of a house and falling upon its floor
+or wall. The shortest day of the year naturally was marked by the
+most southerly progression of the sun. This was noted by the
+Indians, no doubt with joy in the realization that longer days and,
+somewhat later, warmer weather were to be expected. The year
+started with the beginning of November when Indians of the Lassen
+area had left the high elevation hunting grounds on the flanks of
+Lassen Peak, had collected their stores of acorn and salmon, and
+were warmly settled in their winter quarters. Mountain Maidu seem
+to have used names for only the nine moons most important to them.</p>
+<p>There was no calendar as such, but the number of days until a
+certain &ldquo;big time&rdquo; or other event was kept track of by either cutting
+off or untying one knot in a knotted cord or thong each day. Years
+<span class="pb" id="Page_150">150</span>
+were not recorded either, but were measured within the memory span
+as so many winters ago, or by relating time to some important event,
+such as a war which most persons might remember.</p>
+<p>Directions were pointed out, or in speech were referred to as
+sunrise and sunset for east and west respectively. Directions were
+commonly given with respect to features of the local geography: in
+the direction of such and such a village or toward a named river,
+spring, or mountain which was conspicuous or generally known.
+We must remember that the territories of our local tribes were small
+and that the terrain was intimately known. Specific names were not
+only given to the conspicuous features of the topography, but among
+Atsugewi, at least, virtually every flat, every draw, and every hill
+was specifically named, and these names were known to all members
+of the tribe. Names of places in the territories of other tribes were
+not known by the local names of those tribes. They were either
+translated or given its own entirely different set of names by the
+first tribe. In other words, each tribe had different names for all
+places&mdash;a very confusing situation. Dixon reports that Maidu
+recognized directions as we know them, but that the northeast or
+mountain Maidu had five: west, northwest (the direction of Lassen
+Peak), north, east, and south.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_151">151</div>
+<h2 id="c32"><span class="small">Chapter XXX</span>
+<br />CONCEPTS OF SUN, MOON, AND STARS</h2>
+<p>Mountain Maidu and Atsugewi believed the sun to be a female
+human&mdash;the wife&mdash;and the moon to be a male human&mdash;the
+husband. This is a reversal of the sex ascribed to these bodies by
+some other tribes. They believed that the figure of a frog was
+visible in the moon.</p>
+<p>Atsugewi stated that Frog fought Moon and swallowed him and
+the next time that Moon swallowed Frog who is now in the center
+of the moon. When Moon and Frog fought, the former was not round,
+but crescent shaped. Yana stated that in the moon they could see
+Moon&rsquo;s wife, Frog. Pine Marten snapped his evil father-in-law
+Moon into the sky by means of bending a springy tree &rsquo;way down
+and suddenly letting it go. He used the same system to snap Frog
+and her two daughters into the sky also.</p>
+<p>To Atsugewi, as to most tribes, the phases of the moon: new,
+full, and waning, represented birth, life, and death&mdash;repeated
+every four weeks, although, of course, none of the Indians had the
+concept of a &ldquo;week&rdquo; such as we have. All through the year
+Atsugewi greeted the new moon. Old persons shook themselves,
+and their clothes and bedding in its presence. Younger folks ran
+and jumped toward the moon. If the points or horns of the new moon
+crescent were vertical it was a bad omen indicating sickness or
+death. Babies were shown the new moon, and in the case of both
+Atsugewi and mountain Maidu, babies&rsquo; faces and arms were rubbed
+in the new moonlight to make them grow fast. All local tribes
+addressed the moon aloud in friendly terms as if it were a personal
+relative. The Yana prayed to it. In contrast to Atsugewi reaction
+to vertical position of the two moon points, the Yana and mountain
+Maidu accepted this as meaning good fortune and good weather
+ahead. To these tribes horizontal position of the moon crescent in
+the winter sky denoted that it was full of water and indicated pending
+rains or storms. At other seasons both horns up foretold of
+death. Yana thought that both sun and moon were feminine.</p>
+<p>After its daily trip across the sky, Atsugewi thought that the
+sun returned to the east in a blue cloud via the side of the earth.
+As the sun and the moon passed each other at the side of the earth,
+they decided on the weather for the following day. The moon
+supplied the cold and the sun the heat.</p>
+<p>Eclipses of sun and moon were believed by Yana to be due to
+their dogs devouring them. Atsugewi and mountain Maidu felt that
+<span class="pb" id="Page_152">152</span>
+the heavenly bodies were dying. The former were of the opinion
+that Lizard was eating Sun or Moon as the case might be. They
+shouted loudly, shot arrows into the air toward the eclipse and beat
+all available female dogs. Mountain Maidu thought that Frog was
+eating Moon or Sun.</p>
+<p>A reddish moon foretold of disaster and was a sign of war for
+Atsugewi, but to Yana it meant hot weather ahead.</p>
+<p>Only a few star groups of the night sky were named.</p>
+<p>Yana thought the constellation we call the Belt of Orion was
+Coyote&rsquo;s arrow. All local tribes believed the Milky Way to be a
+road, or river in some cases, which was traveled by departing spirits
+or souls of the dead. Shooting or Falling stars, (more properly
+meteorites) presaged good weather to the Atsugewi who thought
+these were torches carried by spirits from one house to another in
+the sky. For this tribe too, a single conspicuous star&mdash;no doubt
+a planet&mdash;seen near the moon was an evil sign. If the star were
+on the left someone nearby would die soon; if it lay to the right of
+the moon someone farther away was doomed.</p>
+<p>Atsugewi called the Seven Sisters wir-etisu. These girls were
+seduced by a little rabbit boy at a puberty dance. They became
+ashamed and went up in the sky to become stars. The Big Dipper
+was called Coyote&rsquo;s Cane. Maidu thought that stars were made of
+something soft like buckskin.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_153">153</div>
+<h2 id="c33"><span class="small">Chapter XXXI</span>
+<br />WEATHER PHENOMENA</h2>
+<p>As mentioned in the preceding chapter, weather was determined
+by agreement between sun and moon, but it appears that many things
+could influence their decisions.</p>
+<p>Atsugewi assumed it to be the natural thing that it would sprinkle
+a little after a funeral. They also felt that rolling rocks down
+mountain sides or loud shouting in the mountains would cause rain.
+Furthermore they believed that the occurrence of precipitation could
+be influenced by shamans, if they felt like it, by smoking tobacco
+while looking at the sun. The nature of the spirit of a girl, whose
+ears were pierced at this time, was also thought to either cause
+it to rain or to stop doing so according to her spirit power.</p>
+<p>Rainbows brought good wild crops as far as the Atsugewi were
+concerned. However, both they and mountain Maidu were of the
+opinion that pointing with a finger at a rainbow, particularly among
+children would cause the finger to become crooked or to fall off.</p>
+<p>Thunder and lightning were feared by all tribes of the Lassen
+region. To Atsugewi thunder was the shouting of an old man who
+wears a rabbit skin and who goes about looking for women whom
+he kills. Mountain Maidu thought it to be due to an old man who
+lives up above and who was once a boy on earth, but who had been
+sent away because he was too fast and ate everything in sight.
+How he made the noise we do not know.</p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>Also, according to Dixon, &ldquo;Thunder is thought to be a man
+or boy of miraculous abilities. He eats trees chiefly. Had it
+not been for Mosquito, however, Thunder would have preyed on
+people. Mosquito deceived him, and refused to let Thunder
+know whence the blood and meat he brought came. Had Thunder
+found out that Mosquito obtained these from people, they, and
+not the trees, would have been his prey.&rdquo; To Yana, thunder
+was a mythical dog originally: &ldquo;... a child dug from the
+ground who accompanied Flint Boy to the west in the guise of
+a dog. He remained behind in the black storm clouds capping
+Bally Mountain, a high peak west of Redding, whence his
+terrific bark could be heard as thunder.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Atsugewi and mountain Maidu, fearing thunder and lightning,
+talked to them and told them to go away. Old men in the latter tribe
+carried burning sticks in a circle to help drive them away. Atsugewi
+placed skins, preferably raccoon, on sticks held up in the air. They
+would wave these around and call aloud words to the effect that
+<span class="pb" id="Page_154">154</span>
+there are: &ldquo;Too many rattlesnakes here, go some other place!&rdquo;.
+Not only that, but frequently during a thunder storm, especially if
+violent, they would run into open areas, and sometimes even jump
+into water. Lightning was thought to be the weapon of the old man,
+Thunder Person, mentioned above. It came out of his mouth. Apparently
+Thunder Person was thought to assume the form of a
+raccoon on occasion. Maidu also believed that it would thunder
+whenever a person was bitten by a rattlesnake or when a great man
+died or when a woman had a miscarriage.</p>
+<p>Whirlwinds were generally regarded as evil omens which sickened
+people with bad dreams and captured peoples&rsquo; shadows or spirits.
+Indians tried to dodge or hide from them. They spoke informally to
+whirlwinds. Mountain Maidu said that they put pains into people.
+Whenever possible, Maidu smoked tobacco when talking to whirlwinds.
+Atsugewi threw dirt and water at the dust devils in an effort
+to destroy them. Yana did likewise, but they did not believe that
+spirits were inside of whirlwinds.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_155">155</div>
+<h2 id="c34"><span class="small">Chapter XXXII</span>
+<br />EARTHQUAKE BELIEFS</h2>
+<p>Lassen Peak and its vicinity are subject to many local earthquakes
+today. The geologic nature of the area indicates that this
+has been so for thousands of years. Lassen Peak was known to
+the Atsugewi as Wicuhirdiki, which has no meaning. The area was
+thought to be inhabited by a powerful spirit, but Garth notes that
+there seemed to be no fear about hunting and fishing there, and the
+Indians apparently utilized the hot springs medicinally. Garth
+recorded one pertinent bit of Atsugewi (Apwaruge) myth as follows:</p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>&ldquo;There once was an earthquake that shook this country
+up and made those boulders out on the flat shake. It shook
+so much that it made people sick. There was a very old
+woman whose hair was almost green. She picked up a rock
+and pounded it on another rock while she sang. She was
+praying for the world to stop shaking. Soon she got an
+answer, and the shaking ceased. Many people were killed.
+Those who lived in canyons were covered by rocks that were
+shaken down.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Yana interpretation of the perplexing and frightening phenomenon
+of earthquakes is tied in, as we might expect, with mythology as
+follows, to quote from Sapir and Spier:</p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>&ldquo;A series of fabulous malignant beings were conceived
+as dwelling in certain localities. In the Sacramento River
+were water grizzlies (hat-en-na) which pulled fishermen
+down to devour (them).... They were spotted black and
+white, like dogs. Somewhere (not specified) was a serpent
+(e-k-u) which killed people. Near Terry&rsquo;s mill were believed
+to dwell malignant little beings (yo-yautsgi), like little
+children. They often enticed people and ate them up. At a
+marshy spot and spring on Round Mountain, called Ha-mupdi
+(?), dwelled a being called Mo-s-ugi-yauna who
+caused the ground to shake when he was displeased.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Once Mo-s-ugi-yauna made a little baby of himself
+and put himself in the road of two women. One of them took
+it up and in sport gave it one of her nipples to suck, though
+she was really without milk. The baby kept sucking until
+the girl tried to take her breast away, but without success.
+The baby kept sucking at her, sucked up her flesh, and at
+last sucked up her whole body.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;This being was displeased if strangers came near and
+<span class="pb" id="Page_156">156</span>
+talked anything but Yana. Once some Yreka Indians came
+and talked Chinook jargon at that place, whereupon the earth
+began to shake violently. At last the owner of the place
+cried out to Mo-s-ugi-yauna that it was not he who had thus
+spoken and begged him &lsquo;in the doctor way&rsquo; to stop, whereupon
+he did.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_157">157</div>
+<h2 id="c35"><span class="small">Chapter XXXIII</span>
+<br />CREATION BELIEFS AND OTHER LEGENDS</h2>
+<p>All local Indians believed in a mythical age when animals were
+persons and talked to each other. Both Atsugewi and mountain
+Maidu thought that floods played a part in the past scheme of things
+before people were created by gifted animal ancestors.</p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>Garth relates that &ldquo;Atsugewi mythology tells of the successive
+creation of two former worlds, the first of which was
+destroyed by a great flood and the second by a fire which
+Coyote instigated in an attempt to kill his rival, Grey Fox.
+After this both Coyote and Grey Fox descended from the
+heavens on a long rope to the primeval sea below. Here
+Grey Fox took combings from his fur (in some accounts a
+piece of sod) and proceeded to make land of it, stretching
+it to all sides until the present earth was made, in concept
+a large island floating in the sea. Grey Fox then created
+trees, animals, and finally people. The sun and moon were
+two brothers whom Grey Fox told to mount into the sky to
+light the world, the one during the day and the other at
+night.... Grey Fox first wanted to create two moons and
+two suns, but Coyote objected saying that it would be too
+hot. Grey Fox then made only the sun and one moon.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>In a somewhat different version, Dixon has recorded that
+the Atsugewi &ldquo;... recount how, in the beginning, there was
+only the illimitable sea and the cloudless sky. Slowly in the
+sky a tiny cloud began to form, and grew till it reached considerable
+proportions. Then gradually it condensed, and,
+becoming solid, became the Silver-Gray Fox, the Creator.
+Then arose immediately a fog; and from this, as it condensed,
+and coagulated as it were, arose Coyote. By a process of
+long-continued and intense thought, the Creator created a
+canoe into which both he and Coyote descended, and for long
+years floated and drifted aimlessly therein, till, the canoe
+having become moss-grown and decayed, they had, perforce, to
+consider the necessity of creating a world whereon they
+might take refuge.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>The Yana legends quoted below from Gifford and Klimek (first)
+and from Sapir and Spier are from the northern and central tribes,
+of that people. These legends are given in lieu of those of southern
+Yana and Yahi, with which this book should be concerned, because
+of the similarity of the culture of these four tribes. It is extremely
+<span class="pb" id="Page_158">158</span>
+unlikely that there would be very great differences in their legends
+and beliefs of creation. Obviously each tribe had its own unique
+details.</p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>North Yana: &ldquo;Coyote, assistant creator, was marplot (the
+evil schemer) who brought death into the world as follows:
+Coyote, his two sons, and other people went down-stream
+to get clamshells. The people played. Coyote&rsquo;s sons seized
+the clamshells and ran off with them. One escaped with the
+stolen shells, but the other was killed. The Coyote boy who
+escaped shouted to Old Man Coyote, who sat in his assembly
+house and observed daily what transpired. Coyote boy told
+the old man his brother was dead. Old Coyote then mourned
+for his son. Silver Fox told him not to cry, but to clean the
+assembly house and bring in the dead boy. They strewed the
+floor with straw and built fire. Silver Fox told old Coyote to
+lie down and pretend to sleep. &lsquo;Do not move,&rsquo; said Silver
+Fox. This was to cause dead boy to revive. They started to
+cut old Coyote&rsquo;s belly to get back the spirit of his dead son.
+Old Coyote shouted with pain and said: &lsquo;Let him stay dead.
+The dead shall remain dead.&rsquo; Thus he spoiled Silver Fox&rsquo;s
+plan for resurrection.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Central Yana: &ldquo;... the creation of people took place at
+Wama-riwi, a village at the cove north of Battle Creek and
+several miles west of the present Shingletown, that is,
+roughly at the center of Yana territory. Here in the beginning
+were Lizard and Cottontail (in Dixon&rsquo;s version, Lizard, Gray
+Squirrel, and Coyote; in Curtin&rsquo;s, Silkworm) who had no
+predecessors. Discussing how people shall be made, Lizard
+lays down sticks which they carry to the four directions to
+become neighboring Indian tribes. Realizing that they have
+omitted those at the center, they put down bad (short) sticks
+there. Hence the Yana are shorter than any of their neighbors:
+a view held by the Yana and repeated by Powers as fact.
+In Dixon&rsquo;s version (from the same informant) Lizard carefully
+prepares three sticks for Atsugewi, Wintun, and
+Achomawi, and as an afterthought, short sticks for the Yana.
+The first three are placed to the east, west, and north; the
+others are boiled to transform them into humans. Coyote
+refuses to recognize them until they speak properly, that is,
+the Yana tongue. Curtin&rsquo;s version is quite different, although
+still the Yana are created from sticks: his presumably Northern
+Yana informant, himself a chief, placed the locale in his
+own country, at Round Mountain. Here Silkworm puts down
+<span class="pb" id="Page_159">159</span>
+three sticks, for the Yana chief, a woman, and an orphan,
+and a large number around the first for common people; he
+instructs them how to procure food and admonishes that they
+obey the chief.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The origin of sex, or rather its proper attribution rests
+in the circumstance that in the beginning, women were men;
+men were women. The women were such poor hunters that
+people starved. To remedy this, Cottontail placed stones in
+a fire; when the women were seated, the stones burst, cutting
+their proper organs, and the women became men. Hands
+were then webbed like Lizard&rsquo;s. In order that they might
+handle bows and pestles, Lizard, experimenting, cut his
+fingers apart. With this as a model, he separated those of
+humans. (In Curtin&rsquo;s version, Water Lizard remedies the
+defect for himself alone.) In the beginning when people
+died, they rose from their graves again. Coyote, who objected
+to these improvements of human affairs, not only proposes
+that they shall stay dead but stamps down a dead man who
+would rise. When his own son dies, he changes his mind, but
+Lizard, Cottontail, and Gray Squirrel will have none of it,
+so that death and mourning were established forever.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Again Garth is here quoted on Atsugewi beliefs: &ldquo;As in
+most of northern California there are numerous natural
+phenomena in Atsugewi territory which marked some mythological
+event. A low cone-like rock in Dixie Valley was
+said to be a basket belonging to Coyote. About four miles
+south of Pittville on the old village site of Mawakasui was
+an oblong rock ten feet or so in length which was said to be
+the petrified remains of a lizard whom Butterfly had killed.
+The extremely rough tongue of lava-covered land extending
+down the center of Hat Creek Valley was created by Porcupine
+to impede Coyote with whom Porcupine was running a
+race. Eagle Lake was said to have been formerly in Atsuge
+territory, but Coyote tired of the manzanita berries and
+camass roots which the people fed to him here, so he moved
+the lake to the Apwaruge country. Here the people fed him
+epos roots and treated him better.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The Maidu concept of the world according to Dixon is that
+of &ldquo;... floating on the surface of a great sea, but anchored
+by five ropes stretched by the Creator, which hold the island
+steady, and prevent it from drifting about. Occasionally some
+being seizes these ropes and shakes them, and this causes
+<span class="pb" id="Page_160">160</span>
+earthquakes. The world was flat when first made from the
+bit of mud brought up from the depths of the primeval sea by
+the turtle (turtle does not appear in the northeast or mountain
+Maidu version) or from the robin&rsquo;s nest floating in the sea.
+Later the Creator and the Coyote went about over the world,
+making the rivers and mountains. Coyote was in general
+responsible for the latter, and for the extreme roughness of
+the country....&rdquo; The Creator&rsquo;s stone canoe is said to be
+visible today on top of Keddie Peak just north of Indian
+Valley (Greenville); also his and Coyote&rsquo;s dance houses
+may be seen as huge circular depressions at what is now
+Durham (near Chico).</p>
+<p>In his extensive collection of Maidu myths, Dixon observes
+that &ldquo;Throughout the myths there is nowhere any
+suggestion that the Maidu had any knowledge of any other
+region, that they were immigrants in the land where they
+live. This complete absence of any migration tradition is a
+feature which is very characteristic, and serves to differentiate
+the mythology not only of the Maidu, but of most
+Californian tribes, from that of the Southwest, and much of
+the eastern portion of the continent.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He further states: &ldquo;here the creation is a real beginning:
+beyond it, there is nothing. In the beginning was only the
+great sea, calm and unlimited, to which, down from the clear
+sky, the Creator came, or on which he and Coyote were floating
+in a canoe. Of the origin of previous place of abode of
+either Creator or Coyote, the Maidu know nothing....&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;... the whole series of tales told by the stock ...
+appeared to follow one another in a more or less regular and
+recognized order. Beginning with the creation, a rather
+systematic chain of events leads up to the appearance of the
+ancestors of the present Indians, with whose coming the
+mythic cycle came to a close. This mythic era, the be-be-ito,
+seems to fall into a number of periods, with each of
+which a group or set of myths has to deal. First, we have
+the coming of Ko-do-yan-pe (Earth-Namer or Creator) and
+Coyote, their discovery of this world, and the preparation of
+it for the &lsquo;first people&rsquo;; next the creation of these first
+people, and the making and planting of the germs of the
+human race, the Indians, who were to come after; third, the
+long period during which the first people were in conflict,
+and were in the end changed to the various animals in the
+present world. In this period Earth-Maker tries to put an
+<span class="pb" id="Page_161">161</span>
+end to Coyote, whose evil ways and wishes are in direct
+contrast to his own.&rdquo; Creator was always dignified and striving
+to make life easy, happy, and deathless for mankind,
+while Coyote, a trickster and amorous knave, worked with
+continued success to render life difficult for man with the
+result that man&rsquo;s lot is to suffer and finally to die. This
+belief was generally uniform among the tribes of the Lassen
+area. &ldquo;... During this period Earth-Maker strives for a
+last time in vain with Coyote, his defeat, and disappearance
+toward the East coincident with the appearance of the human
+race, which bursts forth from the spots where the original
+pairs had been buried long before.&rdquo; These potential human
+beings had been made &ldquo;... as tiny wooden figures by the
+Creator, and planted here and there in pairs, that they might
+grow in secret and safety during the time of monsters and
+great conflicts....&rdquo;</p>
+<p>In other myths also there is great similarity among the
+Maidu, Atsugewi, Yana, and Yahi. Dixon says concerning
+&ldquo;... The theft of fire, for instance.... In all, the fire
+is held by a man and his daughters, and is discovered largely
+through the agency of the Lizard; the fire is watched and
+guarded by a sentinel bird, is stolen in consequence of his
+sleeping while on guard, and pursuit by the women is hindered
+by the strings of their skirts being cut as they sleep.
+The fire is brought back by a group of animals, among whom
+the fire is divided for safety; and the pursuers, who are
+usually Thunder, and his two daughters Rain and Hail, are
+put to flight.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_162">162</div>
+<h2 id="c36"><span class="small">Chapter XXXIV</span>
+<br />MEDICAL TREATMENT</h2>
+<p>The bulk of the important doctoring was done by shamans or
+medicine men. This was all based on supernatural faith and fear.
+As we know from advances of our modern civilization in the field
+of psychosomatic medicine, such &ldquo;in the mind&rdquo; cures were highly
+effective in practice. With all due respect to the modern medical
+profession, it is a foregone conclusion that from 50% to 75% of the
+patients of today&rsquo;s general medical doctor are going to get well
+eventually without any bonafide medical treatment anyway. This
+percentage favored the shamans too.</p>
+<p>Besides shamans there were secondary Indian doctors called
+herbalists. Among Atsugewi, these persons did not have the power
+of shamans, and could not cure disease, but only check or weaken
+it. However, this class of doctor did administer various medicines
+internally and externally, and gave treatments which may actually
+have been&mdash;in some cases&mdash;of benefit beyond mere faith healing.
+These remedies were handed down, as was all Indian
+knowledge, by word of mouth from generation to generation. Old
+men taught the young.</p>
+<p>Herbalists were able to make snake bite victims recover; treatment
+included sucking the wound. Cauterization or burning of
+affected parts was practiced. Atsugewi treated rheumatism in
+patients with vapor baths in a trench of hot coals on which pine
+needles and yerba santa or mountain balm branches were placed,
+with a robe over all.</p>
+<p>Mountain Maidu smoked wild parsnip for headaches, colds, and
+wounds. Mountain Maidu and Atsugewi believed that toothaches
+were caused by the presence of worms in the teeth. Corrective
+poultices were placed on the cheek. Yana did this too, but placed
+a hot stone on the poultice, and also bit on a mole&rsquo;s front foot,
+dried, to relieve the pain. Atsugewi often set the poultice on fire
+which might leave permanent scars.</p>
+<p>The seeds of rosinweed, a member of the sunflower family, were
+collected, then shelled, cooked, dried, and finally pounded. This
+medicine was taken for chills. Wild iris roots were chewed raw for
+coughing.</p>
+<p>Decoctions, that is, water in which plants had been boiled to
+extract their medicinal juices, were drunk. California angelica, a
+member of the parsley family, was used in this way for colds, diarrhea,
+headache, et cetera. This medication was popular with all
+<span class="pb" id="Page_163">163</span>
+local tribes for treating many ills.</p>
+<p>Yana used poultices of roots of bracken fern, pounded and warmed
+for application to burns. The bulbs of false solomon seal were
+pounded fine and also hot soap-root poultices were applied to
+swellings, pains, or boils. Peeled California angelica roots were
+crushed and laid on aching heads.</p>
+<p>Ground squirrel grease was used to soften rough hands and to
+relieve cracking of the skin from chapping.</p>
+<p>Atsugewi employed green leaves of chokecherry, pounded as
+poultices, for cuts, sores, and bruises. The boiled liquor of pounded
+chokecherry bark was used for bathing wounds to promote healing.</p>
+<p>They employed decoctions of wormwood to prevent blood poisoning
+and to treat cuts. Decoctions of greenleaf manzanita leaves
+were good for cuts and burns. Both oak bark and oak gall decoctions
+were drunk to prevent infection and catching colds and
+were given to women in childbirth. Atsugewi also chewed raw
+juniper berries as a treatment for colds.</p>
+<p>Obviously there was a host of other treatments as we know of
+a large variety of other plants, roots, and fruits which were used
+medicinally.</p>
+<p>Broken bones were set as best they could be set, and were
+bound up in simple but effective splints.</p>
+<p>For general good health Garth states that an Atsugewi &ldquo;...
+man chewed the top shoot off a young pine tree. Especially was
+this done by a father after his wife bore a child.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>In Yana sweat houses and probably in those of other tribes too,
+veins were cut with obsidian chips to &ldquo;let the bad blood out&rdquo; if
+a person felt ill.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_164">164</div>
+<h2 id="c37"><span class="small">Chapter XXXV</span>
+<br />SPIRITS AND GHOSTS</h2>
+<p>Ghosts and spirits were one and the same, and were to local
+Indians as souls are conceived by white man, yet the Indian conception
+was more variable. Some spirits were good and others were
+evil, but all were feared and avoided whenever possible. They
+were frequently associated with omens and had somewhat the
+appearance of human beings. Among Atsugewi they were visible
+only to shamans, but were heard by nearly all persons. Yana commoners
+both saw and heard spirits, but only very rarely.</p>
+<p>The spirit left the body right after death. Mountain Maidu thought
+that it turned back once before going on. Yana believed that the
+spirit tarried in the vicinity of the body for a while, going to the
+south first briefly for a sort of trial or evaluation which included
+determination as to whether or not the nose septum had been
+pierced. Then, as all local Indians apparently agreed, the ghost or
+spirit went to a distant place in the west via the Milky Way. Yana
+thought that there was some distinction in destination of good and
+bad persons&rsquo; ghosts, but our other tribes conceived only of one
+place for all spirits finally. We do not today have a very clear
+understanding of the aboriginal Indian concept of heaven except
+that people lived in this land of the dead in sweat houses, hunting,
+eating, loving, and sleeping, but with complete absence of sickness.
+Concepts of the life of spirits changed with the coming of
+the whites preceding even the advent of pioneer settler days. All
+information in that regard which students have been able to gain
+from informants in this region is decidedly flavored with Christian
+dogma.</p>
+<p>Spirits or ghosts returned to old haunts of the body on occasion
+or, more often, to the vicinity of the grave. For this reason burial
+grounds were usually well removed from villages. Bad smells
+would drive spirits away, while whistling and flowers attracted
+them. Fiber-wound crossed sticks were hung in sweat houses of
+Yana tribes to keep spirits out. All tribes of the Lassen area
+thought that ghosts visited the living in dreams and also considered
+it feasible that the spirits of people might go to visit those of the
+dead when the persons were asleep, or more commonly when the
+living were unconscious.</p>
+<p>Mountain Maidu didn&rsquo;t speak much about ghosts, but if one had
+been making a nuisance of itself by visiting much in dreams, they
+fed it by having all members of the family throw small portions of
+<span class="pb" id="Page_165">165</span>
+food into the fire before commencing to eat their meals. Besides,
+a shaman was hired under these circumstances to sing for the
+dreamer. The same ceremony was observed by the Atsugewi. It
+was also the practice of the dreamer in this tribe to eat with a dog,
+spitting out some of the food, saying to the dog, &ldquo;You better eat
+for me. Take that spirit away.&rdquo; Atsugewi were evidently very
+conscious of ghosts for they spoke to them, spit out chewed epos
+roots for the spirits, smoked tobacco for them, burned hair and skin
+to repel them, and tobacco and feather bundles were hung near the
+house doorways for their benefit. New Atsugewi parents had a
+unique ritual at the time of their first meat eating after the taboos
+of childbirth&mdash;they chewed small amounts of meat and put this on
+their toes for the dogs to eat.</p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>Garth says of Atsugewi spirit beliefs: &ldquo;A man who was
+about to die, whether he felt sick or not, had a peculiar
+odor about him. If he went hunting, deer ran from him saying,
+&lsquo;Phew, that man smells bad.&rsquo; Coyotes and dogs would
+come close to him and bark at him. He would die unless a
+shaman could remove this aura of death from him.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>There were many omens of a spirit nature which foretold calamity.
+To Atsugewi upon hearing the cries of certain animals at night,
+especially if an owl hooted at one, or if one saw a kingsnake, death
+was supposed to descend upon a relative.</p>
+<p>If evil spirits frightened a person and tried to steal his soul,
+the spirits could be foiled by standing with one&rsquo;s feet widely spread
+apart. If followed by a ghost, a person might turn around, retracing
+his footsteps while the spirit continued in the direction one had
+been traveling initially.</p>
+<p>When a person was asleep his spirit could wander around. If,
+during these wanderings, a bad spirit caught the person&rsquo;s spirit
+before he could awaken, the person was deprived of it.</p>
+<p>Also the spirit on occasion left a person voluntarily if it didn&rsquo;t
+like the body, as for instance, if it smelled badly. When a person&rsquo;s
+spirit or soul were gone, only the heart was left to keep him alive,
+and he would succumb easily to the first sickness. For this reason,
+Atsugewi shamans periodically examined all the people to see if
+any spirits were missing. When anyone was found lacking his spirit,
+the shaman had to work to bring it back, sucking it into the person&rsquo;s
+head. If several spirits were missing at once, it was not easy to
+get the right spirit back into its own body. They didn&rsquo;t know what
+would happen if a person got the wrong soul back into his body&mdash;but
+it wasn&rsquo;t good.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_166">166</div>
+<h2 id="c38"><span class="small">Chapter XXXVI</span>
+<br />SHAMANISM AND DOCTORING</h2>
+<p>Shamans or doctors, more commonly known to modern Americans
+by the name medicine men, were important in the lives of all Indians
+but, among ours, probably to the highest degree among the Maidu.
+Whether we, with our scientific enlightenment today, are after all
+happier and of greater peace of mind, than the aborigines were or
+not, is a philosophical consideration beyond the scope of this book.
+The fact of the matter is that mankind in the past invariably has
+resorted to the supernatural to explain things not understood.
+Indians are a case in point&mdash;being totally without scientific explanations,
+mysticism and the supernatural pervaded their whole
+culture&mdash;their every day activities&mdash;to a point which to us today
+seems fantastic, yet understandable in a way. If you and I had been
+in the Indian&rsquo;s place, might not we also have subscribed whole
+heartedly to these same beliefs with which we would have grown up,
+and which our loved and trusted elders had taught us in good faith?
+Shamanism gave to the Indians a feeling of comfort and, shall we
+say, security?&mdash;a sort of foundation of faith which all men must
+have for the living of reasonably satisfying lives.</p>
+<p>Shamans were men of influence in the village, with prestige
+second only to that of the chief. Women shamans were uncommon
+and usually possessed less potent power. The life of a shaman
+was precarious because if he failed to effect a high percentage of
+cures or if he were &ldquo;proven&rdquo; responsible for sending pains which
+caused death to persons, he might be killed&mdash;sometimes even with
+the advance approval of the chief, and without retaliation by the
+offending shaman&rsquo;s relatives. When this was done, he was cut into
+pieces, not for the morbid reasons, the reader might suspect, but
+for the practical reason that the parts of his body could in this way
+be disposed of in widely scattered places. Otherwise there was the
+danger that he might, with the help of his power, be reassembled
+and again be able to continue his malpractice and to include his
+murderers among future victims.</p>
+<p>There were several kinds of shamans among the local Indians.
+Each tribe in the Lassen area had the all important Sucking Shaman.
+Atsugewi and mountain Maidu also had special Bear, Rattlesnake,
+and Weather Shamans while only Yana had Singing Shamans in
+addition.</p>
+<p>The power of shamans was much more potent than mere &ldquo;luck&rdquo;
+which came easily to the majority of ordinary mortals in dreams,
+<span class="pb" id="Page_167">167</span>
+during puberty ceremonies, and the like. This &ldquo;luck&rdquo; was a weak
+supernatural blessing which was not sought, but came voluntarily
+and gave the person skill and success in crafts and daily pursuits
+such as fishing, hunting certain animals or birds, canoe making,
+et cetera.</p>
+<p>It would be impractical in this book to give the complicated and
+voluminous details of all phases of shamanism as conceived and
+practiced by each of the four local tribes. The following information
+has been somewhat generalized in the hope that the reader will get
+the &ldquo;feel&rdquo; of the shaman concept which was essentially the same
+for all the tribes of the Lassen area.</p>
+<p>Power was usually sought by men desiring to be shamans, but
+all were not successful in such quests. On the other hand shamanistic
+power came to some voluntarily, and it was dangerous not to
+accept this power if it came to one. To refuse might cause death.
+One could tell when one was successful in getting power because
+one would bleed from the nose or mouth. He would also learn to
+sing and dance, and would receive instructions and paraphernalia
+from his guardian spirit.</p>
+<p>Shamanistic power could be acquired in a number of ways, not
+all of which applied to each tribe being considered. A rare means
+was by inheritance. If an old shaman had power and if this power
+or guardian spirit liked his son or nephew, it would say &ldquo;Sometimes
+I&rsquo;m going to play with that boy&rdquo; and so it goes to the boy. At sundown
+the latter listens to it sing to him and he gets the power. The
+boy learns about it in the vision and from the old shaman&rsquo;s instructions.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig152">
+<img src="images/p44.jpg" alt="" width="449" height="501" />
+<p class="pcap">Small portions of yellow hammer or red-shafted quill headbands.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_168">168</div>
+<p>Another infrequent way to gain power was involuntarily when
+seriously ill, while in a trance, or when dreaming.</p>
+<p>The third and usual method of acquiring the shamanistic power
+was by vision quest. It was a difficult ordeal. This might be undertaken
+at various times of life, but most commonly at or near puberty.
+In questing power there was no assurance of success, no matter
+how sincere a person might be, or how hard he might try. Successful
+shamans could quest repeatedly for additional powers.</p>
+<p>Youths were prepared for questing by being lectured to by fathers
+or uncles who also pierced their nose septa. Each youth went alone
+and unclothed into certain portions of the mountains for several
+days and nights. He slept little and fasted, eating little or nothing
+at all; all flesh was taboo. The questing usually included swimming
+in lakes or special pools and placing the nose piercing stick
+in an underwater niche, and (Yana) securing certain bird feathers.
+He built a fire, smoking his body over it, and cut himself deliberately.
+If successful, the power came to him in a trance or faint
+producing bleeding from the nose or mouth.</p>
+<p>The guardian spirit communicated with the novice, appearing in
+a vision usually. It gave instructions and taught its special ceremonial
+song. To shamans of some tribes the guardian spirit looked
+something like a human; to others it looked like a bug or like a
+small hair. This was the &ldquo;pain&rdquo; or poison object and yet was
+considered to be a guardian spirit at the same time. This is what
+the novice acquired in becoming a shaman. This pain or guardian
+spirit could come from any of many sources. It was alive and could
+talk, and gave the novice certain resultant powers. Most commonly
+powers were from animals such as coyote, bear, and the like, but
+also might come from sun, moon, wind, thunder and lightning, eagle,
+hawk, small birds, reptiles, frog, or oldman spirit.</p>
+<p>The novice then acquired what we might call magic feathers.
+There were several types including the popular salmon colored
+flicker feathers. Most important, however, was the feather tuft
+known as kaku among the Atsugewi. This allegedly was found
+in finished form and not made. So full of power was the kaku that
+it could not be kept in a house. It was placed outside securely
+tied to a willow branch beside a stream or hidden inside a hollow
+tree trunk. The kaku was able to move by itself so had to be tied
+down or placed under a rock. When the novice shaman discovered
+his kaku, the feathers were singing; when he died, blood dripped
+from its feathers!</p>
+<p>Upon his return to the village, the successful seeker stayed out
+<span class="pb" id="Page_169">169</span>
+of dwelling houses for a day or two. Among some tribes he was
+sick for this period. Universally he sweated and swam. Eating
+habits of the novice shaman varied in different cases, but were
+always as dictated by the specific instructions given to him by his
+guardian spirit. Invariably all forms of flesh were shunned. He
+smoked tobacco and gave his first hunting kill to an old man.
+During the novice period the new shaman was helped by old shamans
+at the fireside in the sweat house. He did much dancing, singing,
+handled hot coals and fire, bled from the mouth, and might fall into
+a trance.</p>
+<p>In contrast to herbalist doctors who gave private treatment, that
+of shamans was public and usually conducted indoors, preferably
+in sweat lodges. The shaman needed singing help and the more
+help and the more persons who attended his doctoring the better.
+Sucking Shamans were the most important and required official
+assistants. These included one or more interpreters to communicate
+with the lay helpers or supporters, while the shaman was doctoring,
+and an outside speaker to help call the shaman&rsquo;s spirits. Doctoring
+could take from one to three days and nights.</p>
+<p>To diagnose the patient&rsquo;s ills the shaman danced about, blowing
+smoke on him, and singing with the help of the audience. The
+shamans also drank water, sometimes with a tube, from portable
+stone mortars with spirit power. They often squirted water from
+their mouths. A whistle was used in some cases and often the
+supernatural powerful cocoon rattle. Among mountain Maidu herb
+medicines might be administered to the patient also.</p>
+<p>At length the shaman&rsquo;s guardian spirit or pain told him the
+location of the disease object, and then he could see or feel it.
+Often the shaman learned further from the spirit just who it was who
+had sent the disease object to plague his patient.</p>
+<p>Curing the afflicted was accomplished next by the shaman&rsquo;s
+sucking this pain or disease object out of some portion of the
+person&rsquo;s body. The evil pain could be any curious small object
+and this the shaman exhibited to all present. The malignant pain
+was disposed of in a number of ways. It might be sent back to the
+owner who sent it, that is, the offending shaman. Or, it might be
+sent to his children who would be doomed because a shaman could
+not doctor his own pain. Other times the curing shaman would
+destroy the disease object by biting it and burning it or dispose of
+it by taking the pain into his own charmed body.</p>
+<p>When a whole community had been affected by a pain sent by
+an evil shaman, the pain usually hid in the bushes nearby. In such
+<span class="pb" id="Page_170">170</span>
+a case, the shaman had to be very powerful to
+get the best of the situation. First he conducted
+the ceremony of detection of one victim
+in the usual sweat house manner. Once the
+shaman found out where the trouble was, he
+went outdoors with the villagers to help in
+corraling the offending pain. Frequently only
+after a lengthy search was he successful in
+finding the pain and then capturing it. Upon
+taking it into his body it might be so powerful
+as to cause him to go into a trance. In this
+event his assistants had to support him bodily,
+and had to sing for him, otherwise the shaman
+might die. Without wishing to appear facetious
+or disparaging, it can be said that a good
+shaman had to be an excellent showman as
+well.</p>
+<p>Sucking Shamans were obligated to accept
+all cases which they were asked to treat. If
+they refused any and the afflicted died, then
+the shamans might be killed themselves by
+relatives of the persons who succumbed. The
+thinking was that if a shaman refused a case,
+he must have had something to do with making
+the person sick in the first place.</p>
+<p>Payment was always made to the shaman.
+The amount was determined by the patient&rsquo;s
+relatives. They would take the offering to the
+shaman when engaging him, but payment was
+not made at that time. The shaman looked
+over the proffered payment and might ask for more or for a different
+kind of payment. To give himself a foolproof alibi in case of failure
+to cure, and to increase his prestige if he did cure, he might reply
+to the effect that &ldquo;The beads already have the smell of death on
+them, but I&rsquo;ll see what I can do about it.&rdquo; The payment was placed
+near the patient during healing treatment and was not actually
+collected by the shaman if the patient died within a few weeks or
+months. The shaman&rsquo;s assistants were also paid, but in lesser
+amounts.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig153">
+<img src="images/p45.jpg" alt="" width="124" height="499" />
+<p class="pcap">Maidu shaman
+ceremonial neck
+pendant knife of
+obsidian, nine and
+one half inches
+long (after Dixon)</p>
+</div>
+<p>Besides the main function of curing, other good powers of the
+shamans were the ability to foretell future events, to see what was
+going on at distant places, and to locate lost or stolen articles.
+Among certain tribes control of weather was also possible by Sucking
+<span class="pb" id="Page_171">171</span>
+Shamans&mdash;among others there were special shamans with
+weather power.</p>
+<p>Evil powers of Sucking Shamans could cause illness or death.
+This was done by talking to the pain and sending it to the victim.
+The shaman might put it on the end of a willow stick and point it
+at the person while singing and smoking tobacco. This could go
+on all night. Transmission of the pain to the intended victim was
+facilitated by contact, such as sneaking up behind him and touching
+him, or by putting the disease pain in his food or under his doorstep.
+The bad pain might also be dispatched by blowing it through
+a pipe or putting it in the victim&rsquo;s pipe, or by talking to the
+shaman&rsquo;s own animal spirit, injecting the pain into it and then sending
+the animal to the victim. This power animal might just take
+it to the intended person, or it might actually attack and bite him.
+If the evil pain had been successfully sent, and the intended dire
+results occurred, the relatives of the victim had a moral right to
+kill the offending shaman, without fear of retaliation. It seems that
+the culprit was usually recognized&mdash;obviously often mistakenly.
+It follows that shamans&rsquo; lives were somewhat precarious, not knowing
+who was going to find damning evidence against them.</p>
+<p>By somewhat the same means as described above shamans could
+steal a person&rsquo;s spirit or soul, rendering that person liable to
+quick and sure death from the slightest accident or illness.
+Shamans could be hired to perform these evil powers.</p>
+<p>Singing Shamans were dreamers foretelling the future and telling
+the living what their dead relatives wanted them to do. The
+Singing Shaman was always male among mountain Maidu. Our other
+tribes did not have this specialist, instead such powers were in
+the repertoire of the Sucking Shaman.</p>
+<p>Among Yana and Yahi tribes, apparently, weather doctoring
+could be done by any shaman, and this was usually the case among
+Atsugewi. However, mountain Maidu had specialized Weather
+Shamans. These were men who were capable not only of producing
+rain, snow, or hail, but also fog and high winds, or ending any of
+these.</p>
+<p>Rattlesnake Shamans were generally women among Atsugewi
+and men among mountain Maidu. They could protect people from
+rattlesnakes or cure bites. The latter was accomplished by sucking
+which removed snakes and snakes&rsquo; teeth from the wound.</p>
+<p>Bear Shamans did not exist among Yana tribes. Among Atsugewi
+and mountain Maidu these were not specialists, instead bear power
+was an additional skill of Sucking Shamans. They were almost
+<span class="pb" id="Page_172">172</span>
+always men and pertained not to Black Bear, but only to the California
+Grizzly. They wore bear skin, hair, teeth, and claws and
+simulated the bear&rsquo;s actions in treating patients. Bear Shamans
+were called primarily to minister to bear wounded persons from
+whom they sucked out bear blood and teeth.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_173">173</div>
+<h2 id="c39"><span class="small">Chapter XXXVII</span>
+<br />MISCELLANEOUS MAGIC</h2>
+<p>All tribes of the Lassen region exercised miscellaneous more or
+less supernatural powers which one might term magic.</p>
+<p>Examples were: carrying a turtleshell on one&rsquo;s belt which
+rendered a person immune to rattlesnake strikes, or, among Maidu
+the rubbing of the root of <i>Angelica breweri</i> on the legs to keep
+rattlesnakes away. Poisoning of persons could be done by some
+skilled people (not shamans) by rubbing an unspecified substance
+on their hands and then touching the victim&rsquo;s body; this could drive
+him crazy or kill him.</p>
+<p>To mountain Maidu the number five was sacred and lucky according
+to Dixon.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig154">
+<img src="images/p46.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="442" />
+<p class="pcap">Yana charmstones and a fir twig basket container for such charms.</p>
+</div>
+<p>Charm stones, usually in pairs were found by many fortunate
+Indians. They were smooth and rounded and were especially effective
+if possessing rings or other special markings on them which
+were actually surface traces of mineral veins. Quartz crystals, rare
+in this volcanic region, were also highly prized as charm stones.
+An ideal storage place for charm stones in their special basketry
+containers was in a rattlesnake &ldquo;den&rdquo; where such snakes tended
+<span class="pb" id="Page_174">174</span>
+to hibernate in the winter. At any rate charm stones were kept hidden
+and the owner would secretly rub them on himself to gain good
+luck in gambling or in other pursuits which involved much in the
+way of chance.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig155">
+<img src="images/p47.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="185" />
+<p class="pcap">Atsugewi charmstones</p>
+</div>
+<p>Prayers for a variety of reasons were offered simply by the individual.
+It was common practice every few days or so to make
+token food offerings at mealtime for no specific reason. The bits
+of food might be thrown to the east or into the fire.</p>
+<p class="center"><span class="gs">* * * * * * * *</span></p>
+<p>Thus ends this resume of the customs and beliefs of the tribes
+of the Lassen region&mdash;tribes virtually extinct as such today&mdash;tribes
+which once lived here among the scenic beauties of Lassen
+Volcanic National Park. We, the descendants of the relentless
+conquerors of these local Indians, come here now to enjoy ourselves
+and to refresh our bodies and spirits. As we do this on the lands
+of the vanquished, we owe them not only a moment of thoughtful
+reverence, but also whatever kindness and aid we are able to give
+their descendants.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_175">175</div>
+<h2 id="c40"><span class="small">BIBLIOGRAPHY</span></h2>
+<dl class="undent"><dt>Dixon, Roland B.: BASKETRY DESIGNS OF THE INDIANS OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA</dt>
+<dd>Feb. 12, 1902, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, Vol. 17, Part 1</dd>
+<dt>Dixon, Roland B.: MAIDU MYTHS</dt>
+<dd>June 30, 1902, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, Vol. 17, Part 2</dd>
+<dt>Dixon, Roland B.: THE NORTHERN MAIDU</dt>
+<dd>May 1905, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, Vol. 17, Part 3</dd>
+<dt>Garth, Thomas R.: KINSHIP TERMINOLOGY, MARRIAGE PRACTICES, AND BEHAVIOR TOWARD KIN AMONG THE ATSUGEWI</dt>
+<dd>July 1944, American Anthropologist, Vol. 46, No. 3</dd>
+<dt>Garth, Thomas R.: EMPHASIS ON INDUSTRIOUSNESS AMONG THE ATSUGEWI</dt>
+<dd>Oct. 1945, American Anthropologist, Vol. 47, No. 4</dd>
+<dt>Garth, Thomas R.: ATSUGEWI ETHNOGRAPHY</dt>
+<dd>Feb. 1953, Anthropological Records, University of California, Vol. 14, No. 2</dd>
+<dt>Gifford, E. W. and Klimek, Stanislaw: CULTURE ELEMENT DISTRIBUTIONS: II, YANA</dt>
+<dd>1936, University of California Publications in American Archeology and Ethnology, Vol. 37, No. 2</dd>
+<dt>Heizer, R. F. and Whipple, M. A.: THE CALIFORNIA INDIANS</dt>
+<dd>1951, University of California Press</dd>
+<dt>Klimek, Stanislaw: CULTURE ELEMENT DISTRIBUTIONS: I, THE STRUCTURE OF THE CALIFORNIA INDIAN CULTURE</dt>
+<dd>1935, University of California Publications in American Archeology and Ethnology</dd>
+<dt>Kniffen, Fred B.: ACHOMAWI GEOGRAPHY</dt>
+<dd>1928, University of California Publications in American Archeology and Ethnology</dd>
+<dt>Kroeber, A. L.: HANDBOOK OF THE INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA</dt>
+<dd>1925, Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin. No. 78</dd>
+<dt>Kroeber, A. L.: CULTURE ELEMENT DISTRIBUTIONS: XV, SALT, DOGS, AND TOBACCO</dt>
+<dd>Feb. 1941, Anthropological Records, University of California, Vol. 6, No. 1</dd>
+<dt class="pb" id="Page_176">176</dt>
+<dt>Mason, Otis T.: REPORT OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM</dt>
+<dd>1902</dd>
+<dt>Merriam, C. Hart: CLASSIFICATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE PIT RIVER INDIAN TRIBES</dt>
+<dd>Smithsonian Institute, Vol. 78, No. 3</dd>
+<dt>Pope, Saxton T.: THE MEDICAL HISTORY OF ISHI</dt>
+<dd>May 15, 1920, University of California Publications in American Archeology and Ethnology, Vol. 13, No. 5</dd>
+<dt>Sapir, Edward: THE POSITION OF YANA IN THE HOKAN STOCK</dt>
+<dd>June 1917, University of California Publications in American Archeology and Ethnology, Vol. 13, No. 1</dd>
+<dt>Sapir, Edward and Spier, Leslie: NOTES ON THE CULTURE OF THE YANA</dt>
+<dd>Sept. 1943, Anthropological Records, University of California, Vol. 3, No. 3</dd>
+<dt>Sauer, Carl O.: EARLY RELATIONS OF MAN TO PLANTS</dt>
+<dd>Jan. 1947, Geographical Review</dd>
+<dt>Vogelin, Ermine W.: CULTURE ELEMENT DISTRIBUTIONS: XX, NORTHEAST CALIFORNIA</dt>
+<dd>June 1942, Anthropological Records, University of California, Vol. 7, No. 2</dd>
+<dt>Waterman, T. T.: THE YANA INDIANS</dt>
+<dd>Feb. 1918, University of California Publications in American Archeology and Ethnology, Vol. 13, No. 2</dd></dl>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_177">177</div>
+<p class="tbcenter"><span class="ss">ASK
+<br />THE MAN IN THE
+<br />NATIONAL PARK SERVICE UNIFORM</span></p>
+<p class="center"><i class="ss">He&rsquo;ll be glad to help you!</i></p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_178">178</div>
+<p class="tbcenter"><span class="ss">BE PROUD OF
+<br />LASSEN VOLCANIC NATIONAL PARK!</span></p>
+<p>As a citizen of the United States it belongs to you.
+Keep it unspoiled for your next visit and for future
+generations by helping to:</p>
+<dl class="undent"><dt>1. Prevent forest fires.</dt>
+<dt>2. Protect the flowers, the animal life, and the rock and mineral formations.</dt>
+<dt>3. Keep it clean.</dt></dl>
+<hr class="dwide" />
+<p class="tb">This booklet is one of a series prepared by the
+Loomis Museum Association, a non-profit distributing
+organization sponsored by the Naturalist Department
+of Lassen Volcanic National Park. The Association
+is dedicated to the accumulation and dissemination
+of information concerning the history and natural
+history of this park. Toward this end it has published
+the following books available by mail. The post
+office address is Mineral, California. During the
+summer, these publications are also available at the
+Loomis Museum sales desk at Manzanita Lake, Lassen
+Volcanic National Park.</p>
+<table class="center">
+<tr><td class="l">GEOLOGY OF LASSEN&rsquo;S LANDSCAPE, Schulz </td><td class="r">55&cent;</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="l">PICTORIAL HISTORY OF THE LASSEN VOLCANO, Loomis </td><td class="r">85&cent;</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="l">GUIDE TO LASSEN PEAK HIGHWAY, Schulz </td><td class="r">25&cent;</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="l">STORIES OF LASSEN&rsquo;S PLACE NAMES, Schulz </td><td class="r">40&cent;</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="l">BIRDS OF LASSEN VOLCANIC NATIONAL PARK AND VICINITY, Stebbins </td><td class="r">85&cent;</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="l">FISH AND FISHING IN LASSEN VOLCANIC NATIONAL PARK, Potts </td><td class="r">40&cent;</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="l">INDIANS OF THE LASSEN AREA Schulz </td><td class="r">85&cent;</td></tr>
+</table>
+<p>For mail orders please add 12% for postage and
+packing. If the addressee is in California also add
+3% sales tax. Prices are subject to change without
+notice.</p>
+<div class="img">
+<img src="images/p50.jpg" id="ncfig2" alt="Association logo" width="300" height="279" />
+</div>
+<h2>Transcriber&rsquo;s Notes</h2>
+<ul>
+<li>Silently corrected a few typos.</li>
+<li>Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook is public-domain in the country of publication.</li>
+<li>In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by _underscores_.</li>
+</ul>
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 65605 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook of Indians of Lassen Volcanic National
+Park and Vicinity, by Paul E. Schulz
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
+www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you
+will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before
+using this eBook.
+
+Title: Indians of Lassen Volcanic National Park and Vicinity
+
+Author: Paul E. Schulz
+
+Release Date: June 13, 2021 [eBook #65605]
+
+Language: English
+
+Produced by: Stephen Hutcheson and the Online Distributed Proofreading
+             Team at https://www.pgdp.net 
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INDIANS OF LASSEN VOLCANIC
+NATIONAL PARK AND VICINITY ***
+
+
+
+
+
+                                INDIANS
+                                   OF
+               LASSEN VOLCANIC NATIONAL PARK AND VICINITY
+
+
+                                   by
+                             Paul E. Schulz
+
+
+                            Published by the
+
+                       Loomis Museum Association
+                     Lassen Volcanic National Park
+                          Mineral, California
+
+
+                               Copyright
+                                  1954
+
+                Printed in the United States of America
+                  Susanville _Lassen Litho_ California
+
+
+
+
+                               _PREFACE_
+
+
+It is with some temerity that the author, a geologist by training and an
+interpretive naturalist by occupation, undertakes to compile this
+booklet on Indians who once inhabited the vicinity of Lassen Peak.
+
+The main mission of a naturalist, as he functions in the National Park
+Service, is to act as an interpreter of technical information gathered
+together by research scientists. It is his obligation as well as his
+privilege to make these data of history and natural history available
+for visitors to units administered by the National Park Service of the
+United States Department of the Interior. The Park Naturalist is
+challenged to create in visitors an eager interest by presenting
+information in an appealing manner so that the great stories of the
+respective areas may be learned easily and pleasantly. In doing this,
+visitors gain fuller understanding and hence better appreciation of the
+significance of these areas. This leads to greater enjoyment of the
+scenic masterpieces, the scientific natural wonders, and the historic
+shrines of areas of the National Park System. Not only is the visitor’s
+enjoyment enhanced by his active reception of the interpretive
+facilities and services offered him by the Federal Government, but his
+pride is stimulated in these areas which have been set aside for his own
+use as well as for the benefit of future generations. A citizen’s pride
+in his park areas in turn develops a love of country. It also promotes a
+sense of responsibility which helps the National Park Service fight
+vandalism, fire carelessness, and litter carelessness to the ultimate
+benefit of all concerned.
+
+Little on the pages which follow may be classed as original material for
+it is in the role of interpreter that the undersigned has assembled
+information gleaned by qualified students.
+
+The term “Amerind” instead of the traditional word “Indian” was
+seriously considered for use in this book but finally rejected. Ever
+since Christopher Columbus’ historic mistake the word Indian has had a
+confusing two-fold meaning. Columbus, of course, thought that he had
+been successful in reaching India when his little fleet touched the
+shores of the New World. Hence he applied the word Indian to the people
+he found there, supposing them to be natives of India. The term Amerind
+is a coined contraction of the words: American Indian. The use of
+Amerind has been advocated by some authors to do away with confusion,
+and it does seem to be an excellent name, but it has not enjoyed wide
+usage by the American public.
+
+I am deeply indebted to the following named persons whose research and
+learned writings have provided the bulk of the information contained in
+the present publication. The bibliography carries the titles of the
+specific references used.
+
+  Dr. Roland B. Dixon
+  Mr. Thomas R. Garth
+  Dr. E. W. Gifford
+  Dr. Robert F. Heizer
+  Dr. Stanislaw Klimek
+  Dr. A. L. Kroeber
+  Dr. Saxton T. Pope
+  Dr. Carl O. Sauer
+  Dr. Edward Sapir
+  Dr. Leslie Spier
+  Miss Erminie W. Voegelin
+  Dr. T. T. Waterman
+
+Properly, specific credit should be given in the text for each fact and
+quotation taken from the works of others, but the result would in this
+case have been unwieldy and of no practical benefit to the readers whom
+this book is intended to reach. It is hoped that professional
+ethnologists into whose hands this volume may fall will forgive this
+unorthodox usage of the research results of serious students.
+
+Mrs. Selina La Marr (Boonookoo-ee-menorra) was a valuable and gracious
+informant. Thanks are due again to Dr. E. W. Gifford, Director of the
+Museum of Anthropology at the University of California, for many
+courtesies, including donation of a copy of Dixon’s rare “Yana Indians”
+and also for his constructive perusal of the manuscript. Others who
+assisted the author were Mrs. Grace Schulz, Miss Lois Bell of the
+University of California “University Explorer” radio program, and Mr.
+Louis Caywood, National Park Service archeologist. Dr. J. H. Woolsey,
+M.D., earned gratitude of the author by donation of his personal copy of
+Pope’s “Medical History of Ishi”. Miss Lilian Nisbet of the Tehama
+County Library was helpful in the securing of other reference materials.
+
+Most Californians are vitally interested in the Indians of this state,
+yet few are aware of the excellent California State Indian Museum
+operated by the Division of Beaches and Parks. The Indian Museum is open
+to the public daily, free of charge, in a separate building on the
+grounds of Sutter’s Fort State Historical Monument in Sacramento. The
+author highly commends this museum to you. It contains a wealth of
+authentic materials which have been organized into handsome and exciting
+story-telling exhibits of first quality by Curator Jack Dyson.
+
+                                                          Paul E. Schulz
+                                                         Park Naturalist
+                                           Lassen Volcanic National Park
+                                                               Fall 1954
+
+
+
+
+                               _CONTENTS_
+
+
+  Preface                                                              I
+  Contents                                                           III
+  Prehistoric Man Comes to North America                               1
+  Early Cultures in North America                                      4
+  The California Indians                                               8
+  Indian Tribes of the Lassen Area                                    16
+  Indian-Pioneer Conflict; the Ishi Story                             20
+  Hunting                                                             38
+  Fishing                                                             43
+  Gathering and Preparation of Other Foods                            48
+  Houses and Furnishings                                              60
+  Household Implements, Tools, and Weapons                            66
+  Basketry and Textiles                                               80
+  Tanning, Cordage, and Glue                                          96
+  Transportation                                                      99
+  Domestic Animals and Pets                                          103
+  Clothing                                                           105
+  Beauty and Personal Grooming                                       111
+  Wealth                                                             117
+  Ceremonial Dress                                                   119
+  Tobacco and Smoking                                                120
+  Music and Arts                                                     122
+  Games and Social Gatherings                                        126
+  Dances                                                             129
+  Political Organization of Tribes                                   131
+  War and Peace                                                      133
+  Birth and Babies                                                   136
+  Adulthood Rites                                                    141
+  Marriage and Divorce                                               143
+  Death and Burial                                                   145
+  Counting, Time, and Place                                          149
+  Concepts of Sun, Moon, and Stars                                   151
+  Weather Phenomena                                                  153
+  Earthquake Beliefs                                                 155
+  Creation Beliefs and Other Legends                                 157
+  Medical Treatment                                                  162
+  Spirits and Ghosts                                                 164
+  Shamanism and Doctoring                                            166
+  Miscellaneous Magic                                                173
+  Bibliography                                                       175
+
+    [Illustration: Association logo]
+
+
+
+
+                               Chapter I
+                 PREHISTORIC MAN COMES TO NORTH AMERICA
+
+
+Archeological studies of human remains from all over the world have
+shown beyond serious question that man originated in the Eastern
+Hemisphere about a million years ago. Meager remnants of prehistoric
+skeletons of man and his tools, hearths, and debris heaps have been
+found in deposits of late Cenozoic time, Chapter Five of earth’s
+history. This late Cenozoic period starting about a million years ago is
+called the Pleistocene or Ice Age. These discoveries show the orderly
+processes of survival of the fittest and of evolution developing
+successive generations of man with refined physical and mental
+qualities, ultimately producing modern man.
+
+During the Ice Age there were four separate times during which ice
+formation on all continents of the earth increased tremendously. Just
+what caused changes in climate to make this possible is not definitely
+known. Slight changes in amount of carbon dioxide in the air, which
+could have been affected by the amount of volcanic activity or by major
+changes in the amount of plant life in existence, may have affected the
+climate. Slight variations in the orbit of the earth in its course
+around the sun may also have had their influence. Even today it would
+require a drop of only a few degrees in the average annual temperature
+of the earth’s climate to produce a large increase in ice formation. All
+that is required is that a little more snow falls each winter than will
+melt in the summer. Thus, each year the excess would gradually build up
+glaciers and continental ice sheets, producing another “ice stage” in a
+few thousands of years.
+
+The area of ice in the world today is relatively small: under 6 million
+square miles, about the same as that existing during each of the four
+interglacial (warm climate) stages of the Pleistocene. During the four
+glacial stages of the Ice Age, continental ice sheets increased their
+areas by three or four times, also becoming larger in size in each
+successive cold cycle. The latest and most extensive of these glacial
+times, the Wisconsin Stage, actually saw two ice advances with a brief
+recession separating them about 60,000 years ago.
+
+During each glacial stage tremendous amounts of water were removed from
+the oceans and deposited on the continents as ice fields. This involved
+amounts of as much as 20 million cubic miles of water, causing
+world-wide lowering of sea level of about 150 or 200 feet. Today the sea
+between Alaska and Siberia is very shallow. It is not difficult to
+realize that lowered sea level during the glacial stages of the ice age
+drained the water from this and other shallow sea floors exposing these
+as land links or “land bridges” which extended between continents and
+islands. This state of affairs made possible the overland migration of
+man to the Western Hemisphere.
+
+In his illuminating paper “Early Relations of Man to Plants” Sauer has
+pointed out that early man’s migrations to the New World were not the
+result of mere aimless wanderings. Peking Man of the first interglacial
+stage about 900,000 years ago in Asia used fire in established hearths.
+He ate both cooked meats and vegetables. This evidence indicates at
+least a semi-sedentary family life. Since he had learned to make himself
+more comfortable generally by remaining in one favorable place, it
+follows logically that even primitive Peking Man migrated only when he
+could improve his lot by doing so. He moved on only when he was forced
+to do so by a failing food supply or because of crowded conditions
+caused by increasing numbers of his fellow men. It is believed that not
+only Peking Man, but his descendants were as sedentary as their food
+supply allowed them to be. Dr. Sauer observes that
+
+  “... the history of human population (numbers) is a succession of
+  higher and higher levels, each rise to a new level being brought about
+  by the discovery of more food either through occupation of a new
+  territory or through increase in food producing skill.”
+
+The invention of a better tool, improved food preparation, discovery of
+new foods, better storage, or utilization would bring about this
+increase in food availability.
+
+Apparently the twin circumstances of the need for more food and the
+existence of a dry land connection between Asia and North America
+enabled a series of migrations of prehistoric men to the New World. The
+migrations did not occur just during one glacial stage, nor during the
+last 15 or 25,000 years as some have claimed, but continued
+interruptedly over a period of many thousands of years. Perhaps such
+migrations started as long ago as 300,000 years—whenever land
+connections permitted and other conditions warranted. As a result, we
+find a number of stocks of Old World Man at various levels of cultural
+development coming into the Americas. Naturally a variety of plant and
+animal species migrated in both directions between the Old and New
+Worlds of their own accord, in addition to those which might have been
+brought along by prehistoric man.
+
+A classic example of plant migration to the New World is that of
+California’s celebrated redwoods. In China just a few years ago the
+little changed ancestors of these trees, the still-growing Metasequoia
+were discovered. In rocks of the most recent era (Chapter Five of
+earth’s history) the step by step migration of the changing redwood
+ancestors can be followed by studying successively younger rock layers
+in Siberia, Alaska, and in Canada and northwest United States. These
+relics and imprints of the foliage, fruits, and even of wood texture of
+these ancient trees were covered by sands and muds, and thus preserved
+in stone as fossils. This has made it possible to identify the ancestral
+redwood species and to demonstrate their march to California. It is
+interesting to note how the redwoods changed in the process, evolving by
+degrees to cope with new conditions of climate and soil during their
+slow migrations. At length today two distinct and unique Sequoias are to
+be found living only in California. One, the Coast Redwood, has adapted
+itself to coastal fogs and reproduction by sprouting root shoots. The
+other, restricted to drier areas of the west slope of the Sierra, the
+Sierra Redwood or Big Tree, has its needles reduced to small scales to
+withstand the drier climate, and reproduces only by seed.
+
+Sauer observes that the stone implements of prehistoric man are the best
+preserved relics of his culture and are the most easily found.
+Unfortunately the less durable and less easily recognized relics of
+skin, bone, wood, and vegetable fibers which are equally or often even
+more important clues to the past, have been altered beyond recognition
+or completely destroyed. As a result these disappeared or their
+camouflaged remnants have been overlooked and passed unrecognized by
+even careful students seeking to learn the details of this fascinating
+story of the how’s and why’s and when’s of your ancestors and mine in
+Europe and also of the Indians in Asia and in North America in general,
+and of those of the Lassen area in particular.
+
+
+
+
+                               Chapter II
+                    EARLY CULTURES IN NORTH AMERICA
+
+
+The fact that skeletons of primitive forms of man have so far not been
+discovered in the Western Hemisphere does not mean that ancestral forms
+preceding modern man did not migrate to the New World in remote times.
+It is that erroneous idea which has caused some persons to reason that
+man arrived here only in the final glacial stage. Good evidence has been
+presented to suggest that the sites he would have been most likely to
+inhabit might be submerged at present or may have been especially
+vulnerable to destruction by erosion.
+
+Certain primitive peoples of the New World (in South America) do no
+boiling of foods and do not have the dog, indicating very early
+immigration from the Old World. Dr. Sauer suggests a date during the
+third glacial stage, the Kansan, about 300,000 years ago instead of the
+Wisconsin Glacial Stage of 15,000 or 25,000 years ago as some have
+contended.
+
+At the present level of archeological and paleontological knowledge of
+prehistoric man in North America, Sauer recognizes five basic early
+cultures. These are listed below in the order of their apparent
+appearances in the New World.
+
+The most primitive and oldest culture of man recognized to date is very
+difficult to detect, for its evidences were of a fragile nature. Few
+traces of it remain to be seen today. This first culture known in North
+America lacks both stone weapon points and grinding stones. These items
+were also found lacking in the cultures of some isolated contemporary
+peoples of both North and South America.
+
+The second oldest culture in North America was that of the Ancient Food
+Grinders which appears to have been widespread in the rather rainy
+climate of the Mississippi and Pacific regions of North America. These
+people built fireplaces or hearths—beds of collected stones. They used a
+grinding slab of stone on which a handstone was rubbed to crush hard
+seeds. This indicates a greater variety of foods than used in the
+earlier culture. A number of crude pounding tools such as choppers and
+scrapers were employed as were a few rude knives of stone. It is of
+interest and significance that use of the grinder and grinding slab
+disappeared completely from most or all of this area later. The well
+known metate and mano grinding devices of the Southwest were introduced
+much later, along with the growing of corn or maize, from the Central
+American region. Coiled basketry appears to be identified with this
+second culture too, such articles being essential as containers for
+collection of seeds, winnowing, et cetera. Studies of the evidence in
+the field show also that these peoples were sedentary to the extent of
+developing refuse mounds or middens. The fact that this culture is not
+found in Europe or in Asia indicates that it developed in the Western
+Hemisphere.
+
+About 35,000 years ago the third culture appears to have developed. It
+was one in which hunting was of major importance. These hunters were not
+nomads, however, for the building of hearths, accumulations of
+artifacts, and also the general use of seed grinding stones, all
+indicate rather sedentary habits. This culture is characterized by the
+presence of dart or spear throwers, an invention of European origin.
+This indicates more recent migrations from the Old World. These darts
+were stone tipped and propelled with a spear thrower or atlatl, making
+hunting of animal food much more effective than in the case of earlier
+cultures.
+
+The fourth culture is that known by the names Folsom and Yuma. In these
+people interest in plant foods and fibers was slight, for this was
+primarily a mobile hunting culture. The people were not sedentary, but
+moved around.
+
+Well after the disappearance of the glaciers of the Ice Age, late comers
+from the Old World brought a fifth culture to the Americas. These people
+used the bow and arrow with its small and finely worked stone point.
+Fish hooks were used and many stone implements were well polished. This
+too is the first culture of the New World with which the dog was
+associated.
+
+In Eastern North America, and particularly well known in the Southwest,
+are abundant archeological evidences from easily recognized prehistoric
+living sites. These reveal a succession of more recent cultures and
+changes within cultures, as well as movement of early peoples. In
+contrast there are relatively few recognized prehistoric sites in
+California which tell much about early customs and material culture of
+aboriginal man. Some productive areas which have been found are notably
+the following: The Farmington Reservoir area of Stanislaus County more
+than 4,000 years old—possibly much older, Kingsley Cave, the Santa
+Barbara area, and the off-shore islands to the southwest of it. There
+are also a few shell mounds in the Los Angeles—Ventura area and more
+numerous and extensive ones in the San Francisco Bay vicinity. Of the
+latter shell mounds A. L. Kroeber writes:
+
+    [Illustration: AREAS AND SUBAREAS OF CULTURES IN AND ABOUT
+    CALIFORNIA
+    after A. L. Kroeber]
+
+  NORTHWESTERN CALIF.
+  NORTH PACIFIC COAST AREA
+  CENTRAL CALIFORNIA
+  SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
+  PLATEAU AREA
+  PLAINS AREA
+  CALIFORNIA-GREAT BASIN AREA
+  SOUTHWEST AREA
+  LOWER COLORADO
+
+  “... all the classes of objects (shells, refuse, mortars, pestles,
+  obsidian, charmstones, and bone awls) in question occur at the bottom,
+  middle, and top of the mounds, and ... they occur with substantially
+  the same frequency. In other words, the natives of the San Francisco
+  region traded the same materials from the same localities one, two, or
+  three thousand years ago as when they were discovered at the end of
+  the eighteenth century. They ate the same food, in nearly the same
+  proportions (only mammalian bones became more abundant in higher
+  levels), prepared it in substantially the same manner, and sewed
+  skins, rush mats, and coiled baskets similarly to their recent
+  descendants. Even their religion was conservative, since the identical
+  charms seem to have been regarded potent. In a word, the basis of
+  culture remained identical during the whole of the shell-mound period.
+
+  “When it is remembered that ... the beginning of this period
+  (occurred) more than 3,000 years ago, it is clear that we are here
+  confronted by a historical fact of extraordinary importance. It means
+  that at the time when Troy was besieged and Solomon was building the
+  temple, at a period when even Greek civilization had not yet taken on
+  the traits that we regard as characteristic, when only a few
+  scattering foundations of specific modern culture were being laid and
+  our own northern ancestors dwelled in unmitigated barbarism, the
+  native Californian already lived in all essentials like his descendant
+  of today. In Europe and Asia, change succeeded change of the
+  profoundest type. On this far shore of the Pacific, civilization, such
+  as it was, remained immutable in all fundamentals.
+
+  “... The permanence of Californian culture ... is of far more than
+  local interest. It is a fact of significance in the history of
+  civilization.”
+
+Successive intrusions of different peoples and the isolation of the
+resultant developing Indian tribes, century after century, gave rise to
+many diverse languages. Although some were mere dialects, there were
+about 750 different North American Indian languages.
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter III
+                         THE CALIFORNIA INDIANS
+
+
+Dr. A. L. Kroeber’s map shows all tribes within the present political
+boundaries of the State of California. The tribes of the extreme
+northwest corner and those of the southern tip of the state are not
+typical of what we generally think of as “California Indians”.
+
+Although it may not be scientifically sound to do so, it is often
+convenient to refer to the Indian tribes of the California region
+collectively. The term “Digger Indians” is frequently used for this
+purpose with a somewhat disparaging connotation. The origin of this name
+is traceable to white traders and pioneers who observed that local
+Indians dug extensively for a number of food items, hence the name
+Digger was applied. However, this is a poor name as digging was but one
+of many methods the Indians used to secure food. Besides, digging was by
+no means peculiar to Indians of the California area. It is best,
+therefore, simply to use the term California Indians, if one wishes to
+refer to this group of tribes as a whole.
+
+In connection with the nickname Digger Indian, it is of interest to note
+that the California tribes used the conspicuous pine of the foothills,
+_Pinus sabiniana_, as a source of edible pine nuts and for other
+purposes too. Because the so called Digger Indians used these trees so
+much, the pioneers named the conifers Digger Pines, a name recognized
+today as the proper common name of that tree.
+
+California tribes are usually not considered high culturally among
+Indians generally, yet Yurok, Pomo, and Chumash are equal to any tribe
+in North America in wood, bone, steatite, obsidian, feather, and skin
+work, while local tribes of the Lassen area made basketry of a variety
+and quality unsurpassed elsewhere.
+
+Although there were local differences in food habits, the California
+Indians as a group had a highly diversified diet in contrast to the
+so-called one-food tribes in surrounding areas. Of course it is an
+over-simplification to speak of one-food tribes, for all ate quite a
+variety of foods. Yet, it is true that several cultures had been built
+upon the great abundance and importance of one particular food item as
+compared to all other foods eaten. North of California, Indians built
+their culture largely upon the salmon. To the east were tribes which
+depended upon the bison for most of their needs, and southeast of
+California the Southwest Indians built their culture around the all
+important maize or native corn. In any of these regional groups, if the
+main food item failed, disaster struck the tribes. In contrast, the
+Californians, with diversified eating habits, had four major food
+sources: fish, game, roots, and seeds or nuts. Each was important and
+the failure of any one caused hardship, but by no means the serious
+disaster which befell the more specialized groups of Indians if their
+main food supply item failed. If any one item of the California Indian
+diet were to be selected as the most important and universal food, one
+of the nuts, the acorn would have to be named.
+
+    [Illustration: INDIAN TRIBAL DISTRIBUTION IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
+    after A. L. Kroeber]
+
+  TOLOWA
+  YUROK
+  KAROK
+    UPPER
+    LOWER
+  SHASTAN
+    SHASTA
+    OKWANUCHU
+    ACHOMAWI
+    ATSUGEWI
+    KORO MINU
+    NEW RIVER
+  MODOC
+  NORTHERN PAIUTE
+  LASSEN VOL. NAT. PARK
+  PYOT
+  WHILIOUT
+  ATHABASCAN
+    CHILULA
+    HUPA
+    NONGATL
+    SINKYONE
+    LASSIK
+    WAILAKI
+    KATO
+  YUKI
+    YUKI
+    HUCHNOM
+    COAST YUKI
+  POMO
+    N.
+    C.
+    S.W.
+    E.
+    S.E.
+  WAPPO
+  CHIMA RIKO
+  WINTUN
+    NORTHERN
+    CENTRAL
+    SOUTHWESTERN
+    SOUTHEASTERN
+  COSTANOAN
+    SAN FRANCISCAN
+    SANTA CLARA
+    SANTA CRUZ
+  YANA
+    N.
+    CENTRAL
+    SOUTHERN
+    YAHI
+  MAIDU
+    NORTHEASTERN
+    NORTHWESTERN
+    SOUTHERN
+  WASHO
+  MIWOK
+    COAST MIWOK
+    PLAINS
+    NORTHERN
+    CENTRAL
+    SOUTHERN
+  YOKUT
+    NORTH VALLEY
+
+California Indians are often regarded to have been lazy and shiftless.
+To be sure there were such individuals, but we have that type of person
+in our midst too, and I dare say in equal or greater percentage. As a
+matter of fact, Indians generally could not afford to be lazy—there was
+no beneficent government to coddle them. It was largely a case of sink
+or swim. They had to provide their own shelter, food, and clothing as
+well as what amusement and extras—hardly to be called luxuries—they
+wished to enjoy. These things were all wrought from the wilderness with
+their own bare hands, using only wood, stone, and fire as tools. These
+native Americans lived in a stone-age culture. Metals, the wheel,
+domesticated herd animals, and agriculture were unknown to California
+Indians. Although there was some seasonal migration, there were no truly
+nomadic or wandering tribes in California.
+
+In California there were 103 separate tribes each speaking its own
+language. To be sure, some were mere dialects of others, but there were
+21 tongues completely distinct from each other and mutually
+unintelligible. These belonged to several unrelated language families,
+as shown on the second map.
+
+As suggested above, Kroeber has shown that we are technically incorrect
+in referring to the California Indians as a single group of tribes.
+Within the political boundaries of the State of California there were
+actually three separate cultures with a number of subcultures, which
+were as follows: The small area in the northwest corner of the state,
+the Klamath River drainage, was occupied by the Northwest California
+Sub-culture, a part of the North Pacific Coast Culture which extended
+into British Columbia. The California-Great Basin Culture had three
+representatives in the state: the smallest or Lutuami Sub-culture,
+represented by the Modoc tribe only, extended down from the north across
+the east central portion of the northern boundary of California. The
+next larger was the Great Basin Sub-culture just east of the
+Cascade-Sierra backbone. The third and largest sub-culture of the
+California-Great Basin Culture was that of the Central California tribes
+(the Diggers of the pioneer), extending westward from the Cascade-Sierra
+crest to the Pacific Ocean across the bulk of the state. The fifth
+sub-culture is known as the Southern California comprising the area
+south of the Tehachapi Mountains from the coast east across the Colorado
+River, being a part of the Southwest Culture.
+
+    [Illustration: LINGUISTIC FAMILIES
+    INDIAN LANGUAGE GROUPS OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA and the families to
+    which they belong, after A. L. Kroeber]
+
+  Lutuamian
+    LUTUAMI
+  Hokan
+    KAROK
+    SHASTAN
+    CHIMARIKO
+    POMO
+    WASHO
+    YANA
+  Shoshonian
+    PAIUTE
+  Penutian
+    WINTUN
+    MAIDU
+    MIWOK
+    YOKUT
+    COSTANOAN
+  Algonkian
+    YUROK
+  Athabascan
+    ATHABASCAN
+  Yukian
+    YUKI
+
+Nevertheless, some generalities hold, and at the risk of the inaccuracy
+which is typical of generalizations, we might set forth the following
+customs as being characteristic of California Indians:
+
+Animal flesh bulked a smaller volume of food eaten than did vegetable
+materials—or, in the case of coastal peoples, than did seafoods. Dog and
+reptile flesh were considered poisonous or undesirable, but insects and
+worms were generally eaten. Acorns were the most important single food.
+All tribes utilized seeds of such plants as buckeye, grass, sedge, and
+sunflower family plants. All items, but the first, were collected with a
+basketry seed beater in a conical burden basket, parched, winnowed,
+ground, and eaten either dry, as unleavened bread, or as boiled mush.
+
+Although the fish hook and line were known throughout the area, most
+fishing was done by means of nets, weirs, use of poison, and harpoons
+thrust, but not thrown.
+
+Hunting with bow and arrow was most important. Disguise and dogs were
+used in the north, but surrounding the game was the common means of
+hunting in the south.
+
+The northern bow was short, broad, and sinew backed while southern
+Californians used long narrow bows without reinforcement.
+
+Arrows were usually two-piece and tipped with obsidian points. Three
+different arrow releases were used among California Indians. Northern
+arrows were straightened by use of a hole through a piece of wood or
+similar material, and were polished by use of horsetail stalks while a
+grooved squarish soapstone (steatite) did both jobs in the south.
+
+Basketry was highly developed, being California’s best art form. The
+northern quarter of the area did twined basketry; coiled basketry
+prevailed elsewhere.
+
+Cloth was unknown, but woven rabbit skin strip blankets were universal,
+especially for bedding. Rush mats were twined and sewn.
+
+Pottery was unknown except for a very crude undecorated form in the San
+Joaquin Valley, an intrusion from the Southern California Sub-culture
+where pottery became important.
+
+Music of California was characterized by singing, rattles, whistles,
+split slap sticks, flute, and musical bow. The last two instruments were
+the only ones which were able to make real melodies, but amazingly,
+neither one was used for dances or ceremonies. California Indians were
+virtually without any drums—the exception being a single headed flat
+foot drum used in ceremonial sweathouse chambers of the tribes in the
+Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys.
+
+Dress of California women was a front and a back apron of
+skin—especially buckskin—or of plant fiber. Men wore nothing or a folded
+skin about the hips or between the legs. In bad weather both sexes used
+cape-like or wrap-around (over one arm and under the other) skin robes.
+In localized areas the brimless dome-shaped basketry cap was worn by
+women. Hair of both sexes was long (but shorn in mourning) and
+frequently put up in nets by men. Men removed their beards by pulling
+with their fingers.
+
+In mountain areas social and religious cults were lacking. In the
+extreme northwest corner wealth dances were held; in central California
+the secret society and Kuksu dances, in the south the Jimsonweed
+initiation system, and in the Colorado River area the dreamsong ceremony
+flourished.
+
+Houses varied from open enclosures and brush or bark shelters to frame
+structures more or less completely dug into the ground and covered with
+bark, brush, and dirt, usually with a roof entrance and or one to the
+south; this was the earth lodge. In the extreme northwest housing was
+not the earth lodge, but a structure built on top of the ground;
+hand-split planks were used in its construction.
+
+Sweat houses were of the earth lodge type, often of daily service and in
+northern areas, lived in too. Sweat houses of California were not heated
+by steam, but directly with fire.
+
+Boats generally were of rushes tied into balsa rafts or into boat
+shapes. In addition one-piece dugout canoes from tree logs were typical
+of the northern portion of California, becoming progressively more
+refined in workmanship and in design to the northwest. A unique lashed
+split board canoe was made by channel island tribes in the Santa Barbara
+vicinity.
+
+The tribe as a political unit, so common elsewhere in America, did not
+exist in California. What we call a tribe was actually a number of
+groups of Indians, each of whom had a chief, spoke the same language
+dialect, had the same customs, intermarried regularly, and were usually
+mutually friendly. There was no tribal chief as such.
