Collection: Directories and Documents > Tanis Thorne Native Californian & Nisenan Collection

About This Item:

Title: The Valley Nisenan Collection Type: Directories and Documents Collection Name: Tanis Thorne Native Californian & Nisenan Collection Author: A.L. Kroeber Source(s): UC Publications in American Archaeology & Ethnology, Volume 24 # of Pages: 20 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Date Scanned: 2024-08-31 18:34:13 OCR Software Version #: tesseract 5.4.1 Item Sourced From: PDF First Created: 2025-03-17 05:54:05 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 05:54:05

Original Held At: Searls Historical Library Location: 161 Nevada City Hwy, Nevada City, CA 95959

Page: of 20  

260 University of California Publications in Am. Arch. and Ethn. [Vol, Kroeb The Valley Ni ; 261 on yy. roeber: The ey Nisenan ; A village might have six or seven houses and a k’um—sometim two. The k’um was used by men for sedentary work—net or basket : making. Hand-game was also played there. Women entered it when dances were put on. The k’um was little used in summer. The owner of a k’um would often make a hu’sla in summer, a feast or picnic i without dancing, under a shade in front of the k’um. The sweat-hou é was not visited by women. Men sweated mornings and evenings. ppears to have been of plain cord. The work was done indoors in r, chiefly by men, with the women ‘thelping.’’ The hill ‘People id:not make such blankets. Weapons.—The bow was made of to’’n, diguer x pine, the sinewking attached with a glue called wai. The bow was short, the ing of sinew. The ‘‘sinew’’ was taken from the back of the deer. ; : ts were of obsidian, which was broken after being warmed. Boats——Besides balsa ade of th ve’ ichit owpoin ? = meee the round tule, ku ye' mii came from several places in ‘‘the mountains’”’ ‘(the Sierra Nevada), ‘“waterlogs’’ least, there was i ; aa aes . ap) ABpRaNsty Mee canoe ane tong Oe mong them Shingle Springs (sic: flint may be included under the a log raft. This might consist of two logs, lashed with grapevine, or : : : : Be erm la‘i’yi). Only some men knew how to work obsidian or make of a single large log. In either case the trunks were flattened, at least, , was : : : ows. Arrow shafts were of o’lolo, a water or marsh plant with white on the side intended for the top; the working was with stone, presum> : 5 P bl alls of flowers. They swere about as long as the bow, length being ably by splitting. If the informant was understood correctly, t! pli 1 lieved to: add to their trueness and distance. Three (split). hawk ends rose up into a prow and stern; but the logs, though planklike, nahi thers were attached with wai glue and sinew lashings. Hard oak were not hollowed. These rafts were large enough to stand on a fe 1 d. Th iver was a fox, wild eat, or brown bear to carry women and loads. They were made of ‘‘redwood,’’ man, by i ee ae es oie er ea ra Tage the Yuba Indians and sold down-stream. Different names were us San ; for the log raft at Hok, Olash, and on American river. The spear, used only in war, was of willow, about a fathom long, ith large obsidian head lashed into a nock with sinew. The informant knew nothing of armor and recognized no descriptions of such. “The salmon harpoon appears to have been of the usual Californian ype. The toggle head was called by the same name as.the awl, showng that it was of bone. : a A sling is deseribed under ‘‘ war.’ -. Food—tThe mortar, ’a’, was of oak; the hole was. burned out. so as to be hard. In the hills, stone mortars were used. Wooden vessels were not made: ‘‘the people had no tools for that.’’ ‘Glam’? shells from ‘‘lakes’’ were used both as spoons and as Imives for cutting meat or fish. Bone and wood were cut with flat (split?) stones. These were called simply ‘‘stone.’’ The earth-oven was used to cook la‘ka and perhaps other plants, also dried powdered salmon. Such food was eaten hot. Other plant ood was dried raw and stored, wai bulbs, for instance, gathered in spring by men and women. “The root of the: flat tule, sa’ule, was boiled, or roasted iat the fire, dried, and pounded into a meal. : Acorns were shaken down with a long pole by people up in the oak. The shells were cracked with the teeth and the kernel dried. Some people owned particular trees. The paddle had a handle about a yard long lashed to an oblong blade through two pairs of holes in the blade. This was about a foot and a half long and half as wide. The Nisenan had no tools with which to work out a.one-piece paddle. Both kinds of rafts were ~ pushed in shallow water by a pole 12 to 15 feet long. Clothing.—This comprised bark or tule aprons for women, duck feather blankets for women and round ‘‘shawls’’ of tule for men in winter, perhaps occasional moccasins of buckskin, and the men’s hair — net. The aprons were of inner bark of pot’o”’ or ha'‘lawai willow, . soaked until it came off like paper. This material seems to have been . more characteristic of the Maidu. The Nisenan often beat the round 3 or especially the triangular tule stems, ku’ye’ or walak’a’i, into a sort of ‘‘eotton’’ for apron fibers. The same two tules were plaited into mats; the flat tule, sa’ule, was not used. The duck blanket was of feathers, not of strips of skin. Two or © three sacks of fine feathers were needed for a good tc’i’. These were wrapped into a two-ply cord as this was rolled on the thigh. Thi cord, walam(?), seems to have been the warp, which was wound back and forth between two vertical poles about four feet high. The weft yus’a(?), was put in about two inches apart, in pieces just long enough to reach from the ground to the highest warp, and tied top and bottom. This suggests that the weft was double and twined in