,washo ,religion ,by ,james ,f4 ,downs ,university of ,california ,publications ,anthropological ,records ,vol4 #af1 ,no4 #i1 pp4 #cfe-chf ,editors 7,berkeley73 ,j4 ,h4 ,rowe1 ,r4 ,f4 ,millon1 ,d4 ,m4 ,schneider ,submitted by editors ,september #af1 #aifj ,issued ,june #af1 #aifa ,price1 #ge cents ,university of ,california ,press ,berkeley and ,los ,angeles ,california ,cambridge ,university ,press ,london1 ,england ,,contents ,preface ,introduction ,mythology ,water ,babies ,the ,giants ,the ,coyote ,and ,other ,figures ,curing ,and ,shamanism 7#bdfi-beda7 ,noncurative ,use ,of ,power 7#befg-beic7 ,divining ,and ,rainmaking 7#beec-beef1 #beff7 ,objects ,of ,power ,sorcery ,and ,witchcraft 7#befb-befd7 ,war ,power ,summary ,of ,shamanism ,dreams ,and ,dreamers 7#beff7 ,ritual ,activities ,conception ,and ,contraception ,birth 7#bagh-bbic7 ,puberty3 ,girls 7#bcje-bceb7 ,puberty3 ,boys 7#bcgi-bchf1 #cfi-cgd7 ,marriage 7#bjah-bjea7 ,death 7#bchi-bdec7 ,ritual ,in ,subsistence ,hunting ,fishing 7#beb;a-#bif7 ,miscellaneous ,concepts ,about ,hunting ,and ,fishing ,gathering ,miscellaneous ,ritual ,influence ,of ,christianity ,bibliography ,footnotes ,,preface ,this paper is the result of two and one-half months' field work among the ,washo ,indians of ,california and ,nevada supported by the ,department of ,anthropology of the ,university of ,california and the ,woodrow ,wilson ,foundation4 ,in it ,i have tried to describe the religious beliefs and ritual activities of the ,washo as they can be examined today4 ,where possible ,i have attempted to reconstruct the aboriginal patterns and trace the course of change between these two points in time4 ,a second purpose has been to supplement the culture element distribution lists prepared by ,omer ,c4 ,stewart in #aicf 7,stewart #aida74 ,in a number of instances his findings were at variance with those of ,smith1 whose notes ,stewart incorporated2 ,i have been able to resolve some of the differences between ,stewart and ,smith4 ,where my own research has led me to disagree with the statements in the culture element distributions ,i have discussed the problem4 ,in general my own work simply expands the rather sparse descriptions of the element lists 7,stewart #aida1 pp4 #cff-dah74 ,the culture element distribution list numbers which refer to traits dealt with in the various sections are indicated in parentheses following the headings4 ,where a trait or complex is dealt with in detail it is indicated by parentheses in the text4 ,statements not otherwise attributed are the result of my own field work4 ,i am indebted to ,mr4 ,w4 ,l4 d',azevedo1 who encouraged me to carry on field work among the ,washo and who has made his own field notes and knowledge available to me4 ,i have indicated information attributable to d',azevedo by placing his name in parentheses in the text2 where his name appears with a date1 the reference is to a work published by him4 ,i also wish to express my thanks for the suggestions made by ,j4 ,h4 ,rowe1 ,r4 ,f4 ,millon1 and ,d4 ,m4 ,schneider1 who read this article before it went to press1 and to acknowledge the final reading given the manuscript by the late ,a4 ,l4 ,kroeber4 ,in addition1 my thanks are owed to ,mr4 ,frank ,yapparagari1 ,mrs4 ,juanita ,schubert1 and ,mrs4 ,lois ,buck of ,gardnerville and ,minden1 ,nevada1 to ,mr4 ,richard ,shulter of the ,nevada ,state ,museum in ,carson ,city1 ,nevada1 and to ,mrs4 ,e4 ,m4 ,keenan of ,paradise1 ,california1 who assisted in various ways in the progress of the investigation4 ,last1 to the various members of the ,washo tribe1 who with patience and good humor bore the probing into their lives1 my deepest gratitude4 ,james ,f4 ,downs ,,introduction ,this paper will devote itself to a description of the religious life of the ,washo ,indians living in the communities of ,sierraville1 ,loyalton1 and ,woodfords1 in ,california1 and ,reno1 ,carson ,city1 and ,dresslerville1 ,nevada4 ,smaller numbers are scattered throughout the area which was their aboriginal range1 roughly from the southern end of ,honey ,lake to ,antelope ,valley and from the divide of the ,pinenut ,range in ,nevada1 almost to ,placerville1 ,california4 ,a short ethnography by ,barrett dealing in large part with material culture1 ,lowie's ,ethnographic ,notes1 and ,stewart's ,element ,lists constitute almost the only general references on ,washo culture4 ,various other writers have dealt with specialized questions such as linguistics 7,kroeber1 ,jacobson71 peyotism 7,siskin1 d',azevedo71 and music 7,merriam74 ,most of the statements about the ,washo give the impression that they have long been on the edge of oblivion 7,mooney1 ,kroeber1 etc471 and population estimates have been well under one thousand for the past fifty years4 ,however1 ,i find myself in agreement with d',azevedo7#a7 that the ,washo are a vigorous and continuing cultural entity4 ,my own rather impressionistic estimate of population is that there are perhaps two thousand ,indians in the area who consider themselves as ,washo and form a part of a viable cultural unit4 ,my own field work was devoted to an attempt to trace the patterns of change among these people since the entrance of the white man into their area4 ,to this end ,i spent a great deal of time with older informants1 but my work was not exclusively 8salvage ethnography40 ,many aspects of ,washo culture have changed dramatically in the past century2 this is particularly true in the area of material culture and subsistence activities4 ,on the other hand1 ,i was impressed by the tenacity of the less material aspects of the culture4 ,the always-difficult-to-define world view or ethos of the ,washo1 which so clearly separates them from other cultures1 is very much an entity expressed in the attitudes and actions of the ,washo ,indians1 whether they are oldsters who can remember many aspects of the 8old days0 or children who have not yet entered the newly integrated schools of ,nevada4 ,this continuity seems most clearly expressed in the area which we subsume under the title 8,religion40 ,almost all ,washo1 even the youngsters1 are familiar with1 or at least aware of1 ,washo mythology1 attitudes about ghosts1 spirits1 medicine1 and a number of ritual actions and beliefs which are common elements in ,washo life today4 ,this is not to imply that ,washo religious activity has not been affected by the tremendous changes which have taken place in western ,nevada and eastern ,california4 ,i suggest that rather than disappearing under the withering rationalism of civilization the religion of the ,washo has simply altered and expanded to serve the ,washo in new situations4 ,in this work ,i take the broadest possible definition of religion1 conceiving it as any institutionalized activity or attitude which reflects the ,washo view of the cosmos4 ,in so doing ,i have included a number of categories which may not generally be considered suitable for inclusion under the heading of religion4 ,stewart1 for instance1 includes shamanism1 curing1 special powers of shamans1 miscellaneous shamanistic information1 guardian spirits1 destiny of the soul1 ghosts or soul1 and jimsonweed4 ,my own work includes some of these specifically1 incorporates some under other headings1 and treats a number of subjects not included in the list given above4 ,the reason for this approach is practical rather than theoretical or philosophical4 ,as anthropological definitions of religions are extremely varied and the activities described as religious under various definitions cover a greater or narrower range1 it seems valuable to include as many activities as possible in a purely descriptive work4 ,the goal of this paper is to make as much information as possible about the religious and ritual activities of the ,washo available to scholars who may be interested in religion4 ,the inclusion of as many fields of activity as possible permits them to select information which they feel pertinent to their interests4 ,wherever possible ,i have tried to include direct quotations from informants as well as information about their behavior and attitudes1 so that my own interpretations and conclusions can be examined by others in light of the information on which they are based4 ,statements made by informants are indicated by quotation marks4 ,i did not have a recording device available and did not attempt to record entire interviews verbatim4 ,however1 whenever informants indicated that they considered their statements important ,i took them down word for word4 ,if ,i felt some passing remark to have significance1 ,i asked the informant to repeat it and often read it back to him for verification4 ,other stories1 particularly those of a mythological nature1 or semilegends1 or experiences which were important to individual informants1 were repeated voluntarily on almost every occasion of our meeting4 ,whenever statements are presented in quotation marks the material was gathered in this manner4 ,this paper contains material from a number of sources4 ,statements of fact or interpretations taken from published anthropological or historic works are indicated by citations in the customary manner4 ,information based on conversations or other private communications with other investigators is so designated4 ,all statements of fact which are not credited to these two sources are taken from my own field notes and represent statements of my informants4 ,,mythology ,washo mythology has been presented in the form of interlinear texts by ,dangberg 7#aibg7 and in ,lowie's ,ethnographic ,notes 7#aici1 pp4 #ccc-cea74 ,there are two versions of the creation myth1 one describing the creation of ,paiute1 ,washo1 and ,diggers from the seeds of the cattail by the ,creator ,woman1 and the second attributing the creation of ,indians to the ,creation ,man1 who formed the three groups from among his sons to keep them from quarreling4 ,lowie also reports the common theme of several previous inhabitations of the earth4 ,the most important myth1 or at least the one which is still commonly told and seems to be the favorite among the ,washo1 devotes itself to the adventures of ,damalali 7short-tailed weasel7 and ,pewetseli 7long-tailed weasel74 ,these heroes are responsible for many of the natural features of the region so references to this myth are rather frequent4 ,the ,coyote1 in the form of a rather malevolent and stupid trickster1 and the ,wolf1 a generally patriarchal and protective figure1 appear in several myths1 as do cannibalistic giants and a giant bird1 the an4 ,figures which appear only incidentally in the myths as recounted are elaborated almost infinitely in what might best be termed folk fantasy4 ,water ,babies ,most prominent of these figures are the ,water ,babies 7,stewart #aida1 p4 #ddd1 #begd74 ,in the mythology1 ,water ,baby figures as the creature responsible for the many lakes of the eastern ,sierra4 ,killed and scalped by the rascally ,damalali1 ,water ,baby commands the waters of the area to rise until the weasel returns the scalp to avoid drowning4 ,the waters left in mountain valleys as the flood receded formed the lakes4 ,the ,water ,baby is not confined to mythology4 ,my informants were able to describe the appearance of a ,water ,baby in detail1 to supply me with population figures1 and to recount an almost endless series of incidents in which ,water ,babies were involved4 ,all informants agreed that the ,water ,baby is a creature about one and one-half feet tall1 gray in color1 with extremely long black hair which never touches the ground but which floats along behind the ,water ,babies when they walk4 ,in general1 these creatures look like small humans4 ,however1 they are boneless1 cold to the touch1 and damp4 ,between two and three thousand ,water ,babies live in the ,sierra1 according to one informant4 ,they inhabit lakes1 streams1 marshes1 ponds1 springs1 and irrigation ditches4 ,they speak a language of their own but are always able to speak ,washo4 ,with a single exception1 every ,washo of middle age and over to whom ,i talked claimed to have at least heard ,water ,babies calling from some body of water in the night4 ,several others claimed to have seen ,water ,baby footprints 7one even reporting that the footprints he had seen were those of a female because the tracks were clearly those of high heeled shoes674 ,one informant steadfastly claimed to have seen a ,water ,baby1 at least fleetingly1 in #aief4 ,two distinct attitudes about these creatures are displayed by the ,washo4 ,most informants openly admitted being afraid of ,water ,babies4 ,if they heard one they remained in their houses or attempted to avoid contact4 ,they claimed that if a person saw a ,water ,baby by accident1 at the very least he would be struck unconscious and greater harm1 in the form of sickness1 might be inflicted on him or on one of his relatives4 ,the general attitude was that ,water ,babies were best left alone because they were extremely powerful4 ,this attitude is perhaps summed up best by one of my informants1 a rather sophisticated ,washo who has lived in cities for long periods and who is an active leader in the tribe's legal battle with the federal government4 ,he is also a devoted peyotist who often conducts curing ceremonies and is conceded to have a curing power4 ,he said1 8,if they ever get up a bunch to trap one of them ,water ,babies1 ,i don't want to have nothing to do with it40 ,when ,i asked why not1 he replied3 8,why hell1 if you make one of them things mad they'll flood the world4 ,i just don't want nothing to do with them4 ,i ain't that desperate40 ,i asked1 8desperate for what80 and he replied 8for power4 ,i like to dream about womens sic and things like that1 not about ,water ,babies and that funny stuff40 ,this last statement clearly indicates the other attitude about ,water ,babies2 they are often guardian spirits of ,washo who have special power1 particularly shamanistic curing power4 ,another informant expressed this other attitude about these creatures4 ,he is about seventy1 attended ,stewart ,indian ,school for ten years and lived among the ,hopi for ten years4 ,he boasts a stone and cement-block home1 the only such dwelling owned by a ,washo4 ,he has learned to bead baskets and during most of the year earns a reasonable income from this4 ,his seeming adjustment to white culture is confounded when his philosophic position is examined4 ,he can only be termed a mystic who interprets the world in ,indian terms4 ,exposure to such influences as the writings of ,kroeber and ,huxley has only confirmed his essentially ,indian viewpoint4 ,both his parents were famous ,indian doctors and his maternal uncle1 who was also his mentor17#b7 was a famous shaman4 ,my informant implied that his uncle's spirit 7wegeleyo71 from which his power was derived1 was the ,water ,baby1 and his own carefully guarded statement implied that the creature was potentially his own spirit4 ,his view of the ,water ,baby was quite the reverse of other informants4 8,some people think the ,water ,baby will hurt them1 but he won't4 ,if they see him by accident he won't do nothing4 ,but if he has given you his power and you see him--then wham1 he maybe knock you right down40 ,this appears to have been his way of describing a seizure by the ,water ,baby1 which although a fearful experience1 usually resulted in the gift of additional power4 ,there was1 however1 general agreement among informants that the ,water ,baby could1 if he gave his power to a person1 demand repayment with the lives of his protg's close relatives or entire family47#c7 ,the various powers and activities of the ,water ,babies are perhaps best described in the following stories recounted by informants3 #a4 8,one time my ,dad was sick4 ,he called in two1 three doctors and they said he had to give a basket to the ,water ,babies at ,lake ,imedel4 ,there is an island in this lake and my ,dad was supposed to go out to that island and leave a basket4 ,i was too young then but he took my brother4 ,they went up there and my ,dad just started walking out to the lake and the water never got any deeper than there 7pointing to his knees74 ,he walked right on that water4 ,he left that basket and came back and he got well4 ,them ,water ,babies helped him walk on the water4 ,my brother saw it happen40 #b4 