All local tribes used the beautiful salmon colored feathers of the Red-shafted Flicker, a woodpecker also known to us by the name Yellowhammer. A headband of the bird’s feathers—the stiff quills—was worn on the forehead. Mountain Maidu doctors wore this item also as a belt. In addition Atsugewi made a full feather band which was worn in a variety of ways including hanging down the back. This was usually used only by the shamans.
Another ceremonial item was the California or Acorn Woodpecker scalp headband. This usually had a buckskin strap base, however, mountain Maidu glued these gay feathered patches onto fur bands, Yana wore woodpecker scalps on buckskin as belts.
Mountain Maidu made belts of bands on which the showy greenish feathered neck skins of male Mallard Ducks in mating plumage were strung.
For ceremonial use it was generally customary to tuck small tufts of feathers into the top of the hair. Among Atsugewi, chiefs only used eagle feathers for this purpose. This tribe also fastened single feathers into the crown of buckskin caps in a radiating manner, and also onto strips hanging down the back. Sometimes feathers were tipped with small white feathers to make the former even more decorative. Feathers were also fastened to head nets in a number of ways which differed somewhat among our tribes. Among Atsugewi, women wore these on occasion, but generally it was the males who decked themselves with feathers. Feather plumes of various sorts, employing either twisted buckskin or stick bodies, were also in general use.
Chapter XIX
TOBACCO AND SMOKING
The knowledge and use of tobacco are among the important elements which our own culture of today has inherited from the Indians of North America. Of what benefit this has been is a debatable matter, but its effect has been profound, both on our customs and our economy.
Local tribes used simple one piece wooden pipes of tubular design for the most part in smoking tobacco. Atsugewi and mountain Maidu commonly employed elder and other woods with a pithy and easily removed center. Although not otherwise being considered in this account, the Shasta Indian technique of pipe making is mentioned here because of its uniqueness. These folks hollowed pipe stems by soaking the end of a suitable stick in salmon oil. The larvae of the salmon fly were then introduced, and these worm-like creatures, eating the nourishing fishy core, would bore their ways lengthwise through the center of the heartwood where most of the salmon oil was concentrated. The Yana habitually used the wood of ash as pipe stock. Mountain Maidu found but did not manufacture a few simple stone pipe bowls also of tubular design. These had considerable spiritual significance and were treated with great care. Garth states that Atsugewi also had short stone pipes, tubular in shape, to which elder or rose wood extensions up to eleven inches in length were applied. Stone pipes were apparently not common in the Lassen region, however.
Steatite stone pipes were used without wooden stems, each between three and four inches long. The holes in such pipes were made by tapping a deer antler piece in the depression containing some sand, a slow but effective boring process. This was commonly done by Valley tribes.
