The Lolahnkok did not fight much with other tribes but were sometimes attacked by the Chĕ-teg´-ge-kah of the region north of Round Valley [Pitch Wailaki]; and they think the Long Valley people also used to make raids on them to steal women.
Chief Lassik, whose name is often used in a tribal sense, belonged to the Kittel´ tribe—a tribe reaching from Iaqua south to Dobbyn Creek [Nongatl].
Chalk Mountain was only a few miles east of the boundary between the Kittel´ and the Lolahnkok, and the Lolahnkok were permitted to hunt there.
Shelter Cove Sinkyone.—Trees are felled by means of elkhorn chisels called beh-cho, and stone mauls called sā´tah—a very tedious and laborious operation. When the tree has fallen, the logs are cut in lengths by the same process. Planks are split off from these logs by driving the elkhorn wedges into the ends of the logs. After several planks have been split off, one below the other, another set is started at right angles to the first.
The dugout canoes are made of redwood logs dug out by means of the elkhorn chisels. After the greater part of the inside has been removed, fires are used to char the wood, which is then scraped away by the chisels. This is continued until the walls of the dugout are sufficiently thin. The fires are spread out thin in order not to burn too deeply at any one place.
Buckskin is tanned with deer brains, rubbed on with a stick rolled in ashes, after which the hide is placed on warm ashes until dried. It is then soaked and rubbed until soft.
Wild tobacco (Nicotiana bigelovi) was always used by the Bull Creek Sinkyone. It was originally found growing on burned-over places and the people planted the seeds in ashes, usually on a burned place.
Buckeye nuts, called lah-sĕ´, were cooked in a basket with hot stones after the manner of acorns. They were then mashed and kneaded into dough, which was buried for a while in fine sand.
Wild Ginger (Asarum sp.) is called tan-nas-bos´. It is good medicine for pain in the stomach. The leaves are pounded and soaked in cold water. The sick person drinks plenty of this water and vomits. After a little while he gets well and is hungry and eats.
A species of Angelica is called sōl. If a girl holds off, rub sōl on your hands, and if you get a chance rub her neck and she will give in. Sōl is strong medicine.
An aromatic Umbellifer (species not identified) is called sōl´-che-but-tah´; the root, sōl´-che. It is used for purification and as a disinfectant. The root is burned and the smoke wafted around to make the house more plentiful. It does not grow on Bull Creek or South Fork Eel River but grows on Rainbow Mountain and some of the other high ridges. The root is highly prized.
The Spotted Owl (Strix occidentalis caurina) is called kah-ko´. He is a bad bird. If he flies close to a person, the person will faint.
The Dove (Zenaidura) is called bi´-yu. His grandmother was burned to death. Bi´-yu was asked to gamble and replied, "I'll gamble every winter; in spring and summer I'll cry." Now we always hear the Dove cry in summer.
The Red-shafted Flicker (Colaptes cafer) is called mun´-chis-bul. He makes a rattling noise in the spring. He was told that by doing this he would make the horns of the deer grow. He was told also that when the deer became fat he would grow fat, but the people fooled him for he did not grow fat.
The Yellow-bird (Astragalinus tristis) is called sin-sun-sĕ-gahng-ti-ne tahs´-che, "to take away pain." If the old folks were suffering, they would get him to sing to take the pain away.
The Kildeer (Oxyechus vociferus) is called ni´-til-yi´-che from the necklace, ni-tal-yah, on its throat. In the long ago time the water was very high and rough; big waves were coming in and the people were afraid to cross in their canoes, so they got the Kildeer to take them. He was a high person among the Water People and could handle a boat better than any of the others. The people talked about him and said he was the best and the only one to get them across. So he took them across and saved them.
