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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PUBLICATIONS

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AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY

Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 35-102, plates 1-20 February 27, 1918

 

THE YANA’ INDIANS

BY

T. T. WATERMAN

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CONTENTS

PAGE
The Yana stock 35
Literature 36
Geography and habitat 37
Early contact with the whites 41
The Yahi meet disaster 52
The period of concealment 53
Discovery of a Yahi village in 1908 61
History of the last survivor 64
Conclusion 68
Sources of information 69

THE YANA STOCK

The present paper is an attempt to summarize the history of a
small group of Indians in northeastern California. They are usually
referred to as a ‘‘stock’’ for lack of a better term. ‘‘Yana’’ applies
really to the natives speaking a certain group of dialects; and hence
such a word as tribe, though in common use when referring to Indians,
seems hardly appropriate here. The people concerned had appar-
ently no political unity. The characteristic thing for the group as
a whole is the linguistic bond, for in other matters, such as culture
and physical make-up, these people exhibit relatively few differences
from their neighbors. The stock is an important one, however, not
solely for its own sake, but also because, for certain rather extra-
ordinary reasons, a few members of it remained conservative much
longer than the other Indians in California, retaining their primitive
mode of life in a very unusual degree until 1908. I should like to
recount the career of these Indians, from the date of the white occu-
36 University of California Publications in Am. Arch. and Ethn. [Vol. 13

pation to the present, with special reference to the one division
which eventually became dissociated from the rest, and preserved
what might be called its independence, for so long. The story is
one that has a good deal of human interest. At the present time the
whole linguistic stock is practically extinct, not more than a few dozen
scattered individuals surviving.

The Yana territory lay in Tehama County, east of the Sacramento
River, its southern margin some one hundred and fifty miles north
of San Francisco. It was a rather compact area adjacent to the east-
ern border of the Sacramento Valley, but, on the whole, outside of
it. Their original domain was a region some thirty miles in width,
between the edge of the great valley and the Sierra crest. From north
to south it extended about seventy miles. The Yana seem to have
been somewhat crowded by numerically stronger stocks on every side,
and to have been always more or less on the defensive. While occa-
sionally referred to by various writers, they remained until recent
years relatively little known. In their general mode of existence,
their material culture, and their mythology, they may be considered
a typical Californian people.

LITERATURE

The published materials used in the present study are listed in
a terminal bibliography. Of these papers I should like to mention
certain ones as especially important. The classical work on the Calli-
fornian Indians is by Stephen Powers, Tribes of California. This
monograph devotes several pages to the Indians we are dealing with,
though under different names. His ‘‘Nozi’’ and ‘‘Kombo’’ tribes
belong to the stock now recognized as Yana. What he has to say is
highly colored and brief, but rather useful. Jeremiah Curtin, a
famous author and linguist, who for a time was associated with the
Bureau of American Ethnology, worked with the Yana and developed
a good deal of sentimental interest in them, busying himself in their
behalf in the east. In his Creation Myths of Primitive America
there are thirteen Yana myths (the last in his series) and some inform-
ation in the form of notes. By far the most important investigations
however, are those of Dr. Edward Sapir, in recent years director of
ethnological work in the Canadian Geological Survey. An early
paper, Yana Texts, containing twenty-seven myths and a good deal
of ethnography in the form of texts and notes, has recently been sup-
plemented by a second paper on the relation of the Yanan dialects
1918] Waterman: The Yana Indians 37

with the dialects of other areas. A brief but highly important paper
by Kroeber and Dixon, New TInnguistic Families in California, deals
among other matters with the general relation of Yanan with other
languages.

Some of the information embodied in the present paper was
obtained directly from informants who were personally familiar with
the episodes discussed. The native geographical information espe-
cially was obtained in large part from Ishi, the last survivor of that
group of Yana who remained in a primitive state. This informant died
at the University of California in March, 1916. -

GEOGRAPHY AND HABITAT

No effort has been made in the present paper to go systematically
into the matter of ethnography, although there is considerable inform-
ation now available. Geography for our present purpose is incidental
merely. In a general way, it is now known that the Yana, instead of
being an isolated stock, as was for many years assumed, is one unit
in a widely scattered group, the ‘‘Hokan’’ of Kroeber and Dixon.
The conclusions reached by the last mentioned writers, as far as the
Yana and related stocks are concerned, are illustrated in the appended
diagram (map 2). The Yana proper, whose distribution is shown
in solid black on this diagram, manifestly do not derive their impor-
tance from the extent of their territory, which is very cramped. Even
within this limited area, there are now recognized four separate
dialects: a northern, a central, a southern, and a Yahi. Of these,
Sapir mentions three in his Yana Texts (1910, p. 2). The existence
of the fourth, or Yahi dialect has been established on evidence made
available since his paper was written.

The limits of these dialects are indicated on the appended large
map, number 1. These boundaries are only approximately correct.
In fact the exact lines of demarcation must remain highly conjectural.
The actual amount of divergence between these dialects, and the
relations between them, does not especially concern us here. It is
enough to remark that the difference in language was considerable,
and that along with it went a feeling of strangeness and hostility
between the dialect groups. They certainly did not feel community
of language-stock as any particular bond. The term ‘‘Nozi’’ used
by Powers probably refers to what is now called the central group.
The Yana still living about Redding recognize the term and apply
it to themselves. The ‘‘Kombo’’ of Powers are the people who call
38 University of California Publications in Am. Arch.and Ethn. [Vol. 18

themselves Yahi. This term Yahi is itself a dialectic form of the word
‘“Yana,’’ and both terms mean simply, ‘‘people.’’ The ‘‘Kombo’’ or
Yahi were lost sight of for so long that they became at one time almost
a legendary folk.

The external limits of Yana territory are also somewhat uncer-
tain. Probably there was more or less overlapping, valley tribes
going into the foothills on hunting expeditions, and the foothill peo-
ples visiting the valley when they could, or when through starvation,
they had to. There may have been extended periods of comparative
quiet, when the hunting, fishing, and seed-gathering grounds were
to some extent shared. At any rate, the Yana had their own names

    
   

MAP

SHOWING THE DISTRIBUTION
OF THE

HOKAN

STOCK

  

Map 2. The distribution of Hokan languages in California. The area
occupied by the Yana is shown in solid black.
1918] Waterman: The Yana Indians 39

for places many miles away in the territory of other peoples, far
beyond the boundaries of the country which they themselves might
be said to control. For example, there is a Yana name for Fall River
Mills, on Pit River (map H-1).

Concerning the geographical features of the region in general,
several remarks may be made. Yana territory stretches between two
of California’s best known streams, Feather River and Pit River.
Both drain westward into the Sacramento. As a matter of fact,
where the Pit meets the Sacramento, the Pit is the larger of the two.
Above their junction the Sacramento is hardly more than a large
mountain creek. This whole countryside rises gradually from the
level valley bordering the Sacramento, having an elevation of three
hundred or four hundred feet, to the high Sierras on the east, where
the peaks reach an altitude of ten thousand five hundred. This whole
region is dominated by Lassen Butte, known to the Yana as Little
Mount Shasta (Wahkanupa). The character of the scenery in this
part of California is largely derived from the fact that the formations
are voleanic. The ancient lava flows extend clear to the level valley
on the west. The southern part of the area, with which I am per-
sonally familiar, is on account of its voleanic nature extremely wild
in places even today. Deer, for example, are still plentiful. The
region abounds in cliffs and caves, and some of its gorges are pictur-
esque in the extreme. Around Lassen Butte itself (called locally, by
the way, as though it were ‘‘Lawson’’ Butte) there are still abundant
signs of voleanic activity. The Lassen region was known to the Indians
as P'ulp‘uli, from the frequent occurrence of steaming hot springs.
Quite recently, of course, Mount Lassen staged a fairly lively voleanic
eruption. It is the only active voleano, I believe, anywhere in the
United States. What the Indians would have thought of this eruption
would be extremely interesting to find out. Unfortunately, as far as
we know, none of them were left to witness it. It was through this
region, by the way, that a famous emigrant road to the gold-diggings
passed. It was known as the Lassen Trail, and traces of it can still
be seen today. Bits of iron from the old wagons, ox shoes, and even an
oceasional wooden yoke are still to be found scattered along the ridges.
A large number of people used it in the years just following the dis-
covery of gold. ;

The large streams which bound this region, Hat Creek to the
northeast, Pit River across the north, the Sacramento, and to the
southeast the northern fork of Feather River, were all, I think, in
40 University of California Publications in Am. Arch.and Ethn. [Vol. 13

the possession of peoples alien or hostile to the Yana; except that the
latter according to Sapir occupied one bank of Pit River for a short
distance. Possibly the best way of describing the Yana territory
would be to say that they were excluded from the valleys of the Sac-
ramento, Pit River, Hat Creek, and the north fork of Feather River
by more numerous and more happily situated Indian peoples. The
boundary lines of the Yana area on the map therefore follow the water-
sheds between these streams. All of the places where the Yana made
historical appearances (that is, where they had fights with the whites),
are in the foothill region, below the line of the pine timber. This
region of brush and rocks was their principal sojourning ground, and
main reliance. They were emphatically a foothill people.

Authorities differ considerably concerning the border line of Yana
territory in the Sacramento Valley. Powers says that their domain
reached to within a mile of the Sacramento. Powell on the other hand
says it stopped short ten miles from the river (1884, p. xxxvii). The
truth is that no geographical features exist which would make the first
of these two statements plausible. Sapir implies that the Yana dwelt
in places along the river bank. In this he is almost certainly mistaken.
The probability is that the strong and numerous Wintun who held
the valley would not have tolerated Yana settlements. I feel con-
vineed that the Yana territory really stopped at the line between the
foothills and the valley floor, especially as the foothills are lava, and
the terrain there is vastly different from that of the valley. In the
absence of definite certainty on this point, I have placed the border line
on the map at the thousand-foot contour. That seems to me to approxi-
mate the probable boundary line as closely as anything would, and it
is at least something definite.

The total number of people speaking Yana was probably never
large. Curtin speaks of three thousand. This may be in excess of
the number actually existing at the time of the first white occupation,
even counting all four dialects. In 1885 Curtin was able to round up
about thirty Yana-speaking informants. Dr. Sapir in 1907 found only
six or seven surviving. They were in the neighborhood of Redding,
and around Montgomery Creek in Shasta County, and could give
information relative to the Northern and Central dialects. The South-
ern dialect was in 1907 regarded as already extinct, and the existence
of a Yahi dialect was not even suspected. This latter dialect was pre-
served for more than forty years by a remnant of the group, not
exceeding four or five, who lived by themselves hidden away in the
1918] Waterman: The Yana Indians 41

southern part of their area. All over this region there are numerous
ancient village sites, marked by the occurrence of the inevitable heap
of black kitchen-earth mingled with bones and artifacts, which accom-
pany primitive man’s places of settlement the world over. Some of
these Yahi middens are several yards in thickness. A great number of
the caverns also show the results of long continued occupation. Such
evidence of course gives no definite information on the question of
population or positive antiquity. Some of the most favorable places,
however, must have been occupied for many centuries. As late as
1885 some old Yahi brush lodges were standing on Little Antelope
Creek (map C-3) though long deserted and falling by that time to
decay. This place was a very old site, as shown by the existence there
of a thick pile of refuse.

