GATHERING AND PREPARATION OF OTHER FOODS
As has been pointed out earlier under “California Indians”, these tribes
had a common food pattern. Although there was some difference in the
relative importance of the four major types of food to the several
tribes due to varying availability, the California Indians ate (1) game,
especially deer, (2) fish, particularly salmon and trout, (3) roots and
bulbs which the women dug, and (4) fruits and seeds of a wide variety,
the most important of which were acorns.
Besides fish and venison, many kinds of flesh food were eaten by the
Indians of the Lassen area: fox, wolf, grizzly and black bear, skunk,
raccoon, porcupine, rabbit, owl, fish, fresh water mussel, and turtle
being most common. They also ate with apparent relish a variety of
insects and the like including crickets, grasshoppers, angleworms, red
ant eggs, and yellow-jacket larvae.
Game which was not eaten by either Atsugewi or mountain Maidu was
coyote, elk, antelope, and all snakes and lizards. The last two items
were almost universally shunned by California Indians. Many California
tribes including Yana and Yahi refused to eat dog meat, some of them
believing canine flesh to be poisonous. That mountain Maidu was one of
the few tribes which ate dog flesh whenever it was available is denied
by Dixon. Atsugewi ate it only as a last resort when rare, near-famine
conditions prevailed or during times of severe epidemic. Canine flesh
was believed by them to be a powerful and perhaps somewhat dangerous
medicine. Buzzards seem to have been about the only birds which were not
eaten.
Each tribe had certain taboos on eating game. An Atsugewi did not, for
example, eat wildcat, gopher, hawk, lamprey eel, or caterpillars.
Mountain Maidu did not eat mountain lion, badger, raven, or crawfish.
Heart of deer was taboo to all males among Atsugewi and to all children
and youths of the mountain Maidu. The foetus of all animals and also
deer fawns could not be eaten by any except Atsugewi, Yana, and Yahi old
men and old women. Animal foetus was, however, allowed as food to all
mountain Maidu adults. Bear foetus was skinned by Atsugewi and fed to
old women because it was so tender. Likewise, Yana and Yahi made foetus
soup for old folks to eat. Deer liver was taboo to Atsugewi boys and
youths. Taboo also among Atsugewi was the eating of fish and deer meat
together. Among mountain Maidu the eating of salt on bear meat was
prohibited. Many other food combinations were outlawed by these and
other California tribes.
Deer backbone was ground up and eaten dry by mountain Maidu or molded
into small cakes, then baked and eaten while Atsugewi would dry deer
backbones with meat still adhering, grind it up, and then boil the meal
before eating it. Yana also ate pulverized meal of other bones after
cooking. Marrow was relished; it was a special delicacy for Yana
children.
Securing of large game and fish and their preparation has been described
earlier.
Such animals as wildcat, raccoons, foxes, et cetera were skinned and
cooked in earth ovens by all local tribes. These were pits sometimes as
much as six feet wide and lined with rocks. A large fire was built in
the pit to thoroughly heat the rock lining, after which any unburned
debris was removed. The animal to be roasted was laid in the pit on a
layer of green pine needles, or various other leaves, depending upon the
tribe. A large heated rock was placed inside the body cavity and smaller
hot rocks were wedged under the fore and hind legs which were then all
tied tightly together. A flat heated rock might be placed on top of the
carcass and the whole was covered with pine needles and the like, and
finally with hot ashes and sometimes dirt. The roasting proceeded for
half a day or so. Blood and fat might be placed in the intestine
membranes of larger animals (especially wildcat) to form sausage and
cooked in ashes. Mountain Maidu also boiled blood for eating.
Quills of porcupine and hair of badger, squirrel, or other small mammals
might be singed off before cooking instead of skinning the animals.
Ground squirrels were sometimes merely gutted and then roasted in ashes
without further preparation. When Yana (and probably Yahi) did this,
they then skinned the ground squirrels after cooking and mashed the
whole bodies by pounding before eating them. Rabbits were roasted over
coals and broken into pieces for eating. Both mountain Maidu and
Atsugewi sometimes broiled small mammals on a single stick over coals.
Turtles were cooked alive in hot ashes. If they crawled out they were
pushed back in again.
Duck eggs were boiled in baskets using hot rocks—cooked they would keep
for a week or two. Yana tribes roasted quail eggs in ashes. Birds were
gutted, feathers singed off in flames and roasted on sticks or roasted
in oven pits. Roasting was invariably used for the large birds such as
ducks, geese, and swans.
Atsugewi practiced some fascinating gathering techniques in which they
were not unique. Insects were gathered by both men and women.
Grasshoppers and crickets not infrequently appeared in large numbers.