+
+In the northwest portion of California wealth was so important that real
+chieftain leadership was lacking. In central and southern California the
+chief was a powerful local leader on a hereditary basis. Between the two
+extremes was a zone where tribes struck a compromise; the hereditary
+local chief had moderate authority and usually was well to do, but not
+necessarily so. Rich men in smaller political divisions were influential
+headmen under the local chief.
+
+Warfare was only for revenge and not for plunder or for a desire for
+distinction. Except for the Northwest Sub-culture, scalps were generally
+taken and included the victim’s skin down to his eyes or nose, and
+including the ears. Not infrequently the whole head was taken by a
+victorious warrior. The weapon was the bow and arrow, with rocks
+employed in close combat. Such war implements as shields, clubs, spears
+(throwing), and tomahawks were not used.
+
+Guessing games, usually played by men, were universal, with variations,
+and heavy gambling was the rule. Shinny in several different forms was
+widely played.
+
+Shamans were employed for curing diseases which were believed due to the
+presence in the body of some foreign hostile object. This was removed by
+sucking accompanied by singing, dancing, and tobacco smoking.
+
+The girls’ adulthood or puberty ceremony and dance was important to all
+California tribes.
+
+Population figures even on the most scholarly basis, Kroeber states, are
+at best reasonable guesses. As nearly as can be determined there were
+originally about one million Indians in North America, three million in
+Central America, and three million in South America. California probably
+had about 133,000 Indians or nearly one per square mile. This is a
+density three or four times greater than for the whole of North America.
+
+Today the North American Indian population (including about 30%
+half-breeds) is less than 10% of what it was. Over 90% of our Indians
+have been destroyed by wholesale killing at the hands of the white man,
+by new diseases, unfavorable changes in diet, clothing, and dwellings
+plus such Caucasian cultural factors as settlement, concentration, and
+the like. The decline in Indian population varied directly with the
+degree of civilized contact the several tribes experienced. It is
+interesting to note that virtually all of the Indians exposed to the
+Spanish missions commencing 1769 are gone except for a few in the
+extreme south who were only partly missionized. Kroeber states:
+
+  “It must have caused many of the fathers a severe pang to realize, as
+  they could not but do daily, that they were saving souls only at the
+  inevitable cost of lives. And yet such was the overwhelming fact. The
+  brute upshot of missionization, in spite of its kindly flavor and
+  humanitarian root, was only one thing: death.”
+
+Kroeber also points out that some tribes had much less resistance and
+hence suffered greater decline in population in response to equal white
+contact than others did. As in the case of other living things, there
+were favorable circumstances under which the Indian flourished—where
+life was relatively easy and secure. Such conditions produced virile
+stock and a rich culture both materially and spiritually—a condition
+found in broad valleys drained by the great rivers of California: the
+Klamath, the Sacramento, and the San Joaquin. As is also the case with
+specific plants and animals, Indians in less favorable sites lived
+submarginally—a difficult existence, poor in material and spiritual
+culture. Under such circumstances it takes just a small amount of
+additional unfavorable influence to make existence impossible. On this
+basis Kroeber explains the extinction or near extinction of poor
+mountain tribes upon contact with the whites while the Indians of the
+fertile valleys, although suffering more intensive Caucasian contact,
+were able to survive in reasonable numbers. This is a specific exception
+to the general observation made above that population decrease varied
+directly with the degree of contact. There are examples in California;
+the local one is the survival of valley Maidu and Wintun populations as
+compared to the surrounding mountain people with poorer cultures: the
+Yahi, Yana, Okwanuchu, Shasta, New River Shasta, Chimariko, and the
+Athabascan tribes of the west with survival percentages today of up to
+only 5% at best.
+
+There is another factor which caused greater devastation of the
+economically insecure mountain tribes. White settlers were able to use
+to their own advantage some of the labor, services, and even food which
+the valley Indians afforded them. Thus it was not to the interest of the
+whites to wipe out these Indians. On the other hand, the mountain tribes
+with a poorer economy were prone to steal livestock to supplement their
+food supplies as they had no means to gain wealth to enable them to buy
+from the whites. Such depredations were a major cause of retaliation by
+white man in the form of bloody punitive attacks on Indians from whom
+the settlers had nothing to gain.
+
+
+
+
+                               Chapter IV
+                    INDIAN TRIBES OF THE LASSEN AREA
+
+
+Lassen Peak with an elevation of 10,453 feet above sea level is the
+central high point of a somewhat topographically isolated mountain mass
+of volcanic origin. The slopes descending in all directions from Lassen
+Peak are clothed in coniferous forests, dotted with small lakes of
+glacial origin, and drained by a few fish bearing streams flowing
+radially from the mountain. There are also a few hot spring areas and
+some barren expanses where recent eruptions have produced mudflows and
+lavas. For the most part, game abounds in the Lassen highland, but the
+winters are snowy and severe, making it unsuitable for Indians to live
+there the year around.
+
+As shown on the map, parts of the lands of four distinct tribes of
+Indians lay within what are today the boundaries of Lassen Volcanic
+National Park. Permanent homes and villages of Atsugewi, Yana, Yahi and
+mountain Maidu tribes were at lower elevations in the Ponderosa Pine and
+Digger Pine belts, and situated near streams. There food was relatively
+easily available and winters were the least severe within the limits of
+the respective tribal territories.
+
+Each summer when deer migrated to higher elevations, the Indians also
+moved toward Lassen Peak to hunt and to fish trout, spending the whole
+summer in temporary camps.
+
+There was some contact between the four tribes during their sojourns in
+the uplands of the park area, but the activities of each Indian group
+were pretty well confined to its own territory. The four Lassen tribes
+did on occasion engage in small battles, but this was the exception
+rather than the rule—generally speaking they lived harmoniously as
+neighbors, and there was even occasional inter-marriage between tribes.
+
+These tribes all had simple hill or mountain cultures which, in spite of
+some difference of custom, were surprisingly alike. It is believed that
+this is due to the fact that the four tribes all lived under very
+similar conditions of environment—the same type of country in many
+respects. The similarity of their cultures is all the more interesting
+in that the Atsugewi were of the Hokan Family, speaking a Shastan
+language. Yana and Yahi, also of Hokan stock spoke Yana languages. The
+mountain Maidu were of the Penutian Family, speaking a Maidu language.
+
+According to the best available figures, some of which are only
+reasonable guesses, populations of the local tribes were probably about
+as follows:
+
+    [Illustration: INDIAN TRIBAL AREAS OF THE LASSEN REGION
+    after A. L. Kroeber and T. R. Garth—note the boundaries of Lassen
+    Volcanic National Park dashed in above and left of center of the
+    map. Lassen Peak is at the junction of the Atsugewi, Yana, and Maidu
+    territories.]
+
+  ACHOMAWI
+  SHASTAN
+    OKWANUCHU
+  NORTHERN WINTUN
+  CENTRAL WINTUN
+  S. E. WINTUN
+  CENTRAL YANA
+  NORTH (YANA)
+  SOUTHERN YANA
+  ATSUGEWI
+    ATSUGE
+    APWARUGE
+  NORTHERN PAIUTE
+  NORTHEASTERN MAIDU
+  NORTHWESTERN MAIDU
+  SOUTHERN MAIDU
+  WASHO
+
+                                  1770     1910     1950
+
+  Atsugewi                       1,000      250       75
+  Yana (north, central, s)         750       25       10
+  Yahi                             275        5     none
+  Maidu (mountain)               2,000      800      300
+  Totals                         4,025    1,080      385
+
+  Garth states that: “The Atsugewi are divided into two major groups,
+  the Atsuge or pinetree-people, who occupy Hat Creek Valley, and the
+  Apwaruge—from Apwariwa, the name of Dixie Valley—who live to the east
+  in and around Dixie Valley. Sometimes the Apwaruge are called
+  Mahoupani, juniper-tree-people, a name which reflects the dry and
+  barren nature of their territory....
+
+  “... certain cultural differences (existed) between the eastern and
+  western Atsugewi, who in most aspects of nonmaterial culture and in
+  language are one people. In the western area there was more abundant
+  rainfall and a fairly luxuriant growth of pines, oaks, and other
+  trees. Here the Atsuge subsisted largely on acorns and fish; made
+  twined basketry, using willow, pine root, _Xerophylum_ grass, and
+  redbud materials; and had bark houses and numerous other structures of
+  bark. On the contrary, in the eastern area, which is comparatively
+  arid and lacking in trees, the Apwaruge depended on the acorn less
+  than did the Atsuge and fishing was less important, to judge by the
+  scarcity or lack of nets, fish hooks, and harpoons; made inferior
+  twined baskets of twisted tule with a different twist to the weave; as
+  a rule had their houses covered with tule mats rather than with bark;
+  and were much poorer than the Atsuge. This cultural distinction
+  between the eastern and western areas is also found to the north among
+  the Achomawi.”
+
+Dixon’s studies have revealed that the Maidu had no general name for
+themselves, remarkable as this may seem. The name Maidu was first used
+by Stephen Powers in 1877 in his volume “TRIBES OF CALIFORNIA”, a name
+he arbitrarily applied to these Indians since the word meant “Indian” or
+“man” in their language. The adjectives northwest or valley, northeast
+or mountain, and southern or foothill are applied to identify the three
+different cultures corresponding to the three distinct geographic
+provinces inhabited by the Maidu Indians as a whole. In a number of
+respects the culture of the mountain or northeast Maidu was more like
+that of their northern neighbors, the Atsugewi, than it was like that of
+the closely related southern and northwestern Maidu peoples. Obviously
+the factor of environment or characteristics of the land occupied is of
+extreme importance in creating such a situation.
+
+
+
+
+                               Chapter V
+             INDIAN—PIONEER CONFLICT AND THE STORY OF ISHI
+
+
+Conflict—prolonged, tragic, and violent—flared during the period when
+Europeans wrested control of North America from the native Indian. In
+viewing the struggle between Indian and white man, feelings run high
+even today.
+
+What was it when Custer’s contingent was wiped out?—when the Modocs
+inflicted such heavy losses on the American troops?—when the Navajo,
+Sioux, and others made their devastating raids on wagon trains and
+pioneer settlers? These were just as much a part of the war as were the
+exploits of Rogers’ Rangers, the indiscriminate slaying of Indian men,
+women, and children in the Yahi caves on Mill Creek, and the
+annihilation of large segments of Atsugewi and Yana tribes cornered at
+points northwest of the present Lassen Volcanic National Park area. War
+is never a pretty thing. Was the hit and run killing of white people by
+Indians any less defensible morally than white man’s atrocities against
+the Indians, or, for that matter, than commando raids and atomic
+bombings of today? Our viewpoint on such matters in the past has all too
+often been that might makes right, since we have always been on the
+winning side. Until very recently we have followed the biased opinion of
+the colonists and pioneers of these United States: whenever we won, it
+was a glorious and righteous victory, but if the Indian emerged
+victorious, it was regarded as a dastardly massacre. It is a viewpoint
+readily understandable where a person’s loved ones are involved—but not
+justifiable.
+
+Our veterans of recent wars will vouch for the fact that white man’s
+wars can be primitive and violent when life and limb are at stake. We
+are hardly in a position to criticize the “cruel and sneaking” fighting
+methods of the Indians. Was it not use of Indian fighting methods which
+was so valuable to us in defeating the British in the colonial war for
+independence?
+
+Indians fought in the only way they knew—and a disheartening losing
+fight it was for them with bows and arrows against rifles. For each gain
+in weapons and technical know-how the Indians made, the whites made
+many. True, it cost Americans much in the way of lives, anguish, and
+money, but how small were these losses in comparison to those of the
+Indians. American Indians, the undisputed owners of this continent for
+thousands of years, were not only nearly exterminated, but in the end we
+took virtually all of their land by force and with it took away the
+means of self support as well without “due process of law”. We denied
+the Indian the right of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of
+happiness”—the very things for which we as a nation stand. In all
+fairness, however, it should be stated that in recent years modest
+monetary retribution has been made by the U.S. Government to some of the
+surviving descendants.
+
+S. F. Cook has pointed out that Spanish contact with California Indians
+was a rather passive matter. Spanish penetrated deeply, but did not
+settle on Indian lands of appreciable size. The Spanish were present in
+small numbers, a population numbering perhaps 4,000 by 1848. To be sure
+there was occasional bloodshed, but it was the exception in Spanish
+California rather than the rule, for the Spanish regarded Indians as an
+asset, a human resource which provided labor and even some food and
+materials. The Indians were a respected element in the social and
+economic structure of Hispanic California, having civic and legal
+rights. Even under the Spanish, was there a great reduction of the
+Indian population through limited warfare and displacement, but much
+more importantly through disease. Nevertheless, by 1845 a more or less
+satisfactory equilibrium seems to have evolved between the Spanish and
+the California Indians.
+
+In contrast the hordes of white immigrants who followed considered the
+Indians entirely useless and there was no place for the latter in the
+pioneers’ economy of material wealth. All good lands were taken from the
+Indians arbitrarily and as quickly as possible. However, it must be
+stated that there were exceptions to both the Spanish and Gringo
+relations with the California Indians, but, in general, the foregoing
+statements are accurate.
+
+How the conflict of pioneer versus Indian affected the Atsugewi is
+summarized for us by Garth as follows:
+
+  “The Atsugewi, because of their somewhat secluded mountain habitat,
+  were spared contact with white civilization until the middle of the
+  nineteenth century. Although there were vague reports of contact with
+  Spanish explorers or Mexican bandits, these could not be verified.
+  Peter Skene Ogden may have been the first white man to visit the area
+  (1827-1828). Besides the trappers, Fremont, Greenwood, and other
+  explorers probably skirted Atsugewi country. Peter Lassen passed
+  through Achomawi-Atsugewi country in opening the Pit River Route of
+  1848. He was soon followed by a stream of white migration from the
+  east which was devastating to the Indians and their culture.
+  Prospectors entered the Lassen region in 1851, and not long afterward
+  came white settlers. By about 1859 the Indians were felt to be a
+  menace to the whites in the area and were rounded up by militia and
+  taken to the Round Valley Indian Reservation. Unsatisfactory
+  conditions at the Reservation caused most of them to leave in 1863 and
+  return to their old haunts along Hat Creek and Dixie Valley.
+
+  “Joaquin Miller reports an uprising in 1867 of the Pit River and Modoc
+  Indians, who had made up old differences and were now fighting
+  together. A number of whites were massacred. Miller speaks of an
+  Indian camp being made on Hat Creek in the war that followed. It is
+  not thus improbable that the Atsuge participated in that war. After a
+  year or so of fighting the Indians suffered a final crushing defeat
+  and surrendered. This last engagement may be the one at Six Mile Hill,
+  spoken of by informants, in which a large number of their people were
+  cornered in a cave and massacred by soldiers. After this, many of the
+  Indians were again removed to Round Valley. Those remaining and some
+  who subsequently returned from the Reservation maintained friendly
+  relations with the whites. Today most Atsugewi live on allotments in
+  their old territory, the younger Indians often working for their white
+  neighbors or for the lumber mills. The census of 1910 gives a
+  population of 240 for ‘Hat Creek Indians’. This figure may also have
+  included the Dixie Valley Atsugewi, since they are not mentioned in
+  the census. The present population is probably half that or less.”
+
+The Maidu also were decimated upon contact with white man. However, with
+only rare exception, Maidu accepted rather passively invasion of their
+territory with the attendant driving away of game and destruction of
+fish in the streams by mining operations in gold rush days. However,
+since the remnants of the Maidu were in the way of white mans’
+developments, treaties were made in 1851 by which these Indians gave up
+all claims to their ancestral lands and were taken to short lived
+reservations in Amador, Nevada and Butte Counties, also later to the
+Round Valley Reservations in the Coast Range. A great many Maidu soon
+returned to their homes. In the late 50’s and 60’s a desultory war was
+waged on the Maidu by California State troops which further reduced the
+number of surviving Indians of this tribe.
+
+The management of the University of California’s excellent informative
+“UNIVERSITY EXPLORER” radio program series has given permission to quote
+the following from its broadcasts. This material concerns the conflict
+of the closely related Yana and Yahi tribes with the whites and the
+fabulous story of Ishi. The script has been abridged and considerably
+rearranged:
+
+  “... The Yana way of life was a strange one to the white observer, but
+  the tribes prospered under it until white emigration from the East
+  threw them into conflict with a new and unfriendly people. The
+  Indians, of course, resented the white incursion and revolted against
+  it. That happened in all sections of the country where whites
+  displaced Indians, but it would be hard to imagine a more inept way of
+  handling the situation than that used by the white men in the
+  Sacramento Valley. Some of the large land owners protected the Indians
+  of their holdings; among them were General John Bidwell, one of the
+  founders of Chico, (Peter Lassen on his Rancho Bosquejo between Mill
+  and Deer Creeks), and John Sutter, on whose property the Gold Rush
+  started. But they were exceptions. Most of the settlers apparently
+  believed the only way to handle the natives was to compete with them
+  in cruelty. One celebrated Indian-killer took great pride in a blanket
+  he had made from Indian scalps. The whites had learned scalping from
+  the Eastern Indians, but they themselves popularized it in
+  California....
+
+  “The Indians often plundered settlers’ cabins and stole livestock.
+  This was natural, since they regarded the whites as invaders.
+  Unfortunately, the settlers’ retaliation frequently consisted of
+  rounding up a gang of Indians and slaughtering them. And it didn’t
+  make too much difference whether they were the guilty Indians.
+  Professor Waterman wrote that the Yahi expressed their resentment of
+  the white men more violently than did the other Yana groups, but since
+  the Yahi moved around more and displayed greater skill in hiding out,
+  quite innocent groups of Indians often took the blame for the acts of
+  the Yahi. Professor Waterman cited the case of one white posse which
+  took to the trail following a series of Indian raids. The posse came
+  upon an encampment of Indians and shot about forty of them. But the
+  Indians had been camped in the same place for two nights, and the
+  whites later found a couple of almost-empty whiskey barrels there. It
+  doesn’t stand to reason, Professor Waterman pointed out, that Indians
+  skilled in warfare would be so careless after an attack on their
+  enemies.
+
+  “As the animosity between white men and red men grew, the atrocities
+  on both sides became revolting. White women and children were tortured
+  and killed by the Yana. But the anthropologists who have studied this
+  unpleasant phase of California history believe the whites invited such
+  savage assaults by their own brutal mistreatment of the Indians.
+
+  “... The Yana gradually took to the woods as it became obvious that
+  they were being outnumbered and decimated by the settlers in one
+  massacre after another. By the late 1860’s the Indians had been
+  reduced in numbers and intimidated to the point where they no longer
+  could be considered a serious menace to the people who had taken over
+  their hunting grounds. By then the Indians’ crimes were more on the
+  level of petty theft than major violence. The three Yana tribes had
+  become almost extinct as social organizations, but a fair number of
+  Yana-speaking individuals survived long after the turn of the century.
+
+  “With the Yahi tribe, however, it was a different story. For a long
+  time the Yahi—then called the Mill Creeks, because area around that
+  little stream was their principal hunting ground—for a long time, the
+  Yahi were believed to have been wiped out in a final massacre in
+  1865.... In 1871, a group of cattle-herders in Tehama County found a
+  spot where Indians apparently had wounded a steer. The whites used
+  dogs to follow the steer’s bloody trail, and cornered some thirty
+  Indians in a hillside cave. They promptly slaughtered the Indians,
+  including several children. The settlers’ peculiar idea of mercy was
+  pointed out by Professor Waterman’s informant, who noted that one of
+  the cattle-herders could not bear to kill the children with his .56
+  caliber rifle—‘it tore them up so bad’ he said. So he did it instead
+  with a .38 caliber revolver.... They call the rock shelter Kingsley
+  Cave after Norman Kingsley, the settler who ... supposedly ... shot
+  the Indian children. The Kingsley Cave site was apparently used for a
+  long time. Grinding tools of two different cultural periods were found
+  ... (by University of California Archeological Survey staff
+  excavations currently investigating the site).
+
+  (The Yahi were thought to have been completely wiped out by this last
+  unjustified atrocity, but in 1908) “... surveyors for a power company
+  in the hilly country around Deer Creek reported they had caught a
+  glimpse of a naked Indian standing poised near the stream with a
+  double-pronged primitive fishing spear. Next day, other members of the
+  party were startled when an arrow came whistling through the
+  underbrush at them—a stone-tipped arrow like those used by the
+  supposedly extinct Indians. The surveyors kept on pushing ahead, until
+  they came upon a cleverly concealed camp in the tangled woods. There
+  they found a middle-aged woman and two aged and feeble Indians, a man
+  and a woman. The old woman, hiding under a pile of rabbit skins,
+  apparently wanted water, and the surveyors gave her some after the old
+  man and the other woman had hidden in the underbrush. The surveyors
+  also carried off all the blankets, bows and arrows and other articles
+  in sight; but when they returned next day to make some sort of
+  restitution, the Indians had disappeared. They were never seen again,
+  even though the University later sent anthropologists in search of
+  them....
+
+  “... with the dawn of a clear August day in 1911.... The butchering
+  crew of a slaughterhouse near Oroville were awakened ... by a furious
+  barking of the dogs at the corral. They rushed into the corral to find
+  a man crouching in the mud, surrounded by the slaughterhouse shepherd
+  dogs. The butchers called off the dogs to get a closer look at their
+  guest—and a most unusual guest he was.
+
+  “The man’s only clothing was a piece of torn, dirty canvas across his
+  shoulders. His skin was sunburned to a copper brown, his hair was
+  clipped close to the skull, and he obviously was suffering from severe
+  malnutrition. His body was emaciated and his cheeks clung to the bones
+  to accentuate his furiously glaring eyes.
+
+  “But the strangest thing about this man was his speech. It was like
+  nothing the butchers had ever heard.... The sheriff tried English and
+  Spanish, then several Indian dialects. But he was unable to draw any
+  intelligible response from his prisoner. For lack of a better place to
+  put him, the sheriff locked him in the jail cell reserved for mental
+  cases, even though the man from the slaughterhouse appeared to be more
+  lost than insane.
+
+  “The ‘Wild Man of Oroville’ made good newspaper copy, and clippings
+  about his mysterious discovery caused much excitement in the
+  department of anthropology at the University of California. It was a
+  good thing that the news reached the University when it did. The
+  frightened wild man was cowering in his cell, refusing to accept food
+  from his captors whom he obviously distrusted, while the sheriff
+  vainly tried to identify him.
+
+  “The late Professor T. T. Waterman was especially excited. So excited,
+  in fact, that he stuffed a few clothes in his suitcase, quickly picked
+  out a list of words from the files on California Indian languages, and
+  caught the first train to Oroville for an interview with the prisoner.
+
+  “The reason for Professor Waterman’s excitement was that he believed
+  the Oroville prisoner was a Yahi Indian. If this guess was correct,
+  Waterman would have a major anthropological find. For anthropologists
+  are concerned with origins, development and variegated cultures of
+  mankind; and if the frightened prisoner in Oroville turned out to be a
+  Yahi, Professor Waterman and his colleagues would have a living
+  encyclopedia of the language, customs, and habits of a people who were
+  believed to be extinct ... he might be one of the little band reported
+  at Deer Creek (in 1908), perhaps the man with the fishing spear.
+
+  “The task of determining whether the prisoner was Yahi was complicated
+  by the fact that no one knew the Yahi language. This doesn’t sound
+  like an insuperable stumbling block, until you remember that the
+  California Indian languages were numerous and distinct; there were
+  over one hundred dialects, many of them mutually unintelligible. These
+  dialects were classified into eighteen major language groups, which in
+  turn made up six entirely different language families. These six
+  language families apparently are completely unrelated—a strange
+  circumstance, when you consider that almost all of the languages of
+  Europe can be traced to common origins.
+
+  “However, Professor Waterman was fortunate in one respect. A fairly
+  extensive word-list had been collected from the dialect of the Nozi
+  Indians who had once lived just to the north of the Yahi and were
+  their nearest relatives. Both the Yahi and the Nozi belonged to the
+  Yana language stock, which stemmed from the widespread Hokan family.
+  So Professor Waterman relied on Nozi words to make the identification.
+
+  “At first, the prisoner in Oroville seemed as frightened of Professor
+  Waterman as he had been of all the other white men. Patiently, the
+  anthropologist proceeded through his list of Nozi words, but the
+  captive Indian apparently recognized none of them. At last, though,
+  the professor pointed to the wooden frame of the Indian’s cot, and
+  pronounced the word ‘si’wi’ni,’ which according to his list meant
+  ‘yellow pine’. Immediately, the Indian relaxed. His harried, unhappy
+  look turned to beaming good cheer, and he acted as if he had found a
+  long-lost friend. Pointing to his cot, he repeated Professor
+  Waterman’s word ‘si’wi’ni’ several times, as if agreeing that, yes,
+  his cot was yellow pine. His own language differed from that of the
+  Nozi, but some of the vocabulary was the same. Professor Waterman had
+  struck upon one of the right words; later, he pronounced more familiar
+  words, and it was established that the Indian was a Yahi. He also
+  managed to explain that he called himself ‘Ishi’, which meant simply,
+  ‘I am a man’.
+
+  “Professor Waterman was naturally elated with his new-found
+  acquaintance. The Butte County sheriff was equally elated to be rid of
+  his difficult charge, so Ishi was taken to the Museum, then located in
+  San Francisco, for further study and interrogation.
+
+  “Thus it happened that this human relic of the Stone Age came to live
+  at a modern university. The Regents of the University gave Ishi some
+  official status by appointing him an assistant janitor at $25 a month.
+  But his value to the University did not come from dexterity with a mop
+  and broom; he was valued because he could tell the anthropologists
+  about his people, preserving knowledge which otherwise would have died
+  with his fellow-tribesmen.
+
+  “Ishi adapted himself well to this new life, and he was a friendly and
+  popular fixture at the museum for five years. He picked up the white
+  man’s ways by watching the people around him; at his first civilized
+  dinner, he imitated his hosts’ motions and managed a knife and fork
+  far more skilfully than most of us can handle chopsticks in a Chinese
+  restaurant. He was delighted and awe-stricken by many of the
+  developments of civilization; but the things that impressed him most
+  were not what the anthropologists had expected. Electric lights,
+  airplanes, and automobiles made little impression; they were
+  completely beyond his range of experience, and he dismissed them as
+  ‘white man’s magic’, worthy of little attention. The tall buildings in
+  downtown San Francisco did not startle him; as he explained, his own
+  country had cliffs and crags just as high. But what really amazed him
+  about the city were the enormous crowds of people on the streets. He
+  had seen people before, of course, but never more than twenty or
+  thirty in one place.
+
+  “In general, the things that Ishi considered most remarkable were
+  things which approached something in his own experience. He knew how
+  hard it was to start a fire by friction, so pocket matches were indeed
+  a wonder. Water faucets which could be turned on and off were likewise
+  marvelous; why, the white man could make a spring, right there in the
+  house! One of the first modern devices to catch Ishi’s babbled
+  attention was an ordinary window roller shade. He tried to push it
+  aside, but it flipped back; he lifted it, but it fell down. Finally
+  someone showed him how to give it a little tug and let it roll itself
+  up, and Ishi was amazed. A half-hour later, he was still trying to
+  figure out what had happened to the shade.
+
+  “Ishi and his hosts learned to communicate with each other fairly
+  adequately; he never became accustomed to formal grammar, but he
+  picked up a vocabulary large enough to express his wishes and his
+  comments about the things around him. Actually, the anthropologists
+  admitted, Ishi learned to speak English far better than any of them
+  were able to learn Yahi. They suspected that some of his vocabulary
+  was acquired from the school children who used to visit him, for it
+  included a fair sampling of most unacademic slang.
+
+  “There were some things Ishi didn’t like to talk about—the death of
+  his relatives and the last horrible years around Deer Creek before he
+  wandered to the Oroville slaughterhouse—were subjects he found too
+  painful. Besides, there was a tribal taboo against mentioning the
+  names of the dead. His close-cropped head, incidentally, was the
+  result of burning off his hair in mourning for his mother and sister,
+  in accordance with tribal custom.
+
+  “But the knowledge which Ishi passed on was rich and varied.... Among
+  the contributions for which Ishi is remembered are some of the finest
+  arrowheads and spear tips in existence; he made these for the
+  University Museum both of modern bottle glass and from the natural
+  materials.... In fact, Ishi was the source of almost all that is known
+  of Yahi life. He gladly described the customs of his people, and he
+  enjoyed chipping out Stone Age weapons and showing how they were used.
+  With primitive drawings, he tried to tell the story of the massacre
+  which wiped out most of his tribe....
+
+  “Ishi’s own life ended in March 1916, when he died of tuberculosis. He
+  was then believed to be in his 50’s. Those who knew him at the
+  University considered his death a great loss—not only because of what
+  he had contributed to anthropology, but because he had a natural
+  friendliness and dignity which made him a beloved personality.
+  Professor A. L. Kroeber once told me: ‘The manner in which he
+  acquitted himself, both from the scientific and social points of view,
+  was so admirable that everyone who chanced to meet him counted it a
+  privilege to be his friend’. And Ishi had the comforting knowledge
+  that his departure from this earth would not be a completely alien
+  one. Because he had passed on the elements of his culture, it was
+  possible to bury him with all the ceremony of his own people. His bows
+  and arrows were laid beside him, and some bowls of food were placed in
+  the grave so he would not grow hungry on his long journey to the Happy
+  Hunting Ground....
+
+  “Ishi was not only the last survivor of the Yahi ... but he was also
+  believed to (have been) the last representative of the Stone Age in
+  the United States.”
+
+While not apropos to the subject of this chapter, “Pioneer Conflict...”
+we digress with some quotations from Pope’s “Medical History of Ishi” to
+give the reader a better understanding of this last of the Mill Creek
+Indians, his character, and his beliefs.
+
+  “... Ishi himself later made the statement that he was not sick but
+  had no food. White men had taken his bow and arrows; game was scarce,
+  and he had no means of procuring it. He had strayed from his usual
+  trail, between Deer Creek and ... Lassen (Peak). The railroad on one
+  side and a large river on the other kept him from making his way to
+  the refuge of the hills. His fear of trains and automobiles seems to
+  have been considerable in those days.
+
+  “Upon being captured, Ishi, according to his own account, was
+  handcuffed, confronted by guns and pistols, and intimidated to such an
+  extent that he vomited with fear....
+
+  “About this time (fall, 1912) I became instructor in surgery in the
+  University Medical School, and thus came in contact with the Indian.
+
+  “From the first weeks of our intimacy a strong friendship grew up
+  between us, and I was from that time on his physician, his confidant,
+  and his companion in archery....
+
+  “The Museum (of Anthropology) is near the Hospital, and since Ishi had
+  been made a more or less privileged character in the hospital wards,
+  he often came into the surgical department. Here he quietly helped the
+  nurses clean instruments, or amused the internes and nurses by singing
+  his Indian songs, or carried on primitive conversation by means of a
+  very complex mixture of gesture, Yana dialect, and the few scraps of
+  English he had acquired in his contact with us.
+
+  “His affability and pleasant disposition made him a universal
+  favorite. He visited the sick in the wards with a gentle and
+  sympathetic look which spoke more clearly than words. He came to the
+  women’s wards quite regularly, and with his hands folded before him,
+  he would go from bed to bed like a visiting physician, looking at each
+  patient with quiet concern or with a fleeting smile that was very
+  kindly received and understood.
+
+
+                        “ISHI’S MEDICAL BELIEFS”
+
+  “Women—Ishi had many of our own obsolete superstitions regarding
+  women. One criticism he made of white man’s civilization was the
+  unbridled liberty we give menstruating women. The ‘Sako mahale’, as he
+  designated them, were a cause of much ill luck and sickness. They
+  should be in seclusion during this period. In fact, he often commented
+  on the number of sick men that came to the hospital. I asked him what
+  he thought made so many men sick. He said it was ‘Sako mahale, too
+  much wowi (houses), too much automobile,’ and last but most important
+  of all, the ‘Coyote doctor’, or evil spirit.
+
+  “Dogs—Playing with dogs, and letting them lick one’s hand, Ishi said
+  was very bad. He assured me that to let babies play with dogs this way
+  led to paralysis. It is interesting to note that Dr. R. H. Gibson of
+  Fort Gibson, Alaska, has reported the coincidence of poliomyelitis
+  among the Tanana Indians and the occurrence of distempers in dogs.
+
+  “Rattlesnakes—Ishi’s treatment for rattlesnake bite was to bind a toad
+  or frog on the affected area. This is interesting in the light of the
+  experiments of Madame Phisalix of the Pasteur Institute, who
+  demonstrated the antidotal properties of salamandrin, an extract
+  obtained from salamander skin, and the natural immunity that the
+  salamander has to viper venom. Macht and Abel have obtained a similar
+  powerful alkaloid from the toad _Bufo nigra_, called bufagin, which
+  has some of the properties of strychnin and adrenalin. It has been
+  used as an arrow poison by South American aborigines. Experiments
+  which I conducted with salamandrin as an antidote to crotalin, show
+  that it has a pronounced protective and curative value in the
+  immunization of guinea pigs and in their cure after being bitten by
+  the rattlesnake. It is, however, too dangerous and potent a poison
+  itself to be of any practical value.
+
+  “When out camping we killed and cooked a rattlesnake or ‘kemna’. Ishi
+  refused not only to taste it, but also to eat from the dishes in which
+  it had been cooked. We ate it, and found that it tasted like rabbit or
+  fish. Ishi expected us to die. That we did not do so he could only
+  explain on the grounds that I was a medicine man and used magic
+  protection.
+
+  “Moon—Ishi held the superstition common among uneducated Caucasians,
+  that it is unwholesome to sleep with the moon shining on one’s face,
+  so he covered his head completely under his blankets when sleeping in
+  the open.
+
+  “Hygiene—Ishi had wholesome notions of hygiene. When out hunting he
+  has several times stopped me from drinking water from a stream which
+  he thought had been contaminated by dwelling houses above.
+
+  “His residence in the Museum caused many misgivings in his mind. The
+  presence of all the bones of the dead, their belongings, and the
+  mummies were ever a source of anxiety to him. He locked his bedroom
+  door at night to keep out spirits. When we stored our camping
+  provender temporarily in the Museum bone room, Ishi was not only
+  disgusted but genuinely alarmed. It was only after the reassurance
+  that the ‘bunch a mi si tee’ could not enter through the tin of the
+  cans that he was relieved.
+
+  “Surgery—On some of his visits to the University Hospital, Ishi gazed
+  through the glass-panelled door of the operating room and watched the
+  less grewsome scenes therein, wondering no doubt what was the meaning
+  of this work ... and his questions afterward, though few and
+  imperfectly understood, showed that he marveled most at the
+  anaesthetic and that he debated the advisability of such surgical
+  work.
+
+  “Once he saw me remove a diseased kidney. He viewed the sleeping man
+  with deep wonder. He seemed interested at the methods we employed to
+  prevent hemorrhage. For days afterwards he asked me if the patient
+  still lived, and seemed incredulous when I said he did. When he saw an
+  operation for the removal of tonsils he asked me why it was done. I
+  told him of the pain and soreness which was indicative of disease, and
+  necessitated the operation. He conveyed to me the information that
+  among his people tonsillitis was cured by rubbing honey on the neck,
+  and blowing ashes down the throat through a hollow stick or quill; no
+  operations were necessary.
+
+  “The only surgical operation with which he seemed familiar was
+  scarification. This was accomplished by means of small flakes of
+  obsidian and had as its purpose the strengthening of the arms and legs
+  of men about to go out on a hunt.
+
+  “Herbs—His own knowledge of the use of medicinal herbs was
+  considerable, as we learned later when he went back to Deer Creek
+  canyon with us on a three weeks’ camping trip, here he designated
+  scores of plants that were of technical, medicinal, or economic value.
+  But he put very little faith in these things. The use of herbs and
+  drugs seems to have been the province of old women in the tribe.
+
+  “There was a hole in the septum of his nose which he had used as a
+  receptacle for a small piece of wood, as well as for holding
+  ornaments. When he had a cold he placed in this spot a twig of baywood
+  or juniper, and indicated to me that this was medicine. It served very
+  much with him as menthol inhalers do with us. Its influence was
+  largely psychic but agreeable.
+
+  “Magic—The real medicine was magic. The mysteries of the k’uwi, or
+  medicine man, were of much greater value than mere dosing. Their
+  favorite charms seem to have been either blowing of smoke and ashes in
+  certain directions to wield a protective or curative influence, or the
+  passing of coals of fire through themselves or their patients by means
+  of sleight of hand. They also sucked out small bits of obsidian or
+  cactus thorns from their clients, averring that these were the
+  etiological factors of sickness.
+
+  “The principal cause of pain, according to Ishi, was the entrance of
+  these spines, thorns, bee stings, or, as he called them, ‘pins’, into
+  the human frame. The medicine man sucked them out, or plucked them
+  while they were floating in the air in the vicinity of the sick man.
+  They were then deposited in a small container, usually made of the
+  dried trachea of a bird, or of a large artery. The ends of this tube
+  were sealed with pitch or some form of a stopper and the whole thing
+  taken possession of by the doctor, thus keeping the ‘materia morbosa’
+  where it could do no further harm.
+
+  “The fact that I was able to do sleight of hand: vanish coins, change
+  eggs into paper, swallow impossible objects at will, and perform
+  similar parlor magic, convinced Ishi that I was a real doctor, much
+  more than any medication or surgery at my command. He came,
+  nevertheless, to our clinic whenever he had a headache, or a bruised
+  member, or lumbago, and accepted our services with due faith.
+
+
+                        “ISHI’S PERSONAL HABITS”
+
+  “Sleep—... he slept between blankets in preference to sheets. He had
+  several flannelette nightshirts but he preferred to sleep naked....
+
+  “Clothing—... At first he was offered moccasins, but refused to wear
+  them. He wanted to be like other people. Usually he wore a bright
+  colored necktie and sometimes a hat, when he was going down town ...
+  cotton shirts and (cotton) trousers were his choice. He used a pocket
+  handkerchief in the most approved manner, and because of his frequent
+  colds he needed it often.
+
+  “Modesty—Ishi, strange to say, was very modest. Although he went
+  practically naked in the wilds, and, as described by Waterman, upon
+  his first appearance in Deer Creek Canyon he was seen altogether nude,
+  nevertheless, his first request after being captured was for a pair of
+  overalls. He was quite careful to cover his genitalia; when changing
+  clothes, assumed protective attitudes, and when swimming in the
+  mountain streams with us wore an improvised breech clout even though
+  his white companions abandoned this last vestige of respectability.
+
+  “Toilet—When well he bathed nearly every day, and he always washed his
+  hands before meals. He was very tidy and cleanly in all his personal
+  habits. When camping, he was the only man in our outfit who got up
+  regularly and bathed in the cold mountain stream every morning.
+
+  “Ishi was an expert swimmer.... He used a side stroke and sometimes a
+  modified breast stroke, but no overhand or fancy strokes; nor did he
+  dive. He swam under water with great facility and for long distances.
+  The rapids of Deer Creek were rather full yet he swam them, and
+  carried my young son hanging to his hair.
+
+  “When he was sick he resented being bathed except when ordered by the
+  nurse or doctor. Like many other primitive people, he considered
+  bathing injurious in the presence of fever. He never attempted to take
+  a sweat bath while in civilization, but often spoke of them. I never
+  saw him brush his teeth, but he rubbed them with his finger, and they
+  always seemed clean. He washed his mouth out with water after meals.
+
+  “His beard was sparse but he plucked it systematically by catching
+  individual hairs between the blade of a dull jack-knife and his thumb.
+  In his native state he used a sort of tweezers made of a split piece
+  of wood. He did this work without the use of a mirror.
+
+  “He combed and brushed his hair daily. He washed it frequently.... At
+  first he had no dandruff, but after two or three years’ contact with
+  the whites he had some dry seborrhoea, and began to get a trifle gray
+  at the temples ... he used grease on his scalp when in his native
+  state; whereas bay leaves and bay nuts he said were heated and reduced
+  to a semi-solid state, when they were rubbed on the body after the
+  sweat bath. Here they acted as a soporific, or, as he said, like
+  whiskey, and the person thus anointed fell into a sweet slumber. The
+  same substance was rubbed on moccasins to make them waterproof.
+
+  “On one occasion he contracted ring worm, probably from a wandering
+  cat. He was given a sulphur salve for this, and after its cure he
+  still used the ointment to soften his hands.... He was not susceptible
+  to ‘poison oak’ ... nor to sunburn. His skin bleached out considerably
+  while in San Francisco, and became darker when exposed to sunlight.
+
+  “... (he) seemed to have the same fondness for sweet-scented soap that
+  Orientals manifest.
+
+  “His personal belongings he kept in a most orderly manner, everything
+  in his box being properly folded and arranged with care. Articles
+  which he kept outside of this box he wrapped in newspaper and laid in
+  systematic arrangement on shelves in his room.
+
+  “In working on arrows or flaking obsidian, he was careful to place
+  newspapers on the floor to catch his chips. In fact, neatness and
+  order seemed to be part of his self-education.
+
+  “In the preparation of food and the washing of dishes he was very
+  orderly and clean.
+
+  “Diet—... After a certain period of this luxury (eating heavily) he
+  discerned the folly of this course and began eating less, when his
+  metabolism returned to a more normal balance. Part of this increase
+  was due to the large quantities of water he drank. Being unaccustomed
+  to salt, our seasoning was excessive and led to increased hydration of
+  his bodily tissues. He had a great fondness for sweets.... He tried
+  and liked nearly all kinds of foods, but seemed to have an aversion
+  for custards, blanc manges, and similar slimy confections, nor could
+  he be persuaded to drink milk. He contended that this was made for
+  babies, while he said that butter ruined the singing voice....
+
+  “Matches he took up with evident delight; they were such a contrast to
+  the laborious methods of the fire drill, or of nursing embers, which
+  he employed in the wilds.
+
+  “... His meat he boiled only about ten minutes, eating it practically
+  without seasoning.
+
+  “His own food in the wilds seems to have been fish, game, acorn meal,
+  berries, and many roots. Prominent among these latter was the bulb of
+  the _Brodiaea_. The Indian could go out on an apparently barren
+  hillside and with a sharp stick dig up enough _Brodiaea_ bulbs in an
+  hour to furnish food for a good meal. These roots are globular in
+  shape, with the appearance of an onion, ranging in size from a cherry
+  to a very small potato. The flavor when raw is like that of a potato,
+  and when cooked like a roasted chestnut.
+
+  “Alcohol—... Ishi himself had no liking for strong drink, although at
+  one time he purchased a few bottles of beer and drank small quantities
+  diluted with sugar and water. He called it medicine. His response to
+  my query regarding whiskey was, ‘Whiskey-tee crazy-aunatee, die man.’
+
+  “Tobacco—Occasionally Ishi smoked a cigarette, and he knew the use of
+  tobacco, having had access to the native herb in the wilds. But he
+  seldom smoked more than a few cigarettes a day, and frequently went
+  weeks without any. He disapproved of young people smoking. He chewed
+  tobacco at times, and spat copiously. Both of these indulgences,
+  however, he resorted to only when invited by some congenial friend.
+
+  “Etiquette—Although uncultured, he very quickly learned the proper use
+  of knife, fork, and spoon. His table manners were of the very best. He
+  often ate at my home, where he was extremely diffident; watched what
+  others did and then followed their examples, using great delicacy of
+  manner. His attitude toward my wife or any other woman member of the
+  household was one of quiet disinterest. Apparently his sense of
+  propriety prompted him to ignore her. If spoken to, he would reply
+  with courtesy and brevity, but otherwise he appeared not to see her.
+
+  “When he wanted to show his disapproval of anything very strongly, he
+  went through the pantomime of vomiting.
+
+  “Thrift—As janitor in the Museum, he was making a competent income,
+  understood the value of money, was very thrifty and saving, and looked
+  forward to the day when he could buy a horse and wagon. This seemed to
+  be the acme of worldly possession to him. He was very happy and well
+  contented, working a little, playing enough, and surrounded by
+  friends.
+
+
+                   “ISHI’S DISPOSITION AND MENTALITY”
+
+  “Disposition—In disposition the Yahi was always calm and amiable.
+  Never have I seen him vehement or angry. Upon rare occasions he showed
+  that he was displeased. If someone who he thought had no privilege
+  touched his belongings, he remonstrated with some show of excitement.
+  Although he had lived in part by stealing from the cabins of men who
+  had usurped his country, he had the most exacting conscience
+  concerning the ownership of property. He would never think of touching
+  anything that belonged to another person, and even remonstrated with
+  me if I picked up a pencil that belonged to one of the Museum force.
+  He was too generous with his gifts of arms, arrow-heads, and similar
+  objects of his handicraft.
+
+  “His temperament was philosophical, analytical, reserved, and
+  cheerful. He probably looked upon us as extremely smart. While we knew
+  many things, we had no knowledge of nature, no reserve; we were all
+  busy-bodies. We were, in fact, sophisticated children.
+
+  “His conception of immortality was that of his tribe, but he seemed to
+  grasp the Christian concept and asked me many questions concerning the
+  hereafter. He rather doubted that the White God cared much about
+  having Indians with Him, and he did not seem to feel that women were
+  properly eligible to Heaven. He once saw a moving picture of the
+  Passion Play. It affected him deeply. But he misconstrued the
+  crucifixion and assumed that Christ was a ‘bad man’.
+
+  “Use of tools—He was quite adept in the use of such simple tools as a
+  knife, handsaw, file, and hatchet. He early discovered the advantages
+  of a small bench vise, and it took the place of his big toe in holding
+  objects thereafter.... Journeys were measured by days or sleeps ...
+  (he) was awe-struck when I took him to a sawmill where large cedar
+  logs were brought in and rapidly sawed up into small bits to be used
+  in making lead pencils. It would have taken hours for him to fell even
+  a small tree, and an interminable length of time to split it. But here
+  was a miracle of work done in a few minutes. It impressed him
+  greatly....”
+
+In concluding remarks on Indian conflict with pioneer, a word concerning
+Indian reservations will not be amiss. The author does best again in
+quoting, this time from Kroeber:
+
+  “The first reservations established by Federal officers in California
+  were little else than bull pens. They were founded on the principle,
+  not of attempting to do something for the native, but of getting him
+  out of the white man’s way as cheaply and hurriedly as possible. The
+  reason that the high death rate that must have prevailed among these
+  makeshift assemblages was not reported on more emphatically is that
+  the Indians kept running away even faster than they could die.
+
+  “The few reservations that were made permanent have on the whole had a
+  conserving influence on the population after they once settled into a
+  semblance of reasonable order. They did little enough for the Indian
+  directly; but they gave him a place which he could call his own, and
+  where he could exist in security and in contact with his own kind....”
+
+Despite certain undesirable features of Indian Reservations, the general
+conclusion is that for a number of tribes survival has been considerably
+greater today than would have been the case if the Indians had had to
+shift for themselves in competition with the whites.
+
+
+
+
+                               Chapter VI
+                                HUNTING
+
+
+Hunting was obviously a very important activity of the Lassen Indians,
+not only for survival, but as a means of acquiring the comfort and
+security which success brought. Also a good hunter was held in high
+esteem socially.
+
+Deer were most sought and the hunter went to considerable effort to get
+“deer power” (a sort of guardian spirit) to possess him. This gave him
+skill and good luck. Generally only men hunted, sometimes individually,
+at other times in small or large groups.
+
+Before going hunting tobacco was often smoked ceremonially with prayers
+and singing while the shaman (medicine man) supervised and the hunters’
+bodies were anointed with medicine. Weapons to be used were smoked over
+a fire, while the hunters talked to their bows and arrows about the
+coming hunt. Frequently Atsugewi, Yana, and Yahi hunters also cut
+themselves until they bled. This was true especially if their
+marksmanship had not been good of late. Cuts were made in the forearm
+and charcoal was rubbed in. They often took sweat baths too before
+hunting, but the Maidu did not. The latter, however, offered shell beads
+to help increase deer power. Atsugewi hunters left offerings of paint,
+tobacco, and eagle-down at certain spots in the mountains for luck.
+
+After a youth killed his first game, Maidu and Atsugewi switched him, a
+bow string being commonly used. Then the Atsugewi father talked to his
+son, blew smoke on him, and sent him out alone into the mountains for at
+least five days to seek power. Yana and Yahi youths were not permitted
+to touch, skin, or eat any of their first kill of each kind of animal,
+lest it spoil their luck. In these tribes the father skinned the animal
+and dressed the hide, teaching his son how this was done.
+
+After hunting there were often cleansing activities and ceremonies, and
+usually a division of meat although a lone hunter could retain all of
+it. It was considered quite bad to come home empty handed. After a bear
+had been killed he was spoken to kindly and in sympathetic terms. Deer
+eyes were often eaten to give good sharp eyesight to the eater.
+
+In a popular method of deer hunting by all Indians of the Lassen area, a
+deer head disguise was worn by the hunter. He approached his quarry
+cautiously using screening bushes and moving his antlered head above
+them to simulate a buck feeding. Sometimes the hunter carried brush
+along in front of himself. The mountain Maidu always used the whole
+deerskin for disguise. When close enough the hunter would shoot with bow
+and arrow. Since this was a nearly silent weapon, there was no noise to
+startle the deer, and so it was sometimes possible to slay two or three
+deer on one occasion.
+
+Atsugewi hunters might encircle a small brush covered or wooded
+mountain. They set many fires, leaving non-burning gaps where bowmen hid
+in holes. The deer were shot as they came out of the burning area.
+
+Mountain Maidu sometimes concealed themselves in pits near deer licks
+where they shot the animals in moonlight.
+
+Another hunting method was to drive deer along fences built of brush or
+stone or along ropes to which bunches of tules were tied as hanging
+streamers. Strategically placed hunters in shallow pits shot the driven
+deer as they passed through openings which had been left. Dogs were
+frequently used in hunting out and in driving deer.
+
+The brush deer-blind along a well traveled deer trail was used too, as
+well as hanging a noose in the deer trail to snare the deer. Still
+another means of taking deer was like that of the northern neighbors of
+the Atsugewi, the Pit River Tribe or Achomawi. They employed a six or
+seven foot deep pit about nine feet long dug with slightly undercut side
+walls. This opening was covered and concealed with poles, brush, and
+dirt. As the deer trotted along established trails over the disguised
+pitfalls they fell through. Or, deer might be driven to such pits,
+sometimes with the aid of converging walls or fences in conjunction with
+pitfalls. Deer trapped in these pitfalls were killed by strangling from
+above with ropes.
+
+Another popular way to secure deer was to follow the animal for one or
+more days. The pursuing Indian carried a small amount of food which he
+ate to sustain himself while moving. The deer, although swifter afoot
+than the hunter, was persistently followed at a steady pace. The animal
+did not get a chance to feed properly nor to rest. At length the deer
+became weakened to the point where the hunter could approach and shoot
+it at close range.
+
+If a hunter were fairly close to a deer and it was moving, he might
+shout at it, causing the deer to stop momentarily out of curiosity. This
+provided a better chance of bringing the quarry down with bow and arrow.
+Deer were sometimes lured closer by whistling with lips, blowing on a
+leaf or grass blade held in the hands, or by imitating the cry of a
+fawn. A hunter is said occasionally to have been able to sing to a group
+of deer, holding their attention while he cautiously approached within
+arrow range.
+
+If practical, deer or other game was killed by driving the animals over
+cliffs. Elk, mountain sheep, antelope, and reportedly occasionally even
+bison were hunted by one or more of the means. Except for the case of
+mountain sheep, such animals were probably rare within the territories
+of the tribes being considered.
+
+Meat of such large game was prepared for eating after skinning by
+roasting in the earth pit ovens to be described in succeeding chapters
+or by cutting up and boiling. Much venison and the like was also stored
+for winter use. In this case the meat was cut into strips and dried in
+the sun or on wooden frames over fires. This was not a smoking, but
+rather a drying process. Such jerked meat was stored in large, tightly
+woven baskets. Meat fresh or dried was almost invariably eaten with
+acorn mush.
+
+Bear hunting was common among tribes of the Lassen area. The American
+Black Bear is not aggressive and by no means always black. He is of
+moderately large size and often is light or dark brown in color. Indians
+liked to hunt the Black Bear in winter, two hunters entering the
+hibernating den. One carried a torch and the other a bow and arrow. They
+rolled a large block of wood in front of them and shot the bear at point
+blank range, then quickly ran out. Wounded, frightened, and in a
+semi-stupor, the bear usually stumbled over the wooden block. If he did
+not die in the den, but came out, he was shot by other waiting hunters.
+Mountain Maidu instead of entering the den smoked the bear out with
+pitchy torches planted at the den entrance.
+
+The California Grizzly was much larger, fiercer, and more aggressive.
+This grizzly is now extinct, but was common especially in the foothill
+and lower mountain slopes of California before the coming of the white
+man. Grizzlies were normally engaged only by a large group of hunters
+and after considerable ceremonial preparation. Hunters never entered the
+den. Two stout poles were crossed in front of the opening with one or
+two men holding each—a dangerous job. The bear was spoken to nicely and
+urged to come out which he usually soon did. As the bear started to
+climb over the poles at the den entrance, the Indians pushed up forcing
+the bear’s body against the roof so that he could most easily be shot.
+If this maneuver was not successful, a brave hunter enticed the bear to
+pursue him while the others shot arrows into the grizzly. Especially
+sharp and heavily poisoned arrow points were used on grizzly bear by the
+Atsugewi.
+
+It was believed that a man who drank fresh bear blood would be very
+healthy thereafter, if he were strong enough. If he were weak, however,
+drinking the blood would kill him promptly.
+
+Mountain lion were tracked, sometimes with dogs, sometimes in the snow,
+then treed and shot. Wildcats were generally killed in the same way. A
+hunter might coax a mountain lion to leap at him by simulating a deer
+feeding, using the deer head and skin disguise, but this was a dangerous
+practice.
+
+Except in the eastern part of Atsugewi territory where the Apwaruge
+lived, rabbits were not plentiful. Yana, Yahi, and Maidu hunted them
+more, driving cottontail, snowshoe, and jack rabbits into long nets and
+clubbing them to death. In the winter rabbits were sometimes tracked and
+shot with bow and untipped arrows.
+
+Other small mammals were shot, caught by dogs, and dug, smoked, or
+drowned out of burrows. A stick split at the end was thrust into a
+burrow and by twisting was entangled in the creature’s fur sufficiently
+to drag him out. Ground squirrels could be outrun and killed by stepping
+on them. Skunks, badgers, rats, and more often porcupines were eaten—the
+latter being clubbed or stoned to death.
+
+Small and medium sized animals were also caught under stone or log
+deadfalls which were propped up to drop on the victim while it was
+traveling along a runway, crossing a stream on a log, or when the animal
+pulled on a baited trigger. Similar placing was used for setting spring
+snares which took advantage of bent tree limbs for power. Long fences
+with nooses placed in gaps were used for rabbits, quail, and the like,
+and on occasion for creatures as large as deer. Some nooses were even
+operated by hand from a place of hiding.
+
+Birds of all sorts were caught too, but live or imitation decoys were
+never employed as lures. Woodpeckers were removed from the nest by hand
+or else a noose was hung around the nest opening. Some birds were taken
+in basketry traps. Waterfowl were shot with bow and arrow and the young
+were run down. Eggs were also taken. Some ducks were speared at night
+from canoes or driven into nets by use of a canoe with fire at one end.
+Frequently nets or snares were suspended at intervals just above a
+stream where waterfowl commonly alighted. Ducks and geese were also
+driven into the traps in taking off from the water.
+
+Grouse and small birds like robins and blackbirds were shot with blunt
+or untipped arrows, usually of one-piece construction.
+
+It is interesting to note that in contrast to other local tribes, the
+Yana and Yahi tribes did not employ the following hunting techniques:
+burning brush, using bird snaring booths, nets for ducks, geese,
+rabbits, or deer, nor was game driven into enclosures or quail secured
+by use of net traps or drive fences. Furthermore Yana and Yahi did not
+believe that game was immortal.
+
+    [Illustration: Atsugewi Snare set on a log lying across a stream.]
+
+It was not an uncommon practice, especially among the mountain Maidu, to
+frequently burn off their lands to make for easier travel and to
+minimize the possibility of ambush by enemies. The frequent “light”
+burnings do not seem to have generated enough heat to have destroyed the
+forests. Never the less this practice is not regarded as a wise
+conservation as it is definitely injurious to tree and much other plant
+reproduction as well as being destructive of organic material in the
+soil, damaging the watershed and being unfavorable to certain animal
+species, as well as accelerating erosion.
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter VII
+                                FISHING
+
+
+Fishes were one of the four important food categories consumed by
+Indians of the Lassen region. Land-locked and other non-migratory
+Rainbow Trout were abundantly available in mountain streams and in some
+lakes. Steelhead Trout penetrated the territories of our four tribes
+too. Salmon, however, did not go so far upstream, only rarely coming up
+Hat Creek, for instance, into Atsugewi lands. For the most part this
+tribe of Indians visited the Pit River to the north in the autumn. They
+paid the Achomawi, through whose territory this fine salmon stream
+flowed, for the privilege of catching salmon by giving up a share of the
+catch to them. The larger streams in south Yana, Yahi, and mountain
+Maidu country contained salmon and steelhead, but it seems that these
+tribes also made bargains with the Valley Indians for salmon fishing
+privileges or else made fishing forays to the Sacramento River.
+
+    [Illustration: Atsugewi Bow-type net. This kind was usually used in
+    small streams where it covered the full width of the stream bed.
+    Fish were commonly driven into it, then the handle was raised.]
+
+Gill nets about three feet high and as much as 30 feet long were
+commonly used. Spawning trout in the spring were speared in large
+numbers. Although old informants have denied the practice,
+Boonookoo-ee-menorra (Mrs. Selina La Marr of the Atsugewi) tells of
+catching Rainbow Trout by hand from Manzanita Creek banks about fifty
+years ago when her family came up in the summer to fish. Trout were
+speared by the Atsugewi with two pointed or four pointed spears instead
+of the common single pointed version. Bone or Serviceberry wood might be
+used for the tips. Spears were used not only from stream banks, but,
+especially at night, from a canoe equipped with a torch in front. One
+man or more would spear the fish while a person, sometimes a woman,
+paddled the craft from the rear. The torch consisted of four
+mountain-mahogany sticks bound together with pitch down the center.
+
+    [Illustration: A northeast Maidu bow-fish net about forty inches
+    long. It was used for fish other than salmon. Northwest and southern
+    Maidu did not use such nets, employing seine nets instead (after
+    Dixon).]
+
+It is interesting to note that the practice of shooting fish with bow
+and arrow was not carried on by any tribes of the Lassen area, although
+the eastern people of the Pit River Indians (Achomawi), the western
+Shasta, Wintu, and foothill Maidu did do so.
+
+Only Atsugewi, of the tribes we are considering, trapped fish in
+converging weirs into which fish might be driven. In the autumn, streams
+were sometimes diverted by damming. The fish trapped in the ponds
+remaining were scooped out with baskets or nets. Mountain Maidu drove
+fish into traps and caught lamprey eels in dip or scoop nets. Bow-type
+nets illustrated in the text were used with the bow bent ends down
+resting on the bed of the stream, the pole being raised to trap the
+fish. The net was preferably as wide as the stream.
+
+All local tribes fished with lines and hooks which were made by lashing
+a sharp piece of bone to a section of twig, at an acute angle. Atsugewi
+and mountain Maidu also used a “gorge” for angling. This was a slender
+piece of bone two or three inches long fastened near the middle and
+sharpened at both ends. Hooks were sometimes baited with meat,
+grasshoppers, or large flies, but man-made “flies” as fishermen know
+them today were not used. Sometimes meat or grasshopper bait was used by
+Atsugewi on fish-lines without any hook. Atsugewi women occasionally
+fished with baskets and with hook and line. Hooks were often tied in a
+series on a line attached either on both banks of the stream or to a
+pole secured in the bank or tied to tules or to brush, and left over
+night. A series of basket traps was sometimes likewise stretched across
+a stream.
+
+    [Illustration: A Klamath fish hook similar to those used by local
+    tribes. Single barbed hooks were also employed.]
+
+Salmon fishing was done largely with harpoons which differ from spears
+in having one or more movable barbs or toggles of bone. These opened
+when the harpoon was pulled back (outward in the victim) thus securing
+the catch all the more firmly. This was necessary for such large and
+heavy fish as salmon. Yana tribes caught their salmon with either hook
+and line or by spearing with a two pointed harpoon.
+
+Natural falls were favored fishing sites. There Indians caught salmon
+and steelhead trout as the fish attempted to scale the falls. Long
+handled nets were used. Atsugewi went so far as to build scaffoldings to
+assist either in this method of fishing or from which to harpoon large
+fish. In the latter case many whitish rocks, where available, were
+thrown into the stream to build up a light colored bottom for better
+visibility in harpooning or spearing.
+
+After the fish were caught they were killed by striking with a stick as
+a general practice. Mountain Maidu sometimes killed fish by striking
+their heads on rocks. The central Yana, interestingly enough, killed
+fish by biting them!
+
+In quiet portions of streams fish were poisoned by placing certain
+pounded plant materials in the water. Yana and Yahi used crushed
+Soaproot; Atsugewi used pulverized Wild Parsley. Wild Parsley
+application made the water bluish, and caused the fish soon to rise to
+the surface of the water floating belly-up. Where suitable quiet pools
+did not exist in a stream, they were sometimes formed by the Indians
+through temporary damming. Buckeye nut pulp, which is poisonous, was not
+used in this area for poisoning fish.
+
+Long basketry fish traps, usually constructed by men, were also
+utilized. The design and proportions of these varied with the tribe.
+
+Each of the Lassen area tribes had taboos which prevented youths, and in
+the case of Atsugewi, their parents too, from eating the first fish each
+youth caught.
+
+    [Illustration: Plan of Maidu open basketry fish trap (after Dixon)
+    several feet long. The pointed end was untied to extract the fish.]
+
+Chubs and minnows, spurned by white man, were driven into nets and
+eaten. At lower elevations, where waters were warmer and sluggish,
+suckers provided a common source of food fish. The Indians also not
+infrequently dove for crawfish and fresh water mussels. These were
+gathered in net sacks by male Indians of all local tribes. Yana and Yahi
+roasted mussels but did not boil them and never dried them for later
+use. A flat rock might be carried on the shoulders to assist the diving
+Indians.
+
+Some fish were cooked by roasting over coals or by boiling. Most trout,
+however, were cleaned, head and backbone removed, and then strung up on
+poles to dry. No salt was used in the process. The dried fish was
+carried to camp or village in large baskets. Dried trout was tied into
+small bales for storage and placed in baskets or in pits dug in the
+ground for safe-keeping. Salmon were usually cooked in earth pit ovens,
+then dried and crumbed by Atsugewi and mountain Maidu for later use.
+This was of necessity an autumnal activity. Yana and Yahi stored their
+salmon in dried slabs, pulverizing it as needed.
+
+    [Illustration: Atsugewi basketry fish trap (after Garth).]
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter VIII
+                GATHERING AND PREPARATION OF OTHER FOODS
+
+
+As has been pointed out earlier under “California Indians”, these tribes
+had a common food pattern. Although there was some difference in the
+relative importance of the four major types of food to the several
+tribes due to varying availability, the California Indians ate (1) game,
+especially deer, (2) fish, particularly salmon and trout, (3) roots and
+bulbs which the women dug, and (4) fruits and seeds of a wide variety,
+the most important of which were acorns.
+
+Besides fish and venison, many kinds of flesh food were eaten by the
+Indians of the Lassen area: fox, wolf, grizzly and black bear, skunk,
+raccoon, porcupine, rabbit, owl, fish, fresh water mussel, and turtle
+being most common. They also ate with apparent relish a variety of
+insects and the like including crickets, grasshoppers, angleworms, red
+ant eggs, and yellow-jacket larvae.
+
+Game which was not eaten by either Atsugewi or mountain Maidu was
+coyote, elk, antelope, and all snakes and lizards. The last two items
+were almost universally shunned by California Indians. Many California
+tribes including Yana and Yahi refused to eat dog meat, some of them
+believing canine flesh to be poisonous. That mountain Maidu was one of
+the few tribes which ate dog flesh whenever it was available is denied
+by Dixon. Atsugewi ate it only as a last resort when rare, near-famine
+conditions prevailed or during times of severe epidemic. Canine flesh
+was believed by them to be a powerful and perhaps somewhat dangerous
+medicine. Buzzards seem to have been about the only birds which were not
+eaten.
+
+Each tribe had certain taboos on eating game. An Atsugewi did not, for
+example, eat wildcat, gopher, hawk, lamprey eel, or caterpillars.
+Mountain Maidu did not eat mountain lion, badger, raven, or crawfish.
+
+Heart of deer was taboo to all males among Atsugewi and to all children
+and youths of the mountain Maidu. The foetus of all animals and also
+deer fawns could not be eaten by any except Atsugewi, Yana, and Yahi old
+men and old women. Animal foetus was, however, allowed as food to all
+mountain Maidu adults. Bear foetus was skinned by Atsugewi and fed to
+old women because it was so tender. Likewise, Yana and Yahi made foetus
+soup for old folks to eat. Deer liver was taboo to Atsugewi boys and
+youths. Taboo also among Atsugewi was the eating of fish and deer meat
+together. Among mountain Maidu the eating of salt on bear meat was
+prohibited. Many other food combinations were outlawed by these and
+other California tribes.
+
+Deer backbone was ground up and eaten dry by mountain Maidu or molded
+into small cakes, then baked and eaten while Atsugewi would dry deer
+backbones with meat still adhering, grind it up, and then boil the meal
+before eating it. Yana also ate pulverized meal of other bones after
+cooking. Marrow was relished; it was a special delicacy for Yana
+children.
+
+Securing of large game and fish and their preparation has been described
+earlier.
+
+Such animals as wildcat, raccoons, foxes, et cetera were skinned and
+cooked in earth ovens by all local tribes. These were pits sometimes as
+much as six feet wide and lined with rocks. A large fire was built in
+the pit to thoroughly heat the rock lining, after which any unburned
+debris was removed. The animal to be roasted was laid in the pit on a
+layer of green pine needles, or various other leaves, depending upon the
+tribe. A large heated rock was placed inside the body cavity and smaller
+hot rocks were wedged under the fore and hind legs which were then all
+tied tightly together. A flat heated rock might be placed on top of the
+carcass and the whole was covered with pine needles and the like, and
+finally with hot ashes and sometimes dirt. The roasting proceeded for
+half a day or so. Blood and fat might be placed in the intestine
+membranes of larger animals (especially wildcat) to form sausage and
+cooked in ashes. Mountain Maidu also boiled blood for eating.
+
+Quills of porcupine and hair of badger, squirrel, or other small mammals
+might be singed off before cooking instead of skinning the animals.
+Ground squirrels were sometimes merely gutted and then roasted in ashes
+without further preparation. When Yana (and probably Yahi) did this,
+they then skinned the ground squirrels after cooking and mashed the
+whole bodies by pounding before eating them. Rabbits were roasted over
+coals and broken into pieces for eating. Both mountain Maidu and
+Atsugewi sometimes broiled small mammals on a single stick over coals.
+
+Turtles were cooked alive in hot ashes. If they crawled out they were
+pushed back in again.
+
+Duck eggs were boiled in baskets using hot rocks—cooked they would keep
+for a week or two. Yana tribes roasted quail eggs in ashes. Birds were
+gutted, feathers singed off in flames and roasted on sticks or roasted
+in oven pits. Roasting was invariably used for the large birds such as
+ducks, geese, and swans.
+
+Atsugewi practiced some fascinating gathering techniques in which they
+were not unique. Insects were gathered by both men and women.
+Grasshoppers and crickets not infrequently appeared in large numbers.
+These were collected early in the morning while still sluggish with
+cold. When very abundant they were scraped with sticks from branches of
+bushes into large burden baskets. During the heat of the day
+grasshoppers were effectively collected by singeing them. Some tribes
+merely burned dry grassy fields after which the insects were easily
+picked up. Atsugewi made a long willow “rope” to which many bunches of
+dry grass were fastened. This was set afire and men carrying this
+blazing band stretched tightly between them ran across open grassland
+where the grasshoppers were numerous. The insects jumped into the flames
+and were thus killed. Yana pulverized grasshoppers and other insects
+without cooking them.
+
+Atsugewi roasted crickets in the pit oven. These were then dried two
+days and finally eaten or stored. If they had been stored, they were
+pounded before being eaten.
+
+Salmon flies were plentiful along Pit River and Lost Creek (outside of
+the park). These were hand picked from the banks early in the morning.
+The wings were removed and the bodies boiled before eating by the
+Atsugewi.
+
+When yellow-jackets, always carnivorous (meat eaters), were seen buzzing
+about, Atsugewi would tie a white flower petal to a grasshopper leg.
+When the yellow-jacket picked this morsel up and flew away with it
+toward its nest, the Indians would run after the yellow-jacket which was
+easy to follow on account of the conspicuous flower petal it carried
+along. Thus yellow-jacket nests were found. A line was marked around the
+nest area with the fingers. This line was supposed to increase the size
+of the nest. Pine needles were then stacked over the nest and burned to
+kill the winged insects. This done, the nest was dug up and roasted
+alongside a fire, thus cooking the maggot-like grubs inside. These were
+considered to be quite a delicacy. According to Dixon, mountain Maidu
+young folks were denied this delicacy, but not so among the Yana. Dried
+grasshoppers, crickets, and yellow-jacket larvae were foods often used
+as items of trade.
+
+Angleworms were collected by first driving a digging stick a few inches
+into the moist soil, then moving the top about. The consequent
+disturbing of the ground made the worms crawl out. Although other
+California tribes made angleworm soup, Atsugewi, Yana, and probably Yahi
+sometimes roasted angleworms between hot rocks. Maidu reportedly dried
+worms for eating.
+
+Red ant eggs were eaten by Indians too. Atsugewi baked them in earth pit
+ovens, while mountain Maidu parched them with coals. Mountain Maidu also
+ate certain caterpillars, but the other tribes of the Lassen area did
+not.
+
+    [Illustration: A. Sharpened iron rod digging stick with pine cross
+    piece wrapped in coarse cotton cloth used for about forty years by
+    Mrs. Mullen of Hat Creek. Length about four feet.
+
+    B. Another recent mountain mahogany digging stick made by Mr. and
+    Mrs. Lyman LaMarr (Boonookoo-ee-menorra). The point of the green
+    wood was toughened in flame. Stick three and one half feet long.]
+
+Indians of this region did not carry on any agriculture, that is they
+did not plant crops for food or other purposes, but collected those
+which grew wild. It was, however, a common practice to burn some areas
+over regularly to stimulate growth of edible seed producing plants.
+Women always gathered the vegetable materials and prepared them for use.
+
+Roots and bulbs provided vital foods to the aborigines also. These were
+procured with a digging stick. In this region it was blunt at the top
+with a tapered point at the digging end. Atsugewi fastened a short cross
+piece on top to serve as a handle. The digging stick was made by this
+tribe of green mountain-mahogany wood with the digging point hardened by
+scorching in the flame. After the coming of white man, the same design
+was retained, but an iron rod replaced the mountain-mahogany digging
+shaft.
+
+In use, the digging stick was thrust into the ground next to the plant
+whose root was to be secured. The handle portion was worked sideways a
+couple of times, then pulled downward toward the operator. The point
+very effectively brought the root out of the ground. Roots were
+customarily tossed into a large cone-shaped carrying basket which was
+held in place on the digging woman’s back by a chest band over her
+chest. Some of the load in the basket might also be supported by a band
+from the basket over the Indian woman’s forehead.
+
+Roots were cleaned by rubbing (sometimes with sand) in a shallow
+bowl-shaped basket of a rough coarse mesh weave of willow ribs, like
+that used for cleaning acorns. The whole was dipped in water frequently.
+Rubbing usually continued until the skins were entirely removed.
+
+The most important item of this type collected in large amount for food
+is known as epos locally, or “peh-ts-koo” among the old Atsugewi. The
+plant belongs to the parsley family and stands one to two feet high.
+Actually, probably more than one species was eaten by Indians of the
+Lassen area. These plants are not unlike except in detail. All had sweet
+carrot-like taproots about two inches long. Garth states that Atsugewi
+ate the species _Pteridendia bolanden_ which apparently corresponds to
+the botanists’ _Perideridia bolanderi_ or _Eulophus bolanderi_; also
+probably _Carum_ or _Perideridia oregona_ and _californica_. Common
+English names for epos are squaw root or yampah. Epos roots were dried
+and stored, then ground up for use. This food item was made into either
+soup or bread. The finished product had a fine sweet meaty or nutty
+taste, and was held in high esteem. Obviously this constituted an
+important vegetable in the diet.
+
+At least two kinds of camas bulbs and _brodeia_ bulbs were roasted in
+the earth pit oven, ground to pulp, shaped into cakes, and rebaked.
+These were then either eaten or dried and stored. The latter process was
+not employed by mountain Maidu. If the baked camas cakes were stored,
+they would be soaked with water before eating. Camas cakes were not made
+into soup.
+
+Tiger lily bulbs were roasted in earth pit ovens and eaten immediately.
+They were a highly prized food.
+
+Wild onion was used too, but usually with other root foods as a
+flavoring.
+
+The foregoing are but a few of the most extensively eaten roots. Many
+others, especially those of the lily and parsley families, were used by
+tribes of the Lassen region.
+
+Yana tribes robbed gophers of stores of edible roots and bulbs. These
+were found by probing for burrows and digging out the animals’ food
+storage chambers. Men usually did this, which is an exception to the
+general rule that women only collected vegetable materials.
+
+Acorns were probably the most important single food of California
+Indians. Surprisingly, this was true even in eastern parts of the
+territories of the Atsugewi (Apwaruge), mountain Maidu, and others where
+acorns were scarce or wanting entirely. Indians frequently traded for
+acorns or made long journeys for them. Acorns of the black oak were
+generally preferred over other kinds. Nearly all varieties were used for
+food on occasion, however. It is interesting to note that Modoc and
+Klamath Indians were exceptions in not using acorns for food.
+
+In the fall, usually in September, acorns were gathered by women after
+the ripe nuts had been knocked from the oaks with long poles, or by men
+and young agile girls climbing the trees to strike the fruit with
+straight sticks or staves. To aid in climbing large smooth tree trunks,
+Atsugewi men used sapling ladders on which part of branches were left
+attached to serve for footholds. Mountain Maidu on the other hand used a
+very unique two poled ladder with buckskin rungs. Acorns were carried to
+villages by women in stages, using baskets about the size of nail kegs.
+
+First spring food gathering each year was marked by rites in which the
+shamans, or medicine men, conducted praying ceremonies. Atsugewi
+conducted three of these. In May first epos roots were gathered and sung
+over by shamans. They examined the roots and prophesied whether the
+women who had dug them were going to be sick. Those who were going to be
+sick dug roots all day. In the evening these were dumped into piles and
+women shamans sang over these for half the night to make the threatened
+women healthy. Each woman gatherer participating then took home the
+roots she had dug leaving some for the shamans, who cooked and ate them.
+A second first food ceremony consisted of a ceremonial feast of fruit
+and vegetable materials with fish which the men brought. In the third
+such rite, root digging women threw away the first roots they dug that
+season and prayed to the effect: “Don’t make me poor. Give me good luck.
+You may have this one.”
+
+In autumn, mountain Maidu held their first fruit ceremonies. Large
+groups of women went out to gather acorns. Acorn mush was made
+immediately of the first batch collected. The shamans ate some and
+prayed. Portions of this batch were then eaten by the rest of the
+assemblage. After that it was all right for anyone to gather and to use
+acorns of the new crop.
+
+Local tribes stored acorns in the shell either indoors in large baskets
+or outside in pits or in large hoppers or granaries covered with bark.
+The details of these varied with the several tribes. Maidu except for
+the “mountain tribe” and Yana shelled, split, and slightly dried some of
+their acorns, and placed them in basketry storage bins lined with
+broadleafed maple leaves. Maidu ate twelve different kinds of acorns,
+but the favorites were the black oak (_Quercus kelloggii_), _golden cup
+oak_ maul, or canyon oak (_Quercus chrysolepis_), and sierra live oak
+(_Quercus wislizenii_) acorns.
+
+In preparation, acorns were cracked by up-ending each on a flat rock and
+striking the point with any convenient small stone. Sometimes small
+acorns were cracked with the teeth. Though usually a woman’s job, young
+folks and men might help with the task.
+
+    [Illustration: Basaltic lava mortar from Yana territory, about ten
+    inches high.]
+
+The thin brownish skin which covers the acorn kernels was removed by
+rubbing vigorously in rough porous baskets made entirely of willow ribs.
+Water was not used. Indians of the Lassen area did not employ stone
+mortars for grinding acorns as was the practice in other parts of
+California. Stone mortars were always found, not made, and were used for
+ceremonial purposes, in the belief that these had been made by Coyote.
+However, Maidu families cherished portable stone mortars. They were kept
+buried at some distance from the dwelling, and dug up for occasional
+inspection. Bed-rock acorn pounding holes are not found in this region
+either except for the Maidu area. Instead, acorn meats were placed in
+hopper baskets lacking bottoms. This basketry mortar hopper rested with
+the small open end down on a heavy flat stone. The pounding basket was
+held in place by the Indian woman’s knees as she sat in front of and
+straddling it. In one hand she wielded a stone pestle, flat on the
+grinding end. With the other hand she stirred the acorn material so that
+the coarse pieces worked toward the center to get the full impact of the
+pounding. The hopper basket was not always used, by the mountain Maidu,
+the pounding often being done merely on a flat rock slab, the woman’s
+free hand continually brushing the acorn material back to the center.
+Acorn meal was ground until it was as fine as flour. The coarse pieces
+were separated from the fine by a process which employed a flattish
+piece of wood or bark a foot or so across. Sometimes a basketry plaque
+was used. A portion of ground meal was placed on this tray which was
+held firmly at one side and inclined toward the operator. The other edge
+of the plaque was shaken, causing the coarse material to roll into a
+container held in the lap for repounding while the fine flour remained
+on the plaque. A small brush, generally made from the pounded and dried
+root of the soap-plant, was used to brush the flour off and into the
+cooking basket. Mountain Maidu, according to Voegelin, actually did sift
+acorn meal through open-work baskets though this was not a common
+practice even among members of this tribe.
+
+White oak and some other acorn flour could be used for cooking without
+further preparation. Atsugewi preferred black oak acorns which had to be
+leached to remove the bitter tannic acid before using. To do this the
+flour was placed in a shallow depression on clean sand over porous
+earth, usually, but Yana used loosely woven baskets for the purpose, and
+in recent times it has become common practice to place cloth flour
+sacking over a screen or sieve. Cold water was poured over the meal
+until it was nearly free of bitterness. Warm water was then employed
+briefly, but hot water was never used, for it would make the flour tend
+to jell. Sand was removed from the bottom of the flour by touching the
+bottom of a handful of the moist material to water. The flour held
+together, but the sand grains dropped off. The flour could be dried and
+stored at this point, but was usually used as it was prepared.
+
+Portions of about two or three quarts of acorn flour were placed in
+cooking baskets a foot or more in diameter. Water was added and then hot
+stones were dropped in. These smoothly rounded stones, of any shape and
+from one and a half to three inches in diameter, had been heated in an
+open fire. They were quickly dipped into water to remove ashes before
+being put into the mush cooking basket. The method of handling these
+cooking stones seems to have varied. Present day Atsugewi say a small
+looped stick was used, but old informants stated that two forked sticks
+were employed. Stirring had to be continuous lest the cooking stones
+scorch the basket. Atsugewi used any convenient stick for this, but Yana
+had a small oak paddle. After boiling a short while the acorn mush
+became light greyish or brownish in color; when cooled it jellied quite
+firmly. Acorn mush was commonly eaten warm with meat, from small
+individual baskets. Spoons were unknown in the Lassen area so acorn mush
+was eaten with index and second fingers. Mountain Maidu made their acorn
+mush of a more liquid consistency so that it was often consumed by
+drinking.
+
+Acorn bread was made by using less water and adding a small amount of
+reddish iron-bearing or blackish salt-bearing soil by Atsugewi, but
+mountain Maidu left this ingredient out. The paste was molded into
+biscuit or loaf-shaped forms, wrapped in leaves and baked all night in
+earth pit ovens. Yana sometimes added red soil to their acorn bread
+making it brightly colored. Usually black oak acorns were used for bread
+by the Yana tribes and white oak for soup.
+
+That acorns are a fine food is indicated by the following analysis of
+the uncooked meal. The proportions vary somewhat, but not importantly
+among the several kinds of acorns used: 21% fat, 5% protein, 62%
+carbohydrate, and 14% water, mineral, and fiber. In cooked acorn mush
+the proportions remain the same relatively, except, of course, for the
+greatly increased water content.
+
+Buckeye nuts, not used much by Atsugewi, were important to other Indians
+of California, especially those residing at lower elevations. These
+fruits were gathered when ripe, then shelled, pounded and soaked in
+loosely woven baskets until the poisonous juice was leached out. The
+pulpy mass was next squeezed to remove excess water. Unlike acorn meal
+buckeye pulp was eaten uncooked. Yana crushed their buckeyes with their
+feet and leached the material in creeks, though sometimes hot water was
+used.
+
+Nuts of digger pine and sugar pine were highly regarded as food. Men
+climbed trees and picked digger pine cones or shook limbs to dislodge
+sugar pine cones. The cones were placed on end and covered with dry
+grass which was burned, ridding the cones of pitch. After this heat
+treatment, sugar pine nuts came out easily when cone scales were pulled
+back. After singeing the heavy digger pine cones were hit with rocks to
+obtain the large nuts they contained.
+
+The white sweet crusty deposit occasionally found on the bark of sugar
+pines was relished as candy by Atsugewi. However, it had a laxative
+property which mountain Maidu recognized and reputedly employed as such.
+
+A variety of small plant seeds also provided tasty nutrition. Several
+members of the sunflower family including balsam root species and mules
+ears, and others were used by all local tribes. Such seeds were usually
+collected by beating them with paddle-shaped basketry seed beaters into
+burden baskets. They were then parched with coals in flat trays, placed
+in flat baskets and worked about with stones until freed of skins. Seeds
+were winnowed by tossing them up allowing wind to carry hulls and skins
+away. The seeds were then pulverized with a small stone or muller, being
+rolled or rubbed on a larger rock slab generally referred to as a
+metate. Such seeds were eaten dry by Atsugewi, Yana, and Yahi without
+grinding, or the flour might be moistened and molded into cakes about
+the size of biscuits and eaten without further cooking. However, Yana
+also cooked certain sunflower seeds and the yellow blossoming heads of
+the small (_Helianthella_) sunflower were themselves cooked and eaten.