EARLY CONTACT WITH THE WHITES

It is really impossible to separate entirely the history of the Yana,
during the early history of white occupation, from that of other groups.
There was lttle understanding, on the part of the whites, of the
linguistic and other distinctions between the Indian stocks, and little
effort made to distinguish between them. In the very early chronicles
of the state, the Yana do not appear by name. They existed, but they
lived in the remote hills and did not visit the navigable rivers or the
well traveled routes. I should like to recount a number of incidents
connected with the relation between Indians and whites in this part
of the state in the ‘‘early days.’’ The Yana were not immediately
concerned in all of them, but they felt the effects indirectly. These
incidents moreover show the sort of things which happened in those
days, and help to explain the subsequent attitude of the Yana toward
the whites.

I may say in advance that their relations as a tribe with the whites
began and ended in trouble. The earliest printed reference to Indian
disturbances in this region is found in a History of Butte County, by
Wells and Chambers, and is associated with the year 1851.

Mr. Pence (this name occurs as Pentz in the government documents and on
the maps) is affronted by a ‘‘Concow’’ Indian, who adopts a threatening and
belligerent attitude. To put down this ebullition of aboriginal ferocity, and
to render Mr. Pentz’s person secure, the Concow chief was executed by hanging
(Wells, p. 217).

The Concow Indians referred to in connection with this episode

where the Maidu group living along Concow Creek (map G-12). This
same Pentz played a conspicuous part in later events. For example
42 University of California Publications in Am. Arch.and Ethn. [Vol. 13

he next leads a party in the vicinity of Dogtown, on Little Butte
Creek (map F-12):

1853.—Certain ‘‘Tiger’’ Indians steal cattle. Our friend Pentz leads a
party in pursuit of them, and twenty-five Indians are killed near Dogtown.
An Indian called Express Bill is captured and hanged. The whites in Dogtown
refuse to aid the party. Later, when a ‘‘raid’’ on the north fork of Feather
River is reported, Pentz leads a party into the field, and from forty to sixty
Indians are killed.

It was usually the case that, as here, the whites never proceeded
against the Indians of their own neighborhood. None of the pioneer
communities held any grudge against their own local aborigines. The
massacres were practically always the work of a small group of unau-
thorized whites, acting against the Indians of some other locality. A
distant Indian was a bad Indian, it seems.

A few years later the Yana proper, probably the Yahi division,
appear in local history. This group, the most southerly of the Yana
peoples, made their home on and about Deer Creek (map D-10) and
Mill Creek (map D-9) and are often referred to as ‘‘Mill Creeks.’’
They seem to have been, compared to other Indians, an independent
and warlike group. At any rate, a party which invaded their haunts
came out with that impression.

1857.—In the vicinity of Tehama (map C-9), Indians raid the valley and
cause much uneasiness. People are said to have been killed, houses fired, and
stock driven off. A party of whites files into the hills to visit retribution on
the Indians, traveling up the Lassen Trail. In the vicinity of Bluff Camp
(map 8-F) they run into an ambuscade, and make a sudden exit to the valley
(Anderson, pp. 4-5). Later another party chases the Indians, who have stolen
some mules, and finds them hidden in a cave near the head of Dry Creek (map

F-9). Although fired upon, the Indians escape. The mules, however, were
killed and eaten (Anderson, p. 8).

It is, I think, worth comment that the Indians took from the whites
for culinary purposes not only oxen, but also horses and mules. Such
livestock was always killed and eaten. Mule meat they are said to
have preferred. The author of the above account points out that when
the Indians took refuge in one place, they always hid their ‘‘jerky’’
(dried deer or mule meat) somewhere else. If chased out of their
camp, their supplies were where they could be visited and utilized
later. It is said that at this time General Kibbey sent a company of
United States cavalry to operate against these Indians, and that the
cavalry also were surprised and chased to the valley. I can find no
record of any such occurrence, but if true, it proves that these Mill
Creek Indians were active and bold.

From this time on they seem to have been most belligerent. They
certainly drove off and destroyed a good deal of property, and several
1918] Waterman: The Yana Indians 43

rather atrocious murders of white people were committed by them. I
want to say at the outset that these murders by the Indians, murders
for example of women and children, were not one whit more cruel or
pitiless than the murders of Indians by whites. I incline wholly to
the belief that the whites started everything of the sort. They were
certainly, in the general nature of things, the aggressors, pushing
constantly into Indian country. It must be remembered that as late
as 1861 Indians according to California law could be indentured, that
is, practically enslaved (U.S. Office of Indian Affairs, Rep. of the
Com’r. for 1861, p. 147). Statements by white pioneers prove con-
elusively that many of their number were strangers to mercy or
humanity where Indians were involved. I believe therefore that the
murders the Indians committed were in the nature of plain, old-
fashioned revenge. The Yahi seem to have differed from all other
Indians in this part of the region in having opportunity, or seizing
opportunities, for the revenge they considered themselves entitled to.
In my opinion their opportunity lay in this, that they inhabited a
very rough region, little traveled and unknown, with endless possibili-
ties for hiding; and moreover, having been pressed for generations
by the valley Indians, they had learned the art of ‘‘hit and run away.”’
Every account refers to their extraordinary skill in getting clear.
This was true even of the last remnants of the stock, who lived a
wild life- to within the last few years. So much for the general
setting. The Yahi throughout the opening period of their history
were getting justice as best they could with weapons and swift legs.

In the meantime Indians far and wide were visited with blame for
the acts committed by the Yahi, and many inoffensive groups were
removed from the country. The Indian population rapidly diminished.
I strongly suspect that the unreconstructed belligerency of the Yahi
during this period was largely due to the increased difficulty of their
life. Hemmed in more and more in their lava hills, and cut off more
and more from acorn grounds and fishing places, they probably visited
the valley and stole livestock to escape famine and actual starvation.
Hounded by the whites for these offenses, they turned on pursuing
parties on many occasions, profiting by surprises, and relying on their
skill in evasion to get them off.

A number of such events concerning the Yana are crowded into
the years 1858 and 1859. For example, one hundred and eighty-one
Indians along Battle Creek were removed to the Nome Lackee Reserva-
tion, twenty miles east of Tehama on thie west side of the valley (U.S.
44 University of California Publications in Am. Arch.and Ethn. [Vol. 13

Office of Indian Affairs Rep. of Comm. for 1858, p. 289). Most of
them were diseased, presumably with venereal ailments judging from
the phraseology used. They probably spoke Southern Yana, and
this removal may account for the disappearance of the Southern
dialect from the scene. The Indians thus concentrated at Nome
Lackee were scattered prior to the year 1861. The reservation build-
ings as a matter of fact were wrecked, and the site practically aban-
doned. Probably few if any of the Battle Creek people returned to
their own territory. So we witness here the exit from history of one
Yana dialect.

In the following year (1859) the Yahi were involved in several
episodes which I should like to recount in some detail. The first one
is a campaign organized against them under the name of ‘‘ Mill Creek

Indians.’’

1859.—Raids by Indians become constant. A fund of $3,000 is raised to
finance a campaign against them, and placed in charge of a storekeeper named
Cohen at Mayhew stage station, on Deer Creek. Three well known characters
are members of one party, namely, ‘‘Hi’’ Good, who appears continually in
subsequent chronicles, a man named Breckinridge, and R. A. Anderson, the
author of a work much quoted in the present paper. The ‘‘company’’ moves
up the Campbell trail, just north of Pine Creek (map E-11), to Deer Creek
flats (map E-10), and then northward right through the Yahi haunts. No
Indians however are seen. Moving to Black Buttes on Mill Creek, the company
goes in to camp on the north side of the stream. Meanwhile a large number of
the very Indians they are seeking, are camped in hiding under a point of rock
a little down stream. These Indians send one of their number to shoot into
the white camp with a rifle once in a while, to keep everybody’s attention
occupied, while the remainder of the redskins fell a tree, cross upon it to the
south side of the stream, and get away. They were mostly, from the foot-
prints, women and children.

Next day the party of whites picks up the spoor of ten or a dozen warriors,
leading northward toward Paine’s creek. This part of the band are pursued
by the whites to Battle Creek Meadows (map G-7), then further to Lassen
Butte, then clear into the cafion of Hat Creek (map G-2). Here the Indians
turn back, and the whites follow them over the same ground, but keeping
somewhat to the west of their up-track. The Indians embrace an opportunity
to kill a ‘‘bullwhacker’’ (ox-driver) near a sawmill northwest of Red Bluff.
The whites finally halt on the Keefer ridge (map F-11), between Rock Creek
and Chico Creek (Anderson, pp. 10-20).

Somewhere during this chase the whites were evidently thrown
completely off the scent. They lost their quarry, probably somewhere
in Deer Creek. They maintained however their purpose of killing
some Indians. On the ridge to the south of Chico Creek, near what
is now the Forest Ranch (map F-11), in what is probably Maidu ter-
ritory, they found a camp of Indians. That these were not the Mill
Creeks they had been pursuing is amply proved by the fact that
1918] Waterman: The Yana Indians 45

meanwhile, the Mill Creeks themselves were visiting Anderson’s own
farm on Deer Creek and taking away everything on the premises
(Anderson, p. 37). The dealings of this white force with the Indians
encamped near Forest Ranch are worth recounting. To quote an
‘eyewitness :

‘After a careful study of the ground, we returned to our camp. On this
return trip we ran upon an Indian scout and after a long hard chase, killed
him. We carried his scalp to camp with us, this being the first trophy we
had taken in the campaign... . ,

It was a weary climb out of Chico Creek cajion in the darkness, but we made
it and succeeded in surrounding the hostile camp before daylight.... As
the gray dawn melted into daylight, the outlines of the camp became clearer.
It was evidently a permanent meeting place, as there were signs of its having
been frequently occupied. Directly in front of me and standing something
like a hundred yards apart, were two lofty pine trees, trimmed of branches
except for small tufts of foliage on their tops, and, what was my surprise, as
the heavens grew brighter, to behold a large American flag depending from
the top of each tree... .

Then a man emerged from a cluster of little firs and came shuffling up
the trail directly toward where I lay. Captain Breckinridge had not yet given
the signal to commence firing, so I slipped around my tree in order to remain
hidden. As the man approached and passed me, I perceived that he was not
an Indian, but a Spaniard. However, birds flocking together on this occasion
were to be considered birds of a feather. The man had got but a few paces
past me when Hi Good spied him. In a moment Good’s rifle spoke, and the
Spaniard, wounded, sprang back toward the camp. As he ran another rifle
over on the other side of our circle cracked, and he fell dead.

The camp was roused. In a twinkling, up the Indians sprang, men, women,
and children, and as if with one impulse they swarmed up the slope directly
toward where I lay....

Soon we came in possession of the camp. There was not a bad Indian to
be found, but about forty good ones lay scattered about.

Two barrels, partly filled with whiskey, were in the camp, as well as other
evidences which pointed to the fact that whites had joined with the redskins
in the recent celebrations’? (Anderson, pp. 23-24).

It is perfectly certain that a party with women and children and
two barrels of whiskey, had not been to Lassen Butte and back. Nor
would the belligerent Yahi have occupied a permanent and public
camp, to say nothing of getting drunk. The stealing of Anderson’s
horses while this is going on, gives them an alibi in any case. So the
Indians killed, were not the Indians the party of whites had been
chasing. An incident recounted by our author on a subsequent page
explains the presence of the Indians at this resort. Going into a
mining town on Butte Creek the next day, the party finds wounded
Indians, and an angry storekeeper named Wallace. He says that his
own squaw had been wounded in the ‘‘fight’’ of the day before, and
that he himself had been an inmate of the camp only one day prior to
46 University of California Publications in Am. Arch.and Ethn. [Vol. 13

the killing. In other words the whites and Indians of this vicinity
had been having some sort of a ‘‘jamboree.’” However reprehensible
their action may have been in getting drunk, there is no question
but that a lot of ‘‘tame’’ Indians, well and favorably known to their
white neighbors along Butte Creek, were shot down in cold blood.
In other words, forty murders were committed.