These were collected early in the morning while still sluggish with
cold. When very abundant they were scraped with sticks from branches of
bushes into large burden baskets. During the heat of the day
grasshoppers were effectively collected by singeing them. Some tribes
merely burned dry grassy fields after which the insects were easily
picked up. Atsugewi made a long willow “rope” to which many bunches of
dry grass were fastened. This was set afire and men carrying this
blazing band stretched tightly between them ran across open grassland
where the grasshoppers were numerous. The insects jumped into the flames
and were thus killed. Yana pulverized grasshoppers and other insects
without cooking them.
Atsugewi roasted crickets in the pit oven. These were then dried two
days and finally eaten or stored. If they had been stored, they were
pounded before being eaten.
Salmon flies were plentiful along Pit River and Lost Creek (outside of
the park). These were hand picked from the banks early in the morning.
The wings were removed and the bodies boiled before eating by the
Atsugewi.
When yellow-jackets, always carnivorous (meat eaters), were seen buzzing
about, Atsugewi would tie a white flower petal to a grasshopper leg.
When the yellow-jacket picked this morsel up and flew away with it
toward its nest, the Indians would run after the yellow-jacket which was
easy to follow on account of the conspicuous flower petal it carried
along. Thus yellow-jacket nests were found. A line was marked around the
nest area with the fingers. This line was supposed to increase the size
of the nest. Pine needles were then stacked over the nest and burned to
kill the winged insects. This done, the nest was dug up and roasted
alongside a fire, thus cooking the maggot-like grubs inside. These were
considered to be quite a delicacy. According to Dixon, mountain Maidu
young folks were denied this delicacy, but not so among the Yana. Dried
grasshoppers, crickets, and yellow-jacket larvae were foods often used
as items of trade.
Angleworms were collected by first driving a digging stick a few inches
into the moist soil, then moving the top about. The consequent
disturbing of the ground made the worms crawl out. Although other
California tribes made angleworm soup, Atsugewi, Yana, and probably Yahi
sometimes roasted angleworms between hot rocks. Maidu reportedly dried
worms for eating.
Red ant eggs were eaten by Indians too. Atsugewi baked them in earth pit
ovens, while mountain Maidu parched them with coals. Mountain Maidu also
ate certain caterpillars, but the other tribes of the Lassen area did
not.
[Illustration: A. Sharpened iron rod digging stick with pine cross
piece wrapped in coarse cotton cloth used for about forty years by
Mrs. Mullen of Hat Creek. Length about four feet.
B. Another recent mountain mahogany digging stick made by Mr. and
Mrs. Lyman LaMarr (Boonookoo-ee-menorra). The point of the green
wood was toughened in flame. Stick three and one half feet long.]
Indians of this region did not carry on any agriculture, that is they
did not plant crops for food or other purposes, but collected those
which grew wild. It was, however, a common practice to burn some areas
over regularly to stimulate growth of edible seed producing plants.
Women always gathered the vegetable materials and prepared them for use.
Roots and bulbs provided vital foods to the aborigines also. These were
procured with a digging stick. In this region it was blunt at the top
with a tapered point at the digging end. Atsugewi fastened a short cross
piece on top to serve as a handle. The digging stick was made by this
tribe of green mountain-mahogany wood with the digging point hardened by
scorching in the flame. After the coming of white man, the same design
was retained, but an iron rod replaced the mountain-mahogany digging
shaft.
In use, the digging stick was thrust into the ground next to the plant
whose root was to be secured. The handle portion was worked sideways a
couple of times, then pulled downward toward the operator. The point
very effectively brought the root out of the ground. Roots were
customarily tossed into a large cone-shaped carrying basket which was
held in place on the digging woman’s back by a chest band over her
chest. Some of the load in the basket might also be supported by a band
from the basket over the Indian woman’s forehead.
Roots were cleaned by rubbing (sometimes with sand) in a shallow
bowl-shaped basket of a rough coarse mesh weave of willow ribs, like
that used for cleaning acorns. The whole was dipped in water frequently.
Rubbing usually continued until the skins were entirely removed.
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.
Local tribes stored acorns in the shell either indoors in large baskets
or outside in pits or in large hoppers or granaries covered with bark.
The details of these varied with the several tribes. Maidu except for
the “mountain tribe” and Yana shelled, split, and slightly dried some of
their acorns, and placed them in basketry storage bins lined with
broadleafed maple leaves. Maidu ate twelve different kinds of acorns,
but the favorites were the black oak (_Quercus kelloggii_), _golden cup
oak_ maul, or canyon oak (_Quercus chrysolepis_), and sierra live oak
(_Quercus wislizenii_) acorns.
In preparation, acorns were cracked by up-ending each on a flat rock and
striking the point with any convenient small stone. Sometimes small
acorns were cracked with the teeth. Though usually a woman’s job, young
folks and men might help with the task.
[Illustration: Basaltic lava mortar from Yana territory, about ten
inches high.]
