Indians of Lassen Volcanic National Park and Vicinity

by Paul E. Schulz

The most important item of this type collected in large amount for food is known as epos locally, or “peh-ts-koo” among the old Atsugewi. The plant belongs to the parsley family and stands one to two feet high. Actually, probably more than one species was eaten by Indians of the Lassen area. These plants are not unlike except in detail. All had sweet carrot-like taproots about two inches long. Garth states that Atsugewi ate the species Pteridendia bolanden which apparently corresponds to the botanists’ Perideridia bolanderi or Eulophus bolanderi; also probably Carum or Perideridia oregona and californica. Common English names for epos are squaw root or yampah. Epos roots were dried and stored, then ground up for use. This food item was made into either soup or bread. The finished product had a fine sweet meaty or nutty taste, and was held in high esteem. Obviously this constituted an important vegetable in the diet.

At least two kinds of camas bulbs and brodeia bulbs were roasted in the earth pit oven, ground to pulp, shaped into cakes, and rebaked. These were then either eaten or dried and stored. The latter process was not employed by mountain Maidu. If the baked camas cakes were stored, they would be soaked with water before eating. Camas cakes were not made into soup.

Tiger lily bulbs were roasted in earth pit ovens and eaten immediately. They were a highly prized food.

Wild onion was used too, but usually with other root foods as a flavoring.

The foregoing are but a few of the most extensively eaten roots. Many others, especially those of the lily and parsley families, were used by tribes of the Lassen region.

Yana tribes robbed gophers of stores of edible roots and bulbs. These were found by probing for burrows and digging out the animals’ food storage chambers. Men usually did this, which is an exception to the general rule that women only collected vegetable materials.

Acorns were probably the most important single food of California Indians. Surprisingly, this was true even in eastern parts of the territories of the Atsugewi (Apwaruge), mountain Maidu, and others where acorns were scarce or wanting entirely. Indians frequently traded for acorns or made long journeys for them. Acorns of the black oak were generally preferred over other kinds. Nearly all varieties were used for food on occasion, however. It is interesting to note that Modoc and Klamath Indians were exceptions in not using acorns for food.

In the fall, usually in September, acorns were gathered by women after the ripe nuts had been knocked from the oaks with long poles, or by men and young agile girls climbing the trees to strike the fruit with straight sticks or staves. To aid in climbing large smooth tree trunks, Atsugewi men used sapling ladders on which part of branches were left attached to serve for footholds. Mountain Maidu on the other hand used a very unique two poled ladder with buckskin rungs. Acorns were carried to villages by women in stages, using baskets about the size of nail kegs.

First spring food gathering each year was marked by rites in which the shamans, or medicine men, conducted praying ceremonies. Atsugewi conducted three of these. In May first epos roots were gathered and sung over by shamans. They examined the roots and prophesied whether the women who had dug them were going to be sick. Those who were going to be sick dug roots all day. In the evening these were dumped into piles and women shamans sang over these for half the night to make the threatened women healthy. Each woman gatherer participating then took home the roots she had dug leaving some for the shamans, who cooked and ate them. A second first food ceremony consisted of a ceremonial feast of fruit and vegetable materials with fish which the men brought. In the third such rite, root digging women threw away the first roots they dug that season and prayed to the effect: “Don’t make me poor. Give me good luck. You may have this one.”

In autumn, mountain Maidu held their first fruit ceremonies. Large groups of women went out to gather acorns. Acorn mush was made immediately of the first batch collected. The shamans ate some and prayed. Portions of this batch were then eaten by the rest of the assemblage. After that it was all right for anyone to gather and to use acorns of the new crop.