A short time later another party of whites locates an Indian camp
on Deer Creek, two miles above Tom Polk’s cabin (map G-9). The
Indians (in this case, Yahi) when attacked, hide in water waist-deep,
under an overhang of the bank. A ‘‘Doctor’’ Indian (who appears in
various fatal episodes, apparently having as many lives as a cat) fights
a lone battle and is killed. The rest surrender. The captive Yahi
according to Anderson are taken to the Nome Lackee Reservation.
I have been able to find no other mention of them. Meanwhile, and
up to the middle of winter, other Yahi Indians uninterruptedly raid
the valley, the disturbances reaching the ears of the Office of Indian
Affairs (Geiger, in Report for 1859, p. 488). Anderson says that
though many Mill Creeks were killed, their number did not grow
smaller. He thinks they were continually reinforced by renegades
from the outside. This is probably a mistake. The secret was that
the Yahi had a knack of getting other people killed in place of them-
selves. On a number of occasions during this period they were seen,
but I know of no incidents worth recounting.

They were, however, ‘‘making themselves felt,’’ and this continued
through several years. In the year 1862 several important events
occurred, which are often spoken of in the region even yet. On the
eighteenth of June a meeting was held at Forks of Butte (map G-11)
to formulate grievances against the Mill Creek Indians. They were
said to have admitted a number of murders. Twenty-four men volun-
teered to proceed against them vt et armis. Almost while this meet-
ing was in progress, a certain Thomas Allen, teaming for J. L. Keefer,
was killed by the Indians. Apparently on the same day, a party of
the Yahi (probably the same individuals) ran across the children of
a family named Hickok, living on Rock Creek (map E-11). A girl,
sixteen years of age, was shot to death with arrows, and along with
her, a sister of fourteen. A boy somewhat younger was carried off
(Wells, p. 218; Anderson, p. 54). The boy according to Anderson
was stoned to death, while Wells reports that his toes and fingers
were cut off. Other authors allude vaguely to cremation. This mur-
der has never been forgotten to the present day. News of it at the
1918] Waterman: The Yana Indians 47

time rang across the country-side. Hi Good and another well known
character, Sandy Young, boss vaquero for the Bidwell Ranch at Chico,
went after the Indians and are said to have killed eight. (Whether
the eight were Mill Creeks or not is another matter; for a few years
later the Mill Creeks are still apparently as strong as ever.) Leland
Stanford wrote to General Wright (of the Military Department of
the Pacific) concerning these outrages, and troops were dispatched
to operate against the Mill Creeks (War Records, vol. 50, part 1, p.
1162). There was much talk of killing all the Indians in the country,
and the U. 8. troops had orders in this connection to protect peaceable
tribes, such as the Big Meadows people, from hostile Indians and
from unauthorized white organizations (ibid., part 2, p. 28). It was
not clear to the military authorities just which Indians had committed
the murders spoken of. In September some United States cavalry
operated through Battle Creek, Antelope Creek, Mill Creek, and Deer
Creek, finding only ‘‘signs’’ three weeks old. The officer in command,
Captain Henry B. Mellen, reports that all the settlers believed that the
Indians should be utterly removed from the country. The military
forces apparently did not get into contact with the Yahi, though they
scouted all through their country. The Indians were evidently in hid-
ing somewhere, and probably had the troops under observation every
moment of the time.

In the meantime, in August of this year, the Yahi visited Ander-
son’s place and took the horses from his barn, setting it on fire. When
he ran out, the rocks were still wet from the wash where they had
forded the creek. Being followed, they ran up Dry Creek toward
the cliffs of Mill Creek. When he saw them for a moment, they were
trying to repack one of the horses with ‘‘plunder’’ they had taken.
This plunder consisted of corn and other garden truck, which would
seem to indicate that the Indians were very badly off at this time.
Otherwise they would not have risked their lives for the sake of a
few green vegetables. Conditions after that grew rapidly worse for
them. Even the Yahi were not able to escape as they had up to this
time. In June of the following year (1863) they stole horses belong-
ing to Solomon Gore, but were followed by a party of whites. They
took one of the animals up the almost perpendicular defile opposite
the mouth of Sulphur Creek, in Deer Creek cafion (map E-9). It is
folklore in the country that the horse hung on by his teeth. The

marks could be seen on the bushes!
The, pursuing party crosses Little Dry Creek, Big Dry Creek, and reaches
the cliff of Mill Creek cafion. From this cliff they see objects moving on the
48 University of California Publications in Am. Arch.and Ethn. [Vol. 13

slopes below, and finally make them out to be Indian women gathering grass
seeds. They hurry downward as secretly as possible, and get within a few
hundred yards of the women. Suddenly an Indian lookout on the cliff behind
them, gives a warning shout. The whites follow the flying squaws over the
brow of the slope and come in sight of their camp. Here they are trying to
pack a horse. There are a number of men. Being charged by the whites, the
Indians scatter. Under a pile of new quilts the whites find an Indian boy
who has slept through the battle. They leave him unharmed, and staring
after them. Seven or eight Indians are killed (Anderson, p. 64).

Feeling was apparently very strong at the time against redskins
of all descriptions. Five Indians, affiliations unknown, were hanged
at Helltown (map F-12) on suspicion of having committed robberies
(Wells, p. 219).

In July a party of Indians ‘‘on the war path’’ passed through the
Clear Creek country (map F-13) midway between Chico and Oro-
ville. They are said to have been Mill Creek Indians (that is, Yahi)
though Clear Creek is to the south of Butte Creek, and Butte Creek
itself is probably outside of the Yahi range. In any case, these
Indians fell upon members of the Lewis family of the neighborhood.
The oldest boy was shot with a rifle, while a younger boy, along
with his sister, Thankful Lewis, was carried off. The little boy soon
grew leg-weary and was killed, pitiful as that may seem. His sister
managed to escape, and lives today, as Mrs. Carson, in the vicinity of
Chico. Luckily she has written a story of her terrible experience,
about which many accounts are current in the country (see bibli-
ography). A party of whites, roused by the incident, picked up the
trail, or a trail, and followed it to Deer Creek cafion, across this cafion,
and up the defile just spoken of, on to the pine flat beyond, killing
one Indian. In this country the Indians scattered, taking advantage
of the abundant cover, and the chase was over.

Mrs. Carson mentions (page 3) that two of the Indians had
their heads all tarred and were ‘‘terrible to look at.’’ It is unneces-
sary to discuss their pitiless behavior toward these white children.
At the same time it is to be recognized that cutting the hair short
and putting pitch on the head is the Indian custom when in mourn-
ing. Two Indians of this party, then, had recently lost relatives. It
is possible that some of their children had been killed, and that they
were bent on enslaving some white children by way of satisfaction.
Otherwise it is hard to imagine why they should have gone to the
trouble of dragging away the Lewis children, who could be of no
practical advantage to them.

As a result of the incident involving the Lewis children, a meeting
was called at Pentz’s ranch, to take measures for the permanent
1918} Waterman: The Yana Indians 49

removal of all Indians from the country. Of some three hundred and
fifty Indians then concentrated at Yankee Hill (map G—12), four were
hanged. <A pseudo-military organization known as the Oroville Guards
took the field, and hanged four more Indians at Dogtown (Wells,
p. 20). Mr. Lewis, father of the captives, killed two ‘‘bad’’ Indians
at Bidwell’s, one of them supposed to be a Mill Creek (Carson, p. 4).
This episode is also mentioned in the War Records (ibid., part 2, p.
874). Meanwhile G. M. Hanson, agent for Indian Affairs for the
Northern District, wrote frantically to General Wright of the Depart-
ment of the Paicfic, under date of July 27, 1863, stating that there was
great excitement in Chico, and asking that troops be sent to aid him in
collecting, protecting and removing the Indians. Armed whites,
according to Hanson, were threatening all Indians with a general
extermination.

The general effect of these factors was the inauguration of meas-
ures to collect the Indian population from all the regions we have
been considering, and take them away to reservations. As remarked
above, Nome Lackee Reservation, twenty miles from Tehama, was
by this time abolished. The project was therefore formed of collecting
all the Indians (who numbered probably a thousand) -and conveying
them to Round Valley in Mendocino County, a reservation called at
that time Nome Cult. This was actually done, after a fashion. There
is some uncertainty about the identity of the people behind this enter-
prise. Certain army officers thought the whole idea was the work of
Secessionists, and designed to embarass the government. The mov-
ing spirits in it are referred to as evil-minded. The intentions of the
government in consenting were as usual, good, and even the Indian
Department meant no harm. At the time the feeling among well
disposed people in general was that the Indians would have no peace
as long as they were mixed in with whites. The fact is however that
during this agitation the Indians were hastily gotten together.
Proper provision for transport was not provided; the people loudest
in demanding the removal of the Indians were the most reluctant
to do anything to further it, and no provision for the newcomers
was made at the reservation in Round Valley. The whole under-
taking resulted in excitement, confusion, expense, discomfort for the
Indians, and nothing more. Nothing was done that could in any way
solve the problem. I shall not recount the details of this enforced
migration. The War Records give the correspondence and reports
concerning it. The liveliest part is a quarrel by letter between the
50 University of California Publications in Am. Arch.and Ethn, [ Vol. 13

army officer commanding Fort Wright, near the Agency in Round
Valley, and the supervisor at that reservation; a correspondence in
which the remarks of the Indian supervisor are the most dignified,
but those of the army officer the most explicit and pointed. Captain
Starr, who escorted the Indians on their march, left Chico with 461
Indians, and arrived at Round Valley with 277. Of the whole num-
ber, 32 died on the way, and 150 were left sick along the trail, to be
brought in gradually, as their condition permitted. After all was
over, General Wright, in a letter dated October 2, speaks in general
of the impossibility of keeping Indians on the reservations to which
they may be assigned. (Jbid., part 2, p. 637). Probably some of these
transported Indians got back to the vicinity of Chico almost as soon
as the troops did.

In the meantime the only Indians not affected by the measures
taken, were the Yahi who started the trouble. Early in the year 1864,
Captain Starr at Camp Bidwell, near Chico, is warned to expect an
attack from them; an attack probably not to be directed against the
troops themselves, but against outlying homesteads. He is directed
to apprehend their leading men and send them to Alcatraz Island, to
be confined in the military prison. This order was a very cool one.
The captain might as well have been ordered to apprehend the North-
ern Lights. During the year troops did scout extensively through
the hills, but did not see any Indians.

Throughout this period the people at Cherokee Flat (map G-13)
were incensed against a group of three hundred Indians between the
north and middle forks of Feather River, near Berry Creek (map
I-13). The Indians concerned here were undoubtedly Maidu, not
Yana at all, and the probabilities are that they had never been at
the bottom of any disturbances. It seems altogether likely that they
got the blame for what were really Yahi activities.