8,there is this deep pool up in the mountains4 ,there is a kind of black sucker live there but no ,indians ever caught them because that was a ,water ,baby place and they was ,water ,baby food4 ,womens used to sit on a platform of logs and weave baskets there special baskets for the ,water ,babies1 apparently1 such as the one used as offering in the story above4 ,one time ,i took another fella like you anthropologist up there but when we got there we couldn't find nothing but sand with a little water bubbling up in the middle4 ,he wouldn't believe me4 ,i showed him where them womens had sat but ,i think he thought ,i was lying4 ,i guess them ,water ,babies did something40 #c4 8,there is this women called ,frances4 ,she was up at ,blue ,lake with her husband following him along the edge of the lake4 ,it was kind of dark4 ,she saw them little footprints right on top of her husband's in the sand40 #d4 8,i'll tell you what happened to me right in this house about two years ago4 ,i was in bed in that room there and ,i felt these little hands creeping under the covers4 ,i brushed 'em away but they just come back4 ,they tried to feel me down here indicating his genitalia4 ,i yelled for my mother and she come in and said something and something went zip 7waving arm violently to indicate direction7 right out of that window4 ,we looked out that way to the south1 that's toward ,walker ,lake4 ,everything was kind of hazy blue40 ,in light of ,washo views about receiving shamanistic power1 it would appear that my informant was suggesting that this visitation was a ,water ,baby making its patronage known4 #e4 8,my old uncle had been doctoring up by ,genoa4 ,he had a tough one and fallen in the fire and burned all his pants off and was walking wearing his coat like a skirt4 ,he got by ,wally's ,hot ,springs when he felt like he wanted a bath4 ,them ,water ,babies must have been working on him4 ,he went over by the creek and started to lean over and then he passed out and fell into the water and there was a ,water ,baby4 ,that ,water ,baby said1 #8come on1' and he took him down to ,water ,baby country4 ,the chief of the ,water ,babies lived in a big house made out of that black shining rock obsidian4 ,but they didn't go there4 ,the ,water ,baby said #8we got some girls that want to give you something1' and he took my uncle to a place and there was five girls there4 ,they all sat around my uncle and sang him a song and told him that it was his song from now on4 ,then the ,water ,baby took my uncle back and then he said it was like waking up from a dream and there he was laying in the creek down under a bunch of cattails407#d7 #f4 8,there was this white man up here fishing4 ,he caught a ,water ,baby but he didn't know what it was4 ,he thought it was some kind of fish and took it to ,san ,francisco and they put it that place where they have a lotta fish aquarium4 ,captain ,jim went all the way down there to tell the mayor that they had better let that ,water ,baby loose1 but nobody would pay no attention to him4 ,well you know they had a big earthquake down there and the water came up around everything4 ,when it was all over that tank where they had the ,water ,baby was empty40 ,the ,giants ,washo mythology features several creatures which may each have contributed to the wild men ,i will describe in this section4 ,both ,lowie and ,dangberg report myths in which a giant1 ,hangawuiwui1 is the principal figure4 ,although the myths do not describe him1 my informants generally picture him as a colossus who hops on a single leg from the top of one mountain to another4 ,he has a single eye to match his single limb and a proclivity for gobbling up ,indians4 ,several miles southwest of ,gardnerville1 in the hills overlooking ,double ,spring ,flats1 a cave is known by the ,washo as ,hangawuiwui al 7the place where ,hangawuiwui lives74 ,present-day ,indians tell a number of stories about this giant and display a certain uneasiness when they are near places he is supposed to haunt4 ,another kind of giant appears in a myth reported by ,lowie4 ,these beings appear to be considerably more human than ,hangawuiwui4 ,traditionally they camped south of ,pyramid ,lake and terrorized the ,paiutes4 ,however1 when one of their number attempted to take fish from a ,washo the tribe rallied and routed the giants in a battle near ,walker ,lake4 ,the giants did not have bows and arrows4 ,they fortified themselves behind rock walls and threw stones4 ,according to my informant on the subject1 the mountains are still the home of a tribe of 8wild men40 ,these people have managed to hide the location of their camps so that no one knows where they live4 ,my informant felt that they were in fact some kind of ,indian4 ,despite the mythological ability of the ,washo to defeat the giants1 modern stories about them suggest they have a great deal of supernatural power in addition to their physical prowess4 ,the following stories were told to me as contemporary or relatively recent occurrences3 #a4 8,there is these wild fellas up in the mountains4 ,i guess you call them giants4 ,one time there was an old man who had set up a blind to hunt chipmunks1 like ,i told you yesterday4 ,he was up in the pine-nut hills and he had killed four chipmunks4 ,one of these fellas come along and he snatched up a chipmunk and he ate it4 ,then he snatched another and ate it4 ,he tried to grab another but the old man wrestled with him and stopped him from getting the chipmunk and then he got away4 ,he tussled with that wild man and got away4 ,but a long time after when he was real old and went around with a long stick staff1 he went out walking and he didn't come back4 ,they went out looking for him and found his tracks leading up the foot of ,job's ,peak and they ended there4 ,his stick was stuck in the ground and at the end of his tracks it looked like something had snatched him up40 ,when ,i asked if the wild men had gotten him my informant said he thought so4 ,the theme of a wild man's attempting to take part of a catch from a ,washo recalls the myth as reported by ,lowie1 although in the version he recorded the incident occurred between ,wadsworth and ,sparks and the final battle took place at ,walker ,lake1 whereas my informant changed the locale to the ,carson ,valley area4 #b4 8,my old grandfather had this happen to him4 ,he was hunting up by the ,lake ,tahoe1 ,in them days hunters just carried little thin rabbit skin blankets4 ,they covered up their front and put their back to the fire4 ,my old grandfather was just laying there when he noticed the fire going down 7maybe that wild man did something to the fire74 ,pretty soon he saw a big shadow4 ,he was pretty scared and just laid there4 ,pretty soon he felt a hand feeling his feet and in between his toes and up his leg and all around his hole anus4 ,pretty soon it reached his face and tried to put his finger in my grandfather's mouth4 ,my grandfather bit that finger real hard and the wild man yelled and ran away40 ,i asked if the wild men still existed and my informant replied3 8,sure4 ,they are up there in the mountains4 ,they are pretty smart and you can't see them4 ,but us ,washo can hear them talking4 ,we can understand their language4 ,i have thought a lot about it and they should have called some ,washo over to ,oroville when they caught that fella over there4 ,i read about it in the newspaper when ,i was younger4 ,i know they had a lot of them ,california ,indians come up there but they couldn't understand him4 ,i'll bet a ,washo could have understood him40 ,i asked if he thought it had been a wild man and he nodded in affirmation4 ,the 8wild man0 of course was the now-famous ,ishi1 the last of the ,southern ,yana who wandered half starved into a slaughterhouse in ,oroville in #aiaa4 ,the ,coyote ,and ,other ,figures ,washo myths contain a number of tales about a bumbling1 not very bright1 generally malevolent ,coyote1 who as a companion of ,wolf seems to devote a great deal of time to eating ,indians and to sexual misadventures4 ,modern ,washo seem less willing than their forebears to weave ,coyote into tales but are no less conscious of his malevolent presence4 ,peyotists often see visions or dream of ,coyote 7d',azevedo and ,merriam #aieg71 and quick asides about ,coyote's influence are apt to come up in conversation either as tentative jokes or in seriousness4 ,one tale of a modern occurrence involving ,coyote did come my way through the kindness of ,warren d',azevedo4 ,his informant was the brother-in-law of my own informant and1 like his kinsman1 a semimystic1 very conscious of his ,indianness and credited by other ,washo with powers beyond those of an ordinary man in hunting4 8,i was staying in this shack with the guy who owned it4 ,one night he didn't come home but ,i kept hearing something walking around that shack4 ,the next morning when that guy came home he was all tired out and there was ,coyote tracks all around that shack4 ,i got my gun and told that guy to stay away from me0 7d',azevedo74 ,the ,a1 a huge man-eating bird described in ,lowie's myth number #ac1 is no longer alive1 but according to several informants the creature's bones or at least the island on which it nested can be seen by people flying over the lake because they are only a bit below the surface4 ,washo insist that white airplane pilots see the shape of the island daily but keep silent because they don't want to confirm an ,indian story4 ,one day on a trip around ,lake ,tahoe my ,indian companion1 a sometime leader among the ,washo asked3 8,if we get that money from our claim do you think one of them archeologist fellas could go down under the water and find that there a bird's skeleton80 ,the foregoing paragraphs illustrate the tenacity with which ,washo mythology has maintained itself among these people4 ,the entirety of many of the myths is no longer part of the repertoire of every adult ,washo1 but variations1 on-the-spot reconstructions1 and the introduction of mythological themes into contemporary stories of a secular nature are definitely part of the oral literature of the ,washo4 ,it is interesting to note that some aspects of ,washo mythology appear to have more viability than others4 ,thus the ,water ,baby remains an important and vital aspect of modern ,washo life1 as does the ,coyote4 ,the twin weasels have lost much of their appeal1 as has the giant ,hangawuiwui4 ,the giants of the mountains are acknowledged to be alive today but are seldom referred to1 whereas ,coyote and ,water ,baby are almost always mentioned and spoken of as living entities even by the most progressive ,washo4 ,except for the making of offerings to nature1 which may be defined as purely religious1 other religious or ritual activities dealing with what we would call the supernatural are so integrated with other aspects of ,washo life as to be almost inseparable4 ,thus in describing the religious activities of the ,washo ,i will proceed through various phases of their life1 pointing out the ritual actions which are part of ,washo behavior in specific situations4 ,,curing ,,and ,,shamanism 7#bdfi-beda7 ,the ,washo word damanli has a wide range of meanings which include almost all people with supernatural powers1 including curers of several orders4 ,the terms which they use when discussing the subject in ,english are somewhat more precise and will be used in this paper4 ,the ,washo make a distinction between curers 7#beid-if7 and ,indian doctors4 ,the latter1 as will be shown1 are true shamans whereas the former are somewhat less powerful4 ,curers appear to be women who have certain powers revealed to them in dreams4 ,such persons are usually members of what the ,washo describe as a 8doctor family40 ,an informant described the activities of such a curer3 8,my mother was a curer4 ,she just smoke and talk4 ,you would meet her on the way to town mebbe and say #8,i don't feel good' and she'd just sit down and smoke and talk pray8 a little and then mebbe tell you what was wrong and what you should do4 8,along about the first war ,i got sick and couldn't make no water at all4 ,my mother smoked and then spread ashes all over my belly and talked some and after that ,i passed a lot of blood and got better407#e7 ,far more important than the curers1 however1 were the ,indian doctors4 ,such men were never exclusive specialists and were apparently expected to share in the work of hunting and fishing with less gifted men4 ,with the introduction of money by the whites1 shamans appear to have approached something like specialization1 charging fees of up to twenty dollars a session for their services4 ,until the middle #aicj's there were a number of shamans among the ,washo 7,stewart #aidd74 ,however1 with the introduction of the peyote cult1 which among the ,washo is concerned with curing1 the shaman was superseded4 ,today only a single ,washo practices shamanistic curing4 ,interestingly enough this man1 now seventy-five1 was an informant of ,lowie's in the #aibj's1 and at that time ,lowie described him as a sophisticated young ,washo1 somewhat mystic and with shamanistic ambitions 7,lowie #aici74 ,this man1 ,henry ,rupert1 spent ten years in the ,indian school at the ,stewart ,agency and after graduation worked for a number of years in a printing plant in ,reno4 ,when questioned about the old days he was a fair informant1 seldom offering more information than was asked for and clearly enjoying the business of making a white man work for every scrap of information4 ,he was also given to dropping subtle hints and waiting with stolid indifference to see if ,i had been alert4 ,he did not deny his shamanistic practices but was less than willing to discuss them in detail4 ,his equipment1 he admitted 7but refused to show me71 consisted of a butterfly-cocoon rattle1 an eagle-bone whistle1 and a feather headband4 8,i don't really do nothing but help nature10 he said4 ,when ,i replied that only some people know how to help nature he was gratified and smiled4 8,oh well1 it's all psychological anyway10 he answered1 confirming ,lowie's description of him as a sophisticate4 ,he is noted for his rather atypical practice of tending a garden1 which consists mostly of fruit trees1 and for his open liking for old-fashioned foods1 which he collects1 including fly grubs and locusts4 ,i was not able to observe his curing procedures1 but they were described to me by another informant1 a seventy-five-year-old woman1 considered one of the most progressive of the residents of ,dresslerville4 8,i took my granddaughter to ,rupert after the white doctors didn't do nothing for her4 ,he don't doctor in the real old ,indian way a phrase ,i later learned meant that he did not hold a series of four one-night sessions but only a short ceremony4 ,he don't give you nothing1 just sings and prays and talks over you for a while4 ,he has a rattle and a whistle and a band on his head4 ,after we went to him my granddaughter got well40 ,another informant1 the man who was cured by his mother--curiously another graduate of the ,stewart ,school and outwardly a progressive ,indian--was a veritable fountain of shamanistic knowledge4 ,his father and maternal uncle were both well-known shamans4 ,although he insisted that he had no particular power himself1 other ,indians generally claimed that he had certain hunting medicines which assisted him in taking game4 ,there is little doubt that he believed he had been approached by spirits offering him shamanistic power4 ,his life story was a long recital of ailments and mystic occurrences4 ,the ailments1 coupled with his attitude about spiritual power1 suggested strongly that his suffering had been due to a rejection of the power offered 7,whiting #aiej74 ,he supplied the following account about the process of becoming a shaman4 8,young fellows sometimes have dreams but usually they don't pay no attention to them4 ,but when you get older and keep having dreams you begin to pay attention4 ,maybe you see a bear or a rattlesnake or ,water ,baby or anything4 ,it tell you that you are going to be a doctor4 ,the next morning you go out and bathe and pray4 ,this thing keeps coming in your dreams4 ,it may take any form1 a skeleton or an animal but you know it's always the same thing as the first time1 just taking different shapes4 8,these dreams keep coming