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.
[Illustration: 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.]
[Illustration: Yana reddish porous lava (dacite?) pipe, broken half,
both sides shown. Note funnel-shaped depression in the bottom of the
outside (lower half)]
Pipes were used at social gatherings, after sweating, and at bed time.
The pipes of the local tribes did not have any bends or curves. These
straight tubular pipes were therefore most conveniently smoked when the
Indians were reclining on their backs thus keeping the tobacco from
falling out. Pipes were normally passed around, and used only by the
men. However, women shamans of the mountain Maidu also smoked them.
Shamans regularly used pipe smoking in ceremonies, especially when
healing the sick.
Tobacco grew wild and burning of brush was performed in certain
localities to promote the growth of _Nicotiana_ plants. Tobacco was not
cultivated, but mountain Maidu did collect and scatter seeds in
favorable areas. Tobacco was prepared merely by collecting the leaves
when fully developed but still green, then drying, preferably in the
shade, and finally crumbling the cured leaf in the hand. Tobacco was
carried in buckskin pouches usually. Atsugewi often added manzanita and
deer grease to their smoking tobacco. Indians of this region did not
chew tobacco nor did they eat it with lime as was the custom elsewhere
in California. Native tobacco is quite strong.