About this time, in August, 1864 (Curtin, p. 517), some white
people were murdered in the northern part of the Yana area. The
names of Mrs. Allen and Mrs. Dirsch are mentioned in all the books.
The exact location of their homes I am uncertain about. Mrs. Dirsch
lived however somewhere near Millville (map C-5), and according
to a private informant, on the road to Ball’s Ferry (map C-6). In
addition to the murders, a number of horses were taken, some of
them, according to one informant, from ‘‘west of the river,’’ (pre-
sumably Cow Creek). Three horses that would not swim the river
were ‘‘cut all to pieces’’ and shot with arrows, and returned home in
that condition. The others, according to information, were recovered
1918] Waterman: The Yana Indians 51

in Mill Creek cafion. If all this is true, the Indians concerned were
certainly Yahi. The use of arrows points in that direction. The
date is somewhat uncertain. One informant places the occurrence
in 1866. Curtin places it in 1864. In any ease, the incident brought
destruction on the heads of the northern Yana. I am once more
uncertain as to how many Indians were killed. Two companies of
whites operated, and Curtin tells in detail how they shot this woman,
and murdered that Indian child, and all the rest (p. 517). He says
that, among other episodes, twenty Yana were killed on Cottonwood
Creek, and three hundred, who were assembled for a ceremony, on
Oak Run (map C-4). A private informant mentions a ‘‘killing”’
on Bear Creek (map C-6). Whatever may be the number who were
actually killed at this time, the undoubted fact remains that after
this period only remnants of the Yana people survived. The Indians
were killed in the presence and over the protests of their white
employers; women were deliberately shot down; and one white man
callously exhibited four hundred dollars he had taken from the bodies
of dead Indians, who were fresh from laboring in the harvest fields.
A. few were saved through being secreted by friendly whites.

A number of Indians were killed in the southern part of the ter-
ritory as the result of the death of Mrs. Dirsch. Just north of Dye
Creek and some four miles from the valley floor, there is a bold, rocky
promontory. In a cave a mile or two up the ridge from this ‘‘point’’
of rocks, some thirty Indians were cornered, probably in the year
1867. They are said to have been caught while returning from the
Dirsch raid. Indians located in this country were certainly members
of the Yahi group, and if they really had been to the north, and had
been the perpetrators of the Dirsch murder, the killing of the inoffen-
sive northern Yana who happened to live in the vicinity of Mrs.
Dirsch’s home, was doubly unjustifiable. The vicinity of the cave
where these Indians were killed has been called Campo Seco, or Dry
Camp, because some of the Bogard family had a sheep pen here, to
which water had to be transported. The details of the killing do not
matter so much. The point is that the Indians were traced into the
eave and shot down. The marks of the bullets are still to be seen on
the rocks. In 1869 the side hill (visited at that time by Mr. Norvall)
was still covered with skeletons.

At this point we may consider the history of the Yana closed,
excepting only the Yahi division. After this time, the most important
events happening in the northern part of Yana territory, are the visits
of ethnological investigators such as Curtin and Sapir.
52 University of California Publications in Am. Arch.and Ethn. [Vol. 13

THE YAHI MEET DISASTER

We may center our attention therefore on the Yahi. They pro-
long what may be called the tribal history for half a century. About
this time however a catastrophe overtook even this part of the tribe.
They allowed themselves to be surrounded by an armed party of
whites on the upper waters of Mill Creek. The whole affair began
with the killing of some white people on Concow Creek, far to the
south of Yana territory (map G-12). A Mrs. Workman, together
with her hired man John Banks (‘‘Scotch John’’), and a Miss
Rosanna Smith, a new arrival from England, were all murdered.
There are said to have been atrocious details, but no one has discussed
them. I can hardly imagine the Yahi proceeding so far from home for
devilment, but in any case they were again credited with the outrage.
About this time the peaceable Indians at Big Meadows (map J-7)
were attacked by ‘‘wild’’ people, and some women carried off. The
trail picked up at Big Meadows, is said to have been followed to Mill
Creek. A party of seventeen whites, some of them the bitterly resent-
ful neighbors of the murdered women, found another Yahi trail on
Deer Creek flats (map E-10), which they followed up. I quote sub-

sequent occurrences from an eyewitness:

August 15, 1865.—We decided to move forward just in time to get the
camp surrounded before the break of day. Hi, with six men, was left to
advance upon the camp in the same manner that he and J had already adopted,
while I took the balance of the force for a detour which would bring us against
the Indians from the up-stream side.

We had a difficult climb for we were compelled to swing some distance up
the rough hillside in order to avoid springing an alarm, but made it success-
fully. As day began to peep over the high walls of the cafion, I found myself
lying about thirty feet above one of the three little knolls that had served us
so well as landmarks. I had left orders for Hi’s party to lie quiet and let us
make the attack. This would throw the Indians onto the bar next the open
ford where they would be completely at the mercy of both our forces.

It grew lighter and still no sound disturbed the morning excepting the
incessant murmur of the nearby stream. Henry Curtis was close to my right.
Suddenly he chirped like a bird. I glanced toward him and saw him pointing
toward the top of the knoll. Turning my eye thither I was just in time to see
the half-breed Billy Sill lowering his rifle in a line with my head. I rolled
behind a tree and the half-breed knowing that he was seen sank out of sight
behind a rock. I had ample time in the glimpse I caught of him to see that
he still wore the white shirt.

Almost on the instant that he disappeared Good’s rifle cracked and the
fight was on. We crowded forward and poured a hot fire into the Indians
from up stream, while Good’s men hammered them from below. Into the
stream they leaped, but few got out alive. Instead, many dead bodies floated
down the rapid current... .

This battle practically ended the scourge of the Mill creeks. I had often
argued with Good regarding the disposition of the Indians. He believed in
1918] Waterman: The Yana Indians 53

killing every man or well grown boy, but in leaving the women unmolested in
their mountain retreats. It was plain to me that we must also get rid of the
women. On this occasion the Concow people were intensely wrought up over
the horrible atrocities practiced by the Indians on the white women whom
they killed, and I had told them that they were at liberty to deal with the
Indians as they saw fit.

While ransacking the camp after the battle was over a little child possessing
six toes on each foot was found. Hi Good at once took a notion to the child
and said that he wished to take it home with him. Knowing that he had odd
tastes about such things, I consented. Whereupon he declared that he must
take along a squaw to carry the child. I asked Curtis what his pleasure was
in the matter and after consulting with some of his own party he grudgingly
agreed.

The woman selected for the purpose was slightly wounded in the heel.
She packed the youngster in stolid silence up the long hill and over its crest
into Twenty Mile Hollow. Here however she became sullen and refused to
go a step farther. I gave her over to the Concow people and they left her to
swell the number of the dead (Anderson, pp. 78-80).

Mr. W. J. Segraves, to whom I am indebted for much information,
tells me that he was in person at the scene of these events some time
later, and that there were forty or forty-five skeletons on the ground.

An Indian called Big-Foot Jack, who got his name from having
one large and one small foot, was at the time considered to be the
leader of the wild Indians. His track was never seen after this time,
so the presumption is that he was killed.

THE PERIOD OF CONCEALMENT

These events were considered at the time to have put an end to
the Yahi people. The destruction however was not absolute. The
author just quoted mentions that several men and women escaped, and
he voices the opinion that at the time he wrote (in 1909) they were
still living ‘‘somewhere’’ in the mountains. We now have positive
knowledge that a group did survive. As a matter of fact I have found
accounts of a good many episodes, in the period between 1865 and
1908, in which white men are described as having happened upon
these Indians. I may remark that practically throughout all the latter
half of the nineteenth century very persistent stories were in circula-
tion concerning the continued existence of ‘‘wild’’ Indians just east
of the Sacramento Valley. Some such incidents have been recounted
to me by men who took part in them, men whose statements it is
impossible to doubt or question in any way. Some of these I will
recount in a moment. Such people told of their experiences at the
time when the incidents occurred, but were mostly set down as plain
liars. Accounts of encounters with wild Indians were even printed in
54 University of California Publications in Am. Arch.and Ethn. [Vol.13

the papers. Ethnologists such as Dixon, and later on Kroeber, were
interested in similar stories, and often looked for corroboration. In
general however people listened with skepticism, and all such tales,
however warmly presented, were set down as mere invention or the
survival of an old tradition. It is a curious example of truth seeming
stranger than fiction. In dealing with the history of the Yahi I may
proceed to describe therefore what might be called a period of retire-
ment. Through their last survivor we know something of the life
they led through this period, and something of their dwelling places.
The main point is that the few survivors reverted more and more to
their old mode of life, hunting with the bow, and keeping as much
out of sight as possible. They were seen only by accident. Through
this period they were probably the most nearly primitive of all the
North American Indians.

Certain details of their life are interesting and may be discussed
briefly here. The Indians took up their abode at first in the canon
of Mill Creek. They never were known to commit another murder,
though once or twice, as we know now, they tried to: that is, they
shot arrows at whites who were pursuing them. They gradually came
to realize that their only chance of security lay in concealment. In
the winter time they lived as best they could along Mill Creek. Fish
they obtained with the spear (plates 5-9) of the usual California two-
pronged type, armed with gigs. Acorns they gathered in a number
of places, and when the crop was good these probably formed a very
important part of their subsistence. Deer they hunted with a device
consisting of a sort of a decoy, or more properly a disguise, which
they wore, simulating meanwhile the actions of a deer. A deerskin
blanket was part of the outfit, and on top they put a stuffed deer
head. One of these objects is shown in a subsequent paper in this
series. They sometimes hollowed out the horns to make them light,
and got the whole thing up in as convincing .a manner as possible.
By so disguising himself, the Yahi hunter was able to approach near
enough to deer to get a ‘‘dead shot’’ with a bow. The last survivor of
the tribe was extremely skilful at imitating the bleat of a young
fawn, and had moreover practiced himself in the art of imitating
the actions of the deer in rubbing its horns on the brush. He could
really put up a most plausible mimicry. I presume such devices never
actually deceive the animals. They seem rather to fill them with
curiosity, and they approach to see what is going on. A friend of
mine who has a good deal of skill in such matters tells me that wild
1918] Waterman: The Yana Indians 55

animals depend more on their noses than their eyes, anyway. The
scent of a man will send them careening; but, on the other hand, if the
hunter will approach up wind, wild creatures often exhibit the bland-
est naiveté. The Yana at any rate worked these methods with con-
siderable success. They also snared deer, with a noose made of
milkweed fiber (plate 17). To prevent the animal from going clear
through, they laced fine string across after the noose was set. They
were fairly good bowmen, and killed even wildeat and bear. In the
summer time they ranged as far east as the summit of Mount Lassen
(map H-5) on the upper slopes of which they hunted, secure from
intrusion. The journey took four nights’ travel.

After some years they were compelled to abandon Mill Creek
because of the increasing settlement of the whites. I do not know
exactly when this happened, but they were on Mill Creek as late as
1894 (see page 60 below). Toward the latter part of their history,
at any rate, they were living in the cafion of Deer Creek (map F-9;
plates 10,11). This whole cafion is extremely wild. The lava cliffs are
very abrupt, so abrupt that in most places one can get down only
with a rope. Between the cliffs and the creek, far below, the rocky and
boulder-strewn slopes are covered with the densest imaginable thickets.
Just at Sulphur Creek there is a gradual descent, and a trail, which
erosses Deer Creek and surmounts the cafion -wall a couple of miles
upstream. At the junction of the two streams there is the old Speegle
homestead. Upstream and downstream from this, however, the cafion
is wild and comparatively impenetrable, a wilderness of rocks and
undergrowth, masked by clumps of pepperwood, and encircled by the
towering cliffs. This whole countryside including the cafion has been
exploited only as a stock range, and the livestock did not and could
not penetrate these rough stretches. An occasional wandering cow-
boy or hunter might pause and view the wilderness from the edge
of the cliffs above. In fact this often happened. The jungles were
never actually invaded however, and both above and below Sulphur
Creek the Indians had little villages. I have seen both of them, and
they were so skilfully disposed among pepperwoods that they were
practically invisible. The thickets in the trough of the cafion never
were explored until the arrival of a new factor in the country—engi-
neers surveying for power sites. It was due to a party of engineers
that the Indians’ encampments were finally discovered.

