HOUSES AND FURNISHINGS
The Atsugewi used earth-covered lodges as their permanent winter
dwellings. These varied in size from about nine feet in length, for a
single family, to more than thirty feet in length for a chief’s house
which was usually larger than other houses. Most frequently houses were
about twenty feet long and somewhat narrower, being occupied by three to
five families. The earth lodge was elliptical in shape with one center
post planted firmly in the earth floor somewhat back of true center.
This supported beams running to two smaller secondary posts and to earth
shoulders which resulted from excavation of the entire floor to a depth
of about three feet. On the beams other poles or rafters and bark slabs
(usually of incense-cedar) were laid. The whole sloping roof was then
covered with pine needles and a layer of earth.
The main entrance was through a hole about in the center of the roof.
Over this a heavy mat was placed in bad weather. This opening also
served as a smoke hole. A ladder made of two poles with cross pieces
tied on with serviceberry withes was used inside.
[Illustration: The Northeast (mountain) Maidu earth lodge plan used
only three primary posts plus secondary entrance posts.]
logs or poles
a fireplace
b mainpost with forked top
c front posts with forked tops
A secondary entrance of small size, used by children, was built
horizontally at ground level on the south (front) end of the house. It
projected tunnel-like a short distance beyond the lodge outside wall.
The main purpose of this ground-level opening was to act as a ventilator
duct to supply draft for proper burning of the cooking and house warming
fire which burned in front of the center post. At night the ventilator
duct was closed. This reduced air supply, causing the fire to burn very
slowly. Glowing coals developed as a result. These produced reduced but
adequate heat for the occupants who slept with their feet to the fire.
Men did all of the house construction work except for excavation. The
women did this with digging sticks and wooden or basketry scoops with
which they threw the dirt out of the pit. Excavation of the floor of the
lodge not only made it easier to construct a strong house, but
contributed materially to the warmth of the standard winter house.
[Illustration: Typical winter house of the local permanent Indian
villages at lower elevations.]
There was no furniture as such. Each family used an assigned portion of
the house, and cooked its own food, but utilized the central communal
fire. A thin layer of grass, carefully kept away from the fire, covered
the floor. The Indians slept on the floor on mats made of tule. During
the day these and the sleeping blankets were rolled up and provided the
only seats. However, sitting usually consisted of squatting on the
floor.
Blankets of deer and elk skin were generally used. Atsugewi also used
loose tule or grass blankets and all our tribes employed both woven
rabbit skin and patchwork rabbit or fox blankets. Yana in addition to
all the foregoing utilized bear skins; sometimes they removed the hair
from their blankets.
Atsugewi pillows were of bundles of leaves or grass while those of the
mountain Maidu were harder, being merely piles of small poles, blocks of
wood, or rocks.
Interior earth walls of the houses were sometimes hung with tule mats or
skins fastened with pegs to prevent dirt from sloughing off and rolling
onto the floor. A few shelves might also be provided by laying wooden
slabs on sticks driven into the dirt walls.
[Illustration: Atsugewi bark house]
There were other less substantial winter houses consisting either of
small double lean-tos of bark slabs or conical houses on frameworks of
slender poles and with shallow excavations. Some dirt was thrown against
the outside walls for added warmth. Lazy people, who were usually
consequently poor in the necessities and comforts of normal Indian life,
lived in this more flimsy type of house. Also, women when indisposed
repaired to such huts. A doorway was left in the siding to be closed by
a tule mat in these little houses. They were also equipped with small
smoke holes for central fires.
Atsugewi summer houses as such really did not exist. Summer camps were
little more than circular enclosures of brush, juniper, or other conifer
limbs or of rock. These were ten or fifteen feet across with openings to
the east. There was no roof, although branches and bark slabs might be
put over crude frames in rainy weather. If a person were caught in a
sudden shower he might make a temporary shelter by leaning bark slabs,
if available, against a large rock or log lying on the ground.
Atsugewi did not have any separate sweat houses nor dancing or assembly
chambers, but used the larger earth lodge houses for these purposes. The
largest belonged to chiefs and to other well-to-do Indians. Heat for
sweating was provided directly by fire and not by production of steam as
was the case with Plains Indians who threw water on hot stones. In
recent years, however, after introduction of the horse, Atsugewi learned
the latter technique and also constructed Plains Indian type sweat
houses of one to three person capacity. These were dome shaped, and
built of willow poles set in the ground in a circle. The tops were bent
over and tied down, and this framework was covered with skins.
Old type sweating was for men only, but Indian women—usually wives—also
sweated with men in the new style separate sweat houses. Old time
Atsugewi purposes in sweating were for gaining success in hunting, in
gambling, and for general good luck. Some praying was done, but there
were no formalized ceremonies or dances amongst the Atsugewi. Men
sometimes slept in sweat houses.
In the case of all local tribes sweating was followed by a cold plunge,
if available nearby. Lacking this facility, a cold sponge bath was
taken.