The thin brownish skin which covers the acorn kernels was removed by
rubbing vigorously in rough porous baskets made entirely of willow ribs.
Water was not used. Indians of the Lassen area did not employ stone
mortars for grinding acorns as was the practice in other parts of
California. Stone mortars were always found, not made, and were used for
ceremonial purposes, in the belief that these had been made by Coyote.
However, Maidu families cherished portable stone mortars. They were kept
buried at some distance from the dwelling, and dug up for occasional
inspection. Bed-rock acorn pounding holes are not found in this region
either except for the Maidu area. Instead, acorn meats were placed in
hopper baskets lacking bottoms. This basketry mortar hopper rested with
the small open end down on a heavy flat stone. The pounding basket was
held in place by the Indian woman’s knees as she sat in front of and
straddling it. In one hand she wielded a stone pestle, flat on the
grinding end. With the other hand she stirred the acorn material so that
the coarse pieces worked toward the center to get the full impact of the
pounding. The hopper basket was not always used, by the mountain Maidu,
the pounding often being done merely on a flat rock slab, the woman’s
free hand continually brushing the acorn material back to the center.
Acorn meal was ground until it was as fine as flour. The coarse pieces
were separated from the fine by a process which employed a flattish
piece of wood or bark a foot or so across. Sometimes a basketry plaque
was used. A portion of ground meal was placed on this tray which was
held firmly at one side and inclined toward the operator. The other edge
of the plaque was shaken, causing the coarse material to roll into a
container held in the lap for repounding while the fine flour remained
on the plaque. A small brush, generally made from the pounded and dried
root of the soap-plant, was used to brush the flour off and into the
cooking basket. Mountain Maidu, according to Voegelin, actually did sift
acorn meal through open-work baskets though this was not a common
practice even among members of this tribe.
White oak and some other acorn flour could be used for cooking without
further preparation. Atsugewi preferred black oak acorns which had to be
leached to remove the bitter tannic acid before using. To do this the
flour was placed in a shallow depression on clean sand over porous
earth, usually, but Yana used loosely woven baskets for the purpose, and
in recent times it has become common practice to place cloth flour
sacking over a screen or sieve. Cold water was poured over the meal
until it was nearly free of bitterness. Warm water was then employed
briefly, but hot water was never used, for it would make the flour tend
to jell. Sand was removed from the bottom of the flour by touching the
bottom of a handful of the moist material to water. The flour held
together, but the sand grains dropped off. The flour could be dried and
stored at this point, but was usually used as it was prepared.
Portions of about two or three quarts of acorn flour were placed in
cooking baskets a foot or more in diameter. Water was added and then hot
stones were dropped in. These smoothly rounded stones, of any shape and
from one and a half to three inches in diameter, had been heated in an
open fire. They were quickly dipped into water to remove ashes before
being put into the mush cooking basket. The method of handling these
cooking stones seems to have varied. Present day Atsugewi say a small
looped stick was used, but old informants stated that two forked sticks
were employed. Stirring had to be continuous lest the cooking stones
scorch the basket. Atsugewi used any convenient stick for this, but Yana
had a small oak paddle. After boiling a short while the acorn mush
became light greyish or brownish in color; when cooled it jellied quite
firmly. Acorn mush was commonly eaten warm with meat, from small
individual baskets. Spoons were unknown in the Lassen area so acorn mush
was eaten with index and second fingers. Mountain Maidu made their acorn
mush of a more liquid consistency so that it was often consumed by
drinking.
Acorn bread was made by using less water and adding a small amount of
reddish iron-bearing or blackish salt-bearing soil by Atsugewi, but
mountain Maidu left this ingredient out. The paste was molded into
biscuit or loaf-shaped forms, wrapped in leaves and baked all night in
earth pit ovens. Yana sometimes added red soil to their acorn bread
making it brightly colored. Usually black oak acorns were used for bread
by the Yana tribes and white oak for soup.
That acorns are a fine food is indicated by the following analysis of
the uncooked meal. The proportions vary somewhat, but not importantly
among the several kinds of acorns used: 21% fat, 5% protein, 62%
carbohydrate, and 14% water, mineral, and fiber. In cooked acorn mush
the proportions remain the same relatively, except, of course, for the
greatly increased water content.
Buckeye nuts, not used much by Atsugewi, were important to other Indians
of California, especially those residing at lower elevations. These
fruits were gathered when ripe, then shelled, pounded and soaked in
loosely woven baskets until the poisonous juice was leached out. The
pulpy mass was next squeezed to remove excess water. Unlike acorn meal
buckeye pulp was eaten uncooked. Yana crushed their buckeyes with their
feet and leached the material in creeks, though sometimes hot water was
used.