Toward the latter part of their history they were given, not to
open violence, but to the robbing of cabins when the owners were
56 University of California Publications in Am. Arch.and Ethn. [Vol. 18

away. I do not know the reason for this behavior. It involved always
the risk of discovery, and the possibility of being shot down. There
were some white men in the region who would have welcomed the
chance to kill an Indian. I might explain that robbing cabins is more
serious than it sounds. In the spring the cattlemen carry into the
hills on pack trains quantities of provisions, for the subsistence of
their vaqueros during the annual ‘‘round-up.’’ For a number of
weeks everyone is busy riding over the hills and into the gullies, and
routing out the cattle for branding, and to be driven to the valley
for sale. The necessary supplies are usually ‘‘cached’’ at long inter-
vals at some shanty, and used as needed. Anyone, whether he is the
proper owner or not, is at liberty to use this food if he needs it. Stock-
men ride far and wide in their business, and there is a sort of free-
masonry among them. ‘‘Grub’’ is more or less community property.
When Indians were concerned however it was different. Aside from
the fact that they were outside of this freemasonry, they never were
satisfied with enjoying or pilfering a meal or two. They habitually
gathered up the whole stock, which they found in a cabin, and carried
it off bodily. Such incidents caused endless inconvenience and loss
to the cattle owners. Often a round-up had to be interrupted, while
everybody rode off to the valley for food. A delay of several weeks
might be entailed, and the cattle collected might meanwhile scatter
to the most inaccessible places, leaving all the work to be done over
again. The Indians sometimes took even the barley intended for horse-
feed. Canned stuff they avoided. It has been suggested that they
may once have been poisoned by some that had spoiled; or that they
did not know how to open the cans. My experience with the last
survivor was that he liked nothing soft or semiliquid, and most
canned provisions are of this nature. He thought such food pro-
duced a discharge from the mucous membrane, like a bad cold. His
objections seemed to be based about equally on esthetic, hygienic, and
moral considerations. Such a dislike as he had for gruels, soups,
sauces, eggs, milk and other soft’ provender amounted to a positive
avoidance. It is I think highly typical of these Indians that in rob-
bing a camp they should take away the barley, but leave behind
the canned corn. In later years sheep became common in the hills,
and the Indians often increased their food supply by shooting or
snaring stray ones. When their village was invaded, numbers of
sheepskins were found.

The Indians seem to have begun this sort of thing in 1885. At
least it was habitual with them after that date. Certain camps and
1918] Waterman: The Yana Indians 57

cabins they robbed with some regularity every spring; for example
Elijah Graham’s cabin on Deer Creek. Any one of several reasons
might have driven them to this course at this time. Their best hunters
may have died, for example, or the increasing number of campers
and hunters, to say nothing of permanent settlers, may have made
the game wilder. They seem to have committed their robberies always
in the spring. This probably followed from the fact that their pre-
vious summer’s supply of dried fish and acorns was always exhausted
by that time, and it was still too early for their trip to Mount Lassen,
which would be still covered with snow. Spring was regularly a time
of scarcity with all Indians, and this small group, hemmed in by
whites of whom they had a deathly fear, must have confronted utter

starvation every year.

I shall proceed to recount briefly the instances where these Indians
were seen, or where their traces were found, from the time of the
tribal killing described on a previous page, to the breaking up of their
village by surveyors in 1908. Toward the latter part of this time at
least, the group consisted of Ishi, his sister or cousin, his mother, who
grew to be very old, and an old man not his father. The reduction to
this number was however very gradual, as the following incidents will
show: ;

1865(?)—After the killing at the ‘‘three knolls,’’ three Yahi women, two
men, and a number of children present themselves at Hi Good’s place on Dry
Creek and say that they are ready to be taken to the reservation. They later
run away however to the hills (Anderson, p. 83).

1868.—Thirty-three wild Indians (presumably Yahi) are killed at Campo
Seco. (Information from D. B. Lyon.)

March, 1870.—Mr. W. J. Segraves loses some beeves, which are ‘‘run off’?
at night. Having been warned against Indians, he sends for Hi Good, and
the two, accompanied by George Spires and Bill Sublett, trail the Indians with
dogs. Some difficulty is encountered, as the dogs sometimes follow the trail
freely, and sometimes refuse to follow it at all. They finally lead the party
into an Indian village or ‘‘campoodie.’’ There are several huts in a sort of
round meadow, hidden away in a clump of pepperwood (laurel). The village
is near F-8 on the map, on Mill Creek, about 25 miles from its mouth. The
huts themselves are round or oval, and made of pepperwood boughs. In the
village the only live animal is a dog, who is not friendly but makes no noise,
and soon vacates. Here Segraves finds the bones of his beeves. There is
nothing of much interest in the camp. The Indians seem to have most of their
property with them. ‘

The next day as the party is following the trail of the Indians further up
the creek, they suddenly see a considerable band, some fifteen in all, returning.
Good and Segraves hide behind a tree. Several Indians leave the main party,
and when they finally approach the white ambush, only six or seven women,
along with one old man, are left. This man is described by Segraves as ‘‘the
Old Doctor.’’ He was very old and had only one hand. I quote the rest
verbatim:
58 University of California Publications in Am. Arch. and Ethn. [Vol. 13

‘(As the Indians came abreast of us, we motioned to the squaws to squat
down, so as not to be in the line of fire. One old woman, when she saw that
the group was covered, immediately did so. A young woman, next in line,
freed herself of her pack in a flash and started to run. The old woman
grabbed her by the dress and prevented her, evidently thinking that she would
be shot if she tried to escape. A little girl was also with the old woman, and
was held by the hand. The Old Doctor, however, tried to get away. Good did
the shooting, while I ‘called’ the shots. The first two missed. At the third
I called ‘distance!’ (meaning that the range was exactly right). At the
fourth shot, the Old Doctor collapsed. The weapons we used were sixteen-shot
Henry repeaters, a new weapon at the time. The Indians in this party were
loaded down with acorns and similar truck.’’

The only Indians actually captured at this time are the two women just
mentioned, and the small girl who was with them. The rest fly into the brush
and disappear. A short time later an old man comes in. He evidently has
failed to hear the shooting. A young fellow, said to be Ishi, is with him, but
is too wild to approach closer than two hundred yards. Being unarmed, they
are not fired upon. That night the party camps at the ‘‘campoodie.’’ Next
day the old man offers to bring in his relatives, and is taken back to the scene
of the Old Doctor’s death. The Indian, loudly calling on his people, asks per-
mission to mount a boulder in order to look about. He seizes the opportunity
to jump down on the other side of the boulder, and gets clear away.

Two weeks later the old man comes in the night-time to Segraves’ cabin
with eleven other people, four men and seven women. The fourth man is
Ishi. He is at this time about sixteen years old and is lighter in complexion
than the rest( Segraves visited Ishi at the University and positively identified
him as the same person. This would make him sixty-two years old at the
time of his death). The old man is thought to be Ishi’s father. They make
a formality of surrendering their bows to the number of five. These are
about five feet long, and so strong that Segraves cannot unbend them. The
whole party are taken down to Good’s cabin; but he is away in Tehama.
While waiting around for him to return, George Spires takes a sudden notion
to weigh himself on a set of steelyards. He throws a rope over a limb to
suspend the steelyards by, when the Indians take a notion that they are to be
hanged. So they all run away and are never seen again. (This episode is
described in Powers, but not accurately.) The only ones finally remaining in
captivity are the two women and the little girl who were taken at the time
of the Doctor’s death.

These three are handed over to a white man named Carter, living about
a mile from Acorn Hollow (map D-10) on Deer Creek. The young woman
about this time gives birth to a baby, who is called Snowdrop (Powers gives
this same incident, in highly colored form). The white man was not her
father, but one of the wild Indians. The little girl who was captured with the
old woman is called ‘‘Muchacha.’’ Both she and the mother of Snowdrop are
thought by Segraves to be Ishi’s sisters. Nothing is known of the final dis-
position of these people. (Information obtained from Mr. W. J. Segraves of
Susanville, in 1915.)

1870.—An Indian boy living with Good ‘‘hooks’’ his cache of money. Good
is very angry and threatens to ‘‘settle’’ with him. Shortly after that the
boy murders Good with a rifle. The body he drags by the feet with a lasso
from his pony, and buries it under some rocks. A Mr. Brown (who had a
stage stable at the ford one mile northeast of Vina), Andy Post, and Sandy
Young, previously mentioned, found the body by the odor four days later.
1918] Waterman: The Yana Indians 59

The murdered man’s hair was also sticking out between the rocks. Possibly
this Indian boy is the one described above as having six toes. He was executed
by Young. (Anderson, p. 83; private information from Mrs. G. W. Williams
at Tehama; Wells also refers to this incident).

1870.—During this year and occasionally in after years, Mr. Norvall, work-
ing for A. C. Weed, occasionally sees sheep with arrows in them. In one
ease, the arrow was sticking in the sheep’s wool, the sheep himself being
unseratched. (Information from Mr. Norvall, 1915.)

April, 1871—J. J. Bogard, Jim Baker, Scott Wellman, and Norman Kings-
ley are camped at Wild Horse Corral, in Morgan Valley (map G-7). They are
busy ‘‘running’’ cattle. They find where the Indians had wounded a steer.
They follow the animal, the trail being made plain by the blood. They finally
pick up a broken arrow. When they come onto the Indians, the latter “¢skip.’?
Being pressed for time, instead of skinning the animal, they cut off chunks
of meat, tear the hide off, and throw it into the brush. The next day the
whites trail the Indians with dogs, and corner them in a cave, and kill about
thirty. In this cave there is ‘‘about a ton’’ of dried meat.

In the cave with the meat were some Indian children. Kingsley could not
bear to kill these children with his 56-calibre Spencer rifle. ‘‘It tore them up
so bad.’’ So he did it with his 38-calibre Smith and Wesson revolver. (Informa-
tion from Mr. Norvall, 1915.)

It was evident soon afterwards that even this was not the final
end of the Yahi, for the bodies of the slain Indians disappeared. The
Yahi had a tribal custom of cremation. Evidently the bodies were
disposed of in this or in some other way. The tender sensibilities of
the fellow who preferred to shoot babies with a 38-calibre revolver

are certainly worthy of remark.

1878.—Rafe Johnson, son of ‘‘old Peg Leg’’ Johnson, in company with
Jim Melick, lassoes two squaws near Black Oak Mountain (map E-8). An
Indian man is shot through the thigh, and a child is shot through the ankle.
One of the women ‘‘is taken to Nome Lackee, the other to Redding.’’ [There
is an evident mistake here, as the Nome Lackee Reservation was abandoned
long before this. Possibly the woman was taken to Round Valley. Informa-
tion from D. B. Lyon, 1915.] :

February, 1885.—The Indians rob Norvall’s cabin, at the head of Little
Antelope Creek (map D-8). At the same time they rob Girt’s cabin, four
miles away. (Information from Mr. Norvall, 1915.)

April, 1885.—Mr. Norvall one day approaches a cabin on Dry Creek. Hear-
ing noises inside, he goes around in back. Four Indians were jumping out of the
window. Seeing him, they all got in a row, and stood waiting for develop-
ments. A young woman is wearing three old jumpers, with the addition of
little else. An old man has an old overcoat and an old rifle barrel. There are
two young fellows, one of them with a crippled foot. ‘‘Rafe Johnson did
that,’’ remarks Mr. Norvall. The woman points over toward Mill Creek and
says ‘‘Dos chiquitos papooses (Spanish jargon, meaning two small children).
Inside the cabin they had piled up a lot of discarded clothing, evidently pre-
paring to carry it away. Mr. Norvall treats them in a friendly way. (Inform-
ation from Mr. Norvall, 1915.)

