Chapter VIII

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.

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.

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.