The Coyote (Canis latrans), called shŭ´-bĕ, and the Shrewmole (Neürotrichus sp.), called ske´-cho, made the world and the people. The Coyote had a number of children. The Shrewmole said that when people died they should come back to live again. Coyote said, "No, there would be too many people; when they die they had better stay dead." The Shrewmole agreed. After a while Coyote's children took sick and died. He wanted them to come back to life, but the Shrewmole said, "No; you said there would be too many people and you wanted dead people to stay dead, so your children cannot come back." Then Coyote cried.
The Raccoon (Procyon lotor) is called nah´-ke-gis´-chah. A long time ago he was a doctor. He was able to talk to persons suffering severe pains and could draw the pain out. He would dance and sing and pull out the pains and fall back. One time he took a flint out of a sick person.
In the olden time the people tried to make the Elk (Cervus roosevelti), called yēs´-cho, out of the Cottontail Rabbit (Sylvilagus sp.). They put horns on his head and sent him into the brush, but the horns stuck in the bushes and he could not move. Then the people called him sti´-che and told him he must always stay in the brush.
The Bat is called nah´-tă-bahn´-se. He wears a robe of bear hide over his shoulders. A long time ago when the First People were at war they wanted the Bat to make peace and they hired him to make peace. The people told him to fix up good. He did so and said, "I am the one who can talk big." He sang ho-wā´-nah han´-nah. The enemy agreed, and peace was made.
Our people have songs for the Elk, Deer, Coon, Otter, Mink, Bat, and some other animals.
Slugs (Arion columbianus) are called nah´-tos. To prepare [them] for eating, a slender stick is thrust through the head to hold the animal easily. It is then cut open lengthwise on the belly and the dark insides removed, after which it is dried. When wanted, it is roasted in hot ashes and eaten.
BOTANICAL NOTES
Shelter Cove Sinkyone.—These notes are from Sally Bell of the Briceland-Shelter Cove region.
Acorns of the tanoak (Lithocarpus densiflora) form the principal vegetable food. Hazel nuts also are eaten.
Among the berries used for food are those of the Elder, Manzanita, Blackberry, Thimbleberry, Strawberry, Huckleberry, Salal, wild Currant and Gooseberry.
The sprouts of a species of Angelica are eaten raw in spring and early summer.
The bulb of the large red Tiger Lily is cooked and said to be very good. The same is true of the handsome Brodiaea sp.
The seeds of the Manroot (Echinocystis) are roasted and eaten. The seeds of Godetia amoena are used for making pinole.
Wild Tobacco does not grow along the coast and is not used.
The Wood Sorrel (Oxalis) is used for poultices.
Leaves of the narrow-leaf Iris (Iris macrosiphon) are used for cord and nets and are much better than the leaves of the broad-leaf species.
MATTOLE
The Mattole occupied the drainage of the Mattole River below the mouth of Upper North Fork and the coast from Davis Creek south to Spanish Flat.
The village lists of Merriam and Goddard provide a complete picture of the Mattole settlements but almost nothing is known of them aside from this. In the Handbook Kroeber reported (1925a, p. 142) that "not a single item of concrete ethnology is on record regarding the Mattole, other than the statement that they burned their dead." Almost nothing has been learned since that time, but Nomland (1938) has published a monograph on the neighboring Bear River group and the culture of the two groups was no doubt much the same.
The territory of the Mattole lies wholly within the cold coastal belt and consequently plant food was less abundant and no doubt less important. The products of the rivers, when taken together with sea mammals and other creatures caught in the ocean, provided an ample food supply.
When Kroeber published the Handbook (1925a), he lumped the Mattole proper with the Bear River group. Nomland (1938) and Goddard (1929) showed that these two groups were distinct. This division is supported by Merriam's data and I have therefore retained it.
Merriam appears to have spent a comparatively brief time among the Mattole. The only informant mentioned for this group is a man called Indian Joe Duncan, who is said to have lived at the mouth of the Mattole River below Petrolia. Merriam seems to have visited the area in 1923. His statement on these people, taken verbatim from his notes, follows.