October, 1885.—The Indians slip into Norvall’s cabin while he is away, and
leave two baskets. (These baskets are now in the University Museum (for
60 University of California Publications in Am. Arch.and Ethn, [Vol. 13

one of them see plate 15). This is probably a result of Norvall’s friendly
bearing in the previous episode. (Information from Mr. Norvall.)

Autumn, 1885.—Sheep are found with arrows in them. (Information from
Mr. Norvall.) :

1889.—Mr. D. B. Lyon, a young boy at the time, is hunting deer up Big
Antelope Creek, 16 miles east of Red Bluff (map E-8). He moves about an
isolated patch of buckeye brush which lies in a gully, under a rock cliff. The
dog hears something moving and goes in, but a moment later comes out
afraid. Whatever is in the brush makes noises like tomeats fighting. (His
idea at present is that the Indians did it, trying to scare him away.) Instead
of running, he throws a rock into the brush to ascertain what is making the
noise. The rock hits an Indian, who grunts. One thing leads to another, and
Lyon finally goes in to rout out whatever is there. There is open ground all
around, so the quarry insists on keeping among the buckeyes. He finally
presses them close, and suddenly stumbles over packs, which they have dropped.
Then he knows they are Indians. One of them has been carrying half a dozen
sheep legs; the sweat from his hands is still on the wool. They also drop a
sheepskin. Lyon stops and kicks this stuff over, to see what it is. They
suddenly fire three arrows at him, one of them grazing his hat brim. One of
these arrows breaks off against a rock just in front of him. Another he picks
up and keeps. He takes time also to pick up a small cloth bag which after-
wards is found to contain an interesting arrow-making outfit (see plate 14;
the specimens are now at the University Museum). At this point Lyons
considers that his curiosity is satisfied, and he very properly withdraws.

(Mr. Lyon’s explanation of the incident is that the Indians were traveling
across country, and hiding in this patch of brush during the daytime.)

1894.—Elijah Graham gets exasperated at the persistent robbing of his
cabin, and to punish the thief, leaves there a lot of poisoned flour. To avoid
accidents, he writes a plain notice that the flour is poisoned and leaves it
where it must be seen. The flour nevertheless is taken. This he cites as proof
that there are Indians in the country, to whom the robbing of cabins is due,
but hardly anybody takes him seriously. Whether this episode reduces the
number of the Yahi or not, we do not know. (Information from D. B. Lyon.)

1894.—Mr. Lyon and his brother find what they at first take for a bear
track, near Mill Creek, above Avery’s (map F-8). It turns out to be a bare-
foot human track, very wide across the toes. The individual evidently has not
worn shoes, for his foot is very calloused, with cracks across the bottom. They
follow up his tracks, but the Indian evidently finds he is being pursued, for
he jumps from the top of a bluff into the top of a tree, and escapes. Lyon
remarks to his brother that he would not make the same descent for any sum.
(Information from D. B. Lyon.)

1906.—The cabin at the Occidental mine, operated by Mr. Gillenwater with
two employees, is robbed. Among other things, what is called in the country
a ‘‘war bag,’’ in other words, a U. S. Army dunnage bag, is taken. (Informa-
tion from M. C. Polk.)

1908.—W. D. Polk and K. Crowder are camped at the Speegle place, where
Sulphur Creek joins Deer Creek. They go down Deer Creek a mile or so, and
anticipating an Indian visit, one of them slips back along under the edge of
the bluff with a ‘‘30-30’’ rifle. The Indians as a matter of fact are just pre-
paring to carry off the eatables out of the cabin. They take alarm, and dash
across Deer Creek. One of them in his haste drops his headgear, which the

whites pick up (plate 18). Nothing is left in the cabin but a little rice and
some canned stuff.
1918] Waterman: The Yana Indians 61

An effort is made to track them up, but they are too cunning. They step

only on rocks, where they leave no footprints, and take to the water so they
can not be followed with dogs.

DISCOVERY OF THE YAHI VILLAGE IN 1908

This brings the history of the Yahi to its final phase. The next
event is the breaking up of their village. I should like to give an
account of that, and tell something more of its situation. The episode
begins with a survey of the lower part of Deer Creek caiion by a
party of engineers for the Oro Water, Light and Power Company.
I have heard accounts of the events from several of the people who
took part in it. As usual, it is somewhat difficult to get an account
that is absolutely consistent and coherent.

The Power company was considering the erection of a dam just below
Sulphur Creek, and were surveying a ditch which was to convey the impounded
water down the cafion to a projected power plant somewhere below. This
ditch was to follow the south bank of the creek, through some extremely diffi-
cult country, mentioned above. The surveying party was working some three
miles below Sulphur Creek, engaged in brushing out a line. On the evening of
November 9, 1908, two young men, Alf Lafferty and Ed Duensing, were return-
ing up-stream to their camp about sunset. By the margin of the creek they
suddenly saw a naked Indian standing on a rock, armed with a long spear.
The Indian was undoubtedly looking for his supper with a fish-spear, but his
wild look startled both men. When he suddenly caught sight of them, being
probably startled himself, he gave what they described as a vicious snarl, and
brandished his spear. They had been searching for a crossing place, in order
to strike an old Indian trail which leads up to the other side of the stream.
When the Indian snarled, as they tell the story, any crossing place looked good
to them. They waited for nothing further. When they got to camp their
story was received with varying emotions. Most of the party were bound-
lessly pleased with the account as a work of fiction. J. M. Apperson, however,
who had been convinced for a long time that Indians actually were at large
in this region, went down stream early next morning to see what he could
find. Along with him went Charley Herrick, who whiled away the time as
they walked professing profound disbelief in the whole thing. When they went
on the south side of the creek, and began working through the thick brush
on the steep hillside above the stream, an arrow was shot at them, narrowly
missing Apperson. After some debate they turned back.

In the meantime the surveying party went back to work, chopping out their
survey line. About ten o’clock in the morning they suddenly walked into
an Indian encampment or village. Two Indians, running as if for their lives,
were actually seen—one of them an old man, who was helped along by a
middle-aged woman. They escaped over a rock ‘‘slide’’ and vanished in the
direction of the cliffs. This fleeting glance is all we know of these individuals.
They have never been seen again. Their actual fate is still unknown. In
camp was found, under some blankets, a partially paralyzed old woman,
frightened nearly to death, unable to move. The whites did what they could
for this old person. She asked in a few words of broken Spanish for water.
Apperson gave her a drink out of a canteen which was lying there, having
62 University of California Publications in Am. Arch.and Ethn. [Vol. 18

been filled evidently at the creek below. She trembled violently, though they
did their best to reassure her. The whites then helped themselves, mainly in
a spirit of curiosity, to the contents of the camp—bows, arrows, skin blankets—
and after prying about, went back to camp for dinner. When they returned
next day, to satisfy their further curiosity, no Indians were about, and even the
old woman was gone. Her people evidently returned and carried her away
to some other shelter. Where this was, we do not know. Some effort was
made later to find these Indians, but no sign of them was seen. They evidently
considered that the whites were still after them, and hid themselves away.

A number of points in the arrangement of the camp and the posi-
tion of the lodges may be worth mention. The village consisted of
three structures. One was a shelter of pepperwood boughs, with a
framework of rough poles. This was just under cover of some large
laurel trees. In front and somewhat to one side, was a lurking place
under some very heavy brush, where someone had sat for years mak-
ing arrow-points by chipping glass. The Yahi learned long ago that
glass worked more evenly than obsidian, and the supply being more
available, their arrow-points were regularly made of it. The bottles
they picked up around foothill camps. A bushel or more of minute
glass chips had accumulated here. Some distance to the east was
another shelter, heavily smoked and showing marks of very long occu-
pation, made of pieces of driftwood (plate 11), an old wagon canvas
and some odds and ends. Both structures were in the midst of a per-
fectly impenetrable jungle. A third structure consisted of a frame-
work of poles, lashed together with bark, the whole very firm and
strong. A few feet above the ground was a series of cross-sticks
(plate 12). It was evidently to be covered with a thatching of laurel.
someone has suggested that it was to be used for smoking salmon. All
of these lodges were of tiny proportions, but rather cunningly put
together. They were of a simple A-shape. Between the lodges the
brush was as dense as could be, but a fairly clear trail wound in and
out through the undergrowth, connecting them. Near the first house,
but somewhat closer to the creek, was a circular pit, a yard or more
across and about as deep. This the Indians packed full of snow in
the winter time. The melting of this snow supplied them with water
for a while, and saved the labor of going to the creek, which roars
along the floor of the caiion some five hundred feet below. There was
also involved in every trip some risk of discovery. They called the
camp in their language Wowunupo’mu tetnA, ‘‘Bear’s Hiding Place,’’
probably because there were bear dens in this wilderness of brush and
boulders before the Indians took up their abode there. Across the
ereek, and less than a mile above, there is a fine little flat beside the
1918] Waterman: The Yana Indians 63

stream with remains of old Indian house-pits. This was the Yahi
village of Teapa’launa, inhabited before the days of the Yahi troubles.
Probably Indians had never lived at Bear’s Hiding Place until the

last remnant of the tribe took up their abode there.

The village site has now been visited by a number of people, scientific and
otherwise. I think they will all agree that the placing of the lodges was the
work of people who were not only desperately anxious to hide themselves, but
who knew thoroughly well how to do it. The houses were built where they
were invisible from the cliffs on either side. The Indians passed down to the
ereek, which was very important to them on account of the fish in it, under
the shelter of a growth of laurel. Thus they could move about and still remain
hidden. Moreover, they avoided making visible trails, especially near the
water. The little path that leads down from the lodges under and through
the thicket, ramifies and disappears as it approaches the stream. In other
words, they went down by different ways, to avoid making one conspicuous
pathway. In making the needful paths through the brush, they bent aside
the necessary twigs. Cutting or breaking them would have made the path
much more conspicuous. I doubt if an observer on the cliff would ever have
seen the Indians if he had been looking directly down upon them. Altogether,
the place and its selection showed considerable evidence of craft, and to the
wandering hunter or rider on the mountains round about, the locality would
have looked always like a genuine bear’s hiding place, for all the evidence of
human habitation to be seen.

Ishi it will be observed was not seen. He probably discharged the
arrow which almost wounded Apperson, and was undoubtedly present,
and possibly waiting for another good shot, when the camp was
actually invaded. The whites were armed with revolvers, and Ishi,
being a belligerent, probably kept just out of sight, which was of
course in conformity with the best military strategy. The property
taken from the camp is now largely in possession of the University.
The most picturesque specimen is a blanket or cape of wildcat skins.
The remainder included furs, rope, bows, arrows, and baskets. It is
somewhat pathetic to reflect that this material, taken in mere curiosity,
may have meant the difference between survival and destruction to the
poor Indians. Certain it is that as a group they were never heard of
afterwards, and all of them but Ishi may have lost their lives as a
result of the fatigue, hunger, and exposure entailed by leaving their
camp. Apperson went through his pockets at the time trying to find
something that he could leave as a present, to prove to them his
friendly intentions. He had nothing however, and when he came
back they were gone.