The mountain Maidu earth lodge for dwelling and sweating was similar to
that of the Atsugewi. However, northeast Maidu earth lodges “koom” were
simpler and smaller than those of northwest and southern Maidu. Three
posts, often forked were used in place of 10 or 11 employed for valley
lodges. Excavation was about three feet deep, circular in plan, and from
18 to 40 feet across. A large flat stone was placed upright at the foot
of the mainpost between it and the fire in the center. The vertical
walls of the excavation were usually covered or lined with vertically
placed whole or split logs or with bark slabs. Logs were lain
horizontally on the three posts as indicated on the accompanying sketch.
Radial rafters supporting the roof were placed on these beams and
sloping downward to the ground surface outside as well as to two small
posts at the small openway or ventilator passage. Cross poles were
placed horizontally on the rafters and on these, large pieces of bark,
branches, and pine needles were successively laid. Lastly, a heavy
covering of soil 8 to 20 inches thick was heaped on the structure. On
top in the center a smokehole was left, large enough to serve as the
main entrance originally, but after the coming of white man, the
smokehole was made smaller, and, instead, the originally small
ventilator tunnel which sloped from floor level up to the ground surface
outside was enlarged, thus supplanting the smokehole as the main
entrance. Originally a ladder of two poles with cross pieces tied on
with grapevine or other withes gave vertical access from the floor to
the smokehole entrance. Dixon reports that a notched log was sometimes
used for the purpose among mountain Maidu.
The koom or lodge was occupied from November to March and was situated
on the edges of wide meadows in mountain Maidu areas. At lower elevation
occupancy was more or less continuous.
Mountain Maidu did not have separate sweat houses. They always used a
large earth dwelling lodge for the purpose. This was similar to the
Atsugewi practice. These Maidu did, however, have a formalized sweat
dance. Also different from the Atsugewi was the practice of men using
the sweat house for gambling, handicraft work, and competitive singing.
The “hoe-bow” of the mountain Maidu was a hut, 8 to 15 feet in diameter
and excavated 12 to 15 inches deep. Two main poles were securely tied
near the end. From the resulting “V” at the top, shorter poles were laid
to a pair of slender posts about three feet high and set about three
feet apart along the edge of the excavation. Against this frame
branches, bark, and leaves were piled and earth was heaped around the
bottom. The doors of all such bark huts opened to the south and were
hung with a skin or tule mat.
The rude summer shelter or shade provider was just like that of the
Atsugewi.
Information on Yahi house details are somewhat scanty, but in all
probability they were small conical bark-covered huts while some larger
earth lodges were built to house several families—in general similar,
but perhaps smaller than those of the other tribes of the Lassen area.
The large pretentious lodge, constructed solely for sweating and
ceremonies, of the Sacramento Valley tribes seems to have been lacking
among all of our local tribes.
The common bark hut dwelling of the Yana was apparently built over a
circular depression two feet deep, the top of the house rising about six
feet above the ground. It was probably like the mountain Maidu huts,
being a series of poles resting on the edges of the excavation. These
met and were tied at the top to form a cone of low slope, although some
informants claimed that the posts were set so firmly that tying together
was omitted. The frames were covered with pine and incense-cedar bark
slabs leaving a smoke hole near each apex. Earth was probably banked on
the lower sloping walls. Entrance was never through the smoke hole as in
the case of Atsugewi and some mountain Maidu earth lodge houses, but by
means of a small door at ground level on the south side. The entrance
was protected by a little covered way extending outward three feet from
the house wall, and decked over by a gable roof of low pitch. A ramp of
low pitch extended from the floor of the house through this antechamber
to the ground level outside as no steps were constructed.
The Yana lodge houses were not numerous. The ground plan was long,
usually wedge or oval in outline and designed for several families, each
with its own fire. As with the other tribes discussed in this booklet,
such buildings also served as sweat houses. A ladder consisting of a
notched log extended down from the smoke hole to the floor. One, two, or
three center posts with radiating rafters and shorter side posts were
employed. The Yana followed the Atsugewi practice of providing each
earth lodge with a south facing, ground level, tunnel-like ventilator
entrance of small size. It is possible that Yana did have a few special
sweating lodges of the same design, but the matter is debatable. During
sweating Yana men talked and played; the main purpose of sweating was to
make men strong.
It has already been pointed out that all four tribes which used what is
now Lassen Volcanic National Park did so only during the summer. During
their high mountain sojourn, the local Indians did not live in houses as
such. There, residence during the three or four summer months was in
temporary camps, usually roofless circular areas to accommodate several
families. These were fenced in with brush and were entered by one or
more openings somewhat in the same manner as campsites reserved for
visitors at their permanent villages at lower elevations. Four-posted
horizontal roofs, to provide shade, were sometimes constructed too. Yana
seem to have made a lean-to or hut with grass and bark covering for
summer roofs.