Nuts of digger pine and sugar pine were highly regarded as food. Men
climbed trees and picked digger pine cones or shook limbs to dislodge
sugar pine cones. The cones were placed on end and covered with dry
grass which was burned, ridding the cones of pitch. After this heat
treatment, sugar pine nuts came out easily when cone scales were pulled
back. After singeing the heavy digger pine cones were hit with rocks to
obtain the large nuts they contained.
The white sweet crusty deposit occasionally found on the bark of sugar
pines was relished as candy by Atsugewi. However, it had a laxative
property which mountain Maidu recognized and reputedly employed as such.
A variety of small plant seeds also provided tasty nutrition. Several
members of the sunflower family including balsam root species and mules
ears, and others were used by all local tribes. Such seeds were usually
collected by beating them with paddle-shaped basketry seed beaters into
burden baskets. They were then parched with coals in flat trays, placed
in flat baskets and worked about with stones until freed of skins. Seeds
were winnowed by tossing them up allowing wind to carry hulls and skins
away. The seeds were then pulverized with a small stone or muller, being
rolled or rubbed on a larger rock slab generally referred to as a
metate. Such seeds were eaten dry by Atsugewi, Yana, and Yahi without
grinding, or the flour might be moistened and molded into cakes about
the size of biscuits and eaten without further cooking. However, Yana
also cooked certain sunflower seeds and the yellow blossoming heads of
the small (_Helianthella_) sunflower were themselves cooked and eaten.
Clover tops were collected in summer and eaten fresh by all local
tribes. Mountain Maidu also baked them in earth pit ovens, then dried
and stored the material to be recooked in winter for making soup.
Atsugewi cooked clover roots in ovens. Young thistle stalks were eaten
raw as was the foliage of several carrot-like plants. Mushrooms, fresh,
roasted, or dried were eaten also. Young soap-plant stems were eaten
fresh or baked and dried for winter use by Yana tribes.
Manzanita berries were gathered by all Indians of the Lassen region in
July and August. These berries were knocked into burden baskets with a
stick. They were dried, stored in pits, pounded when needed, and sifted
as fine meal. This was moistened and molded into biscuit-sized cakes and
put away until wanted. Either fresh flour or the cakes were eaten plain
or put into water and drunk. One investigator reported fermentation of
manzanita cider and its use as a mild intoxicant, but this appears to
have been the exception rather than the rule. The drink, of
lemonade-like character, was usually consumed fresh. Manzanita cider was
conveyed to the mouth by dipping a deer tail sop into the liquid, and
then by sucking it. Small cakes were made of a mixture of manzanita and
wild plum flours. Yana and Yahi also ate manzanita berries as such
either fresh, or roasted and dried.
Red berries of skunk or squaw bush were gathered in midsummer, washed,
dried, and stored. They were pounded into flour in a mortar basket,
mixed with manzanita flour and drunk. Elderberries were mashed and mixed
with manzanita flour and stored as cakes.
Wild plums were prepared by removing seeds. These were then eaten fresh
or dried for storage.
Chokecherries and service berries were put into baskets when ripe and
mashed. The paste was eaten without cooking.
Gooseberries, huckleberries, currants, Oregon-grape, buckthorn, juniper,
thimble, and elderberries were eaten fresh, too, but juniper fruits
might be dried and pounded into flour and stored.
Another item used as food was salt which mountain Maidu and Yana
gathered locally in mineral form. The Atsugewi also imported it from
Round Mountain in North Yana territory or made expeditions to this site
to gather the dark salt material from a certain marsh. This salty earth
was shaped into black loaves and dried. It was not only used for
flavoring, but the black soil was also eaten as such by some
individuals. Atsugewi had a local source of salt, however, by collecting
fine whitish crystals in the early mornings from the blades of salt
grass which was run between the fingers. Atsugewi used salt for salmon
and venison in cooking, but not in drying processes.
Pine pitch was chewed, but Atsugewi also used milkweed chewing gum.
As for eating customs, Atsugewi ate three meals each day. Mountain Maidu
just prepared two real meals. Hands were washed after eating deer and
bear meats. Mountain Maidu wiped faces and hands with bark and grass
after eating.
There was a well defined division of labor among California Indians. Men
would carry water for unusually long distances or heavy logs for
firewood, but women usually carried water, wood, acorn and root crops,
and the like. In the case of moving camp, however, men carried the
heaviest burdens. The most important division of labor was the
delegation to men of all activities concerning animals and animal
products, and to women all pertaining to vegetable materials. Women, for
instance, collected materials for basketry and made all the baskets,
except that men often made basketry fish traps and nets. Women dug roots
and cooked all food except meat which men normally cooked. Exception to
this rule was necessarily made when men were away on hunting trips or at
war. Men usually built the houses, made moccasins and skin clothing too.
Among Atsugewi and mountain Maidu only men made fire, but this was
accomplished by both sexes among the Yana and Yahi.