Lassen Regional Project: Mt. Shasta Region


Native Americans of the Region

The Native people of this region were the Achumawi, to the southeast, and the Shasta, surrounding Mt. Shasta and extending north into present-day Oregon. Both were Hokan speakers. The Achumawi are closer to the Atsugewi in habitat and encompassed the entire drainage of the Pit River, with Mt. Shasta at the northwest corner. The Shasta people occupied three substantial watersheds --- the Klamath River north of the Karok, Scott River, and Shasta River. The latter two rivers flow northwest into the Klamath. The bulk of Shastan people lived north of Mt. Shasta.

The Achumawi

The Achumawi were closely associated with the Atsugewi and both were Hokan speakers. Their traditional habitat surrounded the Pit River drainage; while the Atsugewi were south of the Pit River, ascending into the mountains north of Lassen Peak. The Achumawi were also called the Pit River Indians. Their neighbors to the east were the Northern Paiute of the Great Basin.

Achumawi territory is different in very interesting ways from the territory of, say, the Yana or the Wintu. This is because the Pit River drainage is really a "passage" between the Great Basin and the Central Valley of California. It is more like an upland plain than a foothill environment. As a consequence, there were numerous springs, marshes, and swamps, provided with water-loving plants like tules. These were ideal locales for migrating waterfowl, and the flyway provided a ready food source for the Achumawi, from eggs to meat and feathers. Tules were utilized thoroughly as resources for clothing, mats, housing, and even canoes similar to those used by the Ohlone of the East Bay area. At the same time, the Pit River, in pre-historic time, was directly connected with the Sacramento River and was rich in salmon. (The Shasta Dam and subsequent creation of Shasta Lake ruptured direct access to Pit River and produced one of the more bizarre attempts at "environmental salvation" in the history of California Fish&Game.) Small lakes and rivers in Achumawi country were also rich in trout populations.

Like almost all Californians, the Achumawi harvested, preserved, and processed acorns from several different species of oak. Other plant resources were abundant and more varied than in typical foothill environments; thus, the Achumawi possessed a wide variety of tubrous plants, leafy vegetables, and berries. Deer were plentiful, but there were also many smaller mammals that could be hunted. Bows were constructed from Yew and were sinew-backed. Arrows were built from willow, cane, or rosewood and mounted with flaked-obsidian points.

The Achumawi's origin story was recorded in the 1920s by C. Hart Merriam and is published under the title "Annikadel" --- the name of their chief spiritual being. Like many other origin stories of California, earth, sun, and moon are absent at the beginning. Also, there is a distinction between the First People and their works and the coming of Real (Indian) People in later time. The First People are "animal people" who do various things to prepare the world and the transition period is marked by a process in which these people become the real animals of present day. So, for instance, there are three foremost divinities in the Achumawi conception of this origin --- Ja'mul Coyote-man, Kwahn Silver Fox-man, and Al-le'-um Frog-woman. The presence of Coyote as a seminal force in creation is almost a constant in Native California conceptions. One additional character is crucial and he/she, interestingly, is never described except in terms of his essential role. The Achumawi call him Ap-po'-na-hah and he is "Earth Maker".

For the Achumawi, like the Maidu and others of Northern California, everything begins as water. Apponahah floats on the water for years and finally (but very slowly) discovers the creation of dry land. In this story, it is foam that eventually is transformed to earth. (In other stories, Turtle is sent down under the water and returns after a very long time with mud under his toe nails.) After the basic earth is formed, Apponahah meets and learns from Annikadel and, in turn, encounters Jamul, Kwahn, and Alleum. He asks Jamul to stabilize the earth by placing posts at its north, east, south, and west edges. (In the Maidu story, Coyote must stretch the wet and sagging earth in all directions to dry it out and make it stable and suitable for habitation.)

Coyote is the preeminent "trickster" figure of American Southwest and ranges as far north as Oregon. Somewhere around the Columbia River, the job of "trickster" is shifted from Coyote to Raven, who dominates all the way into Alaska. Both have major roles in the creation. (Raven steals the sun from an old Indian who has it boxed up in his lodge but drops it in his escape, allowing it to fragment into the moon and stars.) The trickster usually takes part in the making of "real people" (Indians) and is also ultimately responsible for mortality. It is Jamul, indeed, who decides that it will not be right for people to remain immortals, even though that is the way they have been created, because there will eventually be too many of them. In other stories, Coyote and Raven both demonstrate foolish judgments, extraordinary appetites, and exceptional sexual energies.

The Shasta

Shasta villages consisted of one or more extended family units and were located near the mouth of a tributary to the main river. Villages included housing units, a communal ceremonial lodge, one or more menstrual huts, and one or more sweat lodges. The ceremonial lodge and menstrual hut followed the patterns of people further south, but the housing units and sweat lodges were adapted from the Yurok/Hupa model, being restangular split-board houses set on top of a square excavated living space. The Shasta roof line dipped lower to the ground, requiring no side wall other than an elevated earth ridge, so that only the ends of the house had to be closed with planks. When the Shasta travelled into remote areas to harvest acorns, they constructed conical bark houses for temporary quarters.

Food supplies in the Shastan region were comparable to those of the Yurok, Hupa, and Karuk. Salmon, deer meat, and acorns were staples. Salmon were augmented by steelhead, trout, eels, and fresh water mussels. Bear meat was occasionally available and there was also a great deal of smaller game. These were augmented by a wide variety of vegetables and fruits such as nuts, seeds, bulbs, roots, greens, and berries. Hunting and gathering techniques were generally the same as those described elsewhere.

Clothing practices among the Shasta started at basic nudity with only a breachcloth or skirt and advanced toward buckskin or bearskin garments, especially in winter. Women wore basketry caps similar to those of the Yurok and Hupa; men wore buckskin caps. Women wore vertical tattoos on their chins; and both men and women wore a variety of ornaments made from feathers and shells. Like the Yurok and Hupa, the Shasta women made baskets exclusively by the twining method. Men made wooden pipes and smoking was a regular activity of men. (Shasta men actually grew tobacco on a primitive agricultural basis, watering plants by hand during the dry months.) Men also made painted sinew-backed bows and worked obsidian into projective points which they usually fixed to foreshafts. Wild hemp was used extensively for cordage.

Political structure was the same as elsewhere in this region. The headman who occupied the large lodge was a cultural figurehead and moral consultant who represented the village on occasions when necessary. Headmen were also responsible for organizing cultural rituals and for maintaining equitable distribution of resources. Certain hunting and fishing areas were "owned" by one family or another, meaning simply that they had first rights to those resources. "Ownership" was passed down by inheritance. Marriage was prohibited between blood relations along both male and female lines. A bride price was ordinarily offered in marriage negotiations and the new couple took up residence in the father's village. As elsewhere along the Klamath watershed, economic and social status were taken into account in negotiating marriages.

History After White Contact

The number of Shastan people was probably around 3,000 prior to White contact but dropped to about 160 by 1906. Typical of the region, earliest contacts with Whites were with trappers and hunters coming south from Washington and Oregon. While they were parties to the 1851 Federal treaties, these were not ratified and the Shastan people suffered fates similar to the rest of California's Native people throughout the period from 1850 to 1900.


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