for four1 sometimes eight1 years to get you to be a good doctor4 ,but during all this time you don't get no song4 ,but they do give you your water4 ,it tells you some certain place up in the mountains where there is a spring4 ,you mebbe think there isn't no spring there1 but there is4 ,then it tells you where to gather tobacco4 ,later it will tell you to make a rattle out of cocoon4 ,mebbe at first you only make a rattle with one cocoon4 ,later it says for you to add more4 ,finally it will give you a song4 ,you dream this song4 ,but you don't really remember it4 ,you just begin singing it like you had known it all the time4 ,for a while you may get a new song every year4 ,sometime you have a dream that tells you how to handle your paraphernalia4 ,sometime a dream tells you that you have to be all alone in your house4 ,i don't know what happens in there but some of them doctors1 ,i think1 go over to visit the dead for a little while4 8,after you been dreaming for a long time maybe you try to cure somebody but you don't ask for nothing4 ,you never tell them dreams or what your spirit is but other doctors1 they know4 ,if your dreams are right you can cure people and then you can ask for something payment4 ,the real ,indian way was to doctor for four nights4 ,then he'd lay out all his stuff and give it a drink by sprinkling water on it4 ,then he'd shake his rattle and sing and touch the patient with his hands4 ,he'd talk to the sickness1 like he knew it 444 like maybe he was friends to it 444 he'd say #8now you behave and don't bother this person no more4 ,if you don't behave ,i'm gonna take you out and show you to everybody and then you'll be embarrassed6' ,then he'd suck at the patient 7some of these young doctors suck on a stick with a feather on it that they pointed at the sick person1 but the old ones didn't do that71 and get out the sickness1 it would be a feather or a stone4 ,sometime that sickness come out and go into the doctor so hard they can't get it out and have to get another doctor to help him4 ,sometimes it hit them so hard that they defecate4 ,i seen them doctors just fill their pants4 ,if it's real tough they get all stiff and fall over4 ,sometimes fall right in the fire and their clothes all burn off but it don't burn them none4 ,you can't touch them then or it will kill them4 ,but when they begin to shake a little and that rattle begins to go then you can pick them up4 ,if he can1 the doctor will vomit out the sickness4 ,when it's out he puts it in his hand and rubs it with dirt and throws it away toward the north2 that kills it40 ,this recital of the process of becoming a doctor shows clearly the ideal situation1 the receiving of powers1 unsought1 from supernatural sources1 the guardian spirit watching over its protg's career1 providing him with the wherewithal in the form of songs1 spells1 and paraphernalia4 ,in fact1 however1 it would appear that the process of becoming a shaman was far more a conscious and voluntary act on the part of an individual than would be supposed from the foregoing story4 ,doctoring power clearly seems to have remained within certain families4 ,the informant who gave the foregoing account was himself the son of a woman curer and a famous doctor and the nephew of another doctor4 ,from his childhood he was familiar with the procedures of curing1 with stories about dreams1 spirit visitations1 trips to the afterworld1 mysterious and sacred locations4 ,he somewhat proudly admitted that as a boy he 8used to shake that rattle0 himself4 ,in short1 until his shamanistic education was interrupted by white man's schooling1 he was a shaman's apprentice4 ,this view is supported by the statements of other informants3 8,of course them people that is from a doctor family1 they have dreams and get curing power10 said one rather assimilated woman of about seventy-five4 ,another informant1 a man of sixty1 who repeatedly indicated his fear of 8power0 but at the same time was reputed to be an important curer in the peyote church said3 8,if you come from a family of dreamers there ain't nothing you can do4 ,you're trapped by it40 ,young shamans appear to have undergone a period of informal apprenticeship under an older doctor4 ,although there appears to have been no special requirement that a shaman have an assistant1 it was not uncommon for a younger man to help out4 ,according to one informant1 when ,blind ,mike1 one of the well-known doctors in historic times1 was becoming a doctor1 his teacher required him to smoke four hand-rolled cigarettes in a row without allowing the smoke to escape from his lungs4 ,this was not considered an exercise in legerdemain but a way to develop the younger man's control over his power4 ,each doctor received instruction from his spirit familiar as to what paraphernalia he should gather but there was a great deal of uniformity in the outfits of ,washo doctors4 ,the following description is of the kit of my informant's uncle1 who practiced until the first decade of this century1 and it includes some items clearly postwhite in origin4 8,i don't know what all doctors had but ,i'll tell you what my old uncle had 'cause ,i seen it lots of times4 ,at this point another ,indian entered the house1 obviously curious1 and my informant stopped talking until the visitor left4 ,he had eagle feathers and magpie feathers4 ,he had a rattle with six or eight cocoons on a stick wrapped in weasel skin and humming bird feathers4 ,he had a tobacco pouch of tree-squirrel hide4 ,he also had a stone4 ,it looked like a big tooth with a cavity in it4 ,he told me how he got that stone4 ,he was walking to town ,genoa1 ,nevada one day and he heard something whistle4 ,he kept on walking but it whistled again4 ,so he went looking for what was making that noise and he found that stone setting by a fence post4 ,i heard that stone whistle sometimes when he was doctoring4 ,he also had a tie made out of beadwork4 ,lots of times a doctor would pay some woman to make him a real fine basket or some bead work because that's what his power told him to do40 ,washo doctors often worked together on 8tough0 cases4 ,one such was the treatment of what seems to have been an infected elbow by my informant's uncle and ,blind ,mike4 ,the first step in the process was to blow smoke in a circle around the painful area so that the sickness couldn't move4 ,this was followed by singing1 rattling1 and sucking until something bright began to come out4 ,it was1 according to witnesses1 as bright as a star1 so bright in fact that even ,blind ,mike could see it4 ,the bright object proved to be 7if we can trust descriptions7 the stone and setting of a cheap ring which was removed from the sore arm4 ,it is interesting to note that while this process was successful my informant seemed to consider the cure less than one-hundred-per-cent effective because the woman who was being treated died two years later4 ,doctors were privy to a number of secrets which were not common knowledge among most ,washo4 ,such a secret was the cave reputed to be inside ,cave ,rock at ,lake ,tahoe4 ,this cave was a retreat for shamans who went there to commune with their spirits or to secrete a particularly important piece of paraphernalia4 ,the cave could be entered through a narrow opening on the landward side1 but most shamans preferred a more dramatic entrance4 ,by standing on a certain rock and singing a special song they were lowered through the water and then lifted into the cave4 ,the last doctor to attempt this was ,blind ,mike4 ,he was directed to go to the cave in a dream4 ,however1 he permitted his wife to accompany him and when she saw him begin to sink into the water she screamed with fear4 ,the rock stopped sinking with ,mike only knee deep in the water4 ,since that time no one has attempted to enter the room4 ,this promontory is the center of ,water ,baby habitation and is reported to be the upper end of a tunnel which extends under the mountains to ,genoa so that ,water ,babies can move freely from the lake to the valley4 ,the rock also marks the eastern end of a road of white sand reported to cross the lake bottom4 ,on the northwest end of the road was located a bed of plants1 probably wild parsnips1 which doctors gathered for medicine4 ,the wild parsnip was poisonous but doctors ate it to demonstrate their power4 ,they also chewed it into a paste and spread it on rattlesnake bites4 ,another spot familiar to doctors was a mysterious hole in the mountains near ,blue ,lake4 ,the hole could be located by following a spiraling path of white quartz toward the center4 ,according to the ,washo tale1 if a man dropped even as much as a hair into this hole it made a great roaring sound4 ,suzie ,dick1 a ,washo woman1 whose claim of being one hundred years' old is borne out by white residents1 insists that as a fifteen-year-old girl she went to see this hole and was terrorized by a huge hand which reached up out of the darkness and tried to seize her4 ,vaguely known to most ,washo but familiar to doctors was a cave situated south and west of ,gardnerville where ready-made grinding stones were to be found4 ,these1 depending on the informant1 were made by old ,indians or were put there by 8nature0 for the use of the ,washo4 ,noncurative ,use ,of ,power 7#befg-beic7 ,indian doctors often used their power in spectacular displays1 apparently to impress patients4 ,often these displays were competitive4 ,in the words of one informant3 8,them old doctors used to see who had the most power4 ,they'd stick four or five sticks in the ground1 each one farther away than the last one1 and see how many they could knock down40 ,then1 disconcertingly1 he added3 8,you can read about that in ,kroeber4 ,he tells about some other ,indians who did that but ,i guess he didn't know the ,washo did it too40 ,this informant considered ,professor ,kroeber as an authority second only to himself in matters pertaining to ,indians4 ,divining ,and ,rainmaking 7#beec-beef1 #beff7 ,there were no doctors with rainmaking power among the ,washo4 ,however1 anyone1 particularly a man deemed to be a leader1 might encourage rain during the summer4 ,the rite1 which is still observed occasionally by individuals1 consists of soaking a pine-nut cone in water and placing it on the ground in the pine-nut hills4 ,modern ,washo look upon this more as a prayer1 but in the past it may have been considered as a spell4 ,the ancient matriarch ,suzie ,dick steadfastly insists that less rain falls in the ,carson ,valley than in neighboring valleys because 8nobody is talking to ,god anymore around here40 ,while she talked she pointed to the clouds hanging over ,washo and ,antelope valleys and to the cloudless sky overhead4 ,older white residents speak of ,indian rainmakers1 which is a source of much amusement among the ,washo4 ,until a few years ago an ,indian1 who still lives in ,dresslerville1 used to take advantage of the gullibility or generosity of white ranchers by performing 8rain dances0 on their property in return for handouts of food4 ,the ,washo generally frowned on this1 but because white men were the victims of the fraud it was considered harmless4 ,the father of the false rainmaker was a diviner of stolen articles4 ,his method was to sit and smoke until the location of the desired article was revealed to him4 ,objects ,of ,power ,eagle and magpie feathers were considered to be the most powerful items of a shaman's paraphernalia4 ,doctors are reported to have captured eagles and even to have tried to raise them to obtain feathers 7#bbc-bca7 ,the tail feathers were the most prized4 ,eagle feathers were extremely valuable and could be traded for anything including 8a woman or a sack of pine-nut flour or anything worth a lot40 ,ideally the eagle was tied up until the shaman removed three tail feathers4 ,the doctor then tied a string of beads to the bird's leg and released it as a messenger to the spirits4 ,description of eagle-down costumes suggest that birds were stripped of many more feathers than the ideal three4 ,in historic times individuals have attempted to contain eagles4 ,one old man in ,woodfords is well known for having kept them on cradle-boards for easy transport1 but such experiments usually ended in failure4 ,magpie feathers were considered less powerful than eagle feathers but still were highly prized4 ,today they are gathered by chance--taken from dead birds on the highway or picked up where they were shed4 ,in the past1 eagle and magpie feathers were important parts of the dress of warriors4 ,magpie feathers were used to make a feather cap with a single feather suspended from the top4 ,informants recall their elders' describing eagle feathers' being suspended individually from the upper arms and thighs of particularly powerful warriors4 ,modern peyotists have lost none of the traditional ,washo feeling about these feathers4 ,the ceremonial fans of road chiefs1 believed the only persons capable of handling the immense power1 are made of eagle feathers4 ,other peyotists favor the less powerful but nonetheless potent magpie feather 7d',azevedo and ,merriam #aieg74 ,tobacco1 as the foregoing accounts illustrate1 played an important part in ,washo shamanism4 ,it appears to have been used as an offering to the spirits4 ,in addition it is clear that it was felt to have special power of its own4 ,today older men smoke sparingly and are often somewhat embarrassed to be offered a cigarette casually during conversation4 ,in prewhite times the tobacco was a native variety gathered and dried by the shaman4 ,today ,bull ,durham appears to have replaced the wild variety as 8,indian0 tobacco4 ,the ,indians seemed delighted to see me rolling a cigarette2 they acted as if ,i were mastering what they felt was a particularly ,indian art4 ,bull ,durham is also important in peyote ceremonialism because it is 8real ,indian tobacco40 ,incense cedar plays an important role in modern peyote meetings4 ,it is dried and thrown into the fire to create a fragment smoke which is considered beneficial4 ,meeting officials fan it into the atmosphere and 8rub0 themselves in the smoke to obtain power or purification4 ,this has a connection with traditional ,washo ritual1 but the relationship is unclear and the aboriginal practices obscure4 ,one group of ,washo1 which was assigned a special place in the large camp circle formed during the pine-nut dances held at ,double ,springs ,flats in the late nineteenth century1 is said to have special rights in connection with cutting cedar4 ,modern informants do not have a clear picture of what the rights were or what the customs surrounding cedar were4 ,one informant did say that if the cedar 8bunch0 found anyone else with cedar they would say 8you aren't supposed to have that0 and would make fun of them4 ,she could offer no further details or explanations4 ,sorcery ,and ,witchcraft 7#befb-befd7 ,there is no real distinction in the ,washo mind between a doctor and a sorcerer or witch4 ,particularly powerful doctors were able to kill their enemies4 ,one of the most feared bits of paraphernalia was an obsidian point found by a doctor4 ,these large points were not made by ,washo and are apparently remnants of some previous cultural occupation in the area4 ,if a ,washo finds one point up he carefully knocks it over with a long stick before touching it4 ,these points are called mankillers1 but ,i was unable to learn exactly how they were used4 ,they are still viewed with a certain amount of awe1 and the finding of a large point in a sandpit in ,smith ,valley was known in ,woodfords1 fifty miles away4 ,sorcery was used to explain the abandonment of an ancient campsite at ,dangberg's ,hot ,springs4 ,this site is a trove of grinding stones1 points1 and other ,washo artifacts4 ,formerly there were numerous skeletons in the area1 according to both ,indian and white informants4 ,however1 the site has not been occupied in historic times because of the following incident4 8,one winter there was a lot of ,washos camped around the hot springs4 ,my old aunt was camped there4 ,there was this northern ,washo from ,sierra ,valley came into the camp4 ,nobody know'd him and nobody would feed him4 ,but my old aunt fed him4 ,but he was mad at them people so he went to ,markleville and made a lot of medicine4 ,why he went to ,markleville is