+
+Clover tops were collected in summer and eaten fresh by all local
+tribes. Mountain Maidu also baked them in earth pit ovens, then dried
+and stored the material to be recooked in winter for making soup.
+Atsugewi cooked clover roots in ovens. Young thistle stalks were eaten
+raw as was the foliage of several carrot-like plants. Mushrooms, fresh,
+roasted, or dried were eaten also. Young soap-plant stems were eaten
+fresh or baked and dried for winter use by Yana tribes.
+
+Manzanita berries were gathered by all Indians of the Lassen region in
+July and August. These berries were knocked into burden baskets with a
+stick. They were dried, stored in pits, pounded when needed, and sifted
+as fine meal. This was moistened and molded into biscuit-sized cakes and
+put away until wanted. Either fresh flour or the cakes were eaten plain
+or put into water and drunk. One investigator reported fermentation of
+manzanita cider and its use as a mild intoxicant, but this appears to
+have been the exception rather than the rule. The drink, of
+lemonade-like character, was usually consumed fresh. Manzanita cider was
+conveyed to the mouth by dipping a deer tail sop into the liquid, and
+then by sucking it. Small cakes were made of a mixture of manzanita and
+wild plum flours. Yana and Yahi also ate manzanita berries as such
+either fresh, or roasted and dried.
+
+Red berries of skunk or squaw bush were gathered in midsummer, washed,
+dried, and stored. They were pounded into flour in a mortar basket,
+mixed with manzanita flour and drunk. Elderberries were mashed and mixed
+with manzanita flour and stored as cakes.
+
+Wild plums were prepared by removing seeds. These were then eaten fresh
+or dried for storage.
+
+Chokecherries and service berries were put into baskets when ripe and
+mashed. The paste was eaten without cooking.
+
+Gooseberries, huckleberries, currants, Oregon-grape, buckthorn, juniper,
+thimble, and elderberries were eaten fresh, too, but juniper fruits
+might be dried and pounded into flour and stored.
+
+Another item used as food was salt which mountain Maidu and Yana
+gathered locally in mineral form. The Atsugewi also imported it from
+Round Mountain in North Yana territory or made expeditions to this site
+to gather the dark salt material from a certain marsh. This salty earth
+was shaped into black loaves and dried. It was not only used for
+flavoring, but the black soil was also eaten as such by some
+individuals. Atsugewi had a local source of salt, however, by collecting
+fine whitish crystals in the early mornings from the blades of salt
+grass which was run between the fingers. Atsugewi used salt for salmon
+and venison in cooking, but not in drying processes.
+
+Pine pitch was chewed, but Atsugewi also used milkweed chewing gum.
+
+As for eating customs, Atsugewi ate three meals each day. Mountain Maidu
+just prepared two real meals. Hands were washed after eating deer and
+bear meats. Mountain Maidu wiped faces and hands with bark and grass
+after eating.
+
+There was a well defined division of labor among California Indians. Men
+would carry water for unusually long distances or heavy logs for
+firewood, but women usually carried water, wood, acorn and root crops,
+and the like. In the case of moving camp, however, men carried the
+heaviest burdens. The most important division of labor was the
+delegation to men of all activities concerning animals and animal
+products, and to women all pertaining to vegetable materials. Women, for
+instance, collected materials for basketry and made all the baskets,
+except that men often made basketry fish traps and nets. Women dug roots
+and cooked all food except meat which men normally cooked. Exception to
+this rule was necessarily made when men were away on hunting trips or at
+war. Men usually built the houses, made moccasins and skin clothing too.
+
+Among Atsugewi and mountain Maidu only men made fire, but this was
+accomplished by both sexes among the Yana and Yahi.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER IX
+                         HOUSES AND FURNISHINGS
+
+
+The Atsugewi used earth-covered lodges as their permanent winter
+dwellings. These varied in size from about nine feet in length, for a
+single family, to more than thirty feet in length for a chief’s house
+which was usually larger than other houses. Most frequently houses were
+about twenty feet long and somewhat narrower, being occupied by three to
+five families. The earth lodge was elliptical in shape with one center
+post planted firmly in the earth floor somewhat back of true center.
+This supported beams running to two smaller secondary posts and to earth
+shoulders which resulted from excavation of the entire floor to a depth
+of about three feet. On the beams other poles or rafters and bark slabs
+(usually of incense-cedar) were laid. The whole sloping roof was then
+covered with pine needles and a layer of earth.
+
+The main entrance was through a hole about in the center of the roof.
+Over this a heavy mat was placed in bad weather. This opening also
+served as a smoke hole. A ladder made of two poles with cross pieces
+tied on with serviceberry withes was used inside.
+
+    [Illustration: The Northeast (mountain) Maidu earth lodge plan used
+    only three primary posts plus secondary entrance posts.]
+
+  logs or poles
+  a fireplace
+  b mainpost with forked top
+  c front posts with forked tops
+
+A secondary entrance of small size, used by children, was built
+horizontally at ground level on the south (front) end of the house. It
+projected tunnel-like a short distance beyond the lodge outside wall.
+The main purpose of this ground-level opening was to act as a ventilator
+duct to supply draft for proper burning of the cooking and house warming
+fire which burned in front of the center post. At night the ventilator
+duct was closed. This reduced air supply, causing the fire to burn very
+slowly. Glowing coals developed as a result. These produced reduced but
+adequate heat for the occupants who slept with their feet to the fire.
+Men did all of the house construction work except for excavation. The
+women did this with digging sticks and wooden or basketry scoops with
+which they threw the dirt out of the pit. Excavation of the floor of the
+lodge not only made it easier to construct a strong house, but
+contributed materially to the warmth of the standard winter house.
+
+    [Illustration: Typical winter house of the local permanent Indian
+    villages at lower elevations.]
+
+There was no furniture as such. Each family used an assigned portion of
+the house, and cooked its own food, but utilized the central communal
+fire. A thin layer of grass, carefully kept away from the fire, covered
+the floor. The Indians slept on the floor on mats made of tule. During
+the day these and the sleeping blankets were rolled up and provided the
+only seats. However, sitting usually consisted of squatting on the
+floor.
+
+Blankets of deer and elk skin were generally used. Atsugewi also used
+loose tule or grass blankets and all our tribes employed both woven
+rabbit skin and patchwork rabbit or fox blankets. Yana in addition to
+all the foregoing utilized bear skins; sometimes they removed the hair
+from their blankets.
+
+Atsugewi pillows were of bundles of leaves or grass while those of the
+mountain Maidu were harder, being merely piles of small poles, blocks of
+wood, or rocks.
+
+Interior earth walls of the houses were sometimes hung with tule mats or
+skins fastened with pegs to prevent dirt from sloughing off and rolling
+onto the floor. A few shelves might also be provided by laying wooden
+slabs on sticks driven into the dirt walls.
+
+    [Illustration: Atsugewi bark house]
+
+There were other less substantial winter houses consisting either of
+small double lean-tos of bark slabs or conical houses on frameworks of
+slender poles and with shallow excavations. Some dirt was thrown against
+the outside walls for added warmth. Lazy people, who were usually
+consequently poor in the necessities and comforts of normal Indian life,
+lived in this more flimsy type of house. Also, women when indisposed
+repaired to such huts. A doorway was left in the siding to be closed by
+a tule mat in these little houses. They were also equipped with small
+smoke holes for central fires.
+
+Atsugewi summer houses as such really did not exist. Summer camps were
+little more than circular enclosures of brush, juniper, or other conifer
+limbs or of rock. These were ten or fifteen feet across with openings to
+the east. There was no roof, although branches and bark slabs might be
+put over crude frames in rainy weather. If a person were caught in a
+sudden shower he might make a temporary shelter by leaning bark slabs,
+if available, against a large rock or log lying on the ground.
+
+Atsugewi did not have any separate sweat houses nor dancing or assembly
+chambers, but used the larger earth lodge houses for these purposes. The
+largest belonged to chiefs and to other well-to-do Indians. Heat for
+sweating was provided directly by fire and not by production of steam as
+was the case with Plains Indians who threw water on hot stones. In
+recent years, however, after introduction of the horse, Atsugewi learned
+the latter technique and also constructed Plains Indian type sweat
+houses of one to three person capacity. These were dome shaped, and
+built of willow poles set in the ground in a circle. The tops were bent
+over and tied down, and this framework was covered with skins.
+
+Old type sweating was for men only, but Indian women—usually wives—also
+sweated with men in the new style separate sweat houses. Old time
+Atsugewi purposes in sweating were for gaining success in hunting, in
+gambling, and for general good luck. Some praying was done, but there
+were no formalized ceremonies or dances amongst the Atsugewi. Men
+sometimes slept in sweat houses.
+
+In the case of all local tribes sweating was followed by a cold plunge,
+if available nearby. Lacking this facility, a cold sponge bath was
+taken.
+
+The mountain Maidu earth lodge for dwelling and sweating was similar to
+that of the Atsugewi. However, northeast Maidu earth lodges “koom” were
+simpler and smaller than those of northwest and southern Maidu. Three
+posts, often forked were used in place of 10 or 11 employed for valley
+lodges. Excavation was about three feet deep, circular in plan, and from
+18 to 40 feet across. A large flat stone was placed upright at the foot
+of the mainpost between it and the fire in the center. The vertical
+walls of the excavation were usually covered or lined with vertically
+placed whole or split logs or with bark slabs. Logs were lain
+horizontally on the three posts as indicated on the accompanying sketch.
+Radial rafters supporting the roof were placed on these beams and
+sloping downward to the ground surface outside as well as to two small
+posts at the small openway or ventilator passage. Cross poles were
+placed horizontally on the rafters and on these, large pieces of bark,
+branches, and pine needles were successively laid. Lastly, a heavy
+covering of soil 8 to 20 inches thick was heaped on the structure. On
+top in the center a smokehole was left, large enough to serve as the
+main entrance originally, but after the coming of white man, the
+smokehole was made smaller, and, instead, the originally small
+ventilator tunnel which sloped from floor level up to the ground surface
+outside was enlarged, thus supplanting the smokehole as the main
+entrance. Originally a ladder of two poles with cross pieces tied on
+with grapevine or other withes gave vertical access from the floor to
+the smokehole entrance. Dixon reports that a notched log was sometimes
+used for the purpose among mountain Maidu.
+
+The koom or lodge was occupied from November to March and was situated
+on the edges of wide meadows in mountain Maidu areas. At lower elevation
+occupancy was more or less continuous.
+
+Mountain Maidu did not have separate sweat houses. They always used a
+large earth dwelling lodge for the purpose. This was similar to the
+Atsugewi practice. These Maidu did, however, have a formalized sweat
+dance. Also different from the Atsugewi was the practice of men using
+the sweat house for gambling, handicraft work, and competitive singing.
+
+The “hoe-bow” of the mountain Maidu was a hut, 8 to 15 feet in diameter
+and excavated 12 to 15 inches deep. Two main poles were securely tied
+near the end. From the resulting “V” at the top, shorter poles were laid
+to a pair of slender posts about three feet high and set about three
+feet apart along the edge of the excavation. Against this frame
+branches, bark, and leaves were piled and earth was heaped around the
+bottom. The doors of all such bark huts opened to the south and were
+hung with a skin or tule mat.
+
+The rude summer shelter or shade provider was just like that of the
+Atsugewi.
+
+Information on Yahi house details are somewhat scanty, but in all
+probability they were small conical bark-covered huts while some larger
+earth lodges were built to house several families—in general similar,
+but perhaps smaller than those of the other tribes of the Lassen area.
+The large pretentious lodge, constructed solely for sweating and
+ceremonies, of the Sacramento Valley tribes seems to have been lacking
+among all of our local tribes.
+
+The common bark hut dwelling of the Yana was apparently built over a
+circular depression two feet deep, the top of the house rising about six
+feet above the ground. It was probably like the mountain Maidu huts,
+being a series of poles resting on the edges of the excavation. These
+met and were tied at the top to form a cone of low slope, although some
+informants claimed that the posts were set so firmly that tying together
+was omitted. The frames were covered with pine and incense-cedar bark
+slabs leaving a smoke hole near each apex. Earth was probably banked on
+the lower sloping walls. Entrance was never through the smoke hole as in
+the case of Atsugewi and some mountain Maidu earth lodge houses, but by
+means of a small door at ground level on the south side. The entrance
+was protected by a little covered way extending outward three feet from
+the house wall, and decked over by a gable roof of low pitch. A ramp of
+low pitch extended from the floor of the house through this antechamber
+to the ground level outside as no steps were constructed.
+
+The Yana lodge houses were not numerous. The ground plan was long,
+usually wedge or oval in outline and designed for several families, each
+with its own fire. As with the other tribes discussed in this booklet,
+such buildings also served as sweat houses. A ladder consisting of a
+notched log extended down from the smoke hole to the floor. One, two, or
+three center posts with radiating rafters and shorter side posts were
+employed. The Yana followed the Atsugewi practice of providing each
+earth lodge with a south facing, ground level, tunnel-like ventilator
+entrance of small size. It is possible that Yana did have a few special
+sweating lodges of the same design, but the matter is debatable. During
+sweating Yana men talked and played; the main purpose of sweating was to
+make men strong.
+
+It has already been pointed out that all four tribes which used what is
+now Lassen Volcanic National Park did so only during the summer. During
+their high mountain sojourn, the local Indians did not live in houses as
+such. There, residence during the three or four summer months was in
+temporary camps, usually roofless circular areas to accommodate several
+families. These were fenced in with brush and were entered by one or
+more openings somewhat in the same manner as campsites reserved for
+visitors at their permanent villages at lower elevations. Four-posted
+horizontal roofs, to provide shade, were sometimes constructed too. Yana
+seem to have made a lean-to or hut with grass and bark covering for
+summer roofs.
+
+
+
+
+                               Chapter X
+                HOUSEHOLD TOOLS, IMPLEMENTS, AND WEAPONS
+
+
+Implements for grinding foods were important. Mountain Maidu, in fact
+all Maidu tribes, ground some acorns on flat bed rock. When the
+resultant holes which eventually developed in the rock surfaces became
+deep, they were abandoned as the acorn meal tended to pack into hard
+lumps at the bottoms thereof. A heavy flat stone grinding slab was most
+frequently used. However, all Lassen area tribes had portable stone
+mortar bowls too. The Atsugewi and mountain Maidu did not make these nor
+did they use them for grinding food. Such portable stone mortars were
+found, evidently having been fashioned by more ancient tribes.
+Supernatural powers were ascribed to these mortars, and they were used
+only by shamans or medicine men. The Maidu thought that stone mortar
+bowls were made by Coyote at the time of creation and scattered over the
+world for the use of mankind. Others believed the mortars to have been
+“first people” originally, who were turned to stones in this form upon
+the coming of the Indian people at which time other “first people” were
+transformed into animals.
+
+    [Illustration: Northeast Maidu soapstone bowl six inches wide—a rare
+    article (after Dixon)]
+
+As has been described under the preparation of acorn mush, local tribes
+used the flat stone pounding slab under an open bottomed hopper basket,
+most commonly. The hopper basket of the Atsugewi and mountain Maidu was
+usually of twined construction and bound often with buckskin about the
+basal edge. Mountain Maidu sometimes employed their coiling technique in
+making the acorn pounding basket. It was from this tribe, at the turn of
+the century, that Atsugewi learned to make their pounding hopper baskets
+of the stronger coiled construction.
+
+    [Illustration: Maidu stone axe head, 5 inches long (after Dixon)]
+
+    [Illustration: One of several seed beater types used locally]
+
+Pestles of stone were long, smoothed, and sometimes flattened on the
+sides. This resulted from use of these implements also as rubbing or
+mulling stones for processing small seeds on flat slabs without
+employment of basket hoppers. The pestles were always without the
+ornamentation used by certain other California tribes. The pounding end
+of the food grinding pestles are ever so slightly convex—their grinding
+surfaces are nearly flat. This is in contrast to pestles used in the
+deep bowl-shaped portable stone mortars for ceremonial purposes. The
+grinding ends of these pestles were strongly rounded, nearly
+hemispherical in shape.
+
+The muller or small seed crusher used on the flat grinding slab without
+a hopper basket was of oval or rectangular shape, and it too was
+unornamented.
+
+Small brushes used in miscellaneous food preparation were made of
+pounded dried soap-plant bulb fibers.
+
+Hot rocks for cooking were usually handled with two sticks. None of our
+tribes used spoons. Crude obsidian knives with, or more commonly
+without, bone handles were used for many chores.
+
+Yana used split cobble stones for cutting and scraping operations. Their
+stone knives sometimes had wrapped buckskin handles.
+
+Bone awls, usually with wrapped handles, were commonly used for sewing
+buckskin and other hides. Atsugewi are said by some to have had both
+eyed and open notched needles of bone for sewing skins and tule mats.
+
+The wooden shuttle for net weaving was a stick notched at both ends and
+was used by all of the local tribes. A squarish wooden net mesh spacer
+permitted nets to be properly made.
+
+Mountain Maidu used deer antler wedges for splitting wood while Atsugewi
+used wooden wedges—especially of mountain-mahogany. Wedges were usually
+driven with simple wooden clubs, though rocks might be employed for the
+purpose.
+
+Drills for boring holes in shell work and for making pipes and the like
+were used by Atsugewi only. Such drills were wooden shafts with stone
+points. These were rotated by rolling the shaft between the palms of the
+hands. Where the drill was not in use, holes were made in pieces of wood
+with live coals. Sometimes unfinished clamshell money was received in
+trade perhaps at a discount. Such pieces were strung tightly onto a cord
+and the whole string was then rolled between two flat stones thus
+grinding the shell edges to make the well formed disks characteristic of
+clam shell money.
+
+    [Illustration: Soap-root fiber acorn meal brush about 6 inches long
+    (after Dixon)]
+
+    [Illustration: A lava pestle, flat ended food pounder, about 10
+    inches long]
+
+Fire making drills were of greater importance. All local tribes employed
+them. Those of this area were one-piece hand rotated affairs which did
+not utilize the labor saving drill bow of the midwest. A long buckeye
+wood stick about half an inch thick was twirled on a notched block of
+incense-cedar or juniper wood. A bed of dry shredded grass and
+incense-cedar or other flammable tinder was used to nourish the spark
+into flame. Both sexes made fire among the Yana and Yahi, but unless the
+men were away, Atsugewi and mountain Maidu women did not make fire.
+Buckeye was uncommon or lacking in the areas of the latter tribes, so
+this material had to be traded from the Yana and Yahi. Buckeye fire
+making sticks commanded quite a price, a piece two feet long often
+selling for ten completed arrows. Since fire making required much effort
+and skill, fire was rarely allowed to go out. A “slow match” consisting
+of a piece of punky wood in which the fire smouldered was usually
+carried along.
+
+    [Illustration: Maidu bone awls or basket “needles” about 6 inches
+    long]
+
+It was as true in prehistoric America as it is today that weapons were
+essential to existence. Weapons were necessary not only for
+warfare—whether aggressive or defensive—but for the securing of game for
+food since domestication of animals was not practiced.
+
+The bow and arrow was the only important weapon of California Indians.
+Local bows were rather short and quite broad in cross-section. We quote
+Garth’s “Atsugewi Ethnography” on the subject as follows:
+
+  “... The best bows were made by the Atsuge, who had a supply of yew
+  wood ... along the western borders of their territory. The Paiute were
+  anxious to trade for Atsuge bows and considered them much superior to
+  their own. In making the bow a piece of yew wood was selected, split,
+  and shaved down with flints and pumice stone to the required form and
+  thickness. After it had been wrapped in green grass and roasted in hot
+  ashes, the bow was bent to required shape (recurved tips with a slight
+  incurve at the middle), which it retained when it cooled off. Sinew,
+  taken from the back of a deer, was softened by chewing and was then
+  glued on the back of the bow in short strips, which were rubbed out as
+  flat as possible with a smooth piece of bone. Salmon skins were boiled
+  to make the glue.
+
+    [Illustration: Yahi making fire by twirling buckeye rod on
+    Incense-cedar block]
+
+    [Illustration: Maidu fire drill of buckeye (right) about 28 inches
+    long. In the two inch wide Incense-cedar slab note the cut notches
+    with a deeper twirling hole at the head of each.]
+
+  “The designs painted in green and red on the backs of bows are among
+  the few examples of masculine art. The painting was done with a
+  feather tip. The sinew for the bowstring ... was chewed to make it
+  soft and then it was made into a two-ply cord by rolling it with the
+  open hand on the thigh. After salmon glue was rubbed in to make the
+  fibers stick together, the string was stretched by tying a rock to one
+  end and allowing it to hang down from some support. A tassel ... of
+  mole skin might be attached to the end of the bow for decoration....
+
+    [Illustration: Indian Jack Harding after photo by Williams
+
+    “Montgomery Creek” Indian, part white—good archer
+
+    An Atsugewi type bow characteristically short, broad, sinew backed
+    and held at 45 degree angle in shooting. Note the painted
+    decoration]
+
+  “... Flint tipped arrows ... were made of cane or rose and had
+  foreshafts of Serviceberry, or they might be entirely of Service wood.
+  Cane arrows ... with a sharp-pointed foreshaft of Serviceberry were
+  commonly used for small animals and birds. Such arrows might be
+  unfeathered ... (an informant) recalled a bird arrow ... with a barbed
+  wooden point. Deer-bone pointed arrows were sometimes used for killing
+  deer and other game. Voegelin reports that these arrows were also
+  sometimes barbed. Flint-tipped arrows were about thirty inches long
+  ... arrows for small game were somewhat shorter than flint-tipped
+  arrows ... the wood was ordinarily dried before it was used. The end
+  of the Serviceberry foreshaft was cut into a dowel which was inserted
+  in the soft pithy center of the main shaft, the juncture being wrapped
+  with sinew. A notch one-fourth of an inch deep was cut in the butt. A
+  laterally notched obsidian arrow point was inserted in the split end
+  of the foreshaft and bound on with cross lashings of sinew. The
+  binding was ordinarily waterproofed with pitch.
+
+  “Two small grooved pumice stones were used to smooth arrow shafts. The
+  foreshaft was painted red as an indication that poison had been
+  applied to the point. Other bands or stripes of color toward the nock
+  end of the arrow served as ownership marks ... the stripes might run
+  spirally as on a stick of candy ... all kinds of colors being used for
+  painting arrows. Feathers were split along the midrib and were glued
+  to the shaft, about a finger’s width below the butt, with pitch. Sinew
+  wrapping bound down each end of the feathers, three of which—about
+  four inches long—were used to an arrow. The edge of the feather was
+  burned smooth with a hot coal. Feathers of hawks or similar birds were
+  used on ordinary arrows, but for the finest arrows—those to be used
+  for bear and deer—eagle feathers were employed. An arrow wrench of
+  bone or wood was used for straightening arrows; or they might simply
+  be straightened by using the teeth as a vise. A flat antelope horn
+  might be perforated and used as an arrow wrench.... (John La Mar) had
+  a small triangular stone with a hole in the center ... which, he said
+  was heated in the fire and used for straightening cane arrows.
+
+    [Illustration: Maidu bow 40 inches long and two inches wide, deer
+    sinew backed and painted with powdered greenish rock from Oregon
+    mixed with Salmon glue. Two arrows are obsidian tipped. (after
+    Dixon)]
+
+  “Although the flint points themselves were considered poisonous, an
+  arrow poison was often used for larger game as well as in war. The
+  usual method of making poison was to take the liver or pancreas of a
+  deer and allow it to rot; the material was then smeared on the arrow
+  point....”
+
+Rattlesnake poison was also employed; however none of the poisoned arrow
+concoctions were very effective except to start infection of wounds
+inflicted by arrow points so treated.
+
+    [Illustration: Painted Atsugewi bows (after Garth)]
+
+  a. Goose Valley, design in red (Apwaruge)
+  b. Goose Valley, design in red (Apwaruge)
+  c. Drawn by Dave Brown (Atsuge) with outer lines red, inner lines
+          green
+
+Arrow points found in the park area, in the territory of both Atsugewi
+and mountain Maidu are most frequently of obsidian, but sometimes are of
+a dense dull black basalt lava. The term flint is a very loose one,
+being applied to obsidian, chert, opal, chalcedony, and even to the
+dense basalt, noted above, in common usage.
+
+Mountain Maidu imported yew wood as this did not commonly grow in their
+own territory. This tribe, however, also manufactured its own bows. In
+practically all respects bow and arrow design and execution were
+identical to that of the Atsugewi. Those of Yana and Yahi were similar
+too. All tribes of the Lassen area fashioned arrow points with barbs. In
+addition mountain Maidu flaked points without barbs but with basal stems
+for attachment were made.
+
+
+                      MOUNTAIN MAIDU STONE POINTS
+
+    [Illustration: Dull black obsidian much more convex on one side than
+    on the other. From near Corral Meadow; one and one half inches.]
+
+    [Illustration: Black obsidian near Little Willow Lake; one and one
+    half inches long.]
+
+    [Illustration: Dense black basalt from Terminal Geyser; one and five
+    eighths inches.]
+
+    [Illustration: Black obsidian near Little Willow Lake, one inch
+    long.]
+
+
+                   ATSUGEWI KNIFE (?) AND ARROW POINT
+
+    [Illustration: Black obsidian spear point or knife from south shore
+    of Summit Lake; four inches.]
+
+    [Illustration: Dark gray banded point from Northeast shore Snag
+    Lake; two inches.]
+
+
+                          SOUTHERN YANA POINTS
+
+    [Illustration: Dark gray obsidian point from Battle Creek Meadows.
+    Note unusually strong asymmetry in two planes; one inch long.]
+
+    [Illustration: Coarse gray lava knife (?) from Battle Creek Meadows;
+    Three and one half inches long.]
+
+The bow was most frequently held in shooting at an angle of about 45
+degrees with the arrow on top. Mountain Maidu used that style, too, or
+else held the bow horizontally with the arrow on top except in case of
+war when the arrow was held on the underside of the bow. Gifford and
+Klimak reveal that northern and central Yana held the bow horizontally.
+Sapir and Spier found that the Yana tribes proper (not Yahi), however
+held bows vertically in shooting. All tribes considered except Yahi used
+the primary release of the arrow in shooting. In this method the arrow
+was held between the index and third fingers, which caught and pulled
+back the string. The thumb held the other side of the arrow. The Yahi,
+on the other hand used the Mongolian release; grasping the arrow with
+the thumb and unbent first joints of the first and second fingers.
+
+    [Illustration: Maidu bone arrow point flaker about ten inches long
+    (after Dixon)]
+
+  “... the arrow was let fly between the index and third finger of the
+  left hand, which held the bow. Many arrow points were uniface and
+  curved slightly to one side.... A hunter, when shooting at a distant
+  object, turned the arrow so that the point curved up; when shooting an
+  object close by, he turned the arrow so that the point curved down. A
+  hunter carried at least one arrow in his left hand with his bow. Extra
+  arrows were carried in a quiver ... (made of) coyote, raccoon, or
+  other skins. Ordinarily the hunter carried his quiver on his back, but
+  if he wanted to be able to reach the arrows easily, he hung it on his
+  ... shoulder so that it fell under his left armpit. Arrows were taken
+  from the quiver with the right hand.”
+
+Inside the quiver, at the bottom, a cushion of dry grass was placed to
+prevent the stone points from chipping each other.
+
+    [Illustration: Maidu arrow-straightener and smoother of sandstone
+    about three inches long (after Dixon)]
+
+
+                           YAHI STONE POINTS
+
+    [Illustration: Nearly colorless obsidian south of Sulphur Works;
+    three quarters inch.]
+
+    [Illustration: Off-white chalcedony point south of Sulphur Works
+    area; one and one half inches.]
+
+    [Illustration: Black obsidian one and one quarter inches long and a
+    full one half inch thick.]
+
+    [Illustration: Three inch point of coarse gray lava from Mill Creek
+    Canyon.]
+
+    [Illustration: Black obsidian. South of Sulphur Works, one and one
+    half inches.]
+
+
+    [Illustration: Yana arrow points one and one half to two inches
+    long. The materials used are mostly black obsidian, also dark grey
+    and buff obsidian. One is of dense black basalt.]
+
+    [Illustration: A pair of Yana arrow smoother and straightening
+    stones made of porous glassy (pre-Lassen?) dacite pumice, length
+    about two and one half inches]
+
+War clubs were not used. Atsugewi claim to have had a stone axe,
+sharpened by chipping and lashed with sinew to a split oak or
+mountain-mahogany handle a foot or so long. It was used for chopping
+roots and small trees on occasion, but the stone axe was certainly not
+widely used by California Indians, and even among Atsugewi it may have
+been unknown until the coming of white man, or knowledge of it may have
+been gained from Plains Indians after the advent of the horse. The
+tomahawk, so important to Indians of eastern and midwestern North
+America, was unknown to California Indians. Trees were normally felled
+and cut by controlled burning.
+
+Four-foot spears, tipped with large flaked stone points for fighting at
+close quarters, were used by all local tribes on occasion, but were not
+numerous. Only the Yana are believed to have thrown the weapon; the more
+common usage seems to have been by energetically thrusting it.
+
+Knives or daggers as fighting implements were made of chipped obsidian
+but were quite rare. A short, crude, one edged, stone knife was used
+widely as a general utility implement, but not in combat nor in killing
+game. Yana Indians also employed a mussel shell knife for light delicate
+work around camp. Atsugewi and mountain Maidu sometimes affixed wooden
+handles to their obsidian knives. These two tribes also fashioned knives
+of sharpened bone and horn.
+
+    [Illustration: A wooden arrow straightener from northern California
+    (Yurok)]
+
+    [Illustration: Atsugewi stone arrow-straightener]
+
+    [Illustration: Mountain Maidu arrow quiver made of an inside-out
+    small mammal skin.]
+
+    [Illustration: Atsugewi cased fox skin quiver made by slitting
+    animal’s skin along its hind legs, turning skin inside out, and
+    finally sewing the mouth and eye openings shut.]
+
+    [Illustration: 4½ inches     7 inches
+    Maidu stone knives of obsidian, one with a wooden and sinew handle
+    (after Dixon)]
+
+    [Illustration: A warrior in stick armor and fur helmet]
+
+Of equipment for warfare, Garth states:
+
+  “Defensive armor included rod armor ..., gowns ... of dried elk or
+  bear skins, and skin helmets which came down over the forehead and
+  ears, ‘so a man could just see out of it’. The skin armor extended to
+  the ankles or lower; it was worn over one shoulder so that it
+  protected only the side of the body turned toward the enemy. Rod
+  armor, made of serviceberry withes twined together with buckskin
+  string, was high enough to come up to the neck under the chin and
+  extended two or three inches below the belt. The Plains Indian shield,
+  although found among the Surprise Valley Paiute and other Paiute
+  tribes to the east, was lacking among the Atsugewi,” and all other
+  tribes of the Lassen area.
+
+
+
+
+                               Chapter XI
+                         BASKETRY AND TEXTILES
+
+
+The outstanding art of the Indians of California was their basketry. In
+fact the excellence of California basketry generally is not exceeded
+elsewhere in North America. Size varies from that of a pea to that of a
+bushel basket. Both weave and ornamentation were very diversified.
+
+Basketry of the Lassen area, especially that of the Atsugewi and
+mountain Maidu, was of good quality. Both coiled and twined types of
+basketry (to be described below) were made by mountain Maidu, but the
+Atsugewi did not learn the art of coiled basketry from the Maidu until
+the early 1900’s. Yana and Yahi wove both types but twined baskets were
+by far the more numerous. This is due to the fact that these tribes were
+akin to the twining tribes of the north. Close contact with the
+neighboring Wintun tribes of the Sacramento Valley resulted in the
+addition of limited amount of coiling technique in their basketry making
+over the years.
+
+    [Illustration: Technique of the three willow rod (or rib) coiled
+    basketry (after Otis T. Mason). Note that the lashing strand anchors
+    the three new ribs “a”, “b”, and “c” to the top rib “d” of the
+    preceding three “d”, “e”, and “f” group]
+
+    [Illustration: Simple twined basketry technique employs two weft
+    (lashing) strands, but when overlaying with another material is done
+    two or more layers will make up each of the strands “a” and “b”
+    (modified from Otis T. Mason)]
+
+Coiled basketry itself had some technical variations with which we shall
+not concern ourselves. The coiling technique was characteristic of the
+central and southern part of the California area. Mountain Maidu used
+three willow rods in a parallel group which ran as a core in a
+continuous spiral starting at the center of the basket. This was the
+warp element. The bundle of three willow ribs was lashed to the
+preceding basketry by a strand or weft (filler) of the inner bark of
+redbud. This was accomplished by poking an awl through the preceding
+row, and separating the stitches. In doing so, the awl was passed under
+the topmost of the core or warp of three coiling willow ribs. A redbud
+bark strand was then slipped through the awl hole, thus lashing the
+three loose willow ribs down by passing the strand around them and
+through the next awl hole in the preceding row. Recent Atsugewi coiled
+basketry technique is similar in all details, having been learned from
+the Maidu.
+
+    [Illustration: Variations of the simple twined basketry technique:
+    a, method of starting the round root-cleaning basket; b, detail of
+    side wall of basket showing open work weave. (Garth)]
+
+Twined basketry consisted of willow ribs radiating from a common center.
+These twigs were the warp. The weft of filling and binding stitches were
+split pine root strands. Dixon states that mountain Maidu sometimes dyed
+pine root black by burying it in mud mixed with charcoal. Pine root was
+tightly woven in to make the bottom of the basket which was normally
+undecorated. More and more willow ribs were added as the basket became
+larger. The willow ribs were curved up when willow rib additions were
+decreased. As the sides began to be built up on these twined baskets,
+each pine root stitch, both inside and outside, was covered with a
+whitish strand of bear-grass or squaw-grass. The tops of baskets were
+often left unfinished after the unused willow warps were clipped off.
+The basket did not unravel in use. However, the best baskets were
+finished by adding a marginal strengthening ring of choke cherry or
+willow which was bound to the basket body firmly and neatly, usually by
+wrapping with strands of redbud bark. During weaving willow withes were
+fastened inside of the basket to help it retain its shape, but these
+were removed upon completion of the basket.
+
+    [Illustration: Side outline shapes of Maidu baskets (after Dixon).
+    The plan of virtually all Maidu baskets was circular. Twined storage
+    baskets are up to three feet in diameter for holding seed, meal,
+    etc. Open twined construction was used for storage of whole acorns,
+    fish, and meat. Flatish circular basketry plaque was for “vibration
+    sifting”.]
+
+            _FOOD BOWL                       _STORAGE
+             DIPPING                         COOKING_
+         GENERAL UTILITY_
+
+            _FOOD BOWL                       _STORAGE
+              DIPPER                         COOKING_
+         GENERAL UTILITY_
+
+            _COOKING_                        _STORAGE
+                                             COOKING_
+
+            _FOOD BOWL                       _STORAGE
+              DIPPER                         COOKING_
+         GENERAL UTILITY_
+
+            _COOKING_                        _BURDEN_
+
+            _FOOD BOWL                       _STORAGE
+              DIPPER                         COOKING_
+         GENERAL UTILITY_
+
+  _TRAYS or large BASKET COVER_       _TRAY or BASKET COVER_
+
+Some utility baskets were undecorated, being made merely of pine root
+and willow, or, if coiled, of redbud and willow. However, most baskets
+bore some designs. They were all named and were inspired by the objects
+of nature about these outdoor peoples, and not the product of their
+imaginations. Nevertheless, the designs are quite stylized, often to the
+extent that recognition of the inspiration is difficult or impossible.
+
+In the case of twined baskets the designs were made by substituting
+outer redbud bark for squaw-grass to produce a dull red instead of the
+white overlaid stitches of the rest of the basket. As a result of the
+double twining technique the designs were seen equally well on the
+inside and the outside of each basket. Black designs were of overlaid
+maidenhair fern (_Adiantum pedatum_) stems. However, mountain Maidu also
+used common bracken fern (_Pteris aquilinum_) for black designs. Indians
+to the north of the Atsugewi used roots and stems of certain sedges
+treated with charcoal and mud or with ashes and water to produce
+basketry materials of black and of warm henna-brown coloration
+respectively. These were used on occasion by Atsugewi. The bear-grass,
+redbud, and maidenhair fern decorative materials were most commonly used
+by all tribes of this area. Atsugewi are the only local Indians to have
+used feathers to adorn their baskets. They used the shiny iridescent
+blue-green feathers from the necks of male mallard ducks. This was not
+common, however, and by no means used as often nor developed to the fine
+art and diversity of the famous Pomo feathered basketry of the Clear
+Lake region of the California Coast Range. Atsugewi are also believed to
+have occasionally adorned some basketry work with shell beads and
+porcupine quills, but this must have been quite rare or more examples
+would have survived to the present day.
+
+Outer bark of redbud almost always decorated coiled baskets.
+
+Concerning Maidu basketry Dixon states that the vast majority of the
+articles are of the coiled type, twining technique being used only for
+burden baskets and hopper or grinding baskets. For the radial ribs of
+the former they used shoots of hazel (_Corylus rostrata_ var.
+_californica_) when available. He points out too, the frequent use of
+the feather, quail-tip, and arrow-point designs not only among the
+mountain Maidu, but among all Maidu. A characteristic of this group of
+Indians also, in contrast to other local tribes, is the tendency to
+confine one design to a basket rather than combining designs. Maidu
+employed a wide variety of designs. Many of them represent animals and
+plants. A considerable number of Maidu patterns exhibit a more or less
+obscure realism which becomes apparent only after one is informed as to
+what the design means. The Maidu show a tendency also toward arrangement
+of design elements in spiral or zigzag lines.
+
+    [Illustration: Atsugewi basket, twined and overlaid with bear-grass
+    and maiden hair fern.]
+
+    [Illustration: Maidu hopper, pounding, or milling basket of twined
+    construction on rock mortar slab. Diameter about eighteen inches
+    (after Dixon).]
+
+    [Illustration: Atsugewi general utility basket of twined
+    construction with lizard foot design. Underside shown to reveal dark
+    (actually tan-colored) area of bare split pine root weft without
+    bear-grass or maiden hair overlay.]
+
+    [Illustration: Coiled type Atsugewi hopper basket with flying geese
+    design. View shows pounding hole in bottom of basket, in this case
+    bound with buckskin.]
+
+Dixon noted that “mussel’s tongue” (the fresh water mussel) is one of
+the unique and peculiar basketry designs used by the Atsugewi.
+Representation of intestines and deer excrement are also worthy of
+special mention for this tribe. Other common Atsugewi designs in
+basketry decoration are lizard, deer rib, owl’s claw, and flying geese,
+as well as arrow-point. Two or more different designs are often combined
+on a single basket. Among Atsugewi and Achomawi there seems to be no
+restriction of certain patterns to baskets intended for special uses.
+Like mountain Maidu, zigzag and spiral arrangements are preferred,
+horizontal bands being rare. Curiously an Atsugewi design is often given
+different meaning by different individual Indians. This is in contrast
+to the uniformity of interpretation of a given design by all the Maidu
+individuals, normally.
+
+    [Illustration: Maidu open twined “tray” or plate-like basket about
+    ten inches long (after Dixon)]
+
+Yana tribes frequently substituted another material for willow ribs. The
+identity of this warp is not certain. Reliable students believe it to be
+hazelnut twigs, but to my knowledge that plant is scarce indeed even in
+the foothill territory. Yana and Yahi had some other peculiarities in
+their basketry. Designs were sometimes wrought in a negative way, that
+is by merely leaving off overlay so that the design was thereby defined
+in exposed pine root weft. Sapir and Spier found that these tribes also
+used alder bark for dying basketry decoration materials a red-brown. A
+reddish color was produced on peeled shield fern stems by passing them
+through the mouth while chewing dogwood bark. They dyed pine roots, too,
+on occasion with a red soil or with the powdery filling of spores from
+the inside of a fungus obtained from certain coniferous trees. These
+variations of basketry decoration do not seem to have been used by the
+Atsugewi and mountain Maidu.
+
+    [Illustration: Maidu fish-teeth design on coiled basket.]
+
+    [Illustration: Mountain Maidu geese-flying design on coiled basket.]
+
+    [Illustration: Atsugewi lizard’s claw or lizard’s foot design.]
+
+    [Illustration: Mountain Maidu mountains designs on twined baskets.
+    The right hand treatment may be repeated in reverse to the right
+    making a symmetrical pyramid shaped design outline.]
+
+    [Illustration: An interesting unsymmetrical flower design.]
+
+    [Illustration: Atsugewi intestines.]
+
+The basketry described above was all close-woven. In fact, so closely
+were the twined baskets made that they held water with little or no
+leakage even without linings of pitch or any other substance. There was
+no pottery of any kind in central or northern California.
+
+The art of basketry included also a third type—loose or open weaving,
+sometimes of tules. The latter were also used extensively for making
+mats for a variety of purposes. Open weaving at other times was done
+with willow withes, split juniper twigs, or of another material
+tentatively identified as hazel. Fish traps, carrying baskets, some
+storage baskets, and bags were not infrequently of this type of
+construction.
+
+All basketry materials had to be well soaked in water, as they were
+brittle when dry. After weaving and upon drying these materials set in
+place, making the basketry firm, strong, and resistant to unraveling.
+
+Collection of basketry materials was more arduous and required greater
+know-how than might be suspected. Willow withes were only taken from the
+particularly strong and supple shoots from Hinds or valley willow
+(_Salix hindsiana_) which grows along stream banks up to 3000 foot
+elevations and also from the similar sandbar, river, or grey willow
+(_Salix fluviatilis_ variety _argyrophylla_) which also lines streams,
+often growing in sandbars. These species are recognized by their long
+very narrow silvery leaves and a grey bark, furrowed when mature. Willow
+twigs were collected when the leaves were off of the stems in the spring
+and in the fall. At other times the twigs were more brittle. Spring
+picked willow withes “slipped” their bark easily, but those collected in
+the fall had to be scraped to remove the bark. The willow ribs were
+further dressed by scraping to uniform size.
+
+Pine roots of either ponderosa pine (_Pinus ponderosa_) or digger pine
+(_Pinus sabiniana_) were usually used. However not all trees had roots
+of suitable strength and flexibility, so that it was necessary to “shop
+around” for good roots. This involved digging holes to reach the roots
+and then testing these by tugging on small strands until suitable roots
+were located. Roots three or four inches in diameter were then cut off
+with a small obsidian axe, if the individual were so fortunate as to
+possess this rarity, or by using a sort of bone pick, or, more commonly,
+by slowly burning through the green root with a small fire. Root lengths
+of about four feet were gathered, taken home, and there roasted in hot
+ashes. This made the pine roots very soft. They were then split into
+quarters with digging sticks or stone choppers and finally were pulled
+apart into thin strips using hands and teeth. The resulting half inch
+wide strips were tied into bundles for storage. In use, these strips
+were well soaked in water. Pine root strands of proper width were easily
+split off by hand. The finer and smaller the basketry to be done,
+naturally, the narrower was the material split for making it.
+
+    [Illustration: Atsugewi twined basket, deer-rib and arrow point
+    designs. Both are frequently used.]
+
+    [Illustration: Pit River (used by Dixon to include Atsugewi) popular
+    mussels’ tongue designs.]
+
+    [Illustration: Mountain Maidu mountain-and-cloud design on coiled
+    basket.]
+
+    [Illustration: Atsugewi pine cone design]
+
+    [Illustration: Atsugewi deer-gut design on twined basket—also a
+    popular pattern.]
+
+    [Illustration: Another Atsugewi version of deer-gut design on twined
+    basket.]
+
+    [Illustration: Pit River (applied by Dixon to include also the
+    Atsugewi) deer excrement designs.]
+
+    [Illustration: Atsugewi flint design]
+
+The chief overlay material—already mentioned—was what we call bear-grass
+or squaw-grass. In truth this is not grass, but the leaf of a lily, the
+well known bear-grass of Mount Rainier National Park, scientifically
+known as _Xerophylum tenax_. This grows only in limited areas in this
+region, hence Atsugewi had to make long trips on foot to obtain it. In
+recent years, at least, bear-grass was to be found only in the territory
+of the Shasta and of the mountain Maidu: a few miles west of Mount
+Shasta and near Greenville in Plumas County. Bear-grass could be
+collected only during about two weeks in mid-July. Earlier it was too
+tender; later it was too brittle “like hay”. Only new central leaves of
+each plant were plucked. The heavy mid-rib had to be removed from each
+leaf with an awl before use.
+
+Maidenhair fern frond stems were picked in August.
+
+Redbud twigs collected in the spring would “slip” the red outer bark
+easily in a thin layer. This was used for overlay pattern making on
+twined baskets. The white inner bark, or, more properly, sapwood was
+then stripped off for binding material and as the white lashing weft for
+coiled baskets. In the case of fall-collected redbud twigs the red outer
+bark adhered to the sapwood. This was used as the lashing strand or weft
+where red designs were desired on coiled baskets.
+
+Apwaruge, the eastern division of the Atsugewi, often made baskets of
+tules. These were more flexible, softer baskets than those made by the
+westerners, the Atsuge, and so there was considerable exchange of
+baskets between the two divisions of the Atsugewi.
+
+Atsugewi occasionally made openwork baskets from split juniper too,
+especially for low scoop-shaped, round, or oval baskets for fishing,
+root cleaning, et cetera, but as indicated earlier, willow ribs were
+used for this purpose also.
+
+    [Illustration: (Yana) dogs ears]
+
+    [Illustration: Probably Yana House design]
+
+    [Illustration: Maidu quail tip design widely used but only on coiled
+    baskets.]
+
+    [Illustration: (Yana) crane’s leg]
+
+    [Illustration: (Atsugewi) meadow lark]
+
+    [Illustration: (Achomawi) flying geese or pine cone
+    (Yana) pine cone]
+
+    [Illustration: Maidu earthworm design on a coiled basket.]
+
+    [Illustration: Maidu bushes design on a coiled basket.]
+
+    [Illustration: Mountain Maidu duck’s-wing design on a coiled
+    basketry plaque.]
+
+    [Illustration: (Maidu) diamond
+    (Yana) wolf’s eye]
+
+    [Illustration: Mountain Maidu eye design.]
+
+    [Illustration: (Atsugewi) flint or arrowhead]
+
+    [Illustration: (Maidu) watersnake (?)
+    (Yana) bushes]
+
+    [Illustration: (Yana) bats]
+
+    [Illustration: Maidu design, probably sugar pine tree.]
+
+    [Illustration: A continuing zig-zag arrow feather design widely and
+    frequently used by Maidu in coiled basketry, sometimes this was
+    combined with the quail tip pattern.]
+
+    [Illustration: Single and double arrow point designs—the most
+    commonly used of all Maidu patterns. It was relatively easy to make
+    and very versatile.]
+
+    [Illustration: (Maidu) big tongues
+    (Yana) intestines]
+
+    [Illustration: (Maidu) quail tip
+    (Yana) root digger]
+
+    [Illustration: (Maidu) mountain
+    (Yana) root digger hand]
+
+    [Illustration: (Maidu) earthworm
+    (Yana) intestines]
+
+    [Illustration: (Maidu) earthworm
+    (Yana) intestines]
+
+    [Illustration: (Maidu) mountain
+    (Yana) root digger hand]
+
+    [Illustration: (Achomawi) mountain or bear’s foot
+    (Yana) root digger hand]
+
+    [Illustration: (Maidu) vine
+    (Yana) geese]
+
+    [Illustration: (Maidu) rattlesnake
+    (Yana) geese]
+
+    [Illustration: (Wintun) sucker tail
+    (Yana) long worms in rotten wood.]
+
+    [Illustration: (Yana) wolf’s eye]
+
+Basket styles varied little among the several tribes of the Lassen
+region. Bottle shapes were never made until after the coming of white
+man. Cooking baskets were bowl-shaped with high, convexly curved sides,
+sometimes nearly globular in form. Baskets from which food was eaten
+individually and general utility baskets were similarly shaped but
+smaller. Boiling baskets were sometimes without decoration; their
+dimensions of height and width were about equal. Storage baskets also
+had about the same shape, curving less, sometimes, but were large, being
+three feet or more in size. Some were of open work, but usually they
+were of close or tight weaving.
+
+Flattish bowls or somewhat curved trays were used for food platters as
+well as for winnowing, parching, and cleaning foods by chafing. Some
+were of open weave made of willow or hazel (?) only while others were
+closely woven.
+
+Basketry acorn grinding hoppers also called milling baskets or pounding
+baskets, were usually regular twined baskets of suitable size and shape:
+wide mouthed bowl or funnel-shaped. Having no central point from which
+to start the warp, because of the open bottoms, hopper baskets were
+started by twining three pine root wefts about the bases of many willow
+warps to make a circle about five inches in diameter. Additional warps
+were built up on the radiating ribs, proceeding then in the normal
+manner of twining. Twined hopper baskets were usually reinforced by
+lashing one or two strong rings of willow or serviceberry withes. They
+might also be bound with buckskin along the bottom edges for improved
+strength and durability as well as to decrease loss of acorn meal during
+the pounding process. In recent years both mountain Maidu and Atsugewi,
+also used coiling technique in making hopper baskets, for which purpose
+it is well suited.
+
+A recent innovation among Atsugewi has been the covering of bottles with
+basketry and also the weaving of oblong shaped closely twined and coiled
+baskets, as well as goblet shaped creations.
+
+  According to Garth, the seed beater “... was a paddle-shaped implement
+  from one and a half to two feet long with a willow warp and open work
+  twining, also of willow (spaced at three quarters of an inch between
+  rows) across the blade. The handle was wrapped either with willow
+  strips or with buckskin.”
+
+Another important use of basketry was in the construction of cradle
+boards, or more properly, basket cradles. These are generally known to
+present day Americans by the incorrect term papoose baskets. The cradle
+basket is discussed under the heading “Birth and Babies”.
+
+    [Illustration: (Yurok) flint
+    (Yana) zigzagging]
+
+    [Illustration: (Maidu) quail-tip
+    (Yana) “sitting up in a series”]
+
+    [Illustration: (Maidu) vine
+    (Yana) “braided”]
+
+    [Illustration: (Yana) mussels]
+
+    [Illustration: (Maidu) earthworm
+    (Yana) “braided”]
+
+    [Illustration: (Yana) mountains]
+
+    [Illustration: (Yurok) “sitting”
+    (Yana) “zigzagging and turning back”]
+
+    [Illustration: (Yana) wolf’s eye]
+
+    [Illustration: (Yana) trout or salmon tails]
+
+    [Illustration: (Yana) flint]
+
+    [Illustration: (Yana) guts]
+
+    [Illustration: (Atsugewi) skunk’s ear]
+
+Beautifully made basketry caps for women, finely twined, spreading
+bowl-shaped affairs were made by all tribes of the Lassen area. These
+were nicely decorated on the bottoms—or rather tops—as well as on the
+sides, a feature lacking on all other types of local baskets. Another
+unique feature of the basketry cap was the fact that the inside of the
+hat was abraded by rubbing so that none of the pattern remained visible
+because all of the overlay on the inside had been worn away. It is
+suspected that this made the inside of the hat less slippery on the hair
+so that it did not slip off the head so easily. Removal of the
+decoration from the inside of the basketry cap in no way altered the
+appearance or permanence of the outside decorative patterns.
+
+Mats were woven of viscid bulrush, more commonly called tule stalks
+(_Scirpus lacustris_ or _acutus_). According to Voegelin, Atsugewi
+sometimes sewed these together by piercing them with bone needles.
+However the more usual method of manufacture was that of lashing
+together the ends of parallel tule stalks laid next to each other. This
+was done with double cords or strands in the regular simple twining
+manner which shows up well in the sketch of Atsugewi tule leggings. Such
+mats were extensively used as bed mats or mattresses, as earth wall
+coverings, as doorway and ventilator hole hangings, and so on by all of
+the tribes of the Lassen region. Mountain Maidu also employed
+broad-leaved cat-tail (_Typha latifolia_) or narrow-leaved cat-tail
+(_Typha angustifolia_) for such purposes on occasion. This tribe also
+appears to have used a string weft in making at least some of the mats.
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter XII
+                       TANNING, CORDAGE, AND GLUE
+
+
+Mountain Maidu buried bear skins in wet ground, but hides generally were
+soaked about a week in water by local Indians. Mountain Maidu used ashes
+to help dehair skins other than deer, but this was not a practice common
+to other tribes. Stone, or more frequently, shaped deer rib or pelvic
+bones were used as dehairing scraper tools on skins. The hide was draped
+over an inclined post and was soaked and squeezed occasionally during
+the process of scraping.
+
+The tanning agent was a cooked soup of animal brains, particularly those
+of deer. This material might first have been mashed, mixed with dry
+moss, and then molded into small cakes for drying and storage. The deer
+brain agent was well rubbed into the cleaned, soaked skin. It was then
+allowed to soak overnight in the tanning solution. The next day while
+drying the skin in the sun, the operator stretched and worked the hide
+with his hands to make it soft and pliable.
+
+Among Atsugewi the skin was then smoked over a fire of moist rotten logs
+or green juniper boughs burning in a shallow pit. The skin was laid on a
+domed framework of willow branches arched over the fire. The hide was
+turned occasionally to insure uniform treatment. Mr. Garth believes that
+this smoking process was recently learned. It was not generally
+practiced by neighboring tribes, but produced superior buckskin which
+resisted stiffening as a result of subsequent wetting. Even Atsugewi did
+not smoke other skins.
+
+    [Illustration: Nets. a, b, stages in net making; c, tule float; d,
+    net shuttle.]
+
+Men did all this work as well as the hunting, skinning, and fashioning
+of garments from hides. Skins were sewn with bone awls and deer sinew
+thread which was made by rolling fine deer sinew strands on the thigh
+with the open hand.
+
+    [Illustration: Net making shuttle about fourteen inches long (after
+    Dixon)]
+
+    [Illustration: The usual Maidu knot for nets (after Dixon)]
+
+    [Illustration: Carrying net]
+
+Like other local tribes, the Maidu used many woven skin blankets. These
+were fashioned from one inch strips of rabbit fur, especially, but also
+of the skins of wildcat, cougar, geese, or crows. These were not tanned
+so that upon drying they twisted or curled like the strands of a rope
+with the fur or feather side out. Ends were tied together to form a long
+fur or feather covered rope. This was wound about two poles set upright
+in the ground six feet or so apart to form the warp for the blanket.
+More of the same material was then woven up and down as weft to produce
+a soft and very warm skin blanket which was also quite durable. When
+bird skins were employed a cord core was threaded thru the center of the
+twisted strands before weaving for greater strength.
+
+Mountain Maidu also did feather work like that of the Atsugewi, however
+foothill and valley Maidu did so to a greater extent and of a more
+elaborate nature.
+
+Willow, serviceberry, and redbud withes, and at lower elevations,
+lengths of wild grape vines were used for tying purposes. However,
+Indians also had need for strong and more versatile and more durable
+string, cord, and rope. These were usually made from vegetable fibers.
+Atsugewi and mountain Maidu used Indian hemp and milkweed but not nettle
+or iris fibers as did some other tribes. When mature, but before they
+became old and brittle, the plants were collected and dried, stripped of
+leaves, and the flesh was scraped and pounded off leaving the free
+fibers. String was made by placing two small bundles of fibers parallel
+and close together on the thigh of the leg. These were rolled up into
+two strands side by side with one stroke of the open hand moving either
+up or down the thigh. On the return stroke the two separate and now
+twisted strands were twisted together into one string. Stout cord was
+made by repeating the process, substituting two strings for the two
+bundles of loose fibers this time. To make rope the process was repeated
+several times, successively doubling the cordage product. As the cordage
+strands were twined together, the product was held in the left hand, the
+rolling being done by the right hand on the right thigh.
+
+Nets of good quality were fabricated in a variety of mesh sizes, the
+uniformity of which was controlled by use of squarish wooden blocks.
+Shuttles to hold the string for net tying were straight pieces of wood
+notched at each end and into which the strand was wrapped. As has been
+pointed out, nets were used chiefly for hunting, fishing, and carrying,
+although small nets were often worn in the hair by men.
+
+Adhesives were important in the economy of the Indians too. Pine pitch
+and glue made from the skins of fish were used. A solution of the latter
+was mixed by the mountain Maidu with certain internal organs of fish and
+boiled vegetable materials to improve the quality of their glue.
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter XIII
+                             TRANSPORTATION
+
+
+It was the lack of transportation rather than the existence of any which
+was important to the aboriginal Americans. This was responsible for the
+degree of isolation which was required to produce the variety of customs
+and languages in most parts of the “New World”. Introduction of the
+horse in historic times materially changed the habits of Plains Indians.
+Likewise the somewhat aggressive Modoc tribe to the north of the Pit
+River, whose conflict with the whites has been memorialized in Lava Beds
+National Monument today, became mobile, even prior to the gold rush
+days, through use of the horse. As a result the Modocs made a number of
+hit and run raids upon Atsugewi and other tribes and were able to carry
+off slaves. This was not the traditional mode of warfare.
+
+Transportation among Indians was by foot or by water until recent times.
+California Indians did not use dogs as beasts of burden as Plains
+Indians did and as the Eskimos still do. Women did general hauling; men,
+however, did most of the really heavy carrying. Women used the conical
+burden basket extensively, but the men did not. Both sexes used the
+buckskin pack strap which in the case of mountain Maidu passed over the
+top of the head. Atsugewi pack straps went over the forehead and also
+over the shoulder across the chest. The brimless basketry cap or hat was
+used with the packstrap especially among the women. Heavy loads were
+frequently carried by men upon the shoulder; such burdens were often
+rolled in mats or animal skins.
+
+Carrying nets made of twisted fibers were commonly employed by men and
+women among local tribes. Atsugewi used a folded buckskin bag sewed at
+the edges, with a handle on top, and opening at the side. Yana
+manufactured an open-work carrying basket too.
+
+In this region loads were never carried on the head, but on occasion
+might be suspended on a pole and carried between two men. The mountain
+Maidu also used a litter for the sick, but Atsugewi carried sick persons
+in burden baskets on their backs.
+
+In rough country crude trails were sometimes built, but this was not a
+common practice. Generally trails as such were not constructed, but
+where they existed they had developed as the result of long use along
+logical routes, in much the same manner as deer and other game trails
+develop.
+
+To cross streams advantage was taken of logs which had fallen of natural
+causes. On occasion single logs were felled by burning to serve as
+bridges. Yana at lower elevations frequently had large streams to cross
+and smaller trees to utilize. Two logs might be felled parallel and
+cross sticks lashed on with grapevine for better footing.
+
+    [Illustration: Boat Types of Native California (not to scale). a,
+    Yurok (northwestern California) river canoe; b, Klamath
+    (northeastern California) canoe; c, tule balsa.]
+
+    [Illustration: Distribution of Types of Native California Boat.]
+
+  a, Dugout canoe
+  b, Dugout canoe
+  c, Tule balsa
+
+    [Illustration: Atsugewi dug-out canoe on Hat Creek]
+
+In swimming most Indians used a pseudo-breast stroke or swam on their
+backs with a frog style stroke. Atsugewi also did a “dog paddle” keeping
+arms under water. Mountain Maidu used swimming techniques which embraced
+principles like those of white man’s side stroke and crawl. They jumped
+into the water feet first in preference to headfirst diving. When
+swimming under water to collect crawfish or mussels a rock was often
+tied loosely to the back.
+
+Water transportation was not of the same degree of importance to the
+tribes of the Lassen region that it was to Sacramento Valley, Coastal,
+and Northwestern Indians. Nevertheless Atsugewi used sharp or blunt
+ended canoes while that of the mountain Maidu had a shovel-like prow and
+stern. These were made from pine logs, usually windfalls about two feet
+in diameter and had a capacity of two to four persons. The logs were
+hollowed out by controlled burning so that the walls were an inch or two
+thick. Pitch was rubbed onto portions needing more burning. Water or mud
+were used to check burning and the charred wood was scraped out with
+rough angular stones. Local dugout canoes were rather crude affairs.
+Cracking of the wood was prevented by keeping the boats wet. They were
+propelled by an unadorned poling rod or by a single bladed square-ended
+paddle about three feet long. A raft, consisting of three or four logs
+lashed together, was used as well by all local tribes and propelled by
+poling.
+
+Atsugewi had another type of craft: the tule balsa—a five foot long
+raised prow affair made of bundles of tules lashed together. It might be
+poled or else pushed by a swimmer. Often this raft-like boat was towed
+by a rope of willow. Atsugewi occasionally ferried children or goods in
+baskets, while among mountain Maidu swimmers carried children on their
+backs and carried goods in one hand, raised above the water level,
+swimming with the other hand.
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter XIV
+                     DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PETS
+
+
+We are apt to think of Indians, especially Plains Indians, riding horses
+as part of the natural prehistoric scene, yet this was not the case.
+Although fossil remains in the rocks show clearly the development of the
+horse over a period of several millions of years on this continent, the
+horse, the camel, and the rhinoceros—to mention but a few of the
+spectacular mammals—became extinct on the American continents before the
+advent of prehistoric man. American Indians had never seen a horse until
+the coming of the Spanish to the New World in 1540. Likewise domestic
+cattle, sheep, goats, and chickens were unknown to the aborigines.
+
+The dog was widely distributed, however. Some tribes had large as well
+as small dogs of a variety of colors. In the Lassen area the dogs were
+all about the size of small coyotes, mostly with fairly short hair, but
+there are some reports of long haired dogs. Typically the dogs had small
+rather erect and pointed ears. Coloration was chiefly fawn colored to
+brown. Amongst Atsugewi, dogs were usually quite numerous, but certain
+villages seem to have had only a few. In such cases and among the
+mountain Maidu, who generally had only few dogs, they were borrowed for
+hunting. Dogs were almost always named.
+
+Dogs served to warn their owners of the approach of strangers to the
+village or camp. Mountain Maidu taught their dogs not to bark, but to
+“sniff” conspicuously as a signal of stranger approach.
+
+Tribes of the Lassen area did not normally keep dogs in their dwelling
+houses. Atsugewi built separate, domed, bark-covered dog houses, and
+mountain Maidu built two kinds of shelters for their dogs. One was a
+subterranean earth-covered dog house, and the other a conical affair of
+bark slab type construction.
+
+Dogs were widely used in hunting. They were efficient in catching
+rodents and other small mammals such as ground hogs. They were also
+useful for treeing mountain lions and were adept at bringing down
+wounded deer by jumping up and seizing the deers’ ears.
+
+Dogs were not often eaten by tribes in this section of California. Upon
+death, dogs were not buried, but the bodies were merely thrown out.
+
+Upon death of the dog’s owner, among Atsugewi, the dog was retained by
+the widow, but among mountain Maidu the dog was suspended in a tree
+because “It makes dog’s spirit glad”! Although not being generally
+considered in this account, it is curious that among Modoc and eastern
+Achomawi dogs were burned at the deaths of their owners.
+
+Bear cubs were commonly kept. Atsugewi also kept fawns and other small
+mammals as pets. Birds of various sorts were kept by certain tribes.
+Atsugewi plucked or cut wings of birds, especially of eagles whose
+feathers were prized for arrow making, and for ceremonial and decorative
+purposes.
+
+
+
+
+                               Chapter XV
+                                CLOTHING
+
+
+The members of all tribes, especially the Yana and Yahi, went bareheaded
+much of the time. However, basketry caps nearly hemispherical in shape
+and of fine tightly twined weave were worn regularly by Indian women.
+The caps were probably worn to prevent chafing of the pack straps
+originally, but Atsugewi women wore them most of the time. Such hats
+were well decorated with overlaid designs typical of the tribes under
+consideration. Those of Yana and Yahi were usually of tule with black
+and white overlay. Mountain Maidu made some coiled basketry caps, not
+infrequently employing tules or reeds.
+
+Men of all our tribes wore fur headbands on occasion and among Atsugewi,
+fur or buckskin caps too, especially in winter, when shallow bucket
+shaped skin hats of coyote, raccoon, mink and the like afforded
+protection against the rather intense cold.
+
+Eyeshades attached to a band around the head were worn by some Yana
+women so as not to see their sons-in-law! Atsugewi men and possibly
+others might wear side blinds when spearing fish at night to keep torch
+light out of their eyes.
+
+Children up to about six years of age ran about naked, and often the
+older men and women did likewise, particularly among the Maidu.
+
+Buckskin dresses were worn to some extent by the women of most local
+tribes. The mountain Maidu dress was tied at both shoulders and tied or
+belted at the waist. The garment was provided with flaps over the upper
+arms but lacked sleeves. Buckskin dresses were worn by some Indian women
+rich in worldly goods, and usually for special occasions. Recent
+buckskin dresses, of course, are sewn on sewing machines, neatly
+tailored, and follow the general pattern of the conventional dress,
+including regular sleeves.
+
+In normal everyday garb Indian women were naked above the waist. A
+wrap-around skirt, or, more frequently two narrow or wide aprons were
+worn. Sometimes one apron went around the hips, being tied in back and
+provided with a buckskin flap which covered the wearer’s buttocks. The
+Indian women’s aprons were commonly made of shredded incense-cedar,
+willow, or juniper bark, or of tules. In the case of Yana and Yahi
+women, frequently grass or shredded, spring-gathered, broad-leaf maple
+bark were used. The latter was a favorite valley Maidu skirt material.
+The double aprons might however be made of whole buckskin or of strips
+or cords of buckskin, and in winter furs might be used for the purpose.
+The double apron is recognized as the standard garb of California Indian
+women. That of the Maidu was often very narrow, being not much more than
+a front and a rear tassel.
+
+    [Illustration: A beautiful old Shasta buckskin woman’s wrap-around
+    apron ornamented with tan, black, and red vegetable fiber bound
+    slitting in the manner of coarse modern hemstitching, with strings
+    of olivella shells and shaped abalone pendants, and finished on the
+    bottom with long buckskin fringes. The garment is much like the more
+    pretentious aprons described for Atsugewi.]
+
+    [Illustration: Detail of ornamentation on the Shasta buckskin apron]
+
+    [Illustration: Mountain Maidu woman’s tassel-type of shredded bark
+    apron, about twenty two inches long. Some such aprons were
+    considerably wider (after Dixon).]
+
+    [Illustration: Woman’s basketry cap probably Atsugewi or Shasta.
+    Note the design placed on top as well as on the sides of the basket,
+    in contrast to other types of baskets. The bottoms of which are
+    devoid both of design and overlay materials and so present an
+    unadorned pine-root surface.]
+
+Women’s casual aprons and other clothing were not highly ornamented, but
+“dress-up” clothes might be fairly elaborately trimmed. Fringing of
+buckskin, spangles of shell money and ornaments, strings of shell beads,
+pine nuts, deer hoofs, and special white grass fringes commonly
+decorated their better clothes.
+
+In the summer some men, and particularly old ones wore nothing at all.
+Most others wore very little clothing besides a sort of loin covering of
+buckskin or fur which went between the legs and was held in place back
+and front by a belt about the waist. A crude buckskin shirt without
+sleeves was sometimes used.
+
+During winter above aprons, skirts, or loin covering other garments were
+worn. Then men commonly wore the sleeveless buckskin shirt. Both sexes
+usually wore robes of woven rabbit skins (usually imported by the
+Atsugewi), or made of deer or bear fur and worn with the hair side
+inside. Or else the robes were of a patchwork of small mammal skins sewn
+together. These same robes were frequently used for bedding at night. As
+a matter of fact almost any sort of skins available might be used as
+robes. These were tied on in a variety of ways. The wearers must have
+presented a rather motley appearance. On occasion small poncho style
+robes with a central hole for the head and neck clothed the upper bodies
+of local Indians during cold weather.
+
+    [Illustration: Atsugewi fringed buckskin dress of pioneer period]
+
+    [Illustration: An Atsugewi legging made of lashing tules together
+    with a simple twining stitch]
+
+    [Illustration: Maidu buckskin moccasin about eleven inches long
+    (after Dixon)]
+
+Thumbless mittens were made of cased skins of weasels, rats or small
+cottontail rabbits and tied at the wrist with a thong. Atsugewi also
+utilized their fur-lined quivers as muffs when hunting.
+
+California Indians spent much of the time barefoot, but wore buckskin
+moccasins at war, on long hunts or journeys. Different styles were made
+by each of the local tribes. None, however, were normally decorated.
+Mountain Maidu also made moccasins of fur with the hair side in, and
+Atsugewi stuffed pounded grass or grass into their footwear or wore
+grass or tule slippers inside their moccasins during the winter. Maidu
+put soft grass or sedges in their moccasins for added warmth. An extra
+sole of tougher leather such as elkskin was sometimes sewn onto the
+moccasin, but this was not customary.
+
+Occasionally open sandals held on by three or four thongs were worn by
+Atsugewi and Yana.
+
+    [Illustration: Maidu snowshoe with raw-hide lashings]
+
+    [Illustration: Snowshoe of about eighteen inches in diameter (after
+    Dixon)]
+
+Knee length leggings of various materials were common in winter. These
+were tied on with buckskin strips at ankle and knee. Yana used
+hip-length pantleg type leggings held on with waist bands. Atsugewi
+sometimes employed fur pieces, twined tule, or spiral wrap-around fur
+strip leggings. Maidu used deerhide leggings with the hair side inside.
+These went from ankles to above the knees where they were tied, and were
+held close to the leg by an outside spirally wound thong from top to
+bottom.
+
+Snowshoes were a necessity too in the rigorous climate of even the lower
+portions of the areas inhabited by tribes of the Lassen area,
+particularly in those of the Atsugewi and mountain Maidu. Snowshoes of
+the former Indians were circular in plan; those of the latter were oval.
+Snowshoes were fashioned from small green wooden limbs shaped while hot,
+and then crisscrossed with strips of buckskin or hide with the fur side
+down for better traction. Atsugewi used green juniper limbs for the
+purpose. Since the whole foot was bound firmly to this footgear, there
+was no heel play as in the case of white mans’ snowshoes.
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter XVI
+                      BEAUTY AND PERSONAL GROOMING
+
+
+  Of Atsugewi standards of beauty Garth states: “The ideal woman was
+  short but plump and solidly built so that she could do much work. A
+  slim woman was considered too weak, and a very tall woman was made fun
+  of and called lohkata (stick woman). Heavy breasts, a straight slim
+  nose, large eyes, long black hair, and small feet were all admirable
+  qualities. A girl with big feet was likely to be lazy, also a small
+  foot was desirable because it would not take so large a moccasin. A
+  mother pressed her girl child’s foot together to make it slender. The
+  ideal man was of average height and was heavy set. If a child had a
+  flat nose, his mother pinched it and tried to give it a higher bridge.
+  Bow legs, it was said, might be straightened by the mother when the
+  child was young. Also a child’s ears were pressed against his head; if
+  the ears stood out, this was thought to indicate poor hearing. A slim
+  hand indicated a lazy person; a short stubby hand signified a good
+  worker.”
+
+Garth also comments to the effect that evidently the ideals of Indian
+beauty had a very practical basis. The same general criteria of beauty
+and desirability of women seem to have prevailed among the other tribes
+of this region also, but Yana preferred a rather flat and broad faced
+feminine beauty.
+
+The hair of both men and women among California Indians was generally
+worn long. The tribes of the Lassen area were no exception. However,
+bangs on the forehead were known. Boys and girls let their hair hang
+loosely, except that Atsugewi sometimes cut small boys’ hair short to
+make it grow better later.
+
+Women usually parted their hair in the middle wearing it in two hanks,
+one hanging in front of each shoulder. Each was tied with a piece of
+rawhide. Women of Yana tribes often used strips of otter or mink fur for
+the purpose as did some Atsugewi. Yana women might add further
+decoration in the form of a small string of shell beads. Atsugewi women
+might paint their scalps at the part in the hair with red paint.
+
+The male Indian tied his hair in a bunch which hung down the back. All
+local tribes, except mountain Maidu, seem also to have frequently used a
+small mesh hairnet made of plant fibers with a buckskin band to hold a
+man’s hair in a sort of roll at the back of his head. Maidu called the
+net wee-kah. In preparation for war or for the hunt Yana men coiled
+their hair on their heads with well defined top knots. For dances and
+other special events, male Maidu and Yana, if rich, wore mesh bonnets
+thickly covered with white eagle down feathers tied in so that the net
+strands were not visible. Bone hairpins were sometimes used among Yana
+and mountain Maidu men.
+
+    [Illustration: Men’s hair net type of cap worn by adult males of all
+    Lassen area tribes, the wearer’s long hair being piled on top of the
+    head when worn as in upper sketch (after Dixon) with the loose
+    excess net allowed to fall straight down behind.]
+
+  _NET_
+  _BUCKSKIN_
+  _DRAWSTRING_
+  _CORD_
+
+Adults cut their hair off with stone knives to show grief and mourning
+when relatives died. Both men and women cropped their hair closely, but
+mountain Maidu women sometimes only trimmed it off to shoulder length.
+Singeing instead of cutting the hair was sometimes resorted to.
+
+For combing the hair, Atsugewi might use a single stick, a pine cone, or
+a teasle burr. Mountain Maidu might use stiff pine needles, but the item
+most commonly used by all tribes for the purpose was the porcupine tail.
+The animal’s tail was skinned out, stuffed with grass, and sewed shut at
+the open end. Sharp ends of the porcupine quills were blunted with hot
+stones.
+
+Hair was not dyed in this region. It was, however, rubbed with animal
+fat or bone marrow to make it look nicer by aboriginal standards.
+Atsugewi are said to have perfumed their hair on occasion with aromatic
+plant foliage. Hair and body lice were not uncommon; these were hunted
+and removed by hand. Maidu washed their hair frequently with common
+soaproot (_Chlorogalum pomeridianum_).
+
+Faces of adults were painted for a number of occasions. Black was used
+to some extent by both sexes to prevent sunburn and snow-blindness if
+long exposure in the bright sun were expected. Although Yana men and
+women used red and white paint when dancing, among our other tribes face
+paint was used chiefly by men for dances and ceremonies.
+
+    [Illustration: Porcupine tail comb about ten inches long (after
+    Dixon)]
+
+Paint pigments were mixed with animal fat, especially deer grease, or
+with marrow and applied with the fingers. It was smeared on upper arms,
+legs, chest, and cheeks. Atsugewi and mountain Maidu blackened their
+eyebrows. Red pigment was either red soil, usually roasted or burned to
+make the color brighter, or the spores from a fungus which grows on the
+bark of fir trees. The fungus material was dried over a slow fire to
+prepare it for use. Black pigment was universally charcoal. Ashes were
+not used as white pigment. Students of local tribes state that chalk was
+employed for white paint. However, chalk is lacking in the Lassen
+vicinity and it is highly probable that the suitable and readily
+available white diatomaceous earth deposits were used for this purpose
+instead. Atsugewi also used blue color which was obtained in rock form
+by trade with their northern Pit River or Achomawi neighbors.
+
+The light beards which started to grow on male Indians’ faces were
+universally removed completely by plucking with the fingers.
+
+Earlobe and nose piercing was generally practiced by both sexes. Among
+Atsugewi rims of their ears as well as the lobes were perforated in some
+instances.
+
+Tattooing was occasionally done by Yana, but not as commonly as among
+Atsugewi where women not infrequently wore tattooed vertical lines
+across their mouths. Both sexes commonly tattooed their cheeks with
+horizontal lines or with two or three lines radiating from the corners
+of the mouth. Arms and legs were also tattooed to a certain extent. The
+mutilation was done by rubbing charcoal into cuts which had been made
+with stone knives or by rubbing charcoal on the skin and then pricking
+it with bone awls or porcupine quills. However, even among Atsugewi,
+tattooing was by no means universal. Mountain Maidu women were sometimes
+tattooed with three, five, or seven vertical lines on the chin.
+
+Earrings were worn by nearly all men and women. Atsugewi employed bone
+rings, clamshell beads, feathers and even painted ear ornaments.
+Mountain Maidu and Yana usually used bone or wooden ones, plain or
+decorated with feathers or shells. Abalone, like other sea shells, were
+received only in trade and were fashioned into pendants for ears or
+noses.
+
+Nose piercing consisted of making a hole through the septum of the nose.
+This practice was popular among all local tribes. It was done to permit
+the wearing of jewelry although Yana ascribed a deeper meaning to the
+custom as well. They believed that no person would go to his equivalent
+of heaven unless the nose septum was pierced. Hence this was done to the
+dead and a stick inserted if it had not been done in life. Two-pointed
+bone nose-pins were popular inserts as were long narrow dentalium
+shells, or nose pendants of beads. Only among mountain Maidu were nose
+ornaments highly decorated.
+
+    [Illustration: Portion of Atsugewi (probably) necklace of dentalium
+    shells (one and one fourth inches long) and glass trader beads.]
+
+    [Illustration: Maidu necklaces: bear claw and insect perforated
+    acorn.]
+
+    [Illustration: Atsugewi necklace of clamshell disks and digger pine
+    nuts which are a full half inch long.]
+
+Necklaces were common adornments too, but local tribes did not use
+bracelets. Items used for necklaces were perhaps bear teeth and bear
+claws among Atsugewi and Yana. More commonly, certainly, and used by all
+of our tribes were olivella shells, shaped pieces of abalone shells,
+small animal and bird bone rings or tubes, clamshell discs, long
+tooth-shells (dentalia), and Digger Pine nuts which had been parched
+until blackened. Their ends had then been rubbed off or holes bored
+through ends or sides and cleaned out. Yana also made mussel shell disks
+locally, not only for necklaces but as ear pendants. In later years all
+tribes used glass trader beads, usually interspersed with native items.
+
+Maidu, especially their tribes of the lower elevations, went in for
+elaborate feather decorations and headdresses. Valley Maidu even had
+feather cloaks for ceremonial use.
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter XVII
+                                 WEALTH
+
+
+Among local tribes wealth was the direct result of skill and industry
+and was highly regarded by all. A person’s social status in the tribe
+varied directly with his wealth. Lazy persons not able to properly care
+for their own needs were considered as bums and looked down upon by all
+other members of the village. With wealth went a certain amount of
+power. Chiefs, although empowered by heritage, were always well to do,
+and the wealthiest men in smaller units acted in the capacity of
+head-men.
+
+As with modern man, money among Indians was an arbitrary medium of
+exchange, yet it was of more practical value to the Indians than our own
+coins are to us. Their money was prized not only for what it would buy
+in material things, but as possessing important decorative value as
+well.
+
+The long tooth-shell or dentalium was used whole and unmodified. It was
+the currency of the northwest California coast. The money of central and
+southern California was the clamshell disk. This was cut, smoothed into
+disk shapes about half an inch in diameter, and each was perforated with
+a central hole by means of which this money could be strung onto cords.
+In no case did local tribes travel the California coast to obtain these
+shell coins. Instead, this item found its way to Indians of the interior
+through progressive or step-by-step trading from coastal tribes through
+intermediate aboriginal traders.
+
+As we might expect, dentalia, having a northern origin, were secured by
+Atsugewi not from their neighbors to the south, but from the northern
+Yana in exchange for buckskins, arrows, wildcat skin quivers, and
+woodpecker scalps. The mountain Maidu did not have dentalia at all.
+
+Except for the central Yana custom of measuring the length of strings of
+clamshell disks, amounts of money were determined by counting and not by
+measuring length on arm tatoos as was so commonly the case in other
+parts of California. Skins of small mammals which had been skinned by
+making only one slit in the hind quarters and whose mouth openings had
+been tied shut, served as purses.
+
+All of our tribes used clamshell money. Among Yana clamshell disks were
+not as valuable as dentalia, and they were more common also among
+Atsugewi, the dentalia being used more for decoration than as money. The
+tribes of the Lassen region generally received the finished clamshell
+money; almost never did they manufacture this, although they did work
+traded abalone shell into jewelry pieces.
+
+Material wealth or treasure other than weapons, skins, baskets, and food
+also consisted largely of imported seashells. Whole olivella shells were
+commonly used as dress ornaments and also for paying shamans for
+services. Bone cylinders, columellae of shells, and especially polished
+cylinders of the mineral magnesite were highly prized. These might be
+used as the central piece of a necklace in the same manner that we might
+utilize a precious gem.
+
+
+
+
+                             Chapter XVIII
+                            CEREMONIAL DRESS
+
+
+All local tribes used the beautiful salmon colored feathers of the
+Red-shafted Flicker, a woodpecker also known to us by the name
+Yellowhammer. A headband of the bird’s feathers—the stiff quills—was
+worn on the forehead. Mountain Maidu doctors wore this item also as a
+belt. In addition Atsugewi made a full feather band which was worn in a
+variety of ways including hanging down the back. This was usually used
+only by the shamans.
+
+Another ceremonial item was the California or Acorn Woodpecker scalp
+headband. This usually had a buckskin strap base, however, mountain
+Maidu glued these gay feathered patches onto fur bands, Yana wore
+woodpecker scalps on buckskin as belts.
+
+Mountain Maidu made belts of bands on which the showy greenish feathered
+neck skins of male Mallard Ducks in mating plumage were strung.
+
+For ceremonial use it was generally customary to tuck small tufts of
+feathers into the top of the hair. Among Atsugewi, chiefs only used
+eagle feathers for this purpose. This tribe also fastened single
+feathers into the crown of buckskin caps in a radiating manner, and also
+onto strips hanging down the back. Sometimes feathers were tipped with
+small white feathers to make the former even more decorative. Feathers
+were also fastened to head nets in a number of ways which differed
+somewhat among our tribes. Among Atsugewi, women wore these on occasion,
+but generally it was the males who decked themselves with feathers.
+Feather plumes of various sorts, employing either twisted buckskin or
+stick bodies, were also in general use.
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter XIX
+                          TOBACCO AND SMOKING
+
+
+The knowledge and use of tobacco are among the important elements which
+our own culture of today has inherited from the Indians of North
+America. Of what benefit this has been is a debatable matter, but its
+effect has been profound, both on our customs and our economy.
+
+Local tribes used simple one piece wooden pipes of tubular design for
+the most part in smoking tobacco. Atsugewi and mountain Maidu commonly
+employed elder and other woods with a pithy and easily removed center.
+Although not otherwise being considered in this account, the Shasta
+Indian technique of pipe making is mentioned here because of its
+uniqueness. These folks hollowed pipe stems by soaking the end of a
+suitable stick in salmon oil. The larvae of the salmon fly were then
+introduced, and these worm-like creatures, eating the nourishing fishy
+core, would bore their ways lengthwise through the center of the
+heartwood where most of the salmon oil was concentrated. The Yana
+habitually used the wood of ash as pipe stock. Mountain Maidu found but
+did not manufacture a few simple stone pipe bowls also of tubular
+design. These had considerable spiritual significance and were treated
+with great care. Garth states that Atsugewi also had short stone pipes,
+tubular in shape, to which elder or rose wood extensions up to eleven
+inches in length were applied. Stone pipes were apparently not common in
+the Lassen region, however.
+
+    [Illustration: Steatite stone pipes were used without wooden stems,
+    each between three and four inches long. The holes in such pipes
+    were made by tapping a deer antler piece in the depression
+    containing some sand, a slow but effective boring process. This was
+    commonly done by Valley tribes.]
+
+    [Illustration: Yana reddish porous lava (dacite?) pipe, broken half,
+    both sides shown. Note funnel-shaped depression in the bottom of the
+    outside (lower half)]
+
+Pipes were used at social gatherings, after sweating, and at bed time.
+The pipes of the local tribes did not have any bends or curves. These
+straight tubular pipes were therefore most conveniently smoked when the
+Indians were reclining on their backs thus keeping the tobacco from
+falling out. Pipes were normally passed around, and used only by the
+men. However, women shamans of the mountain Maidu also smoked them.
+Shamans regularly used pipe smoking in ceremonies, especially when
+healing the sick.
+
+Tobacco grew wild and burning of brush was performed in certain
+localities to promote the growth of _Nicotiana_ plants. Tobacco was not
+cultivated, but mountain Maidu did collect and scatter seeds in
+favorable areas. Tobacco was prepared merely by collecting the leaves
+when fully developed but still green, then drying, preferably in the
+shade, and finally crumbling the cured leaf in the hand. Tobacco was
+carried in buckskin pouches usually. Atsugewi often added manzanita and
+deer grease to their smoking tobacco. Indians of this region did not
+chew tobacco nor did they eat it with lime as was the custom elsewhere
+in California. Native tobacco is quite strong.
+
+
+
+
+                               Chapter XX
+                             MUSIC AND ART
+
+
+Music of local tribes was limited indeed. It was usually made by men.
+Only Atsugewi among the Lassen tribes possessed the drum, and this is
+believed to have been of recent introduction. It was a tambourine type:
+flat, cylindrical, a foot or so across, and with buckskin shrunken over
+one end.
+
+The shamans of all tribes used cocoon rattles. These were made of large
+cocoons from which the moth pupae had been removed through a small hole.
+Pebbles or seeds were then inserted and usually five or six
+cocoons—among Atsugewi as many as thirty—were tied onto the end of a
+wooden handle and dried. Cocoon rattles were considered dangerous and
+were usually kept hidden out of doors, being used by shamans only when
+doctoring.
+
+A single split stick clapper was employed generally for all types of
+singing and dancing, not being reserved for any special type of person
+or ceremony.
+
+Deer-hoof rattles were made from the small hard “dew-claws” from the
+backs of deer legs. About twenty dew-claws were tied loosely with thongs
+to a strip of buckskin which was then wrapped about a stick with a plain
+handle. The deer-hoof rattle was operated by vigorously jerking it
+lengthwise, in and out. It was used exclusively in the important puberty
+rites when girls attained womanhood.
+
+    [Illustration: Deer-hoof rattle, length about ten inches (after
+    Dixon)]
+
+    [Illustration: Maidu split-stick clapper, twenty inches long]
+
+    [Illustration: Maidu cocoon rattle eight inches long]
+
+    [Illustration: Maidu bird-bone whistles]
+
+    [Illustration: Atsugewi deer-claw rattle]
+
+    [Illustration: Universal split-stick dancing rattle]
+
+    [Illustration: Maidu cocoon rattle]
+
+    [Illustration: Flute and bull-roarer of local manufacture]
+
+Atsugewi and Yana employed hunting bows as musical instruments by
+holding one end in the mouth and plucking the string with fingers.
+Mountain Maidu did so too, but like the others only for their own
+amusement.
+
+Bone, cane, and elder whistles were blown at dances. Flutes, the most
+tuneful of Indians’ instruments, were not played at ceremonies or at
+dances, curiously enough, but just for self amusement, or in the case of
+mountain Maidu also for courting pretty girls. Flute melodies were
+supposed to tell stories, but words were not sung to help the
+interpretation. Yana made a six-hole flute; other tribes of the Lassen
+area used a four hole model. In all cases they were open, reedless
+instruments blown at an angle across one end. The flute was most
+frequently made of elder wood—mountain Maidu burned the holes into it
+with live coals.
+
+Except for basketry designs art as such is virtually non-existent. A few
+simple designs were painted onto hunting bows, and some nose and ear
+pendants might be considered jewelry art forms, but of the lowest
+development. The application of face and body paints and tattooing were
+also simple examples of Indian art.
+
+There appear to be no cliff or cave paintings in the vicinity of Lassen
+Peak, but they are abundant in Lava Beds National Monument about 75
+miles to the north. A different matter is that of petroglyphs which, in
+California, usually have been made by striking or pecking smooth rock
+surfaces with small hard stones. Some of these are to be found in the
+Atsugewi and central Yana territories at lower elevation. However, these
+symbolic markings were not executed by the local tribes. Atsugewi
+believe them to have been made by mythological characters. It appears
+that the petroglyphs must have been made by the predecessors of the Hat
+Creek and Nozi Indians, for these people claim no knowledge of even the
+meaning of the rock writings. Shortly before going to press the first
+petroglyph known to come from the Lassen vicinity was found in the
+territory of the Southern Yana. The site is one where numerous obsidian
+chips and arrowpoints have been found on a gently south sloping, open
+forested portion of Lassen Volcanic National Park headquarters area at
+an elevation of almost 5000 feet and situated slightly west of the
+village of Mineral and just north of the north edge of Battle Creek
+Meadow.
+
+This find on a 10 inch boulder appears to be of ancient origin. The
+surface has weathered considerably yet not so much that the character of
+the carving has been altered. It is apparent that the quarter inch deep
+grooves have been made by rubbing rather than by pecking with hard
+rocks. This is all the more interesting since the boulder bearing the
+carving is of a tough hard and site lava. It is indeed unfortunate that
+the significance of this Battle Creek Meadows petroglyph is unknown. The
+authorities venture the opinion that the stone may have been used in
+puberty ceremonies. If so, whether by the Southern Yana or their
+predecessors we do not know either.
+
+    [Illustration: Battle Creek Meadows petroglyph about nine inches
+    long. The eye-shaped area A is a smooth flat one eighth of an inch
+    below the level of the rest of the rock surface. The grooves
+    bounding it are more than one quarter inch deep and of V-shaped
+    cross-section while the other markings are much shallower troughs
+    with rounded bottoms some being quite vague. B, C, D, and E indicate
+    deeper rounded depressions. F is a smooth and very uniform slightly
+    concave area.]
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter XXI
+                      GAMES AND SOCIAL GATHERINGS
+
+
+Heavy betting on games was the rule. Games were commonly played between
+neighboring villages or even on occasion with neighboring tribes.
+Gambling was an important element in these contests and large sums were
+bet. Sometimes nearly all of a person’s or even of a group’s possessions
+were at stake. Evaluation of the stakes in white man’s terms is
+difficult, but they are said frequently to have been of the order of
+several hundred dollars or even as much as a thousand dollars. Important
+games lasted more than one day—perhaps three or four days. The players
+caught brief rests only and were completely exhausted by the time the
+playing was over. Singing was the usual accompaniment and high quality
+rendition at games was much admired. Cheating was rare, maybe because it
+was supposed to bring subsequent bad luck.
+
+Most games were guessing games. There was considerable variety in the
+character and number of gambling stones or wooden sticks used, the
+manner of shuffling and other details. The sticks were shuffled and then
+concealed in the hands of one or several players on one side. The
+opposition had to determine the location of the marked stick or the
+arrangement of several. There were many spectators and excitement ran
+high. Women occasionally participated along with the men who were the
+main contestants. Counting sticks might be supplied to each side in
+equal number at the beginning. More often, however, the sticks were all
+placed in a common pile at the outset, the successful side taking a
+counting stick with each win. These scoring sticks were taken and
+surrendered as the tide of the game changed until one side had all. The
+game was won at this point.
+
+Ball games were played too. The ball was of buckskin stuffed with hair.
+The object was to kick the ball between the other team’s goal posts.
+Kicking ball races over given courses and back, or around a lake shore,
+were also indulged in. In some contests the men and youths on opposing
+sides would engage in restraining each other so that a number of
+individual or group wrestling bouts developed on the playing field.
+
+    [Illustration: Yana gambling bone, four inches long]
+
+There were foot races of distances either short or up to fifteen miles
+or so in length. Also archery contests and wrestling matches were held.
+In wrestling the object was to throw the opponent to the ground;
+tripping was not allowed. Contests in which heavy rocks were tossed,
+somewhat in the manner of today’s shot-put, and heavier rocks carried in
+competition over a designated line were other games in which the
+Atsugewi engaged.
+
+Shinny was played by women and children as well as by men, but adult
+sexes played separately in all of our tribes except Yana. Among them
+only men participated in this game. Mountain Maidu had three players on
+a side; Atsugewi had five players. Straight shinny sticks curved at the
+striking end were used and the puck was a hide affair. Mountain Maidu
+used a double ball puck. An attempt was made to keep the puck in the air
+in play. The object, of course, was to get the puck to go between the
+opponents’ goal posts. The Yana used a puck of two bones linked by a
+string several inches long. Running with the puck on the stick as well
+as hitting, and throwing it down the field were permitted.
+
+Children improvised a number of games in the same manner as our own
+children do today in copying their parents. They played house with
+limbless but dressed dolls, made and used toy bows and arrows, and made
+sling shots, too. They commonly tried juggling two stones in one hand,
+spun acorn tops by hand, and in some instances noise makers such as
+wooden buzzers and bull roarers were used. In play, loud noise was not
+condoned, however.
+
+Small feasts might occur at any time and were perhaps the most important
+social gatherings of Atsugewi. They were usually sparked by a temporary
+abundance of food. Dancing was not included.
+
+    [Illustration: Child’s acorn top]
+
+Mr. Garth describes the Atsugewi “... grand occasion ... held only when
+a large supply of food had been accumulated, was the bagapi or ‘big
+time’.... The chief called a meeting to decide on the date and then sent
+his people to various places for deer and other foods. Knotted strings
+(rokuki) with a knot tied for each intervening day before the festival
+were sent to other villages. By untying a knot each day other chieftains
+knew when to start for the host’s village. The host chief stood on the
+roof of his earth lodge and welcomed the visitor, calling each chief by
+name: ‘Don’t fall down. Step carefully. I’m glad you have come to see
+me. Don’t be in a hurry.’... Toward evening the visitors might give a
+dance, after which the host chief called everyone to eat. Large baskets
+containing acorn mush, meat, sunflower seeds, and other foods were
+placed on the ground. The host proffered baskets of food to each
+visiting chief who in turn then distributed the food to his people. In
+winter two tribal groups on opposite sides of the sweat house might have
+a competitive sweat dance, vying to see which could endure the heat
+longest. In summer the sweating was usually omitted, and games of chance
+were begun. In the several days that followed, foot racing, archery,
+weight lifting, and other contests were indulged in. Large bets were
+made by opposing sides on the outcome of each contest, and the losing
+side at the end of the week’s festivities often had little property
+left. Surplus food was divided among the guests before they departed.”
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter XXII
+                                 DANCES
+
+
+Mountain Maidu had more dances and more types of dances than other
+tribes of the Lassen area. Tribes of the Sacramento Valley had many more
+and more complicated dance ceremonies than ours did.
+
+Mountain Maidu had formalized sweat dances which were performed inside
+large dwelling lodges at night and were participated in by both sexes.
+As in the case of Yana, only one man, the leader, sang and hit the
+central pole rhythmically with a split stick rattle. The dancers
+performed simultaneously but in one spot until they were exhausted and
+took a cold swim afterwards.
+
+Of the less ceremonial Atsugewi sweat dance, Garth states:
+
+  “... Men danced naked except for circlets ... of twisted grass around
+  the waist, head and upper arm, and occasionally from one shoulder
+  diagonally across the chest.... Three or four lines of black or white
+  paint might be drawn across the chest and upper arm. Women wore a
+  skirt and only a small amount of paint. The dancing took place in the
+  combination sweat, dance, and dwelling house of the chief or head
+  man.... The fire was built high with dry mountain mahogany ..., pine
+  ..., and sometimes with willow ..., all woods which burned without
+  much smoke; the ventilator door was closed and the dance began. The
+  one singer sat in a corner and beat time with a split stick rattle....
+  Each of ten or twelve dancers might approach close to the fire to show
+  his ability to endure heat, pick up burning brands, one in each hand,
+  and alternately hit one upper arm and then the other with the brands.
+  The heat often became so intense that water had to be thrown on the
+  center post to prevent its catching fire. There was rivalry to see who
+  could stay inside longest, and after a time one man after another
+  emerged and dived into the icy water nearby or rolled in the snow.
+  There might be sweating three or four nights in succession on the
+  occasion of a communal hunt.”
+
+Mountain Maidu held a dance gathering each spring for Black Bear and
+Grizzly Bear. They believed that this dance had been done by animals in
+mythical “before Indian times”. This gathering lasted three days and
+nights, but the actual dance was in progress only one day and night.
+Only women danced but men participated in the ceremony dressed in bear
+robes. There was much feasting too.
+
+The pre- and post-war dances are discussed under the chapter on war.
+
+
+
+
+                             Chapter XXIII
+                    POLITICAL ORGANIZATION OF TRIBES
+
+
+Tribes, as we think of them, were non-existent as political units, and
+hence there were no tribal chiefs, but there were village chiefs, in the
+California province.
+
+The self governing unit was always a village or a group of small closely
+adjacent villages. This is the political unit which was governed by the
+chief. Villages might consist of from four to about twenty-five earth
+lodges and bark huts with populations of from twenty-five to a hundred
+or more persons. Influential leaders, usually of much wealth—but not
+necessarily so—were recognized as head-men, exercising considerable
+authority over the smaller villages or separated groups of houses near
+villages. However the head-man’s authority was subservient to that of
+the chief.
+
+Chieftainship was inherited through the father’s lineage, the oldest son
+being the first in succession. However, if the son were too young to
+take over, the deceased chief’s brother was temporarily in charge. The
+qualities of good character and knowledge were also important
+qualifications for chieftainship, and a chief could be deposed if he
+were not a good one. Tenure was normally for life, dependent upon
+satisfactory behavior and performance of his responsibilities.
+
+The chief’s relatives hunted and fished for him, but he fed visitors and
+provided most of the food for feasts. The chief always directed
+community economic activities such as group fishing, deer hunting, and
+root digging expeditions. For this reason chiefs had to know much about
+game, fish runs, ripening seasons, et cetera, and had to possess good
+judgement to insure success of group undertakings. Chiefs also spoke to
+their people mornings and evenings, and at ceremonies and the like.
+Chiefs furthermore declared days of rest when chores were done about
+home. Another function was to arbitrate quarrels among the people.
+
+Mountain Maidu villages had assistant chiefs besides, who were sons or
+brothers of the chiefs. This assistant advised the chief and substituted
+for him as the occasion demanded. A specific duty of his was the
+division of food at ceremonies.
+
+Some chiefs had secondary female chiefs who in the case of the Maidu
+were daughters, among Atsugewi the chiefs’ wives. A woman in this
+capacity supervised preparation of food for feasts and in Atsugewi
+villages might give orders to men.
+
+Atsugewi chiefs appointed clowns at ceremonies who were paid. Appointed
+messengers were a part of every chief’s staff. They were selected on the
+basis of both willingness to serve and ability. Maidu had about six
+messengers per village while the number varied among Atsugewi.
+Messengers were good speakers, reliable men, and were discharged if they
+failed in their duties. These included not only message running, but
+among Atsugewi, tending fires at ceremonies. For Maidu chiefs,
+messengers welcomed guests and traveled about gathering news and
+scouting. Special fire tenders were appointed in this tribe.
+
+Atsugewi chiefs seem to have possessed greater prestige and authority
+than those of the mountain Maidu, the Yana, and the Yahi. The decisions
+of Atsugewi chiefs were final, but these had to be diplomatic if the
+chief were to remain popular. If a chief were unpopular some of his
+people would move to another village leaving the first chief’s community
+numerically weaker. Chiefs were generally well obeyed by rich and poor
+alike. In return, chiefs unfailingly had the interests of their people
+at heart. Atsugewi chiefs, specifically, set examples of industry,
+behavior, and judgement for their people. No doubt this was generally
+true of the chiefs of units in other local tribes too.
+
+Because of the greater popularity, prestige, and consequently larger
+following of some individual chiefs, they were considerably more
+powerful than other chiefs in the same tribe. Such men were influential
+to some extent beyond the boundaries of their own territories.
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter XXIV
+                             WAR AND PEACE
+
+
+Wars were commonly small scale encounters and might be either within
+tribes or between tribes. Atsugewi were not often aggressive. Most
+tribes at one time or another had differences with neighboring tribes,
+but friendly relations were usually re-established soon. Certain tribes,
+however, were repeatedly or traditionally enemies, as for instance,
+Klamath, Paiute, or Modoc against Atsugewi; Washoe against mountain
+Maidu; Achomawi or Wintun against the Yana tribes; and mountain Maidu or
+Wintun against Yahi. Tribes sometimes helped each other in wars, and
+either payment or reciprocal aid was usually forthcoming.
+
+Causes of hostilities in the Lassen area were usually revenge for
+murders (if uncompensated), abduction of women and children, or insults
+to chiefs. Mountain Maidu, Yana, and Yahi also waged wars on account of
+poaching, rape, alleged witchcraft, and the like. All able bodied men
+normally went to war, but mountain Maidu left some at home to protect
+the women.
+
+Chiefs generally did not participate in the fighting although they often
+went along on the war expedition. Instead of leading the battles
+themselves, chiefs appointed special warrior leaders who were principal
+targets of the opposition. Such battle leaders were often head-men, but
+always were men competent to lead the fight and who had good arrow
+dodging power.
+
+Shamans habitually went to war, but did not fight actively except on
+occasion. They were busy singing during battle and urging the warriors
+on or exhorting supernatural help. The Atsugewi shaman reportedly
+“stayed behind a tree all the time giving out his power”.
+
+Preparation for war consisted of practicing dodging arrows, shooting
+arrows, in some cases at effigies, and in dancing. The main purpose of
+the preparation was to incite enthusiasm for the fight. This was so
+successful that quite a commotion developed in the community, to the
+extent that such incidents occurred as warriors with knives chasing
+women and a man shooting his own dog with an arrow! Preparatory war
+dances were held outside near the villages. Both men and women
+participated and shamans sang. Mountain Maidu sustained their dances for
+several days. Warriors spoke to their arrows addressing them as persons.
+Atsugewi men painted themselves with white and black stripes on faces,
+limbs, and bodies. Yana used red and white war paint. Mountain Maidu
+wore head nets and bands. Dried untanned skins of bear, elk, and such
+were worn at dances as well as in battle, as were waistcoat armors of
+strong vertical sticks lashed together. Leather helmets were worn by
+some warriors.
+
+The enemy was usually attacked just at dawn using the element of
+surprise to the fullest extent possible. Some battles were pre-arranged
+in which a number of participants faced each other in well formed lines.
+Such conflicts were subject to “calling off” if too many men were
+injured or killed. Serious raids, however, did not give quarter and men,
+women, and children were killed. Booty was taken and scalps, too, were
+stripped from fallen victims. Scalps were later burned by Atsugewi, but
+mountain Maidu dried human scalps on frames. This tribe also took entire
+heads from bodies on occasion. Prisoners were taken too: Atsugewi not
+infrequently adopted captured children. Captive women might be
+mistreated and raped, then killed. Adult prisoners might escape with
+relative ease because there was no suitable way to confine them
+permanently, and some were returned voluntarily.
+
+While the war party was away on its expedition, the women at home danced
+individually in the manner of the war dance. They sang and prayed to
+help the men at war. Atsugewi women dancers carried feathers, bows, and
+arrows, but rattles were not used in these morale dances.
+
+Upon return of the war party a victory dance was held in or near the
+village in the open air. Men and women danced independently, but
+together at the same time. Atsugewi men painted themselves red and white
+instead of the black and white used for the pre-war dance. They wore
+headdresses of all sorts and the warriors carried their bows, arrows,
+armor, and other fighting gear while dancing. The victory dance took
+place around a fire. Next to the fire Atsugewi planted a short pole on
+which the new scalps were displayed while mountain Maidu danced with the
+scalps secured to hand-carried sticks. It is worth noting that while
+some readers may consider this gloating over human scalps to be a
+primitive morbidity, it is true that often white men—the very pioneers
+we eulogize—took and coveted human scalps themselves.
+
+Warriors, particularly those who had killed adversaries, purified
+themselves by swimming, rubbing aromatic plants on their bodies, praying
+for luck. They did not eat meat for from a few to many days, depending
+on the tribe. Among Atsugewi they also sweated with the same end in
+view, and women brushed the men’s bodies with plant materials to aid the
+purification process.
+
+Surprisingly, the eating of hot foods and any form of meat was taboo to
+wounded warriors. This seems strange, since these are the very foods
+which we consider beneficial to injured persons.
+
+When an attack appeared likely upon an Atsugewi village, the whole
+population retired to high ground which was easily defended. Such sites
+were prepared in advance and might be considered crude forts as they
+were surrounded by rock walls and provided with shelters for the
+non-combatants.
+
+In intertribal wars there was usually no compensation as such made where
+the encounter had been motivated by the satisfaction of securing
+revenge. In the case of feuds or murders within the tribe payment was
+made to relatives of the slain. If persons on both sides were slain
+compensation was made for all the dead. The chief or head-man supervised
+the peace negotiations. Payment was usually in beads or money, but
+Atsugewi sometimes paid off in women or in the amount of the usual price
+of a bride. In this tribe too, the amount of compensation was made
+according to the wealth of the victim. A poor man’s life was not
+considered to be worth as much as a rich man’s. Atsugewi had a
+settlement dance meeting in which both sides were present and wore
+fighting regalia. These dancers disarmed themselves after the payment
+had been made.
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter XXV
+                            BIRTH AND BABIES
+
+
+The natural function of birth obviously varied only in details of
+handling the situation, delivery assistance, disposition of the
+afterbirth, and methods of cutting and treating the child’s umbilical
+cord. The baby was born in a separate hut which contained a trench
+heated with coals. These were covered with grass and pine needles or fir
+boughs. On this warm green bed the woman lay at least a part of the time
+during labor and also after delivery.
+
+Children were desired and a barren woman was looked down on socially.
+Inability to produce children was grounds for divorce. The behavior of
+both parents during pregnancy was believed to closely affect personality
+and health of the child.
+
+After giving birth, the mother remained in isolation for from nearly a
+week to a month or more. Many taboos were imposed upon her. Bathing in
+streams and sweat baths, eating fresh or dried meat or fish, grease, and
+often salt were forbidden to her. Most tribes of the Lassen area also
+prohibited combing of the mother’s hair by herself during the period of
+isolation. Also taboo was scratching herself with her hands, making
+baskets, preparing food, or traveling.
+
+    [Illustration: Front and side views of Atsugewi cradle basket for a
+    very young baby. (tseh-nay-gow)]
+
+    [Illustration: Atsugewi young baby carrying basket or teseh-nay-gow]
+
+There were restrictions on the father of the newly born child too. Among
+Atsugewi and Yana he stayed with the mother, but mountain Maidu fathers
+stayed away for periods of a week or less. Immediately after the birth
+had taken place, the father ran to the woods to break up and bring home
+quantities of fire-wood. Hunting and fishing of all kinds and traveling
+were taboo for several weeks in most cases. Atsugewi and mountain Maidu
+new fathers were also forbidden to smoke and gamble, and like their
+wives, were denied eating fresh or dried fish, meat, and grease for
+varying periods up to a month. Release from taboos occurred with
+sweating and bathing among Atsugewi and mountain Maidu. Fathers in these
+tribes also gave away the first kill when they resumed hunting.
+
+The mother generally massaged the infant to improve the shape and
+proportion of nose, face, limbs, and torso. Shedding of the baby’s
+umbilical cord was an important event which the Indians wished to occur
+as soon as possible. A variety of odd practices to this end were
+employed. The occurrence of the event relieved the parents of some, or
+in other cases of all, the post birth taboos. Among most of our tribes
+the dried cord was saved until the child reached manhood or womanhood.
+It was customarily secured to the cradle basket, but frequently was
+subsequently lost. Earlobes might be pierced in early infancy especially
+if the child were prone to cry much.
+
+    [Illustration: Atsugewi older baby carrying basket or yah-birr-dee.
+    Note the rounded bottom on A, a modernization. Partial illustration
+    B shows old style construction with a pointed bottom for thrusting
+    into the ground.]
+
+Two cradle baskets were used. Mountain Maidu made two of similar oval
+shape, but the first and smaller one was without a hood. Atsugewi and
+Yana tribes made two different types, but both with rounded carrying
+handles and sunshades on top. These were constructed of willow ribs,
+pine root, and buckskin. The first small basket was called tseh-nay-gow
+by Atsugewi and was used for several months. It was short and with a
+distinctly rounded basketry shelf or lip at its lower end. The larger
+baby basket was called yah-bih-dee and was practically identical to that
+of the mountain Maidu. This was made of the usual twined basketry
+materials, but was of different construction. Willow ribs were lashed
+onto a sturdy one-piece forked branch frame, the joint being at the
+bottom. The base or stem of this Y-piece stuck out below for several
+inches being sharpened so that it could be stuck into the ground near
+the mother in camp or when she was out digging roots in the fields.
+Boo-noo-koo-ee-menorra tells of an interesting modification of the
+yah-bih-dee today. Its frame is now simply rounded at the bottom instead
+of having the pointed end described above. “Most people have cars now a
+days” she says, “and that point poked a hole through the seat of the
+car. So now we make the round kind.” Our visitors to Lassen Volcanic
+National Park are always interested in names of the “papoose basket”.
+This term and the words moccasin, wampum, and so on are no doubt of
+Indian origin being the actual words or reasonable facsimiles thereof
+used by some eastern tribe for the objects concerned. English speaking
+Americans have adopted these names as meaning those particular articles
+for all Indian tribes. It may be recalled that earlier in this book, it
+was pointed out that each tribe had its own distinct language and so,
+obviously, each tribe would have had its own distinct names for these
+objects. Hence there is no all inclusive “Indian name” for the cradle
+basket or anything else.
+
+    [Illustration: Maidu baby carrying basket about thirty five inches
+    long.]
+
+The baby was wrapped in tanned buckskin or soft furs, normally wildcat
+by the Atsugewi. A pad of grass or padded bark was placed on the cradle
+board or basket and then the child was lashed into the tshe-nay-gow with
+buckskin straps in a sitting position on the sill with its feet hanging
+down. Most tribes used dry grass, pounded until soft, for diapers, but
+mountain Maidu used skin material for the purpose. Babies were kept in
+the cradle baskets until they were able to walk. The cradle frame was
+carried on the mother’s back with a tump-line passing over her forehead
+or chest. A series of larger cradle baskets were made as the child grew,
+usually three before the child was allowed to crawl or walk.
+
+The newborn infant was never fed the colostrum from its mother. The baby
+was either let go without food or given a cooked meat gruel for
+nourishment for the first two days or so until bonafide milk was
+produced in the mother’s breasts. Children were nursed as often as they
+wished and until they were quite large: even three or four years old.
+
+Names were given to children usually at the age of about a year. Yana
+waited even longer, however, until ages of four to six years before
+giving real names which for this tribe were habitually of a hereditary
+nature. In the meantime, temporary descriptive nicknames were given.
+Many real Atsugewi names had meanings, while those of mountain Maidu and
+Yana normally did not. Nevertheless, Yana and to a certain extent other
+Indians too, might acquire additional nicknames and descriptive names
+later in life, even in adulthood.
+
+Twins were unwanted among all local tribes, probably because of the
+double care and feeding responsibilities involved. Mountain Maidu
+thought that twins were bad luck and actually feared them. It was
+generally believed that twins were caused by the mother having eaten
+twinned nutmeats. These, therefore, were carefully avoided.
+
+Killing newborn babies whether illegitimate, twins, crippled, or when
+the mother died in childbirth, was practiced only on very rare
+occasions. Certainly infanticide was not the rule among any of the local
+tribes, but of course was practiced in certain other areas.
+
+    [Illustration: Yana baby cradle basket for young baby.]
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter XXVI
+                            ADULTHOOD RITES
+
+
+A girl’s attainment of puberty or womanhood was an event of obvious
+importance and it was recognized as such by all tribes of the Lassen
+region with extensive formal ritual and ceremony for each individual
+girl. Only the more important and generally employed taboos and rites
+are noted below. There was considerable variation in details of such
+matters even among the four tribes with which we are dealing.
+
+The girl was secluded in a separate hut for from three to six days and
+sometimes during the nights too. The taboos she observed during this
+time were much like those imposed on a mother giving birth, but were
+even more extensive. The young lady must eat from her own special
+baskets, not cross streams, avoid contacting men—especially hunters,
+refrain from gazing at the sun or moon, et cetera. Among things she must
+do were to wear a basketry cap, or special head bands among some tribes,
+and have her hair put up in two knobs wrapped over her shoulders. This
+had to be done for her as she was not allowed to touch her own hair.
+Carrying the deer-hoof rattle she must run races with other girls, and
+dance much also, scratch her head only with a special scratcher, have
+her earlobes pierced if this had not already been done, and frequently
+her nose septum was punctured too, being kept open by insertion of a
+round stick. Among Wintun tribes of the Sacramento Valley some taboos
+lasted for from one to three years!
+
+For several nights public dances were held which lasted all night. Since
+there was no special ritual for anyone but the girl for whom the dances
+were held, these ceremonies were of a joyous nature and were popular and
+well attended. In the middle of the night food provided by the girl’s
+family was served to all present. Singing with deer-hoof rattle
+accompaniment was carried on all night. Intimate affairs between couples
+were not unusual during such dances. During the daytime as well dances
+were held, but these were of short duration and participated in chiefly
+by the women of the village. At the end of the ordeal the girl bathed
+and was given new clothes, ending her taboos.
+
+There was no formal ceremony when boys attained manhood except that the
+youths were generally sent alone into the neighboring mountains for
+several days to seek special “powers” to give them skill and luck in
+certain pursuits such as deer hunting, archery, fighting, shamanism, and
+the like.
+
+During menstruation all women had to observe many taboos too. These
+included eating alone and living in seclusion. They could eat no meat or
+fish, fat, or salt, and must not cook. They must avoid sick persons and
+hunters, and could not scratch themselves except with the scratching
+stick. At the end of the taboo periods of four or five days, they
+usually bathed in streams for purification.
+
+Curiously, wives’ menstruations had to be observed by their husbands in
+a number of ways. Most common was prohibition of smoking, and they must
+eat lightly. Among mountain Maidu the husband could hunt and fish, but
+could not eat any flesh; among Atsugewi the reverse was true.
+
+
+
+
+                             Chapter XXVII
+                          MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE
+
+
+Marriage itself was not formalized with any ceremony. It was common
+practice for parents to arrange marriages when children were young and
+these arrangements, which involved some exchange of gifts or payment,
+were usually honored later. Most other marriages were arranged by
+parents later when the children had reached maturity and generally these
+recognized the children’s wishes. Both of these types of marriages were
+the basis for extensive exchange of presents and visits, details of
+which differed among the several tribes. In addition there was almost
+universal payment for the girl—about ten strings of clamshell disks was
+standard. The boy and girl became husband and wife simply upon starting
+to live together, but the new status was usually marked by a feast
+participated in by the families concerned. Generally there followed a
+period of residence of the couple with one or both of the in-laws. On
+occasion marriages grew from intimacies with no parental negotiations,
+but such matches were not well regarded by the community.
+
+Indian men frequently married women from other villages and occasionally
+even women from other tribes.
+
+If a wife died her sister was generally obliged to marry the widower.
+Likewise, if the husband died it was customary that his brother would
+marry the widow. A wise institution was the relationship of the husband
+and wife with their in-laws. Neither could speak to nor hand things
+directly to the in-law of opposite sex, or in some cases even to the
+brothers and sisters of the in-laws; such things had to be done by a
+third party. In some instances the mother-in-law even avoided looking at
+her son-in-law even though she might like him. Such arrangements no
+doubt prevented many arguments and quarrels, but as far as their own
+evaluation of these customs were concerned, the basis lay in the belief
+that a bear might eat either or both of the violators of the in-law
+taboos.
+
+The practice of having more than one wife at a time was common. One man
+might have three or four wives, but rarely had more than two at a time.
+Rich men or head-men and chiefs were most apt to have more than two
+wives.
+
+Divorce was simple indeed. The man just sent the girl back home if she
+were barren, lazy, promiscuous, or the like. If he had good reasons for
+wanting to get rid of his wife, her purchase price might be refunded by
+her family, or else the ex-wife’s sister might be sent to him in
+exchange, or, sometimes, in addition with no additional payment. On the
+other hand, the wife might leave her husband if she had been badly
+mistreated, or if the husband did not provide enough meat and clothing
+for the family or if he were unfaithful. In divorce the children were
+divided. Usually, but not always, the girls remained with their mother
+and the boys with their father. However, divorce was not common among
+Indians of this region.
+
+On the whole, morals were high and sexual deviations were infrequent,
+although the whole range of such practices were known to the aborigines.
+It appears beyond argument that divorces, moral laxity, and sexual
+aberrations increased with the coming of white man.
+
+
+
+
+                             Chapter XXVIII
+                            DEATH AND BURIAL
+
+
+Atsugewi and mountain Maidu left the corpse in the house for one day.
+They prepared it for burial by dressing it well and adding bead
+necklaces, then wrapping it in a hide. Yana did the same, washing the
+body first, and although also adorning the corpse with jewelry, they
+always removed decorative nose ornaments, replacing these with simple
+sticks. According to Voegelin, Atsugewi removed the body for burial
+prone and feet first through the wall of the house, but Garth states
+that the body was removed through the southern ventilator passage or
+through the regular entrance way in the roof.
+
+The mountain Maidu, Yana, Yahi, and usually the Atsugewi bent the body
+into a position called flexed. The arms were folded across the chest and
+the knees were drawn up against the stomach before wrapping the corpse
+in a robe which was then sewn shut. The mountain Maidu sometimes put the
+wrapped cadaver into a large basket. Voegelin was of the opinion that
+Atsugewi buried their dead lying flat on their backs, and if so, always
+with the head toward the east. It is thought that this prone burial
+might be a recent innovation learned from white man.
+
+Mourners among all of our local tribes wailed aloud and brought gifts
+for the dead. Women, especially the older ones, mourned vigorously. To
+quote Garth again on Atsugewi, of their mourning he states:
+
+  “The deceased’s close relatives mourned the hardest, but friends might
+  also mourn——‘to make them feel better.’ Mourners cried and rolled on
+  the ground, throwing dirt and hot ashes in their faces and hair. Some,
+  in their grief, tried to commit suicide, and a close watch had to be
+  kept over them to prevent their doing so. Favorite methods were to
+  swallow small bits of (obsidian) or to eat a certain kind of spider.
+  Mourners were warned not to cry around the house near the body but to
+  go to the hills to cry, and also not to look down when crying or to
+  cry too much. Otherwise they were subject to bad dreams in which
+  spirits would plague them and possibly kill them. A mourner might
+  acquire power at this time. A widow, with possibly a sister to help
+  her, would wail for a time at daybreak and again in the evening. This
+  lasted for two or three months, sometimes longer. A widower seldom
+  cried more than two or three weeks. The widow visited places at which
+  she had camped with her husband, broke up utensils left there, burned
+  down the brush where he was accustomed to cut wood, and piled up rocks
+  where they had slept together. A widower behaved in similar
+  fashion.... If death occurred in a village, no entertainments could be
+  held for a time; otherwise relatives of the deceased had the right to
+  break things up and throw them around. A man would not sing or attend
+  a ‘big time’ gathering until at least a year after death of a close
+  relative.”
+
+If the lodge were to be lived in again, after a person had died in it,
+Atsugewi brought in juniper boughs, and these were burned to purify the
+house. Bark huts, however, were always burned down after an occupant had
+died.
+
+Mountain Maidu children were kept away from the dead and from the
+funeral proceedings. In that tribe and probably among all local tribes,
+if the deceased were rich the funeral would be much larger and more
+pretentious than if the person had been poor. In the former case the
+ceremony was followed by a feast. Other tribes buried the dead in the
+evening generally within twenty-four hours after death, but Yana waited
+three or four days. Mountain Maidu grave diggers put grass in their
+mouths. Small shallow graves sufficed for poor people, in fact, among
+Atsugewi, at least, poor people were often buried in small depressions
+in lava flows and covered over with convenient rocks.
+
+Enroute to Atsugewi burials no one was permitted to look back, and water
+was sprinkled along the path to prevent the dead person’s spirit from
+returning to the village. At the grave the dead were asked aloud please
+not to look back, for if they did other members of their families would
+die soon.
+
+Cremation, that is, burning of corpses was rare among tribes of the
+Lassen area. At the battlefield and in other instances of death far from
+home, especially in the case of mountain Maidu, burning was done
+occasionally. After this the bones were collected, wrapped in buckskin,
+and then buried.
+
+The flexed bodies of the dead were always placed in graves facing
+eastward. Widows customarily attempted to throw themselves into the
+graves, but were restrained from doing so. A basket of water was
+invariably placed next to the body, and most personal property of the
+deceased was broken and also placed in the grave. The amount of property
+so disposed of varied with the tribe. Mountain Maidu and especially the
+Yana tribes put practically everything in the grave. The latter even
+went so far as to include many gifts of a nature not normally associated
+with the sex. Aprons and baskets, for instance, might be placed in a
+man’s burial. Among Atsugewi the relatives retained some of the property
+of the deceased. Atsugewi might place some food on the grave and mark it
+with a vertical stick, but it was not tended later, and the site was
+generally soon lost.
+
+In winter a person might be buried shallowly in the floor of a living
+house. Next spring the house would be torn down and the dirt walls caved
+in. There was variation not only between, but within tribes as to the
+final disposition of houses of the deceased. They might be burned down,
+a common practice, or they were torn down, abandoned, temporarily
+deserted, or torn down and rebuilt. If to be lived in again,
+purification of some sort was always practiced, either by burning
+juniper boughs in the house, smoking tobacco, bringing in aromatic
+plants, or treating the main beams. Among Yana tribes the family seems
+to have habitually abandoned the house right after the funeral and to
+have burned the whole thing including property and food of all the
+inmates, retaining only the barest necessities of life such as sleeping
+robes.
+
+Among Atsugewi all mourners had to deny themselves meat and fresh fish
+for one day; then they sweated and swam after the funeral. Mountain
+Maidu mourners, including all persons who had had any part in the
+funeral, had to undergo four or five days taboo on eating all flesh.
+They also had to eat alone and from separate dishes, do head scratching
+with special sticks only, were allowed no hunting, gambling,
+intercourse, or smoking. Purification of those persons contaminated by
+participation in burial included swimming and washing every day that the
+taboos were in effect.
+
+Only Atsugewi, of all local tribes, are said to have practiced suicide,
+though unquestionably it did occur on occasion among all California
+Indians.
+
+Mentioning the name of the deceased in the presence of his relatives was
+considered very poor taste, and was actually forbidden in some cases.
+
+It was forbidden that the widow touch the corpse, so that relatives had
+to prepare the body for burial. After the funeral, the widow always cut
+her hair off closely. If an Atsugewi, she made a belt out of it, and the
+hair belt was then often decorated with shells. In all local tribes the
+widow traditionally covered her whole head and face with pitch and
+covered this with white diatomaceous earth or black charcoal. Touching
+her head or face (the whole body for mountain Maidu) with fingers was
+taboo; she could do this only with the scratching stick which mountain
+Maidu widows wore around the neck. Raggedy, ill-looking clothes were
+worn by the survivor, and Atsugewi widows put pitch on old basketry caps
+to be worn. A mourning necklace was worn at all times, made of lumps of
+hard pitch strung onto a fiber string. This was worn until remarriage,
+which was usually two or three years for Atsugewi and one to three years
+for mountain Maidu. Pitch on the face and head was normally left on
+until it wore off of its own accord.
+
+The mourning conduct of grieving men who had lost their wives in death
+was not nearly so lengthy or as rigorous as was that of widows. Widowers
+cut their hair too, but among Atsugewi the only other observance
+required was abstinence of flesh eating for a day. Mountain Maidu
+widowers spent one sleepless night out in the mountains. Widowers did
+not generally sing at dances and at “big times” for about a year, but
+this was not compulsory. The Yana are said to have stayed away from
+dances for two or three years.
+
+Parents mourning the loss of children cut their hair slightly and placed
+some pitch on hair or faces. The Atsugewi mother observed a three day
+meat taboo and the Maidu father went to the hills to seek power.
+However, loss of a baby in birth or before its navel cord dropped off
+was considered a more serious situation. Such bereaved parents gave all
+of their belongings away in order to make a fresh start.
+
+Anniversary mourning rites were not conducted in the Lassen region. An
+exception was the rare instance among Atsugewi when a child was sick at
+a time just three years after the death of its parent. Under such
+circumstances a shaman sang over the child and the whole remaining
+family and relatives mourned, later washing themselves. With respect to
+the general lack of mourning anniversaries it is of interest that the
+foothill (northeast) Maidu held elaborate annual burnings for several
+years after death of relatives. At these great mourning dance ceremonies
+large quantities of valuable possessions were burned as sacrifices to
+honor the dead.
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter XXIX
+                       COUNTING, TIME, AND PLACE
+
+
+Counting on the fingers was usual practice. Mountain Maidu started with
+their thumbs while Atsugewi began on the little finger of one hand and
+counted across to that on the other hand, and toes were used for the
+purpose too. To help in counting, tribes also employed sticks to
+represent groups of numbers: Atsugewi used sticks to represent 1’s, 5’s,
+10’s, and hundreds. Yana frequently used a stick to represent the unit
+20. This is presumed to be a natural unit because it is the sum of all
+of a person’s fingers and toes.
+
+Time of day, of course, was not expressed in any unit like our hour, but
+roughly by the position of the sun in its daily course overhead. Seven
+to nine positions were referred to descriptively in this respect plus
+early, mid, and late night.
+
+Phases of the moon were most practical and were universally used as a
+longer measure of time. The succession of new moon cycles were named and
+an old man in the village customarily kept track of these by memory. As
+might be expected from this system, in which there was no recording,
+arguments ensued over just which moon or “month” was currently in
+effect. One full course of the moon’s phases takes just about a month,
+so the names for Indians’ moons corresponded nearly to our month names.
+
+All local tribes recognized four seasons. These were identified by the
+positions of certain stars among mountain Maidu, but more generally by
+the positions of the rising sun with respect to a certain peak, tree, or
+similar fixed object. Some Indians kept track of the seasons by watching
+the daily progression of a beam of sunlight coming through the smoke
+hole of a house and falling upon its floor or wall. The shortest day of
+the year naturally was marked by the most southerly progression of the
+sun. This was noted by the Indians, no doubt with joy in the realization
+that longer days and, somewhat later, warmer weather were to be
+expected. The year started with the beginning of November when Indians
+of the Lassen area had left the high elevation hunting grounds on the
+flanks of Lassen Peak, had collected their stores of acorn and salmon,
+and were warmly settled in their winter quarters. Mountain Maidu seem to
+have used names for only the nine moons most important to them.
+
+There was no calendar as such, but the number of days until a certain
+“big time” or other event was kept track of by either cutting off or
+untying one knot in a knotted cord or thong each day. Years were not
+recorded either, but were measured within the memory span as so many
+winters ago, or by relating time to some important event, such as a war
+which most persons might remember.
+
+Directions were pointed out, or in speech were referred to as sunrise
+and sunset for east and west respectively. Directions were commonly
+given with respect to features of the local geography: in the direction
+of such and such a village or toward a named river, spring, or mountain
+which was conspicuous or generally known. We must remember that the
+territories of our local tribes were small and that the terrain was
+intimately known. Specific names were not only given to the conspicuous
+features of the topography, but among Atsugewi, at least, virtually
+every flat, every draw, and every hill was specifically named, and these
+names were known to all members of the tribe. Names of places in the
+territories of other tribes were not known by the local names of those
+tribes. They were either translated or given its own entirely different
+set of names by the first tribe. In other words, each tribe had
+different names for all places—a very confusing situation. Dixon reports
+that Maidu recognized directions as we know them, but that the northeast
+or mountain Maidu had five: west, northwest (the direction of Lassen
+Peak), north, east, and south.
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter XXX
+                    CONCEPTS OF SUN, MOON, AND STARS
+
+
+Mountain Maidu and Atsugewi believed the sun to be a female human—the
+wife—and the moon to be a male human—the husband. This is a reversal of
+the sex ascribed to these bodies by some other tribes. They believed
+that the figure of a frog was visible in the moon.
+
+Atsugewi stated that Frog fought Moon and swallowed him and the next
+time that Moon swallowed Frog who is now in the center of the moon. When
+Moon and Frog fought, the former was not round, but crescent shaped.
+Yana stated that in the moon they could see Moon’s wife, Frog. Pine
+Marten snapped his evil father-in-law Moon into the sky by means of
+bending a springy tree ’way down and suddenly letting it go. He used the
+same system to snap Frog and her two daughters into the sky also.
+
+To Atsugewi, as to most tribes, the phases of the moon: new, full, and
+waning, represented birth, life, and death—repeated every four weeks,
+although, of course, none of the Indians had the concept of a “week”
+such as we have. All through the year Atsugewi greeted the new moon. Old
+persons shook themselves, and their clothes and bedding in its presence.
+Younger folks ran and jumped toward the moon. If the points or horns of
+the new moon crescent were vertical it was a bad omen indicating
+sickness or death. Babies were shown the new moon, and in the case of
+both Atsugewi and mountain Maidu, babies’ faces and arms were rubbed in
+the new moonlight to make them grow fast. All local tribes addressed the
+moon aloud in friendly terms as if it were a personal relative. The Yana
+prayed to it. In contrast to Atsugewi reaction to vertical position of
+the two moon points, the Yana and mountain Maidu accepted this as
+meaning good fortune and good weather ahead. To these tribes horizontal
+position of the moon crescent in the winter sky denoted that it was full
+of water and indicated pending rains or storms. At other seasons both
+horns up foretold of death. Yana thought that both sun and moon were
+feminine.
+
+After its daily trip across the sky, Atsugewi thought that the sun
+returned to the east in a blue cloud via the side of the earth. As the
+sun and the moon passed each other at the side of the earth, they
+decided on the weather for the following day. The moon supplied the cold
+and the sun the heat.
+
+Eclipses of sun and moon were believed by Yana to be due to their dogs
+devouring them. Atsugewi and mountain Maidu felt that the heavenly
+bodies were dying. The former were of the opinion that Lizard was eating
+Sun or Moon as the case might be. They shouted loudly, shot arrows into
+the air toward the eclipse and beat all available female dogs. Mountain
+Maidu thought that Frog was eating Moon or Sun.
+
+A reddish moon foretold of disaster and was a sign of war for Atsugewi,
+but to Yana it meant hot weather ahead.
+
+Only a few star groups of the night sky were named.
+
+Yana thought the constellation we call the Belt of Orion was Coyote’s
+arrow. All local tribes believed the Milky Way to be a road, or river in
+some cases, which was traveled by departing spirits or souls of the
+dead. Shooting or Falling stars, (more properly meteorites) presaged
+good weather to the Atsugewi who thought these were torches carried by
+spirits from one house to another in the sky. For this tribe too, a
+single conspicuous star—no doubt a planet—seen near the moon was an evil
+sign. If the star were on the left someone nearby would die soon; if it
+lay to the right of the moon someone farther away was doomed.
+
+Atsugewi called the Seven Sisters wir-etisu. These girls were seduced by
+a little rabbit boy at a puberty dance. They became ashamed and went up
+in the sky to become stars. The Big Dipper was called Coyote’s Cane.
+Maidu thought that stars were made of something soft like buckskin.
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter XXXI
+                           WEATHER PHENOMENA
+
+
+As mentioned in the preceding chapter, weather was determined by
+agreement between sun and moon, but it appears that many things could
+influence their decisions.
+
+Atsugewi assumed it to be the natural thing that it would sprinkle a
+little after a funeral. They also felt that rolling rocks down mountain
+sides or loud shouting in the mountains would cause rain. Furthermore
+they believed that the occurrence of precipitation could be influenced
+by shamans, if they felt like it, by smoking tobacco while looking at
+the sun. The nature of the spirit of a girl, whose ears were pierced at
+this time, was also thought to either cause it to rain or to stop doing
+so according to her spirit power.
+
+Rainbows brought good wild crops as far as the Atsugewi were concerned.
+However, both they and mountain Maidu were of the opinion that pointing
+with a finger at a rainbow, particularly among children would cause the
+finger to become crooked or to fall off.
+
+Thunder and lightning were feared by all tribes of the Lassen region. To
+Atsugewi thunder was the shouting of an old man who wears a rabbit skin
+and who goes about looking for women whom he kills. Mountain Maidu
+thought it to be due to an old man who lives up above and who was once a
+boy on earth, but who had been sent away because he was too fast and ate
+everything in sight. How he made the noise we do not know.
+
+  Also, according to Dixon, “Thunder is thought to be a man or boy of
+  miraculous abilities. He eats trees chiefly. Had it not been for
+  Mosquito, however, Thunder would have preyed on people. Mosquito
+  deceived him, and refused to let Thunder know whence the blood and
+  meat he brought came. Had Thunder found out that Mosquito obtained
+  these from people, they, and not the trees, would have been his prey.”
+  To Yana, thunder was a mythical dog originally: “... a child dug from
+  the ground who accompanied Flint Boy to the west in the guise of a
+  dog. He remained behind in the black storm clouds capping Bally
+  Mountain, a high peak west of Redding, whence his terrific bark could
+  be heard as thunder.”
+
+Atsugewi and mountain Maidu, fearing thunder and lightning, talked to
+them and told them to go away. Old men in the latter tribe carried
+burning sticks in a circle to help drive them away. Atsugewi placed
+skins, preferably raccoon, on sticks held up in the air. They would wave
+these around and call aloud words to the effect that there are: “Too
+many rattlesnakes here, go some other place!”. Not only that, but
+frequently during a thunder storm, especially if violent, they would run
+into open areas, and sometimes even jump into water. Lightning was
+thought to be the weapon of the old man, Thunder Person, mentioned
+above. It came out of his mouth. Apparently Thunder Person was thought
+to assume the form of a raccoon on occasion. Maidu also believed that it
+would thunder whenever a person was bitten by a rattlesnake or when a
+great man died or when a woman had a miscarriage.
+
+Whirlwinds were generally regarded as evil omens which sickened people
+with bad dreams and captured peoples’ shadows or spirits. Indians tried
+to dodge or hide from them. They spoke informally to whirlwinds.
+Mountain Maidu said that they put pains into people. Whenever possible,
+Maidu smoked tobacco when talking to whirlwinds. Atsugewi threw dirt and
+water at the dust devils in an effort to destroy them. Yana did
+likewise, but they did not believe that spirits were inside of
+whirlwinds.
+
+
+
+
+                             Chapter XXXII
+                           EARTHQUAKE BELIEFS
+
+
+Lassen Peak and its vicinity are subject to many local earthquakes
+today. The geologic nature of the area indicates that this has been so
+for thousands of years. Lassen Peak was known to the Atsugewi as
+Wicuhirdiki, which has no meaning. The area was thought to be inhabited
+by a powerful spirit, but Garth notes that there seemed to be no fear
+about hunting and fishing there, and the Indians apparently utilized the
+hot springs medicinally. Garth recorded one pertinent bit of Atsugewi
+(Apwaruge) myth as follows:
+
+  “There once was an earthquake that shook this country up and made
+  those boulders out on the flat shake. It shook so much that it made
+  people sick. There was a very old woman whose hair was almost green.
+  She picked up a rock and pounded it on another rock while she sang.
+  She was praying for the world to stop shaking. Soon she got an answer,
+  and the shaking ceased. Many people were killed. Those who lived in
+  canyons were covered by rocks that were shaken down.”
+
+Yana interpretation of the perplexing and frightening phenomenon of
+earthquakes is tied in, as we might expect, with mythology as follows,
+to quote from Sapir and Spier:
+
+  “A series of fabulous malignant beings were conceived as dwelling in
+  certain localities. In the Sacramento River were water grizzlies
+  (hat-en-na) which pulled fishermen down to devour (them).... They were
+  spotted black and white, like dogs. Somewhere (not specified) was a
+  serpent (e-k-u) which killed people. Near Terry’s mill were believed
+  to dwell malignant little beings (yo-yautsgi), like little children.
+  They often enticed people and ate them up. At a marshy spot and spring
+  on Round Mountain, called Ha-mupdi (?), dwelled a being called
+  Mo-s-ugi-yauna who caused the ground to shake when he was displeased.
+
+  “Once Mo-s-ugi-yauna made a little baby of himself and put himself in
+  the road of two women. One of them took it up and in sport gave it one
+  of her nipples to suck, though she was really without milk. The baby
+  kept sucking until the girl tried to take her breast away, but without
+  success. The baby kept sucking at her, sucked up her flesh, and at
+  last sucked up her whole body.
+
+  “This being was displeased if strangers came near and talked anything
+  but Yana. Once some Yreka Indians came and talked Chinook jargon at
+  that place, whereupon the earth began to shake violently. At last the
+  owner of the place cried out to Mo-s-ugi-yauna that it was not he who
+  had thus spoken and begged him ‘in the doctor way’ to stop, whereupon
+  he did.”
+
+
+
+
+                             Chapter XXXIII
+                   CREATION BELIEFS AND OTHER LEGENDS
+
+
+All local Indians believed in a mythical age when animals were persons
+and talked to each other. Both Atsugewi and mountain Maidu thought that
+floods played a part in the past scheme of things before people were
+created by gifted animal ancestors.
+
+  Garth relates that “Atsugewi mythology tells of the successive
+  creation of two former worlds, the first of which was destroyed by a
+  great flood and the second by a fire which Coyote instigated in an
+  attempt to kill his rival, Grey Fox. After this both Coyote and Grey
+  Fox descended from the heavens on a long rope to the primeval sea
+  below. Here Grey Fox took combings from his fur (in some accounts a
+  piece of sod) and proceeded to make land of it, stretching it to all
+  sides until the present earth was made, in concept a large island
+  floating in the sea. Grey Fox then created trees, animals, and finally
+  people. The sun and moon were two brothers whom Grey Fox told to mount
+  into the sky to light the world, the one during the day and the other
+  at night.... Grey Fox first wanted to create two moons and two suns,
+  but Coyote objected saying that it would be too hot. Grey Fox then
+  made only the sun and one moon.”
+
+  In a somewhat different version, Dixon has recorded that the Atsugewi
+  “... recount how, in the beginning, there was only the illimitable sea
+  and the cloudless sky. Slowly in the sky a tiny cloud began to form,
+  and grew till it reached considerable proportions. Then gradually it
+  condensed, and, becoming solid, became the Silver-Gray Fox, the
+  Creator. Then arose immediately a fog; and from this, as it condensed,
+  and coagulated as it were, arose Coyote. By a process of
+  long-continued and intense thought, the Creator created a canoe into
+  which both he and Coyote descended, and for long years floated and
+  drifted aimlessly therein, till, the canoe having become moss-grown
+  and decayed, they had, perforce, to consider the necessity of creating
+  a world whereon they might take refuge.”
+
+The Yana legends quoted below from Gifford and Klimek (first) and from
+Sapir and Spier are from the northern and central tribes, of that
+people. These legends are given in lieu of those of southern Yana and
+Yahi, with which this book should be concerned, because of the
+similarity of the culture of these four tribes. It is extremely unlikely
+that there would be very great differences in their legends and beliefs
+of creation. Obviously each tribe had its own unique details.
+
+  North Yana: “Coyote, assistant creator, was marplot (the evil schemer)
+  who brought death into the world as follows: Coyote, his two sons, and
+  other people went down-stream to get clamshells. The people played.
+  Coyote’s sons seized the clamshells and ran off with them. One escaped
+  with the stolen shells, but the other was killed. The Coyote boy who
+  escaped shouted to Old Man Coyote, who sat in his assembly house and
+  observed daily what transpired. Coyote boy told the old man his
+  brother was dead. Old Coyote then mourned for his son. Silver Fox told
+  him not to cry, but to clean the assembly house and bring in the dead
+  boy. They strewed the floor with straw and built fire. Silver Fox told
+  old Coyote to lie down and pretend to sleep. ‘Do not move,’ said
+  Silver Fox. This was to cause dead boy to revive. They started to cut
+  old Coyote’s belly to get back the spirit of his dead son. Old Coyote
+  shouted with pain and said: ‘Let him stay dead. The dead shall remain
+  dead.’ Thus he spoiled Silver Fox’s plan for resurrection.”
+
+  Central Yana: “... the creation of people took place at Wama-riwi, a
+  village at the cove north of Battle Creek and several miles west of
+  the present Shingletown, that is, roughly at the center of Yana
+  territory. Here in the beginning were Lizard and Cottontail (in
+  Dixon’s version, Lizard, Gray Squirrel, and Coyote; in Curtin’s,
+  Silkworm) who had no predecessors. Discussing how people shall be
+  made, Lizard lays down sticks which they carry to the four directions
+  to become neighboring Indian tribes. Realizing that they have omitted
+  those at the center, they put down bad (short) sticks there. Hence the
+  Yana are shorter than any of their neighbors: a view held by the Yana
+  and repeated by Powers as fact. In Dixon’s version (from the same
+  informant) Lizard carefully prepares three sticks for Atsugewi,
+  Wintun, and Achomawi, and as an afterthought, short sticks for the
+  Yana. The first three are placed to the east, west, and north; the
+  others are boiled to transform them into humans. Coyote refuses to
+  recognize them until they speak properly, that is, the Yana tongue.
+  Curtin’s version is quite different, although still the Yana are
+  created from sticks: his presumably Northern Yana informant, himself a
+  chief, placed the locale in his own country, at Round Mountain. Here
+  Silkworm puts down three sticks, for the Yana chief, a woman, and an
+  orphan, and a large number around the first for common people; he
+  instructs them how to procure food and admonishes that they obey the
+  chief.
+
+  “The origin of sex, or rather its proper attribution rests in the
+  circumstance that in the beginning, women were men; men were women.
+  The women were such poor hunters that people starved. To remedy this,
+  Cottontail placed stones in a fire; when the women were seated, the
+  stones burst, cutting their proper organs, and the women became men.
+  Hands were then webbed like Lizard’s. In order that they might handle
+  bows and pestles, Lizard, experimenting, cut his fingers apart. With
+  this as a model, he separated those of humans. (In Curtin’s version,
+  Water Lizard remedies the defect for himself alone.) In the beginning
+  when people died, they rose from their graves again. Coyote, who
+  objected to these improvements of human affairs, not only proposes
+  that they shall stay dead but stamps down a dead man who would rise.
+  When his own son dies, he changes his mind, but Lizard, Cottontail,
+  and Gray Squirrel will have none of it, so that death and mourning
+  were established forever.”
+
+  Again Garth is here quoted on Atsugewi beliefs: “As in most of
+  northern California there are numerous natural phenomena in Atsugewi
+  territory which marked some mythological event. A low cone-like rock
+  in Dixie Valley was said to be a basket belonging to Coyote. About
+  four miles south of Pittville on the old village site of Mawakasui was
+  an oblong rock ten feet or so in length which was said to be the
+  petrified remains of a lizard whom Butterfly had killed. The extremely
+  rough tongue of lava-covered land extending down the center of Hat
+  Creek Valley was created by Porcupine to impede Coyote with whom
+  Porcupine was running a race. Eagle Lake was said to have been
+  formerly in Atsuge territory, but Coyote tired of the manzanita
+  berries and camass roots which the people fed to him here, so he moved
+  the lake to the Apwaruge country. Here the people fed him epos roots
+  and treated him better.”
+
+  The Maidu concept of the world according to Dixon is that of “...
+  floating on the surface of a great sea, but anchored by five ropes
+  stretched by the Creator, which hold the island steady, and prevent it
+  from drifting about. Occasionally some being seizes these ropes and
+  shakes them, and this causes earthquakes. The world was flat when
+  first made from the bit of mud brought up from the depths of the
+  primeval sea by the turtle (turtle does not appear in the northeast or
+  mountain Maidu version) or from the robin’s nest floating in the sea.
+  Later the Creator and the Coyote went about over the world, making the
+  rivers and mountains. Coyote was in general responsible for the
+  latter, and for the extreme roughness of the country....” The
+  Creator’s stone canoe is said to be visible today on top of Keddie
+  Peak just north of Indian Valley (Greenville); also his and Coyote’s
+  dance houses may be seen as huge circular depressions at what is now
+  Durham (near Chico).
+
+  In his extensive collection of Maidu myths, Dixon observes that
+  “Throughout the myths there is nowhere any suggestion that the Maidu
+  had any knowledge of any other region, that they were immigrants in
+  the land where they live. This complete absence of any migration
+  tradition is a feature which is very characteristic, and serves to
+  differentiate the mythology not only of the Maidu, but of most
+  Californian tribes, from that of the Southwest, and much of the
+  eastern portion of the continent.”
+
+  He further states: “here the creation is a real beginning: beyond it,
+  there is nothing. In the beginning was only the great sea, calm and
+  unlimited, to which, down from the clear sky, the Creator came, or on
+  which he and Coyote were floating in a canoe. Of the origin of
+  previous place of abode of either Creator or Coyote, the Maidu know
+  nothing....”
+
+  “... the whole series of tales told by the stock ... appeared to
+  follow one another in a more or less regular and recognized order.
+  Beginning with the creation, a rather systematic chain of events leads
+  up to the appearance of the ancestors of the present Indians, with
+  whose coming the mythic cycle came to a close. This mythic era, the
+  be-be-ito, seems to fall into a number of periods, with each of which
+  a group or set of myths has to deal. First, we have the coming of
+  Ko-do-yan-pe (Earth-Namer or Creator) and Coyote, their discovery of
+  this world, and the preparation of it for the ‘first people’; next the
+  creation of these first people, and the making and planting of the
+  germs of the human race, the Indians, who were to come after; third,
+  the long period during which the first people were in conflict, and
+  were in the end changed to the various animals in the present world.
+  In this period Earth-Maker tries to put an end to Coyote, whose evil
+  ways and wishes are in direct contrast to his own.” Creator was always
+  dignified and striving to make life easy, happy, and deathless for
+  mankind, while Coyote, a trickster and amorous knave, worked with
+  continued success to render life difficult for man with the result
+  that man’s lot is to suffer and finally to die. This belief was
+  generally uniform among the tribes of the Lassen area. “... During
+  this period Earth-Maker strives for a last time in vain with Coyote,
+  his defeat, and disappearance toward the East coincident with the
+  appearance of the human race, which bursts forth from the spots where
+  the original pairs had been buried long before.” These potential human
+  beings had been made “... as tiny wooden figures by the Creator, and
+  planted here and there in pairs, that they might grow in secret and
+  safety during the time of monsters and great conflicts....”
+
+  In other myths also there is great similarity among the Maidu,
+  Atsugewi, Yana, and Yahi. Dixon says concerning “... The theft of
+  fire, for instance.... In all, the fire is held by a man and his
+  daughters, and is discovered largely through the agency of the Lizard;
+  the fire is watched and guarded by a sentinel bird, is stolen in
+  consequence of his sleeping while on guard, and pursuit by the women
+  is hindered by the strings of their skirts being cut as they sleep.
+  The fire is brought back by a group of animals, among whom the fire is
+  divided for safety; and the pursuers, who are usually Thunder, and his
+  two daughters Rain and Hail, are put to flight.”
+
+
+
+
+                             Chapter XXXIV
+                           MEDICAL TREATMENT
+
+
+The bulk of the important doctoring was done by shamans or medicine men.
+This was all based on supernatural faith and fear. As we know from
+advances of our modern civilization in the field of psychosomatic
+medicine, such “in the mind” cures were highly effective in practice.
+With all due respect to the modern medical profession, it is a foregone
+conclusion that from 50% to 75% of the patients of today’s general
+medical doctor are going to get well eventually without any bonafide
+medical treatment anyway. This percentage favored the shamans too.
+
+Besides shamans there were secondary Indian doctors called herbalists.
+Among Atsugewi, these persons did not have the power of shamans, and
+could not cure disease, but only check or weaken it. However, this class
+of doctor did administer various medicines internally and externally,
+and gave treatments which may actually have been—in some cases—of
+benefit beyond mere faith healing. These remedies were handed down, as
+was all Indian knowledge, by word of mouth from generation to
+generation. Old men taught the young.
+
+Herbalists were able to make snake bite victims recover; treatment
+included sucking the wound. Cauterization or burning of affected parts
+was practiced. Atsugewi treated rheumatism in patients with vapor baths
+in a trench of hot coals on which pine needles and yerba santa or
+mountain balm branches were placed, with a robe over all.
+
+Mountain Maidu smoked wild parsnip for headaches, colds, and wounds.
+Mountain Maidu and Atsugewi believed that toothaches were caused by the
+presence of worms in the teeth. Corrective poultices were placed on the
+cheek. Yana did this too, but placed a hot stone on the poultice, and
+also bit on a mole’s front foot, dried, to relieve the pain. Atsugewi
+often set the poultice on fire which might leave permanent scars.
+
+The seeds of rosinweed, a member of the sunflower family, were
+collected, then shelled, cooked, dried, and finally pounded. This
+medicine was taken for chills. Wild iris roots were chewed raw for
+coughing.
+
+Decoctions, that is, water in which plants had been boiled to extract
+their medicinal juices, were drunk. California angelica, a member of the
+parsley family, was used in this way for colds, diarrhea, headache, et
+cetera. This medication was popular with all local tribes for treating
+many ills.
+
+Yana used poultices of roots of bracken fern, pounded and warmed for
+application to burns. The bulbs of false solomon seal were pounded fine
+and also hot soap-root poultices were applied to swellings, pains, or
+boils. Peeled California angelica roots were crushed and laid on aching
+heads.
+
+Ground squirrel grease was used to soften rough hands and to relieve
+cracking of the skin from chapping.
+
+Atsugewi employed green leaves of chokecherry, pounded as poultices, for
+cuts, sores, and bruises. The boiled liquor of pounded chokecherry bark
+was used for bathing wounds to promote healing.
+
+They employed decoctions of wormwood to prevent blood poisoning and to
+treat cuts. Decoctions of greenleaf manzanita leaves were good for cuts
+and burns. Both oak bark and oak gall decoctions were drunk to prevent
+infection and catching colds and were given to women in childbirth.
+Atsugewi also chewed raw juniper berries as a treatment for colds.
+
+Obviously there was a host of other treatments as we know of a large
+variety of other plants, roots, and fruits which were used medicinally.
+
+Broken bones were set as best they could be set, and were bound up in
+simple but effective splints.
+
+For general good health Garth states that an Atsugewi “... man chewed
+the top shoot off a young pine tree. Especially was this done by a
+father after his wife bore a child.”
+
+In Yana sweat houses and probably in those of other tribes too, veins
+were cut with obsidian chips to “let the bad blood out” if a person felt
+ill.
+
+
+
+
+                              Chapter XXXV
+                           SPIRITS AND GHOSTS
+
+
+Ghosts and spirits were one and the same, and were to local Indians as
+souls are conceived by white man, yet the Indian conception was more
+variable. Some spirits were good and others were evil, but all were
+feared and avoided whenever possible. They were frequently associated
+with omens and had somewhat the appearance of human beings. Among
+Atsugewi they were visible only to shamans, but were heard by nearly all
+persons. Yana commoners both saw and heard spirits, but only very
+rarely.
+
+The spirit left the body right after death. Mountain Maidu thought that
+it turned back once before going on. Yana believed that the spirit
+tarried in the vicinity of the body for a while, going to the south
+first briefly for a sort of trial or evaluation which included
+determination as to whether or not the nose septum had been pierced.
+Then, as all local Indians apparently agreed, the ghost or spirit went
+to a distant place in the west via the Milky Way. Yana thought that
+there was some distinction in destination of good and bad persons’
+ghosts, but our other tribes conceived only of one place for all spirits
+finally. We do not today have a very clear understanding of the
+aboriginal Indian concept of heaven except that people lived in this
+land of the dead in sweat houses, hunting, eating, loving, and sleeping,
+but with complete absence of sickness. Concepts of the life of spirits
+changed with the coming of the whites preceding even the advent of
+pioneer settler days. All information in that regard which students have
+been able to gain from informants in this region is decidedly flavored
+with Christian dogma.
+
+Spirits or ghosts returned to old haunts of the body on occasion or,
+more often, to the vicinity of the grave. For this reason burial grounds
+were usually well removed from villages. Bad smells would drive spirits
+away, while whistling and flowers attracted them. Fiber-wound crossed
+sticks were hung in sweat houses of Yana tribes to keep spirits out. All
+tribes of the Lassen area thought that ghosts visited the living in
+dreams and also considered it feasible that the spirits of people might
+go to visit those of the dead when the persons were asleep, or more
+commonly when the living were unconscious.
+
+Mountain Maidu didn’t speak much about ghosts, but if one had been
+making a nuisance of itself by visiting much in dreams, they fed it by
+having all members of the family throw small portions of food into the
+fire before commencing to eat their meals. Besides, a shaman was hired
+under these circumstances to sing for the dreamer. The same ceremony was
+observed by the Atsugewi. It was also the practice of the dreamer in
+this tribe to eat with a dog, spitting out some of the food, saying to
+the dog, “You better eat for me. Take that spirit away.” Atsugewi were
+evidently very conscious of ghosts for they spoke to them, spit out
+chewed epos roots for the spirits, smoked tobacco for them, burned hair
+and skin to repel them, and tobacco and feather bundles were hung near
+the house doorways for their benefit. New Atsugewi parents had a unique
+ritual at the time of their first meat eating after the taboos of
+childbirth—they chewed small amounts of meat and put this on their toes
+for the dogs to eat.
+
+  Garth says of Atsugewi spirit beliefs: “A man who was about to die,
+  whether he felt sick or not, had a peculiar odor about him. If he went
+  hunting, deer ran from him saying, ‘Phew, that man smells bad.’
+  Coyotes and dogs would come close to him and bark at him. He would die
+  unless a shaman could remove this aura of death from him.”
+
+There were many omens of a spirit nature which foretold calamity. To
+Atsugewi upon hearing the cries of certain animals at night, especially
+if an owl hooted at one, or if one saw a kingsnake, death was supposed
+to descend upon a relative.
+
+If evil spirits frightened a person and tried to steal his soul, the
+spirits could be foiled by standing with one’s feet widely spread apart.
+If followed by a ghost, a person might turn around, retracing his
+footsteps while the spirit continued in the direction one had been
+traveling initially.
+
+When a person was asleep his spirit could wander around. If, during
+these wanderings, a bad spirit caught the person’s spirit before he
+could awaken, the person was deprived of it.
+
+Also the spirit on occasion left a person voluntarily if it didn’t like
+the body, as for instance, if it smelled badly. When a person’s spirit
+or soul were gone, only the heart was left to keep him alive, and he
+would succumb easily to the first sickness. For this reason, Atsugewi
+shamans periodically examined all the people to see if any spirits were
+missing. When anyone was found lacking his spirit, the shaman had to
+work to bring it back, sucking it into the person’s head. If several
+spirits were missing at once, it was not easy to get the right spirit
+back into its own body. They didn’t know what would happen if a person
+got the wrong soul back into his body—but it wasn’t good.
+
+
+
+
+                             Chapter XXXVI
+                        SHAMANISM AND DOCTORING
+
+
+Shamans or doctors, more commonly known to modern Americans by the name
+medicine men, were important in the lives of all Indians but, among
+ours, probably to the highest degree among the Maidu. Whether we, with
+our scientific enlightenment today, are after all happier and of greater
+peace of mind, than the aborigines were or not, is a philosophical
+consideration beyond the scope of this book. The fact of the matter is
+that mankind in the past invariably has resorted to the supernatural to
+explain things not understood. Indians are a case in point—being totally
+without scientific explanations, mysticism and the supernatural pervaded
+their whole culture—their every day activities—to a point which to us
+today seems fantastic, yet understandable in a way. If you and I had
+been in the Indian’s place, might not we also have subscribed whole
+heartedly to these same beliefs with which we would have grown up, and
+which our loved and trusted elders had taught us in good faith?
+Shamanism gave to the Indians a feeling of comfort and, shall we say,
+security?—a sort of foundation of faith which all men must have for the
+living of reasonably satisfying lives.
+
+Shamans were men of influence in the village, with prestige second only
+to that of the chief. Women shamans were uncommon and usually possessed
+less potent power. The life of a shaman was precarious because if he
+failed to effect a high percentage of cures or if he were “proven”
+responsible for sending pains which caused death to persons, he might be
+killed—sometimes even with the advance approval of the chief, and
+without retaliation by the offending shaman’s relatives. When this was
+done, he was cut into pieces, not for the morbid reasons, the reader
+might suspect, but for the practical reason that the parts of his body
+could in this way be disposed of in widely scattered places. Otherwise
+there was the danger that he might, with the help of his power, be
+reassembled and again be able to continue his malpractice and to include
+his murderers among future victims.
+
+There were several kinds of shamans among the local Indians. Each tribe
+in the Lassen area had the all important Sucking Shaman. Atsugewi and
+mountain Maidu also had special Bear, Rattlesnake, and Weather Shamans
+while only Yana had Singing Shamans in addition.
+
+The power of shamans was much more potent than mere “luck” which came
+easily to the majority of ordinary mortals in dreams, during puberty
+ceremonies, and the like. This “luck” was a weak supernatural blessing
+which was not sought, but came voluntarily and gave the person skill and
+success in crafts and daily pursuits such as fishing, hunting certain
+animals or birds, canoe making, et cetera.
+
+It would be impractical in this book to give the complicated and
+voluminous details of all phases of shamanism as conceived and practiced
+by each of the four local tribes. The following information has been
+somewhat generalized in the hope that the reader will get the “feel” of
+the shaman concept which was essentially the same for all the tribes of
+the Lassen area.
+
+Power was usually sought by men desiring to be shamans, but all were not
+successful in such quests. On the other hand shamanistic power came to
+some voluntarily, and it was dangerous not to accept this power if it
+came to one. To refuse might cause death. One could tell when one was
+successful in getting power because one would bleed from the nose or
+mouth. He would also learn to sing and dance, and would receive
+instructions and paraphernalia from his guardian spirit.
+
+Shamanistic power could be acquired in a number of ways, not all of
+which applied to each tribe being considered. A rare means was by
+inheritance. If an old shaman had power and if this power or guardian
+spirit liked his son or nephew, it would say “Sometimes I’m going to
+play with that boy” and so it goes to the boy. At sundown the latter
+listens to it sing to him and he gets the power. The boy learns about it
+in the vision and from the old shaman’s instructions.
+
+    [Illustration: Small portions of yellow hammer or red-shafted quill
+    headbands.]
+
+Another infrequent way to gain power was involuntarily when seriously
+ill, while in a trance, or when dreaming.
+
+The third and usual method of acquiring the shamanistic power was by
+vision quest. It was a difficult ordeal. This might be undertaken at
+various times of life, but most commonly at or near puberty. In questing
+power there was no assurance of success, no matter how sincere a person
+might be, or how hard he might try. Successful shamans could quest
+repeatedly for additional powers.
+
+Youths were prepared for questing by being lectured to by fathers or
+uncles who also pierced their nose septa. Each youth went alone and
+unclothed into certain portions of the mountains for several days and
+nights. He slept little and fasted, eating little or nothing at all; all
+flesh was taboo. The questing usually included swimming in lakes or
+special pools and placing the nose piercing stick in an underwater
+niche, and (Yana) securing certain bird feathers. He built a fire,
+smoking his body over it, and cut himself deliberately. If successful,
+the power came to him in a trance or faint producing bleeding from the
+nose or mouth.
+
+The guardian spirit communicated with the novice, appearing in a vision
+usually. It gave instructions and taught its special ceremonial song. To
+shamans of some tribes the guardian spirit looked something like a
+human; to others it looked like a bug or like a small hair. This was the
+“pain” or poison object and yet was considered to be a guardian spirit
+at the same time. This is what the novice acquired in becoming a shaman.
+This pain or guardian spirit could come from any of many sources. It was
+alive and could talk, and gave the novice certain resultant powers. Most
+commonly powers were from animals such as coyote, bear, and the like,
+but also might come from sun, moon, wind, thunder and lightning, eagle,
+hawk, small birds, reptiles, frog, or oldman spirit.
+
+The novice then acquired what we might call magic feathers. There were
+several types including the popular salmon colored flicker feathers.
+Most important, however, was the feather tuft known as kaku among the
+Atsugewi. This allegedly was found in finished form and not made. So
+full of power was the kaku that it could not be kept in a house. It was
+placed outside securely tied to a willow branch beside a stream or
+hidden inside a hollow tree trunk. The kaku was able to move by itself
+so had to be tied down or placed under a rock. When the novice shaman
+discovered his kaku, the feathers were singing; when he died, blood
+dripped from its feathers!
+
+Upon his return to the village, the successful seeker stayed out of
+dwelling houses for a day or two. Among some tribes he was sick for this
+period. Universally he sweated and swam. Eating habits of the novice
+shaman varied in different cases, but were always as dictated by the
+specific instructions given to him by his guardian spirit. Invariably
+all forms of flesh were shunned. He smoked tobacco and gave his first
+hunting kill to an old man. During the novice period the new shaman was
+helped by old shamans at the fireside in the sweat house. He did much
+dancing, singing, handled hot coals and fire, bled from the mouth, and
+might fall into a trance.
+
+In contrast to herbalist doctors who gave private treatment, that of
+shamans was public and usually conducted indoors, preferably in sweat
+lodges. The shaman needed singing help and the more help and the more
+persons who attended his doctoring the better. Sucking Shamans were the
+most important and required official assistants. These included one or
+more interpreters to communicate with the lay helpers or supporters,
+while the shaman was doctoring, and an outside speaker to help call the
+shaman’s spirits. Doctoring could take from one to three days and
+nights.
+
+To diagnose the patient’s ills the shaman danced about, blowing smoke on
+him, and singing with the help of the audience. The shamans also drank
+water, sometimes with a tube, from portable stone mortars with spirit
+power. They often squirted water from their mouths. A whistle was used
+in some cases and often the supernatural powerful cocoon rattle. Among
+mountain Maidu herb medicines might be administered to the patient also.
+
+At length the shaman’s guardian spirit or pain told him the location of
+the disease object, and then he could see or feel it. Often the shaman
+learned further from the spirit just who it was who had sent the disease
+object to plague his patient.
+
+Curing the afflicted was accomplished next by the shaman’s sucking this
+pain or disease object out of some portion of the person’s body. The
+evil pain could be any curious small object and this the shaman
+exhibited to all present. The malignant pain was disposed of in a number
+of ways. It might be sent back to the owner who sent it, that is, the
+offending shaman. Or, it might be sent to his children who would be
+doomed because a shaman could not doctor his own pain. Other times the
+curing shaman would destroy the disease object by biting it and burning
+it or dispose of it by taking the pain into his own charmed body.
+
+When a whole community had been affected by a pain sent by an evil
+shaman, the pain usually hid in the bushes nearby. In such a case, the
+shaman had to be very powerful to get the best of the situation. First
+he conducted the ceremony of detection of one victim in the usual sweat
+house manner. Once the shaman found out where the trouble was, he went
+outdoors with the villagers to help in corraling the offending pain.
+Frequently only after a lengthy search was he successful in finding the
+pain and then capturing it. Upon taking it into his body it might be so
+powerful as to cause him to go into a trance. In this event his
+assistants had to support him bodily, and had to sing for him, otherwise
+the shaman might die. Without wishing to appear facetious or
+disparaging, it can be said that a good shaman had to be an excellent
+showman as well.
+
+Sucking Shamans were obligated to accept all cases which they were asked
+to treat. If they refused any and the afflicted died, then the shamans
+might be killed themselves by relatives of the persons who succumbed.
+The thinking was that if a shaman refused a case, he must have had
+something to do with making the person sick in the first place.
+
+Payment was always made to the shaman. The amount was determined by the
+patient’s relatives. They would take the offering to the shaman when
+engaging him, but payment was not made at that time. The shaman looked
+over the proffered payment and might ask for more or for a different
+kind of payment. To give himself a foolproof alibi in case of failure to
+cure, and to increase his prestige if he did cure, he might reply to the
+effect that “The beads already have the smell of death on them, but I’ll
+see what I can do about it.” The payment was placed near the patient
+during healing treatment and was not actually collected by the shaman if
+the patient died within a few weeks or months. The shaman’s assistants
+were also paid, but in lesser amounts.
+
+    [Illustration: Maidu shaman ceremonial neck pendant knife of
+    obsidian, nine and one half inches long (after Dixon)]
+
+Besides the main function of curing, other good powers of the shamans
+were the ability to foretell future events, to see what was going on at
+distant places, and to locate lost or stolen articles. Among certain
+tribes control of weather was also possible by Sucking Shamans—among
+others there were special shamans with weather power.
+
+Evil powers of Sucking Shamans could cause illness or death. This was
+done by talking to the pain and sending it to the victim. The shaman
+might put it on the end of a willow stick and point it at the person
+while singing and smoking tobacco. This could go on all night.
+Transmission of the pain to the intended victim was facilitated by
+contact, such as sneaking up behind him and touching him, or by putting
+the disease pain in his food or under his doorstep. The bad pain might
+also be dispatched by blowing it through a pipe or putting it in the
+victim’s pipe, or by talking to the shaman’s own animal spirit,
+injecting the pain into it and then sending the animal to the victim.
+This power animal might just take it to the intended person, or it might
+actually attack and bite him. If the evil pain had been successfully
+sent, and the intended dire results occurred, the relatives of the
+victim had a moral right to kill the offending shaman, without fear of
+retaliation. It seems that the culprit was usually recognized—obviously
+often mistakenly. It follows that shamans’ lives were somewhat
+precarious, not knowing who was going to find damning evidence against
+them.
+
+By somewhat the same means as described above shamans could steal a
+person’s spirit or soul, rendering that person liable to quick and sure
+death from the slightest accident or illness. Shamans could be hired to
+perform these evil powers.
+
+Singing Shamans were dreamers foretelling the future and telling the
+living what their dead relatives wanted them to do. The Singing Shaman
+was always male among mountain Maidu. Our other tribes did not have this
+specialist, instead such powers were in the repertoire of the Sucking
+Shaman.
