In concluding remarks on Indian conflict with pioneer, a word concerning Indian reservations will not be amiss. The author does best again in quoting, this time from Kroeber:
“The first reservations established by Federal officers in California were little else than bull pens. They were founded on the principle, not of attempting to do something for the native, but of getting him out of the white man’s way as cheaply and hurriedly as possible. The reason that the high death rate that must have prevailed among these makeshift assemblages was not reported on more emphatically is that the Indians kept running away even faster than they could die.
“The few reservations that were made permanent have on the whole had a conserving influence on the population after they once settled into a semblance of reasonable order. They did little enough for the Indian directly; but they gave him a place which he could call his own, and where he could exist in security and in contact with his own kind....”
Despite certain undesirable features of Indian Reservations, the general conclusion is that for a number of tribes survival has been considerably greater today than would have been the case if the Indians had had to shift for themselves in competition with the whites.
Chapter VI
HUNTING
Hunting was obviously a very important activity of the Lassen Indians, not only for survival, but as a means of acquiring the comfort and security which success brought. Also a good hunter was held in high esteem socially.
Deer were most sought and the hunter went to considerable effort to get “deer power” (a sort of guardian spirit) to possess him. This gave him skill and good luck. Generally only men hunted, sometimes individually, at other times in small or large groups.
Before going hunting tobacco was often smoked ceremonially with prayers and singing while the shaman (medicine man) supervised and the hunters’ bodies were anointed with medicine. Weapons to be used were smoked over a fire, while the hunters talked to their bows and arrows about the coming hunt. Frequently Atsugewi, Yana, and Yahi hunters also cut themselves until they bled. This was true especially if their marksmanship had not been good of late. Cuts were made in the forearm and charcoal was rubbed in. They often took sweat baths too before hunting, but the Maidu did not. The latter, however, offered shell beads to help increase deer power. Atsugewi hunters left offerings of paint, tobacco, and eagle-down at certain spots in the mountains for luck.
After a youth killed his first game, Maidu and Atsugewi switched him, a bow string being commonly used. Then the Atsugewi father talked to his son, blew smoke on him, and sent him out alone into the mountains for at least five days to seek power. Yana and Yahi youths were not permitted to touch, skin, or eat any of their first kill of each kind of animal, lest it spoil their luck. In these tribes the father skinned the animal and dressed the hide, teaching his son how this was done.
After hunting there were often cleansing activities and ceremonies, and usually a division of meat although a lone hunter could retain all of it. It was considered quite bad to come home empty handed. After a bear had been killed he was spoken to kindly and in sympathetic terms. Deer eyes were often eaten to give good sharp eyesight to the eater.
In a popular method of deer hunting by all Indians of the Lassen area, a deer head disguise was worn by the hunter. He approached his quarry cautiously using screening bushes and moving his antlered head above them to simulate a buck feeding. Sometimes the hunter carried brush along in front of himself. The mountain Maidu always used the whole deerskin for disguise. When close enough the hunter would shoot with bow and arrow. Since this was a nearly silent weapon, there was no noise to startle the deer, and so it was sometimes possible to slay two or three deer on one occasion.