unclear4 ,this is the site of another hot springs1 a fact which may figure in the magic used4 ,after he made medicine for a while he kind of spit on his fingers and pointed at ,dangberg ,hot ,springs4 ,right where he pointed all the grass got brown2 you can still see that line of brown if you know where to look1 and a lot of ,indians died4 ,nobody ever went back there4 ,my old aunt she didn't die40 ,only one ,washo disputed this story4 ,she1 a very progressive old woman and sometime ,christian1 attributed the deaths to an epidemic and 8didn't think0 the doctor was responsible4 ,witchcraft and sorcery among the present-day ,washo is a difficult subject to investigate4 ,even among themselves it is treated with extreme indirection and veiled hints4 ,in discussing the problem with d',azevedo ,i found that we were in agreement that a number of killings reported among these people could probably be attributed to revenge for1 or prevention of1 antisocial use of power4 ,one woman1 now dead1 was described as probably a witch4 ,the wife of the diviner mentioned earlier was considered a powerful and dangerous woman4 ,she was useful to the community because she knew prayers and songs for the pine-nut celebration1 but dangerous1 particularly if she met you at night4 ,one informant describes the attitude of the rest of the community toward her4 8,she used to come around at night and knock on your door and say she was lost4 ,she came here one night and pounded on the door with her cane but we wouldn't let her in4 ,after she went away my husband rolled up a newspaper and set it on fire and ran it along the inside of the door where she had knocked4 ,i don't know why he did that except we was afraid of her40 ,stewart also reports this attitude toward the same woman 7#aida1 p4 #ddd2 #befb74 ,the woman who told me this story is herself under the shadow of indictment for witchcraft4 ,curiously enough the same phrase1 8,i am afraid of her10 serves as an accusation4 ,she and her sister-in-law quarreled over the disposal of her husband's body two years ago4 ,since that time they have not spoken1 and the sister-in-law has been proclaiming her fear4 ,war ,power ,the ,washo have not engaged in real hostilities with the ,miwok or ,maidu for well over a century and ,paiute hostilities appear to have taken the form of occasional defensive skirmishes2 thus the details of war magic are vague4 ,however1 ,washo tradition repeatedly mentions a month-long period during which doctors gathered and made medicine against the enemy before launching a campaign4 ,usually this took place at ,woodfords1 which was the site of a large earth lodge dance house copied after ,miwok structures and described as 8where the young mens learned them ,miwok dances40 7,a second dance house is known to have existed in ,sierra ,valley2 attributed to the ,maidu1 it fell into disuse after the death of its owner47 ,summary ,of ,shamanism ,although there appears to be only a single practicing shaman among the ,washo today 7and he certainly not a practitioner of the old school71 it would be a mistake1 in my opinion1 to claim that ,washo shamanism is a thing of the past4 ,few1 if any1 ,washo over forty have not attended a shamanistic curing ceremony and many have been patients4 ,even those ,indians who have rejected shamanism as old fashioned--or in deference to white attitudes--give one the impression of 8protesting too much0 in their denial of old beliefs4 ,the woman who took her granddaughter to ,rupert1 the curer1 is among the most progressive of the ,washo4 ,she is a nominal ,christian1 active in an informal way as a representative of her people before white authority1 and is most apt to deny supernatural explanations of historic incidents4 ,nonetheless she has faith in the power of this modern shaman and in the cures reported for the old-time shamans4 ,one factor in the decline of the shaman as a principal in curative activities was the rise of the peyote cult in the mid-#aicj's 7,stewart #aidd74 ,the cult was introduced by a ,paiute who gathered a number of ,washo followers4 ,his cult or 8way0 has since been superseded by a strictly ,washo group1 following the ,teepee ,way 7d',azevedo #aieg74 ,the ,teepee ,way is an illustration of the effect an ethnographer can have on the lives of his subjects4 ,a casual remark by an ethnographer that the peyote ceremonies carried out by the ,paiute leader were not like those he had seen elsewhere motivated a ,washo to drive to ,idaho to find out for himself4 ,this trip resulted in the formation of the new cult and the near dissolution of the group headed by the ,paiute4 ,washo peyotism has incorporated much of the curing emphasis of ,washo shamanism and much of the symbolism as well4 ,the peyote button is reminiscent of the poison parsnip taken by old-time doctors 7d',azevedo #aieg74 ,the powerful eagle feather is reserved for the use of road chiefs just as it was the special symbol of the shaman or powerful warrior4 ,the fans carried by most peyotists are often composed of magpie feathers4 ,curative peyote meetings are often conducted by a special chief1 reputed to have very potent curing powers1 who does not conduct the regular peyote meeting4 ,even in regular meetings one of the main emphases is on curing ailments of both the body and spirit4 ,led by an assimilated ,washo1 known by other ,indians as a 8white man's ,indian10 the shamans brought suit against the peyotists urging they be arrested and their meetings banned4 ,they charged1 among other things1 that peyote meetings were occasions of sexual license4 ,such open accusations and the bringing of white men into a strictly ,indian matter created a great deal of antagonism toward the shamans among the ,washo1 whether or not they were committed to peyote4 ,peyote curing differs only in detail from shamanistic curing as these two stories may illustrate4 8,had these gallstones and them white doctors operated and they got a lotta little stones but pretty soon it was back4 ,so ,i decided to pray4 ,you know whenever an ,indian wants to pray the first thing he turns to is water and tobacco4 ,so every night when ,i went to the john toilet ,i'd roll a cigarette and pray to that ,peyote4 ,i'd say1 #8,i don't want to be sick so you got to help them white doctors4 ,you got to get all those little stones together in one place4' ,that ,peyote is a good medicine4 ,i used to go to meetings and it helped me before4 ,so every night ,i prayed to the ,peyote to get them stones in one place4 ,then ,i went to the hospital and they operated and got out the biggest gallstone they ever saw4 ,it would hardly go in a fruit jar4 ,i told that ,peyote that the job was too big for it all alone that it should just help them white doctors and get all them stones in one place40 ,another informant1 mentioned earlier as a peyote chief with special curing power1 recounts the events leading up to the death of his former wife of cancer of the kidneys4 8,yeah ,i had a couple of meetings for ,onie4 ,i helped her too4 ,except she would not do the things ,i told her to do4 ,i made that cancer move around from her back where it hurt a lot4 ,i got it around in front where it didn't hurt her so much4 ,but she wouldn't keep doing the things ,i told her to do40 ,these two incidents reveal traditional attitudes transferred into a new framework of curing4 ,in the first place1 illness is a corporeal object which can be manipulated--moved and 7if one's power is sufficient7 removed4 ,secondly1 peyote is viewed as a manifestation of a spiritual power4 ,the informant with gallstones did not attend meetings to have his ailment cured2 rather1 he used water and tobacco1 traditional adjuncts to shamanistic curing4 ,moreover he did not take peyote for his illness2 he simply prayed to ,peyote in a manner very similar to praying to a spirit guardian for assistance4 ,other shadows of the shamanistic past seem to lie heavily on the minds of modern ,washo peyotists4 ,in his discussion of peyotism1 d',azevedo 7#aieg1 pp4 #fbd-fbf7 describes in some detail the attitudes about the assistance or interference that one peyote singer or drummer may receive from another4 ,the statements of his informants1 although couched in different terms1 are reminiscent of many ,i heard dealing with competitions between shamans4 ,for several years peyotists were a powerful factor in the tribal council1 and they were not loath to play upon the connection between peyote and poison parsnips in the minds of their cotribalists4 ,the peyote button is considered to be a powerful agent and as such potentially dangerous4 ,therefore a man who could deal with this agent1 just like a shaman who could eat the poison parsnip with impunity1 was a man to be listened to and followed4 ,despite a belief in and a dependence on shamanistic curing or its latter-day counterpart1 the peyote curing session1 most ,washo are willing patients of white doctors4 ,this suggests that perhaps the old views are disappearing under the scientific certainty of ,western medicine4 ,quite the reverse seems true1 however4 ,every failure of white medicine strengthens the ,indians' belief that the real source of curing power is a gift from nature4 ,every success is attributed to assistance the white men have received from ,indians' power4 ,when asked the direct question3 8,why aren't there so many ,indian doctors today80 my informant answered3 8,well1 ,indians just don't need all that power today4 ,the white doctors know a lot of things and can cure sickness pretty good4 ,in the old days we didn't know them things so we had to have them real powers40 ,this attitude1 that nature provided whatever was necessary for ,washo survival1 crops up in other contexts which ,i will discuss later in this paper4 ,far from disappearing1 the old notions seem to be maintaining a strong hold on the minds of the ,washo4 ,as the number of active peyotists dwindle 7d',azevedo and ,merriam #aieg71 one gets the impression that the shamanistic forms may again become a more important part of ,washo life4 ,,dreams ,,and ,,dreamers 7#beff7 ,mentioned almost as frequently as doctors are dreamers1 whom the ,washo view as distinct from shamans4 ,the so-called antelope shaman and rabbit boss fall into this category rather than that of doctor4 ,dreamers were gifted with a power to foretell special classes of events in dreams4 ,all ,washo believe dreams are likely to foretell the future1 and they are alert to find meanings in any dreams they have4 ,certain persons1 those thought of as 8dreamers10 are reported to have special gifts of this nature4 ,there are apparently no dreamers among the ,washo today1 in the sense that the term was used in times past4 ,that is1 no one is especially singled out as having infallible dreams foretelling certain classes of events4 ,it may be that the breakdown of the band structure1 which was related to economic exploitative activity1 in effect1 forced everyone to dream for himself4 ,in the past1 dreamers were particularly important in setting the time and place for activities which were carried out by large groups1 such as hunting1 fishing1 pine-nut gathering1 and war4 ,with the disappearance of the last seminomadic bands in the middle #aibj's1 as well as with the reduced importance of hunting and fishing as group activities1 persons having dreams which directed group actions were no longer useful4 ,today1 dreams appear to occur to a number of individuals1 and those felt to be of social significance usually deal with catastrophe or other foreboding subjects4 ,the following stories were told to me by the widow under the shadow of witchcraft4 ,when ,i asked her if she thought any of her friends would tell me their dreams1 she replied3 8,no ,i don't think no ,washo would tell you their dreams4 ,but ,i'm not superstitious about them things and ,i'll tell you these two dreams ,i had40 8,one summer ,i was up at the ,lake ,tahoe with my husband and ,i had a dream that the gambling house at ,dresslerville a structure known officially as the community center was on fire4 ,there was kids inside and they was screaming but there wasn't no water4 ,i saw the men all around with buckets but they couldn't do nothing because there wasn't no water4 ,i told my husband about the dream the next morning and he said ,i should take a bath and pray4 ,that's what we do to keep a bad dream from happening40 ,the following winter the community center did in fact burn down4 ,a young ,indian in a rage after having an argument with his father hurled a bottle of kerosene against a wood stove4 ,the resulting fire could not be extinguished because the ,dresslerville pump was not working4 ,whether the dream was really a prophecy after the fact ,i do not know4 ,it is significant in any case that the prophecy appeared in the form of a dream4 ,my informant's second dream foretold the violent death of a young ,indian woman4 ,the prophecy came true two years later4 ,her statement that other ,washo would be reluctant to discuss their dreams was all too true1 confirming the importance that dreams play in their daily lives4 ,a number of tangential remarks suggest that the belief that dreams confer advance knowledge of the future and that they confer power is still common among the ,washo4 ,one informant said1 in talking about 8old-time dreamers03 8,today a lot of people will say they had a dream about something1 and act real big4 ,i just tell them they are crazy4 ,they aren't real dreamers4 ,they couldn't have a dream about their girl friend40 ,until very recent times a dream was justification for almost any group activity4 ,the most common motivation for such events as a pine-nut dance1 a war party1 or a rabbit or antelope drive was usually that 8,so-and-,so had a dream40 ,an announcement would be made and others would gather for the event4 ,these dreams are clearly different from the visitations of spirits to prospective shamans1 which occurred repeatedly and were kept secret4 ,dreamers1 on the other hand1 publicly reported individual dreams4 ,being a dreamer appears to have been one of the important factors in attaining positions of leadership1 informal as such positions were among the ,washo4 ,the almost legendary ,captain ,jim17#f7 who was acknowledged as a leader by all the ,washo in the late nineteenth century1 is considered to have been a dreamer by many of the ,washo4 ,those informants who remember the big times at ,double ,springs ,flat1 in which a large number of the ,washo of the day participated prior to the pine-nut harvest1 usually begin their accounts with the statement that ,jim would have a dream and announce the date of the meeting4 ,various parts of the ceremony were also validated by dreams4 ,it is equally clear that although ,jim was an honored leader and had dreaming power he was not considered a doctor4 ,negative testimony also indicates the importance of dreaming in ,washo life4 ,it is to the advantage of certain individuals to deny the 8chieftainship0 of ,captain ,jim2 they vehemently deny that he was a dreamer but insist that he was simply a good man who was trusted by the ,washo4 8,that ,jim was just a good old guy that everybody obeyed because they liked him and the whole group selected him4 ,he wasn't no more of a dreamer than ,i am10 is the way one claimant for the ,washo chieftainship put it4 ,however1 his own claim was based on his relationship to a man who was a rabbit boss and who dreamed when it was time to hunt rabbits4 ,clearly the ,washo believed and still believe that dreams make one privy to the future and provide important insights on which one can base decisions4 ,the specific uses to which dreams can be put change with the situation4 ,antelope dreaming is no longer important because there are no antelope4 ,rabbit dreamers no longer exist because the rabbit drive has lost much of its importance in ,washo life4 ,conversely1 dreams dealing with modern problems appear to be taken seriously4 ,one informant often dreams of snakes and evidences a great fear of them4 ,the ,washo view this behavior as a rational response to a real warning and consider the man's caution as good judgment in the face of repeated warnings4 ,,ritual ,,activities ,few1 if any1 ,washo activities do not contain an element which we can describe as religious1 supernatural1 or magical4 ,this element is most