Eagle and magpie feathers were considered to be the most powerful items of
a shaman’s paraphernalia. Doctors are reported to have captured eagles and
even to have tried to raise them to obtain feathers (223-231) The tail
feathers were the most prized. Eagle feathers were extremely valuable and
could be traded for anything including “a woman or a sack of pine-nut
flour or anything worth a lot.” Ideally the eagle was tied up until the
shaman removed three tail feathers. The doctor then tied a string of beads
to the bird’s leg and released it as a messenger to the spirits.
Description of eagle-down costumes suggest that birds were stripped of
many more feathers than the ideal three. In historic times individuals
have attempted to contain eagles. One old man in Woodfords is well known
for having kept them on cradle-boards for easy transport, but such
experiments usually ended in failure. Magpie feathers were considered less
powerful than eagle feathers but still were highly prized. Today they are
gathered by chance—taken from dead birds on the highway or picked up where
they were shed.
In the past, eagle and magpie feathers were important parts of the dress
of warriors. Magpie feathers were used to make a feather cap with a single
feather suspended from the top. Informants recall their elders’ describing
eagle feathers’ being suspended individually from the upper arms and
thighs of particularly powerful warriors.
Modern peyotists have lost none of the traditional Washo feeling about
these feathers. The ceremonial fans of road chiefs, believed the only
persons capable of handling the immense power, are made of eagle feathers.
Other peyotists favor the less powerful but nonetheless potent magpie
feather (d’Azevedo and Merriam 1957).
Tobacco, as the foregoing accounts illustrate, played an important part in
Washo shamanism. It appears to have been used as an offering to the
spirits. In addition it is clear that it was felt to have special power of
its own. Today older men smoke sparingly and are often somewhat
embarrassed to be offered a cigarette casually during conversation. In
prewhite times the tobacco was a native variety gathered and dried by the
shaman. Today Bull Durham appears to have replaced the wild variety as
“Indian” tobacco. The Indians seemed delighted to see me rolling a
cigarette; they acted as if I were mastering what they felt was a
particularly Indian art. Bull Durham is also important in peyote
ceremonialism because it is “real Indian tobacco.”
Incense cedar plays an important role in modern peyote meetings. It is
dried and thrown into the fire to create a fragment smoke which is
considered beneficial. Meeting officials fan it into the atmosphere and
“rub” themselves in the smoke to obtain power or purification. This has a
connection with traditional Washo ritual, but the relationship is unclear
and the aboriginal practices obscure. One group of Washo, which was
assigned a special place in the large camp circle formed during the
pine-nut dances held at Double Springs Flats in the late nineteenth
century, is said to have special rights in connection with cutting cedar.
Modern informants do not have a clear picture of what the rights were or
what the customs surrounding cedar were. One informant did say that if the
cedar “bunch” found anyone else with cedar they would say “you aren’t
supposed to have that” and would make fun of them. She could offer no
further details or explanations.