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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.