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

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:

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.

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.

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: