Achumawi
, "River People." Also known, occasionally with the Atsugewi, as Pit River Indians, from their practice of hunting deer by means of pitfalls. These people were organized into 11 bands and shared several cultural characteristics of Indians of the Great Basin.
Location The Achumawi traditionally lived in the northeastern part of the region, from Mount Shasta and Lassen Peak to the Warner Range. This area of tremendous ecological diversity yielded a huge variety of foods, medicines, and raw materials. In the 1990s, Pit River Indians live on their own or shared reservations and rancherias, plus Pit River trust lands, in Modoc, Shasta, Mendocino, Lassen, and Lake Counties, California (see "Government/Reservations" under "Contemporary Information").
Population Roughly 3,000 Achumawi lived in California in the mid-nineteenth century. In 1990, 75 Pit River Indians lived on eight rancherias and the Pit River trust lands. Pit River Indians also lived on four reservations with other tribes. Tribal enrollment in the early 1990s was 1,350.
Language With the Atsugewi, their language made up the Palaihnihan Branch of the Hokan language family.
Historical Information
History Trappers entering Achumawi territory in 1828 made little impact. However, the flood of non-natives after the gold rush provoked Achumawi resistance, which was brutally repressed by state and private militias as well as extralegal vigilantes. By the end of the century, several hundred Achumawis had been forced onto the Round Valley Reservation. Some remained in their traditional lands, however. Their acquisition of individual allotments after 1897 helped them to retain their band ties and some subsistence activities.
Most of these allotments were lost in the early twentieth century to Pacific Gas and Electric. Major health problems plagued the Achumawi Indians in the 1920s. Seven small rancherias were created between 1915 and 1938. In 1938, some Achumawi families settled on the 9,000-acre XL Ranch. As late as the 1950s, the Achumawi still retained much of their ancient knowledge and carried on a form of their aboriginal existence. It was mostly younger people who began a new activism in the 1960s, focused on the issues of sovereignty and land usurpation. The Pit River Tribe received federal recognition in 1976.
Religion By means of vision quests, boys might attract a spirit guide, or supernatural power. Girls acquired their connection to the spirit world through ceremony. This power could strongly influence the quality of daily activities such as hunting, fighting, gambling, or shamanic responsibilities. However, supernatural power could depart at any time for any or no reason.
Shamans, or doctors, provided medical care as well as religious leadership. In fact, the two were closely related. A shaman’s power, or medicine, which could be held by man or woman, was similar to the spirit guide, only more powerful. Shamans often used medicinal plants and wild tobacco, curing with the explicit aid of their spirit power. The Achumawi recognized four types of maladies: visible accidents, "bad blood," poisoning by another shaman, or soul-loss (connected with another’s death).
Government The Achumawi people were composed of about nine tribelets. Though autonomous, each was connected by language, culture, and intermarriage. Chiefs were chosen on the basis of popularity, ability, and possession of supernatural powers.
Customs At puberty, boys usually went to mountain retreats in search of a spirit vision that would bestow supernatural powers. They also had their noses pierced. On the occasion of their first menstrual period, girls sang, danced, and feasted with the community all night for ten days. This activity was repeated for nine days on the second month, eight on the third, and so on until the tenth month, when they were considered women.
Corpses were cremated and all their former possessions burned. Mourners cut their hair, darkened their faces with pitch, and refrained from speaking the name of the dead. The soul was said to head for the western mountains. When a chief died, two or three less-liked members of the tribe were sometimes killed to provide the chief with traveling companions.
When within earshot, people were generally addressed by their kin terms, not by their names. Gifts exchanged at marriage were regarded as a price for both spouses. If a married person died, the surviving spouse could still be obligated to marry another suitable person in that family. As with many North American Indians, the Achumawi played the hand game, as well as shinny, wrestling, and footraces.
Dwellings Conical three-season houses were made of tule mats over a light pole framework. Wood-frame winter houses were built partly underground and covered with grass, bark, or tule and a layer of earth. Both were entered by means of a ladder through the smoke hole.