The encounter with the Indians made a considerable stir in the
press. Some hope was felt at the University that the group might be
found again sooner or later. It was thought that the members of the
group might be able to supply many details concerning the life and
64 Oniversity of California Publications in Am. Arch.and Ethn. [Vol. 13

culture of the Yana peoples, and would certainly supply information
concerning their own language and the linguistic geography of the
region. Several efforts were made to get in touch with people who
might encounter the Yahi, and one expedition was sent into the field

to locate them if possible.

October, 1910.—Mr. Walter Hunt and T. T. Waterman camped for three
weeks in Deer Creek caiion, making a reconnaisance of the region in the hope
of recovering their trail. On this occasion the little village at Bear’s Hiding
Place was visited, and some photographs taken. Nothing could be done in
the way of following the Indians up, for they had disappeared, leaving no
trace.

HISTORY OF THE LAST SURVIVOR

Such was the tragic end of the last remnant of the Yahi tribe.
Except for one individual, our account closes here. The members of
the tribe who were seen at this time seem to have perished from cold,

hunger, and exposure, without ever returning to their camp.

August, 1911—Nearly three years later, at a slaughterhouse four miles from
Oroville, 32 miles away, very early one morning there suddenly appeared from
nowhere a naked Indian. His only garment was an old cast-off undershirt.
He was thin, hungry, greatly worn, and of most unusual appearance. The
people in charge of the premises telephoned to the sheriff and reported with
some excitement the presence of a ‘‘wild man.’’ No one, Indian or white,
could make him understand a word. The sheriff of Butte County came out,
took the wild man in charge and gave him, as the most available lodging, the
insane cell of the jail. When the news reached the University, the appearance
of this strange Indian was at once connected with the Yahi tribe of Deer
Creek, in which the Department of Anthropology had long been interested.
It fell to the lot of the present writer to journey to Oroville to identify him.
Our only resource was to ‘‘try him out’’ with a vocabulary in the Nozi dialect,
since there was no material in existence in what was thought to be his own
proper language. The first impression received of the wild Indian was the
sight of him, draped in a canvas apron they had hurriedly put on him at the
slaughterhouse, sitting on the edge of a cot in his cell, still uncertain of his
fate, and answering in a few words of Yana all questions, hundreds of which
were being fired at him in English, Spanish, and half a dozen Indian languages,
by visitors of all complexions. The present writer’s amateur attempts at Yana
were equally unintelligible to him for a long time. An agreement was finally
reached, however, on the word for the material of which his cot was made,
si'win'i, or yellow pine. His face lightened up at this word, though he evi-
dently could hardly trust his senses. These were perhaps the first intelligible
sounds he had heard from a human being in three years.

There seemed to be little point in letting this individual remain
in jail. He was not charged with anything, and it seemed highly
desirable to bring him to the University, where facilities for record-
ing information were better. The county authorities at Oroville were
most benignantly disposed toward the Indian, and were most con-
1918] Waterman: The Yana Indians 65

siderate in every way. As soon as it became evident that the ‘‘wild”’
man was of Yana extraction, they sent a young officer to Redding to
bring down an old survivor of the Yana people there. This was Sam
Batwee, who had been informant for Curtin and later for Sapir. Bat-
wee was to be interpreter and companion for our wild man. He evinced
a patronizing attitude, which developed pari passu with cordial symp-
toms of dislike on the part of Ishi. Later on it was a curious spectacle
to see these two surviving representatives of an almost vanished race
treating each other with the most distant politeness. They never
learned to care for each other. Poor old Batwee wished to impress
his importance on the ‘‘wild’’ man, while the wild man looked upon
this civilized Indian as neither Indian nor white. He seemed to object
most of all to Batwee’s taste in wearing a beard. There was a good
deal of divergence between their dialects, besides, which made com-
munication somewhat laborious. Batwee had very little tact or
adjustability, and Ishi regarded him as a tiresome old fool, though he
was too polite to say so. A factor still more important was this, that
the Yahi had learned to view all other peoples with suspicion and
hostility. It was interesting that he should be readier to make friends
with whites than with other Indians like himself. The Yahi had
apparently been utterly isolated for a considerable time even before
their tribe became so much reduced.

Ishi’s appearance at the time of his capture is shown in plate 1.
His apparel there consists of an old slaughterhouse apron of canvas
which the people put on him when he was first found. His strength
was much reduced at this time through hardship and lack of food.
He had wandered in the hills apparently living on what he could pick
up as he went. For some time his most substantial food had been
manzanita berries. On the point of absolute collapse, he came to the
slaughterhouse to look for food. The dogs barked and attracted the
butchers, who were just getting up. When first seen, Ishi was crouch-
ing on the ground in the corral, with the dogs sniffing about him.
The exact route of his wanderings is still unknown. His hair he
had singed off close to his scalp, throwing water on with his hands to
keep from burning himself. This is (of course) the Indian custom on
the death of a relative. His solitary condition seemed to indicate at
the time that all his relatives had died. Aside from emaciation and
some diminution of energy, his condition at that time was perfect.
His feet, which had never seen a shoe, were fine examples of what
the human foot should be. They were modeled in plaster by the
66 University of California Publications in Am. Arch.and Ethn. [Vol.13

Department of Pediatrics of the Medical School as examples of perfect
and undeformed feet. Shoes, by the way, he hated, explaining that
they might trip him up. He little by little recovered his spirits, and

in the last years of his life was serenity personified.

I should like to tell something of my acquaintance with Ishi, especially those
incidents which illustrate the character of the man and shed light on his
peculiar viewpoint. I may begin by speaking of railroad trains. In bringing
him down to the University, where his home was to be for the rest of his life,
it was necessary to take the train. One fine morning found Ishi and myself,
and an attendant Indian and some hundreds of interested pale-faces, waiting
on the platform for the train to come in. As Number Five appeared in the
distance and came whistling and smoking down the humming rails in a cloud
of dust, Ishi wanted to hide behind something. We were standing some distance
from the track as I feared that he might be afraid of the engine. He had often
seen trains. Later he told us in his own language that he had previously seen
trains wandering by in the distance. But he had not known they ran on tracks.
When he saw them he always lay down in the grass or behind a bush until they
were out of sight. He visualized a train as some devil-driven, inhuman prodigy.
Security lay not in keeping off the right-of-way, but in keeping out of sight.

Here is another fact that illustrates his personal attitude. To a primitive
man, what ought to prove most astonishing in a modern city? I would have
said at once, the height of the buildings. For Ishi, the overwhelming thing
about San Francisco was the number of people. That, he never got over. Until
he came into civilization, the largest number of people he had ever seen together
at any one time was five! At first a crowd gathering around him alarmed him
and made him uneasy. He never entirely got over his feeling of awe, even when
he learned that everybody meant well. The big buildings he was interested in.
He found them edifying, but he was not greatly impressed. The reason, as
far as I could understand it, was this. He mentally compared a towering
twelve-story building, not with his hut in Deer Creek which was only four feet
high, but with the cliffs and crags of his native mountains. He had something
in some way analogous stored up in his experience. But to see five thousand
human beings alive at once was something undreamed of, and it upset him.

Generally speaking, which is to be considered more interesting and surprising,
per sé, an ordinary trolley car or an automobile? For Ishi, the trolley car, every
time. I stupidly expected him to grow excited over his first automobile, as I did
over mine. To Ishi, of course, both were miracles, plain and simple. Both
the auto and the street car were agitated and driven about by some super-
natural power; one as much as the other. The street car, however, was the
bigger of the two, it had a gong which rang loudly at times, and moreover was
provided with an attachment which went ‘‘shoo!’’ and blew the dust away
when the air-brakes were released. Ishi would watch trolley cars by the hour.
Electric lights, door-knobs, safety-pins, typewriters, he considered curious or
wonderful according to some mysterious standard of his own. Getting water by
turning a knob pleased him boundlessly. On the whole it was a limited number
of simple things that gave him most astonishment.

Aeroplanes, by the way, he took quite philosophically. We took him to
Golden Gate Park to see Harry Fowler start to fly across the continent. When
the plane was trundled out and the engine started, the Indian was surprised
and amused at the uproar it created. The machine was finally launched,
and after a long circuit, soared back over our heads. As it came overhead we
1918] Waterman: The Yana Indians 67

particularly called his attention to it. He was mildly interested. ‘‘Saltu?’?
a said interrogatively, nodding toward the plane a thousand feet skyward,

White man up there?’’ When we said yes he laughed a bit, apparently at
the white man’s funny ways, and let it pass. Either he was ready to expect
anything by that time, or else his amazement was too deep for any outward
expression. Like most ‘‘nature-people,’’ he was inclined to preserve his dignity
in the face of the unfamilar or the overwhelming, giving very little sign.
Under equivalent stimulation of course the pale-face dances about and squeals.

Ishi was, however, jarred completely out of his equanimity by a window-
shade. On the morning of his second day at the Museum, I found him trying
to raise the shade to let the sunlight in. It gave me a queer feeling to realize
that never in his experience, either in his cafion home or in the Oroville jail,
where he spent his first thirty hours of civilization as an honored guest, had he
encountered the common roller shade. He tried to push it to one side and it
would not go. He pushed it up and it would not stay. I showed him how to
give it a little jerk and let it run up. The subsequent five minutes he utilized
for reflection. When I came back at the end of that time, he was still trying
to figure out where the shade had gone.

Concerning foods he had certain prejudices which he was never able to over-
come. For example he politely asked to be excused from gravies and sauces.
He did not take at all kindly to the notion of boiling food. Fried, baked,
roasted, broiled, or raw food he could understand. He did not like those pro-
cesses which lead to semiliquids. No milk, if you please, for Ishi, and no eggs
unless they were hard boiled. All such things, he said, lead to colds in the head!
The real basis of his dislike seemed to be their esthetic effect. I have often
wondered since just how far our eating habits might be considered messy. Ishi
wanted his food dry and clean appearing. For drink he liked only transparent
beverages, that could not have anything concealed about them. Tea was his
idea of the proper drink. An enthusiastic chef once gave him some claret
when nobody was looking. From all accounts he did not care for it. It turned
out later that he thought it was medicine.

In all his personal habits he was extraordinarily neat. At his first dinner
he behaved as many another man has done under similar circumstances. He
waited patiently until someone let him know, by setting the example, whether
a given dish was to be consumed with the aid of a spoon, a knife, some other
kind of contrivance, or with the fingers. Then he calmly did likewise. His
actions were always in perfectly good taste. Even during his first days in
civilization, he could be taken comfortably into any company. He had a certain
fastidiousness which extended to all his belongings. His effects were kept care-
fully in order. Not only his apparel, but his arrow-making appliances, his bow,
and his other impedimenta, were always in perfect array. During the time he
lived at my home a certain member of my family urged me to model my own
behavior in such respects after the Indian’s shining example.

Ishi moreover was remarkably clever with his hands. In his own way he
was a fine workman. He made bows of perfect finish. He could chip arrow-
points to perfection out of any of the materials which give a conchoidal frac-
ture—obsidian, flint, agate, or bottle-glass. Some of his handsomest specimens
were made of bromo-seltzer bottles. No more beautiful arrow-points exist than
the ones he made. His finished arrow, including point, shaft, and feathering, is
a model of exquisite workmanship.

On the whole he took very kindly to civilization. He seemed apprehensive
at times lest we might send him back ultimately to his wilderness. Once when
we were planning with much enthusiasm to take him on a camping trip, to
68 University of California Publications in Am. Arch.and Ethn. [Vol. 13

revisit with him his foothill home, he filed a number of objections. One was
that in the hills there were no chairs. A second was, that there were no
houses or beds. A third was, that there was very little to eat. He had been
cold and gone hungry so often in the hills, that he had few illusions left. In
camp, however, he proved to be a fine companion. He could swim and wash
dishes and skylark with anybody, and out-walk everybody.