commonly revealed by specifically ritualized behavior carried on while a regular course of action is being taken by a ,washo4 ,the following sections will deal with this ritualized behavior and the rationale for it offered by the ,washo4 ,conception ,and ,contraception ,apparently the ,washo have no specific ritual to encourage conception4 ,they are extremely fond of children and desire as many as possible4 ,no ,washo has ever heard of1 or will admit having heard of1 infanticide among the ,washo1 although they have heard of the practice among other ,indians4 ,the birth of an illegitimate child1 despite the attitude of whites1 is greeted with as much joy as that of a legitimate child4 ,however1 it is believed that conception can be prevented by manipulation of the afterbirth4 ,when the afterbirth is expelled it is wrapped in a piece of deer hide or cloth and buried4 ,it is always placed right side up if a woman desires to continue bearing children4 ,if she wishes not to have children it is buried upside down4 ,if at a later time she wishes to become pregnant1 she will turn the earth where the upside-down afterbirth was buried4 ,informants say that not many people do this any more1 mainly because younger women go to the hospital to have their babies1 but that many people know how and some may still do it4 ,certain ,indians are reported to be able to prevent the birth of children without the knowledge of the woman concerned4 ,this requires the cooperation of a woman who has just had a child and who will give the magician the afterbirth4 ,it is then buried or hidden upside down and the woman concerned will not become pregnant4 ,the method of transferring the influence of the afterbirth from the real mother to the victim was not explained1 and in fact the practice was revealed with a good deal of reluctance4 ,birth 7#bagh-bbic7 ,informants report that the baby was not touched1 either by the mother or her attendants1 until the afterbirth was expelled4 ,the birth and recuperation were carried out in a pit filled with warm ashes4 ,a slow birth was blamed on the belief that the mother had slept too much or been lazy during her pregnancy4 ,the mother was not allowed to eat salt until the baby's umbilicus dropped off1 usually in two or three days4 ,the umbilicus was dried and hung on the right side of the cradleboard to insure that the baby would be right-handed4 ,the baby's hair was cut about thirty days after its birth4 ,until that time the mother was not permitted to eat meat or to leave her bed of ashes4 ,however1 one of my informants who had borne eight children claimed never to have spent more than two weeks in her lying-in bed4 ,she did insist that 8in the old days0 women adhered to the traditional thirty-day period4 ,a pregnant woman was not permitted to eat eggs with double yolks1 or double fruit1 lest she have twins4 ,no special action was taken if twins were born1 however4 ,during her confinement a woman was not supposed to rub the sweat from her face4 ,she might dab the sweat off1 but to rub it would cause her to be wrinkled in her old age4 ,one informant assured me that this was the truth and pointed to her own relatively unwrinkled face as proof4 ,when a child loses a milk tooth1 it is taken up and thrown into the brush4 ,at that time an admonition is shouted to 8some little animal with sharp teeth10 that it should exchange the milk tooth for a good permanent one 7#bbie;a-#bcja7 ,puberty3 ,girls 7#bcje-bceb7 ,aside from the 8big times0 which will be described later1 the girls' puberty dance was the most important ceremonial gathering among the ,washo4 ,this custom has survived with tenacity and it is still considered a matter of real concern if for some reason a girl does not have 8her dance40 ,although much of the activity at a girls' dance is clearly social throughout the occasion1 there is a series of ritual actions which must be carried out4 ,the following account is an idealized version of the 8old way40 ,other accounts will describe variations which have developed in the past years4 ,certain statements which ,i make will appear to be at variance with ,stewart's ,culture ,element ,distribution ,lists4 ,however1 ,i am inclined to think that the absence of traits in the memory of my own informants represents a pattern of change rather than inaccuracies on the part of earlier investigators4 ,with minor exceptions1 differences between statements made today and ,stewart's lists take the form of traits marked present in the lists which are unknown to my own informants4 ,moreover1 most of these differences are to be found in the hair-combing and scratching complex and suggest that the taboos on hair combing were abandoned some time between the childhood of his informants1 who were in their seventies in #aicf1 and that of my own informants1 who are in their seventies today 7#aiei74 ,the parents of my informants must not have known or not enforced combing taboos1 while the parents of ,stewart's informants must have considered them proper and so instructed their children4 ,we can speculate1 on this basis1 that the taboo on hair combing and scratching was abandoned by the ,washo some time in the first half of the century4 ,whether this can be credited to the influence of the white man or to a continuing pattern of change is a matter for further investigation4 ,the account of the entire puberty complex which follows was given to me by a seventy-five-year-old ,washo woman who is generally consulted whenever a family plans to hold the girls' dance4 8,when a girl is about ten she is told what is going to happen to her4 ,when her first period comes she is not specially confined people tell her to be active and not to be lazy4 ,she drinks only warm water4 ,in the old days anything that she gathered anyone could come along and take4 ,she couldn't eat meat or salt but ,washo don't think eggs are the same as meat40 7,this last statement was in response to direct questions and does not reflect special ,washo traits4 ,in fact1 all food appears to have been forbidden for four days47 ,the family of the girl immediately prepares as much food as possible to feed the guests4 ,one informant remembers in his youth that a family of a girl eligible for a dance would light a large fire part way up on ,job's ,peak to announce the event4 ,the dance itself is carried out at night4 ,singing and hand-clapping accompany the dancing1 which may go on all night4 ,during the dance the girl carries a wand about six or seven feet long4 ,the wand is made of a very light wood1 often elderberry1 and painted red with a native pigment4 ,in the past1 groups camped about ,dresslerville staged their dances at the base of a prominent hill nearby4 ,during the night the girl was required to run to the top of the hill and light four fires2 this practice has been discontinued for many years1 however1 apparently as a result of white accusations that the ,indians started range fires and also to avoid attracting curious whites4 ,about dawn one of the girl's male relatives ran forward and snatched the stick from her4 ,he then ran with it into the hills and hid it in an upright position in some out-of-the-way place4 ,the elderberry wand is a device used to insure the girl's continued agility and lightness of foot4 ,as long as the hidden stick remains unbroken the girl will remain straight and agile4 ,after the stick was taken away1 an older female relative took a small amount of ash on a whisk of sage1 and dusted the nude girl on the head1 arms1 and legs4 ,this ritual was accompanied by an informal prayer that the girl not suffer pains in her head1 arms1 or legs4 ,she was told3 8,i am doing this early in the morning so that you will get up early in the morning and work hard40 ,the whisk was then thrown into the crowd1 along with a gift1 which today is usually a bit of money4 ,food or beads were apparently used in the past4 ,after the dusting1 a basketful of water was brought forward and the girl was bathed4 ,the basket was then thrown into the crowd4 ,this was considered a high point of the celebration4 ,after she was bathed1 a few dabs of native pigment were placed on her chest and face4 ,the ceremony above was described as the 8real way to do it 444 the way they did it in the old days40 ,the ,carson ,valley ,record ,courier reports a puberty dance held in the summer of #aiai in which at least some of these activities were observed 7although the reporter thought he was attending a betrothal dance7 ,some two-hundred ,indians were in attendance4 ,there were no fires1 only lanterns and flashlights4 ,the participants had taken up a collection and purchased watermelon1 ice cream1 cake1 pie1 bread1 and meat for the feast4 ,the food was served 7to the surprise of the reporter7 on a long table with plates4 ,about midnight two girls appeared in the center of the dancing circle carrying long wands4 ,in #aibf ,lowie witnessed a girls' dance near ,minden and was obviously unimpressed4 ,the crowd gathered slowly and gradually began to dance4 ,he makes no mention of either the wand or the ash-dusting ritual1 nor does he give us details of the feast4 ,the bath was given from a tin can1 and he does not report a basket's being thrown 7,lowie #aici1 pp4 #cje-cjh74 ,one suspects that dances held today are somewhat more elaborate than those of three or four decades ago1 possibly as a response to increasing awareness and pride in the fact of ,indianness4 ,certainly every girl expects to have her dance1 just as a debutante expects to have a coming-out party4 ,when death in the family made it inadvisable to hold a dance on a girl's first menstrual period1 everyone agreed that it was indeed a shame4 ,the girl went through her four-day fast and a small party was held for her when her second period occurred4 ,one informant insisted that in the 8old days0 a dance was always held on the occasion of a girl's second period but that this had long since been abandoned 7,cartwright1 #aieb1 confirms74 ,the basket plays an important part in the ceremony and it would be considered improper if there were no basket to be thrown to the crowd4 ,it is best if the basket is well made and can actually hold the ceremonial bath water4 ,if such a basket cannot be obtained1 and they are growing rarer as the older basket makers die1 the bath is poured from a bucket1 but a less fancy basket is still thrown to the crowd4 ,the bath and dusting are now given to the girl while clad in her slip1 in deference to white notions of modesty which are strictly observed by the ,washo4 ,the painting is carried out only if native pigment is available4 ,the wand is left unpainted unless native pigments are available4 ,the ritual of seizing and hiding the wand is carried out perfunctorily4 ,during a recent dance the girl's uncle took the wand but simply carried it to the grandmother's house1 intending to take it to the mountains later4 ,however1 the stick remained with the grandmother1 who was somewhat concerned about it4 ,it was kept in an upright position1 and she constantly reminded the man that he should take it4 ,he regularly promised that he would1 the next time he came to visit1 but just as regularly forgot it4 ,it may well be that as an adult and an important peyote chief1 he was reluctant to carry out what he considered an old ,indian superstition4 ,there is no indication now that the girls' puberty dance is dying out among the ,washo4 ,it may well be changing in form and developing into more of a party4 ,as the number of persons who know white dances increases1 these may replace ,indian dances4 ,there is some suggestion of this in other ceremonial activities4 ,and of course the fact that future generations of ,washo girls will attend integrated ,nevada public schools and associate with white students with different aspirations for approaching adulthood may have important effects on the future of the girls' dance4 ,pine-nut flour seems to have taken on an important symbolic role in latter-day dances4 ,we see no mention of this food in #aiai or #aibf4 ,today it might be considered proper to delay holding a dance if it was not possible to get enough pine-nut flour to feed the crowd4 ,puberty3 ,boys 7#bcgi-bchf1 #cfi-cgd7 ,the approaching maturity of a boy cannot be measured in dramatic physiological terms1 and puberty is considered to occur about when a boy's voice changes4 ,the ritual for boys is less important than that for girls4 ,the emphasis for a boy is on his developing ability as a hunter4 ,although hunting is far less important today than it was even in the recent past1 few ,washo go through the winter without depending on rabbit or deer for meat4 ,the pursuit of the squirrel1 ground squirrel1 gopher1 and other small game appears to be minimal1 but certainly this food is not spurned1 if available4 ,one of the common legal conflicts with the white man stems from out-of-season hunting during the winter by ,washo men filling out the family larder4 ,young boys were encouraged to hunt with bow and arrow as soon as they could4 ,quite often such training was carried out by an older male relative--a grandfather or an old uncle4 ,expeditions of old men and young boys after chipmunk and squirrel appear to have been common1 freeing able-bodied men for major hunting while the experienced1 but less able1 older men instructed the boys4 ,however1 all the game taken by a boy was taboo to his immediate family4 ,this included young deer and does which he might kill4 ,such game was given to another family1 usually related4 ,the boy was also forbidden to eat his own take4 ,the taboo included any fish the boy caught4 ,when a boy killed a buck deer considered by his father or other male relative to be big enough1 he went through a simple ceremony4 ,one informant said that in the old days a boy was required to crawl under the antlers of his kill4 ,his father or older male relative then gave him a bath1 and from that time he was considered a man and the taboo on his kill was lifted from himself and his family4 ,my informant1 a mother of four sons now over forty1 stated that all her sons had gone through the taboo period and were bathed by their father when they killed their first big buck4 ,until very recently she received meat from some relatives with a young son who hunted frequently4 ,whether or not the young ,washo are still observing this taboo and ritual ,i was unable to determine4 ,however1 in certain conservative families it seems probable that at least minimal ritual is observed4 ,marriage 7#bjah-bjea7 ,marriage is entirely a social institution1 and no religious elements appear to have entered into it4 ,traditionally the ceremony1 if there was any at all1 consisted of a 8chief0 7respected man7 throwing a blanket over the shoulders of a couple at a dance4 ,ceremonial gatherings1 such as the pine-nut dances and the girls' dances were important in the selection of marriage partners1 inasmuch as boys and girls came together at these gatherings to engage in flirtation1 affairs1 and courtship4 ,dreamers at the 8big times0 are reported by informants to have exhorted married couples to be good to each other and not fight 7see also ,lowie #aici1 p4 #cjc74 ,death 7#bchi-bdec7 ,no amount of social dislocation or cultural impact alters the constant fact of death4 ,each generation faces this inevitability4 ,it is less than surprising then that changes in attitudes and rituals surrounding death among the ,washo have changed very slowly4 ,the only changes which appear to have developed in ,washo death customs are those imposed by direct intervention of the whites or as unavoidable consequences of changes in other aspects of the culture4 ,in the past1 when a person died the house in which he expired was abandoned by his family4 ,of course1 if the death occurred in the spring or summer such abandonment was simple2 during these seasons the ,washo usually lived in simple brush shelters4 ,a winter death was a more serious matter2 it was during this season that the ,washo lived in the gal'sdal--a structure made to last through the winter and until the next winter1 when it was reoccupied4 ,valley ,washo often made these winter homes of brush or tules4 ,in the foothills and mountains1 bark slabs and tree limbs were utilized4 ,if an occupant died1 this home must be abandoned and was often burned down1 and the