FISHING
Fishes were one of the four important food categories consumed by
Indians of the Lassen region. Land-locked and other non-migratory
Rainbow Trout were abundantly available in mountain streams and in some
lakes. Steelhead Trout penetrated the territories of our four tribes
too. Salmon, however, did not go so far upstream, only rarely coming up
Hat Creek, for instance, into Atsugewi lands. For the most part this
tribe of Indians visited the Pit River to the north in the autumn. They
paid the Achomawi, through whose territory this fine salmon stream
flowed, for the privilege of catching salmon by giving up a share of the
catch to them. The larger streams in south Yana, Yahi, and mountain
Maidu country contained salmon and steelhead, but it seems that these
tribes also made bargains with the Valley Indians for salmon fishing
privileges or else made fishing forays to the Sacramento River.
[Illustration: Atsugewi Bow-type net. This kind was usually used in
small streams where it covered the full width of the stream bed.
Fish were commonly driven into it, then the handle was raised.]
Gill nets about three feet high and as much as 30 feet long were
commonly used. Spawning trout in the spring were speared in large
numbers. Although old informants have denied the practice,
Boonookoo-ee-menorra (Mrs. Selina La Marr of the Atsugewi) tells of
catching Rainbow Trout by hand from Manzanita Creek banks about fifty
years ago when her family came up in the summer to fish. Trout were
speared by the Atsugewi with two pointed or four pointed spears instead
of the common single pointed version. Bone or Serviceberry wood might be
used for the tips. Spears were used not only from stream banks, but,
especially at night, from a canoe equipped with a torch in front. One
man or more would spear the fish while a person, sometimes a woman,
paddled the craft from the rear. The torch consisted of four
mountain-mahogany sticks bound together with pitch down the center.
[Illustration: A northeast Maidu bow-fish net about forty inches
long. It was used for fish other than salmon. Northwest and southern
Maidu did not use such nets, employing seine nets instead (after
Dixon).]
It is interesting to note that the practice of shooting fish with bow
and arrow was not carried on by any tribes of the Lassen area, although
the eastern people of the Pit River Indians (Achomawi), the western
Shasta, Wintu, and foothill Maidu did do so.
Only Atsugewi, of the tribes we are considering, trapped fish in
converging weirs into which fish might be driven. In the autumn, streams
were sometimes diverted by damming. The fish trapped in the ponds
remaining were scooped out with baskets or nets. Mountain Maidu drove
fish into traps and caught lamprey eels in dip or scoop nets. Bow-type
nets illustrated in the text were used with the bow bent ends down
resting on the bed of the stream, the pole being raised to trap the
fish. The net was preferably as wide as the stream.
All local tribes fished with lines and hooks which were made by lashing
a sharp piece of bone to a section of twig, at an acute angle. Atsugewi
and mountain Maidu also used a “gorge” for angling. This was a slender
piece of bone two or three inches long fastened near the middle and
sharpened at both ends. Hooks were sometimes baited with meat,
grasshoppers, or large flies, but man-made “flies” as fishermen know
them today were not used. Sometimes meat or grasshopper bait was used by
Atsugewi on fish-lines without any hook. Atsugewi women occasionally
fished with baskets and with hook and line. Hooks were often tied in a
series on a line attached either on both banks of the stream or to a
pole secured in the bank or tied to tules or to brush, and left over
night. A series of basket traps was sometimes likewise stretched across
a stream.
[Illustration: A Klamath fish hook similar to those used by local
tribes. Single barbed hooks were also employed.]
Salmon fishing was done largely with harpoons which differ from spears
in having one or more movable barbs or toggles of bone. These opened
when the harpoon was pulled back (outward in the victim) thus securing
the catch all the more firmly. This was necessary for such large and
heavy fish as salmon. Yana tribes caught their salmon with either hook
and line or by spearing with a two pointed harpoon.
Natural falls were favored fishing sites. There Indians caught salmon
and steelhead trout as the fish attempted to scale the falls. Long
handled nets were used. Atsugewi went so far as to build scaffoldings to
assist either in this method of fishing or from which to harpoon large
fish. In the latter case many whitish rocks, where available, were
thrown into the stream to build up a light colored bottom for better
visibility in harpooning or spearing.
After the fish were caught they were killed by striking with a stick as
a general practice. Mountain Maidu sometimes killed fish by striking
their heads on rocks. The central Yana, interestingly enough, killed
fish by biting them!
In quiet portions of streams fish were poisoned by placing certain
pounded plant materials in the water. Yana and Yahi used crushed
Soaproot; Atsugewi used pulverized Wild Parsley. Wild Parsley
application made the water bluish, and caused the fish soon to rise to
the surface of the water floating belly-up. Where suitable quiet pools
did not exist in a stream, they were sometimes formed by the Indians
through temporary damming. Buckeye nut pulp, which is poisonous, was not
used in this area for poisoning fish.
Long basketry fish traps, usually constructed by men, were also
utilized. The design and proportions of these varied with the tribe.
Each of the Lassen area tribes had taboos which prevented youths, and in
the case of Atsugewi, their parents too, from eating the first fish each
youth caught.
[Illustration: Plan of Maidu open basketry fish trap (after Dixon)
several feet long. The pointed end was untied to extract the fish.]
Chubs and minnows, spurned by white man, were driven into nets and
eaten. At lower elevations, where waters were warmer and sluggish,
suckers provided a common source of food fish. The Indians also not
infrequently dove for crawfish and fresh water mussels. These were
gathered in net sacks by male Indians of all local tribes. Yana and Yahi
roasted mussels but did not boil them and never dried them for later
use. A flat rock might be carried on the shoulders to assist the diving
Indians.
Some fish were cooked by roasting over coals or by boiling. Most trout,
however, were cleaned, head and backbone removed, and then strung up on
poles to dry. No salt was used in the process. The dried fish was
carried to camp or village in large baskets. Dried trout was tied into
small bales for storage and placed in baskets or in pits dug in the
ground for safe-keeping. Salmon were usually cooked in earth pit ovens,
then dried and crumbed by Atsugewi and mountain Maidu for later use.
This was of necessity an autumnal activity. Yana and Yahi stored their
salmon in dried slabs, pulverizing it as needed.
[Illustration: Atsugewi basketry fish trap (after Garth).]