+
+Among Yana and Yahi tribes, apparently, weather doctoring could be done
+by any shaman, and this was usually the case among Atsugewi. However,
+mountain Maidu had specialized Weather Shamans. These were men who were
+capable not only of producing rain, snow, or hail, but also fog and high
+winds, or ending any of these.
+
+Rattlesnake Shamans were generally women among Atsugewi and men among
+mountain Maidu. They could protect people from rattlesnakes or cure
+bites. The latter was accomplished by sucking which removed snakes and
+snakes’ teeth from the wound.
+
+Bear Shamans did not exist among Yana tribes. Among Atsugewi and
+mountain Maidu these were not specialists, instead bear power was an
+additional skill of Sucking Shamans. They were almost always men and
+pertained not to Black Bear, but only to the California Grizzly. They
+wore bear skin, hair, teeth, and claws and simulated the bear’s actions
+in treating patients. Bear Shamans were called primarily to minister to
+bear wounded persons from whom they sucked out bear blood and teeth.
+
+
+
+
+                             Chapter XXXVII
+                          MISCELLANEOUS MAGIC
+
+
+All tribes of the Lassen region exercised miscellaneous more or less
+supernatural powers which one might term magic.
+
+Examples were: carrying a turtleshell on one’s belt which rendered a
+person immune to rattlesnake strikes, or, among Maidu the rubbing of the
+root of _Angelica breweri_ on the legs to keep rattlesnakes away.
+Poisoning of persons could be done by some skilled people (not shamans)
+by rubbing an unspecified substance on their hands and then touching the
+victim’s body; this could drive him crazy or kill him.
+
+To mountain Maidu the number five was sacred and lucky according to
+Dixon.
+
+    [Illustration: Yana charmstones and a fir twig basket container for
+    such charms.]
+
+Charm stones, usually in pairs were found by many fortunate Indians.
+They were smooth and rounded and were especially effective if possessing
+rings or other special markings on them which were actually surface
+traces of mineral veins. Quartz crystals, rare in this volcanic region,
+were also highly prized as charm stones. An ideal storage place for
+charm stones in their special basketry containers was in a rattlesnake
+“den” where such snakes tended to hibernate in the winter. At any rate
+charm stones were kept hidden and the owner would secretly rub them on
+himself to gain good luck in gambling or in other pursuits which
+involved much in the way of chance.
+
+    [Illustration: Atsugewi charmstones]
+
+Prayers for a variety of reasons were offered simply by the individual.
+It was common practice every few days or so to make token food offerings
+at mealtime for no specific reason. The bits of food might be thrown to
+the east or into the fire.
+
+                            * * * * * * * *
+
+Thus ends this resume of the customs and beliefs of the tribes of the
+Lassen region—tribes virtually extinct as such today—tribes which once
+lived here among the scenic beauties of Lassen Volcanic National Park.
+We, the descendants of the relentless conquerors of these local Indians,
+come here now to enjoy ourselves and to refresh our bodies and spirits.
+As we do this on the lands of the vanquished, we owe them not only a
+moment of thoughtful reverence, but also whatever kindness and aid we
+are able to give their descendants.
+
+
+
+
+                              BIBLIOGRAPHY
+
+
+  Dixon, Roland B.: BASKETRY DESIGNS OF THE INDIANS OF NORTHERN
+          CALIFORNIA
+    Feb. 12, 1902, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History,
+          Vol. 17, Part 1
+  Dixon, Roland B.: MAIDU MYTHS
+    June 30, 1902, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History,
+          Vol. 17, Part 2
+  Dixon, Roland B.: THE NORTHERN MAIDU
+    May 1905, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, Vol.
+          17, Part 3
+  Garth, Thomas R.: KINSHIP TERMINOLOGY, MARRIAGE PRACTICES, AND
+          BEHAVIOR TOWARD KIN AMONG THE ATSUGEWI
+    July 1944, American Anthropologist, Vol. 46, No. 3
+  Garth, Thomas R.: EMPHASIS ON INDUSTRIOUSNESS AMONG THE ATSUGEWI
+    Oct. 1945, American Anthropologist, Vol. 47, No. 4
+  Garth, Thomas R.: ATSUGEWI ETHNOGRAPHY
+    Feb. 1953, Anthropological Records, University of California, Vol.
+          14, No. 2
+  Gifford, E. W. and Klimek, Stanislaw: CULTURE ELEMENT DISTRIBUTIONS:
+          II, YANA
+    1936, University of California Publications in American Archeology
+          and Ethnology, Vol. 37, No. 2
+  Heizer, R. F. and Whipple, M. A.: THE CALIFORNIA INDIANS
+    1951, University of California Press
+  Klimek, Stanislaw: CULTURE ELEMENT DISTRIBUTIONS: I, THE STRUCTURE OF
+          THE CALIFORNIA INDIAN CULTURE
+    1935, University of California Publications in American Archeology
+          and Ethnology
+  Kniffen, Fred B.: ACHOMAWI GEOGRAPHY
+    1928, University of California Publications in American Archeology
+          and Ethnology
+  Kroeber, A. L.: HANDBOOK OF THE INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA
+    1925, Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology,
+          Bulletin. No. 78
+  Kroeber, A. L.: CULTURE ELEMENT DISTRIBUTIONS: XV, SALT, DOGS, AND
+          TOBACCO
+    Feb. 1941, Anthropological Records, University of California, Vol.
+          6, No. 1
+  Mason, Otis T.: REPORT OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM
+    1902
+  Merriam, C. Hart: CLASSIFICATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE PIT RIVER
+          INDIAN TRIBES
+    Smithsonian Institute, Vol. 78, No. 3
+  Pope, Saxton T.: THE MEDICAL HISTORY OF ISHI
+    May 15, 1920, University of California Publications in American
+          Archeology and Ethnology, Vol. 13, No. 5
+  Sapir, Edward: THE POSITION OF YANA IN THE HOKAN STOCK
+    June 1917, University of California Publications in American
+          Archeology and Ethnology, Vol. 13, No. 1
+  Sapir, Edward and Spier, Leslie: NOTES ON THE CULTURE OF THE YANA
+    Sept. 1943, Anthropological Records, University of California, Vol.
+          3, No. 3
+  Sauer, Carl O.: EARLY RELATIONS OF MAN TO PLANTS
+    Jan. 1947, Geographical Review
+  Vogelin, Ermine W.: CULTURE ELEMENT DISTRIBUTIONS: XX, NORTHEAST
+          CALIFORNIA
+    June 1942, Anthropological Records, University of California, Vol.
+          7, No. 2
+  Waterman, T. T.: THE YANA INDIANS
+    Feb. 1918, University of California Publications in American
+          Archeology and Ethnology, Vol. 13, No. 2
+
+
+                                  ASK
+                             THE MAN IN THE
+                     NATIONAL PARK SERVICE UNIFORM
+
+                      _He’ll be glad to help you!_
+
+
+                              BE PROUD OF
+                     LASSEN VOLCANIC NATIONAL PARK!
+
+As a citizen of the United States it belongs to you. Keep it unspoiled
+for your next visit and for future generations by helping to:
+
+  1. Prevent forest fires.
+  2. Protect the flowers, the animal life, and the rock and mineral
+          formations.
+  3. Keep it clean.
+
+
+This booklet is one of a series prepared by the Loomis Museum
+Association, a non-profit distributing organization sponsored by the
+Naturalist Department of Lassen Volcanic National Park. The Association
+is dedicated to the accumulation and dissemination of information
+concerning the history and natural history of this park. Toward this end
+it has published the following books available by mail. The post office
+address is Mineral, California. During the summer, these publications
+are also available at the Loomis Museum sales desk at Manzanita Lake,
+Lassen Volcanic National Park.
+
+  GEOLOGY OF LASSEN’S LANDSCAPE, Schulz                               55¢
+  PICTORIAL HISTORY OF THE LASSEN VOLCANO, Loomis                     85¢
+  GUIDE TO LASSEN PEAK HIGHWAY, Schulz                                25¢
+  STORIES OF LASSEN’S PLACE NAMES, Schulz                             40¢
+  BIRDS OF LASSEN VOLCANIC NATIONAL PARK AND VICINITY, Stebbins       85¢
+  FISH AND FISHING IN LASSEN VOLCANIC NATIONAL PARK, Potts            40¢
+  INDIANS OF THE LASSEN AREA Schulz                                   85¢
+
+For mail orders please add 12% for postage and packing. If the addressee
+is in California also add 3% sales tax. Prices are subject to change
+without notice.
+
+    [Illustration: Association logo]
+
+
+
+
+                          Transcriber’s Notes
+
+
+—Silently corrected a few typos.
+
+—Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook
+  is public-domain in the country of publication.
+
+—In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by
+  _underscores_.
+
+
+
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+<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Indians of Lassen Volcanic National Park and Vicinity, by Paul E. Schulz</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
+most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
+whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
+of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
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+</div>
+
+<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: Indians of Lassen Volcanic National Park and Vicinity</p>
+<div style='display:table; margin-bottom:1em;'>
+<div style='display:table-row'>
+  <div style='display:table-cell; padding-right:0.5em'>Author:</div>
+  <div style='display:table-cell'>Paul E. Schulz</div>
+</div>
+</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: June 13, 2021 [eBook #65605]</div>
+<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div>
+<div style='display:table; margin-bottom:1em;'>
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+<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INDIANS OF LASSEN VOLCANIC NATIONAL PARK AND VICINITY ***</div>
+<div id="cover" class="img">
+<img id="coverpage" src="images/cover.jpg" alt="Indians of Lassen Volcanic National Park and Vicinity" width="794" height="1225" />
+</div>
+<div class="box">
+<h1><span class="cur">INDIANS
+<br /><span class="smallest"><span class="smallest">OF</span>
+<br />LASSEN VOLCANIC NATIONAL PARK AND VICINITY</span></span></h1>
+<p class="center">by
+<br />Paul E. Schulz</p>
+<p class="tbcenter">Published by the</p>
+<p class="center">Loomis Museum Association
+<br />Lassen Volcanic National Park
+<br />Mineral, California</p>
+</div>
+<p class="tbcenter">Copyright
+<br />1954</p>
+<p class="center smaller">Printed in the United States of America
+<br />Susanville <i class="large b">Lassen Litho</i> California</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_I">I</div>
+<h2 id="c1"><span class="small"><i>PREFACE</i></span></h2>
+<p>It is with some temerity that the author, a geologist by training
+and an interpretive naturalist by occupation, undertakes to compile
+this booklet on Indians who once inhabited the vicinity of Lassen
+Peak.</p>
+<p>The main mission of a naturalist, as he functions in the National
+Park Service, is to act as an interpreter of technical information
+gathered together by research scientists. It is his obligation as
+well as his privilege to make these data of history and natural
+history available for visitors to units administered by the National
+Park Service of the United States Department of the Interior. The
+Park Naturalist is challenged to create in visitors an eager interest
+by presenting information in an appealing manner so that the great
+stories of the respective areas may be learned easily and
+pleasantly. In doing this, visitors gain fuller understanding and
+hence better appreciation of the significance of these areas. This
+leads to greater enjoyment of the scenic masterpieces, the scientific
+natural wonders, and the historic shrines of areas of the
+National Park System. Not only is the visitor&rsquo;s enjoyment enhanced
+by his active reception of the interpretive facilities and services
+offered him by the Federal Government, but his pride is stimulated
+in these areas which have been set aside for his own use as well
+as for the benefit of future generations. A citizen&rsquo;s pride in his
+park areas in turn develops a love of country. It also promotes a
+sense of responsibility which helps the National Park Service fight
+vandalism, fire carelessness, and litter carelessness to the ultimate
+benefit of all concerned.</p>
+<p>Little on the pages which follow may be classed as original
+material for it is in the role of interpreter that the undersigned has
+assembled information gleaned by qualified students.</p>
+<p>The term &ldquo;Amerind&rdquo; instead of the traditional word &ldquo;Indian&rdquo;
+was seriously considered for use in this book but finally rejected.
+Ever since Christopher Columbus&rsquo; historic mistake the word Indian
+has had a confusing two-fold meaning. Columbus, of course, thought
+that he had been successful in reaching India when his little fleet
+touched the shores of the New World. Hence he applied the word
+Indian to the people he found there, supposing them to be natives
+of India. The term Amerind is a coined contraction of the words:
+American Indian. The use of Amerind has been advocated by some
+authors to do away with confusion, and it does seem to be an
+excellent name, but it has not enjoyed wide usage by the American
+public.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_II">II</div>
+<p>I am deeply indebted to the following named persons whose
+research and learned writings have provided the bulk of the information
+contained in the present publication. The bibliography carries
+the titles of the specific references used.</p>
+<dl class="undent"><dt>Dr. Roland B. Dixon</dt>
+<dt>Mr. Thomas R. Garth</dt>
+<dt>Dr. E. W. Gifford</dt>
+<dt>Dr. Robert F. Heizer</dt>
+<dt>Dr. Stanislaw Klimek</dt>
+<dt>Dr. A. L. Kroeber</dt>
+<dt>Dr. Saxton T. Pope</dt>
+<dt>Dr. Carl O. Sauer</dt>
+<dt>Dr. Edward Sapir</dt>
+<dt>Dr. Leslie Spier</dt>
+<dt>Miss Erminie W. Voegelin</dt>
+<dt>Dr. T. T. Waterman</dt></dl>
+<p>Properly, specific credit should be given in the text for each
+fact and quotation taken from the works of others, but the result
+would in this case have been unwieldy and of no practical benefit
+to the readers whom this book is intended to reach. It is hoped
+that professional ethnologists into whose hands this volume may
+fall will forgive this unorthodox usage of the research results of
+serious students.</p>
+<p>Mrs. Selina La Marr (Boonookoo-ee-menorra) was a valuable
+and gracious informant. Thanks are due again to Dr. E. W. Gifford,
+Director of the Museum of Anthropology at the University of California,
+for many courtesies, including donation of a copy of Dixon&rsquo;s
+rare &ldquo;Yana Indians&rdquo; and also for his constructive perusal of the
+manuscript. Others who assisted the author were Mrs. Grace Schulz,
+Miss Lois Bell of the University of California &ldquo;University Explorer&rdquo;
+radio program, and Mr. Louis Caywood, National Park
+Service archeologist. Dr. J. H. Woolsey, M.D., earned gratitude of
+the author by donation of his personal copy of Pope&rsquo;s &ldquo;Medical
+History of Ishi&rdquo;. Miss Lilian Nisbet of the Tehama County Library
+was helpful in the securing of other reference materials.</p>
+<p>Most Californians are vitally interested in the Indians of this
+state, yet few are aware of the excellent California State Indian
+Museum operated by the Division of Beaches and Parks. The Indian
+Museum is open to the public daily, free of charge, in a separate
+building on the grounds of Sutter&rsquo;s Fort State Historical Monument
+in Sacramento. The author highly commends this museum to you.
+It contains a wealth of authentic materials which have been organized
+into handsome and exciting story-telling exhibits of first
+quality by Curator Jack Dyson.</p>
+<p class="jr1">Paul E. Schulz
+<br />Park Naturalist
+<br />Lassen Volcanic National Park
+<br />Fall 1954</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_III">III</div>
+<h2 id="c2"><span class="small"><i>CONTENTS</i></span></h2>
+<dl class="toc">
+<dt><a href="#c1">Preface</a> I</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c2">Contents</a> III</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c3">Prehistoric Man Comes to North America</a> 1</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c4">Early Cultures in North America</a> 4</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c5">The California Indians</a> 8</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c6">Indian Tribes of the Lassen Area</a> 16</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c7">Indian-Pioneer Conflict; the Ishi Story</a> 20</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c8">Hunting</a> 38</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c9">Fishing</a> 43</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c10">Gathering and Preparation of Other Foods</a> 48</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c11">Houses and Furnishings</a> 60</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c12">Household Implements, Tools, and Weapons</a> 66</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c13">Basketry and Textiles</a> 80</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c14">Tanning, Cordage, and Glue</a> 96</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c15">Transportation</a> 99</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c16">Domestic Animals and Pets</a> 103</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c17">Clothing</a> 105</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c18">Beauty and Personal Grooming</a> 111</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c19">Wealth</a> 117</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c20">Ceremonial Dress</a> 119</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c21">Tobacco and Smoking</a> 120</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c22">Music and Arts</a> 122</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c23">Games and Social Gatherings</a> 126</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c24">Dances</a> 129</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c25">Political Organization of Tribes</a> 131</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c26">War and Peace</a> 133</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c27">Birth and Babies</a> 136</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c28">Adulthood Rites</a> 141</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c29">Marriage and Divorce</a> 143</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c30">Death and Burial</a> 145</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c31">Counting, Time, and Place</a> 149</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c32">Concepts of Sun, Moon, and Stars</a> 151</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c33">Weather Phenomena</a> 153</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c34">Earthquake Beliefs</a> 155</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c35">Creation Beliefs and Other Legends</a> 157</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c36">Medical Treatment</a> 162</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c37">Spirits and Ghosts</a> 164</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c38">Shamanism and Doctoring</a> 166</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c39">Miscellaneous Magic</a> 173</dt>
+<dt><a href="#c40">Bibliography</a> 175</dt>
+</dl>
+<div class="img">
+<img src="images/p03.jpg" id="ncfig1" alt="Association logo" width="300" height="198" />
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_1">1</div>
+<h2 id="c3"><span class="small">Chapter I</span>
+<br />PREHISTORIC MAN COMES TO NORTH AMERICA</h2>
+<p>Archeological studies of human remains from all over the world
+have shown beyond serious question that man originated in the
+Eastern Hemisphere about a million years ago. Meager remnants
+of prehistoric skeletons of man and his tools, hearths, and debris
+heaps have been found in deposits of late Cenozoic time, Chapter
+Five of earth&rsquo;s history. This late Cenozoic period starting about
+a million years ago is called the Pleistocene or Ice Age. These
+discoveries show the orderly processes of survival of the fittest
+and of evolution developing successive generations of man with
+refined physical and mental qualities, ultimately producing modern
+man.</p>
+<p>During the Ice Age there were four separate times during which
+ice formation on all continents of the earth increased tremendously.
+Just what caused changes in climate to make this possible is not
+definitely known. Slight changes in amount of carbon dioxide in
+the air, which could have been affected by the amount of volcanic
+activity or by major changes in the amount of plant life in existence,
+may have affected the climate. Slight variations in the
+orbit of the earth in its course around the sun may also have had
+their influence. Even today it would require a drop of only a few
+degrees in the average annual temperature of the earth&rsquo;s climate
+to produce a large increase in ice formation. All that is required
+is that a little more snow falls each winter than will melt in the
+summer. Thus, each year the excess would gradually build up
+glaciers and continental ice sheets, producing another &ldquo;ice stage&rdquo;
+in a few thousands of years.</p>
+<p>The area of ice in the world today is relatively small: under
+6 million square miles, about the same as that existing during each
+of the four interglacial (warm climate) stages of the Pleistocene.
+During the four glacial stages of the Ice Age, continental ice sheets
+increased their areas by three or four times, also becoming larger
+in size in each successive cold cycle. The latest and most extensive
+of these glacial times, the Wisconsin Stage, actually saw
+two ice advances with a brief recession separating them about
+60,000 years ago.</p>
+<p>During each glacial stage tremendous amounts of water were
+removed from the oceans and deposited on the continents as ice
+fields. This involved amounts of as much as 20 million cubic miles
+of water, causing world-wide lowering of sea level of about 150 or
+200 feet. Today the sea between Alaska and Siberia is very
+<span class="pb" id="Page_2">2</span>
+shallow. It is not difficult to realize that lowered sea level during
+the glacial stages of the ice age drained the water from this and
+other shallow sea floors exposing these as land links or &ldquo;land
+bridges&rdquo; which extended between continents and islands. This
+state of affairs made possible the overland migration of man to the
+Western Hemisphere.</p>
+<p>In his illuminating paper &ldquo;Early Relations of Man to Plants&rdquo;
+Sauer has pointed out that early man&rsquo;s migrations to the New World
+were not the result of mere aimless wanderings. Peking Man of the
+first interglacial stage about 900,000 years ago in Asia used fire in
+established hearths. He ate both cooked meats and vegetables.
+This evidence indicates at least a semi-sedentary family life.
+Since he had learned to make himself more comfortable generally
+by remaining in one favorable place, it follows logically that even
+primitive Peking Man migrated only when he could improve his lot
+by doing so. He moved on only when he was forced to do so by a
+failing food supply or because of crowded conditions caused by
+increasing numbers of his fellow men. It is believed that not only
+Peking Man, but his descendants were as sedentary as their food
+supply allowed them to be. Dr. Sauer observes that</p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>&ldquo;... the history of human population (numbers) is a succession
+of higher and higher levels, each rise to a new level
+being brought about by the discovery of more food either
+through occupation of a new territory or through increase in
+food producing skill.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>The invention of a better tool, improved food preparation, discovery
+of new foods, better storage, or utilization would bring about
+this increase in food availability.</p>
+<p>Apparently the twin circumstances of the need for more food and
+the existence of a dry land connection between Asia and North
+America enabled a series of migrations of prehistoric men to the
+New World. The migrations did not occur just during one glacial
+stage, nor during the last 15 or 25,000 years as some have claimed,
+but continued interruptedly over a period of many thousands of
+years. Perhaps such migrations started as long ago as 300,000
+years&mdash;whenever land connections permitted and other conditions
+warranted. As a result, we find a number of stocks of Old World
+Man at various levels of cultural development coming into the
+Americas. Naturally a variety of plant and animal species migrated
+in both directions between the Old and New Worlds of their own
+accord, in addition to those which might have been brought along
+by prehistoric man.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_3">3</div>
+<p>A classic example of plant migration to the New World is that
+of California&rsquo;s celebrated redwoods. In China just a few years
+ago the little changed ancestors of these trees, the still-growing
+Metasequoia were discovered. In rocks of the most recent era
+(Chapter Five of earth&rsquo;s history) the step by step migration of the
+changing redwood ancestors can be followed by studying successively
+younger rock layers in Siberia, Alaska, and in Canada
+and northwest United States. These relics and imprints of the
+foliage, fruits, and even of wood texture of these ancient trees
+were covered by sands and muds, and thus preserved in stone as
+fossils. This has made it possible to identify the ancestral redwood
+species and to demonstrate their march to California. It is
+interesting to note how the redwoods changed in the process, evolving
+by degrees to cope with new conditions of climate and soil
+during their slow migrations. At length today two distinct and
+unique Sequoias are to be found living only in California. One,
+the Coast Redwood, has adapted itself to coastal fogs and reproduction
+by sprouting root shoots. The other, restricted to drier areas
+of the west slope of the Sierra, the Sierra Redwood or Big Tree,
+has its needles reduced to small scales to withstand the drier
+climate, and reproduces only by seed.</p>
+<p>Sauer observes that the stone implements of prehistoric man are
+the best preserved relics of his culture and are the most easily
+found. Unfortunately the less durable and less easily recognized
+relics of skin, bone, wood, and vegetable fibers which are equally
+or often even more important clues to the past, have been altered
+beyond recognition or completely destroyed. As a result these
+disappeared or their camouflaged remnants have been overlooked
+and passed unrecognized by even careful students seeking to learn
+the details of this fascinating story of the how&rsquo;s and why&rsquo;s and
+when&rsquo;s of your ancestors and mine in Europe and also of the Indians
+in Asia and in North America in general, and of those of the Lassen
+area in particular.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_4">4</div>
+<h2 id="c4"><span class="small">Chapter II</span>
+<br />EARLY CULTURES IN NORTH AMERICA</h2>
+<p>The fact that skeletons of primitive forms of man have so far
+not been discovered in the Western Hemisphere does not mean that
+ancestral forms preceding modern man did not migrate to the New
+World in remote times. It is that erroneous idea which has caused
+some persons to reason that man arrived here only in the final
+glacial stage. Good evidence has been presented to suggest that
+the sites he would have been most likely to inhabit might be submerged
+at present or may have been especially vulnerable to
+destruction by erosion.</p>
+<p>Certain primitive peoples of the New World (in South America)
+do no boiling of foods and do not have the dog, indicating very
+early immigration from the Old World. Dr. Sauer suggests a date
+during the third glacial stage, the Kansan, about 300,000 years
+ago instead of the Wisconsin Glacial Stage of 15,000 or 25,000
+years ago as some have contended.</p>
+<p>At the present level of archeological and paleontological knowledge
+of prehistoric man in North America, Sauer recognizes five
+basic early cultures. These are listed below in the order of their
+apparent appearances in the New World.</p>
+<p>The most primitive and oldest culture of man recognized to date
+is very difficult to detect, for its evidences were of a fragile nature.
+Few traces of it remain to be seen today. This first culture known
+in North America lacks both stone weapon points and grinding
+stones. These items were also found lacking in the cultures of
+some isolated contemporary peoples of both North and South
+America.</p>
+<p>The second oldest culture in North America was that of the
+Ancient Food Grinders which appears to have been widespread in
+the rather rainy climate of the Mississippi and Pacific regions of
+North America. These people built fireplaces or hearths&mdash;beds
+of collected stones. They used a grinding slab of stone on which
+a handstone was rubbed to crush hard seeds. This indicates a
+greater variety of foods than used in the earlier culture. A number
+of crude pounding tools such as choppers and scrapers were employed
+as were a few rude knives of stone. It is of interest and
+significance that use of the grinder and grinding slab disappeared
+completely from most or all of this area later. The well known
+metate and mano grinding devices of the Southwest were introduced
+much later, along with the growing of corn or maize, from the Central
+<span class="pb" id="Page_5">5</span>
+American region. Coiled basketry appears to be identified with
+this second culture too, such articles being essential as containers
+for collection of seeds, winnowing, et cetera. Studies of the
+evidence in the field show also that these peoples were sedentary
+to the extent of developing refuse mounds or middens. The fact
+that this culture is not found in Europe or in Asia indicates that
+it developed in the Western Hemisphere.</p>
+<p>About 35,000 years ago the third culture appears to have developed.
+It was one in which hunting was of major importance.
+These hunters were not nomads, however, for the building of hearths,
+accumulations of artifacts, and also the general use of seed grinding
+stones, all indicate rather sedentary habits. This culture is
+characterized by the presence of dart or spear throwers, an invention
+of European origin. This indicates more recent migrations
+from the Old World. These darts were stone tipped and propelled
+with a spear thrower or atlatl, making hunting of animal food much
+more effective than in the case of earlier cultures.</p>
+<p>The fourth culture is that known by the names Folsom and Yuma.
+In these people interest in plant foods and fibers was slight, for
+this was primarily a mobile hunting culture. The people were not
+sedentary, but moved around.</p>
+<p>Well after the disappearance of the glaciers of the Ice Age, late
+comers from the Old World brought a fifth culture to the Americas.
+These people used the bow and arrow with its small and finely
+worked stone point. Fish hooks were used and many stone implements
+were well polished. This too is the first culture of the New
+World with which the dog was associated.</p>
+<p>In Eastern North America, and particularly well known in the
+Southwest, are abundant archeological evidences from easily recognized
+prehistoric living sites. These reveal a succession of more
+recent cultures and changes within cultures, as well as movement
+of early peoples. In contrast there are relatively few recognized
+prehistoric sites in California which tell much about early customs
+and material culture of aboriginal man. Some productive areas
+which have been found are notably the following: The Farmington
+Reservoir area of Stanislaus County more than 4,000 years old&mdash;possibly
+much older, Kingsley Cave, the Santa Barbara area, and
+the off-shore islands to the southwest of it. There are also a few
+shell mounds in the Los Angeles&mdash;Ventura area and more numerous
+and extensive ones in the San Francisco Bay vicinity. Of the latter
+shell mounds A. L. Kroeber writes:</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_6">6</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig1">
+<img src="images/p04.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="1172" />
+<p class="pcap">AREAS AND SUBAREAS OF CULTURES
+IN AND ABOUT CALIFORNIA
+<br />after A. L. Kroeber</p>
+</div>
+<dl class="undent pcap"><dt>NORTHWESTERN CALIF.</dt>
+<dt>NORTH PACIFIC COAST AREA</dt>
+<dt>CENTRAL CALIFORNIA</dt>
+<dt>SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA</dt>
+<dt>PLATEAU AREA</dt>
+<dt>PLAINS AREA</dt>
+<dt>CALIFORNIA-GREAT BASIN AREA</dt>
+<dt>SOUTHWEST AREA</dt>
+<dt>LOWER COLORADO</dt></dl>
+<blockquote>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_7">7</div>
+<p>&ldquo;... all the classes of objects (shells, refuse, mortars,
+pestles, obsidian, charmstones, and bone awls) in question
+occur at the bottom, middle, and top of the mounds, and ...
+they occur with substantially the same frequency. In other
+words, the natives of the San Francisco region traded the same
+materials from the same localities one, two, or three thousand
+years ago as when they were discovered at the end of the
+eighteenth century. They ate the same food, in nearly the
+same proportions (only mammalian bones became more abundant
+in higher levels), prepared it in substantially the same manner,
+and sewed skins, rush mats, and coiled baskets similarly to
+their recent descendants. Even their religion was conservative,
+since the identical charms seem to have been regarded
+potent. In a word, the basis of culture remained identical
+during the whole of the shell-mound period.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;When it is remembered that ... the beginning of this
+period (occurred) more than 3,000 years ago, it is clear that
+we are here confronted by a historical fact of extraordinary
+importance. It means that at the time when Troy was besieged
+and Solomon was building the temple, at a period when even
+Greek civilization had not yet taken on the traits that we regard
+as characteristic, when only a few scattering foundations
+of specific modern culture were being laid and our own northern
+ancestors dwelled in unmitigated barbarism, the native
+Californian already lived in all essentials like his descendant
+of today. In Europe and Asia, change succeeded change of the
+profoundest type. On this far shore of the Pacific, civilization,
+such as it was, remained immutable in all fundamentals.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;... The permanence of Californian culture ... is of
+far more than local interest. It is a fact of significance in the
+history of civilization.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Successive intrusions of different peoples and the isolation of
+the resultant developing Indian tribes, century after century, gave
+rise to many diverse languages. Although some were mere dialects,
+there were about 750 different North American Indian languages.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_8">8</div>
+<h2 id="c5"><span class="small">Chapter III</span>
+<br />THE CALIFORNIA INDIANS</h2>
+<p>Dr. A. L. Kroeber&rsquo;s map shows all tribes within the present
+political boundaries of the State of California. The tribes of the
+extreme northwest corner and those of the southern tip of the state
+are not typical of what we generally think of as &ldquo;California
+Indians&rdquo;.</p>
+<p>Although it may not be scientifically sound to do so, it is often
+convenient to refer to the Indian tribes of the California region
+collectively. The term &ldquo;Digger Indians&rdquo; is frequently used for
+this purpose with a somewhat disparaging connotation. The origin
+of this name is traceable to white traders and pioneers who observed
+that local Indians dug extensively for a number of food
+items, hence the name Digger was applied. However, this is a
+poor name as digging was but one of many methods the Indians
+used to secure food. Besides, digging was by no means peculiar
+to Indians of the California area. It is best, therefore, simply to
+use the term California Indians, if one wishes to refer to this group
+of tribes as a whole.</p>
+<p>In connection with the nickname Digger Indian, it is of interest
+to note that the California tribes used the conspicuous pine of the
+foothills, <i>Pinus sabiniana</i>, as a source of edible pine nuts and for
+other purposes too. Because the so called Digger Indians used
+these trees so much, the pioneers named the conifers Digger Pines,
+a name recognized today as the proper common name of that tree.</p>
+<p>California tribes are usually not considered high culturally
+among Indians generally, yet Yurok, Pomo, and Chumash are equal
+to any tribe in North America in wood, bone, steatite, obsidian,
+feather, and skin work, while local tribes of the Lassen area made
+basketry of a variety and quality unsurpassed elsewhere.</p>
+<p>Although there were local differences in food habits, the California
+Indians as a group had a highly diversified diet in contrast
+to the so-called one-food tribes in surrounding areas. Of course
+it is an over-simplification to speak of one-food tribes, for all
+ate quite a variety of foods. Yet, it is true that several cultures
+had been built upon the great abundance and importance of one
+particular food item as compared to all other foods eaten. North
+of California, Indians built their culture largely upon the salmon.
+To the east were tribes which depended upon the bison for most
+of their needs, and southeast of California the Southwest Indians
+built their culture around the all important maize or native corn.
+In any of these regional groups, if the main food item failed, disaster
+struck the tribes. In contrast, the Californians, with
+diversified eating habits, had four major food sources: fish, game,
+roots, and seeds or nuts. Each was important and the failure of
+any one caused hardship, but by no means the serious disaster
+which befell the more specialized groups of Indians if their main
+food supply item failed. If any one item of the California Indian
+diet were to be selected as the most important and universal food,
+one of the nuts, the acorn would have to be named.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_9">9</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig2">
+<img src="images/p05.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="1033" />
+<p class="pcap">INDIAN TRIBAL DISTRIBUTION IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
+<br />after A. L. Kroeber</p>
+</div>
+<dl class="undent pcap"><dt>TOLOWA</dt>
+<dt>YUROK</dt>
+<dt>KAROK</dt>
+<dd>UPPER</dd>
+<dd>LOWER</dd>
+<dt>SHASTAN</dt>
+<dd>SHASTA</dd>
+<dd>OKWANUCHU</dd>
+<dd>ACHOMAWI</dd>
+<dd>ATSUGEWI</dd>
+<dd>KORO MINU</dd>
+<dd>NEW RIVER</dd>
+<dt>MODOC</dt>
+<dt>NORTHERN PAIUTE</dt>
+<dt><span class="ss">LASSEN VOL. NAT. PARK</span></dt>
+<dt>PYOT</dt>
+<dt>WHILIOUT</dt>
+<dt>ATHABASCAN</dt>
+<dd>CHILULA</dd>
+<dd>HUPA</dd>
+<dd>NONGATL</dd>
+<dd>SINKYONE</dd>
+<dd>LASSIK</dd>
+<dd>WAILAKI</dd>
+<dd>KATO</dd>
+<dt>YUKI</dt>
+<dd>YUKI</dd>
+<dd>HUCHNOM</dd>
+<dd>COAST YUKI</dd>
+<dt>POMO</dt>
+<dd>N.</dd>
+<dd>C.</dd>
+<dd>S.W.</dd>
+<dd>E.</dd>
+<dd>S.E.</dd>
+<dt>WAPPO</dt>
+<dt>CHIMA RIKO</dt>
+<dt>WINTUN</dt>
+<dd>NORTHERN</dd>
+<dd>CENTRAL</dd>
+<dd>SOUTHWESTERN</dd>
+<dd>SOUTHEASTERN</dd>
+<dt>COSTANOAN</dt>
+<dd>SAN FRANCISCAN</dd>
+<dd>SANTA CLARA</dd>
+<dd>SANTA CRUZ</dd>
+<dt>YANA</dt>
+<dd>N.</dd>
+<dd>CENTRAL</dd>
+<dd>SOUTHERN</dd>
+<dd>YAHI</dd>
+<dt>MAIDU</dt>
+<dd>NORTHEASTERN</dd>
+<dd>NORTHWESTERN</dd>
+<dd>SOUTHERN</dd>
+<dt>WASHO</dt>
+<dt>MIWOK</dt>
+<dd>COAST MIWOK</dd>
+<dd>PLAINS</dd>
+<dd>NORTHERN</dd>
+<dd>CENTRAL</dd>
+<dd>SOUTHERN</dd>
+<dt>YOKUT</dt>
+<dd>NORTH VALLEY</dd></dl>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_10">10</div>
+<p>California Indians are often regarded to have been lazy and
+shiftless. To be sure there were such individuals, but we have
+that type of person in our midst too, and I dare say in equal or
+greater percentage. As a matter of fact, Indians generally could
+not afford to be lazy&mdash;there was no beneficent government to
+coddle them. It was largely a case of sink or swim. They had to
+provide their own shelter, food, and clothing as well as what amusement
+and extras&mdash;hardly to be called luxuries&mdash;they wished to
+enjoy. These things were all wrought from the wilderness with
+their own bare hands, using only wood, stone, and fire as tools.
+These native Americans lived in a stone-age culture. Metals, the
+wheel, domesticated herd animals, and agriculture were unknown
+to California Indians. Although there was some seasonal migration,
+there were no truly nomadic or wandering tribes in California.</p>
+<p>In California there were 103 separate tribes each speaking its
+own language. To be sure, some were mere dialects of others, but
+there were 21 tongues completely distinct from each other and
+mutually unintelligible. These belonged to several unrelated
+language families, as shown on the second map.</p>
+<p>As suggested above, Kroeber has shown that we are technically
+incorrect in referring to the California Indians as a single group
+of tribes. Within the political boundaries of the State of California
+there were actually three separate cultures with a number of subcultures,
+which were as follows: The small area in the northwest
+corner of the state, the Klamath River drainage, was occupied by
+the Northwest California Sub-culture, a part of the North Pacific
+Coast Culture which extended into British Columbia. The California-Great
+Basin Culture had three representatives in the state:
+the smallest or Lutuami Sub-culture, represented by the Modoc
+tribe only, extended down from the north across the east central
+portion of the northern boundary of California. The next larger was
+the Great Basin Sub-culture just east of the Cascade-Sierra backbone.
+The third and largest sub-culture of the California-Great
+Basin Culture was that of the Central California tribes (the Diggers
+of the pioneer), extending westward from the Cascade-Sierra crest
+to the Pacific Ocean across the bulk of the state. The fifth sub-culture
+is known as the Southern California comprising the area
+south of the Tehachapi Mountains from the coast east across the
+Colorado River, being a part of the Southwest Culture.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_11">11</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig3">
+<img src="images/p06.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="1033" />
+<p class="pcap"><span class="u">LINGUISTIC FAMILIES</span>
+<br />INDIAN LANGUAGE GROUPS OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
+and the families to which they belong, after A. L. Kroeber</p>
+</div>
+<dl class="undent pcap"><dt>Lutuamian</dt>
+<dd>LUTUAMI</dd>
+<dt>Hokan</dt>
+<dd>KAROK</dd>
+<dd>SHASTAN</dd>
+<dd>CHIMARIKO</dd>
+<dd>POMO</dd>
+<dd>WASHO</dd>
+<dd>YANA</dd>
+<dt>Shoshonian</dt>
+<dd>PAIUTE</dd>
+<dt>Penutian</dt>
+<dd>WINTUN</dd>
+<dd>MAIDU</dd>
+<dd>MIWOK</dd>
+<dd>YOKUT</dd>
+<dd>COSTANOAN</dd>
+<dt>Algonkian</dt>
+<dd>YUROK</dd>
+<dt>Athabascan</dt>
+<dd>ATHABASCAN</dd>
+<dt>Yukian</dt>
+<dd>YUKI</dd></dl>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_12">12</div>
+<p>Nevertheless, some generalities hold, and at the risk of the
+inaccuracy which is typical of generalizations, we might set forth
+the following customs as being characteristic of California Indians:</p>
+<p>Animal flesh bulked a smaller volume of food eaten than did
+vegetable materials&mdash;or, in the case of coastal peoples, than did
+seafoods. Dog and reptile flesh were considered poisonous or undesirable,
+but insects and worms were generally eaten. Acorns
+were the most important single food. All tribes utilized seeds of
+such plants as buckeye, grass, sedge, and sunflower family plants.
+All items, but the first, were collected with a basketry seed beater
+in a conical burden basket, parched, winnowed, ground, and eaten
+either dry, as unleavened bread, or as boiled mush.</p>
+<p>Although the fish hook and line were known throughout the area,
+most fishing was done by means of nets, weirs, use of poison, and
+harpoons thrust, but not thrown.</p>
+<p>Hunting with bow and arrow was most important. Disguise and
+dogs were used in the north, but surrounding the game was the
+common means of hunting in the south.</p>
+<p>The northern bow was short, broad, and sinew backed while
+southern Californians used long narrow bows without reinforcement.</p>
+<p>Arrows were usually two-piece and tipped with obsidian points.
+Three different arrow releases were used among California Indians.
+Northern arrows were straightened by use of a hole through a piece
+of wood or similar material, and were polished by use of horsetail
+stalks while a grooved squarish soapstone (steatite) did both jobs
+in the south.</p>
+<p>Basketry was highly developed, being California&rsquo;s best art form.
+The northern quarter of the area did twined basketry; coiled basketry
+prevailed elsewhere.</p>
+<p>Cloth was unknown, but woven rabbit skin strip blankets were
+universal, especially for bedding. Rush mats were twined and
+sewn.</p>
+<p>Pottery was unknown except for a very crude undecorated form
+in the San Joaquin Valley, an intrusion from the Southern California
+Sub-culture where pottery became important.</p>
+<p>Music of California was characterized by singing, rattles,
+whistles, split slap sticks, flute, and musical bow. The last two
+instruments were the only ones which were able to make real melodies,
+<span class="pb" id="Page_13">13</span>
+but amazingly, neither one was used for dances or ceremonies.
+California Indians were virtually without any drums&mdash;the exception
+being a single headed flat foot drum used in ceremonial sweathouse
+chambers of the tribes in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys.</p>
+<p>Dress of California women was a front and a back apron of skin&mdash;especially
+buckskin&mdash;or of plant fiber. Men wore nothing or a
+folded skin about the hips or between the legs. In bad weather both
+sexes used cape-like or wrap-around (over one arm and under the
+other) skin robes. In localized areas the brimless dome-shaped
+basketry cap was worn by women. Hair of both sexes was long (but
+shorn in mourning) and frequently put up in nets by men. Men removed
+their beards by pulling with their fingers.</p>
+<p>In mountain areas social and religious cults were lacking. In
+the extreme northwest corner wealth dances were held; in central
+California the secret society and Kuksu dances, in the south the
+Jimsonweed initiation system, and in the Colorado River area the
+dreamsong ceremony flourished.</p>
+<p>Houses varied from open enclosures and brush or bark shelters
+to frame structures more or less completely dug into the ground and
+covered with bark, brush, and dirt, usually with a roof entrance and
+or one to the south; this was the earth lodge. In the extreme northwest
+housing was not the earth lodge, but a structure built on top
+of the ground; hand-split planks were used in its construction.</p>
+<p>Sweat houses were of the earth lodge type, often of daily service
+and in northern areas, lived in too. Sweat houses of California were
+not heated by steam, but directly with fire.</p>
+<p>Boats generally were of rushes tied into balsa rafts or into boat
+shapes. In addition one-piece dugout canoes from tree logs were
+typical of the northern portion of California, becoming progressively
+more refined in workmanship and in design to the northwest. A
+unique lashed split board canoe was made by channel island tribes
+in the Santa Barbara vicinity.</p>
+<p>The tribe as a political unit, so common elsewhere in America,
+did not exist in California. What we call a tribe was actually a
+number of groups of Indians, each of whom had a chief, spoke the
+same language dialect, had the same customs, intermarried regularly,
+and were usually mutually friendly. There was no tribal
+chief as such.</p>
+<p>In the northwest portion of California wealth was so important
+that real chieftain leadership was lacking. In central and southern
+California the chief was a powerful local leader on a hereditary
+basis. Between the two extremes was a zone where tribes struck a
+compromise; the hereditary local chief had moderate authority and
+<span class="pb" id="Page_14">14</span>
+usually was well to do, but not necessarily so. Rich men in smaller
+political divisions were influential headmen under the local chief.</p>
+<p>Warfare was only for revenge and not for plunder or for a desire
+for distinction. Except for the Northwest Sub-culture, scalps were
+generally taken and included the victim&rsquo;s skin down to his eyes
+or nose, and including the ears. Not infrequently the whole head
+was taken by a victorious warrior. The weapon was the bow and
+arrow, with rocks employed in close combat. Such war implements
+as shields, clubs, spears (throwing), and tomahawks were not used.</p>
+<p>Guessing games, usually played by men, were universal, with
+variations, and heavy gambling was the rule. Shinny in several
+different forms was widely played.</p>
+<p>Shamans were employed for curing diseases which were believed
+due to the presence in the body of some foreign hostile object. This
+was removed by sucking accompanied by singing, dancing, and
+tobacco smoking.</p>
+<p>The girls&rsquo; adulthood or puberty ceremony and dance was important
+to all California tribes.</p>
+<p>Population figures even on the most scholarly basis, Kroeber
+states, are at best reasonable guesses. As nearly as can be determined
+there were originally about one million Indians in North
+America, three million in Central America, and three million in
+South America. California probably had about 133,000 Indians or
+nearly one per square mile. This is a density three or four times
+greater than for the whole of North America.</p>
+<p>Today the North American Indian population (including about
+30% half-breeds) is less than 10% of what it was. Over 90% of our
+Indians have been destroyed by wholesale killing at the hands
+of the white man, by new diseases, unfavorable changes in diet,
+clothing, and dwellings plus such Caucasian cultural factors as
+settlement, concentration, and the like. The decline in Indian
+population varied directly with the degree of civilized contact the
+several tribes experienced. It is interesting to note that virtually
+all of the Indians exposed to the Spanish missions commencing
+1769 are gone except for a few in the extreme south who were only
+partly missionized. Kroeber states:</p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>&ldquo;It must have caused many of the fathers a severe pang to
+realize, as they could not but do daily, that they were saving
+souls only at the inevitable cost of lives. And yet such was
+the overwhelming fact. The brute upshot of missionization,
+in spite of its kindly flavor and humanitarian root, was only
+one thing: death.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_15">15</div>
+<p>Kroeber also points out that some tribes had much less resistance
+and hence suffered greater decline in population in response
+to equal white contact than others did. As in the case of other
+living things, there were favorable circumstances under which the
+Indian flourished&mdash;where life was relatively easy and secure.
+Such conditions produced virile stock and a rich culture both materially
+and spiritually&mdash;a condition found in broad valleys drained
+by the great rivers of California: the Klamath, the Sacramento, and
+the San Joaquin. As is also the case with specific plants and
+animals, Indians in less favorable sites lived submarginally&mdash;a
+difficult existence, poor in material and spiritual culture. Under
+such circumstances it takes just a small amount of additional unfavorable
+influence to make existence impossible. On this basis
+Kroeber explains the extinction or near extinction of poor mountain
+tribes upon contact with the whites while the Indians of the fertile
+valleys, although suffering more intensive Caucasian contact, were
+able to survive in reasonable numbers. This is a specific exception
+to the general observation made above that population decrease
+varied directly with the degree of contact. There are examples in
+California; the local one is the survival of valley Maidu and Wintun
+populations as compared to the surrounding mountain people with
+poorer cultures: the Yahi, Yana, Okwanuchu, Shasta, New River
+Shasta, Chimariko, and the Athabascan tribes of the west with
+survival percentages today of up to only 5% at best.</p>
+<p>There is another factor which caused greater devastation of the
+economically insecure mountain tribes. White settlers were able
+to use to their own advantage some of the labor, services, and even
+food which the valley Indians afforded them. Thus it was not to the
+interest of the whites to wipe out these Indians. On the other hand,
+the mountain tribes with a poorer economy were prone to steal livestock
+to supplement their food supplies as they had no means to
+gain wealth to enable them to buy from the whites. Such depredations
+were a major cause of retaliation by white man in the form of
+bloody punitive attacks on Indians from whom the settlers had
+nothing to gain.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_16">16</div>
+<h2 id="c6"><span class="small">Chapter IV</span>
+<br />INDIAN TRIBES OF THE LASSEN AREA</h2>
+<p>Lassen Peak with an elevation of 10,453 feet above sea level
+is the central high point of a somewhat topographically isolated
+mountain mass of volcanic origin. The slopes descending in all
+directions from Lassen Peak are clothed in coniferous forests,
+dotted with small lakes of glacial origin, and drained by a few fish
+bearing streams flowing radially from the mountain. There are also
+a few hot spring areas and some barren expanses where recent
+eruptions have produced mudflows and lavas. For the most part,
+game abounds in the Lassen highland, but the winters are snowy
+and severe, making it unsuitable for Indians to live there the year
+around.</p>
+<p>As shown on the map, parts of the lands of four distinct tribes
+of Indians lay within what are today the boundaries of Lassen
+Volcanic National Park. Permanent homes and villages of Atsugewi,
+Yana, Yahi and mountain Maidu tribes were at lower elevations in
+the Ponderosa Pine and Digger Pine belts, and situated near
+streams. There food was relatively easily available and winters
+were the least severe within the limits of the respective tribal
+territories.</p>
+<p>Each summer when deer migrated to higher elevations, the
+Indians also moved toward Lassen Peak to hunt and to fish trout,
+spending the whole summer in temporary camps.</p>
+<p>There was some contact between the four tribes during their
+sojourns in the uplands of the park area, but the activities of each
+Indian group were pretty well confined to its own territory. The
+four Lassen tribes did on occasion engage in small battles, but
+this was the exception rather than the rule&mdash;generally speaking
+they lived harmoniously as neighbors, and there was even
+occasional inter-marriage between tribes.</p>
+<p>These tribes all had simple hill or mountain cultures which,
+in spite of some difference of custom, were surprisingly alike. It
+is believed that this is due to the fact that the four tribes all lived
+under very similar conditions of environment&mdash;the same type of
+country in many respects. The similarity of their cultures is all the
+more interesting in that the Atsugewi were of the Hokan Family,
+speaking a Shastan language. Yana and Yahi, also of Hokan stock
+spoke Yana languages. The mountain Maidu were of the Penutian
+Family, speaking a Maidu language.</p>
+<p>According to the best available figures, some of which are only
+reasonable guesses, populations of the local tribes were probably
+about as follows:</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_17">17</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig4">
+<img src="images/p07.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="1000" />
+<p class="pcap">INDIAN TRIBAL AREAS OF THE LASSEN REGION
+<br />after A. L. Kroeber and T. R. Garth&mdash;note the boundaries of
+Lassen Volcanic National Park dashed in above and left of center
+of the map. Lassen Peak is at the junction of the Atsugewi, Yana,
+and Maidu territories.</p>
+</div>
+<dl class="undent pcap"><dt>ACHOMAWI</dt>
+<dt>SHASTAN</dt>
+<dd>OKWANUCHU</dd>
+<dt>NORTHERN WINTUN</dt>
+<dt>CENTRAL WINTUN</dt>
+<dt>S. E. WINTUN</dt>
+<dt>CENTRAL YANA</dt>
+<dt>NORTH (YANA)</dt>
+<dt>SOUTHERN YANA</dt>
+<dt>ATSUGEWI</dt>
+<dd>ATSUGE</dd>
+<dd>APWARUGE</dd>
+<dt>NORTHERN PAIUTE</dt>
+<dt>NORTHEASTERN MAIDU</dt>
+<dt>NORTHWESTERN MAIDU</dt>
+<dt>SOUTHERN MAIDU</dt>
+<dt>WASHO</dt></dl>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_18">18</div>
+<table class="center">
+<tr class="th"><th> </th><th>1770 </th><th>1910 </th><th>1950</th></tr>
+<tr><td class="l">Atsugewi </td><td class="r">1,000 </td><td class="r">250 </td><td class="r">75</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="l">Yana (north, central, s) </td><td class="r">750 </td><td class="r">25 </td><td class="r">10</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="l">Yahi </td><td class="r">275 </td><td class="r">5 </td><td class="r">none</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="l">Maidu (mountain) </td><td class="r">2,000 </td><td class="r">800 </td><td class="r">300</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="r">Totals </td><td class="r">4,025 </td><td class="r">1,080 </td><td class="r">385</td></tr>
+</table>
+<blockquote>
+<p>Garth states that: &ldquo;The Atsugewi are divided into two
+major groups, the Atsuge or pinetree-people, who occupy Hat
+Creek Valley, and the Apwaruge&mdash;from Apwariwa, the name of
+Dixie Valley&mdash;who live to the east in and around Dixie Valley.
+Sometimes the Apwaruge are called Mahoupani, juniper-tree-people,
+a name which reflects the dry and barren nature of
+their territory....</p>
+<p>&ldquo;... certain cultural differences (existed) between
+the eastern and western Atsugewi, who in most aspects of
+nonmaterial culture and in language are one people. In the
+western area there was more abundant rainfall and a fairly
+luxuriant growth of pines, oaks, and other trees. Here the
+Atsuge subsisted largely on acorns and fish; made twined
+basketry, using willow, pine root, <i>Xerophylum</i> grass, and redbud
+materials; and had bark houses and numerous other
+structures of bark. On the contrary, in the eastern area, which
+is comparatively arid and lacking in trees, the Apwaruge depended
+on the acorn less than did the Atsuge and fishing was
+less important, to judge by the scarcity or lack of nets, fish
+hooks, and harpoons; made inferior twined baskets of twisted
+tule with a different twist to the weave; as a rule had their
+houses covered with tule mats rather than with bark; and were
+much poorer than the Atsuge. This cultural distinction between
+the eastern and western areas is also found to the north among
+the Achomawi.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Dixon&rsquo;s studies have revealed that the Maidu had no general
+name for themselves, remarkable as this may seem. The name
+Maidu was first used by Stephen Powers in 1877 in his volume
+&ldquo;TRIBES OF CALIFORNIA&rdquo;, a name he arbitrarily applied to these
+Indians since the word meant &ldquo;Indian&rdquo; or &ldquo;man&rdquo; in their language.
+The adjectives northwest or valley, northeast or mountain, and
+southern or foothill are applied to identify the three different cultures
+corresponding to the three distinct geographic provinces
+<span class="pb" id="Page_19">19</span>
+inhabited by the Maidu Indians as a whole. In a number of respects
+the culture of the mountain or northeast Maidu was more like that
+of their northern neighbors, the Atsugewi, than it was like that of
+the closely related southern and northwestern Maidu peoples.
+Obviously the factor of environment or characteristics of the land
+occupied is of extreme importance in creating such a situation.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_20">20</div>
+<h2 id="c7"><span class="small">Chapter V</span>
+<br />INDIAN&mdash;PIONEER CONFLICT AND THE STORY OF ISHI</h2>
+<p>Conflict&mdash;prolonged, tragic, and violent&mdash;flared during the
+period when Europeans wrested control of North America from the
+native Indian. In viewing the struggle between Indian and white
+man, feelings run high even today.</p>
+<p>What was it when Custer&rsquo;s contingent was wiped out?&mdash;when
+the Modocs inflicted such heavy losses on the American troops?&mdash;when
+the Navajo, Sioux, and others made their devastating raids
+on wagon trains and pioneer settlers? These were just as much a
+part of the war as were the exploits of Rogers&rsquo; Rangers, the indiscriminate
+slaying of Indian men, women, and children in the Yahi
+caves on Mill Creek, and the annihilation of large segments of
+Atsugewi and Yana tribes cornered at points northwest of the
+present Lassen Volcanic National Park area. War is never a pretty
+thing. Was the hit and run killing of white people by Indians any
+less defensible morally than white man&rsquo;s atrocities against the
+Indians, or, for that matter, than commando raids and atomic bombings
+of today? Our viewpoint on such matters in the past has all
+too often been that might makes right, since we have always been
+on the winning side. Until very recently we have followed the
+biased opinion of the colonists and pioneers of these United States:
+whenever we won, it was a glorious and righteous victory, but if
+the Indian emerged victorious, it was regarded as a dastardly
+massacre. It is a viewpoint readily understandable where a person&rsquo;s
+loved ones are involved&mdash;but not justifiable.</p>
+<p>Our veterans of recent wars will vouch for the fact that white
+man&rsquo;s wars can be primitive and violent when life and limb are at
+stake. We are hardly in a position to criticize the &ldquo;cruel and
+sneaking&rdquo; fighting methods of the Indians. Was it not use of Indian
+fighting methods which was so valuable to us in defeating the
+British in the colonial war for independence?</p>
+<p>Indians fought in the only way they knew&mdash;and a disheartening
+losing fight it was for them with bows and arrows against rifles.
+For each gain in weapons and technical know-how the Indians
+made, the whites made many. True, it cost Americans much in the
+way of lives, anguish, and money, but how small were these losses
+in comparison to those of the Indians. American Indians, the undisputed
+owners of this continent for thousands of years, were not
+only nearly exterminated, but in the end we took virtually all of
+their land by force and with it took away the means of self support
+<span class="pb" id="Page_21">21</span>
+as well without &ldquo;due process of law&rdquo;. We denied the Indian the
+right of &ldquo;life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness&rdquo;&mdash;the very
+things for which we as a nation stand. In all fairness, however, it
+should be stated that in recent years modest monetary retribution
+has been made by the U.S. Government to some of the surviving
+descendants.</p>
+<p>S. F. Cook has pointed out that Spanish contact with California
+Indians was a rather passive matter. Spanish penetrated deeply,
+but did not settle on Indian lands of appreciable size. The Spanish
+were present in small numbers, a population numbering perhaps
+4,000 by 1848. To be sure there was occasional bloodshed, but
+it was the exception in Spanish California rather than the rule, for
+the Spanish regarded Indians as an asset, a human resource which
+provided labor and even some food and materials. The Indians
+were a respected element in the social and economic structure of
+Hispanic California, having civic and legal rights. Even under
+the Spanish, was there a great reduction of the Indian population
+through limited warfare and displacement, but much more importantly
+through disease. Nevertheless, by 1845 a more or less satisfactory
+equilibrium seems to have evolved between the Spanish and the
+California Indians.</p>
+<p>In contrast the hordes of white immigrants who followed considered
+the Indians entirely useless and there was no place for the
+latter in the pioneers&rsquo; economy of material wealth. All good lands
+were taken from the Indians arbitrarily and as quickly as possible.
+However, it must be stated that there were exceptions to both the
+Spanish and Gringo relations with the California Indians, but, in
+general, the foregoing statements are accurate.</p>
+<p>How the conflict of pioneer versus Indian affected the Atsugewi
+is summarized for us by Garth as follows:</p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>&ldquo;The Atsugewi, because of their somewhat secluded mountain
+habitat, were spared contact with white civilization until
+the middle of the nineteenth century. Although there were
+vague reports of contact with Spanish explorers or Mexican
+bandits, these could not be verified. Peter Skene Ogden may
+have been the first white man to visit the area (1827-1828).
+Besides the trappers, Fremont, Greenwood, and other explorers
+probably skirted Atsugewi country. Peter Lassen passed
+through Achomawi-Atsugewi country in opening the Pit River
+Route of 1848. He was soon followed by a stream of white
+migration from the east which was devastating to the Indians
+and their culture. Prospectors entered the Lassen region in
+<span class="pb" id="Page_22">22</span>
+1851, and not long afterward came white settlers. By about
+1859 the Indians were felt to be a menace to the whites in the
+area and were rounded up by militia and taken to the Round
+Valley Indian Reservation. Unsatisfactory conditions at the
+Reservation caused most of them to leave in 1863 and return
+to their old haunts along Hat Creek and Dixie Valley.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Joaquin Miller reports an uprising in 1867 of the Pit River
+and Modoc Indians, who had made up old differences and were
+now fighting together. A number of whites were massacred.
+Miller speaks of an Indian camp being made on Hat Creek in
+the war that followed. It is not thus improbable that the
+Atsuge participated in that war. After a year or so of fighting
+the Indians suffered a final crushing defeat and surrendered.
+This last engagement may be the one at Six Mile Hill, spoken
+of by informants, in which a large number of their people were
+cornered in a cave and massacred by soldiers. After this,
+many of the Indians were again removed to Round Valley.
+Those remaining and some who subsequently returned from the
+Reservation maintained friendly relations with the whites.
+Today most Atsugewi live on allotments in their old territory,
+the younger Indians often working for their white neighbors or
+for the lumber mills. The census of 1910 gives a population
+of 240 for &lsquo;Hat Creek Indians&rsquo;. This figure may also have
+included the Dixie Valley Atsugewi, since they are not mentioned
+in the census. The present population is probably half
+that or less.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>The Maidu also were decimated upon contact with white man.
+However, with only rare exception, Maidu accepted rather passively
+invasion of their territory with the attendant driving away of game
+and destruction of fish in the streams by mining operations in gold
+rush days. However, since the remnants of the Maidu were in the
+way of white mans&rsquo; developments, treaties were made in 1851 by
+which these Indians gave up all claims to their ancestral lands and
+were taken to short lived reservations in Amador, Nevada and
+Butte Counties, also later to the Round Valley Reservations in the
+Coast Range. A great many Maidu soon returned to their homes.
+In the late 50&rsquo;s and 60&rsquo;s a desultory war was waged on the Maidu
+by California State troops which further reduced the number of surviving
+Indians of this tribe.</p>
+<p>The management of the University of California&rsquo;s excellent
+informative &ldquo;UNIVERSITY EXPLORER&rdquo; radio program series has
+given permission to quote the following from its broadcasts. This
+<span class="pb" id="Page_23">23</span>
+material concerns the conflict of the closely related Yana and Yahi
+tribes with the whites and the fabulous story of Ishi. The script
+has been abridged and considerably rearranged:</p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>&ldquo;... The Yana way of life was a strange one to the white
+observer, but the tribes prospered under it until white emigration
+from the East threw them into conflict with a new and
+unfriendly people. The Indians, of course, resented the white
+incursion and revolted against it. That happened in all sections
+of the country where whites displaced Indians, but it
+would be hard to imagine a more inept way of handling the
+situation than that used by the white men in the Sacramento
+Valley. Some of the large land owners protected the Indians
+of their holdings; among them were General John Bidwell,
+one of the founders of Chico, (Peter Lassen on his Rancho
+Bosquejo between Mill and Deer Creeks), and John Sutter,
+on whose property the Gold Rush started. But they were exceptions.
+Most of the settlers apparently believed the only way
+to handle the natives was to compete with them in cruelty.
+One celebrated Indian-killer took great pride in a blanket he
+had made from Indian scalps. The whites had learned scalping
+from the Eastern Indians, but they themselves popularized
+it in California....</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The Indians often plundered settlers&rsquo; cabins and stole
+livestock. This was natural, since they regarded the whites
+as invaders. Unfortunately, the settlers&rsquo; retaliation frequently
+consisted of rounding up a gang of Indians and slaughtering
+them. And it didn&rsquo;t make too much difference whether they
+were the guilty Indians. Professor Waterman wrote that the
+Yahi expressed their resentment of the white men more
+violently than did the other Yana groups, but since the Yahi
+moved around more and displayed greater skill in hiding out,
+quite innocent groups of Indians often took the blame for the
+acts of the Yahi. Professor Waterman cited the case of one
+white posse which took to the trail following a series of
+Indian raids. The posse came upon an encampment of Indians
+and shot about forty of them. But the Indians had been camped
+in the same place for two nights, and the whites later found
+a couple of almost-empty whiskey barrels there. It doesn&rsquo;t
+stand to reason, Professor Waterman pointed out, that Indians
+skilled in warfare would be so careless after an attack on
+their enemies.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;As the animosity between white men and red men grew,
+the atrocities on both sides became revolting. White women
+<span class="pb" id="Page_24">24</span>
+and children were tortured and killed by the Yana. But the
+anthropologists who have studied this unpleasant phase of
+California history believe the whites invited such savage
+assaults by their own brutal mistreatment of the Indians.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;... The Yana gradually took to the woods as it became
+obvious that they were being outnumbered and decimated by
+the settlers in one massacre after another. By the late 1860&rsquo;s
+the Indians had been reduced in numbers and intimidated to
+the point where they no longer could be considered a serious
+menace to the people who had taken over their hunting
+grounds. By then the Indians&rsquo; crimes were more on the level
+of petty theft than major violence. The three Yana tribes had
+become almost extinct as social organizations, but a fair
+number of Yana-speaking individuals survived long after the
+turn of the century.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;With the Yahi tribe, however, it was a different story. For
+a long time the Yahi&mdash;then called the Mill Creeks, because
+area around that little stream was their principal hunting
+ground&mdash;for a long time, the Yahi were believed to have been
+wiped out in a final massacre in 1865.... In 1871, a group
+of cattle-herders in Tehama County found a spot where
+Indians apparently had wounded a steer. The whites used
+dogs to follow the steer&rsquo;s bloody trail, and cornered some
+thirty Indians in a hillside cave. They promptly slaughtered
+the Indians, including several children. The settlers&rsquo; peculiar
+idea of mercy was pointed out by Professor Waterman&rsquo;s informant,
+who noted that one of the cattle-herders could not
+bear to kill the children with his .56 caliber rifle&mdash;&lsquo;it tore
+them up so bad&rsquo; he said. So he did it instead with a .38 caliber
+revolver.... They call the rock shelter Kingsley Cave
+after Norman Kingsley, the settler who ... supposedly ...
+shot the Indian children. The Kingsley Cave site was apparently
+used for a long time. Grinding tools of two different
+cultural periods were found ... (by University of California
+Archeological Survey staff excavations currently investigating
+the site).</p>
+<p>(The Yahi were thought to have been completely wiped out
+by this last unjustified atrocity, but in 1908) &ldquo;... surveyors
+for a power company in the hilly country around Deer Creek
+reported they had caught a glimpse of a naked Indian standing
+poised near the stream with a double-pronged primitive fishing
+spear. Next day, other members of the party were startled
+when an arrow came whistling through the underbrush at them&mdash;a
+<span class="pb" id="Page_25">25</span>
+stone-tipped arrow like those used by the supposedly
+extinct Indians. The surveyors kept on pushing ahead, until
+they came upon a cleverly concealed camp in the tangled
+woods. There they found a middle-aged woman and two aged
+and feeble Indians, a man and a woman. The old woman,
+hiding under a pile of rabbit skins, apparently wanted water,
+and the surveyors gave her some after the old man and the
+other woman had hidden in the underbrush. The surveyors
+also carried off all the blankets, bows and arrows and other
+articles in sight; but when they returned next day to make
+some sort of restitution, the Indians had disappeared. They
+were never seen again, even though the University later sent
+anthropologists in search of them....</p>
+<p>&ldquo;... with the dawn of a clear August day in 1911....
+The butchering crew of a slaughterhouse near Oroville were
+awakened ... by a furious barking of the dogs at the corral.
+They rushed into the corral to find a man crouching in the
+mud, surrounded by the slaughterhouse shepherd dogs. The
+butchers called off the dogs to get a closer look at their guest&mdash;and
+a most unusual guest he was.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The man&rsquo;s only clothing was a piece of torn, dirty canvas
+across his shoulders. His skin was sunburned to a copper
+brown, his hair was clipped close to the skull, and he obviously
+was suffering from severe malnutrition. His body
+was emaciated and his cheeks clung to the bones to accentuate
+his furiously glaring eyes.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;But the strangest thing about this man was his speech.
+It was like nothing the butchers had ever heard.... The
+sheriff tried English and Spanish, then several Indian dialects.
+But he was unable to draw any intelligible response from his
+prisoner. For lack of a better place to put him, the sheriff
+locked him in the jail cell reserved for mental cases, even
+though the man from the slaughterhouse appeared to be more
+lost than insane.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The &lsquo;Wild Man of Oroville&rsquo; made good newspaper copy,
+and clippings about his mysterious discovery caused much
+excitement in the department of anthropology at the University
+of California. It was a good thing that the news reached the
+University when it did. The frightened wild man was cowering
+in his cell, refusing to accept food from his captors whom he
+obviously distrusted, while the sheriff vainly tried to identify
+him.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The late Professor T. T. Waterman was especially excited.
+<span class="pb" id="Page_26">26</span>
+So excited, in fact, that he stuffed a few clothes in
+his suitcase, quickly picked out a list of words from the files
+on California Indian languages, and caught the first train to
+Oroville for an interview with the prisoner.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The reason for Professor Waterman&rsquo;s excitement was that
+he believed the Oroville prisoner was a Yahi Indian. If this
+guess was correct, Waterman would have a major anthropological
+find. For anthropologists are concerned with origins,
+development and variegated cultures of mankind; and if the
+frightened prisoner in Oroville turned out to be a Yahi, Professor
+Waterman and his colleagues would have a living
+encyclopedia of the language, customs, and habits of a people
+who were believed to be extinct ... he might be one of the
+little band reported at Deer Creek (in 1908), perhaps the man
+with the fishing spear.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The task of determining whether the prisoner was Yahi was
+complicated by the fact that no one knew the Yahi language.
+This doesn&rsquo;t sound like an insuperable stumbling block, until
+you remember that the California Indian languages were
+numerous and distinct; there were over one hundred dialects,
+many of them mutually unintelligible. These dialects were
+classified into eighteen major language groups, which in turn
+made up six entirely different language families. These six
+language families apparently are completely unrelated&mdash;a
+strange circumstance, when you consider that almost all of
+the languages of Europe can be traced to common origins.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;However, Professor Waterman was fortunate in one respect.
+A fairly extensive word-list had been collected from
+the dialect of the Nozi Indians who had once lived just to the
+north of the Yahi and were their nearest relatives. Both the
+Yahi and the Nozi belonged to the Yana language stock, which
+stemmed from the widespread Hokan family. So Professor
+Waterman relied on Nozi words to make the identification.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;At first, the prisoner in Oroville seemed as frightened
+of Professor Waterman as he had been of all the other white
+men. Patiently, the anthropologist proceeded through his list
+of Nozi words, but the captive Indian apparently recognized
+none of them. At last, though, the professor pointed to the
+wooden frame of the Indian&rsquo;s cot, and pronounced the word
+&lsquo;si&rsquo;wi&rsquo;ni,&rsquo; which according to his list meant &lsquo;yellow pine&rsquo;.
+Immediately, the Indian relaxed. His harried, unhappy look
+turned to beaming good cheer, and he acted as if he had found
+a long-lost friend. Pointing to his cot, he repeated Professor
+<span class="pb" id="Page_27">27</span>
+Waterman&rsquo;s word &lsquo;si&rsquo;wi&rsquo;ni&rsquo; several times, as if agreeing
+that, yes, his cot was yellow pine. His own language differed
+from that of the Nozi, but some of the vocabulary was the
+same. Professor Waterman had struck upon one of the right
+words; later, he pronounced more familiar words, and it was
+established that the Indian was a Yahi. He also managed to
+explain that he called himself &lsquo;Ishi&rsquo;, which meant simply,
+&lsquo;I am a man&rsquo;.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Professor Waterman was naturally elated with his new-found
+acquaintance. The Butte County sheriff was equally
+elated to be rid of his difficult charge, so Ishi was taken to
+the Museum, then located in San Francisco, for further study
+and interrogation.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Thus it happened that this human relic of the Stone Age
+came to live at a modern university. The Regents of the
+University gave Ishi some official status by appointing him an
+assistant janitor at $25 a month. But his value to the University
+did not come from dexterity with a mop and broom;
+he was valued because he could tell the anthropologists about
+his people, preserving knowledge which otherwise would have
+died with his fellow-tribesmen.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ishi adapted himself well to this new life, and he was a
+friendly and popular fixture at the museum for five years. He
+picked up the white man&rsquo;s ways by watching the people around
+him; at his first civilized dinner, he imitated his hosts&rsquo;
+motions and managed a knife and fork far more skilfully than
+most of us can handle chopsticks in a Chinese restaurant.
+He was delighted and awe-stricken by many of the developments
+of civilization; but the things that impressed him most
+were not what the anthropologists had expected. Electric
+lights, airplanes, and automobiles made little impression;
+they were completely beyond his range of experience, and he
+dismissed them as &lsquo;white man&rsquo;s magic&rsquo;, worthy of little attention.
+The tall buildings in downtown San Francisco did not
+startle him; as he explained, his own country had cliffs and
+crags just as high. But what really amazed him about the city
+were the enormous crowds of people on the streets. He had
+seen people before, of course, but never more than twenty or
+thirty in one place.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;In general, the things that Ishi considered most remarkable
+were things which approached something in his own
+experience. He knew how hard it was to start a fire by friction,
+so pocket matches were indeed a wonder. Water faucets
+<span class="pb" id="Page_28">28</span>
+which could be turned on and off were likewise marvelous;
+why, the white man could make a spring, right there in the
+house! One of the first modern devices to catch Ishi&rsquo;s babbled
+attention was an ordinary window roller shade. He tried to
+push it aside, but it flipped back; he lifted it, but it fell down.
+Finally someone showed him how to give it a little tug and
+let it roll itself up, and Ishi was amazed. A half-hour later,
+he was still trying to figure out what had happened to the
+shade.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ishi and his hosts learned to communicate with each other
+fairly adequately; he never became accustomed to formal
+grammar, but he picked up a vocabulary large enough to express
+his wishes and his comments about the things around
+him. Actually, the anthropologists admitted, Ishi learned to
+speak English far better than any of them were able to learn
+Yahi. They suspected that some of his vocabulary was
+acquired from the school children who used to visit him, for
+it included a fair sampling of most unacademic slang.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;There were some things Ishi didn&rsquo;t like to talk about&mdash;the
+death of his relatives and the last horrible years around
+Deer Creek before he wandered to the Oroville slaughterhouse&mdash;were
+subjects he found too painful. Besides, there was
+a tribal taboo against mentioning the names of the dead. His
+close-cropped head, incidentally, was the result of burning
+off his hair in mourning for his mother and sister, in accordance
+with tribal custom.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;But the knowledge which Ishi passed on was rich and
+varied.... Among the contributions for which Ishi is remembered
+are some of the finest arrowheads and spear tips in
+existence; he made these for the University Museum both of
+modern bottle glass and from the natural materials.... In
+fact, Ishi was the source of almost all that is known of Yahi
+life. He gladly described the customs of his people, and he
+enjoyed chipping out Stone Age weapons and showing how
+they were used. With primitive drawings, he tried to tell the
+story of the massacre which wiped out most of his tribe....</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ishi&rsquo;s own life ended in March 1916, when he died of
+tuberculosis. He was then believed to be in his 50&rsquo;s. Those
+who knew him at the University considered his death a great
+loss&mdash;not only because of what he had contributed to
+anthropology, but because he had a natural friendliness and
+dignity which made him a beloved personality. Professor
+A. L. Kroeber once told me: &lsquo;The manner in which he acquitted
+<span class="pb" id="Page_29">29</span>
+himself, both from the scientific and social points of view,
+was so admirable that everyone who chanced to meet him
+counted it a privilege to be his friend&rsquo;. And Ishi had the
+comforting knowledge that his departure from this earth would
+not be a completely alien one. Because he had passed on
+the elements of his culture, it was possible to bury him with
+all the ceremony of his own people. His bows and arrows
+were laid beside him, and some bowls of food were placed in
+the grave so he would not grow hungry on his long journey
+to the Happy Hunting Ground....</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ishi was not only the last survivor of the Yahi ... but
+he was also believed to (have been) the last representative
+of the Stone Age in the United States.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>While not apropos to the subject of this chapter, &ldquo;Pioneer Conflict...&rdquo;
+we digress with some quotations from Pope&rsquo;s &ldquo;Medical
+History of Ishi&rdquo; to give the reader a better understanding of this
+last of the Mill Creek Indians, his character, and his beliefs.</p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>&ldquo;... Ishi himself later made the statement that he was
+not sick but had no food. White men had taken his bow and
+arrows; game was scarce, and he had no means of procuring
+it. He had strayed from his usual trail, between Deer Creek
+and ... Lassen (Peak). The railroad on one side and a
+large river on the other kept him from making his way to the
+refuge of the hills. His fear of trains and automobiles seems
+to have been considerable in those days.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Upon being captured, Ishi, according to his own account,
+was handcuffed, confronted by guns and pistols, and intimidated
+to such an extent that he vomited with fear....</p>
+<p>&ldquo;About this time (fall, 1912) I became instructor in surgery
+in the University Medical School, and thus came in contact
+with the Indian.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;From the first weeks of our intimacy a strong friendship
+grew up between us, and I was from that time on his physician,
+his confidant, and his companion in archery....</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The Museum (of Anthropology) is near the Hospital, and
+since Ishi had been made a more or less privileged character
+in the hospital wards, he often came into the surgical department.
+Here he quietly helped the nurses clean instruments,
+or amused the internes and nurses by singing his Indian
+songs, or carried on primitive conversation by means of a very
+complex mixture of gesture, Yana dialect, and the few scraps
+of English he had acquired in his contact with us.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;His affability and pleasant disposition made him a universal
+<span class="pb" id="Page_30">30</span>
+favorite. He visited the sick in the wards with a gentle
+and sympathetic look which spoke more clearly than words.
+He came to the women&rsquo;s wards quite regularly, and with his
+hands folded before him, he would go from bed to bed like a
+visiting physician, looking at each patient with quiet concern
+or with a fleeting smile that was very kindly received and
+understood.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<h3>&ldquo;ISHI&rsquo;S MEDICAL BELIEFS&rdquo;</h3>
+<blockquote>
+<p>&ldquo;Women&mdash;Ishi had many of our own obsolete superstitions
+regarding women. One criticism he made of white man&rsquo;s civilization
+was the unbridled liberty we give menstruating
+women. The &lsquo;Sako mahale&rsquo;, as he designated them, were a
+cause of much ill luck and sickness. They should be in
+seclusion during this period. In fact, he often commented on
+the number of sick men that came to the hospital. I asked
+him what he thought made so many men sick. He said it was
+&lsquo;Sako mahale, too much wowi (houses), too much automobile,&rsquo;
+and last but most important of all, the &lsquo;Coyote doctor&rsquo;, or
+evil spirit.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Dogs&mdash;Playing with dogs, and letting them lick one&rsquo;s
+hand, Ishi said was very bad. He assured me that to let babies
+play with dogs this way led to paralysis. It is interesting to
+note that Dr. R. H. Gibson of Fort Gibson, Alaska, has reported
+the coincidence of poliomyelitis among the Tanana
+Indians and the occurrence of distempers in dogs.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Rattlesnakes&mdash;Ishi&rsquo;s treatment for rattlesnake bite was
+to bind a toad or frog on the affected area. This is interesting
+in the light of the experiments of Madame Phisalix of the
+Pasteur Institute, who demonstrated the antidotal properties
+of salamandrin, an extract obtained from salamander skin,
+and the natural immunity that the salamander has to viper
+venom. Macht and Abel have obtained a similar powerful
+alkaloid from the toad <i>Bufo nigra</i>, called bufagin, which has
+some of the properties of strychnin and adrenalin. It has been
+used as an arrow poison by South American aborigines. Experiments
+which I conducted with salamandrin as an antidote
+to crotalin, show that it has a pronounced protective and
+curative value in the immunization of guinea pigs and in their
+cure after being bitten by the rattlesnake. It is, however, too
+dangerous and potent a poison itself to be of any practical
+value.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;When out camping we killed and cooked a rattlesnake or
+<span class="pb" id="Page_31">31</span>
+&lsquo;kemna&rsquo;. Ishi refused not only to taste it, but also to eat
+from the dishes in which it had been cooked. We ate it, and
+found that it tasted like rabbit or fish. Ishi expected us to
+die. That we did not do so he could only explain on the
+grounds that I was a medicine man and used magic protection.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Moon&mdash;Ishi held the superstition common among uneducated
+Caucasians, that it is unwholesome to sleep with the
+moon shining on one&rsquo;s face, so he covered his head completely
+under his blankets when sleeping in the open.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Hygiene&mdash;Ishi had wholesome notions of hygiene. When
+out hunting he has several times stopped me from drinking
+water from a stream which he thought had been contaminated
+by dwelling houses above.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;His residence in the Museum caused many misgivings in
+his mind. The presence of all the bones of the dead, their
+belongings, and the mummies were ever a source of anxiety
+to him. He locked his bedroom door at night to keep out
+spirits. When we stored our camping provender temporarily in
+the Museum bone room, Ishi was not only disgusted but genuinely
+alarmed. It was only after the reassurance that the
+&lsquo;bunch a mi si tee&rsquo; could not enter through the tin of the cans
+that he was relieved.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Surgery&mdash;On some of his visits to the University Hospital,
+Ishi gazed through the glass-panelled door of the
+operating room and watched the less grewsome scenes therein,
+wondering no doubt what was the meaning of this work ...
+and his questions afterward, though few and imperfectly
+understood, showed that he marveled most at the anaesthetic
+and that he debated the advisability of such surgical work.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Once he saw me remove a diseased kidney. He viewed
+the sleeping man with deep wonder. He seemed interested at
+the methods we employed to prevent hemorrhage. For days
+afterwards he asked me if the patient still lived, and seemed
+incredulous when I said he did. When he saw an operation for
+the removal of tonsils he asked me why it was done. I told
+him of the pain and soreness which was indicative of disease,
+and necessitated the operation. He conveyed to me the information
+that among his people tonsillitis was cured by
+rubbing honey on the neck, and blowing ashes down the throat
+through a hollow stick or quill; no operations were necessary.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The only surgical operation with which he seemed familiar
+was scarification. This was accomplished by means of small
+flakes of obsidian and had as its purpose the strengthening
+<span class="pb" id="Page_32">32</span>
+of the arms and legs of men about to go out on a hunt.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Herbs&mdash;His own knowledge of the use of medicinal
+herbs was considerable, as we learned later when he went
+back to Deer Creek canyon with us on a three weeks&rsquo; camping
+trip, here he designated scores of plants that were of technical,
+medicinal, or economic value. But he put very little
+faith in these things. The use of herbs and drugs seems to
+have been the province of old women in the tribe.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;There was a hole in the septum of his nose which he had
+used as a receptacle for a small piece of wood, as well as for
+holding ornaments. When he had a cold he placed in this
+spot a twig of baywood or juniper, and indicated to me that
+this was medicine. It served very much with him as menthol
+inhalers do with us. Its influence was largely psychic but
+agreeable.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Magic&mdash;The real medicine was magic. The mysteries of
+the k&rsquo;uwi, or medicine man, were of much greater value than
+mere dosing. Their favorite charms seem to have been either
+blowing of smoke and ashes in certain directions to wield a
+protective or curative influence, or the passing of coals of
+fire through themselves or their patients by means of sleight
+of hand. They also sucked out small bits of obsidian or cactus
+thorns from their clients, averring that these were the etiological
+factors of sickness.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The principal cause of pain, according to Ishi, was the
+entrance of these spines, thorns, bee stings, or, as he called
+them, &lsquo;pins&rsquo;, into the human frame. The medicine man sucked
+them out, or plucked them while they were floating in the air
+in the vicinity of the sick man. They were then deposited in
+a small container, usually made of the dried trachea of a bird,
+or of a large artery. The ends of this tube were sealed with
+pitch or some form of a stopper and the whole thing taken
+possession of by the doctor, thus keeping the &lsquo;materia
+morbosa&rsquo; where it could do no further harm.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The fact that I was able to do sleight of hand: vanish
+coins, change eggs into paper, swallow impossible objects at
+will, and perform similar parlor magic, convinced Ishi that
+I was a real doctor, much more than any medication or surgery
+at my command. He came, nevertheless, to our clinic whenever
+he had a headache, or a bruised member, or lumbago, and
+accepted our services with due faith.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_33">33</div>
+<h3>&ldquo;ISHI&rsquo;S PERSONAL HABITS&rdquo;</h3>
+<blockquote>
+<p>&ldquo;Sleep&mdash;... he slept between blankets in preference
+to sheets. He had several flannelette nightshirts but he preferred
+to sleep naked....</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Clothing&mdash;... At first he was offered moccasins, but
+refused to wear them. He wanted to be like other people.
