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

Maidu Ethnobotany (1961) (127 pages)

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old dances, and to practice a little of the old magic. Her "aunt" had much magical power, some of which Mrs. Enos has retained. The "old people" that Lizzie's "aunt" talked to her about, and indeed she herself to a large extent, rejected American foods, including chicken and other domestic animals. They subsisted largely on deer and wild plants. At the time Lizzie was growing up, some of the white man's culture and food had been accepted by her family. For example, her mother made a yeast bread half of bleached wheat flour and half manzanita berry powder. During her early childhood Lizzie's family lived in American-type cabins instead of bark houses, put the old taboos still held; for one of her earliest recollections is of the entire settlement abandoning a set of cabins and moving about 500 yards away to rebuild because some "damned fool" had brought a porcupine into camp. Lizzie remembers many expeditions to Loomis and Grass Valley taken to collect clover, wild onions, and the many bulbs that the old people liked. Sometimes they took the train to Loomis or Rocklin (Indians could ride free then), or they rode on horseback. ‘She also went to numerous dances and "times" (wedas) and religious gatherings, as well as mourning (burning or cry) ceremonies. Up until the late 1930's there was a dance house at the campsite where her present house is . Located. Today Mrs. Enos lives alone in a shack without running water or electricity and she cooks on a wood stove. Her grandson and his family live near her, but none of the younger generations takes the trouble to learn anything of the old ways from her. The traditional knowledge for which she is the repository and which it would have been her function,