immediate family moved to another campsite4 ,thus a family which suffered no deaths during the winters might spend several years in a single campground1 whereas a less fortunate family might have to move every winter1 or even oftener than that4 ,a few ,washo began building simple rectangular board and batten houses in the #ahij's4 ,most of the others continued to live in gal'sdal made of boards and scrap1 begged1 stolen1 or purchased from the lumber mills which were quite numerous in the area at the beginning of the century4 ,in the #aibj's1 when most of the ,washo moved into the 8colonies0 established for them by the government1 the native-style houses were abandoned in favor of the wooden homes built by the government4 ,no longer permitted to move about the country at will1 and frankly unwilling to abandon the more comfortable white-style houses1 the ,washo adjusted their death customs4 ,the most common adjustment was to prepare for an impending death by shifting seriously ill persons into an adjoining structure1 often a shack built in the native manner or a shed or lean-to4 ,this structure could be burned down without loss when its inhabitant died47#g7 ,the ,washo viewed this destruction of a house occupied by a dead person as simply preventing his spirit from bothering the living4 ,most ,washo death customs display a conscious attempt to avoid association with the dead4 ,barrett reports that cremation was practiced1 and the bones placed in a stream to prevent their desecration4 ,however1 this appears to have been only one of the disposal customs and is not well remembered by ,washo living today4 ,the burning or burying of the personal possessions of the dead was common4 ,certain prized possessions were interred with the body1 which was usually wrapped in a shroud of matting1 deerskin1 or bearhide and placed in a fissure or cave in the mountains4 ,although there are a number of locations known by both ,indians and local whites as old burying grounds1 all my informants agreed that in the 8real old days0 there was no special cemetery and that these burial spots have developed since the coming of the white man4 ,this may well have been as a result of direct white interference with native funeral customs and an insistence that ,indians concentrate their burials4 ,some of these sites have become traditional among the ,washo4 ,the dispute between the widow and the sister mentioned earlier was an argument as to whether the deceased would be buried in one of these sites or in the cemetery at ,stewart1 ,nevada4 ,a white man who has lived in the area for ninety years1 reported that as a boy he often came across caches of belongings of dead ,indians in the mountains4 ,today1 prized possessions are either crowded into the casket with the body or burned or secreted in some remote area of the ,sierra4 ,funeral ceremonies were apparently simple4 ,the body was wrapped and carried into the hills to be interred4 ,prayers in the form of a short speech were directed toward the dead4 8,we are burying you because you are dead4 ,it's not because we are mad at you or don't like you4 ,but you are dead4 ,please don't come back and bother us40 ,widows traditionally cut their hair in mourning1 a custom which is still practiced4 ,stewart reports that mourners painted their faces black4 ,my informants denied this1 but one elaborated3 8,i remember when ,i was a little girl old ,indians who had lost someone would cry a lot and let the tears run down their faces and not wash their faces until they were real dirty and black with fire smoke40 ,crying at a funeral was expected and in fact positively sanctioned4 ,at a funeral conducted while ,i was present the sheriff arrested a drunken ,washo who was wailing quite loudly4 ,the ,indians were all bitter about this because3 8,all of us cry at a funeral whether we are drunk or not4 ,that's the way the ,washo do it40 7,this funeral was that of a murder victim and the sheriff was present because he feared there might be a reprisal attempt47 ,a newspaper report of a funeral in ,genoa1 ,nevada1 in the late #ahhj's records that the ,indians had borrowed a wagon from a white man to transport the corpse 7that of a well-known ,indian woman7 to the burying ground4 ,the wagon was followed by a large crowd of weeping mourners4 ,modern funerals usually take place under the auspices of a funeral director1 and generally services are performed by a ,christian minister from the ,stewart ,indian agency4 ,after the white minister has left1 it is usual for an older ,indian to approach the casket and repeat the old funeral prayers4 ,the reason for waiting until the minister leaves is to avoid hurting his feelings4 ,my informants said the prayers made the older ,indians feel more comfortable4 ,it is usually not necessary to burn the deceased's home1 but his belongings are disposed of4 ,there is an increasing tendency to tend graves and put flowers on them4 ,the cemetery at ,stewart appears to be well decorated with flowers4 ,two old ,indian graves near ,lake ,tahoe are regularly visited and jars of flowers placed on them47#h7 ,when the husband of one of my informants died1 following a twelve-year illness spent in a secondary house1 she went to visit a daughter living near ,lake ,tahoe4 ,when she returned to ,dresslerville her two sons had torn down the shed and disposed of all their father's possessions4 ,in deference to their mother's rather modern views about funerals1 nothing had been placed in the casket4 ,while ,i was in ,dresslerville an ,indian of about forty put the torch to the house in which his mother and father had lived4 ,the house had been unoccupied since their deaths4 ,while the house burned no effort was made to extinguish the fire or to call the fire department4 ,a nearby rancher saw the fire and summoned the fire department1 but the ,indians refused to tell the firemen how the fire had started4 ,the local newspaper reported it had been burned to drive away evil spirits4 ,this upset my informants1 one of whom said that the sight of the house simply made the man sad4 ,she elaborated that the ,washo felt they were helping ,god wipe out the tracks of a dead person4 ,the ,washo claim that after a death there is always a rain or sand storm which wipes out the tracks of the deceased4 ,after the ,washo return home from a funeral1 they immediately wash their faces and hands4 ,they would not feel safe in handling food or children until this ritual had been carried out4 ,the behavior of the dead is a matter of concern for most ,washo 7#bfjf-bfji;a74 ,ideally1 the spirit is supposed to go up and to the south where dead ,indians are4 ,this land of the dead is guarded by a number of men with bows4 ,some shamans were able to make the trip to the land of the dead 7#beda-bedd74 ,if they could elude these guards1 they were sometimes able to recover the spirit of a recently dead person and return it4 ,if1 however1 the spirit has partaken of the water of a spring immediately behind the guards1 it can never be recovered4 ,the by-now-familiar uncle of my informant once visited the land of the dead and reported that there were lots of ,indians there playing games and having a good time4 ,if murder victims were present they were with the celebrants1 but the spirits of the killers were segregated and were not having a good time4 ,ghosts1 however1 wander over the land4 ,they are generally malevolent4 ,if they feel they have been badly used in life1 or are not properly honored after death1 or have not been given the things they wanted when buried1 they may wreak vengeance on the living4 ,to prevent this1 homes were abandoned1 prayers were said1 and names of the dead were not used4 ,in discussing a recent murder1 one of the most progressive of the ,washo was extremely reluctant to give the name of the victim1 and1 when she finally did1 she whispered it4 ,one of the difficulties encountered by government agents when pine-nut lands were allotted to the ,washo was a refusal to name the ancestors on whom the allotment claim was based4 ,ghosts are often said to come in the form of whirlwinds or dust devils1 and most ,washo will avoid looking at a whirlwind4 ,at night1 a sudden puff of warm air is thought to be a ghost passing nearby4 ,,ritual ,,in ,,subsistence ,hunting1 far more than gathering1 appears to have been the focus of much ritual activity4 ,this suggests that for the ,washo the importance of ritual may have increased in proportion to the element of chance inherent in the activity undertaken4 ,gathering was a surety1 assuming of course that there was a harvest to gather4 ,with the wide variety of plants available within the ,washo territory during the spring1 summer1 and fall it seems highly unlikely that the failure of one species of plant created a serious problem4 ,this1 of course1 was not true of the pine nut4 ,a failure of the pine-nut crop was a harbinger of a starvation winter4 ,the gathering of pine nuts1 in contrast to the gathering of other plants1 was the subject of a great deal of ritual and1 in some degree1 of ceremonialism uncommon to most ,washo gathering activities4 ,this will be dealt with later in the paper4 ,hunting ,deer 7#a-bg74--;,deer were hunted in a number of ways4 ,barrett reports1 and old informants confirm1 that hunting parties of as many as thirty or forty men were formed in the old days to go to the western slope of the ,sierra in pursuit of deer4 ,the large number may have been necessitated by the possibility of meeting hostile ,miwok or ,maidu4 ,my own informants claimed that these large parties often set fire to the forest to drive the deer into the open1 and that the large number of men was needed to cover the escape routes4 ,more common1 apparently1 were small groups of five or six men1 usually relatives1 who went into the deer country together4 ,their technique was to drive along a single deer run toward one of their number who was considered the best shot4 ,this method was very common after the introduction of firearms1 particularly repeating firearms4 ,finally1 any ,washo man might hunt singly4 ,often groups of five or six men went hunting together but each did his own stalking4 ,whatever the technique1 hunting magic was an individual affair which did not require any ceremonial activities4 ,a single hunter1 before the days of firearms1 often stalked in the antlers and hide of a deer4 ,washo were often superstitious about using the real antlers and made artificial sets from manzanita branches4 ,this fear of using real antlers appears related to the treatment which was accorded to the bones of deer4 ,these1 once the meat had been completely stripped off1 were submerged in a stream to prevent their being eaten by dogs or wild animals4 ,perhaps the best account of the magic involved in stalking is the following by an aged informant1 reputed to have 8hunting medicine40 8,we never had no poison arrow for bear or deer but had something just as good4 ,we took red paint and mixed it with marrow from a deer leg and rubbed it on the shaft and point of the arrow4 ,arrowheads for war were little but those for big game like deer or bear were pretty big40 ,when ,i asked my informant the ,washo word for this mixture he evaded the question4 8,i don't think they had a word for it4 ,they didn't talk about it1 just used it4 ,if you used it you had to carry some medicine to work against it1 'cause if you got a scratch of that mixture and didn't have this other stuff the counter agent1 you was a goner4 8,a long time ago one man would hunt4 ,some of them fellas was superstitious about using real deer horns1 so they would make horns of manzanita and then cover up with a deer hide4 ,they'd move along 444 taking a long time1 just like a deer4 ,that old buck would try to get to the side away from the wind to smell you1 but you kept circling around so he wouldn't smell you4 ,finally you could get real close1 maybe only three1 four feet 444 going around making sounds just like a deer4 ,sometimes them bucks would really believe you and want to fight and then it was dangerous4 ,when you was close you shot that arrow into the deer right behind the shoulder blade4 ,that way when he jumped1 the shoulder blade comes back and breaks off the shaft4 ,the man would grab the shaft and suck off the blood4 ,then he'd make a little fire on a flat stone and when it was hot he'd sweep off the fire and spit that on the stone and it would bubble up and disappear4 ,then you'd go after the deer and you'd find him laying there with blood bubbling out of his nose just like that blood bubbled on the stone40 ,other rituals related to hunting dealt with the loss of hunting luck4 ,to regain one's luck in hunting1 a sweat lodge was built1 consisting of a temporary brush shelter 7#fhh-gei74 ,to insure luck it was common in the old days to bathe and rub the leaves of a certain mountain plant over one's body4 ,other ,washo carried a plant on their persons while hunting1 to insure luck4 ,i was unable to get my informant to give me the ,washo name of this plant4 ,certain other special medicines are reported4 ,one man1 it is hinted1 has a medicine which he rubs on his gun to insure good aim4 ,old hunters are said to have obtained medicine from the ,miwok which would put deer to sleep4 ,today this medicine is a subject of esoteric humor between my informant and his son-in-law4 ,the latter insists that the bear has a medicine which will put his father-in-law to sleep because he came upon the old man asleep under a tree one day when he should have been hunting4 ,although the ,washo depended on ritual to assist them in hunting1 it is clear that they considered a successful hunter the possessor of power beyond simple magic4 ,like curers or dreamers1 certain hunters obviously had been blessed by spirits and were able to outthink and outsmart animals and therefore were particularly good hunters4 ,at least some of the ,washo who hunt today attempt to give the impression that their success is based on something more than luck or skill4 ,antelope 7#bg;a-#ge74--,there are no ,washo alive today who can remember antelope surrounds4 ,it appears that most of the ,washo territory was not inhabited by antelope1 lying as it does between the northern and southern ranges of the ,nevada herds4 ,however1 small herds did range in the eastern portion of ,washo country1 but the appearance of firearms and livestock eliminated the antelope completely in this area4 ,one informant1 himself seventy-five1 remembers stories about the hunts1 told to him by a very old brother-in-law who remembered the antelope songs4 ,another informant1 generally a good source of hunting information1 admitted that he did not know anything about the subject4 ,he had never hunted antelope1 nor had his father or uncles4 ,the signal to hunt was a dream announcing the presence of antelope to a dreamer1 who acted as leader of the hunt4 ,the entire process was considered to be magical by this informant who said3 8,there was really no corral4 ,mebbe just a few piles of brush4 ,the people just danced around and sang1 and that kept them antelope there like they was hypnotized4 ,they could keep them right there all night that way4 ,after they held them all night they'd start to slaughter at sunrise4 ,they'd sing3 #8,we aren't doing this for meanness or for fun but we want you for fine food1' or something like that4 ,i heard the song once but ,i never learned it all4 ,i wish ,i had1 now40 ,this informant was certain that the ,washo did not expect a person to die as a result of the exercise of antelope charming4 ,he had heard of other tribes which believed this1 and he thought it peculiar 7,steward #aida3 #bah-bbj74 ,this explanation compares favorably with the culture element distribution lists presented by ,stewart1 which reported none of the traits usually considered as part of the shaman complex in antelope hunting common among ,basin ,shoshone and ,paiute4 7,stewart #aida2 ,steward #aida47 ,rabbits 7#ib-if74--,the pursuit of the jack rabbit appears to have been changing in its importance during the past century4 ,several informants recall being told in their youth by old men that often only the hides were stripped from rabbits to make blankets1 but that most of the meat was discarded because other game was plentiful4 ,however1 firearms and agriculture soon put an