Chapter IV: Indian Tribes of the Lassen Area

Lassen Peak with an elevation of 10,453 feet above sea level is the central high point of a somewhat topographically isolated mountain mass of volcanic origin. The slopes descending in all directions from Lassen Peak are clothed in coniferous forests, dotted with small lakes of glacial origin, and drained by a few fish bearing streams flowing radially from the mountain. There are also a few hot spring areas and some barren expanses where recent eruptions have produced mudflows and lavas. For the most part, game abounds in the Lassen highland, but the winters are snowy and severe, making it unsuitable for Indians to live there the year around.

As shown on the map, parts of the lands of four distinct tribes of Indians lay within what are today the boundaries of Lassen Volcanic National Park. Permanent homes and villages of Atsugewi, Yana, Yahi and mountain Maidu tribes were at lower elevations in the Ponderosa Pine and Digger Pine belts, and situated near streams. There food was relatively easily available and winters were the least severe within the limits of the respective tribal territories.

Each summer when deer migrated to higher elevations, the Indians also moved toward Lassen Peak to hunt and to fish trout, spending the whole summer in temporary camps.

There was some contact between the four tribes during their sojourns in the uplands of the park area, but the activities of each Indian group were pretty well confined to its own territory. The four Lassen tribes did on occasion engage in small battles, but this was the exception rather than the rule—generally speaking they lived harmoniously as neighbors, and there was even occasional inter-marriage between tribes.

These tribes all had simple hill or mountain cultures which, in spite of some difference of custom, were surprisingly alike. It is believed that this is due to the fact that the four tribes all lived under very similar conditions of environment—the same type of country in many respects. The similarity of their cultures is all the more interesting in that the Atsugewi were of the Hokan Family, speaking a Shastan language. Yana and Yahi, also of Hokan stock spoke Yana languages. The mountain Maidu were of the Penutian Family, speaking a Maidu language.

According to the best available figures, some of which are only reasonable guesses, populations of the local tribes were probably about as follows:

ACHOMAWI
SHASTAN
OKWANUCHU
NORTHERN WINTUN
CENTRAL WINTUN
S. E. WINTUN
CENTRAL YANA
NORTH (YANA)
SOUTHERN YANA
ATSUGEWI
ATSUGE
APWARUGE
NORTHERN PAIUTE
NORTHEASTERN MAIDU
NORTHWESTERN MAIDU
SOUTHERN MAIDU
WASHO

1770 1910 1950

Atsugewi 1,000 250 75
Yana (north, central, s) 750 25 10
Yahi 275 5 none
Maidu (mountain) 2,000 800 300
Totals 4,025 1,080 385

Garth states that: “The Atsugewi are divided into two major groups,
the Atsuge or pinetree-people, who occupy Hat Creek Valley, and the
Apwaruge—from Apwariwa, the name of Dixie Valley—who live to the east
in and around Dixie Valley. Sometimes the Apwaruge are called
Mahoupani, juniper-tree-people, a name which reflects the dry and
barren nature of their territory....

“... certain cultural differences (existed) between the eastern and
western Atsugewi, who in most aspects of nonmaterial culture and in
language are one people. In the western area there was more abundant
rainfall and a fairly luxuriant growth of pines, oaks, and other
trees. Here the Atsuge subsisted largely on acorns and fish; made
twined basketry, using willow, pine root, _Xerophylum_ grass, and
redbud materials; and had bark houses and numerous other structures of
bark. On the contrary, in the eastern area, which is comparatively
arid and lacking in trees, the Apwaruge depended on the acorn less
than did the Atsuge and fishing was less important, to judge by the
scarcity or lack of nets, fish hooks, and harpoons; made inferior
twined baskets of twisted tule with a different twist to the weave; as
a rule had their houses covered with tule mats rather than with bark;
and were much poorer than the Atsuge. This cultural distinction
between the eastern and western areas is also found to the north among
the Achomawi.”

Dixon’s studies have revealed that the Maidu had no general name for themselves, remarkable as this may seem. The name Maidu was first used by Stephen Powers in 1877 in his volume “TRIBES OF CALIFORNIA”, a name he arbitrarily applied to these Indians since the word meant “Indian” or “man” in their language. The adjectives northwest or valley, northeast or mountain, and southern or foothill are applied to identify the three different cultures corresponding to the three distinct geographic provinces inhabited by the Maidu Indians as a whole. In a number of respects the culture of the mountain or northeast Maidu was more like that of their northern neighbors, the Atsugewi, than it was like that of the closely related southern and northwestern Maidu peoples. Obviously the factor of environment or characteristics of the land occupied is of extreme importance in creating such a situation.