Indians of Lassen Volcanic National Park and Vicinity

by Paul E. Schulz

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

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:

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.

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.

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:

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.