Atsugewi young baby carrying basket or teseh-nay-gow
There were restrictions on the father of the newly born child too. Among Atsugewi and Yana he stayed with the mother, but mountain Maidu fathers stayed away for periods of a week or less. Immediately after the birth had taken place, the father ran to the woods to break up and bring home quantities of fire-wood. Hunting and fishing of all kinds and traveling were taboo for several weeks in most cases. Atsugewi and mountain Maidu new fathers were also forbidden to smoke and gamble, and like their wives, were denied eating fresh or dried fish, meat, and grease for varying periods up to a month. Release from taboos occurred with sweating and bathing among Atsugewi and mountain Maidu. Fathers in these tribes also gave away the first kill when they resumed hunting.
The mother generally massaged the infant to improve the shape and proportion of nose, face, limbs, and torso. Shedding of the baby’s umbilical cord was an important event which the Indians wished to occur as soon as possible. A variety of odd practices to this end were employed. The occurrence of the event relieved the parents of some, or in other cases of all, the post birth taboos. Among most of our tribes the dried cord was saved until the child reached manhood or womanhood. It was customarily secured to the cradle basket, but frequently was subsequently lost. Earlobes might be pierced in early infancy especially if the child were prone to cry much.
Atsugewi older baby carrying basket or yah-birr-dee. Note the rounded bottom on A, a modernization. Partial illustration B shows old style construction with a pointed bottom for thrusting into the ground.
Two cradle baskets were used. Mountain Maidu made two of similar oval shape, but the first and smaller one was without a hood. Atsugewi and Yana tribes made two different types, but both with rounded carrying handles and sunshades on top. These were constructed of willow ribs, pine root, and buckskin. The first small basket was called tseh-nay-gow by Atsugewi and was used for several months. It was short and with a distinctly rounded basketry shelf or lip at its lower end. The larger baby basket was called yah-bih-dee and was practically identical to that of the mountain Maidu. This was made of the usual twined basketry materials, but was of different construction. Willow ribs were lashed onto a sturdy one-piece forked branch frame, the joint being at the bottom. The base or stem of this Y-piece stuck out below for several inches being sharpened so that it could be stuck into the ground near the mother in camp or when she was out digging roots in the fields. Boo-noo-koo-ee-menorra tells of an interesting modification of the yah-bih-dee today. Its frame is now simply rounded at the bottom instead of having the pointed end described above. “Most people have cars now a days” she says, “and that point poked a hole through the seat of the car. So now we make the round kind.” Our visitors to Lassen Volcanic National Park are always interested in names of the “papoose basket”. This term and the words moccasin, wampum, and so on are no doubt of Indian origin being the actual words or reasonable facsimiles thereof used by some eastern tribe for the objects concerned. English speaking Americans have adopted these names as meaning those particular articles for all Indian tribes. It may be recalled that earlier in this book, it was pointed out that each tribe had its own distinct language and so, obviously, each tribe would have had its own distinct names for these objects. Hence there is no all inclusive “Indian name” for the cradle basket or anything else.
Maidu baby carrying basket about thirty five inches long.
The baby was wrapped in tanned buckskin or soft furs, normally wildcat by the Atsugewi. A pad of grass or padded bark was placed on the cradle board or basket and then the child was lashed into the tshe-nay-gow with buckskin straps in a sitting position on the sill with its feet hanging down. Most tribes used dry grass, pounded until soft, for diapers, but mountain Maidu used skin material for the purpose. Babies were kept in the cradle baskets until they were able to walk. The cradle frame was carried on the mother’s back with a tump-line passing over her forehead or chest. A series of larger cradle baskets were made as the child grew, usually three before the child was allowed to crawl or walk.