end to antelope hunting1 and the trans-,sierran region1 like most of the nation1 suffered a steady decline in the number of deer4 ,all informants agree that in their own youth trips to ,california after deer were necessary because there were almost no deer east of the ,sierra4 ,all ,indians agree that the deer population in ,nevada today is far greater than it was in the early years of this century4 ,the decrease in antelope and deer forced a greater dependence on the jack rabbit as a source of food as well as fur4 ,the communal nature of the rabbit hunt may have made possible a gradual transference of ritual traits from the antelope complex to the rabbit hunt4 ,traditionally the ,washo drove rabbits into nets1 a method common in the ,basin4 ,stewart's notes1 taken from informants in their seventies in #aicf1 make no mention of any supernatural aspect of the rabbit drive4 ,evening dancing during the rabbit drive was denied4 ,there was1 however1 a special leader who directed the hunt4 ,in later times these men were credited with dreaming power1 as this quotation illustrates3 8,jack ,wallace would dream where the rabbits were and when it was time for hunting he would send out a call40 ,the man mentioned was described as the last of the real dreamers4 ,this power made him extremely influential among the ,washo1 and his descendants are considered among the claimants for the 8chieftainship40 ,there appear to have been formalized prayers which were said before the hunt by a man with power over rabbits4 ,today1 rabbit hunts are invariably held on ,sunday4 ,in the words of one informant3 8,nowadays anybody can just say #8,let's have a hunt this ,sunday4'7#i7 ,they have to hunt on ,sunday because most of the men have jobs during the week40 ,the disintegration of the ritualized aspects of rabbit driving is not complete1 however1 and many ,washo prefer to hunt with a certain man who lives in the ,indian colony at ,carson ,city4 ,while no one will openly claim that he has supernatural power1 it seems clear that his presence is important to other ,indians4 ,his role is that of leader or captain who superintends the order and discipline of the line of hunters who today sweep a wide area1 armed with shotguns4 ,d',azevedo1 who was fortunate enough to take part in a hunt in #aiee1 states that prior to the hunt this man withdrew from the group4 ,when he asked what the leader was doing he met evasion1 and he concluded that perhaps the man was praying4 ,in the period covered by the memory of my oldest informants1 dances were often staged nightly during the rabbit drives4 ,the dancing is invariably described as 8just for fun0 and probably was more social than religious1 but such dancing appears to have been part of other ceremonial or semiceremonial occasions such as the girls' dances1 first-fish ceremonies and the pine-nut dances4 ,it seems clear that whatever tendency there was to shift the ritualized aspects of antelope hunting to rabbit drives has been stemmed by a growing dependence of the ,washo on wage labor which precludes their response to dream-inspired hunts4 ,bear 7#bih1 #beeh-befa74--;,bear hunting appears never to have been a subsistence activity among the ,washo4 ,many informants stoutly deny that bear meat was ever eaten1 although bear were hunted4 ,no ,washo ever gave a direct answer to the question of why they hunted bear if they didn't eat the meat4 ,others stated that the bear might be eaten in extreme starvation conditions but was never eaten regularly4 ,on the other hand1 almost all ,washo men were able to describe in detail the method of hunting and they obviously enjoyed telling bear-hunting stories4 ,the following story told to me by one of the eldest men in ,dresslerville1 who claims it was told to him by a very old man1 is consistent with the stories told by other informants4 8,there was hardly any ,washo who kill bear4 ,but ,i know this much 444 the man who went in there and did it tells me 444 bears have their own home in the rocks 444 a hole going in the rocks4 ,go in there naked with a knife or arrow in one hand and burning pitch in other 444 light scares him out the bear1 then other men shoot the bear in the mouth with poison arrow see deer hunting for reference to poison 444 get sick for four or five days1 maybe a week4 ,then the man goes back in4 ,hardly any ,indians could do this47#aj7 ,i've heard that they cook it and eat it 444 not only here but up north4 ,after they get the rifle they get to killing bears around here but hardly ever hear of dividing up the bear meat40 ,this last remark appears to be significant as all informants emphasized that ,indians shared food equally4 ,thus a statement made voluntarily that bear meat was not shared suggests different attitudes about bears4 ,another informant adds the detail that when the bear left his lair1 the companions of the man who entered the den would block the entrance so the bear could not return4 ,the first man to place an arrow in the animal could claim it and get the hide4 ,this informant also added at this point3 8,it's funny that the fella who went inside was just an ordinary fella emphasis mine40 ,he also insisted that after a bear was killed the hunting party painted their faces black4 ,other informants claimed not to know of this or said such painting was done when a mink was killed but they did not know why4 ,one traditional story 7,dangberg7 sheds a bit more light on the bear4 ,in this tale a group of ,washo were camped near a band of ,paiute who challenged the ,washo to fight4 ,instead of fighting1 the ,washo drove a bear from its den and killed it and thus defeated the ,paiute4 ,i had all but given up the pursuit of information on the bear1 being convinced that my informants either honestly did not know any more 7the bear having been relatively rare in this area for a good many years7 or were unwilling to discuss something of an extremely sacred nature1 when a chance remark suggested at least part of the explanation4 ,a pioneer white resident who had lived in ,alpine ,county1 ,california1 for ninety years casually mentioned that every ,indian man who was buried during his boyhood was wrapped in a bearskin shroud4 ,this1 coupled with an earlier mention of 8rough0 men having bearskins1 suggests that the killing of a bear represented the ultimate in ,washo bravery and the possession of the skin conferred extra powers on the owner4 ,the rifle made such acquisitions much less hazardous and in the late nineteenth century it had become common for ,indians to own a bearskin cloak1 which became their most prized possession and was buried with them4 ,stewart's element lists show no evidence of any formalized bear cult among the ,washo4 ,however1 ,smith's notes1 which ,stewart used1 report a bear shaman who impersonated a bear 7#beeh74 ,certainly the bear was one of the spirits who could give power to a man destined to become a shaman4 ,bear shamanism is reported only for the ,fish ,spring ,valley ,paiute by ,steward and for the ,tago and ,wada ,northern ,paiute by ,stewart4 ,these three groups constitute the only ones having formalized bear ceremonialism of any sort in the ,basin4 ,the bear dance and a note about impersonating bears 7,steward #aida1 pp4 #bff1 #cbb7 suggest that formalized bear ceremonialism came into the ,basin from the ,rocky ,mountains via the ,ute and ,bannock4 ,however1 ,kroeber reports awe of the bear1 special euphemisms for them1 and ritualized secrecy about hunting them among the ,miwok which seem more closely related to ,washo behavior4 ,bear impersonators among the ,battle ,mountain ,paiute were credited with invulnerability in war1 which is reminiscent of the use of a bear-hide cloak by ,washo 8rough men40 ,although it is not possible to make any conclusive statement about the role of the bear in the supernatural life of the ,washo1 it seems clear that the animal is held in special awe and esteem by modern ,indians4 ,fishing 7#beb;a-#bif7 ,fishing appears to be far less subject to ritualization among the ,washo than was hunting4 ,here again there may be a correspondence between the amount of ritual and the degree of certainty involved in obtaining the desired food4 ,the ,washo area is rated by ,rostlund as being one of the higher fish-producing areas in ,north ,america4 ,certainly the many lakes1 streams1 and rivers were the source of great amounts of fish every year4 ,indians who could at most be described as only middle-aged1 recount the tremendous numbers of fish which swept up the streams from ,lake ,tahoe during the spawning season4 ,while the numbers may have varied from year to year1 the large number of fish plus the intensive fishing methods employed by the ,washo almost guarantee a large catch4 ,however1 d',azevedo reports that ,northern ,washo describe some degree of ritualism connected with fishing 7d',azevedo personal communication74 ,dreamers are said to have predicted the day of the spawning run4 ,dances were held and prayers said1 suggesting a rather attenuated first-fish ceremony for some of the ,washo 7#bfah74 ,other ,washo report 8big times10 which included dancing and prayer1 during the spring gathering on the lake4 ,however1 in the actual catching of fish there was much less ritual4 ,some fishermen carried a fishing medicine composed of dried larvae of the ,ephydra hians 7,say71 called kutsavi by the ,paiute 7,heizer #aiej7 and matsi babaa by the ,washo4 ,these larvae were obtained from the ,mono ,lake ,paiute in trade or as gifts4 ,they were considered good food and are still eaten by some ,washo4 ,however1 in addition they were credited with having great powers to lure fish and were rubbed on harpoons1 hooks1 and lines4 ,perhaps this material was considered a fish medicine because these larvae are said to be generated from the scales of a giant fish4 ,this leviathan is reported to have traveled through all the lakes in the ,sierran area looking for a lake large enough in which to live4 ,at ,mono ,lake it scraped some scales into the water before it left to find a permanent home in ,lake ,tahoe 7,steward #aicf74 ,whether the ,washo share this story with the ,owens ,valley ,paiute1 ,i do not know1 but ,mono ,lake1 because of its saline water and its lack of any fish life1 is thought of with some fear and awe4 ,today ,i get the impression that some ,washo still keep a bit of this material with their fishing gear1 although they are apt to rationalize it as a lure rather than real medicine4 ,it should be remembered that hook-and-line or spear fishing accounted for a much smaller percentage of the total annual take than did trapping1 damning1 netting1 or other communal methods which entailed no ritual4 ,miscellaneous ,concepts ,about ,hunting ,and ,fishing ,a number of ritual activities cluster around hunting and fishing4 ,perhaps the most important is the requirement that women1 particularly menstruating women1 avoid the hunting and fishing equipment4 ,if a woman touched such gear the owner would bathe it and pray 8,i'm giving you a bath to wash away the bad luck40 7#bced-bcgh74 ,a further restriction placed on menstruating women was that they must not eat meat during their periods4 ,to do so meant bad hunting for the man who killed the game4 ,the meat from the neck of a deer and the intestinal organs were forbidden to vigorous young people4 ,if a man ate neck meat his aim would be bad 7#cfj-cfh74 ,neck meat was reserved for children and the old4 ,in actuality it would seem that only the children and the almost decrepit ate such meat4 ,one of my informants who is seventy-five1 thus certainly qualifying for old age1 has never tasted either neck meat or internal organs4 ,to do so apparently would be an admission of loss of vigour which no ,washo oldster wishes to make4 ,menstruating women today will eat meat purchased from a butcher but refrain from eating venison or other game taken by someone they know1 for fear of spoiling his luck4 ,menstrual taboos also hold today in regard to touching firearms or fishing poles1 although at least some ,washo women own fishing poles1 and in the early part of this century a woman who lives at ,carson ,city was reputed to be a great hunter4 ,in times past1 certain women are reported to have made excellent bows but not to have used them4 ,stewart reports dances to bring deer which none of my informants remembered4 ,however1 even in his time the dances were said to be 8mainly for pleasure10 which suggests the sacred nature of such dances has gradually faded out of the consciousness of most modern ,washo1 particularly as deer hunting has become entirely an individual enterprise and is no longer central to ,washo subsistence4 ,gathering ,as stated earlier1 there appears to have been much less ritual involved in gathering activities1 perhaps because there was much less chance of failure than in hunting4 ,however1 ,stewart reports that sometimes dances were held to make seeds grow 7#bfai-bfba74 ,such gatherings appear to be remembered1 if at all1 by living ,washo only as social occasions4 ,the fall pine-nut dance was clearly part of the ritual of the pine-nut harvest 7#bfag1 #bfbb74 ,the pine nut was central to ,washo winter survival1 and its production was a matter of extreme concern4 ,even today the pine-nut harvest becomes a paramount interest among all the ,washo during the last part of the summer4 ,speculations as to its size1 wishes for rain1 and survey trips into the pine-nut hills become common1 and according to one informant3 8,if we have a couple of bad years somebody will say1 #8,we ought to have a pine-nut dance1' and then we'll have one40 ,the following account of the pine-nut dances of the past was given to me by a man1 now almost blind1 of between seventy-five and eighty4 ,his father claimed to be chief of the ,washo through an affinal relationship to the famous ,captain ,jim1 and my informant maintains the claim1 stoutly denied by all other ,washo except his relatives and admitted by them only when they are forced to depend on his hospitality4 ,the account is one of a well-regulated four-day ceremony of the first fruit4 ,however1 it will become apparent as other information is presented that it is a highly idealized version4 ,it is valuable1 however1 because it includes a number of sacred elements of obvious importance4 8,this prayer7#aa7 fella ,captain ,jim lived at ,double ,springs all year round4 ,he would have a dream telling him when to have a meeting4 ,he was what you would call a religious man4 ,he would get someone he could trust and send out a long1 tanned string of hide with knots in it4 ,for every day until the meeting there was a knot and every day the messenger untied a knot so the people would know how many days they had until the meeting4 8,all the men came and hunted for four days1 and the women would start gathering pine nut4 ,they would hang up the game to let it dry4 8,the prayer wouldn't eat meat during those four days but he could drink cold water1 and some lady would cook him pine nut4 8,every night they would have a dance4 ,on the fourth day everybody would bring the food they had and put it in front of the prayer1 and then he would pick some man who was fair just and the food was divided a little before sunrise4 ,if you have a small family you get less1 if you have a big family you get more47#ab7 8,then the prayer makes a prayer something like this3 #8,our father ,i dream that we must take a bath and then paint4 ,even the childrens 444 we must wash away the bad habits so we won't get sick from the food we have in front of us6' 8,then everybody go to the river 444 no matter if there was a little ice on the water1 and take a bath4 ,if they was not near the river they bathed the kids from baskets at ,double ,springs4 ,the prayer he prayed for pine nut1 rabbit1 and deer40 ,suzie ,dick1 an ancient ,washo woman who claims to have reached the century mark in #aiei1 recalls that ,captain ,jim was her mother's sister's son and that she called him brother4 ,he was a big man in a figurative if not a literal sense4 ,he wore eagle feathers on his head and arms4 ,he had red trousers made out of a blanket with feathers on the sides of the legs4 ,as she remembers him at these ceremonies3 8,he would scare you to death40 ,the assembled ,washo brought pine nuts1 deer meat1 megal ,indian tea1 and much other food4 ,captain ,jim prayed and gave a sermon1 urging everyone to drink water and avoid liquor1 and supervised four nights of dancing4 ,judging from the age of these two informants1 these meetings1 which they claim were attended by all the ,washo1 were held between #ahhj and #aijj4 ,most ,washo agree that these large meetings were the way 8they did it in the old days40 ,however1 8the old days0 appear not to be aboriginal but the late nineteenth century1 when the ,washo experienced a brief period of semi-unity and prosperity4 ,rupert1 the psychologically oriented shaman comments1 8,hell1 them northern ,washo didn't come down to ,double ,springs very much4 ,they got their pine nuts southeast of ,reno4 ,captain ,jim he was only a big man to them ,carson ,valley ,washo4 ,he didn't have nothing to say to the northern bunch40 ,despite this1 it seems clear that during the last part of the nineteenth century large numbers of ,washo from the various areas did1 in fact1 gather at ,double ,springs prior to the pine nutting4 ,it seems equally clear that this was distinctly a postwhite phenomenon and that in aboriginal times such gatherings were much smaller4 ,the essential elements of these pine-nut ceremonies are clear4 ,there was a gathering of a number of bands1 usually at the prompting of a dreamer who knew certain prayers and songs which would insure a successful harvest4 ,there was a sharing of food among the celebrants1 as well as dancing and ceremonial bathing4 ,such affairs were held in ,sierra ,valley and at ,double ,springs and probably at a number of other places in the pine-nut hills4 ,the large celebrations at ,double ,springs appear to have taken on a distinctly nativistic or revitalistic cast4 ,informants remember ,captain ,jim's exhortations to abstain from white man's whiskey1 to treat each other as brothers and sisters1 to eat ,indian food1 and to apply themselves to the business of hunting and gathering4 ,he himself refused to wear new white clothing but accepted only used garments4 ,it was during this period that ,washo received individual pine-nut allotments based on their traditional picking grounds4 ,mooney 7#ahif71 whose information on the ,washo was filtered through the ,paiute1 reports the ,washo during this period as a shattered remnant of a former society eking out an existence in the dump heaps of white settlements in ,nevada4 ,the fact that the ,washo did not respond to the ,ghost ,dance seems in his mind to support his notions about the condition of the tribe4 ,however1 among older informants this period is invariably recalled as an almost golden age4 ,although the implications of movements such as the ,ghost ,dance were not clear in ,mooney's time1 it seems more than likely that the ,washo failed to join the movement because they were not suffering the social and cultural dislocation of the ,paiute1 ,plains tribes1 or ,california ,indians and1 in fact1 may have been undergoing a process of social unification under ,captain ,jim4 ,this unification appears to have had its primary symbolization in the ritual activity which surrounded earlier ceremonies concerned with pine-nut harvesting4 ,the use of a hide string to summon people to the meeting appears earlier as a war signal used by a threatened band to entreat other ,washo 7often not too successfully7 to come to their aid4 ,with the death of ,captain ,jim1 the large gatherings at ,double ,springs appear to have ceased4 ,in the words of one informant1 8,when he died all them things like the knotted string and that stuff died with him40 ,after his death the pine-nut dances continued to be held in various places in ,washo country--,sugar ,loaf ,mountain1 ,genoa1 and ,sierra ,valley being the most frequently mentioned4 ,jim's daughter 7or sister's daughter7 who was married to the claimant ,captain ,pete and was the mother of the present claimant1 ,hank ,pete1 staged a number of dances around ,genoa until her death4 ,this action is of interest in view of the fact that she was considered a dangerous woman and a poisoner4 ,it suggests that there was in fact no clear distinction between doctors and witches or sorcerers4 ,her knowledge of pine-nut prayers and songs made her essential in the ceremony despite the fear the ,washo may have had of her4 ,since her death in the early #aidj's1 pine-nut dances have been less frequent4 ,only one woman among the ,washo is reputed to know all the songs1 although ,i suspect that several others are in possession of this knowledge but refuse to come forth and serve as leaders1 in keeping with ,washo reluctance to assume responsible roles4 ,after a number of years without a dance1 the custom was revived in the early #aiej's at ,dresslerville4 ,the dances were staged because previous crops had been poor and it was felt a dance would increase the harvest4 ,these dances1 supervised by the woman who knew the songs1 were not considered too successful because both ,indian dances and white men's dances were conducted4 ,indian dances were held outside the community house while younger couples danced in the white manner inside4 ,the prayers1 bathing1 and dreams played a very minor role1 although food was supplied4 ,from the accounts these dances sounded extremely secular with an emphasis on the recreational aspects1 particularly dancing4 ,however1 the consensus that the ceremonies were not successful because of the introduction of white-style dancing suggests that the ,indian dances still retain some of their former sacred character4 ,it was agreed that a dance might be held today or in the future if the crops were poor4 ,here again the present economic situation of the ,washo tends to limit these affairs to weekends4 ,the impossibility of holding four-day dances however1 is not considered serious by most ,washo4 ,several informants stoutly denied that there was any requirement that the dance last four days4 ,they implied that those who insisted on this were simply trying to make it sound more important 7note that using the figure four makes something more important74 ,their accounts report that the dances might last from one or two days to a week during which time games were played1 dances held1 and the ritual described earlier carried out4 ,however1 there is no doubt that the dances were important to the success of the harvest and the well-being of the harvesters4 ,one informant recalls that3 8,sometimes them pine nuts was ripe before the dance4 ,if we picked them then before the dance1 we took a bath every day before we started picking but we didn't have to do that after the dance40 ,the following incident illustrates the attitude most conservative ,washo have toward the pinyon pine4 ,d',azevedo 7personal communication7 accompanied an elderly woman to her pine-nut allotment where she discovered that illegal ,christmas-tree cutters had topped a number of trees1 which she believed destroyed their ability to bear4 ,her response was of sorrow rather than anger4 ,she sat under her trees for a long time apologizing to her father1 from whom she had inherited the plot1 and to the spirits of the trees4 ,there seems to have been little ritual involved in other gathering activities1 except for the dances to make the seeds grow mentioned in the element lists 7#bfba74 ,this practice must have been occasional and relatively old1 because it is no longer part of the memories of older informants4 ,,miscellaneous ,,ritual ,although modern informants do not remember taboos dealing with hair combing and scratching during menstruation1 they do recall being warned against combing their hair at night4 8,my father used to say that if we did it we'd marry out of the tribe4 ,mike 7her husband7 used to tell the same thing to our girls but they didn't listen and every one of them married out of the tribe40 ,the dried body of a bat1 described as having several different kinds of hair 7,lowie #aici1 p4 #ccb7 was a powerful gambling charm4 ,professional ,indian gamblers1 who traveled about the country participating in the hand game1 often carried one4 ,bat power was considered extremely dangerous if one did not know how to use it4 8,my daughter found a bat in a field one day1 but an old ,indian said that if she didn't know how to treat it1 it would eat up her children40 ,women especially were afraid of bat-talismans and of living bats4 ,the ,washo believe that a bat charm is also a powerful love medicine and that a woman once touched by such a charm is powerless in the hands of its owner4 8,you touch a woman with that thing and it hypnotizes her4 ,she follow the guy and die if she don't go with him4 ,i don't believe ,i ever heard of a ,washo use one4 ,we'd be too afraid4 ,but them ,paiutes and ,shoshones use it40 ,except for the painting of a girl during her puberty dance1 painting of the face and body had little part in ,washo ritualism1 although its social significance may have been important 7,lowie #aici1 p4 #cjd74 ,however1 certain other customs of dress and adornment appear to have had religious significance4 ,eagle feathers and magpie feathers1 as well as a bearskin robe1 conferred power4 ,a similar notion may explain the use of the skin of the agile and wise long-tailed weasel as a binding for hair braids4 ,the hooting of an owl or singing of birds at night was considered as a warning of danger or an omen of death4 ,,influence ,,of ,,christianity ,the ,washo have been exposed to ,christianity from two main sources4 ,missionary groups have maintained representatives from time to time at one or another of the ,washo colonies4 ,a church dominates the appallingly dreary landscape of ,dresslerville4 ,weather and neglect have caused the building to deteriorate4 ,permanent missionizing efforts apparently have been abandoned4 ,one church group carries on a summer ,bible class for children and sewing classes for women4 ,funerals are generally conducted by a ,christian minister1 but this appears to be a sop to white opinion rather than the result of any real desire on the part of the ,washo to become ,christians4 ,at best they seem to have simply incorporated ,christian services as another source of power4 ,it is less than surprising that a people whose main religious emphasis seems to have been on curing or subsistence ritual should have found white doctors useful but white ministers a rather mysterious and superfluous bit of white culture4 ,the other main source of ,christian ideas has been the peyote cult1 which includes a roughly ,christian version of ,god and ,christ visualized as the father and the brother4 ,the cross1 pictures of ,christ1 and references to ,jesus play a role in peyote ceremonialism4 ,other investigators 7d',azevedo and ,merriam #aiea2 ,stewart #aidd7 have noted a shift toward ,indian tradition in the ,washo peyote cult1 with an attending reduction of ,christian ideas4 ,the attitude of one ,washo woman sums the question up quite well3 8,i think them peyote people she was not a peyotist but had encouraged her son to attend a meeting to cure a back injury believe more what they doing than the white preacher40 ,her own religion is summed up in her actions4 ,in addition to sending her son to peyote meetings1 she had taken her granddaughter to the shaman and is a regular attendant at the church sewing school4 ,she was also the person who waited until the minister left the church to repeat ancient funeral prayers4 ,,bibliography ,abbreviations ,,aa3 ,american ,anthropologist ,,bae3 ,bureau of ,american ,ethnology ,,si-,,mc3 ,smithsonian ,institution1 ,miscellaneous ,collections ,,uc3 ,university of ,california ,publications ,,uc-,,ar3 ,anthropological ,records ,,uc-,,paae3 ,american ,archaeology and ,ethnology ,barrett1 ,samuel ,a4 #aiag4 ,the ,washo ,indians4 ,bull4 ,milwaukee ,pub4 ,mus41 ,vol4 #b1 ,no4 #a1 pp4 #a-eb4 ,cartwright1 ,w4 ,d4 #aieb4 ,a ,washo ,girls' ,puberty ,ceremony4 ,pro4 #cjth ,int4 ,cong4 of ,americanists1 pp4 #acf-adb4 ,london4 ,dangberg1 ,grace #aibg4 ,washo ,texts4 ,,uc-,,paae #bb3cia-ddc4 d',azevedo1 ,warren ,l41 and ,a4 ,p4 ,merriam #aieg4 ,washo ,peyote ,songs4 ,,aa #ei3fae-fda4 ,freed1 ,stanley ,a4 #aifj4 ,changing ,washo ,kinship4 ,,uc-,,ar #ad3cdi-dah4 ,heizer1 ,robert ,f4 #aiej4 ,kutsavi1 ,a ,great ,basin ,indian ,food4 ,kroeber ,anthro4 ,papers1 ,no4 #b 7,fall71 pp4 #ce-da4 ,kroeber1 ,alfred ,l4 #aijg4 ,religion of the ,indians of ,california4 ,,uc-,,paa #d3cai-cef4 ,kluckhohn1 ,clyde1 and ,dorothea ,leighton #aidg4 ,the ,navaho4 ,cambridge2 ,london4 ,lowie1 ,robert ,h4 #aici4 ,ethnographic ,notes on the ,washo4 ,,uc-,,paae #cf3cja-ceb4 ,mooney1 ,james #ahif4 ,the ,ghost ,dance ,religion and the ,sioux ,outbreak of #ahij4 ,,bae #adth ,ann4 ,report1 ,part #b1 pp4 #fda-aacf4 #aibh4 ,aboriginal population of ,america ,north of ,mexico4 ,,si-,,mc #hj1 ,no4 #g1 ,washington1 ,d4 ,c4 ,siskin1 ,e4 ,e4 ,,ms ,the ,impact of the ,peyote ,cult ,upon ,shamanism ,among the ,washo ,indians4 ,ph4,d4 ,diss4 #aida4 ,yale ,univ4 ,steward1 ,julian ,h4 #aicf4 ,myths of the ,owens ,valley ,paiute4 ,,uc-,,paae #cd3cee-ddj4 #aida4 ,culture ,element ,distribution1 ,,xiii3 ,nevada ,shoshone4 ,,uc-,,ar #d3bji-cfj4 ,stewart1 ,omer ,c4 #aida4 ,culture ,element ,distribution1 ,,xiv3 ,northern ,paiute4 ,,uc-,,ar #d3cfa-ddf4 #aidd4 ,washo-,northern ,paiute ,peyotism4 ,,uc-,,paae #dj3fc-adb4 ,whiting1 ,beatrice ,blyth #aiej4 ,paiute ,sorcery1 ,new ,york4 ,,footnotes #a ,w4 ,l4 d',azevedo1 basing his opinions on extensive field work in the area1 contends that early estimates of ,washo population were incorrect and that modern figures based on these estimates are inaccurate4 ,a contemporary estimate1 made by a resident journalist in #ahha1 was somewhat over #c1jjj4 #b ,this statement should not be considered as an indication of matrilineality in ,washo society4 ,freed and d',azevedo1 who have done extensive work in kinship and social organization of this group1 seemed to agree that the ,washo were loosely bilateral with certain formalized patrilineal elements4 ,however1 because of fragile marriages1 many ,washo have had a longer and closer association with their mothers' families than with their fathers'1 or with those of any of their mothers' subsequent husbands4 #c ,kluckhohn reports that the payment for joining a coven of ,navajo witches is often the life of a relative 7#aidg1 p4 #aca74 #d ,this story very closely parallels one recorded by ,james ,hatch among the ,yokuts4 ,kroeber ,anthropological ,society ,papers1 ,no4 #ai1 ,fall1 #aieh4 #e ,regular ,indian doctors were forbidden to treat members of their own families1 a prohibition which appears not to have extended to a non-shamanistic curer4 #f ,captain ,jim is the only ,washo whom the ,washo generally accept as having been a leader of the entire tribe4 ,other claimants to the title of chief of the ,washo are contemptuously discounted4 ,there were in the past a number of men1 usually considered leaders of a 8bunch0 who were called 8captains0 or1 less often1 8chiefs0 because they dealt with the white population4 ,the entire institution of captain may well be a post-white development4 #g ,the willingness of the ,washo to send gravely ill persons to the hospital seems in part motivated by the wish to avoid a death in the house4 #h ,the concern for these particular graves may be in part motivated by the fact that they are a focal point in a ,washo land claim4 ,because of ,california law concerning cemeteries1 the ,indians contend that the tourist camp presently on the site is there illegally and that the land is theirs4 ,thus far the camp operator has been enjoined from removing or desecrating the graves1 but the ,indians' claim has not been considered4 #i ,this statement was made to point out to me that in other times only special people1 inspired by dreams1 would have suggested a rabbit hunt4 #aj ,this kind of a statement was common and whenever it was made suggestions of special power were made explicit later in the conversation1 or were implied by the attitude of the informant4 #aa ,used in an adjectival sense4 ,in the reference below prayer is used nominally4 #ab ,no matter how reluctant aged ,washo may have been to discuss other aspects of the past1 they became eloquent about any occasion on which food was plentiful4 ,they describe in minute detail the kinds and amount of food at a feast although they cannot remember the time1 place1 or those present4