BIRTH AND BABIES
The natural function of birth obviously varied only in details of
handling the situation, delivery assistance, disposition of the
afterbirth, and methods of cutting and treating the child’s umbilical
cord. The baby was born in a separate hut which contained a trench
heated with coals. These were covered with grass and pine needles or fir
boughs. On this warm green bed the woman lay at least a part of the time
during labor and also after delivery.
Children were desired and a barren woman was looked down on socially.
Inability to produce children was grounds for divorce. The behavior of
both parents during pregnancy was believed to closely affect personality
and health of the child.
After giving birth, the mother remained in isolation for from nearly a
week to a month or more. Many taboos were imposed upon her. Bathing in
streams and sweat baths, eating fresh or dried meat or fish, grease, and
often salt were forbidden to her. Most tribes of the Lassen area also
prohibited combing of the mother’s hair by herself during the period of
isolation. Also taboo was scratching herself with her hands, making
baskets, preparing food, or traveling.
[Illustration: Front and side views of Atsugewi cradle basket for a
very young baby. (tseh-nay-gow)]
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: 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.
The newborn infant was never fed the colostrum from its mother. The baby
was either let go without food or given a cooked meat gruel for
nourishment for the first two days or so until bonafide milk was
produced in the mother’s breasts. Children were nursed as often as they
wished and until they were quite large: even three or four years old.
Names were given to children usually at the age of about a year. Yana
waited even longer, however, until ages of four to six years before
giving real names which for this tribe were habitually of a hereditary
nature. In the meantime, temporary descriptive nicknames were given.
Many real Atsugewi names had meanings, while those of mountain Maidu and
Yana normally did not. Nevertheless, Yana and to a certain extent other
Indians too, might acquire additional nicknames and descriptive names
later in life, even in adulthood.
Twins were unwanted among all local tribes, probably because of the
double care and feeding responsibilities involved. Mountain Maidu
thought that twins were bad luck and actually feared them. It was
generally believed that twins were caused by the mother having eaten
twinned nutmeats. These, therefore, were carefully avoided.
Killing newborn babies whether illegitimate, twins, crippled, or when
the mother died in childbirth, was practiced only on very rare
occasions. Certainly infanticide was not the rule among any of the local
tribes, but of course was practiced in certain other areas.
[Illustration: Yana baby cradle basket for young baby.]