Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Lake Pomo woman gathering tule reeds. Bay Area Indians used tules to construct
everything from homes to canoes. (Edward Curtis, Courtesy of the National Anthro-
pological Archives, Smithsonian Institution)
octopus in tide pools with a stick, provoking them to grab hold with claw
or tentacle. Each tribe had a different way of hunting salmon. Some built
weirs to trap the fish, some made fires at night on creek banks to attract
salmon within reach of harpoons, some fished with seine nets stretched
between two poles, and some threw poisonous soap root into stream pools
to stun the fish just long enough to pluck them out of the water.
According to Robert Kelley, author of a book about California's early
water history called
Battling the Inland Sea
,
“drying salmon strung up in
the Indians' tule reed houses gave their villages a reddish aspect” through-
out most of the year.
Color was not the only by-product of the Native American's harvest of
aquatic riches. They worked clam shells into dime-sized beads for wearing
and trading, crafted mussel shells into spoons and tweezers, made coats
from Brown Pelican skins, and stuffed blankets and robes with duck and
goose down.
Native Americans shared the bay's terrestrial environs with large herds
of antelope, elk, and deer, as well as with foxes, beavers, bobcats, and griz-
zly bears. “The ecological diversity of the Bay Area was enormous. In some
parts of the Ohlone region over 50 inches of rain fell a year; in other parts,
less than 15. Tribes only a few miles apart hunted different animals, gath-
ered different plants, and developed different customs and food prefer-
ences,” according to Margolin.
