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Maidu Ethnobotany (1961) (127 pages)
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Page: of 127
METHOD
My data-gathering procedure included holding inteewicua, some of
which were tape recorded, taking trips to gathering grounds accompanied
by the informant, making a pressed=plant collection and taking selected
photographs of plants and their preparation.
Since plant functions were interrelated with virtually every as-~
pect of the culture, and since there were so many uses for each plant,
as a rule, to expect the informant to instantly recall them out of context would have been unreasonable. I found the most productive interviews resulted when the informant was asked to talk about that aspect
of the culture about which he knew the most and which held the most
interest for him. This interest may have been mythology, as in the
case of Bryan Beavers, or in techniques of basketry, as in the case of
Lily Baker.
INFORMANTS
Most of my field work was done with the last surviving member of
the Southern Maidu, or Nisenan, an octogenarian woman of remarkable
dignity and intelligence--Lizzie Enos, She is the last of her people who
speaks the old language and who retains knowledge of the aboriginal culture, She was born and raised and has always lived close to Sugar Pine
Hill, near Auburn, California. Until she was seventeen, she lived with
and took as her models some "old time" Indians, notably her greatgrandmother (whom Lizzie calls her "aunt" and whose age she estimates
was "about 200 years old") and her mother. From these old people she
learned to make baskets, to collect foods and medicines, to dance the