+Usually he wore a bright colored necktie and sometimes a hat,
+when he was going down town ... cotton shirts and (cotton)
+trousers were his choice. He used a pocket handkerchief in
+the most approved manner, and because of his frequent colds
+he needed it often.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Modesty&mdash;Ishi, strange to say, was very modest. Although
+he went practically naked in the wilds, and, as
+described by Waterman, upon his first appearance in Deer
+Creek Canyon he was seen altogether nude, nevertheless,
+his first request after being captured was for a pair of overalls.
+He was quite careful to cover his genitalia; when
+changing clothes, assumed protective attitudes, and when
+swimming in the mountain streams with us wore an improvised
+breech clout even though his white companions abandoned
+this last vestige of respectability.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Toilet&mdash;When well he bathed nearly every day, and he
+always washed his hands before meals. He was very tidy and
+cleanly in all his personal habits. When camping, he was the
+only man in our outfit who got up regularly and bathed in the
+cold mountain stream every morning.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Ishi was an expert swimmer.... He used a side stroke
+and sometimes a modified breast stroke, but no overhand or
+fancy strokes; nor did he dive. He swam under water with
+great facility and for long distances. The rapids of Deer
+Creek were rather full yet he swam them, and carried my young
+son hanging to his hair.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;When he was sick he resented being bathed except when
+ordered by the nurse or doctor. Like many other primitive
+people, he considered bathing injurious in the presence of
+fever. He never attempted to take a sweat bath while in
+civilization, but often spoke of them. I never saw him brush
+his teeth, but he rubbed them with his finger, and they always
+seemed clean. He washed his mouth out with water after
+meals.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;His beard was sparse but he plucked it systematically
+by catching individual hairs between the blade of a dull jack-knife
+and his thumb. In his native state he used a sort of
+<span class="pb" id="Page_34">34</span>
+tweezers made of a split piece of wood. He did this work
+without the use of a mirror.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;He combed and brushed his hair daily. He washed it
+frequently.... At first he had no dandruff, but after two or
+three years&rsquo; contact with the whites he had some dry seborrhoea,
+and began to get a trifle gray at the temples ... he
+used grease on his scalp when in his native state; whereas
+bay leaves and bay nuts he said were heated and reduced to
+a semi-solid state, when they were rubbed on the body after
+the sweat bath. Here they acted as a soporific, or, as he said,
+like whiskey, and the person thus anointed fell into a sweet
+slumber. The same substance was rubbed on moccasins to
+make them waterproof.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;On one occasion he contracted ring worm, probably from
+a wandering cat. He was given a sulphur salve for this, and
+after its cure he still used the ointment to soften his hands....
+He was not susceptible to &lsquo;poison oak&rsquo; ... nor to sunburn.
+His skin bleached out considerably while in San Francisco,
+and became darker when exposed to sunlight.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;... (he) seemed to have the same fondness for sweet-scented
+soap that Orientals manifest.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;His personal belongings he kept in a most orderly manner,
+everything in his box being properly folded and arranged with
+care. Articles which he kept outside of this box he wrapped
+in newspaper and laid in systematic arrangement on shelves
+in his room.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;In working on arrows or flaking obsidian, he was careful
+to place newspapers on the floor to catch his chips. In fact,
+neatness and order seemed to be part of his self-education.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;In the preparation of food and the washing of dishes he
+was very orderly and clean.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Diet&mdash;... After a certain period of this luxury (eating
+heavily) he discerned the folly of this course and began eating
+less, when his metabolism returned to a more normal
+balance. Part of this increase was due to the large quantities
+of water he drank. Being unaccustomed to salt, our seasoning
+was excessive and led to increased hydration of his bodily
+tissues. He had a great fondness for sweets.... He tried
+and liked nearly all kinds of foods, but seemed to have an
+aversion for custards, blanc manges, and similar slimy confections,
+nor could he be persuaded to drink milk. He
+contended that this was made for babies, while he said that
+butter ruined the singing voice....</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_35">35</div>
+<p>&ldquo;Matches he took up with evident delight; they were such
+a contrast to the laborious methods of the fire drill, or of
+nursing embers, which he employed in the wilds.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;... His meat he boiled only about ten minutes, eating
+it practically without seasoning.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;His own food in the wilds seems to have been fish, game,
+acorn meal, berries, and many roots. Prominent among these
+latter was the bulb of the <i>Brodiaea</i>. The Indian could go out
+on an apparently barren hillside and with a sharp stick dig up
+enough <i>Brodiaea</i> bulbs in an hour to furnish food for a good
+meal. These roots are globular in shape, with the appearance
+of an onion, ranging in size from a cherry to a very small
+potato. The flavor when raw is like that of a potato, and when
+cooked like a roasted chestnut.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Alcohol&mdash;... Ishi himself had no liking for strong
+drink, although at one time he purchased a few bottles of beer
+and drank small quantities diluted with sugar and water. He
+called it medicine. His response to my query regarding
+whiskey was, &lsquo;Whiskey-tee crazy-aunatee, die man.&rsquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Tobacco&mdash;Occasionally Ishi smoked a cigarette, and
+he knew the use of tobacco, having had access to the native
+herb in the wilds. But he seldom smoked more than a few
+cigarettes a day, and frequently went weeks without any. He
+disapproved of young people smoking. He chewed tobacco at
+times, and spat copiously. Both of these indulgences, however,
+he resorted to only when invited by some congenial
+friend.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Etiquette&mdash;Although uncultured, he very quickly learned
+the proper use of knife, fork, and spoon. His table manners
+were of the very best. He often ate at my home, where he was
+extremely diffident; watched what others did and then followed
+their examples, using great delicacy of manner. His attitude
+toward my wife or any other woman member of the household
+was one of quiet disinterest. Apparently his sense of propriety
+prompted him to ignore her. If spoken to, he would
+reply with courtesy and brevity, but otherwise he appeared
+not to see her.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;When he wanted to show his disapproval of anything very
+strongly, he went through the pantomime of vomiting.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Thrift&mdash;As janitor in the Museum, he was making a
+competent income, understood the value of money, was very
+thrifty and saving, and looked forward to the day when he
+could buy a horse and wagon. This seemed to be the acme
+<span class="pb" id="Page_36">36</span>
+of worldly possession to him. He was very happy and well
+contented, working a little, playing enough, and surrounded
+by friends.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<h3>&ldquo;ISHI&rsquo;S DISPOSITION AND MENTALITY&rdquo;</h3>
+<blockquote>
+<p>&ldquo;Disposition&mdash;In disposition the Yahi was always calm
+and amiable. Never have I seen him vehement or angry. Upon
+rare occasions he showed that he was displeased. If someone
+who he thought had no privilege touched his belongings, he
+remonstrated with some show of excitement. Although he had
+lived in part by stealing from the cabins of men who had
+usurped his country, he had the most exacting conscience
+concerning the ownership of property. He would never think
+of touching anything that belonged to another person, and
+even remonstrated with me if I picked up a pencil that belonged
+to one of the Museum force. He was too generous with
+his gifts of arms, arrow-heads, and similar objects of his
+handicraft.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;His temperament was philosophical, analytical, reserved,
+and cheerful. He probably looked upon us as extremely smart.
+While we knew many things, we had no knowledge of nature,
+no reserve; we were all busy-bodies. We were, in fact,
+sophisticated children.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;His conception of immortality was that of his tribe, but
+he seemed to grasp the Christian concept and asked me many
+questions concerning the hereafter. He rather doubted that
+the White God cared much about having Indians with Him, and
+he did not seem to feel that women were properly eligible to
+Heaven. He once saw a moving picture of the Passion Play.
+It affected him deeply. But he misconstrued the crucifixion
+and assumed that Christ was a &lsquo;bad man&rsquo;.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Use of tools&mdash;He was quite adept in the use of such
+simple tools as a knife, handsaw, file, and hatchet. He early
+discovered the advantages of a small bench vise, and it took
+the place of his big toe in holding objects thereafter....
+Journeys were measured by days or sleeps ... (he) was
+awe-struck when I took him to a sawmill where large cedar
+logs were brought in and rapidly sawed up into small bits to
+be used in making lead pencils. It would have taken hours
+for him to fell even a small tree, and an interminable length
+of time to split it. But here was a miracle of work done in a
+few minutes. It impressed him greatly....&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_37">37</div>
+<p>In concluding remarks on Indian conflict with pioneer, a word
+concerning Indian reservations will not be amiss. The author does
+best again in quoting, this time from Kroeber:</p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>&ldquo;The first reservations established by Federal officers in
+California were little else than bull pens. They were founded
+on the principle, not of attempting to do something for the
+native, but of getting him out of the white man&rsquo;s way as
+cheaply and hurriedly as possible. The reason that the high
+death rate that must have prevailed among these makeshift
+assemblages was not reported on more emphatically is that
+the Indians kept running away even faster than they could die.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The few reservations that were made permanent have on
+the whole had a conserving influence on the population after
+they once settled into a semblance of reasonable order. They
+did little enough for the Indian directly; but they gave him a
+place which he could call his own, and where he could exist
+in security and in contact with his own kind....&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Despite certain undesirable features of Indian Reservations, the
+general conclusion is that for a number of tribes survival has been
+considerably greater today than would have been the case if the
+Indians had had to shift for themselves in competition with the
+whites.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_38">38</div>
+<h2 id="c8"><span class="small">Chapter VI</span>
+<br />HUNTING</h2>
+<p>Hunting was obviously a very important activity of the Lassen
+Indians, not only for survival, but as a means of acquiring the comfort
+and security which success brought. Also a good hunter was
+held in high esteem socially.</p>
+<p>Deer were most sought and the hunter went to considerable effort
+to get &ldquo;deer power&rdquo; (a sort of guardian spirit) to possess him.
+This gave him skill and good luck. Generally only men hunted,
+sometimes individually, at other times in small or large groups.</p>
+<p>Before going hunting tobacco was often smoked ceremonially
+with prayers and singing while the shaman (medicine man) supervised
+and the hunters&rsquo; bodies were anointed with medicine. Weapons
+to be used were smoked over a fire, while the hunters talked to
+their bows and arrows about the coming hunt. Frequently Atsugewi,
+Yana, and Yahi hunters also cut themselves until they bled. This
+was true especially if their marksmanship had not been good of
+late. Cuts were made in the forearm and charcoal was rubbed in.
+They often took sweat baths too before hunting, but the Maidu did
+not. The latter, however, offered shell beads to help increase deer
+power. Atsugewi hunters left offerings of paint, tobacco, and eagle-down
+at certain spots in the mountains for luck.</p>
+<p>After a youth killed his first game, Maidu and Atsugewi switched
+him, a bow string being commonly used. Then the Atsugewi father
+talked to his son, blew smoke on him, and sent him out alone into
+the mountains for at least five days to seek power. Yana and Yahi
+youths were not permitted to touch, skin, or eat any of their first
+kill of each kind of animal, lest it spoil their luck. In these tribes
+the father skinned the animal and dressed the hide, teaching his
+son how this was done.</p>
+<p>After hunting there were often cleansing activities and ceremonies,
+and usually a division of meat although a lone hunter could
+retain all of it. It was considered quite bad to come home empty
+handed. After a bear had been killed he was spoken to kindly and
+in sympathetic terms. Deer eyes were often eaten to give good
+sharp eyesight to the eater.</p>
+<p>In a popular method of deer hunting by all Indians of the Lassen
+area, a deer head disguise was worn by the hunter. He approached
+his quarry cautiously using screening bushes and moving his
+antlered head above them to simulate a buck feeding. Sometimes
+the hunter carried brush along in front of himself. The mountain
+<span class="pb" id="Page_39">39</span>
+Maidu always used the whole deerskin for disguise. When close
+enough the hunter would shoot with bow and arrow. Since this was a
+nearly silent weapon, there was no noise to startle the deer, and
+so it was sometimes possible to slay two or three deer on one
+occasion.</p>
+<p>Atsugewi hunters might encircle a small brush covered or wooded
+mountain. They set many fires, leaving non-burning gaps where
+bowmen hid in holes. The deer were shot as they came out of the
+burning area.</p>
+<p>Mountain Maidu sometimes concealed themselves in pits near
+deer licks where they shot the animals in moonlight.</p>
+<p>Another hunting method was to drive deer along fences built
+of brush or stone or along ropes to which bunches of tules were tied
+as hanging streamers. Strategically placed hunters in shallow pits
+shot the driven deer as they passed through openings which had
+been left. Dogs were frequently used in hunting out and in driving
+deer.</p>
+<p>The brush deer-blind along a well traveled deer trail was used
+too, as well as hanging a noose in the deer trail to snare the deer.
+Still another means of taking deer was like that of the northern
+neighbors of the Atsugewi, the Pit River Tribe or Achomawi. They
+employed a six or seven foot deep pit about nine feet long dug
+with slightly undercut side walls. This opening was covered and
+concealed with poles, brush, and dirt. As the deer trotted along
+established trails over the disguised pitfalls they fell through.
+Or, deer might be driven to such pits, sometimes with the aid of
+converging walls or fences in conjunction with pitfalls. Deer
+trapped in these pitfalls were killed by strangling from above with
+ropes.</p>
+<p>Another popular way to secure deer was to follow the animal for
+one or more days. The pursuing Indian carried a small amount of
+food which he ate to sustain himself while moving. The deer, although
+swifter afoot than the hunter, was persistently followed at
+a steady pace. The animal did not get a chance to feed properly
+nor to rest. At length the deer became weakened to the point where
+the hunter could approach and shoot it at close range.</p>
+<p>If a hunter were fairly close to a deer and it was moving, he
+might shout at it, causing the deer to stop momentarily out of
+curiosity. This provided a better chance of bringing the quarry
+down with bow and arrow. Deer were sometimes lured closer by
+whistling with lips, blowing on a leaf or grass blade held in the
+hands, or by imitating the cry of a fawn. A hunter is said occasionally
+<span class="pb" id="Page_40">40</span>
+to have been able to sing to a group of deer, holding their
+attention while he cautiously approached within arrow range.</p>
+<p>If practical, deer or other game was killed by driving the animals
+over cliffs. Elk, mountain sheep, antelope, and reportedly occasionally
+even bison were hunted by one or more of the means. Except
+for the case of mountain sheep, such animals were probably rare
+within the territories of the tribes being considered.</p>
+<p>Meat of such large game was prepared for eating after skinning
+by roasting in the earth pit ovens to be described in succeeding
+chapters or by cutting up and boiling. Much venison and the like
+was also stored for winter use. In this case the meat was cut into
+strips and dried in the sun or on wooden frames over fires. This
+was not a smoking, but rather a drying process. Such jerked meat
+was stored in large, tightly woven baskets. Meat fresh or dried was
+almost invariably eaten with acorn mush.</p>
+<p>Bear hunting was common among tribes of the Lassen area. The
+American Black Bear is not aggressive and by no means always
+black. He is of moderately large size and often is light or dark
+brown in color. Indians liked to hunt the Black Bear in winter,
+two hunters entering the hibernating den. One carried a torch and
+the other a bow and arrow. They rolled a large block of wood in
+front of them and shot the bear at point blank range, then quickly
+ran out. Wounded, frightened, and in a semi-stupor, the bear usually
+stumbled over the wooden block. If he did not die in the den, but
+came out, he was shot by other waiting hunters. Mountain Maidu
+instead of entering the den smoked the bear out with pitchy torches
+planted at the den entrance.</p>
+<p>The California Grizzly was much larger, fiercer, and more
+aggressive. This grizzly is now extinct, but was common especially
+in the foothill and lower mountain slopes of California before the
+coming of the white man. Grizzlies were normally engaged only
+by a large group of hunters and after considerable ceremonial preparation.
+Hunters never entered the den. Two stout poles were
+crossed in front of the opening with one or two men holding each&mdash;a
+dangerous job. The bear was spoken to nicely and urged to
+come out which he usually soon did. As the bear started to climb
+over the poles at the den entrance, the Indians pushed up forcing
+the bear&rsquo;s body against the roof so that he could most easily be
+shot. If this maneuver was not successful, a brave hunter enticed
+the bear to pursue him while the others shot arrows into the grizzly.
+Especially sharp and heavily poisoned arrow points were used on
+grizzly bear by the Atsugewi.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_41">41</div>
+<p>It was believed that a man who drank fresh bear blood would be
+very healthy thereafter, if he were strong enough. If he were weak,
+however, drinking the blood would kill him promptly.</p>
+<p>Mountain lion were tracked, sometimes with dogs, sometimes in
+the snow, then treed and shot. Wildcats were generally killed in
+the same way. A hunter might coax a mountain lion to leap at him
+by simulating a deer feeding, using the deer head and skin disguise,
+but this was a dangerous practice.</p>
+<p>Except in the eastern part of Atsugewi territory where the
+Apwaruge lived, rabbits were not plentiful. Yana, Yahi, and Maidu
+hunted them more, driving cottontail, snowshoe, and jack rabbits
+into long nets and clubbing them to death. In the winter rabbits
+were sometimes tracked and shot with bow and untipped arrows.</p>
+<p>Other small mammals were shot, caught by dogs, and dug,
+smoked, or drowned out of burrows. A stick split at the end was
+thrust into a burrow and by twisting was entangled in the creature&rsquo;s
+fur sufficiently to drag him out. Ground squirrels could be outrun
+and killed by stepping on them. Skunks, badgers, rats, and more
+often porcupines were eaten&mdash;the latter being clubbed or stoned
+to death.</p>
+<p>Small and medium sized animals were also caught under stone
+or log deadfalls which were propped up to drop on the victim while
+it was traveling along a runway, crossing a stream on a log, or
+when the animal pulled on a baited trigger. Similar placing was
+used for setting spring snares which took advantage of bent tree
+limbs for power. Long fences with nooses placed in gaps were used
+for rabbits, quail, and the like, and on occasion for creatures as
+large as deer. Some nooses were even operated by hand from a
+place of hiding.</p>
+<p>Birds of all sorts were caught too, but live or imitation decoys
+were never employed as lures. Woodpeckers were removed from the
+nest by hand or else a noose was hung around the nest opening.
+Some birds were taken in basketry traps. Waterfowl were shot with
+bow and arrow and the young were run down. Eggs were also taken.
+Some ducks were speared at night from canoes or driven into nets
+by use of a canoe with fire at one end. Frequently nets or snares
+were suspended at intervals just above a stream where waterfowl
+commonly alighted. Ducks and geese were also driven into the
+traps in taking off from the water.</p>
+<p>Grouse and small birds like robins and blackbirds were shot
+with blunt or untipped arrows, usually of one-piece construction.</p>
+<p>It is interesting to note that in contrast to other local tribes, the
+<span class="pb" id="Page_42">42</span>
+Yana and Yahi tribes did not employ the following hunting techniques:
+burning brush, using bird snaring booths, nets for ducks,
+geese, rabbits, or deer, nor was game driven into enclosures or
+quail secured by use of net traps or drive fences. Furthermore Yana
+and Yahi did not believe that game was immortal.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig5">
+<img src="images/p09.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="403" />
+<p class="pcap">Atsugewi Snare set on a log lying across a stream.</p>
+</div>
+<p>It was not an uncommon practice, especially among the mountain
+Maidu, to frequently burn off their lands to make for easier travel
+and to minimize the possibility of ambush by enemies. The
+frequent &ldquo;light&rdquo; burnings do not seem to have generated enough
+heat to have destroyed the forests. Never the less this practice
+is not regarded as a wise conservation as it is definitely injurious
+to tree and much other plant reproduction as well as being destructive
+of organic material in the soil, damaging the watershed and
+being unfavorable to certain animal species, as well as accelerating
+erosion.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_43">43</div>
+<h2 id="c9"><span class="small">Chapter VII</span>
+<br />FISHING</h2>
+<p>Fishes were one of the four important food categories consumed
+by Indians of the Lassen region. Land-locked and other non-migratory
+Rainbow Trout were abundantly available in mountain
+streams and in some lakes. Steelhead Trout penetrated the territories
+of our four tribes too. Salmon, however, did not go so far
+upstream, only rarely coming up Hat Creek, for instance, into
+Atsugewi lands. For the most part this tribe of Indians visited the
+Pit River to the north in the autumn. They paid the Achomawi,
+through whose territory this fine salmon stream flowed, for the
+privilege of catching salmon by giving up a share of the catch to
+them. The larger streams in south Yana, Yahi, and mountain Maidu
+country contained salmon and steelhead, but it seems that these
+tribes also made bargains with the Valley Indians for salmon fishing
+privileges or else made fishing forays to the Sacramento River.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig6">
+<img src="images/p09a.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="575" />
+<p class="pcap">Atsugewi Bow-type net.
+This kind was usually used
+in small streams where it
+covered the full width of the
+stream bed. Fish were
+commonly driven into it,
+then the handle was raised.</p>
+</div>
+<p>Gill nets about three feet high and as much as 30 feet long were
+commonly used. Spawning trout in the spring were speared in large
+numbers. Although old informants have denied the practice,
+Boonookoo-ee-menorra (Mrs. Selina La Marr of the Atsugewi) tells
+of catching Rainbow Trout by hand from Manzanita Creek banks
+about fifty years ago when her family came up in the summer to
+fish. Trout were speared by the Atsugewi with two pointed or four
+<span class="pb" id="Page_44">44</span>
+pointed spears instead of the common single pointed version. Bone
+or Serviceberry wood might be used for the tips. Spears were used
+not only from stream banks, but, especially at night, from a canoe
+equipped with a torch in front. One man or more would spear the
+fish while a person, sometimes a woman, paddled the craft from the
+rear. The torch consisted of four mountain-mahogany sticks bound
+together with pitch down the center.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig7">
+<img src="images/p10.jpg" alt="" width="519" height="600" />
+<p class="pcap">A northeast Maidu bow-fish
+net about forty inches long.
+It was used for fish other
+than salmon. Northwest and
+southern Maidu did not use
+such nets, employing seine
+nets instead (after Dixon).</p>
+</div>
+<p>It is interesting to note that the practice of shooting fish with
+bow and arrow was not carried on by any tribes of the Lassen area,
+although the eastern people of the Pit River Indians (Achomawi),
+the western Shasta, Wintu, and foothill Maidu did do so.</p>
+<p>Only Atsugewi, of the tribes we are considering, trapped fish
+in converging weirs into which fish might be driven. In the autumn,
+streams were sometimes diverted by damming. The fish trapped
+in the ponds remaining were scooped out with baskets or nets.
+Mountain Maidu drove fish into traps and caught lamprey eels in
+dip or scoop nets. Bow-type nets illustrated in the text were used
+with the bow bent ends down resting on the bed of the stream, the
+pole being raised to trap the fish. The net was preferably as wide
+as the stream.</p>
+<p>All local tribes fished with lines and hooks which were made
+by lashing a sharp piece of bone to a section of twig, at an acute
+angle. Atsugewi and mountain Maidu also used a &ldquo;gorge&rdquo; for
+<span class="pb" id="Page_45">45</span>
+angling. This was a slender piece of bone two or three inches
+long fastened near the middle and sharpened at both ends. Hooks
+were sometimes baited with meat, grasshoppers, or large flies, but
+man-made &ldquo;flies&rdquo; as fishermen know them today were not used.
+Sometimes meat or grasshopper bait was used by Atsugewi on fish-lines
+without any hook. Atsugewi women occasionally fished with
+baskets and with hook and line. Hooks were often tied in a series
+on a line attached either on both banks of the stream or to a pole
+secured in the bank or tied to tules or to brush, and left over night.
+A series of basket traps was sometimes likewise stretched across
+a stream.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig8">
+<img src="images/p10a.jpg" alt="" width="169" height="500" />
+<p class="pcap">A Klamath fish hook similar to those
+used by local tribes. Single barbed
+hooks were also employed.</p>
+</div>
+<p>Salmon fishing was done largely with harpoons which differ from
+spears in having one or more movable barbs or toggles of bone.
+These opened when the harpoon was pulled back (outward in the
+victim) thus securing the catch all the more firmly. This was
+necessary for such large and heavy fish as salmon. Yana tribes
+caught their salmon with either hook and line or by spearing with
+a two pointed harpoon.</p>
+<p>Natural falls were favored fishing sites. There Indians caught
+salmon and steelhead trout as the fish attempted to scale the falls.
+Long handled nets were used. Atsugewi went so far as to build
+scaffoldings to assist either in this method of fishing or from which
+to harpoon large fish. In the latter case many whitish rocks, where
+available, were thrown into the stream to build up a light colored
+bottom for better visibility in harpooning or spearing.</p>
+<p>After the fish were caught they were killed by striking with a
+stick as a general practice. Mountain Maidu sometimes killed fish
+<span class="pb" id="Page_46">46</span>
+by striking their heads on rocks. The central Yana, interestingly
+enough, killed fish by biting them!</p>
+<p>In quiet portions of streams fish were poisoned by placing
+certain pounded plant materials in the water. Yana and Yahi used
+crushed Soaproot; Atsugewi used pulverized Wild Parsley. Wild
+Parsley application made the water bluish, and caused the fish
+soon to rise to the surface of the water floating belly-up. Where
+suitable quiet pools did not exist in a stream, they were sometimes
+formed by the Indians through temporary damming. Buckeye nut
+pulp, which is poisonous, was not used in this area for poisoning
+fish.</p>
+<p>Long basketry fish traps, usually constructed by men, were also
+utilized. The design and proportions of these varied with the tribe.</p>
+<p>Each of the Lassen area tribes had taboos which prevented
+youths, and in the case of Atsugewi, their parents too, from eating
+the first fish each youth caught.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig9">
+<img src="images/p11.jpg" alt="" width="877" height="293" />
+<p class="pcap">Plan of Maidu open basketry fish trap (after Dixon) several feet long.
+The pointed end was untied to extract the fish.</p>
+</div>
+<p>Chubs and minnows, spurned by white man, were driven into
+nets and eaten. At lower elevations, where waters were warmer
+and sluggish, suckers provided a common source of food fish. The
+Indians also not infrequently dove for crawfish and fresh water
+mussels. These were gathered in net sacks by male Indians of all
+local tribes. Yana and Yahi roasted mussels but did not boil them
+and never dried them for later use. A flat rock might be carried on
+the shoulders to assist the diving Indians.</p>
+<p>Some fish were cooked by roasting over coals or by boiling.
+Most trout, however, were cleaned, head and backbone removed,
+and then strung up on poles to dry. No salt was used in the process.
+The dried fish was carried to camp or village in large
+baskets. Dried trout was tied into small bales for storage and
+placed in baskets or in pits dug in the ground for safe-keeping.
+Salmon were usually cooked in earth pit ovens, then dried and
+<span class="pb" id="Page_47">47</span>
+crumbed by Atsugewi and mountain Maidu for later use. This was
+of necessity an autumnal activity. Yana and Yahi stored their
+salmon in dried slabs, pulverizing it as needed.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig10">
+<img src="images/p11a.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="364" />
+<p class="pcap">Atsugewi basketry fish trap (after Garth).</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_48">48</div>
+<h2 id="c10"><span class="small">Chapter VIII</span>
+<br />GATHERING AND PREPARATION OF OTHER FOODS</h2>
+<p>As has been pointed out earlier under &ldquo;California Indians&rdquo;,
+these tribes had a common food pattern. Although there was some
+difference in the relative importance of the four major types of food
+to the several tribes due to varying availability, the California
+Indians ate (1) game, especially deer, (2) fish, particularly salmon
+and trout, (3) roots and bulbs which the women dug, and (4) fruits
+and seeds of a wide variety, the most important of which were
+acorns.</p>
+<p>Besides fish and venison, many kinds of flesh food were eaten
+by the Indians of the Lassen area: fox, wolf, grizzly and black
+bear, skunk, raccoon, porcupine, rabbit, owl, fish, fresh water
+mussel, and turtle being most common. They also ate with apparent
+relish a variety of insects and the like including crickets,
+grasshoppers, angleworms, red ant eggs, and yellow-jacket larvae.</p>
+<p>Game which was not eaten by either Atsugewi or mountain Maidu
+was coyote, elk, antelope, and all snakes and lizards. The last
+two items were almost universally shunned by California Indians.
+Many California tribes including Yana and Yahi refused to eat dog
+meat, some of them believing canine flesh to be poisonous. That
+mountain Maidu was one of the few tribes which ate dog flesh whenever
+it was available is denied by Dixon. Atsugewi ate it only as
+a last resort when rare, near-famine conditions prevailed or during
+times of severe epidemic. Canine flesh was believed by them to
+be a powerful and perhaps somewhat dangerous medicine. Buzzards
+seem to have been about the only birds which were not eaten.</p>
+<p>Each tribe had certain taboos on eating game. An Atsugewi
+did not, for example, eat wildcat, gopher, hawk, lamprey eel, or
+caterpillars. Mountain Maidu did not eat mountain lion, badger,
+raven, or crawfish.</p>
+<p>Heart of deer was taboo to all males among Atsugewi and to
+all children and youths of the mountain Maidu. The foetus of all
+animals and also deer fawns could not be eaten by any except
+Atsugewi, Yana, and Yahi old men and old women. Animal foetus
+was, however, allowed as food to all mountain Maidu adults. Bear
+foetus was skinned by Atsugewi and fed to old women because it
+was so tender. Likewise, Yana and Yahi made foetus soup for old
+folks to eat. Deer liver was taboo to Atsugewi boys and youths.
+Taboo also among Atsugewi was the eating of fish and deer meat
+together. Among mountain Maidu the eating of salt on bear meat
+<span class="pb" id="Page_49">49</span>
+was prohibited. Many other food combinations were outlawed by
+these and other California tribes.</p>
+<p>Deer backbone was ground up and eaten dry by mountain Maidu
+or molded into small cakes, then baked and eaten while Atsugewi
+would dry deer backbones with meat still adhering, grind it up, and
+then boil the meal before eating it. Yana also ate pulverized meal
+of other bones after cooking. Marrow was relished; it was a special
+delicacy for Yana children.</p>
+<p>Securing of large game and fish and their preparation has been
+described earlier.</p>
+<p>Such animals as wildcat, raccoons, foxes, et cetera were skinned
+and cooked in earth ovens by all local tribes. These were pits
+sometimes as much as six feet wide and lined with rocks. A large
+fire was built in the pit to thoroughly heat the rock lining, after
+which any unburned debris was removed. The animal to be roasted
+was laid in the pit on a layer of green pine needles, or various
+other leaves, depending upon the tribe. A large heated rock was
+placed inside the body cavity and smaller hot rocks were wedged
+under the fore and hind legs which were then all tied tightly together.
+A flat heated rock might be placed on top of the carcass
+and the whole was covered with pine needles and the like, and
+finally with hot ashes and sometimes dirt. The roasting proceeded
+for half a day or so. Blood and fat might be placed in the intestine
+membranes of larger animals (especially wildcat) to form sausage
+and cooked in ashes. Mountain Maidu also boiled blood for eating.</p>
+<p>Quills of porcupine and hair of badger, squirrel, or other small
+mammals might be singed off before cooking instead of skinning the
+animals. Ground squirrels were sometimes merely gutted and then
+roasted in ashes without further preparation. When Yana (and probably
+Yahi) did this, they then skinned the ground squirrels after
+cooking and mashed the whole bodies by pounding before eating
+them. Rabbits were roasted over coals and broken into pieces for
+eating. Both mountain Maidu and Atsugewi sometimes broiled small
+mammals on a single stick over coals.</p>
+<p>Turtles were cooked alive in hot ashes. If they crawled out
+they were pushed back in again.</p>
+<p>Duck eggs were boiled in baskets using hot rocks&mdash;cooked
+they would keep for a week or two. Yana tribes roasted quail eggs
+in ashes. Birds were gutted, feathers singed off in flames and
+roasted on sticks or roasted in oven pits. Roasting was invariably
+used for the large birds such as ducks, geese, and swans.</p>
+<p>Atsugewi practiced some fascinating gathering techniques in
+<span class="pb" id="Page_50">50</span>
+which they were not unique. Insects were gathered by both men
+and women. Grasshoppers and crickets not infrequently appeared
+in large numbers. These were collected early in the morning while
+still sluggish with cold. When very abundant they were scraped with
+sticks from branches of bushes into large burden baskets. During
+the heat of the day grasshoppers were effectively collected by
+singeing them. Some tribes merely burned dry grassy fields after
+which the insects were easily picked up. Atsugewi made a long
+willow &ldquo;rope&rdquo; to which many bunches of dry grass were fastened.
+This was set afire and men carrying this blazing band stretched
+tightly between them ran across open grassland where the grasshoppers
+were numerous. The insects jumped into the flames and
+were thus killed. Yana pulverized grasshoppers and other insects
+without cooking them.</p>
+<p>Atsugewi roasted crickets in the pit oven. These were then
+dried two days and finally eaten or stored. If they had been stored,
+they were pounded before being eaten.</p>
+<p>Salmon flies were plentiful along Pit River and Lost Creek (outside
+of the park). These were hand picked from the banks early in
+the morning. The wings were removed and the bodies boiled before
+eating by the Atsugewi.</p>
+<p>When yellow-jackets, always carnivorous (meat eaters), were
+seen buzzing about, Atsugewi would tie a white flower petal to
+a grasshopper leg. When the yellow-jacket picked this morsel up
+and flew away with it toward its nest, the Indians would run after
+the yellow-jacket which was easy to follow on account of the conspicuous
+flower petal it carried along. Thus yellow-jacket nests
+were found. A line was marked around the nest area with the
+fingers. This line was supposed to increase the size of the nest.
+Pine needles were then stacked over the nest and burned to kill
+the winged insects. This done, the nest was dug up and roasted
+alongside a fire, thus cooking the maggot-like grubs inside. These
+were considered to be quite a delicacy. According to Dixon,
+mountain Maidu young folks were denied this delicacy, but not so
+among the Yana. Dried grasshoppers, crickets, and yellow-jacket
+larvae were foods often used as items of trade.</p>
+<p>Angleworms were collected by first driving a digging stick a
+few inches into the moist soil, then moving the top about. The
+consequent disturbing of the ground made the worms crawl out.
+Although other California tribes made angleworm soup, Atsugewi,
+Yana, and probably Yahi sometimes roasted angleworms between
+hot rocks. Maidu reportedly dried worms for eating.</p>
+<p>Red ant eggs were eaten by Indians too. Atsugewi baked them
+<span class="pb" id="Page_51">51</span>
+in earth pit ovens, while mountain Maidu parched them with coals.
+Mountain Maidu also ate certain caterpillars, but the other tribes
+of the Lassen area did not.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig11">
+<img src="images/p12.jpg" alt="" width="502" height="591" />
+<p class="pcap">A. Sharpened iron rod
+digging stick with pine
+cross piece wrapped in
+coarse cotton cloth used
+for about forty years by
+Mrs. Mullen of Hat Creek.
+Length about four feet.</p>
+<p class="pcapc">B. Another recent mountain
+mahogany digging stick
+made by Mr. and Mrs.
+Lyman LaMarr (Boonookoo-ee-menorra).
+The point of
+the green wood was
+toughened in flame. Stick
+three and one half feet
+long.</p>
+</div>
+<p>Indians of this region did not carry on any agriculture, that is
+they did not plant crops for food or other purposes, but collected
+those which grew wild. It was, however, a common practice to burn
+some areas over regularly to stimulate growth of edible seed producing
+plants. Women always gathered the vegetable materials and
+prepared them for use.</p>
+<p>Roots and bulbs provided vital foods to the aborigines also.
+These were procured with a digging stick. In this region it was
+blunt at the top with a tapered point at the digging end. Atsugewi
+fastened a short cross piece on top to serve as a handle. The
+digging stick was made by this tribe of green mountain-mahogany
+wood with the digging point hardened by scorching in the flame.
+<span class="pb" id="Page_52">52</span>
+After the coming of white man, the same design was retained, but
+an iron rod replaced the mountain-mahogany digging shaft.</p>
+<p>In use, the digging stick was thrust into the ground next to the
+plant whose root was to be secured. The handle portion was worked
+sideways a couple of times, then pulled downward toward the
+operator. The point very effectively brought the root out of the
+ground. Roots were customarily tossed into a large cone-shaped
+carrying basket which was held in place on the digging woman&rsquo;s
+back by a chest band over her chest. Some of the load in the basket
+might also be supported by a band from the basket over the Indian
+woman&rsquo;s forehead.</p>
+<p>Roots were cleaned by rubbing (sometimes with sand) in a shallow
+bowl-shaped basket of a rough coarse mesh weave of willow
+ribs, like that used for cleaning acorns. The whole was dipped in
+water frequently. Rubbing usually continued until the skins were
+entirely removed.</p>
+<p>The most important item of this type collected in large amount
+for food is known as epos locally, or &ldquo;peh-ts-koo&rdquo; among the old
+Atsugewi. The plant belongs to the parsley family and stands one
+to two feet high. Actually, probably more than one species was
+eaten by Indians of the Lassen area. These plants are not unlike
+except in detail. All had sweet carrot-like taproots about two
+inches long. Garth states that Atsugewi ate the species <i>Pteridendia
+bolanden</i> which apparently corresponds to the botanists&rsquo; <i>Perideridia
+bolanderi</i> or <i>Eulophus bolanderi</i>; also probably <i>Carum</i> or <i>Perideridia
+oregona</i> and <i>californica</i>. Common English names for epos are squaw
+root or yampah. Epos roots were dried and stored, then ground up
+for use. This food item was made into either soup or bread. The
+finished product had a fine sweet meaty or nutty taste, and was
+held in high esteem. Obviously this constituted an important
+vegetable in the diet.</p>
+<p>At least two kinds of camas bulbs and <i>brodeia</i> bulbs were
+roasted in the earth pit oven, ground to pulp, shaped into cakes,
+and rebaked. These were then either eaten or dried and stored.
+The latter process was not employed by mountain Maidu. If the
+baked camas cakes were stored, they would be soaked with water
+before eating. Camas cakes were not made into soup.</p>
+<p>Tiger lily bulbs were roasted in earth pit ovens and eaten
+immediately. They were a highly prized food.</p>
+<p>Wild onion was used too, but usually with other root foods as
+a flavoring.</p>
+<p>The foregoing are but a few of the most extensively eaten roots.
+<span class="pb" id="Page_53">53</span>
+Many others, especially those of the lily and parsley families,
+were used by tribes of the Lassen region.</p>
+<p>Yana tribes robbed gophers of stores of edible roots and bulbs.
+These were found by probing for burrows and digging out the
+animals&rsquo; food storage chambers. Men usually did this, which is an
+exception to the general rule that women only collected vegetable
+materials.</p>
+<p>Acorns were probably the most important single food of California
+Indians. Surprisingly, this was true even in eastern parts of
+the territories of the Atsugewi (Apwaruge), mountain Maidu, and
+others where acorns were scarce or wanting entirely. Indians
+frequently traded for acorns or made long journeys for them. Acorns
+of the black oak were generally preferred over other kinds. Nearly
+all varieties were used for food on occasion, however. It is interesting
+to note that Modoc and Klamath Indians were exceptions
+in not using acorns for food.</p>
+<p>In the fall, usually in September, acorns were gathered by women
+after the ripe nuts had been knocked from the oaks with long poles,
+or by men and young agile girls climbing the trees to strike the
+fruit with straight sticks or staves. To aid in climbing large smooth
+tree trunks, Atsugewi men used sapling ladders on which part of
+branches were left attached to serve for footholds. Mountain Maidu
+on the other hand used a very unique two poled ladder with buckskin
+rungs. Acorns were carried to villages by women in stages,
+using baskets about the size of nail kegs.</p>
+<p>First spring food gathering each year was marked by rites in
+which the shamans, or medicine men, conducted praying ceremonies.
+Atsugewi conducted three of these. In May first epos roots were
+gathered and sung over by shamans. They examined the roots and
+prophesied whether the women who had dug them were going to be
+sick. Those who were going to be sick dug roots all day. In the
+evening these were dumped into piles and women shamans sang
+over these for half the night to make the threatened women healthy.
+Each woman gatherer participating then took home the roots she
+had dug leaving some for the shamans, who cooked and ate them.
+A second first food ceremony consisted of a ceremonial feast of
+fruit and vegetable materials with fish which the men brought.
+In the third such rite, root digging women threw away the first roots
+they dug that season and prayed to the effect: &ldquo;Don&rsquo;t make me
+poor. Give me good luck. You may have this one.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>In autumn, mountain Maidu held their first fruit ceremonies.
+Large groups of women went out to gather acorns. Acorn mush was
+made immediately of the first batch collected. The shamans ate
+<span class="pb" id="Page_54">54</span>
+some and prayed. Portions of this batch were then eaten by the
+rest of the assemblage. After that it was all right for anyone to
+gather and to use acorns of the new crop.</p>
+<p>Local tribes stored acorns in the shell either indoors in large
+baskets or outside in pits or in large hoppers or granaries covered
+with bark. The details of these varied with the several tribes.
+Maidu except for the &ldquo;mountain tribe&rdquo; and Yana shelled, split,
+and slightly dried some of their acorns, and placed them in basketry
+storage bins lined with broadleafed maple leaves. Maidu ate
+twelve different kinds of acorns, but the favorites were the black
+oak (<i>Quercus kelloggii</i>), <i>golden cup oak</i> maul, or canyon oak
+(<i>Quercus chrysolepis</i>), and sierra live oak (<i>Quercus wislizenii</i>)
+acorns.</p>
+<p>In preparation, acorns were cracked by up-ending each on a
+flat rock and striking the point with any convenient small stone.
+Sometimes small acorns were cracked with the teeth. Though
+usually a woman&rsquo;s job, young folks and men might help with the
+task.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig12">
+<img src="images/p13.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="473" />
+<p class="pcap">Basaltic lava mortar from Yana territory, about ten inches high.</p>
+</div>
+<p>The thin brownish skin which covers the acorn kernels was removed
+by rubbing vigorously in rough porous baskets made entirely
+of willow ribs. Water was not used. Indians of the Lassen area
+did not employ stone mortars for grinding acorns as was the practice
+in other parts of California. Stone mortars were always found, not
+made, and were used for ceremonial purposes, in the belief that
+<span class="pb" id="Page_55">55</span>
+these had been made by Coyote. However, Maidu families cherished
+portable stone mortars. They were kept buried at some distance
+from the dwelling, and dug up for occasional inspection. Bed-rock
+acorn pounding holes are not found in this region either except for
+the Maidu area. Instead, acorn meats were placed in hopper baskets
+lacking bottoms. This basketry mortar hopper rested with the small
+open end down on a heavy flat stone. The pounding basket was
+held in place by the Indian woman&rsquo;s knees as she sat in front of
+and straddling it. In one hand she wielded a stone pestle, flat on
+the grinding end. With the other hand she stirred the acorn material
+so that the coarse pieces worked toward the center to get the full
+impact of the pounding. The hopper basket was not always used,
+by the mountain Maidu, the pounding often being done merely on a
+flat rock slab, the woman&rsquo;s free hand continually brushing the
+acorn material back to the center. Acorn meal was ground until it
+was as fine as flour. The coarse pieces were separated from the
+fine by a process which employed a flattish piece of wood or bark
+a foot or so across. Sometimes a basketry plaque was used. A
+portion of ground meal was placed on this tray which was held
+firmly at one side and inclined toward the operator. The other edge
+of the plaque was shaken, causing the coarse material to roll into
+a container held in the lap for repounding while the fine flour remained
+on the plaque. A small brush, generally made from the
+pounded and dried root of the soap-plant, was used to brush the
+flour off and into the cooking basket. Mountain Maidu, according
+to Voegelin, actually did sift acorn meal through open-work baskets
+though this was not a common practice even among members of
+this tribe.</p>
+<p>White oak and some other acorn flour could be used for cooking
+without further preparation. Atsugewi preferred black oak acorns
+which had to be leached to remove the bitter tannic acid before
+using. To do this the flour was placed in a shallow depression on
+clean sand over porous earth, usually, but Yana used loosely
+woven baskets for the purpose, and in recent times it has become
+common practice to place cloth flour sacking over a screen or
+sieve. Cold water was poured over the meal until it was nearly
+free of bitterness. Warm water was then employed briefly, but hot
+water was never used, for it would make the flour tend to jell.
+Sand was removed from the bottom of the flour by touching the
+bottom of a handful of the moist material to water. The flour held
+together, but the sand grains dropped off. The flour could be dried
+and stored at this point, but was usually used as it was prepared.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_56">56</div>
+<p>Portions of about two or three quarts of acorn flour were placed
+in cooking baskets a foot or more in diameter. Water was added
+and then hot stones were dropped in. These smoothly rounded
+stones, of any shape and from one and a half to three inches in
+diameter, had been heated in an open fire. They were quickly dipped
+into water to remove ashes before being put into the mush cooking
+basket. The method of handling these cooking stones seems to
+have varied. Present day Atsugewi say a small looped stick was
+used, but old informants stated that two forked sticks were employed.
+Stirring had to be continuous lest the cooking stones scorch
+the basket. Atsugewi used any convenient stick for this, but Yana
+had a small oak paddle. After boiling a short while the acorn mush
+became light greyish or brownish in color; when cooled it jellied
+quite firmly. Acorn mush was commonly eaten warm with meat,
+from small individual baskets. Spoons were unknown in the Lassen
+area so acorn mush was eaten with index and second fingers.
+Mountain Maidu made their acorn mush of a more liquid consistency
+so that it was often consumed by drinking.</p>
+<p>Acorn bread was made by using less water and adding a small
+amount of reddish iron-bearing or blackish salt-bearing soil by
+Atsugewi, but mountain Maidu left this ingredient out. The paste
+was molded into biscuit or loaf-shaped forms, wrapped in leaves
+and baked all night in earth pit ovens. Yana sometimes added red
+soil to their acorn bread making it brightly colored. Usually black
+oak acorns were used for bread by the Yana tribes and white oak
+for soup.</p>
+<p>That acorns are a fine food is indicated by the following analysis
+of the uncooked meal. The proportions vary somewhat, but not
+importantly among the several kinds of acorns used: 21% fat, 5%
+protein, 62% carbohydrate, and 14% water, mineral, and fiber. In
+cooked acorn mush the proportions remain the same relatively, except,
+of course, for the greatly increased water content.</p>
+<p>Buckeye nuts, not used much by Atsugewi, were important to
+other Indians of California, especially those residing at lower
+elevations. These fruits were gathered when ripe, then shelled,
+pounded and soaked in loosely woven baskets until the poisonous
+juice was leached out. The pulpy mass was next squeezed to remove
+excess water. Unlike acorn meal buckeye pulp was eaten
+uncooked. Yana crushed their buckeyes with their feet and leached
+the material in creeks, though sometimes hot water was used.</p>
+<p>Nuts of digger pine and sugar pine were highly regarded as food.
+Men climbed trees and picked digger pine cones or shook limbs to
+<span class="pb" id="Page_57">57</span>
+dislodge sugar pine cones. The cones were placed on end and
+covered with dry grass which was burned, ridding the cones of
+pitch. After this heat treatment, sugar pine nuts came out easily
+when cone scales were pulled back. After singeing the heavy
+digger pine cones were hit with rocks to obtain the large nuts they
+contained.</p>
+<p>The white sweet crusty deposit occasionally found on the bark
+of sugar pines was relished as candy by Atsugewi. However, it had
+a laxative property which mountain Maidu recognized and reputedly
+employed as such.</p>
+<p>A variety of small plant seeds also provided tasty nutrition.
+Several members of the sunflower family including balsam root
+species and mules ears, and others were used by all local tribes.
+Such seeds were usually collected by beating them with paddle-shaped
+basketry seed beaters into burden baskets. They were then
+parched with coals in flat trays, placed in flat baskets and worked
+about with stones until freed of skins. Seeds were winnowed by
+tossing them up allowing wind to carry hulls and skins away. The
+seeds were then pulverized with a small stone or muller, being
+rolled or rubbed on a larger rock slab generally referred to as a
+metate. Such seeds were eaten dry by Atsugewi, Yana, and Yahi
+without grinding, or the flour might be moistened and molded into
+cakes about the size of biscuits and eaten without further cooking.
+However, Yana also cooked certain sunflower seeds and the yellow
+blossoming heads of the small (<i>Helianthella</i>) sunflower were themselves
+cooked and eaten.</p>
+<p>Clover tops were collected in summer and eaten fresh by all
+local tribes. Mountain Maidu also baked them in earth pit ovens,
+then dried and stored the material to be recooked in winter for
+making soup. Atsugewi cooked clover roots in ovens. Young thistle
+stalks were eaten raw as was the foliage of several carrot-like
+plants. Mushrooms, fresh, roasted, or dried were eaten also. Young
+soap-plant stems were eaten fresh or baked and dried for winter
+use by Yana tribes.</p>
+<p>Manzanita berries were gathered by all Indians of the Lassen
+region in July and August. These berries were knocked into burden
+baskets with a stick. They were dried, stored in pits, pounded
+when needed, and sifted as fine meal. This was moistened and
+molded into biscuit-sized cakes and put away until wanted. Either
+fresh flour or the cakes were eaten plain or put into water and
+drunk. One investigator reported fermentation of manzanita cider
+and its use as a mild intoxicant, but this appears to have been the
+exception rather than the rule. The drink, of lemonade-like character,
+<span class="pb" id="Page_58">58</span>
+was usually consumed fresh. Manzanita cider was conveyed
+to the mouth by dipping a deer tail sop into the liquid, and then by
+sucking it. Small cakes were made of a mixture of manzanita and
+wild plum flours. Yana and Yahi also ate manzanita berries as such
+either fresh, or roasted and dried.</p>
+<p>Red berries of skunk or squaw bush were gathered in midsummer,
+washed, dried, and stored. They were pounded into flour in a mortar
+basket, mixed with manzanita flour and drunk. Elderberries were
+mashed and mixed with manzanita flour and stored as cakes.</p>
+<p>Wild plums were prepared by removing seeds. These were then
+eaten fresh or dried for storage.</p>
+<p>Chokecherries and service berries were put into baskets when
+ripe and mashed. The paste was eaten without cooking.</p>
+<p>Gooseberries, huckleberries, currants, Oregon-grape, buckthorn,
+juniper, thimble, and elderberries were eaten fresh, too, but juniper
+fruits might be dried and pounded into flour and stored.</p>
+<p>Another item used as food was salt which mountain Maidu and
+Yana gathered locally in mineral form. The Atsugewi also imported
+it from Round Mountain in North Yana territory or made expeditions
+to this site to gather the dark salt material from a certain marsh.
+This salty earth was shaped into black loaves and dried. It was
+not only used for flavoring, but the black soil was also eaten as
+such by some individuals. Atsugewi had a local source of salt,
+however, by collecting fine whitish crystals in the early mornings
+from the blades of salt grass which was run between the fingers.
+Atsugewi used salt for salmon and venison in cooking, but not in
+drying processes.</p>
+<p>Pine pitch was chewed, but Atsugewi also used milkweed chewing
+gum.</p>
+<p>As for eating customs, Atsugewi ate three meals each day.
+Mountain Maidu just prepared two real meals. Hands were washed
+after eating deer and bear meats. Mountain Maidu wiped faces and
+hands with bark and grass after eating.</p>
+<p>There was a well defined division of labor among California
+Indians. Men would carry water for unusually long distances or
+heavy logs for firewood, but women usually carried water, wood,
+acorn and root crops, and the like. In the case of moving camp,
+however, men carried the heaviest burdens. The most important
+division of labor was the delegation to men of all activities concerning
+animals and animal products, and to women all pertaining
+to vegetable materials. Women, for instance, collected materials
+for basketry and made all the baskets, except that men often made
+basketry fish traps and nets. Women dug roots and cooked all food
+<span class="pb" id="Page_59">59</span>
+except meat which men normally cooked. Exception to this rule
+was necessarily made when men were away on hunting trips or at
+war. Men usually built the houses, made moccasins and skin
+clothing too.</p>
+<p>Among Atsugewi and mountain Maidu only men made fire, but
+this was accomplished by both sexes among the Yana and Yahi.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_60">60</div>
+<h2 id="c11"><span class="small">CHAPTER IX</span>
+<br />HOUSES AND FURNISHINGS</h2>
+<p>The Atsugewi used earth-covered lodges as their permanent
+winter dwellings. These varied in size from about nine feet in
+length, for a single family, to more than thirty feet in length for
+a chief&rsquo;s house which was usually larger than other houses. Most
+frequently houses were about twenty feet long and somewhat
+narrower, being occupied by three to five families. The earth lodge
+was elliptical in shape with one center post planted firmly in the
+earth floor somewhat back of true center. This supported beams
+running to two smaller secondary posts and to earth shoulders
+which resulted from excavation of the entire floor to a depth of
+about three feet. On the beams other poles or rafters and bark slabs
+(usually of incense-cedar) were laid. The whole sloping roof was
+then covered with pine needles and a layer of earth.</p>
+<p>The main entrance was through a hole about in the center of the
+roof. Over this a heavy mat was placed in bad weather. This opening
+also served as a smoke hole. A ladder made of two poles with
+cross pieces tied on with serviceberry withes was used inside.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig13">
+<img src="images/p14.jpg" alt="" width="719" height="800" />
+<p class="pcap">The Northeast (mountain)
+Maidu earth lodge plan used
+only three primary posts
+plus secondary entrance
+posts.</p>
+</div>
+<dl class="undent pcap"><dt>logs or poles</dt>
+<dt>a fireplace</dt>
+<dt>b mainpost with forked top</dt>
+<dt>c front posts with forked tops</dt></dl>
+<p>A secondary entrance of small size, used by children, was built
+<span class="pb" id="Page_61">61</span>
+horizontally at ground level on the south (front) end of the house. It
+projected tunnel-like a short distance beyond the lodge outside wall.
+The main purpose of this ground-level opening was to act as a ventilator
+duct to supply draft for proper burning of the cooking and house
+warming fire which burned in front of the center post. At night the
+ventilator duct was closed. This reduced air supply, causing the
+fire to burn very slowly. Glowing coals developed as a result.
+These produced reduced but adequate heat for the occupants who
+slept with their feet to the fire. Men did all of the house construction
+work except for excavation. The women did this with digging
+sticks and wooden or basketry scoops with which they threw the
+dirt out of the pit. Excavation of the floor of the lodge not only
+made it easier to construct a strong house, but contributed materially
+to the warmth of the standard winter house.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig14">
+<img src="images/p14a.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="613" />
+<p class="pcap">Typical winter house of the local permanent Indian villages at lower
+elevations.</p>
+</div>
+<p>There was no furniture as such. Each family used an assigned
+portion of the house, and cooked its own food, but utilized the
+central communal fire. A thin layer of grass, carefully kept away
+from the fire, covered the floor. The Indians slept on the floor on
+mats made of tule. During the day these and the sleeping blankets
+were rolled up and provided the only seats. However, sitting
+<span class="pb" id="Page_62">62</span>
+usually consisted of squatting on the floor.</p>
+<p>Blankets of deer and elk skin were generally used. Atsugewi
+also used loose tule or grass blankets and all our tribes employed
+both woven rabbit skin and patchwork rabbit or fox blankets. Yana
+in addition to all the foregoing utilized bear skins; sometimes they
+removed the hair from their blankets.</p>
+<p>Atsugewi pillows were of bundles of leaves or grass while those
+of the mountain Maidu were harder, being merely piles of small
+poles, blocks of wood, or rocks.</p>
+<p>Interior earth walls of the houses were sometimes hung with tule
+mats or skins fastened with pegs to prevent dirt from sloughing off
+and rolling onto the floor. A few shelves might also be provided
+by laying wooden slabs on sticks driven into the dirt walls.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig15">
+<img src="images/p15.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="562" />
+<p class="pcap">Atsugewi bark house</p>
+</div>
+<p>There were other less substantial winter houses consisting
+either of small double lean-tos of bark slabs or conical houses on
+frameworks of slender poles and with shallow excavations. Some
+dirt was thrown against the outside walls for added warmth. Lazy
+people, who were usually consequently poor in the necessities and
+comforts of normal Indian life, lived in this more flimsy type of
+house. Also, women when indisposed repaired to such huts. A
+doorway was left in the siding to be closed by a tule mat in these
+little houses. They were also equipped with small smoke holes
+<span class="pb" id="Page_63">63</span>
+for central fires.</p>
+<p>Atsugewi summer houses as such really did not exist. Summer
+camps were little more than circular enclosures of brush, juniper,
+or other conifer limbs or of rock. These were ten or fifteen feet
+across with openings to the east. There was no roof, although
+branches and bark slabs might be put over crude frames in rainy
+weather. If a person were caught in a sudden shower he might make
+a temporary shelter by leaning bark slabs, if available, against a
+large rock or log lying on the ground.</p>
+<p>Atsugewi did not have any separate sweat houses nor dancing
+or assembly chambers, but used the larger earth lodge houses for
+these purposes. The largest belonged to chiefs and to other well-to-do
+Indians. Heat for sweating was provided directly by fire and
+not by production of steam as was the case with Plains Indians
+who threw water on hot stones. In recent years, however, after
+introduction of the horse, Atsugewi learned the latter technique and
+also constructed Plains Indian type sweat houses of one to three
+person capacity. These were dome shaped, and built of willow
+poles set in the ground in a circle. The tops were bent over and
+tied down, and this framework was covered with skins.</p>
+<p>Old type sweating was for men only, but Indian women&mdash;usually
+wives&mdash;also sweated with men in the new style separate sweat
+houses. Old time Atsugewi purposes in sweating were for gaining
+success in hunting, in gambling, and for general good luck. Some
+praying was done, but there were no formalized ceremonies or
+dances amongst the Atsugewi. Men sometimes slept in sweat
+houses.</p>
+<p>In the case of all local tribes sweating was followed by a cold
+plunge, if available nearby. Lacking this facility, a cold sponge
+bath was taken.</p>
+<p>The mountain Maidu earth lodge for dwelling and sweating was
+similar to that of the Atsugewi. However, northeast Maidu earth
+lodges &ldquo;koom&rdquo; were simpler and smaller than those of northwest
+and southern Maidu. Three posts, often forked were used in place
+of 10 or 11 employed for valley lodges. Excavation was about
+three feet deep, circular in plan, and from 18 to 40 feet across.
+A large flat stone was placed upright at the foot of the mainpost
+between it and the fire in the center. The vertical walls of the
+excavation were usually covered or lined with vertically placed
+whole or split logs or with bark slabs. Logs were lain horizontally
+on the three posts as indicated on the accompanying sketch. Radial
+rafters supporting the roof were placed on these beams and sloping
+downward to the ground surface outside as well as to two small
+<span class="pb" id="Page_64">64</span>
+posts at the small openway or ventilator passage. Cross poles
+were placed horizontally on the rafters and on these, large pieces
+of bark, branches, and pine needles were successively laid. Lastly,
+a heavy covering of soil 8 to 20 inches thick was heaped on the
+structure. On top in the center a smokehole was left, large enough
+to serve as the main entrance originally, but after the coming of
+white man, the smokehole was made smaller, and, instead, the
+originally small ventilator tunnel which sloped from floor level up
+to the ground surface outside was enlarged, thus supplanting the
+smokehole as the main entrance. Originally a ladder of two poles
+with cross pieces tied on with grapevine or other withes gave
+vertical access from the floor to the smokehole entrance. Dixon
+reports that a notched log was sometimes used for the purpose
+among mountain Maidu.</p>
+<p>The koom or lodge was occupied from November to March and
+was situated on the edges of wide meadows in mountain Maidu
+areas. At lower elevation occupancy was more or less continuous.</p>
+<p>Mountain Maidu did not have separate sweat houses. They always
+used a large earth dwelling lodge for the purpose. This was
+similar to the Atsugewi practice. These Maidu did, however, have
+a formalized sweat dance. Also different from the Atsugewi was the
+practice of men using the sweat house for gambling, handicraft
+work, and competitive singing.</p>
+<p>The &ldquo;hoe-bow&rdquo; of the mountain Maidu was a hut, 8 to 15 feet
+in diameter and excavated 12 to 15 inches deep. Two main poles
+were securely tied near the end. From the resulting &ldquo;V&rdquo; at the
+top, shorter poles were laid to a pair of slender posts about three
+feet high and set about three feet apart along the edge of the excavation.
+Against this frame branches, bark, and leaves were piled
+and earth was heaped around the bottom. The doors of all such
+bark huts opened to the south and were hung with a skin or tule
+mat.</p>
+<p>The rude summer shelter or shade provider was just like that of
+the Atsugewi.</p>
+<p>Information on Yahi house details are somewhat scanty, but in
+all probability they were small conical bark-covered huts while
+some larger earth lodges were built to house several families&mdash;in
+general similar, but perhaps smaller than those of the other tribes
+of the Lassen area. The large pretentious lodge, constructed
+solely for sweating and ceremonies, of the Sacramento Valley tribes
+seems to have been lacking among all of our local tribes.</p>
+<p>The common bark hut dwelling of the Yana was apparently built
+<span class="pb" id="Page_65">65</span>
+over a circular depression two feet deep, the top of the house rising
+about six feet above the ground. It was probably like the mountain
+Maidu huts, being a series of poles resting on the edges of the excavation.
+These met and were tied at the top to form a cone of low
+slope, although some informants claimed that the posts were set
+so firmly that tying together was omitted. The frames were covered
+with pine and incense-cedar bark slabs leaving a smoke hole near
+each apex. Earth was probably banked on the lower sloping walls.
+Entrance was never through the smoke hole as in the case of
+Atsugewi and some mountain Maidu earth lodge houses, but by
+means of a small door at ground level on the south side. The entrance
+was protected by a little covered way extending outward
+three feet from the house wall, and decked over by a gable roof of
+low pitch. A ramp of low pitch extended from the floor of the house
+through this antechamber to the ground level outside as no steps
+were constructed.</p>
+<p>The Yana lodge houses were not numerous. The ground plan
+was long, usually wedge or oval in outline and designed for several
+families, each with its own fire. As with the other tribes discussed
+in this booklet, such buildings also served as sweat houses. A
+ladder consisting of a notched log extended down from the smoke
+hole to the floor. One, two, or three center posts with radiating
+rafters and shorter side posts were employed. The Yana followed
+the Atsugewi practice of providing each earth lodge with a south
+facing, ground level, tunnel-like ventilator entrance of small size.
+It is possible that Yana did have a few special sweating lodges
+of the same design, but the matter is debatable. During sweating
+Yana men talked and played; the main purpose of sweating was to
+make men strong.</p>
+<p>It has already been pointed out that all four tribes which used
+what is now Lassen Volcanic National Park did so only during the
+summer. During their high mountain sojourn, the local Indians did
+not live in houses as such. There, residence during the three or
+four summer months was in temporary camps, usually roofless
+circular areas to accommodate several families. These were fenced
+in with brush and were entered by one or more openings somewhat
+in the same manner as campsites reserved for visitors at their
+permanent villages at lower elevations. Four-posted horizontal
+roofs, to provide shade, were sometimes constructed too. Yana
+seem to have made a lean-to or hut with grass and bark covering
+for summer roofs.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_66">66</div>
+<h2 id="c12"><span class="small">Chapter X</span>
+<br />HOUSEHOLD TOOLS, IMPLEMENTS, AND WEAPONS</h2>
+<p>Implements for grinding foods were important. Mountain Maidu,
+in fact all Maidu tribes, ground some acorns on flat bed rock. When
+the resultant holes which eventually developed in the rock surfaces
+became deep, they were abandoned as the acorn meal tended to
+pack into hard lumps at the bottoms thereof. A heavy flat stone
+grinding slab was most frequently used. However, all Lassen area
+tribes had portable stone mortar bowls too. The Atsugewi and
+mountain Maidu did not make these nor did they use them for grinding
+food. Such portable stone mortars were found, evidently having
+been fashioned by more ancient tribes. Supernatural powers were
+ascribed to these mortars, and they were used only by shamans or
+medicine men. The Maidu thought that stone mortar bowls were
+made by Coyote at the time of creation and scattered over the world
+for the use of mankind. Others believed the mortars to have been
+&ldquo;first people&rdquo; originally, who were turned to stones in this form
+upon the coming of the Indian people at which time other &ldquo;first
+people&rdquo; were transformed into animals.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig16">
+<img src="images/p16.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="478" />
+<p class="pcap">Northeast Maidu soapstone bowl
+six inches wide&mdash;a rare article (after Dixon)</p>
+</div>
+<p>As has been described under the preparation of acorn mush,
+local tribes used the flat stone pounding slab under an open
+bottomed hopper basket, most commonly. The hopper basket of
+the Atsugewi and mountain Maidu was usually of twined construction
+and bound often with buckskin about the basal edge. Mountain
+Maidu sometimes employed their coiling technique in making the
+acorn pounding basket. It was from this tribe, at the turn of the
+<span class="pb" id="Page_67">67</span>
+century, that Atsugewi learned to make their pounding hopper
+baskets of the stronger coiled construction.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig17">
+<img src="images/p16a.jpg" alt="" width="402" height="670" />
+<p class="pcap">Maidu stone axe head,
+5 inches long (after Dixon)</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig18">
+<img src="images/p16b.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="700" />
+<p class="pcap">One of several seed
+beater types used locally</p>
+</div>
+<p>Pestles of stone were long, smoothed, and sometimes flattened
+on the sides. This resulted from use of these implements also as
+rubbing or mulling stones for processing small seeds on flat slabs
+without employment of basket hoppers. The pestles were always
+without the ornamentation used by certain other California tribes.
+The pounding end of the food grinding pestles are ever so slightly
+convex&mdash;their grinding surfaces are nearly flat. This is in contrast
+to pestles used in the deep bowl-shaped portable stone
+mortars for ceremonial purposes. The grinding ends of these pestles
+were strongly rounded, nearly hemispherical in shape.</p>
+<p>The muller or small seed crusher used on the flat grinding slab
+without a hopper basket was of oval or rectangular shape, and it
+too was unornamented.</p>
+<p>Small brushes used in miscellaneous food preparation were made
+of pounded dried soap-plant bulb fibers.</p>
+<p>Hot rocks for cooking were usually handled with two sticks.
+None of our tribes used spoons. Crude obsidian knives with, or
+more commonly without, bone handles were used for many chores.</p>
+<p>Yana used split cobble stones for cutting and scraping operations.
+Their stone knives sometimes had wrapped buckskin handles.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_68">68</div>
+<p>Bone awls, usually with wrapped handles, were commonly used
+for sewing buckskin and other hides. Atsugewi are said by some to
+have had both eyed and open notched needles of bone for sewing
+skins and tule mats.</p>
+<p>The wooden shuttle for net weaving was a stick notched at both
+ends and was used by all of the local tribes. A squarish wooden
+net mesh spacer permitted nets to be properly made.</p>
+<p>Mountain Maidu used deer antler wedges for splitting wood while
+Atsugewi used wooden wedges&mdash;especially of mountain-mahogany.
+Wedges were usually driven with simple wooden clubs, though rocks
+might be employed for the purpose.</p>
+<p>Drills for boring holes in shell work and for making pipes and
+the like were used by Atsugewi only. Such drills were wooden
+shafts with stone points. These were rotated by rolling the shaft
+between the palms of the hands. Where the drill was not in use,
+holes were made in pieces of wood with live coals. Sometimes
+unfinished clamshell money was received in trade perhaps at a discount.
+Such pieces were strung tightly onto a cord and the whole
+string was then rolled between two flat stones thus grinding the
+shell edges to make the well formed disks characteristic of clam
+shell money.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig19">
+<img src="images/p17.jpg" alt="" width="408" height="538" />
+<p class="pcap">Soap-root fiber acorn meal
+brush about 6 inches long
+(after Dixon)</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig20">
+<img src="images/p17a.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="596" />
+<p class="pcap">A lava pestle, flat ended food
+pounder, about 10 inches long</p>
+</div>
+<p>Fire making drills were of greater importance. All local tribes
+employed them. Those of this area were one-piece hand rotated
+<span class="pb" id="Page_69">69</span>
+affairs which did not utilize the labor saving drill bow of the midwest.
+A long buckeye wood stick about half an inch thick was
+twirled on a notched block of incense-cedar or juniper wood. A
+bed of dry shredded grass and incense-cedar or other flammable
+tinder was used to nourish the spark into flame. Both sexes made
+fire among the Yana and Yahi, but unless the men were away,
+Atsugewi and mountain Maidu women did not make fire. Buckeye
+was uncommon or lacking in the areas of the latter tribes, so this
+material had to be traded from the Yana and Yahi. Buckeye fire
+making sticks commanded quite a price, a piece two feet long often
+selling for ten completed arrows. Since fire making required much
+effort and skill, fire was rarely allowed to go out. A &ldquo;slow match&rdquo;
+consisting of a piece of punky wood in which the fire smouldered
+was usually carried along.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig21">
+<img src="images/p17b.jpg" alt="" width="401" height="599" />
+<p class="pcap">Maidu bone awls or basket &ldquo;needles&rdquo;
+about 6 inches long</p>
+</div>
+<p>It was as true in prehistoric America as it is today that weapons
+were essential to existence. Weapons were necessary not only for
+warfare&mdash;whether aggressive or defensive&mdash;but for the securing
+of game for food since domestication of animals was not practiced.</p>
+<p>The bow and arrow was the only important weapon of California
+Indians. Local bows were rather short and quite broad in cross-section.
+We quote Garth&rsquo;s &ldquo;Atsugewi Ethnography&rdquo; on the subject
+as follows:</p>
+<blockquote>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_70">70</div>
+<p>&ldquo;... The best bows were made by the Atsuge, who had
+a supply of yew wood ... along the western borders of their
+territory. The Paiute were anxious to trade for Atsuge bows
+and considered them much superior to their own. In making the
+bow a piece of yew wood was selected, split, and shaved down
+with flints and pumice stone to the required form and thickness.
+After it had been wrapped in green grass and roasted in
+hot ashes, the bow was bent to required shape (recurved tips
+with a slight incurve at the middle), which it retained when
+it cooled off. Sinew, taken from the back of a deer, was
+softened by chewing and was then glued on the back of the
+bow in short strips, which were rubbed out as flat as possible
+with a smooth piece of bone. Salmon skins were boiled to
+make the glue.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="img" id="fig22">
+<img src="images/p18.jpg" alt="" width="374" height="594" />
+<p class="pcap">Yahi making fire by twirling buckeye
+rod on Incense-cedar block</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig23">
+<img src="images/p18a.jpg" alt="" width="136" height="731" />
+<p class="pcap">Maidu fire drill of buckeye
+(right) about 28 inches long.
+In the two inch wide Incense-cedar
+slab note the
+cut notches with a deeper
+twirling hole at the head of
+each.</p>
+</div>
+<blockquote>
+<p>&ldquo;The designs painted in green and red on the backs of
+<span class="pb" id="Page_71">71</span>
+bows are among the few examples of masculine art. The painting
+was done with a feather tip. The sinew for the bowstring
+... was chewed to make it soft and then it was made into a
+two-ply cord by rolling it with the open hand on the thigh.
+After salmon glue was rubbed in to make the fibers stick together,
+the string was stretched by tying a rock to one end and
+allowing it to hang down from some support. A tassel ... of
+mole skin might be attached to the end of the bow for decoration....</p>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="img" id="fig24">
+<img src="images/p18c.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="703" />
+<p class="pcap">Indian Jack Harding
+after photo by Williams</p>
+<p class="pcapc">&ldquo;Montgomery Creek&rdquo; Indian, part white&mdash;good archer</p>
+<p class="pcapc">An Atsugewi type bow characteristically short, broad, sinew backed
+and held at 45 degree angle in shooting. Note the painted decoration</p>
+</div>
+<blockquote>
+<p>&ldquo;... Flint tipped arrows ... were made of cane or rose
+and had foreshafts of Serviceberry, or they might be entirely of
+Service wood. Cane arrows ... with a sharp-pointed foreshaft
+of Serviceberry were commonly used for small animals
+and birds. Such arrows might be unfeathered ... (an informant)
+recalled a bird arrow ... with a barbed wooden point.
+Deer-bone pointed arrows were sometimes used for killing
+deer and other game. Voegelin reports that these arrows were
+also sometimes barbed. Flint-tipped arrows were about thirty
+<span class="pb" id="Page_72">72</span>
+inches long ... arrows for small game were somewhat shorter
+than flint-tipped arrows ... the wood was ordinarily dried
+before it was used. The end of the Serviceberry foreshaft was
+cut into a dowel which was inserted in the soft pithy center of
+the main shaft, the juncture being wrapped with sinew. A
+notch one-fourth of an inch deep was cut in the butt. A
+laterally notched obsidian arrow point was inserted in the split
+end of the foreshaft and bound on with cross lashings of
+sinew. The binding was ordinarily waterproofed with pitch.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Two small grooved pumice stones were used to smooth
+arrow shafts. The foreshaft was painted red as an indication
+that poison had been applied to the point. Other bands or
+stripes of color toward the nock end of the arrow served as
+ownership marks ... the stripes might run spirally as on a
+stick of candy ... all kinds of colors being used for painting
+arrows. Feathers were split along the midrib and were glued
+to the shaft, about a finger&rsquo;s width below the butt, with pitch.
+Sinew wrapping bound down each end of the feathers, three of
+which&mdash;about four inches long&mdash;were used to an arrow. The
+edge of the feather was burned smooth with a hot coal.
+Feathers of hawks or similar birds were used on ordinary
+arrows, but for the finest arrows&mdash;those to be used for bear
+and deer&mdash;eagle feathers were employed. An arrow wrench
+of bone or wood was used for straightening arrows; or they
+might simply be straightened by using the teeth as a vise. A
+flat antelope horn might be perforated and used as an arrow
+wrench.... (John La Mar) had a small triangular stone with
+a hole in the center ... which, he said was heated in the
+fire and used for straightening cane arrows.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="img" id="fig25">
+<img src="images/p19.jpg" alt="" width="809" height="252" />
+<p class="pcap">Maidu bow 40 inches long and two inches wide, deer sinew backed and
+painted with powdered greenish rock from Oregon mixed with Salmon glue.
+Two arrows are obsidian tipped. (after Dixon)</p>
+</div>
+<blockquote>
+<p>&ldquo;Although the flint points themselves were considered
+<span class="pb" id="Page_73">73</span>
+poisonous, an arrow poison was often used for larger game
+as well as in war. The usual method of making poison was
+to take the liver or pancreas of a deer and allow it to rot;
+the material was then smeared on the arrow point....&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Rattlesnake poison was also employed; however none of the
+poisoned arrow concoctions were very effective except to start
+infection of wounds inflicted by arrow points so treated.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig26">
+<img src="images/p19a.jpg" alt="" width="681" height="431" />
+<p class="pcap">Painted Atsugewi bows (after Garth)</p>
+</div>
+<dl class="undent pcap"><dt>a. Goose Valley, design in red (Apwaruge)</dt>
+<dt>b. Goose Valley, design in red (Apwaruge)</dt>
+<dt>c. Drawn by Dave Brown (Atsuge) with outer lines red, inner lines green</dt></dl>
+<p>Arrow points found in the park area, in the territory of both
+Atsugewi and mountain Maidu are most frequently of obsidian, but
+sometimes are of a dense dull black basalt lava. The term flint
+is a very loose one, being applied to obsidian, chert, opal, chalcedony,
+and even to the dense basalt, noted above, in common usage.</p>
+<p>Mountain Maidu imported yew wood as this did not commonly
+grow in their own territory. This tribe, however, also manufactured
+its own bows. In practically all respects bow and arrow design and
+execution were identical to that of the Atsugewi. Those of Yana
+and Yahi were similar too. All tribes of the Lassen area fashioned
+arrow points with barbs. In addition mountain Maidu flaked points
+without barbs but with basal stems for attachment were made.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_74">74</div>
+<h4>MOUNTAIN MAIDU STONE POINTS</h4>
+<div class="img" id="fig27">
+<img src="images/p20.jpg" alt="" width="207" height="298" />
+<p class="pcap">Dull black obsidian much more convex on one side than on
+the other. From near Corral Meadow; one and one half inches.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig28">
+<img src="images/p20a.jpg" alt="" width="155" height="259" />
+<p class="pcap">Black obsidian near Little Willow Lake; one and one half inches long.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig29">
+<img src="images/p20d.jpg" alt="" width="133" height="316" />
+<p class="pcap">Dense black basalt from Terminal Geyser; one and five eighths inches.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig30">
+<img src="images/p20e.jpg" alt="" width="133" height="169" />
+<p class="pcap">Black obsidian near Little Willow Lake, one inch long.</p>
+</div>
+<h4>ATSUGEWI KNIFE (?) AND ARROW POINT</h4>
+<div class="img" id="fig31">
+<img src="images/p20f.jpg" alt="" width="181" height="585" />
+<p class="pcap">Black obsidian
+spear point or
+knife from south
+shore of Summit
+Lake; four inches.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig32">
+<img src="images/p20g.jpg" alt="" width="137" height="284" />
+<p class="pcap">Dark gray banded
+point from Northeast
+shore Snag
+Lake; two inches.</p>
+</div>
+<h4>SOUTHERN YANA POINTS</h4>
+<div class="img" id="fig33">
+<img src="images/p20h.jpg" alt="" width="159" height="163" />
+<p class="pcap">Dark gray obsidian
+point from Battle
+Creek Meadows.
+Note unusually
+strong asymmetry
+in two planes; one
+inch long.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig34">
+<img src="images/p20k.jpg" alt="" width="228" height="520" />
+<p class="pcap">Coarse gray lava
+knife (?) from Battle
+Creek Meadows;
+Three and one half
+inches long.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_75">75</div>
+<p>The bow was most frequently held in shooting at an angle of
+about 45 degrees with the arrow on top. Mountain Maidu used that
+style, too, or else held the bow horizontally with the arrow on top
+except in case of war when the arrow was held on the underside of
+the bow. Gifford and Klimak reveal that northern and central Yana
+held the bow horizontally. Sapir and Spier found that the Yana
+tribes proper (not Yahi), however held bows vertically in shooting.
+All tribes considered except Yahi used the primary release of the
+arrow in shooting. In this method the arrow was held between the
+index and third fingers, which caught and pulled back the string.
+The thumb held the other side of the arrow. The Yahi, on the other
+hand used the Mongolian release; grasping the arrow with the thumb
+and unbent first joints of the first and second fingers.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig35">
+<img src="images/p20m.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="72" />
+<p class="pcap">Maidu bone arrow point flaker about ten inches long (after Dixon)</p>
+</div>
+<blockquote>
+<p>&ldquo;... the arrow was let fly between the index and third
+finger of the left hand, which held the bow. Many arrow points
+were uniface and curved slightly to one side.... A hunter,
+when shooting at a distant object, turned the arrow so that the
+point curved up; when shooting an object close by, he turned
+the arrow so that the point curved down. A hunter carried at
+least one arrow in his left hand with his bow. Extra arrows
+were carried in a quiver ... (made of) coyote, raccoon, or
+other skins. Ordinarily the hunter carried his quiver on his
+back, but if he wanted to be able to reach the arrows easily,
+he hung it on his ... shoulder so that it fell under his left
+armpit. Arrows were taken from the quiver with the right
+hand.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Inside the quiver, at the bottom, a cushion of dry
+grass was placed to prevent the stone points from chipping each
+other.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig36">
+<img src="images/p20n.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="407" />
+<p class="pcap">Maidu arrow-straightener
+and smoother of sandstone
+about three inches long
+(after Dixon)</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_76">76</div>
+<h4>YAHI STONE POINTS</h4>
+<div class="img" id="fig37">
+<img src="images/p21.jpg" alt="" width="83" height="118" />
+<p class="pcap">Nearly colorless
+obsidian south of
+Sulphur Works;
+three quarters inch.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig38">
+<img src="images/p21a.jpg" alt="" width="81" height="169" />
+<p class="pcap">Off-white chalcedony
+point south of
+Sulphur Works area;
+one and one half
+inches.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig39">
+<img src="images/p21c.jpg" alt="" width="133" height="219" />
+<p class="pcap">Black obsidian one
+and one quarter
+inches long and a
+full one half inch
+thick.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig40">
+<img src="images/p21e.jpg" alt="" width="291" height="442" />
+<p class="pcap">Three inch point of coarse
+gray lava from Mill Creek
+Canyon.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig41">
+<img src="images/p21g.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="307" />
+<p class="pcap">Black obsidian. South of
+Sulphur Works, one and
+one half inches.</p>
+</div>
+<hr class="dwide" />
+<div class="img" id="fig42">
+<img src="images/p21h.jpg" alt="" width="783" height="343" />
+<p class="pcap">Yana arrow points one and one half to two inches long. The materials
+used are mostly black obsidian, also dark grey and buff obsidian. One
+is of dense black basalt.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_77">77</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig43">
+<img src="images/p21k.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="395" />
+<p class="pcap">A pair of Yana arrow smoother and
+straightening stones made of porous
+glassy (pre-Lassen?) dacite pumice,
+length about two and one half inches</p>
+</div>
+<p>War clubs were not used. Atsugewi claim to have had a stone
+axe, sharpened by chipping and lashed with sinew to a split oak
+or mountain-mahogany handle a foot or so long. It was used for
+chopping roots and small trees on occasion, but the stone axe was
+certainly not widely used by California Indians, and even among
+Atsugewi it may have been unknown until the coming of white man,
+or knowledge of it may have been gained from Plains Indians after
+the advent of the horse. The tomahawk, so important to Indians of
+eastern and midwestern North America, was unknown to California
+Indians. Trees were normally felled and cut by controlled burning.</p>
+<p>Four-foot spears, tipped with large flaked stone points for fighting
+at close quarters, were used by all local tribes on occasion,
+but were not numerous. Only the Yana are believed to have thrown
+the weapon; the more common usage seems to have been by energetically
+thrusting it.</p>
+<p>Knives or daggers as fighting implements were made of chipped
+obsidian but were quite rare. A short, crude, one edged, stone
+knife was used widely as a general utility implement, but not in
+combat nor in killing game. Yana Indians also employed a mussel
+shell knife for light delicate work around camp. Atsugewi and
+mountain Maidu sometimes affixed wooden handles to their obsidian
+knives. These two tribes also fashioned knives of sharpened bone
+and horn.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig44">
+<img src="images/p21m.jpg" alt="" width="528" height="111" />
+<p class="pcap">A wooden arrow straightener from
+northern California (Yurok)</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig45">
+<img src="images/p21n.jpg" alt="" width="286" height="171" />
+<p class="pcap">Atsugewi stone arrow-straightener</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_78">78</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig46">
+<img src="images/p22.jpg" alt="" width="432" height="870" />
+<p class="pcap">Mountain Maidu arrow quiver
+made of an inside-out small mammal skin.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig47">
+<img src="images/p22c.jpg" alt="" width="444" height="878" />
+<p class="pcap">Atsugewi cased fox skin quiver made
+by slitting animal&rsquo;s skin along its
+hind legs, turning skin inside out,
+and finally sewing the mouth and eye
+openings shut.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig48">
+<img src="images/p22c1.jpg" alt="" width="425" height="775" />
+<p class="pcap"><span class="center">4&frac12; inches  <span class="hst">7 inches</span></span>
+<br />Maidu stone knives of obsidian,
+one with a wooden and sinew handle
+(after Dixon)</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig49">
+<img src="images/p22d.jpg" alt="" width="406" height="764" />
+<p class="pcap">A warrior in stick armor
+and fur helmet</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_79">79</div>
+<p>Of equipment for warfare, Garth states:</p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>&ldquo;Defensive armor included rod armor ..., gowns ...