Diet The environmentally diverse Achumawi territory, which ranged from mountains to lowland swamps, contained a great variety of foods. The Achumawi regularly burned the fir and pine uplands, meadows, and grasslands in order to augment this richness. The fires stimulated the growth of seed and berry plants, made insects available for collecting, and drove game into accessible areas.
Food staples included fish, such as salmon, trout, bass, pike, and catfish; crawfish; and mussels. Waterfowl were caught with nets, and the people ate the eggs as well. Other important foods included acorns, tule sprouts, various seeds, berries, roots and bulbs, and insects and their larvae. Game included deer, antelope, bear, beaver, badger, coyote, and a variety of small mammals.
Key Technology Bow wood was either juniper or yew. Most points and blades were made from obsidian. Other building materials included bone and stone, including antler. Baskets were made for a number of purposes, including fish traps. The Achumawi made five kinds of tule or milkweed nets, including dip, gill, seine, and waterfowl. Tule was used for many other products, including mats, twine, shoes, and rafts. Fire drills were made of juniper. Sometimes the people used a cedar rope as a slow-burning match. They also made juniper snowshoes.
Trade Achumawis had regular and friendly contact with the Atsugewi, who could speak their language. They traded occasionally with the Shasta, Yana, and Paiute.
Notable Arts Achumawi women made fine flexible twined baskets of grasses and willow, decorated with vegetable dye designs. Beginning about 1000 B.C.E., the people also made petroglyphs, or rock carvings, that were related to hunting large game.
Transportation For river travel, the Achumawi used both tule fiber balsa rafts and juniper and pine dugout canoes.
Dress Clothing included shirts, skirts, belts, caps, capes, robes, leggings, moccasins, and dresses. Clothing was made primarily of deer, badger, coyote, and antelope skin and shredded juniper bark. Colored minerals were used to decorate both objects and people.
War and Weapons The slave-raiding Modocs were a traditional enemy. Instead of retaliating in kind, the Achumawi usually hid out until the raiders went away. Weapons included elk hide armor and shields and arrows poisoned with rattlesnake venom.
Contemporary Information
Government/Reservations Achomawi/Pit River reservations include: Alturas Rancheria (1906; 20 acres; Modoc County); Big Bend Rancheria (1916; 40 acres); Big Valley Rancheria (Pomo and Pit River; Lake County); Likely Rancheria (1922; 1.32 acres); Lookout Rancheria (1913; 40 acres; Modoc County); Montgomery Creek Rancheria (1915; 72 acres; Shasta County); Redding Rancheria (31 acres; 79 Indians in 1990; Shasta County); Roaring Creek Rancheria (1915; 80 acres; Shasta County); Round Valley Reservation (1864; 30,538 acres; 577 Indians in 1990, Mendocino County); Susanville Rancheria (1923; 150 acres; Lassen County); and XL Ranch Reservation (1938; 9,254.86 acres; Modoc County). Most rancherias are governed by elected tribal councils.
The Pit River Tribe was formally recognized in 1976, and a constitution was adopted in 1987. The 1990 population was roughly 1,350. Each of 11 bands is represented by one vote in a tribal council.
Economy Unemployment on the reservations and rancherias remains stubbornly high. Jobs in logging and hay ranching are available at XL Ranch. There is also some money to be made in the tourism trade, especially in basket sales.
Legal Status The Alturas Indian Rancheria of Pit River Indians; the Pit River Tribe of California (including Big Bend, Lookout, Montgomery Creek, and Roaring Creek Rancherias and XL Ranch); the Big Valley Rancheria of Pomo and Pit River Indians; the Covelo Indian Community of the Round Valley Reservation; and the Susanville Indian Rancheria of Paiute, Maidu, Pit River, and Washoe Indians are all federally recognized tribal entities.
Daily Life Attempts at tribal organization have been largely unsuccessful. Ancient subdivisions are still identifiable and, despite the population decimation and scattered and inadequate land base, the people retain a strong attachment to the land and to their traditions. Pit River Indians work to oppose development of the sacred Mt. Shasta. They also hold an annual powwow.