+of dried elk or bear skins, and skin helmets which came down
+over the forehead and ears, &lsquo;so a man could just see out of it&rsquo;.
+The skin armor extended to the ankles or lower; it was worn
+over one shoulder so that it protected only the side of the body
+turned toward the enemy. Rod armor, made of serviceberry
+withes twined together with buckskin string, was high enough
+to come up to the neck under the chin and extended two or
+three inches below the belt. The Plains Indian shield, although
+found among the Surprise Valley Paiute and other Paiute tribes
+to the east, was lacking among the Atsugewi,&rdquo; and all other
+tribes of the Lassen area.</p>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_80">80</div>
+<h2 id="c13"><span class="small">Chapter XI</span>
+<br />BASKETRY AND TEXTILES</h2>
+<p>The outstanding art of the Indians of California was their
+basketry. In fact the excellence of California basketry generally
+is not exceeded elsewhere in North America. Size varies from that
+of a pea to that of a bushel basket. Both weave and ornamentation
+were very diversified.</p>
+<p>Basketry of the Lassen area, especially that of the Atsugewi
+and mountain Maidu, was of good quality. Both coiled and twined
+types of basketry (to be described below) were made by mountain
+Maidu, but the Atsugewi did not learn the art of coiled basketry
+from the Maidu until the early 1900&rsquo;s. Yana and Yahi wove both
+types but twined baskets were by far the more numerous. This is
+due to the fact that these tribes were akin to the twining tribes of
+the north. Close contact with the neighboring Wintun tribes of the
+Sacramento Valley resulted in the addition of limited amount of
+coiling technique in their basketry making over the years.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig50">
+<img src="images/p23.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="414" />
+<p class="pcap">Technique of the three willow
+rod (or rib) coiled basketry
+(after Otis T. Mason). Note that
+the lashing strand anchors the
+three new ribs &ldquo;a&rdquo;, &ldquo;b&rdquo;, and
+&ldquo;c&rdquo; to the top rib &ldquo;d&rdquo; of the
+preceding three &ldquo;d&rdquo;, &ldquo;e&rdquo;, and
+&ldquo;f&rdquo; group</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig51">
+<img src="images/p23a.jpg" alt="" width="505" height="309" />
+<p class="pcap">Simple twined basketry technique
+employs two weft (lashing)
+strands, but when overlaying
+with another material is
+done two or more layers will
+make up each of the strands
+&ldquo;a&rdquo; and &ldquo;b&rdquo; (modified from
+Otis T. Mason)</p>
+</div>
+<p>Coiled basketry itself had some technical variations with which
+we shall not concern ourselves. The coiling technique was characteristic
+of the central and southern part of the California area.
+Mountain Maidu used three willow rods in a parallel group which
+ran as a core in a continuous spiral starting at the center of the
+basket. This was the warp element. The bundle of three willow
+ribs was lashed to the preceding basketry by a strand or weft (filler)
+of the inner bark of redbud. This was accomplished by poking an
+awl through the preceding row, and separating the stitches. In
+<span class="pb" id="Page_81">81</span>
+doing so, the awl was passed under the topmost of the core or warp
+of three coiling willow ribs. A redbud bark strand was then slipped
+through the awl hole, thus lashing the three loose willow ribs down
+by passing the strand around them and through the next awl hole in
+the preceding row. Recent Atsugewi coiled basketry technique is
+similar in all details, having been learned from the Maidu.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig52">
+<img src="images/p23c.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="557" />
+<p class="pcap">Variations of the simple twined basketry technique: a, method of
+starting the round root-cleaning basket; b, detail of side wall of
+basket showing open work weave. (Garth)</p>
+</div>
+<p>Twined basketry consisted of willow ribs radiating from a
+common center. These twigs were the warp. The weft of filling
+and binding stitches were split pine root strands. Dixon states
+that mountain Maidu sometimes dyed pine root black by burying it
+in mud mixed with charcoal. Pine root was tightly woven in to make
+the bottom of the basket which was normally undecorated. More
+and more willow ribs were added as the basket became larger. The
+willow ribs were curved up when willow rib additions were decreased.
+As the sides began to be built up on these twined baskets,
+each pine root stitch, both inside and outside, was covered with a
+whitish strand of bear-grass or squaw-grass. The tops of baskets
+were often left unfinished after the unused willow warps were
+clipped off. The basket did not unravel in use. However, the best
+baskets were finished by adding a marginal strengthening ring of
+choke cherry or willow which was bound to the basket body firmly
+and neatly, usually by wrapping with strands of redbud bark. During
+weaving willow withes were fastened inside of the basket to help
+it retain its shape, but these were removed upon completion of the
+basket.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_82">82</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig53">
+<img src="images/p24.jpg" alt="" width="732" height="1000" />
+<p class="pcap">Side outline shapes of Maidu baskets (after Dixon). The plan of virtually
+all Maidu baskets was circular. Twined storage baskets are up to three
+feet in diameter for holding seed, meal, etc. Open twined construction
+was used for storage of whole acorns, fish, and meat. Flatish circular
+basketry plaque was for &ldquo;vibration sifting&rdquo;.</p>
+</div>
+<table class="center">
+<tr><td class="c"><i class="ssn">FOOD BOWL<br />DIPPING<br />GENERAL UTILITY</i> </td><td class="c"><i class="ssn">STORAGE<br />COOKING</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="c"><i class="ssn">FOOD BOWL<br />DIPPER<br />GENERAL UTILITY</i> </td><td class="c"><i class="ssn">STORAGE<br />COOKING</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="c"><i class="ssn">COOKING</i> </td><td class="c"><i class="ssn">STORAGE<br />COOKING</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="c"><i class="ssn">FOOD BOWL<br />DIPPER<br />GENERAL UTILITY</i> </td><td class="c"><i class="ssn">STORAGE<br />COOKING</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="c"><i class="ssn">COOKING</i> </td><td class="c"><i class="ssn">BURDEN</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="c"><i class="ssn">FOOD BOWL<br />DIPPER<br />GENERAL UTILITY</i> </td><td class="c"><i class="ssn">STORAGE<br />COOKING</i></td></tr>
+<tr><td class="c"><i class="ssn">TRAYS or large BASKET COVER</i> </td><td class="c"><i class="ssn">TRAY or BASKET COVER</i></td></tr>
+</table>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_83">83</div>
+<p>Some utility baskets were undecorated, being made merely of
+pine root and willow, or, if coiled, of redbud and willow. However,
+most baskets bore some designs. They were all named and were
+inspired by the objects of nature about these outdoor peoples, and
+not the product of their imaginations. Nevertheless, the designs
+are quite stylized, often to the extent that recognition of the inspiration
+is difficult or impossible.</p>
+<p>In the case of twined baskets the designs were made by substituting
+outer redbud bark for squaw-grass to produce a dull red
+instead of the white overlaid stitches of the rest of the basket.
+As a result of the double twining technique the designs were seen
+equally well on the inside and the outside of each basket. Black
+designs were of overlaid maidenhair fern (<i>Adiantum pedatum</i>) stems.
+However, mountain Maidu also used common bracken fern (<i>Pteris
+aquilinum</i>) for black designs. Indians to the north of the Atsugewi
+used roots and stems of certain sedges treated with charcoal and
+mud or with ashes and water to produce basketry materials of black
+and of warm henna-brown coloration respectively. These were
+used on occasion by Atsugewi. The bear-grass, redbud, and maidenhair
+fern decorative materials were most commonly used by all
+tribes of this area. Atsugewi are the only local Indians to have
+used feathers to adorn their baskets. They used the shiny iridescent
+blue-green feathers from the necks of male mallard ducks. This
+was not common, however, and by no means used as often nor
+developed to the fine art and diversity of the famous Pomo feathered
+basketry of the Clear Lake region of the California Coast Range.
+Atsugewi are also believed to have occasionally adorned some
+basketry work with shell beads and porcupine quills, but this must
+have been quite rare or more examples would have survived to the
+present day.</p>
+<p>Outer bark of redbud almost always decorated coiled baskets.</p>
+<p>Concerning Maidu basketry Dixon states that the vast majority
+of the articles are of the coiled type, twining technique being used
+only for burden baskets and hopper or grinding baskets. For the
+radial ribs of the former they used shoots of hazel (<i>Corylus
+rostrata</i> var. <i>californica</i>) when available. He points out too, the
+frequent use of the feather, quail-tip, and arrow-point designs not
+only among the mountain Maidu, but among all Maidu. A characteristic
+of this group of Indians also, in contrast to other local
+tribes, is the tendency to confine one design to a basket rather than
+combining designs. Maidu employed a wide variety of designs.
+Many of them represent animals and plants. A considerable number
+of Maidu patterns exhibit a more or less obscure realism which
+becomes apparent only after one is informed as to what the design
+means. The Maidu show a tendency also toward arrangement of
+design elements in spiral or zigzag lines.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_84">84</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig54">
+<img src="images/p25.jpg" alt="" width="491" height="375" />
+<p class="pcap">Atsugewi basket, twined
+and overlaid with bear-grass
+and maiden hair fern.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig55">
+<img src="images/p25a.jpg" alt="" width="617" height="473" />
+<p class="pcap">Maidu hopper, pounding,
+or milling basket of
+twined construction on
+rock mortar slab.
+Diameter about eighteen
+inches (after Dixon).</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig56">
+<img src="images/p25h.jpg" alt="" width="488" height="440" />
+<p class="pcap">Atsugewi general utility
+basket of twined construction
+with lizard foot design.
+Underside shown to reveal
+dark (actually tan-colored)
+area of bare split pine root
+weft without bear-grass or
+maiden hair overlay.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig57">
+<img src="images/p25k.jpg" alt="" width="697" height="637" />
+<p class="pcap">Coiled type Atsugewi
+hopper basket with flying
+geese design. View
+shows pounding hole in
+bottom of basket, in this
+case bound with buckskin.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_85">85</div>
+<p>Dixon noted that &ldquo;mussel&rsquo;s tongue&rdquo; (the fresh water mussel)
+is one of the unique and peculiar basketry designs used by the
+Atsugewi. Representation of intestines and deer excrement are also
+worthy of special mention for this tribe. Other common Atsugewi
+designs in basketry decoration are lizard, deer rib, owl&rsquo;s claw, and
+flying geese, as well as arrow-point. Two or more different designs
+are often combined on a single basket. Among Atsugewi and
+Achomawi there seems to be no restriction of certain patterns to
+baskets intended for special uses. Like mountain Maidu, zigzag
+and spiral arrangements are preferred, horizontal bands being rare.
+Curiously an Atsugewi design is often given different meaning by
+different individual Indians. This is in contrast to the uniformity
+of interpretation of a given design by all the Maidu individuals,
+normally.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig58">
+<img src="images/p25m.jpg" alt="" width="832" height="442" />
+<p class="pcap">Maidu open twined &ldquo;tray&rdquo; or plate-like basket about ten inches long
+(after Dixon)</p>
+</div>
+<p>Yana tribes frequently substituted another material for willow
+ribs. The identity of this warp is not certain. Reliable students
+believe it to be hazelnut twigs, but to my knowledge that plant is
+scarce indeed even in the foothill territory. Yana and Yahi had
+some other peculiarities in their basketry. Designs were sometimes
+wrought in a negative way, that is by merely leaving off
+overlay so that the design was thereby defined in exposed pine
+root weft. Sapir and Spier found that these tribes also used alder
+bark for dying basketry decoration materials a red-brown. A reddish
+color was produced on peeled shield fern stems by passing them
+through the mouth while chewing dogwood bark. They dyed pine
+roots, too, on occasion with a red soil or with the powdery filling
+of spores from the inside of a fungus obtained from certain coniferous
+trees. These variations of basketry decoration do not seem to
+have been used by the Atsugewi and mountain Maidu.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_86">86</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig59">
+<img src="images/p26.jpg" alt="" width="342" height="246" />
+<p class="pcap">Maidu fish-teeth design on
+coiled basket.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig60">
+<img src="images/p26a.jpg" alt="" width="513" height="233" />
+<p class="pcap">Mountain Maidu geese-flying
+design on coiled basket.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig61">
+<img src="images/p26d.jpg" alt="" width="392" height="494" />
+<p class="pcap">Atsugewi lizard&rsquo;s claw or
+lizard&rsquo;s foot design.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig62">
+<img src="images/p26e.jpg" alt="" width="514" height="242" />
+<p class="pcap">Mountain Maidu mountains
+designs on twined baskets.
+The right hand treatment may
+be repeated in reverse to the
+right making a symmetrical
+pyramid shaped design outline.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig63">
+<img src="images/p26f.jpg" alt="" width="528" height="344" />
+<p class="pcap">An interesting unsymmetrical
+flower design.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig64">
+<img src="images/p26h.jpg" alt="" width="598" height="439" />
+<p class="pcap">Atsugewi intestines.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_87">87</div>
+<p>The basketry described above was all close-woven. In fact,
+so closely were the twined baskets made that they held water with
+little or no leakage even without linings of pitch or any other substance.
+There was no pottery of any kind in central or northern
+California.</p>
+<p>The art of basketry included also a third type&mdash;loose or open
+weaving, sometimes of tules. The latter were also used extensively
+for making mats for a variety of purposes. Open weaving at other
+times was done with willow withes, split juniper twigs, or of
+another material tentatively identified as hazel. Fish traps, carrying
+baskets, some storage baskets, and bags were not infrequently
+of this type of construction.</p>
+<p>All basketry materials had to be well soaked in water, as they
+were brittle when dry. After weaving and upon drying these materials
+set in place, making the basketry firm, strong, and resistant
+to unraveling.</p>
+<p>Collection of basketry materials was more arduous and required
+greater know-how than might be suspected. Willow withes were
+only taken from the particularly strong and supple shoots from Hinds
+or valley willow (<i>Salix hindsiana</i>) which grows along stream banks
+up to 3000 foot elevations and also from the similar sandbar, river,
+or grey willow (<i>Salix fluviatilis</i> variety <i>argyrophylla</i>) which also
+lines streams, often growing in sandbars. These species are
+recognized by their long very narrow silvery leaves and a grey bark,
+furrowed when mature. Willow twigs were collected when the leaves
+were off of the stems in the spring and in the fall. At other times
+the twigs were more brittle. Spring picked willow withes &ldquo;slipped&rdquo;
+their bark easily, but those collected in the fall had to be scraped
+to remove the bark. The willow ribs were further dressed by scraping
+to uniform size.</p>
+<p>Pine roots of either ponderosa pine (<i>Pinus ponderosa</i>) or digger
+pine (<i>Pinus sabiniana</i>) were usually used. However not all trees
+had roots of suitable strength and flexibility, so that it was necessary
+to &ldquo;shop around&rdquo; for good roots. This involved digging holes
+to reach the roots and then testing these by tugging on small
+strands until suitable roots were located. Roots three or four inches
+in diameter were then cut off with a small obsidian axe, if the individual
+were so fortunate as to possess this rarity, or by using a sort
+of bone pick, or, more commonly, by slowly burning through the green
+root with a small fire. Root lengths of about four feet were gathered,
+taken home, and there roasted in hot ashes. This made the pine
+roots very soft. They were then split into quarters with digging
+sticks or stone choppers and finally were pulled apart into thin
+strips using hands and teeth. The resulting half inch wide strips
+were tied into bundles for storage. In use, these strips were well
+soaked in water. Pine root strands of proper width were easily
+split off by hand. The finer and smaller the basketry to be done,
+naturally, the narrower was the material split for making it.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_88">88</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig65">
+<img src="images/p27.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="224" />
+<p class="pcap">Atsugewi twined basket, deer-rib
+and arrow point designs.
+Both are frequently used.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig66">
+<img src="images/p27a.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="345" />
+<p class="pcap">Pit River (used by Dixon to include
+Atsugewi) popular mussels&rsquo; tongue
+designs.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig67">
+<img src="images/p27d.jpg" alt="" width="499" height="704" />
+<p class="pcap">Mountain Maidu mountain-and-cloud
+design on
+coiled basket.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig68">
+<img src="images/p27f.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="268" />
+<p class="pcap">Atsugewi pine cone design</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig69">
+<img src="images/p27g.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="409" />
+<p class="pcap">Atsugewi deer-gut design on
+twined basket&mdash;also a popular
+pattern.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig70">
+<img src="images/p27h.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="122" />
+<p class="pcap">Another Atsugewi version of
+deer-gut design on twined
+basket.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig71">
+<img src="images/p27k.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="267" />
+<p class="pcap">Pit River (applied by Dixon to
+include also the Atsugewi) deer
+excrement designs.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig72">
+<img src="images/p27m.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="441" />
+<p class="pcap">Atsugewi flint design</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_89">89</div>
+<p>The chief overlay material&mdash;already mentioned&mdash;was what
+we call bear-grass or squaw-grass. In truth this is not grass, but
+the leaf of a lily, the well known bear-grass of Mount Rainier
+National Park, scientifically known as <i>Xerophylum tenax</i>. This
+grows only in limited areas in this region, hence Atsugewi had to
+make long trips on foot to obtain it. In recent years, at least, bear-grass
+was to be found only in the territory of the Shasta and of the
+mountain Maidu: a few miles west of Mount Shasta and near Greenville
+in Plumas County. Bear-grass could be collected only during
+about two weeks in mid-July. Earlier it was too tender; later it
+was too brittle &ldquo;like hay&rdquo;. Only new central leaves of each plant
+were plucked. The heavy mid-rib had to be removed from each
+leaf with an awl before use.</p>
+<p>Maidenhair fern frond stems were picked in August.</p>
+<p>Redbud twigs collected in the spring would &ldquo;slip&rdquo; the red outer
+bark easily in a thin layer. This was used for overlay pattern
+making on twined baskets. The white inner bark, or, more properly,
+sapwood was then stripped off for binding material and as the white
+lashing weft for coiled baskets. In the case of fall-collected redbud
+twigs the red outer bark adhered to the sapwood. This was
+used as the lashing strand or weft where red designs were desired
+on coiled baskets.</p>
+<p>Apwaruge, the eastern division of the Atsugewi, often made
+baskets of tules. These were more flexible, softer baskets than
+those made by the westerners, the Atsuge, and so there was considerable
+exchange of baskets between the two divisions of the
+Atsugewi.</p>
+<p>Atsugewi occasionally made openwork baskets from split juniper
+too, especially for low scoop-shaped, round, or oval baskets for
+fishing, root cleaning, et cetera, but as indicated earlier, willow
+ribs were used for this purpose also.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_90">90</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig73">
+<img src="images/p28.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="168" />
+<p class="pcap">(Yana) dogs ears</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig74">
+<img src="images/p28a.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="290" />
+<p class="pcap">Probably Yana House design</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig75">
+<img src="images/p28b.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="549" />
+<p class="pcap">Maidu quail tip design widely
+used but only on coiled baskets.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig76">
+<img src="images/p28c.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="323" />
+<p class="pcap">(Yana) crane&rsquo;s leg</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig77">
+<img src="images/p28d.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="77" />
+<p class="pcap">(Atsugewi) meadow lark</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig78">
+<img src="images/p28e.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="250" />
+<p class="pcap">(Achomawi)  flying geese or pine cone
+<br />(Yana)  pine cone</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig79">
+<img src="images/p28f.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="160" />
+<p class="pcap">Maidu earthworm design on a coiled basket.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig80">
+<img src="images/p28g.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="347" />
+<p class="pcap">Maidu bushes design on a coiled basket.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig81">
+<img src="images/p28h.jpg" alt="" width="348" height="601" />
+<p class="pcap">Mountain Maidu
+duck&rsquo;s-wing design
+on a coiled basketry
+plaque.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_91">91</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig82">
+<img src="images/p28j.jpg" alt="" width="396" height="394" />
+<p class="pcap">(Maidu)  diamond
+<br />(Yana)  wolf&rsquo;s eye</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig83">
+<img src="images/p28k.jpg" alt="" width="172" height="501" />
+<p class="pcap">Mountain Maidu
+eye design.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig84">
+<img src="images/p28m.jpg" alt="" width="332" height="399" />
+<p class="pcap">(Atsugewi) flint or
+arrowhead</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig85">
+<img src="images/p28n.jpg" alt="" width="342" height="294" />
+<p class="pcap">(Maidu)  watersnake (?)
+<br />(Yana)  bushes</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig86">
+<img src="images/p28p.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="133" />
+<p class="pcap">(Yana) bats</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig87">
+<img src="images/p28r.jpg" alt="" width="341" height="299" />
+<p class="pcap">Maidu design,
+probably sugar
+pine tree.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig88">
+<img src="images/p28s.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="241" />
+<p class="pcap">A continuing zig-zag arrow feather design
+widely and frequently used by Maidu in coiled
+basketry, sometimes this was combined with
+the quail tip pattern.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig89">
+<img src="images/p28t.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="295" />
+<p class="pcap">Single and double arrow point designs&mdash;the most commonly used of all
+Maidu patterns. It was relatively easy to make and very versatile.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_92">92</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig90">
+<img src="images/p29.jpg" alt="" width="414" height="208" />
+<p class="pcap">(Maidu) big tongues
+<br />(Yana)  intestines</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig91">
+<img src="images/p29a.jpg" alt="" width="570" height="248" />
+<p class="pcap">(Maidu) quail tip
+<br />(Yana)  root digger</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig92">
+<img src="images/p29c.jpg" alt="" width="296" height="232" />
+<p class="pcap">(Maidu) mountain
+<br />(Yana)  root digger hand</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig93">
+<img src="images/p29d.jpg" alt="" width="328" height="160" />
+<p class="pcap">(Maidu) earthworm
+<br />(Yana)  intestines</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig94">
+<img src="images/p29e.jpg" alt="" width="396" height="170" />
+<p class="pcap">(Maidu) earthworm
+<br />(Yana)  intestines</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig95">
+<img src="images/p29f.jpg" alt="" width="316" height="298" />
+<p class="pcap">(Maidu) mountain
+<br />(Yana) root digger hand</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig96">
+<img src="images/p29g.jpg" alt="" width="444" height="262" />
+<p class="pcap">(Achomawi) mountain or bear&rsquo;s foot
+<br />(Yana) root digger hand</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig97">
+<img src="images/p29h.jpg" alt="" width="474" height="250" />
+<p class="pcap">(Maidu) vine
+<br />(Yana) geese</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig98">
+<img src="images/p29j.jpg" alt="" width="411" height="256" />
+<p class="pcap">(Maidu) rattlesnake
+<br />(Yana)  geese</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig99">
+<img src="images/p29k.jpg" alt="" width="399" height="228" />
+<p class="pcap">(Wintun) sucker tail
+<br />(Yana)  long worms in rotten wood.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig100">
+<img src="images/p29m.jpg" alt="" width="618" height="224" />
+<p class="pcap">(Yana) wolf&rsquo;s eye</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_93">93</div>
+<p>Basket styles varied little among the several tribes of the
+Lassen region. Bottle shapes were never made until after the
+coming of white man. Cooking baskets were bowl-shaped with
+high, convexly curved sides, sometimes nearly globular in form.
+Baskets from which food was eaten individually and general utility
+baskets were similarly shaped but smaller. Boiling baskets were
+sometimes without decoration; their dimensions of height and width
+were about equal. Storage baskets also had about the same shape,
+curving less, sometimes, but were large, being three feet or more
+in size. Some were of open work, but usually they were of close
+or tight weaving.</p>
+<p>Flattish bowls or somewhat curved trays were used for food
+platters as well as for winnowing, parching, and cleaning foods by
+chafing. Some were of open weave made of willow or hazel (?) only
+while others were closely woven.</p>
+<p>Basketry acorn grinding hoppers also called milling baskets or
+pounding baskets, were usually regular twined baskets of suitable
+size and shape: wide mouthed bowl or funnel-shaped. Having no
+central point from which to start the warp, because of the open
+bottoms, hopper baskets were started by twining three pine root
+wefts about the bases of many willow warps to make a circle about
+five inches in diameter. Additional warps were built up on the
+radiating ribs, proceeding then in the normal manner of twining.
+Twined hopper baskets were usually reinforced by lashing one or
+two strong rings of willow or serviceberry withes. They might also
+be bound with buckskin along the bottom edges for improved
+strength and durability as well as to decrease loss of acorn meal
+during the pounding process. In recent years both mountain Maidu
+and Atsugewi, also used coiling technique in making hopper
+baskets, for which purpose it is well suited.</p>
+<p>A recent innovation among Atsugewi has been the covering of
+bottles with basketry and also the weaving of oblong shaped closely
+twined and coiled baskets, as well as goblet shaped creations.</p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>According to Garth, the seed beater &ldquo;... was a paddle-shaped
+implement from one and a half to two feet long with a
+willow warp and open work twining, also of willow (spaced at
+three quarters of an inch between rows) across the blade. The
+handle was wrapped either with willow strips or with
+buckskin.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Another important use of basketry was in the construction of
+cradle boards, or more properly, basket cradles. These are generally
+known to present day Americans by the incorrect term papoose
+baskets. The cradle basket is discussed under the heading &ldquo;Birth
+and Babies&rdquo;.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_94">94</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig101">
+<img src="images/p30.jpg" alt="" width="594" height="166" />
+<p class="pcap">(Yurok) flint
+<br />(Yana) zigzagging</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig102">
+<img src="images/p30a.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="384" />
+<p class="pcap">(Maidu) quail-tip
+<br />(Yana) &ldquo;sitting up in a series&rdquo;</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig103">
+<img src="images/p30b.jpg" alt="" width="652" height="388" />
+<p class="pcap">(Maidu) vine
+<br />(Yana) &ldquo;braided&rdquo;</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig104">
+<img src="images/p30c.jpg" alt="" width="550" height="106" />
+<p class="pcap">(Yana) mussels</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig105">
+<img src="images/p30d.jpg" alt="" width="413" height="439" />
+<p class="pcap">(Maidu) earthworm
+<br />(Yana) &ldquo;braided&rdquo;</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig106">
+<img src="images/p30e.jpg" alt="" width="268" height="266" />
+<p class="pcap">(Yana) mountains</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig107">
+<img src="images/p30f.jpg" alt="" width="386" height="341" />
+<p class="pcap">(Yurok) &ldquo;sitting&rdquo;
+<br />(Yana) &ldquo;zigzagging and turning back&rdquo;</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig108">
+<img src="images/p30g.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="231" />
+<p class="pcap">(Yana) wolf&rsquo;s eye</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig109">
+<img src="images/p30h.jpg" alt="" width="362" height="228" />
+<p class="pcap">(Yana) trout or salmon tails</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig110">
+<img src="images/p30k.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="258" />
+<p class="pcap">(Yana) flint</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig111">
+<img src="images/p30m.jpg" alt="" width="546" height="274" />
+<p class="pcap">(Yana) guts</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig112">
+<img src="images/p30n.jpg" alt="" width="616" height="318" />
+<p class="pcap">(Atsugewi) skunk&rsquo;s ear</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_95">95</div>
+<p>Beautifully made basketry caps for women, finely twined, spreading
+bowl-shaped affairs were made by all tribes of the Lassen
+area. These were nicely decorated on the bottoms&mdash;or rather
+tops&mdash;as well as on the sides, a feature lacking on all other types
+of local baskets. Another unique feature of the basketry cap was
+the fact that the inside of the hat was abraded by rubbing so that
+none of the pattern remained visible because all of the overlay on
+the inside had been worn away. It is suspected that this made the
+inside of the hat less slippery on the hair so that it did not slip
+off the head so easily. Removal of the decoration from the inside
+of the basketry cap in no way altered the appearance or permanence
+of the outside decorative patterns.</p>
+<p>Mats were woven of viscid bulrush, more commonly called tule
+stalks (<i>Scirpus lacustris</i> or <i>acutus</i>). According to Voegelin,
+Atsugewi sometimes sewed these together by piercing them with
+bone needles. However the more usual method of manufacture was
+that of lashing together the ends of parallel tule stalks laid next
+to each other. This was done with double cords or strands in the
+regular simple twining manner which shows up well in the sketch
+of Atsugewi tule leggings. Such mats were extensively used as
+bed mats or mattresses, as earth wall coverings, as doorway and
+ventilator hole hangings, and so on by all of the tribes of the
+Lassen region. Mountain Maidu also employed broad-leaved cat-tail
+(<i>Typha latifolia</i>) or narrow-leaved cat-tail (<i>Typha angustifolia</i>)
+for such purposes on occasion. This tribe also appears to have
+used a string weft in making at least some of the mats.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_96">96</div>
+<h2 id="c14"><span class="small">Chapter XII</span>
+<br />TANNING, CORDAGE, AND GLUE</h2>
+<p>Mountain Maidu buried bear skins in wet ground, but hides
+generally were soaked about a week in water by local Indians.
+Mountain Maidu used ashes to help dehair skins other than deer,
+but this was not a practice common to other tribes. Stone, or more
+frequently, shaped deer rib or pelvic bones were used as dehairing
+scraper tools on skins. The hide was draped over an inclined post
+and was soaked and squeezed occasionally during the process of
+scraping.</p>
+<p>The tanning agent was a cooked soup of animal brains, particularly
+those of deer. This material might first have been mashed,
+mixed with dry moss, and then molded into small cakes for drying
+and storage. The deer brain agent was well rubbed into the cleaned,
+soaked skin. It was then allowed to soak overnight in the tanning
+solution. The next day while drying the skin in the sun, the operator
+stretched and worked the hide with his hands to make it soft
+and pliable.</p>
+<p>Among Atsugewi the skin was then smoked over a fire of moist
+rotten logs or green juniper boughs burning in a shallow pit. The
+skin was laid on a domed framework of willow branches arched
+over the fire. The hide was turned occasionally to insure uniform
+treatment. Mr. Garth believes that this smoking process was recently
+learned. It was not generally practiced by neighboring tribes,
+but produced superior buckskin which resisted stiffening as a result
+of subsequent wetting. Even Atsugewi did not smoke other skins.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig113">
+<img src="images/p31.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="568" />
+<p class="pcap">Nets. a, b, stages in net making; c, tule float; d, net shuttle.</p>
+</div>
+<p>Men did all this work as well as the hunting, skinning, and
+fashioning of garments from hides. Skins were sewn with bone
+awls and deer sinew thread which was made by rolling fine deer
+<span class="pb" id="Page_97">97</span>
+sinew strands on the thigh with the open hand.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig114">
+<img src="images/p31d.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="216" />
+<p class="pcap">Net making shuttle about fourteen
+inches long (after Dixon)</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig115">
+<img src="images/p31e.jpg" alt="" width="202" height="317" />
+<p class="pcap">The usual Maidu knot
+for nets (after Dixon)</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig116">
+<img src="images/p31f.jpg" alt="" width="231" height="800" />
+<p class="pcap">Carrying net</p>
+</div>
+<p>Like other local tribes, the Maidu used many woven skin
+blankets. These were fashioned from one inch strips of rabbit fur,
+especially, but also of the skins of wildcat, cougar, geese, or crows.
+These were not tanned so that upon drying they twisted or curled
+like the strands of a rope with the fur or feather side out. Ends
+were tied together to form a long fur or feather covered rope. This
+was wound about two poles set upright in the ground six feet or so
+apart to form the warp for the blanket. More of the same material
+was then woven up and down as weft to produce a soft and very
+warm skin blanket which was also quite durable. When bird skins
+were employed a cord core was threaded thru the center of the
+twisted strands before weaving for greater strength.</p>
+<p>Mountain Maidu also did feather work like that of the Atsugewi,
+however foothill and valley Maidu did so to a greater extent and
+of a more elaborate nature.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_98">98</div>
+<p>Willow, serviceberry, and redbud withes, and at lower elevations,
+lengths of wild grape vines were used for tying purposes.
+However, Indians also had need for strong and more versatile and
+more durable string, cord, and rope. These were usually made from
+vegetable fibers. Atsugewi and mountain Maidu used Indian hemp
+and milkweed but not nettle or iris fibers as did some other tribes.
+When mature, but before they became old and brittle, the plants
+were collected and dried, stripped of leaves, and the flesh was
+scraped and pounded off leaving the free fibers. String was made
+by placing two small bundles of fibers parallel and close together
+on the thigh of the leg. These were rolled up into two strands side
+by side with one stroke of the open hand moving either up or down
+the thigh. On the return stroke the two separate and now twisted
+strands were twisted together into one string. Stout cord was made
+by repeating the process, substituting two strings for the two
+bundles of loose fibers this time. To make rope the process
+was repeated several times, successively doubling the cordage
+product. As the cordage strands were twined together, the product
+was held in the left hand, the rolling being done by the right hand
+on the right thigh.</p>
+<p>Nets of good quality were fabricated in a variety of mesh sizes,
+the uniformity of which was controlled by use of squarish wooden
+blocks. Shuttles to hold the string for net tying were straight pieces
+of wood notched at each end and into which the strand was wrapped.
+As has been pointed out, nets were used chiefly for hunting, fishing,
+and carrying, although small nets were often worn in the hair
+by men.</p>
+<p>Adhesives were important in the economy of the Indians too.
+Pine pitch and glue made from the skins of fish were used. A
+solution of the latter was mixed by the mountain Maidu with certain
+internal organs of fish and boiled vegetable materials to improve
+the quality of their glue.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_99">99</div>
+<h2 id="c15"><span class="small">Chapter XIII</span>
+<br />TRANSPORTATION</h2>
+<p>It was the lack of transportation rather than the existence of any
+which was important to the aboriginal Americans. This was responsible
+for the degree of isolation which was required to produce
+the variety of customs and languages in most parts of the &ldquo;New
+World&rdquo;. Introduction of the horse in historic times materially
+changed the habits of Plains Indians. Likewise the somewhat
+aggressive Modoc tribe to the north of the Pit River, whose conflict
+with the whites has been memorialized in Lava Beds National
+Monument today, became mobile, even prior to the gold rush days,
+through use of the horse. As a result the Modocs made a number of
+hit and run raids upon Atsugewi and other tribes and were able to
+carry off slaves. This was not the traditional mode of warfare.</p>
+<p>Transportation among Indians was by foot or by water until recent
+times. California Indians did not use dogs as beasts of burden as
+Plains Indians did and as the Eskimos still do. Women did general
+hauling; men, however, did most of the really heavy carrying.
+Women used the conical burden basket extensively, but the men did
+not. Both sexes used the buckskin pack strap which in the case
+of mountain Maidu passed over the top of the head. Atsugewi pack
+straps went over the forehead and also over the shoulder across
+the chest. The brimless basketry cap or hat was used with the
+packstrap especially among the women. Heavy loads were frequently
+carried by men upon the shoulder; such burdens were often rolled
+in mats or animal skins.</p>
+<p>Carrying nets made of twisted fibers were commonly employed
+by men and women among local tribes. Atsugewi used a folded
+buckskin bag sewed at the edges, with a handle on top, and opening
+at the side. Yana manufactured an open-work carrying basket too.</p>
+<p>In this region loads were never carried on the head, but on
+occasion might be suspended on a pole and carried between two
+men. The mountain Maidu also used a litter for the sick, but
+Atsugewi carried sick persons in burden baskets on their backs.</p>
+<p>In rough country crude trails were sometimes built, but this was
+not a common practice. Generally trails as such were not constructed,
+but where they existed they had developed as the result of long
+use along logical routes, in much the same manner as deer and other
+game trails develop.</p>
+<p>To cross streams advantage was taken of logs which had fallen
+of natural causes. On occasion single logs were felled by burning
+to serve as bridges. Yana at lower elevations frequently had large
+streams to cross and smaller trees to utilize. Two logs might be
+felled parallel and cross sticks lashed on with grapevine for better
+footing.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_100">100</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig117">
+<img src="images/p32.jpg" alt="" width="687" height="800" />
+<p class="pcap">Boat Types of Native
+California (not to scale).
+a, Yurok (northwestern
+California) river canoe; b,
+Klamath (northeastern
+California) canoe; c, tule
+balsa.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig118">
+<img src="images/p32a.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="971" />
+<p class="pcap">Distribution of Types
+of Native California
+Boat.</p>
+</div>
+<dl class="undent pcap"><dt>a, Dugout canoe</dt>
+<dt>b, Dugout canoe</dt>
+<dt>c, Tule balsa</dt></dl>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_101">101</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig119">
+<img src="images/p32c.jpg" alt="" width="800" height="699" />
+<p class="pcap">Atsugewi dug-out canoe on Hat Creek</p>
+</div>
+<p>In swimming most Indians used a pseudo-breast stroke or swam
+on their backs with a frog style stroke. Atsugewi also did a &ldquo;dog
+paddle&rdquo; keeping arms under water. Mountain Maidu used swimming
+techniques which embraced principles like those of white man&rsquo;s
+side stroke and crawl. They jumped into the water feet first in
+preference to headfirst diving. When swimming under water to
+collect crawfish or mussels a rock was often tied loosely to the
+back.</p>
+<p>Water transportation was not of the same degree of importance
+to the tribes of the Lassen region that it was to Sacramento Valley,
+Coastal, and Northwestern Indians. Nevertheless Atsugewi used
+sharp or blunt ended canoes while that of the mountain Maidu had
+a shovel-like prow and stern. These were made from pine logs,
+usually windfalls about two feet in diameter and had a capacity of
+<span class="pb" id="Page_102">102</span>
+two to four persons. The logs were hollowed out by controlled
+burning so that the walls were an inch or two thick. Pitch was
+rubbed onto portions needing more burning. Water or mud were used
+to check burning and the charred wood was scraped out with rough
+angular stones. Local dugout canoes were rather crude affairs.
+Cracking of the wood was prevented by keeping the boats wet. They
+were propelled by an unadorned poling rod or by a single bladed
+square-ended paddle about three feet long. A raft, consisting of
+three or four logs lashed together, was used as well by all local
+tribes and propelled by poling.</p>
+<p>Atsugewi had another type of craft: the tule balsa&mdash;a five foot
+long raised prow affair made of bundles of tules lashed together.
+It might be poled or else pushed by a swimmer. Often this raft-like
+boat was towed by a rope of willow. Atsugewi occasionally ferried
+children or goods in baskets, while among mountain Maidu swimmers
+carried children on their backs and carried goods in one hand,
+raised above the water level, swimming with the other hand.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_103">103</div>
+<h2 id="c16"><span class="small">Chapter XIV</span>
+<br />DOMESTICATED ANIMALS AND PETS</h2>
+<p>We are apt to think of Indians, especially Plains Indians, riding
+horses as part of the natural prehistoric scene, yet this was not
+the case. Although fossil remains in the rocks show clearly
+the development of the horse over a period of several millions
+of years on this continent, the horse, the camel, and the rhinoceros&mdash;to
+mention but a few of the spectacular mammals&mdash;became
+extinct on the American continents before the advent of prehistoric
+man. American Indians had never seen a horse until the coming
+of the Spanish to the New World in 1540. Likewise domestic cattle,
+sheep, goats, and chickens were unknown to the aborigines.</p>
+<p>The dog was widely distributed, however. Some tribes had large
+as well as small dogs of a variety of colors. In the Lassen area
+the dogs were all about the size of small coyotes, mostly with fairly
+short hair, but there are some reports of long haired dogs. Typically
+the dogs had small rather erect and pointed ears. Coloration was
+chiefly fawn colored to brown. Amongst Atsugewi, dogs were
+usually quite numerous, but certain villages seem to have had only
+a few. In such cases and among the mountain Maidu, who generally
+had only few dogs, they were borrowed for hunting. Dogs were
+almost always named.</p>
+<p>Dogs served to warn their owners of the approach of strangers
+to the village or camp. Mountain Maidu taught their dogs not to
+bark, but to &ldquo;sniff&rdquo; conspicuously as a signal of stranger approach.</p>
+<p>Tribes of the Lassen area did not normally keep dogs in their
+dwelling houses. Atsugewi built separate, domed, bark-covered
+dog houses, and mountain Maidu built two kinds of shelters for
+their dogs. One was a subterranean earth-covered dog house, and
+the other a conical affair of bark slab type construction.</p>
+<p>Dogs were widely used in hunting. They were efficient in catching
+rodents and other small mammals such as ground hogs. They
+were also useful for treeing mountain lions and were adept at
+bringing down wounded deer by jumping up and seizing the deers&rsquo;
+ears.</p>
+<p>Dogs were not often eaten by tribes in this section of California.
+Upon death, dogs were not buried, but the bodies were merely thrown
+out.</p>
+<p>Upon death of the dog&rsquo;s owner, among Atsugewi, the dog was
+retained by the widow, but among mountain Maidu the dog was suspended
+in a tree because &ldquo;It makes dog&rsquo;s spirit glad&rdquo;! Although
+<span class="pb" id="Page_104">104</span>
+not being generally considered in this account, it is curious that
+among Modoc and eastern Achomawi dogs were burned at the deaths
+of their owners.</p>
+<p>Bear cubs were commonly kept. Atsugewi also kept fawns and
+other small mammals as pets. Birds of various sorts were kept by
+certain tribes. Atsugewi plucked or cut wings of birds, especially
+of eagles whose feathers were prized for arrow making, and for
+ceremonial and decorative purposes.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_105">105</div>
+<h2 id="c17"><span class="small">Chapter XV</span>
+<br />CLOTHING</h2>
+<p>The members of all tribes, especially the Yana and Yahi, went
+bareheaded much of the time. However, basketry caps nearly
+hemispherical in shape and of fine tightly twined weave were worn
+regularly by Indian women. The caps were probably worn to prevent
+chafing of the pack straps originally, but Atsugewi women wore
+them most of the time. Such hats were well decorated with overlaid
+designs typical of the tribes under consideration. Those of Yana
+and Yahi were usually of tule with black and white overlay.
+Mountain Maidu made some coiled basketry caps, not infrequently
+employing tules or reeds.</p>
+<p>Men of all our tribes wore fur headbands on occasion and among
+Atsugewi, fur or buckskin caps too, especially in winter, when
+shallow bucket shaped skin hats of coyote, raccoon, mink and the
+like afforded protection against the rather intense cold.</p>
+<p>Eyeshades attached to a band around the head were worn by
+some Yana women so as not to see their sons-in-law! Atsugewi
+men and possibly others might wear side blinds when spearing fish
+at night to keep torch light out of their eyes.</p>
+<p>Children up to about six years of age ran about naked, and often
+the older men and women did likewise, particularly among the
+Maidu.</p>
+<p>Buckskin dresses were worn to some extent by the women of
+most local tribes. The mountain Maidu dress was tied at both
+shoulders and tied or belted at the waist. The garment was provided
+with flaps over the upper arms but lacked sleeves. Buckskin
+dresses were worn by some Indian women rich in worldly goods,
+and usually for special occasions. Recent buckskin dresses, of
+course, are sewn on sewing machines, neatly tailored, and follow
+the general pattern of the conventional dress, including regular
+sleeves.</p>
+<p>In normal everyday garb Indian women were naked above the
+waist. A wrap-around skirt, or, more frequently two narrow or wide
+aprons were worn. Sometimes one apron went around the hips, being
+tied in back and provided with a buckskin flap which covered the
+wearer&rsquo;s buttocks. The Indian women&rsquo;s aprons were commonly made
+of shredded incense-cedar, willow, or juniper bark, or of tules. In
+the case of Yana and Yahi women, frequently grass or shredded,
+spring-gathered, broad-leaf maple bark were used. The latter was
+a favorite valley Maidu skirt material. The double aprons might
+however be made of whole buckskin or of strips or cords of buckskin,
+and in winter furs might be used for the purpose. The double
+apron is recognized as the standard garb of California Indian
+women. That of the Maidu was often very narrow, being not much
+more than a front and a rear tassel.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_106">106</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig120">
+<img src="images/p33.jpg" alt="" width="812" height="776" />
+<p class="pcap">A beautiful old Shasta buckskin
+woman&rsquo;s wrap-around
+apron ornamented with tan,
+black, and red vegetable fiber
+bound slitting in the manner
+of coarse modern hemstitching,
+with strings of olivella shells
+and shaped abalone pendants,
+and finished on the bottom
+with long buckskin fringes.
+The garment is much like the
+more pretentious aprons
+described for Atsugewi.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig121">
+<img src="images/p33a.jpg" alt="" width="492" height="796" />
+<p class="pcap">Detail of ornamentation on the Shasta buckskin apron</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig122">
+<img src="images/p33b.jpg" alt="" width="193" height="590" />
+<p class="pcap">Mountain Maidu woman&rsquo;s
+tassel-type of shredded
+bark apron, about twenty
+two inches long. Some such
+aprons were considerably
+wider (after Dixon).</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_107">107</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig123">
+<img src="images/p33f.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="592" />
+<p class="pcap">Woman&rsquo;s basketry cap probably Atsugewi or Shasta. Note the design
+placed on top as well as on the sides of the basket, in contrast to other
+types of baskets. The bottoms of which are devoid both of design and
+overlay materials and so present an unadorned pine-root surface.</p>
+</div>
+<p>Women&rsquo;s casual aprons and other clothing were not highly
+ornamented, but &ldquo;dress-up&rdquo; clothes might be fairly elaborately
+trimmed. Fringing of buckskin, spangles of shell money and ornaments,
+strings of shell beads, pine nuts, deer hoofs, and special
+white grass fringes commonly decorated their better clothes.</p>
+<p>In the summer some men, and particularly old ones wore nothing
+at all. Most others wore very little clothing besides a sort of loin
+covering of buckskin or fur which went between the legs and was
+held in place back and front by a belt about the waist. A crude
+buckskin shirt without sleeves was sometimes used.</p>
+<p>During winter above aprons, skirts, or loin covering other garments
+were worn. Then men commonly wore the sleeveless buckskin
+shirt. Both sexes usually wore robes of woven rabbit skins (usually
+imported by the Atsugewi), or made of deer or bear fur and worn
+with the hair side inside. Or else the robes were of a patchwork
+<span class="pb" id="Page_108">108</span>
+of small mammal skins sewn together. These same robes were
+frequently used for bedding at night. As a matter of fact almost
+any sort of skins available might be used as robes. These were
+tied on in a variety of ways. The wearers must have presented a
+rather motley appearance. On occasion small poncho style robes
+with a central hole for the head and neck clothed the upper bodies
+of local Indians during cold weather.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig124">
+<img src="images/p34.jpg" alt="" width="454" height="700" />
+<p class="pcap">Atsugewi fringed buckskin dress of
+pioneer period</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig125">
+<img src="images/p34a.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="572" />
+<p class="pcap">An Atsugewi legging made of lashing
+tules together with a simple twining
+stitch</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig126">
+<img src="images/p34g.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="264" />
+<p class="pcap">Maidu buckskin moccasin
+about eleven inches long
+(after Dixon)</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_109">109</div>
+<p>Thumbless mittens were made of cased skins of weasels, rats
+or small cottontail rabbits and tied at the wrist with a thong.
+Atsugewi also utilized their fur-lined quivers as muffs when
+hunting.</p>
+<p>California Indians spent much of the time barefoot, but wore
+buckskin moccasins at war, on long hunts or journeys. Different
+styles were made by each of the local tribes. None, however, were
+normally decorated. Mountain Maidu also made moccasins of fur
+with the hair side in, and Atsugewi stuffed pounded grass or grass
+into their footwear or wore grass or tule slippers inside their
+moccasins during the winter. Maidu put soft grass or sedges in
+their moccasins for added warmth. An extra sole of tougher leather
+such as elkskin was sometimes sewn onto the moccasin, but this
+was not customary.</p>
+<p>Occasionally open sandals held on by three or four thongs were
+worn by Atsugewi and Yana.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig127">
+<img src="images/p34h.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="799" />
+<p class="pcap">Maidu snowshoe with
+raw-hide lashings</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig128">
+<img src="images/p34m.jpg" alt="" width="400" height="467" />
+<p class="pcap">Snowshoe of about eighteen inches in
+diameter (after Dixon)</p>
+</div>
+<p>Knee length leggings of various materials were common in
+winter. These were tied on with buckskin strips at ankle and knee.
+Yana used hip-length pantleg type leggings held on with waist
+<span class="pb" id="Page_110">110</span>
+bands. Atsugewi sometimes employed fur pieces, twined tule, or
+spiral wrap-around fur strip leggings. Maidu used deerhide leggings
+with the hair side inside. These went from ankles to above the
+knees where they were tied, and were held close to the leg by an
+outside spirally wound thong from top to bottom.</p>
+<p>Snowshoes were a necessity too in the rigorous climate of even
+the lower portions of the areas inhabited by tribes of the Lassen
+area, particularly in those of the Atsugewi and mountain Maidu.
+Snowshoes of the former Indians were circular in plan; those of the
+latter were oval. Snowshoes were fashioned from small green
+wooden limbs shaped while hot, and then crisscrossed with strips
+of buckskin or hide with the fur side down for better traction.
+Atsugewi used green juniper limbs for the purpose. Since the whole
+foot was bound firmly to this footgear, there was no heel play as
+in the case of white mans&rsquo; snowshoes.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_111">111</div>
+<h2 id="c18"><span class="small">Chapter XVI</span>
+<br />BEAUTY AND PERSONAL GROOMING</h2>
+<blockquote>
+<p>Of Atsugewi standards of beauty Garth states: &ldquo;The ideal
+woman was short but plump and solidly built so that she could
+do much work. A slim woman was considered too weak, and
+a very tall woman was made fun of and called lohkata (stick
+woman). Heavy breasts, a straight slim nose, large eyes,
+long black hair, and small feet were all admirable qualities.
+A girl with big feet was likely to be lazy, also a small foot
+was desirable because it would not take so large a moccasin.
+A mother pressed her girl child&rsquo;s foot together to make it
+slender. The ideal man was of average height and was heavy
+set. If a child had a flat nose, his mother pinched it and tried
+to give it a higher bridge. Bow legs, it was said, might be
+straightened by the mother when the child was young. Also
+a child&rsquo;s ears were pressed against his head; if the ears stood
+out, this was thought to indicate poor hearing. A slim hand
+indicated a lazy person; a short stubby hand signified a good
+worker.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Garth also comments to the effect that evidently the ideals of
+Indian beauty had a very practical basis. The same general criteria
+of beauty and desirability of women seem to have prevailed among
+the other tribes of this region also, but Yana preferred a rather flat
+and broad faced feminine beauty.</p>
+<p>The hair of both men and women among California Indians was
+generally worn long. The tribes of the Lassen area were no exception.
+However, bangs on the forehead were known. Boys and girls
+let their hair hang loosely, except that Atsugewi sometimes cut
+small boys&rsquo; hair short to make it grow better later.</p>
+<p>Women usually parted their hair in the middle wearing it in two
+hanks, one hanging in front of each shoulder. Each was tied with
+a piece of rawhide. Women of Yana tribes often used strips of otter
+or mink fur for the purpose as did some Atsugewi. Yana women
+might add further decoration in the form of a small string of shell
+beads. Atsugewi women might paint their scalps at the part in the
+hair with red paint.</p>
+<p>The male Indian tied his hair in a bunch which hung down the
+back. All local tribes, except mountain Maidu, seem also to have
+frequently used a small mesh hairnet made of plant fibers with a
+buckskin band to hold a man&rsquo;s hair in a sort of roll at the back of
+his head. Maidu called the net wee-kah. In preparation for war or
+<span class="pb" id="Page_112">112</span>
+for the hunt Yana men coiled their hair on their heads with well
+defined top knots. For dances and other special events, male
+Maidu and Yana, if rich, wore mesh bonnets thickly covered with
+white eagle down feathers tied in so that the net strands were not
+visible. Bone hairpins were sometimes used among Yana and
+mountain Maidu men.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig129">
+<img src="images/p35.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="822" />
+<p class="pcap">Men&rsquo;s hair net type of cap worn by adult males of all Lassen area
+tribes, the wearer&rsquo;s long hair being piled on top of the head when worn
+as in upper sketch (after Dixon) with the loose excess net allowed to
+fall straight down behind.</p>
+</div>
+<dl class="undent pcap"><dt><i>NET</i></dt>
+<dt><i>BUCKSKIN</i></dt>
+<dt><i>DRAWSTRING</i></dt>
+<dt><i>CORD</i></dt></dl>
+<p>Adults cut their hair off with stone knives to show grief and
+mourning when relatives died. Both men and women cropped their
+hair closely, but mountain Maidu women sometimes only trimmed it
+off to shoulder length. Singeing instead of cutting the hair was
+sometimes resorted to.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_113">113</div>
+<p>For combing the hair, Atsugewi might use a single stick, a pine
+cone, or a teasle burr. Mountain Maidu might use stiff pine needles,
+but the item most commonly used by all tribes for the purpose was
+the porcupine tail. The animal&rsquo;s tail was skinned out, stuffed with
+grass, and sewed shut at the open end. Sharp ends of the porcupine
+quills were blunted with hot stones.</p>
+<p>Hair was not dyed in this region. It was, however, rubbed with
+animal fat or bone marrow to make it look nicer by aboriginal
+standards. Atsugewi are said to have perfumed their hair on occasion
+with aromatic plant foliage. Hair and body lice were not
+uncommon; these were hunted and removed by hand. Maidu washed
+their hair frequently with common soaproot (<i>Chlorogalum pomeridianum</i>).</p>
+<p>Faces of adults were painted for a number of occasions. Black
+was used to some extent by both sexes to prevent sunburn and
+snow-blindness if long exposure in the bright sun were expected.
+Although Yana men and women used red and white paint when
+dancing, among our other tribes face paint was used chiefly by men
+for dances and ceremonies.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig130">
+<img src="images/p35d.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="516" />
+<p class="pcap">Porcupine tail comb about ten inches long (after Dixon)</p>
+</div>
+<p>Paint pigments were mixed with animal fat, especially deer
+grease, or with marrow and applied with the fingers. It was smeared
+on upper arms, legs, chest, and cheeks. Atsugewi and mountain
+Maidu blackened their eyebrows. Red pigment was either red soil,
+usually roasted or burned to make the color brighter, or the spores
+from a fungus which grows on the bark of fir trees. The fungus
+<span class="pb" id="Page_114">114</span>
+material was dried over a slow fire to prepare it for use. Black
+pigment was universally charcoal. Ashes were not used as white
+pigment. Students of local tribes state that chalk was employed
+for white paint. However, chalk is lacking in the Lassen vicinity
+and it is highly probable that the suitable and readily available
+white diatomaceous earth deposits were used for this purpose
+instead. Atsugewi also used blue color which was obtained in
+rock form by trade with their northern Pit River or Achomawi
+neighbors.</p>
+<p>The light beards which started to grow on male Indians&rsquo; faces
+were universally removed completely by plucking with the fingers.</p>
+<p>Earlobe and nose piercing was generally practiced by both
+sexes. Among Atsugewi rims of their ears as well as the lobes
+were perforated in some instances.</p>
+<p>Tattooing was occasionally done by Yana, but not as commonly
+as among Atsugewi where women not infrequently wore tattooed
+vertical lines across their mouths. Both sexes commonly tattooed
+their cheeks with horizontal lines or with two or three lines radiating
+from the corners of the mouth. Arms and legs were also
+tattooed to a certain extent. The mutilation was done by rubbing
+charcoal into cuts which had been made with stone knives or by
+rubbing charcoal on the skin and then pricking it with bone awls
+or porcupine quills. However, even among Atsugewi, tattooing was
+by no means universal. Mountain Maidu women were sometimes
+tattooed with three, five, or seven vertical lines on the chin.</p>
+<p>Earrings were worn by nearly all men and women. Atsugewi
+employed bone rings, clamshell beads, feathers and even painted
+ear ornaments. Mountain Maidu and Yana usually used bone or
+wooden ones, plain or decorated with feathers or shells. Abalone,
+like other sea shells, were received only in trade and were
+fashioned into pendants for ears or noses.</p>
+<p>Nose piercing consisted of making a hole through the septum
+of the nose. This practice was popular among all local tribes. It
+was done to permit the wearing of jewelry although Yana ascribed
+a deeper meaning to the custom as well. They believed that no
+person would go to his equivalent of heaven unless the nose
+septum was pierced. Hence this was done to the dead and a stick
+inserted if it had not been done in life. Two-pointed bone nose-pins
+were popular inserts as were long narrow dentalium shells,
+or nose pendants of beads. Only among mountain Maidu were nose
+ornaments highly decorated.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_115">115</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig131">
+<img src="images/p36.jpg" alt="" width="684" height="503" />
+<p class="pcap">Portion of Atsugewi (probably)
+necklace of dentalium shells (one
+and one fourth inches long) and glass
+trader beads.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig132">
+<img src="images/p36a.jpg" alt="" width="543" height="252" />
+<p class="pcap">Maidu necklaces: bear claw and
+insect perforated acorn.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig133">
+<img src="images/p36d.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="427" />
+<p class="pcap">Atsugewi necklace of clamshell
+disks and digger pine
+nuts which are a full half
+inch long.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_116">116</div>
+<p>Necklaces were common adornments too, but local tribes did
+not use bracelets. Items used for necklaces were perhaps bear
+teeth and bear claws among Atsugewi and Yana. More commonly,
+certainly, and used by all of our tribes were olivella shells, shaped
+pieces of abalone shells, small animal and bird bone rings or tubes,
+clamshell discs, long tooth-shells (dentalia), and Digger Pine
+nuts which had been parched until blackened. Their ends had then
+been rubbed off or holes bored through ends or sides and cleaned
+out. Yana also made mussel shell disks locally, not only for necklaces
+but as ear pendants. In later years all tribes used glass
+trader beads, usually interspersed with native items.</p>
+<p>Maidu, especially their tribes of the lower elevations, went in for
+elaborate feather decorations and headdresses. Valley Maidu even
+had feather cloaks for ceremonial use.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_117">117</div>
+<h2 id="c19"><span class="small">Chapter XVII</span>
+<br />WEALTH</h2>
+<p>Among local tribes wealth was the direct result of skill and
+industry and was highly regarded by all. A person&rsquo;s social status
+in the tribe varied directly with his wealth. Lazy persons not able
+to properly care for their own needs were considered as bums and
+looked down upon by all other members of the village. With wealth
+went a certain amount of power. Chiefs, although empowered by
+heritage, were always well to do, and the wealthiest men in smaller
+units acted in the capacity of head-men.</p>
+<p>As with modern man, money among Indians was an arbitrary
+medium of exchange, yet it was of more practical value to the
+Indians than our own coins are to us. Their money was prized not
+only for what it would buy in material things, but as possessing
+important decorative value as well.</p>
+<p>The long tooth-shell or dentalium was used whole and unmodified.
+It was the currency of the northwest California coast. The
+money of central and southern California was the clamshell disk.
+This was cut, smoothed into disk shapes about half an inch in diameter,
+and each was perforated with a central hole by means of
+which this money could be strung onto cords. In no case did local
+tribes travel the California coast to obtain these shell coins. Instead,
+this item found its way to Indians of the interior through
+progressive or step-by-step trading from coastal tribes through intermediate
+aboriginal traders.</p>
+<p>As we might expect, dentalia, having a northern origin, were
+secured by Atsugewi not from their neighbors to the south, but from
+the northern Yana in exchange for buckskins, arrows, wildcat skin
+quivers, and woodpecker scalps. The mountain Maidu did not have
+dentalia at all.</p>
+<p>Except for the central Yana custom of measuring the length of
+strings of clamshell disks, amounts of money were determined by
+counting and not by measuring length on arm tatoos as was so
+commonly the case in other parts of California. Skins of small
+mammals which had been skinned by making only one slit in the
+hind quarters and whose mouth openings had been tied shut, served
+as purses.</p>
+<p>All of our tribes used clamshell money. Among Yana clamshell
+disks were not as valuable as dentalia, and they were more common
+also among Atsugewi, the dentalia being used more for decoration
+than as money. The tribes of the Lassen region generally received
+<span class="pb" id="Page_118">118</span>
+the finished clamshell money; almost never did they manufacture
+this, although they did work traded abalone shell into jewelry
+pieces.</p>
+<p>Material wealth or treasure other than weapons, skins, baskets,
+and food also consisted largely of imported seashells. Whole
+olivella shells were commonly used as dress ornaments and also
+for paying shamans for services. Bone cylinders, columellae of
+shells, and especially polished cylinders of the mineral magnesite
+were highly prized. These might be used as the central piece of
+a necklace in the same manner that we might utilize a precious
+gem.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_119">119</div>
+<h2 id="c20"><span class="small">Chapter XVIII</span>
+<br />CEREMONIAL DRESS</h2>
+<p>All local tribes used the beautiful salmon colored feathers of
+the Red-shafted Flicker, a woodpecker also known to us by the
+name Yellowhammer. A headband of the bird&rsquo;s feathers&mdash;the stiff
+quills&mdash;was worn on the forehead. Mountain Maidu doctors wore
+this item also as a belt. In addition Atsugewi made a full feather
+band which was worn in a variety of ways including hanging down
+the back. This was usually used only by the shamans.</p>
+<p>Another ceremonial item was the California or Acorn Woodpecker
+scalp headband. This usually had a buckskin strap base, however,
+mountain Maidu glued these gay feathered patches onto fur bands,
+Yana wore woodpecker scalps on buckskin as belts.</p>
+<p>Mountain Maidu made belts of bands on which the showy greenish
+feathered neck skins of male Mallard Ducks in mating plumage
+were strung.</p>
+<p>For ceremonial use it was generally customary to tuck small
+tufts of feathers into the top of the hair. Among Atsugewi, chiefs
+only used eagle feathers for this purpose. This tribe also fastened
+single feathers into the crown of buckskin caps in a radiating
+manner, and also onto strips hanging down the back. Sometimes
+feathers were tipped with small white feathers to make the former
+even more decorative. Feathers were also fastened to head nets
+in a number of ways which differed somewhat among our tribes.
+Among Atsugewi, women wore these on occasion, but generally it
+was the males who decked themselves with feathers. Feather
+plumes of various sorts, employing either twisted buckskin or stick
+bodies, were also in general use.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_120">120</div>
+<h2 id="c21"><span class="small">Chapter XIX</span>
+<br />TOBACCO AND SMOKING</h2>
+<p>The knowledge and use of tobacco are among the important
+elements which our own culture of today has inherited from the
+Indians of North America. Of what benefit this has been is a debatable
+matter, but its effect has been profound, both on our customs
+and our economy.</p>
+<p>Local tribes used simple one piece wooden pipes of tubular
+design for the most part in smoking tobacco. Atsugewi and mountain
+Maidu commonly employed elder and other woods with a pithy
+and easily removed center. Although not otherwise being considered
+in this account, the Shasta Indian technique of pipe making is
+mentioned here because of its uniqueness. These folks hollowed
+pipe stems by soaking the end of a suitable stick in salmon oil.
+The larvae of the salmon fly were then introduced, and these worm-like
+creatures, eating the nourishing fishy core, would bore their
+ways lengthwise through the center of the heartwood where most
+of the salmon oil was concentrated. The Yana habitually used the
+wood of ash as pipe stock. Mountain Maidu found but did not manufacture
+a few simple stone pipe bowls also of tubular design. These
+had considerable spiritual significance and were treated with great
+care. Garth states that Atsugewi also had short stone pipes,
+tubular in shape, to which elder or rose wood extensions up to
+eleven inches in length were applied. Stone pipes were apparently
+not common in the Lassen region, however.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig134">
+<img src="images/p37.jpg" alt="" width="573" height="410" />
+<p class="pcap">Steatite stone pipes were used without wooden stems, each between
+three and four inches long. The holes in such pipes were made by
+tapping a deer antler piece in the depression containing some sand,
+a slow but effective boring process. This was commonly done by
+Valley tribes.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_121">121</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig135">
+<img src="images/p37a.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="613" />
+<p class="pcap">Yana reddish porous lava
+(dacite?) pipe, broken half,
+both sides shown. Note
+funnel-shaped depression
+in the bottom of the outside
+(lower half)</p>
+</div>
+<p>Pipes were used at social gatherings, after sweating, and at
+bed time. The pipes of the local tribes did not have any bends or
+curves. These straight tubular pipes were therefore most conveniently
+smoked when the Indians were reclining on their backs
+thus keeping the tobacco from falling out. Pipes were normally
+passed around, and used only by the men. However, women shamans
+of the mountain Maidu also smoked them. Shamans regularly used
+pipe smoking in ceremonies, especially when healing the sick.</p>
+<p>Tobacco grew wild and burning of brush was performed in certain
+localities to promote the growth of <i>Nicotiana</i> plants. Tobacco
+was not cultivated, but mountain Maidu did collect and scatter
+seeds in favorable areas. Tobacco was prepared merely by collecting
+the leaves when fully developed but still green, then drying,
+preferably in the shade, and finally crumbling the cured leaf in the
+hand. Tobacco was carried in buckskin pouches usually. Atsugewi
+often added manzanita and deer grease to their smoking tobacco.
+Indians of this region did not chew tobacco nor did they eat it with
+lime as was the custom elsewhere in California. Native tobacco
+is quite strong.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_122">122</div>
+<h2 id="c22"><span class="small">Chapter XX</span>
+<br />MUSIC AND ART</h2>
+<p>Music of local tribes was limited indeed. It was usually made
+by men. Only Atsugewi among the Lassen tribes possessed the
+drum, and this is believed to have been of recent introduction. It
+was a tambourine type: flat, cylindrical, a foot or so across, and
+with buckskin shrunken over one end.</p>
+<p>The shamans of all tribes used cocoon rattles. These were
+made of large cocoons from which the moth pupae had been removed
+through a small hole. Pebbles or seeds were then inserted and
+usually five or six cocoons&mdash;among Atsugewi as many as thirty&mdash;were
+tied onto the end of a wooden handle and dried. Cocoon
+rattles were considered dangerous and were usually kept hidden out
+of doors, being used by shamans only when doctoring.</p>
+<p>A single split stick clapper was employed generally for all types
+of singing and dancing, not being reserved for any special type of
+person or ceremony.</p>
+<p>Deer-hoof rattles were made from the small hard &ldquo;dew-claws&rdquo;
+from the backs of deer legs. About twenty dew-claws were tied
+loosely with thongs to a strip of buckskin which was then wrapped
+about a stick with a plain handle. The deer-hoof rattle was operated
+by vigorously jerking it lengthwise, in and out. It was used
+exclusively in the important puberty rites when girls attained
+womanhood.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig136">
+<img src="images/p38.jpg" alt="" width="286" height="534" />
+<p class="pcap">Deer-hoof rattle, length
+about ten inches (after
+Dixon)</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_123">123</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig137">
+<img src="images/p38d.jpg" alt="" width="154" height="1102" />
+<p class="pcap">Maidu split-stick
+clapper, twenty
+inches long</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig138">
+<img src="images/p38e.jpg" alt="" width="210" height="404" />
+<p class="pcap">Maidu cocoon rattle
+eight inches long</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig139">
+<img src="images/p38f.jpg" alt="" width="100" height="470" />
+<p class="pcap">Maidu bird-bone
+whistles</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig140">
+<img src="images/p38g.jpg" alt="" width="184" height="462" />
+<p class="pcap">Atsugewi deer-claw rattle</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig141">
+<img src="images/p38h.jpg" alt="" width="78" height="504" />
+<p class="pcap">Universal split-stick dancing
+rattle</p>
+</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig142">
+<img src="images/p38m.jpg" alt="" width="112" height="412" />
+<p class="pcap">Maidu cocoon rattle</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_124">124</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig143">
+<img src="images/p39.jpg" alt="" width="677" height="284" />
+<p class="pcap">Flute and bull-roarer of local manufacture</p>
+</div>
+<p>Atsugewi and Yana employed hunting bows as musical instruments
+by holding one end in the mouth and plucking the string with
+fingers. Mountain Maidu did so too, but like the others only for
+their own amusement.</p>
+<p>Bone, cane, and elder whistles were blown at dances. Flutes,
+the most tuneful of Indians&rsquo; instruments, were not played at ceremonies
+or at dances, curiously enough, but just for self amusement,
+or in the case of mountain Maidu also for courting pretty girls. Flute
+melodies were supposed to tell stories, but words were not sung
+to help the interpretation. Yana made a six-hole flute; other tribes
+of the Lassen area used a four hole model. In all cases they were
+open, reedless instruments blown at an angle across one end. The
+flute was most frequently made of elder wood&mdash;mountain Maidu
+burned the holes into it with live coals.</p>
+<p>Except for basketry designs art as such is virtually non-existent.
+A few simple designs were painted onto hunting bows, and some
+nose and ear pendants might be considered jewelry art forms, but
+of the lowest development. The application of face and body paints
+and tattooing were also simple examples of Indian art.</p>
+<p>There appear to be no cliff or cave paintings in the vicinity of
+Lassen Peak, but they are abundant in Lava Beds National Monument
+about 75 miles to the north. A different matter is that of
+petroglyphs which, in California, usually have been made by striking
+or pecking smooth rock surfaces with small hard stones. Some of
+these are to be found in the Atsugewi and central Yana territories
+at lower elevation. However, these symbolic markings were not
+executed by the local tribes. Atsugewi believe them to have been
+made by mythological characters. It appears that the petroglyphs
+must have been made by the predecessors of the Hat Creek and
+Nozi Indians, for these people claim no knowledge of even the
+meaning of the rock writings. Shortly before going to press the
+<span class="pb" id="Page_125">125</span>
+first petroglyph known to come from the Lassen vicinity was found
+in the territory of the Southern Yana. The site is one where numerous
+obsidian chips and arrowpoints have been found on a gently
+south sloping, open forested portion of Lassen Volcanic National
+Park headquarters area at an elevation of almost 5000 feet and
+situated slightly west of the village of Mineral and just north of
+the north edge of Battle Creek Meadow.</p>
+<p>This find on a 10 inch boulder appears to be of ancient origin.
+The surface has weathered considerably yet not so much that the
+character of the carving has been altered. It is apparent that the
+quarter inch deep grooves have been made by rubbing rather than
+by pecking with hard rocks. This is all the more interesting since
+the boulder bearing the carving is of a tough hard and site lava.
+It is indeed unfortunate that the significance of this Battle Creek
+Meadows petroglyph is unknown. The authorities venture the
+opinion that the stone may have been used in puberty ceremonies.
+If so, whether by the Southern Yana or their predecessors we do
+not know either.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig144">
+<img src="images/p39a.jpg" alt="" width="688" height="508" />
+<p class="pcap">Battle Creek Meadows petroglyph about nine inches long. The eye-shaped
+area A is a smooth flat one eighth of an inch below the level of the rest
+of the rock surface. The grooves bounding it are more than one quarter
+inch deep and of V-shaped cross-section while the other markings are
+much shallower troughs with rounded bottoms some being quite vague. B,
+C, D, and E indicate deeper rounded depressions. F is a smooth and very
+uniform slightly concave area.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_126">126</div>
+<h2 id="c23"><span class="small">Chapter XXI</span>
+<br />GAMES AND SOCIAL GATHERINGS</h2>
+<p>Heavy betting on games was the rule. Games were commonly
+played between neighboring villages or even on occasion with
+neighboring tribes. Gambling was an important element in these
+contests and large sums were bet. Sometimes nearly all of a
+person&rsquo;s or even of a group&rsquo;s possessions were at stake.
+Evaluation of the stakes in white man&rsquo;s terms is difficult, but they
+are said frequently to have been of the order of several hundred
+dollars or even as much as a thousand dollars. Important games
+lasted more than one day&mdash;perhaps three or four days. The players
+caught brief rests only and were completely exhausted by the
+time the playing was over. Singing was the usual accompaniment
+and high quality rendition at games was much admired. Cheating was
+rare, maybe because it was supposed to bring subsequent bad luck.</p>
+<p>Most games were guessing games. There was considerable
+variety in the character and number of gambling stones or wooden
+sticks used, the manner of shuffling and other details. The sticks
+were shuffled and then concealed in the hands of one or several
+players on one side. The opposition had to determine the location
+of the marked stick or the arrangement of several. There were
+many spectators and excitement ran high. Women occasionally
+participated along with the men who were the main contestants.
+Counting sticks might be supplied to each side in equal number at
+the beginning. More often, however, the sticks were all placed in
+a common pile at the outset, the successful side taking a counting
+stick with each win. These scoring sticks were taken and surrendered
+as the tide of the game changed until one side had all.
+The game was won at this point.</p>
+<p>Ball games were played too. The ball was of buckskin stuffed
+with hair. The object was to kick the ball between the other team&rsquo;s
+goal posts. Kicking ball races over given courses and back, or
+around a lake shore, were also indulged in. In some contests the
+men and youths on opposing sides would engage in restraining each
+other so that a number of individual or group wrestling bouts
+developed on the playing field.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig145">
+<img src="images/p40.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="125" />
+<p class="pcap">Yana gambling bone, four inches long</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_127">127</div>
+<p>There were foot races of distances either short or up to fifteen
+miles or so in length. Also archery contests and wrestling matches
+were held. In wrestling the object was to throw the opponent to
+the ground; tripping was not allowed. Contests in which heavy
+rocks were tossed, somewhat in the manner of today&rsquo;s shot-put,
+and heavier rocks carried in competition over a designated line
+were other games in which the Atsugewi engaged.</p>
+<p>Shinny was played by women and children as well as by men,
+but adult sexes played separately in all of our tribes except Yana.
+Among them only men participated in this game. Mountain Maidu
+had three players on a side; Atsugewi had five players. Straight
+shinny sticks curved at the striking end were used and the puck
+was a hide affair. Mountain Maidu used a double ball puck. An
+attempt was made to keep the puck in the air in play. The object,
+of course, was to get the puck to go between the opponents&rsquo; goal
+posts. The Yana used a puck of two bones linked by a string
+several inches long. Running with the puck on the stick as well
+as hitting, and throwing it down the field were permitted.</p>
+<p>Children improvised a number of games in the
+same manner as our own children do today in copying
+their parents. They played house with limbless
+but dressed dolls, made and used toy bows and
+arrows, and made sling shots, too. They commonly
+tried juggling two stones in one hand, spun acorn
+tops by hand, and in some instances noise makers
+such as wooden buzzers and bull roarers were
+used. In play, loud noise was not condoned, however.</p>
+<p>Small feasts might occur at any time and were
+perhaps the most important social gatherings of
+Atsugewi. They were usually sparked by a temporary
+abundance of food. Dancing was not included.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig146">
+<img src="images/p40a.jpg" alt="" width="154" height="499" />
+<p class="pcap">Child&rsquo;s
+acorn top</p>
+</div>
+<p>Mr. Garth describes the Atsugewi &ldquo;... grand occasion
+... held only when a large supply of food had been accumulated,
+was the bagapi or &lsquo;big time&rsquo;.... The chief called a
+meeting to decide on the date and then sent his people to
+various places for deer and other foods. Knotted strings
+(rokuki) with a knot tied for each intervening day before the
+festival were sent to other villages. By untying a knot each
+day other chieftains knew when to start for the host&rsquo;s village.
+The host chief stood on the roof of his earth lodge and
+welcomed the visitor, calling each chief by name: &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t fall
+<span class="pb" id="Page_128">128</span>
+down. Step carefully. I&rsquo;m glad you have come to see me.
+Don&rsquo;t be in a hurry.&rsquo;... Toward evening the visitors might
+give a dance, after which the host chief called everyone to
+eat. Large baskets containing acorn mush, meat, sunflower
+seeds, and other foods were placed on the ground. The host
+proffered baskets of food to each visiting chief who in turn
+then distributed the food to his people. In winter two tribal
+groups on opposite sides of the sweat house might have a
+competitive sweat dance, vying to see which could endure the
+heat longest. In summer the sweating was usually omitted,
+and games of chance were begun. In the several days that
+followed, foot racing, archery, weight lifting, and other contests
+were indulged in. Large bets were made by opposing
+sides on the outcome of each contest, and the losing side at
+the end of the week&rsquo;s festivities often had little property left.
+Surplus food was divided among the guests before they
+departed.&rdquo;</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_129">129</div>
+<h2 id="c24"><span class="small">Chapter XXII</span>
+<br />DANCES</h2>
+<p>Mountain Maidu had more dances and more types of dances than
+other tribes of the Lassen area. Tribes of the Sacramento Valley
+had many more and more complicated dance ceremonies than ours
+did.</p>
+<p>Mountain Maidu had formalized sweat dances which were performed
+inside large dwelling lodges at night and were participated
+in by both sexes. As in the case of Yana, only one man, the leader,
+sang and hit the central pole rhythmically with a split stick rattle.
+The dancers performed simultaneously but in one spot until they
+were exhausted and took a cold swim afterwards.</p>
+<p>Of the less ceremonial Atsugewi sweat dance, Garth states:</p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>&ldquo;... Men danced naked except for circlets ... of
+twisted grass around the waist, head and upper arm, and occasionally
+from one shoulder diagonally across the chest....
+Three or four lines of black or white paint might be drawn
+across the chest and upper arm. Women wore a skirt and only
+a small amount of paint. The dancing took place in the combination
+sweat, dance, and dwelling house of the chief or head
+man.... The fire was built high with dry mountain mahogany
+..., pine ..., and sometimes with willow ..., all
+woods which burned without much smoke; the ventilator door
+was closed and the dance began. The one singer sat in a
+corner and beat time with a split stick rattle.... Each of ten
+or twelve dancers might approach close to the fire to show
+his ability to endure heat, pick up burning brands, one in each
+hand, and alternately hit one upper arm and then the other with
+the brands. The heat often became so intense that water had
+to be thrown on the center post to prevent its catching fire.
+There was rivalry to see who could stay inside longest, and
+after a time one man after another emerged and dived into the
+icy water nearby or rolled in the snow. There might be sweating
+three or four nights in succession on the occasion of a
+communal hunt.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Mountain Maidu held a dance gathering each spring for Black
+Bear and Grizzly Bear. They believed that this dance had been
+done by animals in mythical &ldquo;before Indian times&rdquo;. This gathering
+lasted three days and nights, but the actual dance was in progress
+only one day and night. Only women danced but men participated
+in the ceremony dressed in bear robes. There was much feasting
+<span class="pb" id="Page_130">130</span>
+too.</p>
+<p>The pre- and post-war dances are discussed under the chapter
+on war.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_131">131</div>
+<h2 id="c25"><span class="small">Chapter XXIII</span>
+<br />POLITICAL ORGANIZATION OF TRIBES</h2>
+<p>Tribes, as we think of them, were non-existent as political
+units, and hence there were no tribal chiefs, but there were village
+chiefs, in the California province.</p>
+<p>The self governing unit was always a village or a group of small
+closely adjacent villages. This is the political unit which was
+governed by the chief. Villages might consist of from four to about
+twenty-five earth lodges and bark huts with populations of from
+twenty-five to a hundred or more persons. Influential leaders,
+usually of much wealth&mdash;but not necessarily so&mdash;were recognized
+as head-men, exercising considerable authority over the smaller
+villages or separated groups of houses near villages. However the
+head-man&rsquo;s authority was subservient to that of the chief.</p>
+<p>Chieftainship was inherited through the father&rsquo;s lineage, the
+oldest son being the first in succession. However, if the son were
+too young to take over, the deceased chief&rsquo;s brother was temporarily
+in charge. The qualities of good character and knowledge were also
+important qualifications for chieftainship, and a chief could be
+deposed if he were not a good one. Tenure was normally for life,
+dependent upon satisfactory behavior and performance of his responsibilities.</p>
+<p>The chief&rsquo;s relatives hunted and fished for him, but he fed
+visitors and provided most of the food for feasts. The chief always
+directed community economic activities such as group fishing, deer
+hunting, and root digging expeditions. For this reason chiefs had
+to know much about game, fish runs, ripening seasons, et cetera,
+and had to possess good judgement to insure success of group
+undertakings. Chiefs also spoke to their people mornings and
+evenings, and at ceremonies and the like. Chiefs furthermore declared
+days of rest when chores were done about home. Another
+function was to arbitrate quarrels among the people.</p>
+<p>Mountain Maidu villages had assistant chiefs besides, who were
+sons or brothers of the chiefs. This assistant advised the chief
+and substituted for him as the occasion demanded. A specific duty
+of his was the division of food at ceremonies.</p>
+<p>Some chiefs had secondary female chiefs who in the case of
+the Maidu were daughters, among Atsugewi the chiefs&rsquo; wives. A
+woman in this capacity supervised preparation of food for feasts
+and in Atsugewi villages might give orders to men.</p>
+<p>Atsugewi chiefs appointed clowns at ceremonies who were paid.
+<span class="pb" id="Page_132">132</span>
+Appointed messengers were a part of every chief&rsquo;s staff. They
+were selected on the basis of both willingness to serve and ability.
+Maidu had about six messengers per village while the number varied
+among Atsugewi. Messengers were good speakers, reliable men,
+and were discharged if they failed in their duties. These included
+not only message running, but among Atsugewi, tending fires at
+ceremonies. For Maidu chiefs, messengers welcomed guests and
+traveled about gathering news and scouting. Special fire tenders
+were appointed in this tribe.</p>
+<p>Atsugewi chiefs seem to have possessed greater prestige and
+authority than those of the mountain Maidu, the Yana, and the Yahi.
+The decisions of Atsugewi chiefs were final, but these had to be
+diplomatic if the chief were to remain popular. If a chief were unpopular
+some of his people would move to another village leaving
+the first chief&rsquo;s community numerically weaker. Chiefs were generally
+well obeyed by rich and poor alike. In return, chiefs unfailingly
+had the interests of their people at heart. Atsugewi chiefs,
+specifically, set examples of industry, behavior, and judgement
+for their people. No doubt this was generally true of the chiefs
+of units in other local tribes too.</p>
+<p>Because of the greater popularity, prestige, and consequently
+larger following of some individual chiefs, they were considerably
+more powerful than other chiefs in the same tribe. Such men were
+influential to some extent beyond the boundaries of their own territories.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_133">133</div>
+<h2 id="c26"><span class="small">Chapter XXIV</span>
+<br />WAR AND PEACE</h2>
+<p>Wars were commonly small scale encounters and might be either
+within tribes or between tribes. Atsugewi were not often aggressive.
+Most tribes at one time or another had differences with neighboring
+tribes, but friendly relations were usually re-established soon.
+Certain tribes, however, were repeatedly or traditionally enemies,
+as for instance, Klamath, Paiute, or Modoc against Atsugewi;
+Washoe against mountain Maidu; Achomawi or Wintun against the
+Yana tribes; and mountain Maidu or Wintun against Yahi. Tribes
+sometimes helped each other in wars, and either payment or reciprocal
+aid was usually forthcoming.</p>
+<p>Causes of hostilities in the Lassen area were usually revenge
+for murders (if uncompensated), abduction of women and children,
+or insults to chiefs. Mountain Maidu, Yana, and Yahi also waged
+wars on account of poaching, rape, alleged witchcraft, and the like.
+All able bodied men normally went to war, but mountain Maidu left
+some at home to protect the women.</p>
+<p>Chiefs generally did not participate in the fighting although
+they often went along on the war expedition. Instead of leading
+the battles themselves, chiefs appointed special warrior leaders
+who were principal targets of the opposition. Such battle leaders
+were often head-men, but always were men competent to lead the
+fight and who had good arrow dodging power.</p>
+<p>Shamans habitually went to war, but did not fight actively except
+on occasion. They were busy singing during battle and urging
+the warriors on or exhorting supernatural help. The Atsugewi
+shaman reportedly &ldquo;stayed behind a tree all the time giving out
+his power&rdquo;.</p>
+<p>Preparation for war consisted of practicing dodging arrows,
+shooting arrows, in some cases at effigies, and in dancing. The
+main purpose of the preparation was to incite enthusiasm for the
+fight. This was so successful that quite a commotion developed
+in the community, to the extent that such incidents occurred
+as warriors with knives chasing women and a man shooting his own
+dog with an arrow! Preparatory war dances were held outside near
+the villages. Both men and women participated and shamans sang.
+Mountain Maidu sustained their dances for several days. Warriors
+spoke to their arrows addressing them as persons. Atsugewi men
+painted themselves with white and black stripes on faces, limbs,
+and bodies. Yana used red and white war paint. Mountain Maidu
+<span class="pb" id="Page_134">134</span>
+wore head nets and bands. Dried untanned skins of bear, elk, and
+such were worn at dances as well as in battle, as were waistcoat
+armors of strong vertical sticks lashed together. Leather helmets
+were worn by some warriors.</p>
+<p>The enemy was usually attacked just at dawn using the element
+of surprise to the fullest extent possible. Some battles were pre-arranged
+in which a number of participants faced each other in well
+formed lines. Such conflicts were subject to &ldquo;calling off&rdquo; if too
+many men were injured or killed. Serious raids, however, did
+not give quarter and men, women, and children were killed. Booty
+was taken and scalps, too, were stripped from fallen victims.
+Scalps were later burned by Atsugewi, but mountain Maidu dried
+human scalps on frames. This tribe also took entire heads from
+bodies on occasion. Prisoners were taken too: Atsugewi not infrequently
+adopted captured children. Captive women might be
+mistreated and raped, then killed. Adult prisoners might escape
+with relative ease because there was no suitable way to confine
+them permanently, and some were returned voluntarily.</p>
+<p>While the war party was away on its expedition, the women at
+home danced individually in the manner of the war dance. They
+sang and prayed to help the men at war. Atsugewi women dancers
+carried feathers, bows, and arrows, but rattles were not used in
+these morale dances.</p>
+<p>Upon return of the war party a victory dance was held in or near
+the village in the open air. Men and women danced independently,
+but together at the same time. Atsugewi men painted themselves
+red and white instead of the black and white used for the pre-war
+dance. They wore headdresses of all sorts and the warriors
+carried their bows, arrows, armor, and other fighting gear while
+dancing. The victory dance took place around a fire. Next to the fire
+Atsugewi planted a short pole on which the new scalps were displayed
+while mountain Maidu danced with the scalps secured to
+hand-carried sticks. It is worth noting that while some readers
+may consider this gloating over human scalps to be a primitive
+morbidity, it is true that often white men&mdash;the very pioneers we
+eulogize&mdash;took and coveted human scalps themselves.</p>
+<p>Warriors, particularly those who had killed adversaries, purified
+themselves by swimming, rubbing aromatic plants on their bodies,
+praying for luck. They did not eat meat for from a few to many days,
+depending on the tribe. Among Atsugewi they also sweated with
+the same end in view, and women brushed the men&rsquo;s bodies with
+plant materials to aid the purification process.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_135">135</div>
+<p>Surprisingly, the eating of hot foods and any form of meat was
+taboo to wounded warriors. This seems strange, since these are
+the very foods which we consider beneficial to injured persons.</p>
+<p>When an attack appeared likely upon an Atsugewi village, the
+whole population retired to high ground which was easily defended.
+Such sites were prepared in advance and might be considered crude
+forts as they were surrounded by rock walls and provided with
+shelters for the non-combatants.</p>
+<p>In intertribal wars there was usually no compensation as such
+made where the encounter had been motivated by the satisfaction
+of securing revenge. In the case of feuds or murders within the
+tribe payment was made to relatives of the slain. If persons on
+both sides were slain compensation was made for all the dead.
+The chief or head-man supervised the peace negotiations. Payment
+was usually in beads or money, but Atsugewi sometimes paid off
+in women or in the amount of the usual price of a bride. In this
+tribe too, the amount of compensation was made according to the
+wealth of the victim. A poor man&rsquo;s life was not considered to be
+worth as much as a rich man&rsquo;s. Atsugewi had a settlement dance
+meeting in which both sides were present and wore fighting regalia.
+These dancers disarmed themselves after the payment had been
+made.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_136">136</div>
+<h2 id="c27"><span class="small">Chapter XXV</span>
+<br />BIRTH AND BABIES</h2>
+<p>The natural function of birth obviously varied only in details
+of handling the situation, delivery assistance, disposition of the
+afterbirth, and methods of cutting and treating the child&rsquo;s umbilical
+cord. The baby was born in a separate hut which contained a trench
+heated with coals. These were covered with grass and pine needles
+or fir boughs. On this warm green bed the woman lay at least a
+part of the time during labor and also after delivery.</p>
+<p>Children were desired and a barren woman was looked down on
+socially. Inability to produce children was grounds for divorce.
+The behavior of both parents during pregnancy was believed to
+closely affect personality and health of the child.</p>
+<p>After giving birth, the mother remained in isolation for from nearly
+a week to a month or more. Many taboos were imposed upon her.
+Bathing in streams and sweat baths, eating fresh or dried meat or
+fish, grease, and often salt were forbidden to her. Most tribes of
+the Lassen area also prohibited combing of the mother&rsquo;s hair by
+herself during the period of isolation. Also taboo was scratching
+herself with her hands, making baskets, preparing food, or traveling.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig147">
+<img src="images/p41.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="436" />
+<p class="pcap">Front and side views of Atsugewi cradle basket for a very young baby.
+(tseh-nay-gow)</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_137">137</div>
+<div class="img" id="fig148">
+<img src="images/p41a.jpg" alt="" width="466" height="600" />
+<p class="pcap">Atsugewi young baby carrying basket or teseh-nay-gow</p>
+</div>
+<p>There were restrictions on the father of the newly born child
+too. Among Atsugewi and Yana he stayed with the mother, but
+mountain Maidu fathers stayed away for periods of a week or less.
+Immediately after the birth had taken place, the father ran to the
+woods to break up and bring home quantities of fire-wood. Hunting
+and fishing of all kinds and traveling were taboo for several weeks
+in most cases. Atsugewi and mountain Maidu new fathers were also
+forbidden to smoke and gamble, and like their wives, were denied
+eating fresh or dried fish, meat, and grease for varying periods up
+to a month. Release from taboos occurred with sweating and bathing
+among Atsugewi and mountain Maidu. Fathers in these tribes
+also gave away the first kill when they resumed hunting.</p>
+<p>The mother generally massaged the infant to improve the shape
+and proportion of nose, face, limbs, and torso. Shedding of the
+baby&rsquo;s umbilical cord was an important event which the Indians
+wished to occur as soon as possible. A variety of odd practices to
+this end were employed. The occurrence of the event relieved the
+parents of some, or in other cases of all, the post birth taboos.
+Among most of our tribes the dried cord was saved until the child
+reached manhood or womanhood. It was customarily secured to the
+cradle basket, but frequently was subsequently lost. Earlobes
+<span class="pb" id="Page_138">138</span>
+might be pierced in early infancy especially if the child were prone
+to cry much.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig149">
+<img src="images/p42.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="541" />
+<p class="pcap">Atsugewi older baby carrying basket or yah-birr-dee. Note the rounded
+bottom on A, a modernization. Partial illustration B shows old style construction
+with a pointed bottom for thrusting into the ground.</p>
+</div>
+<p>Two cradle baskets were used. Mountain Maidu made two of
+similar oval shape, but the first and smaller one was without a
+hood. Atsugewi and Yana tribes made two different types, but both
+with rounded carrying handles and sunshades on top. These were
+constructed of willow ribs, pine root, and buckskin. The first small
+basket was called tseh-nay-gow by Atsugewi and was used for
+several months. It was short and with a distinctly rounded basketry
+shelf or lip at its lower end. The larger baby basket was called
+yah-bih-dee and was practically identical to that of the mountain
+Maidu. This was made of the usual twined basketry materials, but
+was of different construction. Willow ribs were lashed onto a sturdy
+one-piece forked branch frame, the joint being at the bottom. The
+base or stem of this Y-piece stuck out below for several inches
+being sharpened so that it could be stuck into the ground near the
+<span class="pb" id="Page_139">139</span>
+mother in camp or when she was out digging roots in the fields.
+Boo-noo-koo-ee-menorra tells of an interesting modification of
+the yah-bih-dee today. Its frame is now simply rounded at the
+bottom instead of having the pointed end described above. &ldquo;Most
+people have cars now a days&rdquo; she says, &ldquo;and that point poked a
+hole through the seat of the car. So now we make the round kind.&rdquo;
+Our visitors to Lassen Volcanic National Park are always interested
+in names of the &ldquo;papoose basket&rdquo;. This term and the words
+moccasin, wampum, and so on are no doubt of Indian origin being
+the actual words or reasonable facsimiles thereof used by some
+eastern tribe for the objects concerned. English speaking Americans
+have adopted these names as meaning those particular articles for
+all Indian tribes. It may be recalled that earlier in this book, it
+was pointed out that each tribe had its own distinct language and
+so, obviously, each tribe would have had its own distinct names
+for these objects. Hence there is no all inclusive &ldquo;Indian name&rdquo;
+for the cradle basket or anything else.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig150">
+<img src="images/p42c.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="282" />
+<p class="pcap">Maidu baby carrying basket about thirty five inches long.</p>
+</div>
+<p>The baby was wrapped in tanned buckskin or soft furs, normally
+wildcat by the Atsugewi. A pad of grass or padded bark was placed
+on the cradle board or basket and then the child was lashed into
+the tshe-nay-gow with buckskin straps in a sitting position on the
+sill with its feet hanging down. Most tribes used dry grass, pounded
+until soft, for diapers, but mountain Maidu used skin material for
+the purpose. Babies were kept in the cradle baskets until they
+were able to walk. The cradle frame was carried on the mother&rsquo;s
+back with a tump-line passing over her forehead or chest. A series
+of larger cradle baskets were made as the child grew, usually three
+before the child was allowed to crawl or walk.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_140">140</div>
+<p>The newborn infant was never fed the colostrum from its mother.
+The baby was either let go without food or given a cooked meat
+gruel for nourishment for the first two days or so until bonafide
+milk was produced in the mother&rsquo;s breasts. Children were nursed
+as often as they wished and until they were quite large: even three
+or four years old.</p>
+<p>Names were given to children usually at the age of about a year.
+Yana waited even longer, however, until ages of four to six years
+before giving real names which for this tribe were habitually of a
+hereditary nature. In the meantime, temporary descriptive nicknames
+were given. Many real Atsugewi names had meanings, while those
+of mountain Maidu and Yana normally did not. Nevertheless, Yana
+and to a certain extent other Indians too, might acquire additional
+nicknames and descriptive names later in life, even in adulthood.</p>
+<p>Twins were unwanted among all local tribes, probably because
+of the double care and feeding responsibilities involved. Mountain
+Maidu thought that twins were bad luck and actually feared them.
+It was generally believed that twins were caused by the mother
+having eaten twinned nutmeats. These, therefore, were carefully
+avoided.</p>
+<p>Killing newborn babies whether illegitimate, twins, crippled,
+or when the mother died in childbirth, was practiced only on very
+rare occasions. Certainly infanticide was not the rule among any
+of the local tribes, but of course was practiced in certain other
+areas.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig151">
+<img src="images/p43.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="414" />
+<p class="pcap">Yana baby cradle basket for young baby.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_141">141</div>
+<h2 id="c28"><span class="small">Chapter XXVI</span>
+<br />ADULTHOOD RITES</h2>
+<p>A girl&rsquo;s attainment of puberty or womanhood was an event of
+obvious importance and it was recognized as such by all tribes of
+the Lassen region with extensive formal ritual and ceremony for
+each individual girl. Only the more important and generally employed
+taboos and rites are noted below. There was considerable
+variation in details of such matters even among the four tribes with
+which we are dealing.</p>
+<p>The girl was secluded in a separate hut for from three to six
+days and sometimes during the nights too. The taboos she observed
+during this time were much like those imposed on a mother giving
+birth, but were even more extensive. The young lady must eat from
+her own special baskets, not cross streams, avoid contacting men&mdash;especially
+hunters, refrain from gazing at the sun or moon, et
+cetera. Among things she must do were to wear a basketry cap, or
+special head bands among some tribes, and have her hair put up in
+two knobs wrapped over her shoulders. This had to be done for her
+as she was not allowed to touch her own hair. Carrying the deer-hoof
+rattle she must run races with other girls, and dance much
+also, scratch her head only with a special scratcher, have her
+earlobes pierced if this had not already been done, and frequently
+her nose septum was punctured too, being kept open by insertion of
+a round stick. Among Wintun tribes of the Sacramento Valley some
+taboos lasted for from one to three years!</p>
+<p>For several nights public dances were held which lasted all
+night. Since there was no special ritual for anyone but the girl for
+whom the dances were held, these ceremonies were of a joyous
+nature and were popular and well attended. In the middle of the
+night food provided by the girl&rsquo;s family was served to all present.
+Singing with deer-hoof rattle accompaniment was carried on all
+night. Intimate affairs between couples were not unusual during
+such dances. During the daytime as well dances were held, but
+these were of short duration and participated in chiefly by the
+women of the village. At the end of the ordeal the girl bathed and
+was given new clothes, ending her taboos.</p>
+<p>There was no formal ceremony when boys attained manhood except
+that the youths were generally sent alone into the neighboring
+mountains for several days to seek special &ldquo;powers&rdquo; to give them
+skill and luck in certain pursuits such as deer hunting, archery,
+fighting, shamanism, and the like.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_142">142</div>
+<p>During menstruation all women had to observe many taboos too.
+These included eating alone and living in seclusion. They could
+eat no meat or fish, fat, or salt, and must not cook. They must
+avoid sick persons and hunters, and could not scratch themselves
+except with the scratching stick. At the end of the taboo periods
+of four or five days, they usually bathed in streams for purification.</p>
+<p>Curiously, wives&rsquo; menstruations had to be observed by their
+husbands in a number of ways. Most common was prohibition of
+smoking, and they must eat lightly. Among mountain Maidu the
+husband could hunt and fish, but could not eat any flesh; among
+Atsugewi the reverse was true.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_143">143</div>
+<h2 id="c29"><span class="small">Chapter XXVII</span>
+<br />MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE</h2>
+<p>Marriage itself was not formalized with any ceremony. It was
+common practice for parents to arrange marriages when children
+were young and these arrangements, which involved some exchange
+of gifts or payment, were usually honored later. Most other
+marriages were arranged by parents later when the children had
+reached maturity and generally these recognized the children&rsquo;s
+wishes. Both of these types of marriages were the basis for extensive
+exchange of presents and visits, details of which differed
+among the several tribes. In addition there was almost universal
+payment for the girl&mdash;about ten strings of clamshell disks was
+standard. The boy and girl became husband and wife simply upon
+starting to live together, but the new status was usually marked by
+a feast participated in by the families concerned. Generally there
+followed a period of residence of the couple with one or both of the
+in-laws. On occasion marriages grew from intimacies with no
+parental negotiations, but such matches were not well regarded by
+the community.</p>
+<p>Indian men frequently married women from other villages and
+occasionally even women from other tribes.</p>
+<p>If a wife died her sister was generally obliged to marry the
+widower. Likewise, if the husband died it was customary that his
+brother would marry the widow. A wise institution was the relationship
+of the husband and wife with their in-laws. Neither could
+speak to nor hand things directly to the in-law of opposite sex,
+or in some cases even to the brothers and sisters of the in-laws;
+such things had to be done by a third party. In some instances the
+mother-in-law even avoided looking at her son-in-law even though
+she might like him. Such arrangements no doubt prevented many
+arguments and quarrels, but as far as their own evaluation of these
+customs were concerned, the basis lay in the belief that a bear
+might eat either or both of the violators of the in-law taboos.</p>
+<p>The practice of having more than one wife at a time was common.
+One man might have three or four wives, but rarely had more than
+two at a time. Rich men or head-men and chiefs were most apt to
+have more than two wives.</p>
+<p>Divorce was simple indeed. The man just sent the girl back
+home if she were barren, lazy, promiscuous, or the like. If he had
+good reasons for wanting to get rid of his wife, her purchase price
+might be refunded by her family, or else the ex-wife&rsquo;s sister might
+<span class="pb" id="Page_144">144</span>
+be sent to him in exchange, or, sometimes, in addition with no
+additional payment. On the other hand, the wife might leave her
+husband if she had been badly mistreated, or if the husband did not
+provide enough meat and clothing for the family or if he were unfaithful.
+In divorce the children were divided. Usually, but not
+always, the girls remained with their mother and the boys with their
+father. However, divorce was not common among Indians of this
+region.</p>
+<p>On the whole, morals were high and sexual deviations were infrequent,
+although the whole range of such practices were known to
+the aborigines. It appears beyond argument that divorces, moral
+laxity, and sexual aberrations increased with the coming of white
+man.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_145">145</div>
+<h2 id="c30"><span class="small">Chapter XXVIII</span>
+<br />DEATH AND BURIAL</h2>
+<p>Atsugewi and mountain Maidu left the corpse in the house for
+one day. They prepared it for burial by dressing it well and adding
+bead necklaces, then wrapping it in a hide. Yana did the same,
+washing the body first, and although also adorning the corpse with
+jewelry, they always removed decorative nose ornaments, replacing
+these with simple sticks. According to Voegelin, Atsugewi removed
+the body for burial prone and feet first through the wall of
+the house, but Garth states that the body was removed through the
+southern ventilator passage or through the regular entrance way
+in the roof.</p>
+<p>The mountain Maidu, Yana, Yahi, and usually the Atsugewi bent
+the body into a position called flexed. The arms were folded across
+the chest and the knees were drawn up against the stomach before
+wrapping the corpse in a robe which was then sewn shut. The
+mountain Maidu sometimes put the wrapped cadaver into a large
+basket. Voegelin was of the opinion that Atsugewi buried their
+dead lying flat on their backs, and if so, always with the head toward
+the east. It is thought that this prone burial might be a
+recent innovation learned from white man.</p>
+<p>Mourners among all of our local tribes wailed aloud and brought
+gifts for the dead. Women, especially the older ones, mourned
+vigorously. To quote Garth again on Atsugewi, of their mourning
+he states:</p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>&ldquo;The deceased&rsquo;s close relatives mourned the hardest, but
+friends might also mourn&mdash;&mdash;&lsquo;to make them feel better.&rsquo;
+Mourners cried and rolled on the ground, throwing dirt and hot
+ashes in their faces and hair. Some, in their grief, tried to
+commit suicide, and a close watch had to be kept over them
+to prevent their doing so. Favorite methods were to swallow
+small bits of (obsidian) or to eat a certain kind of spider.
+Mourners were warned not to cry around the house near the
+body but to go to the hills to cry, and also not to look down
+when crying or to cry too much. Otherwise they were subject
+to bad dreams in which spirits would plague them and possibly
+kill them. A mourner might acquire power at this time. A
+widow, with possibly a sister to help her, would wail for a
+time at daybreak and again in the evening. This lasted for
+two or three months, sometimes longer. A widower seldom
+cried more than two or three weeks. The widow visited places
+<span class="pb" id="Page_146">146</span>
+at which she had camped with her husband, broke up utensils
+left there, burned down the brush where he was accustomed
+to cut wood, and piled up rocks where they had slept together.
+A widower behaved in similar fashion.... If death occurred in
+a village, no entertainments could be held for a time; otherwise
+relatives of the deceased had the right to break things
+up and throw them around. A man would not sing or attend a
+&lsquo;big time&rsquo; gathering until at least a year after death of a close
+relative.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>If the lodge were to be lived in again, after a person had died
+in it, Atsugewi brought in juniper boughs, and these were burned
+to purify the house. Bark huts, however, were always burned down
+after an occupant had died.</p>
+<p>Mountain Maidu children were kept away from the dead and from
+the funeral proceedings. In that tribe and probably among all local
+tribes, if the deceased were rich the funeral would be much larger
+and more pretentious than if the person had been poor. In the
+former case the ceremony was followed by a feast. Other tribes
+buried the dead in the evening generally within twenty-four hours
+after death, but Yana waited three or four days. Mountain Maidu
+grave diggers put grass in their mouths. Small shallow graves
+sufficed for poor people, in fact, among Atsugewi, at least, poor
+people were often buried in small depressions in lava flows and
+covered over with convenient rocks.</p>
+<p>Enroute to Atsugewi burials no one was permitted to look back,
+and water was sprinkled along the path to prevent the dead person&rsquo;s
+spirit from returning to the village. At the grave the dead were
+asked aloud please not to look back, for if they did other members
+of their families would die soon.</p>
+<p>Cremation, that is, burning of corpses was rare among tribes of
+the Lassen area. At the battlefield and in other instances of death
+far from home, especially in the case of mountain Maidu, burning
+was done occasionally. After this the bones were collected,
+wrapped in buckskin, and then buried.</p>
+<p>The flexed bodies of the dead were always placed in graves
+facing eastward. Widows customarily attempted to throw themselves
+into the graves, but were restrained from doing so. A basket
+of water was invariably placed next to the body, and most personal
+property of the deceased was broken and also placed in the grave.
+The amount of property so disposed of varied with the tribe.
+Mountain Maidu and especially the Yana tribes put practically everything
+in the grave. The latter even went so far as to include many
+<span class="pb" id="Page_147">147</span>
+gifts of a nature not normally associated with the sex. Aprons and
+baskets, for instance, might be placed in a man&rsquo;s burial. Among
+Atsugewi the relatives retained some of the property of the deceased.
+Atsugewi might place some food on the grave and mark it with a
+vertical stick, but it was not tended later, and the site was generally
+soon lost.</p>
+<p>In winter a person might be buried shallowly in the floor of a
+living house. Next spring the house would be torn down and the
+dirt walls caved in. There was variation not only between, but
+within tribes as to the final disposition of houses of the deceased.
+They might be burned down, a common practice, or they were torn
+down, abandoned, temporarily deserted, or torn down and rebuilt.
+If to be lived in again, purification of some sort was always
+practiced, either by burning juniper boughs in the house, smoking
+tobacco, bringing in aromatic plants, or treating the main beams.
+Among Yana tribes the family seems to have habitually abandoned
+the house right after the funeral and to have burned the whole thing
+including property and food of all the inmates, retaining only the
+barest necessities of life such as sleeping robes.</p>
+<p>Among Atsugewi all mourners had to deny themselves meat and
+fresh fish for one day; then they sweated and swam after the funeral.
+Mountain Maidu mourners, including all persons who had had any
+part in the funeral, had to undergo four or five days taboo on eating
+all flesh. They also had to eat alone and from separate dishes,
+do head scratching with special sticks only, were allowed no hunting,
+gambling, intercourse, or smoking. Purification of those
+persons contaminated by participation in burial included swimming
+and washing every day that the taboos were in effect.</p>
+<p>Only Atsugewi, of all local tribes, are said to have practiced
+suicide, though unquestionably it did occur on occasion among all
+California Indians.</p>
+<p>Mentioning the name of the deceased in the presence of his
+relatives was considered very poor taste, and was actually forbidden
+in some cases.</p>
+<p>It was forbidden that the widow touch the corpse, so that relatives
+had to prepare the body for burial. After the funeral, the
+widow always cut her hair off closely. If an Atsugewi, she made
+a belt out of it, and the hair belt was then often decorated with
+shells. In all local tribes the widow traditionally covered her
+whole head and face with pitch and covered this with white diatomaceous
+earth or black charcoal. Touching her head or face (the
+whole body for mountain Maidu) with fingers was taboo; she could
+<span class="pb" id="Page_148">148</span>
+do this only with the scratching stick which mountain Maidu widows
+wore around the neck. Raggedy, ill-looking clothes were worn by
+the survivor, and Atsugewi widows put pitch on old basketry caps
+to be worn. A mourning necklace was worn at all times, made of
+lumps of hard pitch strung onto a fiber string. This was worn until
+remarriage, which was usually two or three years for Atsugewi and
+one to three years for mountain Maidu. Pitch on the face and head
+was normally left on until it wore off of its own accord.</p>
+<p>The mourning conduct of grieving men who had lost their wives
+in death was not nearly so lengthy or as rigorous as was that of
+widows. Widowers cut their hair too, but among Atsugewi the only
+other observance required was abstinence of flesh eating for a day.
+Mountain Maidu widowers spent one sleepless night out in the
+mountains. Widowers did not generally sing at dances and at &ldquo;big
+times&rdquo; for about a year, but this was not compulsory. The Yana
+are said to have stayed away from dances for two or three years.</p>
+<p>Parents mourning the loss of children cut their hair slightly and
+placed some pitch on hair or faces. The Atsugewi mother observed
+a three day meat taboo and the Maidu father went to the hills to
+seek power. However, loss of a baby in birth or before its navel
+cord dropped off was considered a more serious situation. Such
+bereaved parents gave all of their belongings away in order to make
+a fresh start.</p>
+<p>Anniversary mourning rites were not conducted in the Lassen
+region. An exception was the rare instance among Atsugewi when
+a child was sick at a time just three years after the death of its
+parent. Under such circumstances a shaman sang over the child
+and the whole remaining family and relatives mourned, later washing
+themselves. With respect to the general lack of mourning anniversaries
+it is of interest that the foothill (northeast) Maidu held
+elaborate annual burnings for several years after death of relatives.
+At these great mourning dance ceremonies large quantities of
+valuable possessions were burned as sacrifices to honor the dead.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_149">149</div>
+<h2 id="c31"><span class="small">Chapter XXIX</span>
+<br />COUNTING, TIME, AND PLACE</h2>
+<p>Counting on the fingers was usual practice. Mountain Maidu
+started with their thumbs while Atsugewi began on the little finger
+of one hand and counted across to that on the other hand, and toes
+were used for the purpose too. To help in counting, tribes also
+employed sticks to represent groups of numbers: Atsugewi used
+sticks to represent 1&rsquo;s, 5&rsquo;s, 10&rsquo;s, and hundreds. Yana frequently
+used a stick to represent the unit 20. This is presumed to be a
+natural unit because it is the sum of all of a person&rsquo;s fingers and
+toes.</p>
+<p>Time of day, of course, was not expressed in any unit like our
+hour, but roughly by the position of the sun in its daily course overhead.
+Seven to nine positions were referred to descriptively in this
+respect plus early, mid, and late night.</p>
+<p>Phases of the moon were most practical and were universally
+used as a longer measure of time. The succession of new moon
+cycles were named and an old man in the village customarily kept
+track of these by memory. As might be expected from this system,
+in which there was no recording, arguments ensued over just which
+moon or &ldquo;month&rdquo; was currently in effect. One full course of the
+moon&rsquo;s phases takes just about a month, so the names for Indians&rsquo;
+moons corresponded nearly to our month names.</p>
+<p>All local tribes recognized four seasons. These were identified
+by the positions of certain stars among mountain Maidu, but more
+generally by the positions of the rising sun with respect to a certain
+peak, tree, or similar fixed object. Some Indians kept track of the
+seasons by watching the daily progression of a beam of sunlight
+coming through the smoke hole of a house and falling upon its floor
+or wall. The shortest day of the year naturally was marked by the
+most southerly progression of the sun. This was noted by the
+Indians, no doubt with joy in the realization that longer days and,
+somewhat later, warmer weather were to be expected. The year
+started with the beginning of November when Indians of the Lassen
+area had left the high elevation hunting grounds on the flanks of
+Lassen Peak, had collected their stores of acorn and salmon, and
+were warmly settled in their winter quarters. Mountain Maidu seem
+to have used names for only the nine moons most important to them.</p>
+<p>There was no calendar as such, but the number of days until a
+certain &ldquo;big time&rdquo; or other event was kept track of by either cutting
+off or untying one knot in a knotted cord or thong each day. Years
+<span class="pb" id="Page_150">150</span>
+were not recorded either, but were measured within the memory span
+as so many winters ago, or by relating time to some important event,
+such as a war which most persons might remember.</p>
+<p>Directions were pointed out, or in speech were referred to as
+sunrise and sunset for east and west respectively. Directions were
+commonly given with respect to features of the local geography: in
+the direction of such and such a village or toward a named river,
+spring, or mountain which was conspicuous or generally known.
+We must remember that the territories of our local tribes were small
+and that the terrain was intimately known. Specific names were not
+only given to the conspicuous features of the topography, but among
+Atsugewi, at least, virtually every flat, every draw, and every hill
+was specifically named, and these names were known to all members
+of the tribe. Names of places in the territories of other tribes were
+not known by the local names of those tribes. They were either
+translated or given its own entirely different set of names by the
+first tribe. In other words, each tribe had different names for all
+places&mdash;a very confusing situation. Dixon reports that Maidu
+recognized directions as we know them, but that the northeast or
+mountain Maidu had five: west, northwest (the direction of Lassen
+Peak), north, east, and south.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_151">151</div>
+<h2 id="c32"><span class="small">Chapter XXX</span>
+<br />CONCEPTS OF SUN, MOON, AND STARS</h2>
+<p>Mountain Maidu and Atsugewi believed the sun to be a female
+human&mdash;the wife&mdash;and the moon to be a male human&mdash;the
+husband. This is a reversal of the sex ascribed to these bodies by
+some other tribes. They believed that the figure of a frog was
+visible in the moon.</p>
+<p>Atsugewi stated that Frog fought Moon and swallowed him and
+the next time that Moon swallowed Frog who is now in the center
+of the moon. When Moon and Frog fought, the former was not round,
+but crescent shaped. Yana stated that in the moon they could see
+Moon&rsquo;s wife, Frog. Pine Marten snapped his evil father-in-law
+Moon into the sky by means of bending a springy tree &rsquo;way down
+and suddenly letting it go. He used the same system to snap Frog
+and her two daughters into the sky also.</p>
+<p>To Atsugewi, as to most tribes, the phases of the moon: new,
+full, and waning, represented birth, life, and death&mdash;repeated
+every four weeks, although, of course, none of the Indians had the
+concept of a &ldquo;week&rdquo; such as we have. All through the year
+Atsugewi greeted the new moon. Old persons shook themselves,
+and their clothes and bedding in its presence. Younger folks ran
+and jumped toward the moon. If the points or horns of the new moon
+crescent were vertical it was a bad omen indicating sickness or
+death. Babies were shown the new moon, and in the case of both
+Atsugewi and mountain Maidu, babies&rsquo; faces and arms were rubbed
+in the new moonlight to make them grow fast. All local tribes
+addressed the moon aloud in friendly terms as if it were a personal
+relative. The Yana prayed to it. In contrast to Atsugewi reaction
+to vertical position of the two moon points, the Yana and mountain
+Maidu accepted this as meaning good fortune and good weather
+ahead. To these tribes horizontal position of the moon crescent in
+the winter sky denoted that it was full of water and indicated pending
+rains or storms. At other seasons both horns up foretold of
+death. Yana thought that both sun and moon were feminine.</p>
+<p>After its daily trip across the sky, Atsugewi thought that the
+sun returned to the east in a blue cloud via the side of the earth.
+As the sun and the moon passed each other at the side of the earth,
+they decided on the weather for the following day. The moon
+supplied the cold and the sun the heat.</p>
+<p>Eclipses of sun and moon were believed by Yana to be due to
+their dogs devouring them. Atsugewi and mountain Maidu felt that
+<span class="pb" id="Page_152">152</span>
+the heavenly bodies were dying. The former were of the opinion
+that Lizard was eating Sun or Moon as the case might be. They
+shouted loudly, shot arrows into the air toward the eclipse and beat
+all available female dogs. Mountain Maidu thought that Frog was
+eating Moon or Sun.</p>
+<p>A reddish moon foretold of disaster and was a sign of war for
+Atsugewi, but to Yana it meant hot weather ahead.</p>
+<p>Only a few star groups of the night sky were named.</p>
+<p>Yana thought the constellation we call the Belt of Orion was
+Coyote&rsquo;s arrow. All local tribes believed the Milky Way to be a
+road, or river in some cases, which was traveled by departing spirits
+or souls of the dead. Shooting or Falling stars, (more properly
+meteorites) presaged good weather to the Atsugewi who thought
+these were torches carried by spirits from one house to another in
+the sky. For this tribe too, a single conspicuous star&mdash;no doubt
+a planet&mdash;seen near the moon was an evil sign. If the star were
+on the left someone nearby would die soon; if it lay to the right of
+the moon someone farther away was doomed.</p>
+<p>Atsugewi called the Seven Sisters wir-etisu. These girls were
+seduced by a little rabbit boy at a puberty dance. They became
+ashamed and went up in the sky to become stars. The Big Dipper
+was called Coyote&rsquo;s Cane. Maidu thought that stars were made of
+something soft like buckskin.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_153">153</div>
+<h2 id="c33"><span class="small">Chapter XXXI</span>
+<br />WEATHER PHENOMENA</h2>
+<p>As mentioned in the preceding chapter, weather was determined
+by agreement between sun and moon, but it appears that many things
+could influence their decisions.</p>
+<p>Atsugewi assumed it to be the natural thing that it would sprinkle
+a little after a funeral. They also felt that rolling rocks down
+mountain sides or loud shouting in the mountains would cause rain.
+Furthermore they believed that the occurrence of precipitation could
+be influenced by shamans, if they felt like it, by smoking tobacco
+while looking at the sun. The nature of the spirit of a girl, whose
+ears were pierced at this time, was also thought to either cause
+it to rain or to stop doing so according to her spirit power.</p>
+<p>Rainbows brought good wild crops as far as the Atsugewi were
+concerned. However, both they and mountain Maidu were of the
+opinion that pointing with a finger at a rainbow, particularly among
+children would cause the finger to become crooked or to fall off.</p>
+<p>Thunder and lightning were feared by all tribes of the Lassen
+region. To Atsugewi thunder was the shouting of an old man who
+wears a rabbit skin and who goes about looking for women whom
+he kills. Mountain Maidu thought it to be due to an old man who
+lives up above and who was once a boy on earth, but who had been
+sent away because he was too fast and ate everything in sight.
+How he made the noise we do not know.</p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>Also, according to Dixon, &ldquo;Thunder is thought to be a man
+or boy of miraculous abilities. He eats trees chiefly. Had it
+not been for Mosquito, however, Thunder would have preyed on
+people. Mosquito deceived him, and refused to let Thunder
+know whence the blood and meat he brought came. Had Thunder
+found out that Mosquito obtained these from people, they, and
+not the trees, would have been his prey.&rdquo; To Yana, thunder
+was a mythical dog originally: &ldquo;... a child dug from the
+ground who accompanied Flint Boy to the west in the guise of
+a dog. He remained behind in the black storm clouds capping
+Bally Mountain, a high peak west of Redding, whence his
+terrific bark could be heard as thunder.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Atsugewi and mountain Maidu, fearing thunder and lightning,
+talked to them and told them to go away. Old men in the latter tribe
+carried burning sticks in a circle to help drive them away. Atsugewi
+placed skins, preferably raccoon, on sticks held up in the air. They
+would wave these around and call aloud words to the effect that
+<span class="pb" id="Page_154">154</span>
+there are: &ldquo;Too many rattlesnakes here, go some other place!&rdquo;.
+Not only that, but frequently during a thunder storm, especially if
+violent, they would run into open areas, and sometimes even jump
+into water. Lightning was thought to be the weapon of the old man,
+Thunder Person, mentioned above. It came out of his mouth. Apparently
+Thunder Person was thought to assume the form of a
+raccoon on occasion. Maidu also believed that it would thunder
+whenever a person was bitten by a rattlesnake or when a great man
+died or when a woman had a miscarriage.</p>
+<p>Whirlwinds were generally regarded as evil omens which sickened
+people with bad dreams and captured peoples&rsquo; shadows or spirits.
+Indians tried to dodge or hide from them. They spoke informally to
+whirlwinds. Mountain Maidu said that they put pains into people.
+Whenever possible, Maidu smoked tobacco when talking to whirlwinds.
+Atsugewi threw dirt and water at the dust devils in an effort
+to destroy them. Yana did likewise, but they did not believe that
+spirits were inside of whirlwinds.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_155">155</div>
+<h2 id="c34"><span class="small">Chapter XXXII</span>
+<br />EARTHQUAKE BELIEFS</h2>
+<p>Lassen Peak and its vicinity are subject to many local earthquakes
+today. The geologic nature of the area indicates that this
+has been so for thousands of years. Lassen Peak was known to
+the Atsugewi as Wicuhirdiki, which has no meaning. The area was
+thought to be inhabited by a powerful spirit, but Garth notes that
+there seemed to be no fear about hunting and fishing there, and the
+Indians apparently utilized the hot springs medicinally. Garth
+recorded one pertinent bit of Atsugewi (Apwaruge) myth as follows:</p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>&ldquo;There once was an earthquake that shook this country
+up and made those boulders out on the flat shake. It shook
+so much that it made people sick. There was a very old
+woman whose hair was almost green. She picked up a rock
+and pounded it on another rock while she sang. She was
+praying for the world to stop shaking. Soon she got an
+answer, and the shaking ceased. Many people were killed.
+Those who lived in canyons were covered by rocks that were
+shaken down.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>Yana interpretation of the perplexing and frightening phenomenon
+of earthquakes is tied in, as we might expect, with mythology as
+follows, to quote from Sapir and Spier:</p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>&ldquo;A series of fabulous malignant beings were conceived
+as dwelling in certain localities. In the Sacramento River
+were water grizzlies (hat-en-na) which pulled fishermen
+down to devour (them).... They were spotted black and
+white, like dogs. Somewhere (not specified) was a serpent
+(e-k-u) which killed people. Near Terry&rsquo;s mill were believed
+to dwell malignant little beings (yo-yautsgi), like little
+children. They often enticed people and ate them up. At a
+marshy spot and spring on Round Mountain, called Ha-mupdi
+(?), dwelled a being called Mo-s-ugi-yauna who
+caused the ground to shake when he was displeased.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;Once Mo-s-ugi-yauna made a little baby of himself
+and put himself in the road of two women. One of them took
+it up and in sport gave it one of her nipples to suck, though
+she was really without milk. The baby kept sucking until
+the girl tried to take her breast away, but without success.
+The baby kept sucking at her, sucked up her flesh, and at
+last sucked up her whole body.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;This being was displeased if strangers came near and
+<span class="pb" id="Page_156">156</span>
+talked anything but Yana. Once some Yreka Indians came
+and talked Chinook jargon at that place, whereupon the earth
+began to shake violently. At last the owner of the place
+cried out to Mo-s-ugi-yauna that it was not he who had thus
+spoken and begged him &lsquo;in the doctor way&rsquo; to stop, whereupon
+he did.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_157">157</div>
+<h2 id="c35"><span class="small">Chapter XXXIII</span>
+<br />CREATION BELIEFS AND OTHER LEGENDS</h2>
+<p>All local Indians believed in a mythical age when animals were
+persons and talked to each other. Both Atsugewi and mountain
+Maidu thought that floods played a part in the past scheme of things
+before people were created by gifted animal ancestors.</p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>Garth relates that &ldquo;Atsugewi mythology tells of the successive
+creation of two former worlds, the first of which was
+destroyed by a great flood and the second by a fire which
+Coyote instigated in an attempt to kill his rival, Grey Fox.
+After this both Coyote and Grey Fox descended from the
+heavens on a long rope to the primeval sea below. Here
+Grey Fox took combings from his fur (in some accounts a
+piece of sod) and proceeded to make land of it, stretching
+it to all sides until the present earth was made, in concept
+a large island floating in the sea. Grey Fox then created
+trees, animals, and finally people. The sun and moon were
+two brothers whom Grey Fox told to mount into the sky to
+light the world, the one during the day and the other at
+night.... Grey Fox first wanted to create two moons and
+two suns, but Coyote objected saying that it would be too
+hot. Grey Fox then made only the sun and one moon.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>In a somewhat different version, Dixon has recorded that
+the Atsugewi &ldquo;... recount how, in the beginning, there was
+only the illimitable sea and the cloudless sky. Slowly in the
+sky a tiny cloud began to form, and grew till it reached considerable
+proportions. Then gradually it condensed, and,
+becoming solid, became the Silver-Gray Fox, the Creator.
+Then arose immediately a fog; and from this, as it condensed,
+and coagulated as it were, arose Coyote. By a process of
+long-continued and intense thought, the Creator created a
+canoe into which both he and Coyote descended, and for long
+years floated and drifted aimlessly therein, till, the canoe
+having become moss-grown and decayed, they had, perforce, to
+consider the necessity of creating a world whereon they
+might take refuge.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>The Yana legends quoted below from Gifford and Klimek (first)
+and from Sapir and Spier are from the northern and central tribes,
+of that people. These legends are given in lieu of those of southern
+Yana and Yahi, with which this book should be concerned, because
+of the similarity of the culture of these four tribes. It is extremely
+<span class="pb" id="Page_158">158</span>
+unlikely that there would be very great differences in their legends
+and beliefs of creation. Obviously each tribe had its own unique
+details.</p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>North Yana: &ldquo;Coyote, assistant creator, was marplot (the
+evil schemer) who brought death into the world as follows:
+Coyote, his two sons, and other people went down-stream
+to get clamshells. The people played. Coyote&rsquo;s sons seized
+the clamshells and ran off with them. One escaped with the
+stolen shells, but the other was killed. The Coyote boy who
+escaped shouted to Old Man Coyote, who sat in his assembly
+house and observed daily what transpired. Coyote boy told
+the old man his brother was dead. Old Coyote then mourned
+for his son. Silver Fox told him not to cry, but to clean the
+assembly house and bring in the dead boy. They strewed the
+floor with straw and built fire. Silver Fox told old Coyote to
+lie down and pretend to sleep. &lsquo;Do not move,&rsquo; said Silver
+Fox. This was to cause dead boy to revive. They started to
+cut old Coyote&rsquo;s belly to get back the spirit of his dead son.
+Old Coyote shouted with pain and said: &lsquo;Let him stay dead.
+The dead shall remain dead.&rsquo; Thus he spoiled Silver Fox&rsquo;s
+plan for resurrection.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Central Yana: &ldquo;... the creation of people took place at
+Wama-riwi, a village at the cove north of Battle Creek and
+several miles west of the present Shingletown, that is,
+roughly at the center of Yana territory. Here in the beginning
+were Lizard and Cottontail (in Dixon&rsquo;s version, Lizard, Gray
+Squirrel, and Coyote; in Curtin&rsquo;s, Silkworm) who had no
+predecessors. Discussing how people shall be made, Lizard
+lays down sticks which they carry to the four directions to
+become neighboring Indian tribes. Realizing that they have
+omitted those at the center, they put down bad (short) sticks
+there. Hence the Yana are shorter than any of their neighbors:
+a view held by the Yana and repeated by Powers as fact.
+In Dixon&rsquo;s version (from the same informant) Lizard carefully
+prepares three sticks for Atsugewi, Wintun, and
+Achomawi, and as an afterthought, short sticks for the Yana.
+The first three are placed to the east, west, and north; the
+others are boiled to transform them into humans. Coyote
+refuses to recognize them until they speak properly, that is,
+the Yana tongue. Curtin&rsquo;s version is quite different, although
+still the Yana are created from sticks: his presumably Northern
+Yana informant, himself a chief, placed the locale in his
+own country, at Round Mountain. Here Silkworm puts down
+<span class="pb" id="Page_159">159</span>
+three sticks, for the Yana chief, a woman, and an orphan,
+and a large number around the first for common people; he
+instructs them how to procure food and admonishes that they
+obey the chief.</p>
+<p>&ldquo;The origin of sex, or rather its proper attribution rests
+in the circumstance that in the beginning, women were men;
+men were women. The women were such poor hunters that
+people starved. To remedy this, Cottontail placed stones in
+a fire; when the women were seated, the stones burst, cutting
+their proper organs, and the women became men. Hands
+were then webbed like Lizard&rsquo;s. In order that they might
+handle bows and pestles, Lizard, experimenting, cut his
+fingers apart. With this as a model, he separated those of
+humans. (In Curtin&rsquo;s version, Water Lizard remedies the
+defect for himself alone.) In the beginning when people
+died, they rose from their graves again. Coyote, who objected
+to these improvements of human affairs, not only proposes
+that they shall stay dead but stamps down a dead man who
+would rise. When his own son dies, he changes his mind, but
+Lizard, Cottontail, and Gray Squirrel will have none of it,
+so that death and mourning were established forever.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>Again Garth is here quoted on Atsugewi beliefs: &ldquo;As in
+most of northern California there are numerous natural
+phenomena in Atsugewi territory which marked some mythological
+event. A low cone-like rock in Dixie Valley was
+said to be a basket belonging to Coyote. About four miles
+south of Pittville on the old village site of Mawakasui was
+an oblong rock ten feet or so in length which was said to be
+the petrified remains of a lizard whom Butterfly had killed.
+The extremely rough tongue of lava-covered land extending
+down the center of Hat Creek Valley was created by Porcupine
+to impede Coyote with whom Porcupine was running a
+race. Eagle Lake was said to have been formerly in Atsuge
+territory, but Coyote tired of the manzanita berries and
+camass roots which the people fed to him here, so he moved
+the lake to the Apwaruge country. Here the people fed him
+epos roots and treated him better.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>The Maidu concept of the world according to Dixon is that
+of &ldquo;... floating on the surface of a great sea, but anchored
+by five ropes stretched by the Creator, which hold the island
+steady, and prevent it from drifting about. Occasionally some
+being seizes these ropes and shakes them, and this causes
+<span class="pb" id="Page_160">160</span>
+earthquakes. The world was flat when first made from the
+bit of mud brought up from the depths of the primeval sea by
+the turtle (turtle does not appear in the northeast or mountain
+Maidu version) or from the robin&rsquo;s nest floating in the sea.
+Later the Creator and the Coyote went about over the world,
+making the rivers and mountains. Coyote was in general
+responsible for the latter, and for the extreme roughness of
+the country....&rdquo; The Creator&rsquo;s stone canoe is said to be
+visible today on top of Keddie Peak just north of Indian
+Valley (Greenville); also his and Coyote&rsquo;s dance houses
+may be seen as huge circular depressions at what is now
+Durham (near Chico).</p>
+<p>In his extensive collection of Maidu myths, Dixon observes
+that &ldquo;Throughout the myths there is nowhere any
+suggestion that the Maidu had any knowledge of any other
+region, that they were immigrants in the land where they
+live. This complete absence of any migration tradition is a
+feature which is very characteristic, and serves to differentiate
+the mythology not only of the Maidu, but of most
+Californian tribes, from that of the Southwest, and much of
+the eastern portion of the continent.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>He further states: &ldquo;here the creation is a real beginning:
+beyond it, there is nothing. In the beginning was only the
+great sea, calm and unlimited, to which, down from the clear
+sky, the Creator came, or on which he and Coyote were floating
+in a canoe. Of the origin of previous place of abode of
+either Creator or Coyote, the Maidu know nothing....&rdquo;</p>
+<p>&ldquo;... the whole series of tales told by the stock ...
+appeared to follow one another in a more or less regular and
+recognized order. Beginning with the creation, a rather
+systematic chain of events leads up to the appearance of the
+ancestors of the present Indians, with whose coming the
+mythic cycle came to a close. This mythic era, the be-be-ito,
+seems to fall into a number of periods, with each of
+which a group or set of myths has to deal. First, we have
+the coming of Ko-do-yan-pe (Earth-Namer or Creator) and
+Coyote, their discovery of this world, and the preparation of
+it for the &lsquo;first people&rsquo;; next the creation of these first
+people, and the making and planting of the germs of the
+human race, the Indians, who were to come after; third, the
+long period during which the first people were in conflict,
+and were in the end changed to the various animals in the
+present world. In this period Earth-Maker tries to put an
+<span class="pb" id="Page_161">161</span>
+end to Coyote, whose evil ways and wishes are in direct
+contrast to his own.&rdquo; Creator was always dignified and striving
+to make life easy, happy, and deathless for mankind,
+while Coyote, a trickster and amorous knave, worked with
+continued success to render life difficult for man with the
+result that man&rsquo;s lot is to suffer and finally to die. This
+belief was generally uniform among the tribes of the Lassen
+area. &ldquo;... During this period Earth-Maker strives for a
+last time in vain with Coyote, his defeat, and disappearance
+toward the East coincident with the appearance of the human
+race, which bursts forth from the spots where the original
+pairs had been buried long before.&rdquo; These potential human
+beings had been made &ldquo;... as tiny wooden figures by the
+Creator, and planted here and there in pairs, that they might
+grow in secret and safety during the time of monsters and
+great conflicts....&rdquo;</p>
+<p>In other myths also there is great similarity among the
+Maidu, Atsugewi, Yana, and Yahi. Dixon says concerning
+&ldquo;... The theft of fire, for instance.... In all, the fire
+is held by a man and his daughters, and is discovered largely
+through the agency of the Lizard; the fire is watched and
+guarded by a sentinel bird, is stolen in consequence of his
+sleeping while on guard, and pursuit by the women is hindered
+by the strings of their skirts being cut as they sleep.
+The fire is brought back by a group of animals, among whom
+the fire is divided for safety; and the pursuers, who are
+usually Thunder, and his two daughters Rain and Hail, are
+put to flight.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_162">162</div>
+<h2 id="c36"><span class="small">Chapter XXXIV</span>
+<br />MEDICAL TREATMENT</h2>
+<p>The bulk of the important doctoring was done by shamans or
+medicine men. This was all based on supernatural faith and fear.
+As we know from advances of our modern civilization in the field
+of psychosomatic medicine, such &ldquo;in the mind&rdquo; cures were highly
+effective in practice. With all due respect to the modern medical
+profession, it is a foregone conclusion that from 50% to 75% of the
+patients of today&rsquo;s general medical doctor are going to get well
+eventually without any bonafide medical treatment anyway. This
+percentage favored the shamans too.</p>
+<p>Besides shamans there were secondary Indian doctors called
+herbalists. Among Atsugewi, these persons did not have the power
+of shamans, and could not cure disease, but only check or weaken
+it. However, this class of doctor did administer various medicines
+internally and externally, and gave treatments which may actually
+have been&mdash;in some cases&mdash;of benefit beyond mere faith healing.
+These remedies were handed down, as was all Indian
+knowledge, by word of mouth from generation to generation. Old
+men taught the young.</p>
+<p>Herbalists were able to make snake bite victims recover; treatment
+included sucking the wound. Cauterization or burning of
+affected parts was practiced. Atsugewi treated rheumatism in
+patients with vapor baths in a trench of hot coals on which pine
+needles and yerba santa or mountain balm branches were placed,
+with a robe over all.</p>
+<p>Mountain Maidu smoked wild parsnip for headaches, colds, and
+wounds. Mountain Maidu and Atsugewi believed that toothaches
+were caused by the presence of worms in the teeth. Corrective
+poultices were placed on the cheek. Yana did this too, but placed
+a hot stone on the poultice, and also bit on a mole&rsquo;s front foot,
+dried, to relieve the pain. Atsugewi often set the poultice on fire
+which might leave permanent scars.</p>
+<p>The seeds of rosinweed, a member of the sunflower family, were
+collected, then shelled, cooked, dried, and finally pounded. This
+medicine was taken for chills. Wild iris roots were chewed raw for
+coughing.</p>
+<p>Decoctions, that is, water in which plants had been boiled to
+extract their medicinal juices, were drunk. California angelica, a
+member of the parsley family, was used in this way for colds, diarrhea,
+headache, et cetera. This medication was popular with all
+<span class="pb" id="Page_163">163</span>
+local tribes for treating many ills.</p>
+<p>Yana used poultices of roots of bracken fern, pounded and warmed
+for application to burns. The bulbs of false solomon seal were
+pounded fine and also hot soap-root poultices were applied to
+swellings, pains, or boils. Peeled California angelica roots were
+crushed and laid on aching heads.</p>
+<p>Ground squirrel grease was used to soften rough hands and to
+relieve cracking of the skin from chapping.</p>
+<p>Atsugewi employed green leaves of chokecherry, pounded as
+poultices, for cuts, sores, and bruises. The boiled liquor of pounded
+chokecherry bark was used for bathing wounds to promote healing.</p>
+<p>They employed decoctions of wormwood to prevent blood poisoning
+and to treat cuts. Decoctions of greenleaf manzanita leaves
+were good for cuts and burns. Both oak bark and oak gall decoctions
+were drunk to prevent infection and catching colds and
+were given to women in childbirth. Atsugewi also chewed raw
+juniper berries as a treatment for colds.</p>
+<p>Obviously there was a host of other treatments as we know of
+a large variety of other plants, roots, and fruits which were used
+medicinally.</p>
+<p>Broken bones were set as best they could be set, and were
+bound up in simple but effective splints.</p>
+<p>For general good health Garth states that an Atsugewi &ldquo;...
+man chewed the top shoot off a young pine tree. Especially was
+this done by a father after his wife bore a child.&rdquo;</p>
+<p>In Yana sweat houses and probably in those of other tribes too,
+veins were cut with obsidian chips to &ldquo;let the bad blood out&rdquo; if
+a person felt ill.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_164">164</div>
+<h2 id="c37"><span class="small">Chapter XXXV</span>
+<br />SPIRITS AND GHOSTS</h2>
+<p>Ghosts and spirits were one and the same, and were to local
+Indians as souls are conceived by white man, yet the Indian conception
+was more variable. Some spirits were good and others were
+evil, but all were feared and avoided whenever possible. They
+were frequently associated with omens and had somewhat the
+appearance of human beings. Among Atsugewi they were visible
+only to shamans, but were heard by nearly all persons. Yana commoners
+both saw and heard spirits, but only very rarely.</p>
+<p>The spirit left the body right after death. Mountain Maidu thought
+that it turned back once before going on. Yana believed that the
+spirit tarried in the vicinity of the body for a while, going to the
+south first briefly for a sort of trial or evaluation which included
+determination as to whether or not the nose septum had been
+pierced. Then, as all local Indians apparently agreed, the ghost or
+spirit went to a distant place in the west via the Milky Way. Yana
+thought that there was some distinction in destination of good and
+bad persons&rsquo; ghosts, but our other tribes conceived only of one
+place for all spirits finally. We do not today have a very clear
+understanding of the aboriginal Indian concept of heaven except
+that people lived in this land of the dead in sweat houses, hunting,
+eating, loving, and sleeping, but with complete absence of sickness.
+Concepts of the life of spirits changed with the coming of
+the whites preceding even the advent of pioneer settler days. All
+information in that regard which students have been able to gain
+from informants in this region is decidedly flavored with Christian
+dogma.</p>
+<p>Spirits or ghosts returned to old haunts of the body on occasion
+or, more often, to the vicinity of the grave. For this reason burial
+grounds were usually well removed from villages. Bad smells
+would drive spirits away, while whistling and flowers attracted
+them. Fiber-wound crossed sticks were hung in sweat houses of
+Yana tribes to keep spirits out. All tribes of the Lassen area
+thought that ghosts visited the living in dreams and also considered
+it feasible that the spirits of people might go to visit those of the
+dead when the persons were asleep, or more commonly when the
+living were unconscious.</p>
+<p>Mountain Maidu didn&rsquo;t speak much about ghosts, but if one had
+been making a nuisance of itself by visiting much in dreams, they
+fed it by having all members of the family throw small portions of
+<span class="pb" id="Page_165">165</span>
+food into the fire before commencing to eat their meals. Besides,
+a shaman was hired under these circumstances to sing for the
+dreamer. The same ceremony was observed by the Atsugewi. It
+was also the practice of the dreamer in this tribe to eat with a dog,
+spitting out some of the food, saying to the dog, &ldquo;You better eat
+for me. Take that spirit away.&rdquo; Atsugewi were evidently very
+conscious of ghosts for they spoke to them, spit out chewed epos
+roots for the spirits, smoked tobacco for them, burned hair and skin
+to repel them, and tobacco and feather bundles were hung near the
+house doorways for their benefit. New Atsugewi parents had a
+unique ritual at the time of their first meat eating after the taboos
+of childbirth&mdash;they chewed small amounts of meat and put this on
+their toes for the dogs to eat.</p>
+<blockquote>
+<p>Garth says of Atsugewi spirit beliefs: &ldquo;A man who was
+about to die, whether he felt sick or not, had a peculiar
+odor about him. If he went hunting, deer ran from him saying,
+&lsquo;Phew, that man smells bad.&rsquo; Coyotes and dogs would
+come close to him and bark at him. He would die unless a
+shaman could remove this aura of death from him.&rdquo;</p>
+</blockquote>
+<p>There were many omens of a spirit nature which foretold calamity.
+To Atsugewi upon hearing the cries of certain animals at night,
+especially if an owl hooted at one, or if one saw a kingsnake, death
+was supposed to descend upon a relative.</p>
+<p>If evil spirits frightened a person and tried to steal his soul,
+the spirits could be foiled by standing with one&rsquo;s feet widely spread
+apart. If followed by a ghost, a person might turn around, retracing
+his footsteps while the spirit continued in the direction one had
+been traveling initially.</p>
+<p>When a person was asleep his spirit could wander around. If,
+during these wanderings, a bad spirit caught the person&rsquo;s spirit
+before he could awaken, the person was deprived of it.</p>
+<p>Also the spirit on occasion left a person voluntarily if it didn&rsquo;t
+like the body, as for instance, if it smelled badly. When a person&rsquo;s
+spirit or soul were gone, only the heart was left to keep him alive,
+and he would succumb easily to the first sickness. For this reason,
+Atsugewi shamans periodically examined all the people to see if
+any spirits were missing. When anyone was found lacking his spirit,
+the shaman had to work to bring it back, sucking it into the person&rsquo;s
+head. If several spirits were missing at once, it was not easy to
+get the right spirit back into its own body. They didn&rsquo;t know what
+would happen if a person got the wrong soul back into his body&mdash;but
+it wasn&rsquo;t good.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_166">166</div>
+<h2 id="c38"><span class="small">Chapter XXXVI</span>
+<br />SHAMANISM AND DOCTORING</h2>
+<p>Shamans or doctors, more commonly known to modern Americans
+by the name medicine men, were important in the lives of all Indians
+but, among ours, probably to the highest degree among the Maidu.
+Whether we, with our scientific enlightenment today, are after all
+happier and of greater peace of mind, than the aborigines were or
+not, is a philosophical consideration beyond the scope of this book.
+The fact of the matter is that mankind in the past invariably has
+resorted to the supernatural to explain things not understood.
+Indians are a case in point&mdash;being totally without scientific explanations,
+mysticism and the supernatural pervaded their whole
+culture&mdash;their every day activities&mdash;to a point which to us today
+seems fantastic, yet understandable in a way. If you and I had been
+in the Indian&rsquo;s place, might not we also have subscribed whole
+heartedly to these same beliefs with which we would have grown up,
+and which our loved and trusted elders had taught us in good faith?
+Shamanism gave to the Indians a feeling of comfort and, shall we
+say, security?&mdash;a sort of foundation of faith which all men must
+have for the living of reasonably satisfying lives.</p>
+<p>Shamans were men of influence in the village, with prestige
+second only to that of the chief. Women shamans were uncommon
+and usually possessed less potent power. The life of a shaman
+was precarious because if he failed to effect a high percentage of
+cures or if he were &ldquo;proven&rdquo; responsible for sending pains which
+caused death to persons, he might be killed&mdash;sometimes even with
+the advance approval of the chief, and without retaliation by the
+offending shaman&rsquo;s relatives. When this was done, he was cut into
+pieces, not for the morbid reasons, the reader might suspect, but
+for the practical reason that the parts of his body could in this way
+be disposed of in widely scattered places. Otherwise there was the
+danger that he might, with the help of his power, be reassembled
+and again be able to continue his malpractice and to include his
+murderers among future victims.</p>
+<p>There were several kinds of shamans among the local Indians.
+Each tribe in the Lassen area had the all important Sucking Shaman.
+Atsugewi and mountain Maidu also had special Bear, Rattlesnake,
+and Weather Shamans while only Yana had Singing Shamans in
+addition.</p>
+<p>The power of shamans was much more potent than mere &ldquo;luck&rdquo;
+which came easily to the majority of ordinary mortals in dreams,
+<span class="pb" id="Page_167">167</span>
+during puberty ceremonies, and the like. This &ldquo;luck&rdquo; was a weak
+supernatural blessing which was not sought, but came voluntarily
+and gave the person skill and success in crafts and daily pursuits
+such as fishing, hunting certain animals or birds, canoe making,
+et cetera.</p>
+<p>It would be impractical in this book to give the complicated and
+voluminous details of all phases of shamanism as conceived and
+practiced by each of the four local tribes. The following information
+has been somewhat generalized in the hope that the reader will get
+the &ldquo;feel&rdquo; of the shaman concept which was essentially the same
+for all the tribes of the Lassen area.</p>
+<p>Power was usually sought by men desiring to be shamans, but
+all were not successful in such quests. On the other hand shamanistic
+power came to some voluntarily, and it was dangerous not to
+accept this power if it came to one. To refuse might cause death.
+One could tell when one was successful in getting power because
+one would bleed from the nose or mouth. He would also learn to
+sing and dance, and would receive instructions and paraphernalia
+from his guardian spirit.</p>
+<p>Shamanistic power could be acquired in a number of ways, not
+all of which applied to each tribe being considered. A rare means
+was by inheritance. If an old shaman had power and if this power
+or guardian spirit liked his son or nephew, it would say &ldquo;Sometimes
+I&rsquo;m going to play with that boy&rdquo; and so it goes to the boy. At sundown
+the latter listens to it sing to him and he gets the power. The
+boy learns about it in the vision and from the old shaman&rsquo;s instructions.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig152">
+<img src="images/p44.jpg" alt="" width="449" height="501" />
+<p class="pcap">Small portions of yellow hammer or red-shafted quill headbands.</p>
+</div>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_168">168</div>
+<p>Another infrequent way to gain power was involuntarily when
+seriously ill, while in a trance, or when dreaming.</p>
+<p>The third and usual method of acquiring the shamanistic power
+was by vision quest. It was a difficult ordeal. This might be undertaken
+at various times of life, but most commonly at or near puberty.
+In questing power there was no assurance of success, no matter
+how sincere a person might be, or how hard he might try. Successful
+shamans could quest repeatedly for additional powers.</p>
+<p>Youths were prepared for questing by being lectured to by fathers
+or uncles who also pierced their nose septa. Each youth went alone
+and unclothed into certain portions of the mountains for several
+days and nights. He slept little and fasted, eating little or nothing
+at all; all flesh was taboo. The questing usually included swimming
+in lakes or special pools and placing the nose piercing stick
+in an underwater niche, and (Yana) securing certain bird feathers.
+He built a fire, smoking his body over it, and cut himself deliberately.
+If successful, the power came to him in a trance or faint
+producing bleeding from the nose or mouth.</p>
+<p>The guardian spirit communicated with the novice, appearing in
+a vision usually. It gave instructions and taught its special ceremonial
+song. To shamans of some tribes the guardian spirit looked
+something like a human; to others it looked like a bug or like a
+small hair. This was the &ldquo;pain&rdquo; or poison object and yet was
+considered to be a guardian spirit at the same time. This is what
+the novice acquired in becoming a shaman. This pain or guardian
+spirit could come from any of many sources. It was alive and could
+talk, and gave the novice certain resultant powers. Most commonly
+powers were from animals such as coyote, bear, and the like, but
+also might come from sun, moon, wind, thunder and lightning, eagle,
+hawk, small birds, reptiles, frog, or oldman spirit.</p>
+<p>The novice then acquired what we might call magic feathers.
+There were several types including the popular salmon colored
+flicker feathers. Most important, however, was the feather tuft
+known as kaku among the Atsugewi. This allegedly was found
+in finished form and not made. So full of power was the kaku that
+it could not be kept in a house. It was placed outside securely
+tied to a willow branch beside a stream or hidden inside a hollow
+tree trunk. The kaku was able to move by itself so had to be tied
+down or placed under a rock. When the novice shaman discovered
+his kaku, the feathers were singing; when he died, blood dripped
+from its feathers!</p>
+<p>Upon his return to the village, the successful seeker stayed out
+<span class="pb" id="Page_169">169</span>
+of dwelling houses for a day or two. Among some tribes he was
+sick for this period. Universally he sweated and swam. Eating
+habits of the novice shaman varied in different cases, but were
+always as dictated by the specific instructions given to him by his
+guardian spirit. Invariably all forms of flesh were shunned. He
+smoked tobacco and gave his first hunting kill to an old man.
+During the novice period the new shaman was helped by old shamans
+at the fireside in the sweat house. He did much dancing, singing,
+handled hot coals and fire, bled from the mouth, and might fall into
+a trance.</p>
+<p>In contrast to herbalist doctors who gave private treatment, that
+of shamans was public and usually conducted indoors, preferably
+in sweat lodges. The shaman needed singing help and the more
+help and the more persons who attended his doctoring the better.
+Sucking Shamans were the most important and required official
+assistants. These included one or more interpreters to communicate
+with the lay helpers or supporters, while the shaman was doctoring,
+and an outside speaker to help call the shaman&rsquo;s spirits. Doctoring
+could take from one to three days and nights.</p>
+<p>To diagnose the patient&rsquo;s ills the shaman danced about, blowing
+smoke on him, and singing with the help of the audience. The
+shamans also drank water, sometimes with a tube, from portable
+stone mortars with spirit power. They often squirted water from
+their mouths. A whistle was used in some cases and often the
+supernatural powerful cocoon rattle. Among mountain Maidu herb
+medicines might be administered to the patient also.</p>
+<p>At length the shaman&rsquo;s guardian spirit or pain told him the
+location of the disease object, and then he could see or feel it.
+Often the shaman learned further from the spirit just who it was who
+had sent the disease object to plague his patient.</p>
+<p>Curing the afflicted was accomplished next by the shaman&rsquo;s
+sucking this pain or disease object out of some portion of the
+person&rsquo;s body. The evil pain could be any curious small object
+and this the shaman exhibited to all present. The malignant pain
+was disposed of in a number of ways. It might be sent back to the
+owner who sent it, that is, the offending shaman. Or, it might be
+sent to his children who would be doomed because a shaman could
+not doctor his own pain. Other times the curing shaman would
+destroy the disease object by biting it and burning it or dispose of
+it by taking the pain into his own charmed body.</p>
+<p>When a whole community had been affected by a pain sent by
+an evil shaman, the pain usually hid in the bushes nearby. In such
+<span class="pb" id="Page_170">170</span>
+a case, the shaman had to be very powerful to
+get the best of the situation. First he conducted
+the ceremony of detection of one victim
+in the usual sweat house manner. Once the
+shaman found out where the trouble was, he
+went outdoors with the villagers to help in
+corraling the offending pain. Frequently only
+after a lengthy search was he successful in
+finding the pain and then capturing it. Upon
+taking it into his body it might be so powerful
+as to cause him to go into a trance. In this
+event his assistants had to support him bodily,
+and had to sing for him, otherwise the shaman
+might die. Without wishing to appear facetious
+or disparaging, it can be said that a good
+shaman had to be an excellent showman as
+well.</p>
+<p>Sucking Shamans were obligated to accept
+all cases which they were asked to treat. If
+they refused any and the afflicted died, then
+the shamans might be killed themselves by
+relatives of the persons who succumbed. The
+thinking was that if a shaman refused a case,
+he must have had something to do with making
+the person sick in the first place.</p>
+<p>Payment was always made to the shaman.
+The amount was determined by the patient&rsquo;s
+relatives. They would take the offering to the
+shaman when engaging him, but payment was
+not made at that time. The shaman looked
+over the proffered payment and might ask for more or for a different
+kind of payment. To give himself a foolproof alibi in case of failure
+to cure, and to increase his prestige if he did cure, he might reply
+to the effect that &ldquo;The beads already have the smell of death on
+them, but I&rsquo;ll see what I can do about it.&rdquo; The payment was placed
+near the patient during healing treatment and was not actually
+collected by the shaman if the patient died within a few weeks or
+months. The shaman&rsquo;s assistants were also paid, but in lesser
+amounts.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig153">
+<img src="images/p45.jpg" alt="" width="124" height="499" />
+<p class="pcap">Maidu shaman
+ceremonial neck
+pendant knife of
+obsidian, nine and
+one half inches
+long (after Dixon)</p>
+</div>
+<p>Besides the main function of curing, other good powers of the
+shamans were the ability to foretell future events, to see what was
+going on at distant places, and to locate lost or stolen articles.
+Among certain tribes control of weather was also possible by Sucking
+<span class="pb" id="Page_171">171</span>
+Shamans&mdash;among others there were special shamans with
+weather power.</p>
+<p>Evil powers of Sucking Shamans could cause illness or death.
+This was done by talking to the pain and sending it to the victim.
+The shaman might put it on the end of a willow stick and point it
+at the person while singing and smoking tobacco. This could go
+on all night. Transmission of the pain to the intended victim was
+facilitated by contact, such as sneaking up behind him and touching
+him, or by putting the disease pain in his food or under his doorstep.
+The bad pain might also be dispatched by blowing it through
+a pipe or putting it in the victim&rsquo;s pipe, or by talking to the
+shaman&rsquo;s own animal spirit, injecting the pain into it and then sending
+the animal to the victim. This power animal might just take
+it to the intended person, or it might actually attack and bite him.
+If the evil pain had been successfully sent, and the intended dire
+results occurred, the relatives of the victim had a moral right to
+kill the offending shaman, without fear of retaliation. It seems that
+the culprit was usually recognized&mdash;obviously often mistakenly.
+It follows that shamans&rsquo; lives were somewhat precarious, not knowing
+who was going to find damning evidence against them.</p>
+<p>By somewhat the same means as described above shamans could
+steal a person&rsquo;s spirit or soul, rendering that person liable to
+quick and sure death from the slightest accident or illness.
+Shamans could be hired to perform these evil powers.</p>
+<p>Singing Shamans were dreamers foretelling the future and telling
+the living what their dead relatives wanted them to do. The
+Singing Shaman was always male among mountain Maidu. Our other
+tribes did not have this specialist, instead such powers were in
+the repertoire of the Sucking Shaman.</p>
+<p>Among Yana and Yahi tribes, apparently, weather doctoring
+could be done by any shaman, and this was usually the case among
+Atsugewi. However, mountain Maidu had specialized Weather
+Shamans. These were men who were capable not only of producing
+rain, snow, or hail, but also fog and high winds, or ending any of
+these.</p>
+<p>Rattlesnake Shamans were generally women among Atsugewi
+and men among mountain Maidu. They could protect people from
+rattlesnakes or cure bites. The latter was accomplished by sucking
+which removed snakes and snakes&rsquo; teeth from the wound.</p>
+<p>Bear Shamans did not exist among Yana tribes. Among Atsugewi
+and mountain Maidu these were not specialists, instead bear power
+was an additional skill of Sucking Shamans. They were almost
+<span class="pb" id="Page_172">172</span>
+always men and pertained not to Black Bear, but only to the California
+Grizzly. They wore bear skin, hair, teeth, and claws and
+simulated the bear&rsquo;s actions in treating patients. Bear Shamans
+were called primarily to minister to bear wounded persons from
+whom they sucked out bear blood and teeth.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_173">173</div>
+<h2 id="c39"><span class="small">Chapter XXXVII</span>
+<br />MISCELLANEOUS MAGIC</h2>
+<p>All tribes of the Lassen region exercised miscellaneous more or
+less supernatural powers which one might term magic.</p>
+<p>Examples were: carrying a turtleshell on one&rsquo;s belt which
+rendered a person immune to rattlesnake strikes, or, among Maidu
+the rubbing of the root of <i>Angelica breweri</i> on the legs to keep
+rattlesnakes away. Poisoning of persons could be done by some
+skilled people (not shamans) by rubbing an unspecified substance
+on their hands and then touching the victim&rsquo;s body; this could drive
+him crazy or kill him.</p>
+<p>To mountain Maidu the number five was sacred and lucky according
+to Dixon.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig154">
+<img src="images/p46.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="442" />
+<p class="pcap">Yana charmstones and a fir twig basket container for such charms.</p>
+</div>
+<p>Charm stones, usually in pairs were found by many fortunate
+Indians. They were smooth and rounded and were especially effective
+if possessing rings or other special markings on them which
+were actually surface traces of mineral veins. Quartz crystals, rare
+in this volcanic region, were also highly prized as charm stones.
+An ideal storage place for charm stones in their special basketry
+containers was in a rattlesnake &ldquo;den&rdquo; where such snakes tended
+<span class="pb" id="Page_174">174</span>
+to hibernate in the winter. At any rate charm stones were kept hidden
+and the owner would secretly rub them on himself to gain good
+luck in gambling or in other pursuits which involved much in the
+way of chance.</p>
+<div class="img" id="fig155">
+<img src="images/p47.jpg" alt="" width="600" height="185" />
+<p class="pcap">Atsugewi charmstones</p>
+</div>
+<p>Prayers for a variety of reasons were offered simply by the individual.
+It was common practice every few days or so to make
+token food offerings at mealtime for no specific reason. The bits
+of food might be thrown to the east or into the fire.</p>
+<p class="center"><span class="gs">* * * * * * * *</span></p>
+<p>Thus ends this resume of the customs and beliefs of the tribes
+of the Lassen region&mdash;tribes virtually extinct as such today&mdash;tribes
+which once lived here among the scenic beauties of Lassen
+Volcanic National Park. We, the descendants of the relentless
+conquerors of these local Indians, come here now to enjoy ourselves
+and to refresh our bodies and spirits. As we do this on the lands
+of the vanquished, we owe them not only a moment of thoughtful
+reverence, but also whatever kindness and aid we are able to give
+their descendants.</p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_175">175</div>
+<h2 id="c40"><span class="small">BIBLIOGRAPHY</span></h2>
+<dl class="undent"><dt>Dixon, Roland B.: BASKETRY DESIGNS OF THE INDIANS OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA</dt>
+<dd>Feb. 12, 1902, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, Vol. 17, Part 1</dd>
+<dt>Dixon, Roland B.: MAIDU MYTHS</dt>
+<dd>June 30, 1902, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, Vol. 17, Part 2</dd>
+<dt>Dixon, Roland B.: THE NORTHERN MAIDU</dt>
+<dd>May 1905, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, Vol. 17, Part 3</dd>
+<dt>Garth, Thomas R.: KINSHIP TERMINOLOGY, MARRIAGE PRACTICES, AND BEHAVIOR TOWARD KIN AMONG THE ATSUGEWI</dt>
+<dd>July 1944, American Anthropologist, Vol. 46, No. 3</dd>
+<dt>Garth, Thomas R.: EMPHASIS ON INDUSTRIOUSNESS AMONG THE ATSUGEWI</dt>
+<dd>Oct. 1945, American Anthropologist, Vol. 47, No. 4</dd>
+<dt>Garth, Thomas R.: ATSUGEWI ETHNOGRAPHY</dt>
+<dd>Feb. 1953, Anthropological Records, University of California, Vol. 14, No. 2</dd>
+<dt>Gifford, E. W. and Klimek, Stanislaw: CULTURE ELEMENT DISTRIBUTIONS: II, YANA</dt>
+<dd>1936, University of California Publications in American Archeology and Ethnology, Vol. 37, No. 2</dd>
+<dt>Heizer, R. F. and Whipple, M. A.: THE CALIFORNIA INDIANS</dt>
+<dd>1951, University of California Press</dd>
+<dt>Klimek, Stanislaw: CULTURE ELEMENT DISTRIBUTIONS: I, THE STRUCTURE OF THE CALIFORNIA INDIAN CULTURE</dt>
+<dd>1935, University of California Publications in American Archeology and Ethnology</dd>
+<dt>Kniffen, Fred B.: ACHOMAWI GEOGRAPHY</dt>
+<dd>1928, University of California Publications in American Archeology and Ethnology</dd>
+<dt>Kroeber, A. L.: HANDBOOK OF THE INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA</dt>
+<dd>1925, Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin. No. 78</dd>
+<dt>Kroeber, A. L.: CULTURE ELEMENT DISTRIBUTIONS: XV, SALT, DOGS, AND TOBACCO</dt>
+<dd>Feb. 1941, Anthropological Records, University of California, Vol. 6, No. 1</dd>
+<dt class="pb" id="Page_176">176</dt>
+<dt>Mason, Otis T.: REPORT OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM</dt>
+<dd>1902</dd>
+<dt>Merriam, C. Hart: CLASSIFICATION AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE PIT RIVER INDIAN TRIBES</dt>
+<dd>Smithsonian Institute, Vol. 78, No. 3</dd>
+<dt>Pope, Saxton T.: THE MEDICAL HISTORY OF ISHI</dt>
+<dd>May 15, 1920, University of California Publications in American Archeology and Ethnology, Vol. 13, No. 5</dd>
+<dt>Sapir, Edward: THE POSITION OF YANA IN THE HOKAN STOCK</dt>
+<dd>June 1917, University of California Publications in American Archeology and Ethnology, Vol. 13, No. 1</dd>
+<dt>Sapir, Edward and Spier, Leslie: NOTES ON THE CULTURE OF THE YANA</dt>
+<dd>Sept. 1943, Anthropological Records, University of California, Vol. 3, No. 3</dd>
+<dt>Sauer, Carl O.: EARLY RELATIONS OF MAN TO PLANTS</dt>
+<dd>Jan. 1947, Geographical Review</dd>
+<dt>Vogelin, Ermine W.: CULTURE ELEMENT DISTRIBUTIONS: XX, NORTHEAST CALIFORNIA</dt>
+<dd>June 1942, Anthropological Records, University of California, Vol. 7, No. 2</dd>
+<dt>Waterman, T. T.: THE YANA INDIANS</dt>
+<dd>Feb. 1918, University of California Publications in American Archeology and Ethnology, Vol. 13, No. 2</dd></dl>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_177">177</div>
+<p class="tbcenter"><span class="ss">ASK
+<br />THE MAN IN THE
+<br />NATIONAL PARK SERVICE UNIFORM</span></p>
+<p class="center"><i class="ss">He&rsquo;ll be glad to help you!</i></p>
+<div class="pb" id="Page_178">178</div>
+<p class="tbcenter"><span class="ss">BE PROUD OF
+<br />LASSEN VOLCANIC NATIONAL PARK!</span></p>
+<p>As a citizen of the United States it belongs to you.
+Keep it unspoiled for your next visit and for future
+generations by helping to:</p>
+<dl class="undent"><dt>1. Prevent forest fires.</dt>
+<dt>2. Protect the flowers, the animal life, and the rock and mineral formations.</dt>
+<dt>3. Keep it clean.</dt></dl>
+<hr class="dwide" />
+<p class="tb">This booklet is one of a series prepared by the
+Loomis Museum Association, a non-profit distributing
+organization sponsored by the Naturalist Department
+of Lassen Volcanic National Park. The Association
+is dedicated to the accumulation and dissemination
+of information concerning the history and natural
+history of this park. Toward this end it has published
+the following books available by mail. The post
+office address is Mineral, California. During the
+summer, these publications are also available at the
+Loomis Museum sales desk at Manzanita Lake, Lassen
+Volcanic National Park.</p>
+<table class="center">
+<tr><td class="l">GEOLOGY OF LASSEN&rsquo;S LANDSCAPE, Schulz </td><td class="r">55&cent;</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="l">PICTORIAL HISTORY OF THE LASSEN VOLCANO, Loomis </td><td class="r">85&cent;</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="l">GUIDE TO LASSEN PEAK HIGHWAY, Schulz </td><td class="r">25&cent;</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="l">STORIES OF LASSEN&rsquo;S PLACE NAMES, Schulz </td><td class="r">40&cent;</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="l">BIRDS OF LASSEN VOLCANIC NATIONAL PARK AND VICINITY, Stebbins </td><td class="r">85&cent;</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="l">FISH AND FISHING IN LASSEN VOLCANIC NATIONAL PARK, Potts </td><td class="r">40&cent;</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="l">INDIANS OF THE LASSEN AREA Schulz </td><td class="r">85&cent;</td></tr>
+</table>
+<p>For mail orders please add 12% for postage and
+packing. If the addressee is in California also add
+3% sales tax. Prices are subject to change without
+notice.</p>
+<div class="img">
+<img src="images/p50.jpg" id="ncfig2" alt="Association logo" width="300" height="279" />
+</div>
+<h2>Transcriber&rsquo;s Notes</h2>
+<ul>
+<li>Silently corrected a few typos.</li>
+<li>Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook is public-domain in the country of publication.</li>
+<li>In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by _underscores_.</li>
+</ul>
+<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK INDIANS OF LASSEN VOLCANIC NATIONAL PARK AND VICINITY ***</div>
+<div style='text-align:left'>
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author	nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org>	2025-01-22 23:06:52 -0800
committer	nfenwick <nfenwick@pglaf.org>	2025-01-22 23:06:52 -0800
commit	37f1b4993143006041ccc11c8cc45c1c67fd0b9d (patch)
tree	228ca8e3ccdeb0706598207318058e26a56741b1
parent	9cdc6977b61a7ec59036732f3e225b1ce1aec1ab (diff)