He convinced me that there is such a thing as a gentlemanliness which lies
outside of all training, and is an expression purely of an inward spirit. It has
nothing to do with artificially acquired tricks of behavior. Ishi was slow to
acquire the tricks of social contact. He never learned to shake hands but he
had an innate regard for the other fellow’s existence, and an inborn con-
siderateness, that surpassed in fineness most of the civilized breeding with which
I am familiar.

For a number of years Ishi lived at the Museum. Finally through the
action of the Regents of the University he was appointed Museum Helper;
so that for the last years of his life he was self-supporting. Here he served
as a ready informant. A considerable mass of material was obtained from
him concerning the ethnography of his tribe. He never learned to speak
English correctly or fluently, and the difficulties of mastering uninterpreted
Yahi incidentally to other duties were too great for the members of the
Department. In the summer of 1914 Dr. Saxton Pope and two members of the
Department of Anthropology spent four weeks with Ishi in his original haunts.
A good deal of information was thus obtained. Luckily for the University,
Dr. Edward Sapir of the Canadian Geological Survey was enabled to work
with Ishi for a number of weeks in the summer of 1915. Dr. Sapir already
had some mastery of the other Yana dialects. His work with the Indian was
primarily linguistic and resulted in a remarkable series of texts. Ishi’s life
came to an end on March 25, 1916, as the result of an oversusceptibility to
tuberculosis to which he never developed the slightest immunity.

A final word about Ishi himself would be in place, but I find it diffi-
cut to say the right thing. It was patent that he liked everybody,
and everybody liked him. He never wished to go back to the wilds,
naturally enough, for there was nothing to go back to. He had how-
ever, to be reassured repeatedly that we had no intention of sending
him back. As a matter of fact I think the closing years were far the
happiest of his life.

CONCLUSION

It is only fair to certain of my informants to say that evidence has
been advanced to prove that ‘‘wild’’ Indians have been at large in
the Deer Creek and Mill Creek region even since Ishi came into civili-
zation. I might give a couple of examples of this evidence:

1911.—Informant, hunting in Mill Creek cafion, finds on a sand bar a bare-
foot track, by a tiny smoldering fire. The sand was damp, and the track was

fresh. The place was about seven miles above Avery’s. The footprint was

made by a person who had never worn a shoe. (Information by F. W. Grimm,
of Red Bluff, 1915.)

1912.—Mr. D. B. Lyon enters a clump of heavy brush up Dry Creek. In
the center he finds a bed made of twigs. The twigs had been gathered from
1918] Waterman: The Yana Indians 69

the inside of the clump. There were no marks on the outside that the brush
had even been entered or disturbed. No white man, according to the inform-

ant’s belief, could conceivably have had any motive in preparing the bed, in
its situation.

1913.—John Moke, of Chico, and his daughter find in a cave on Mill Creek
signs of ‘‘Indian’’ occupation. In 1914 the University party took Ishi into the
cave, which was as far as we know in the same condition, and he said no Indians
had been there since the ‘‘old people’’ of former generations had lived there,
and smoked the ceiling with their cooking fires.

I presume this matter is still one in which a person is entitled to
his own opinion. Personally, I cannot convince myself that any
Indians survived the breaking-up of their village. Ishi says himself
that his ‘‘sister’’ ran in one direction and he went in another, and he
never saw her afterwards. He showed interest in the stories of Indians
still at large, but seemed to have few hopes in that connection. Con-
versation on that subject always left him in a fit of depression, from
which it took him some time to recover.

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

A number of persons were good enough to supply direct informa-
tion from notes and personal experiences, concerning the events men-
tioned in the present paper. Thanks in this connection are due Mr.
Richard Gernon, Mr. F. W. Grimm, Mr. Chris Kauffman, Mrs. Lud-
wig, Mr. D. B. Lyon, Mr. L. L. McCoy, Mr. Norvall, and Mr. Owen,
all of Red Bluff; Mr. M. C. Polk and Mr. J. McCord Stilson, of Chico;
Mr. W. J. Segraves of Susanville; and Mrs. G. W. Williams of
Tehama. The following list includes the printed works cited :

ANDERSON, R. A.
1909. Fighting the Mill Creeks (Chico).
Carson, A. T.
1915. Captured by the Mill Creeks (Chico?).
CuRTIN, JEREMIAH ;
1898. Creation Myths of Primitive America.
Dixon, R. B., and Krorser, A. L. :
1913. New Linguistic Families in California, Am. Anthropologist, n. s., 15,
647-655.
PowELL, J. W.

i hn . Xxi-lvii.
1885, Report to Director, 6th Ann. Rep. Bur. Am. Ethn., pp
1886. Tangaistic Families of America, north of Mexico, 7th Ann. Rep. Bur.

Am. Ethn., pp. 7-139.

STEPHEN
ee Tribes of California, U. S. Inter. Dept. Geog. and Geol. Survey, 3.

Contributions to North American Ethnology.
70 University of California Publications in Am. Arch.and Ethn. [Vol.13

Sapir, EDWARD
1910. Yana Texts, together with Yana Myths, collected by R. B. Dixon,
Univ. Calif, Publ. Am. Arch, Ethn., 10, 1-235.
1917. The position of Yana in the Hokan Stock, Univ. Calif. Publ. Am.
Arch. Ethn., 13, 1-34. :

U. S.—OFFIce or INDIAN AFFAIRS
1858. Report of Commissioner.
U. S.—War DEPARTMENT
War of the Rebellion: Official records of the Union and Confederate
Armies. Ser. 1, vol. 50, parts 1-2, Operations on the Pacific Coast,
July 1, 1861-June 30, 1865.
WELLS, H. L. and CHAMBERS, W. L.
1882. History of Butte County. 2 vols. (San Francisco).
EXPLANATION OF PLATES

PLATE 1

Ishi the day after his capture at Oroville. He has been dressed in a
slaughterhouse apron. His hair is burned short in mourning and there are
strings through perforations in the lobes of his ears. There is also a hole
through the nasal septum for accommodating an ornament, but the ornament

itself is not visible in the picture.

[72]
UNIV. CALIF, PUBL, AM. ARCH. & ETHN. VOL. 13 [ WATERMAN ] PLATE 1

 

THE LAST YAHI
 

 
UNIV. CALIF. PUBL. AM. ARCH. & ETHN. VOL. 13 | WATERMAN | PLATE 2

 

ISHI AT THE UNIVERSITY, OCTOBER, 1911
PLATE 3
Ishi shooting. Photograph taken near Deer Creek in May, 1914. The bow

and arrow were made by him in San Francisco.

[74]
[ WATERMAN ] PLATE 3

13

UNIV; CALIF; PUBL, AM. ARCH. & ETHN. VOL,

 

CREEK

SHOOTING ON DEER
PLATE 4

Ishi flaking an arrow point. This photograph was taken on the bank of
Deer Creek in 1914. Ishi has allowed his hair to grow long.

[76 ]
UNIV. CALIF. PUBL. AM, ARCH, & ETHN. VOL. 13

[ WATERMAN ] PLATE 4

 

FLAKING AN ARROWHEAD
PLATE 5

Ishi sitting with his salmon harpoon by Deer Creek, near the mouth of
Sulphur Creek. The harpoon was made on the spot.

[ 78 |
UNIV. CALIF, PUBL. AM. ARCH. & ETHN. VOL, 13 [ WATERMAN ] PLATE 5

 

ON DEER CREEK WITH THE SALMON SPEAR
UNIV. CALIF, PUBL. AM. ARCH. & ETHN., VOL, 13 [ WATERMAN ] PLATE 6

 

DEER CREEK, MAY, 1914
UNIV, CALIF, PUBL, AM, ARCH. & ETHN. VOL, 13

[ WATERMAN | PLATE 7

 
 

 

 
PLATE 8

Lashing the prongs to the shaft of the salmon harpoon.

[ 80]
UNIV. CALIF, PUBL. AM. ARCH. & ETHN. VOL. 13 [ WATERMAN | PLATE 8

A

LASHING THE SPEAR

 
PLATE 9

Fig. 1—Preparing to put together the salmon harpoon.

Fig. 2.—T wo pairs of toggle-heads for the salmon harpoon. These specimens
were found in the last Yahi camp in 1908. They are now specimens 1-19574-5
in the University of California Museum of Anthropology.

[ 82]
[ WATERMAN | PLATE 9

UNIV, CALIF. PUBL. AM. ARCH. eS EmriNne VOU. m3

 

 

PARTS

OF

ASSEMBLY

TOGGLE-HEADS AND
PLATE 10
Fig. 1—View across Deer Creek cafion in the region of the camps most
recently inhabited by the remnant of the Yahi.

Fig. 2.—Cliffs at the rim of Deer Creek cafion, opposite mouth of Sulphur
Creek. The rock and brush in the foreground are typical vegetation. The
base of cliffs such as these is often from 500 to 1,000 feet above the stream.

[ 84]
UNIV. CALIF. FUBL. AM. ARCH. & ETHN. VOL. 138 [WATERMAN ] PLATE 10

 

DEER CREEK CANON, THE YAHI REFUGE
PLATE 11

Fig. 1—A glimpse of Deer Creek in its cafion.

Fig. 2.—Remnants of a hut at ‘‘Bear’s Hiding Place’’ on the south side of
Deer Creek some three miles down stream from the mouth of Sulphur Creek.
This is one of the three structures in which the remnant of the Yahi were

discovered in 1908. The photograph was taken two years after the abandon-
ment of the site.

[ 86]
UNIV. CALIF, PUBL. AM. ARCH. & ETHN. VOL. 13. [WATERMAN ] PLATE 11

 

‘<BRAR’S HIDING PLACE’? AND HUT
PLATE 12

Fig. 1—Framework of another house in the same camp. Also photographed
after it had stood vacant and the brush-covering had been blown away.

Fig. 2.—Interior of same, showing the cross-sticks for smoking or drying
food.

[ 88 ]
UNIV. CALIF. PUBL. AM. ARCH. & ETHN. VOL, 18. [ WATERMAN ] PLATE 12

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

 

HUT FRAMES
PLATE 13

Fig. 1—Ishi on a rock slide below the caifion rim and above his peoples’
camp at ‘‘Bear’s Hiding Place’’ on Deer Creek. The photograph was taken
in May, 1914.

Fig. 2.—The thick clumps of pepperwood among which the little houses at
‘‘Bear’s Hiding Place’’ were concealed.

Fig. 3.—A cave in Deer Creek cafion some miles up-stream from the mouth
of Sulphur Creek. This was at times inhabited by the fugitive Yahi. A bear
skin now in the University of California Museum of Anthropology was taken
from this cave many years ago. At the time this photograph was taken Ishi
described how he spent a night shivering after arriving at the cave and finding
his expected blanket gone.

[90]
UNIV. CALIF PUBL. AM, ARCH. & ETHN. VOL, 13 [ WATERMAN ] PLATE 13

 

Fig. 1 Fig. 2 Fig. 3
ISHI ABOUT HIS OLD HAUNTS
PLATE 14

Arrow-making outfit taken as a trophy by D. B. Lyon when he ran upon a
party of Yahi Indians in a thicket and had three arrows shot at him. The
specimens are now at the University of California Museum of Anthropology.
The outfit includes two arrow foreshafts, sinew, scouring rush for smoothing
arrows, lumps of pitch and paint, part of an old gun lock, chips of glass and
chinaware from which arrowheads were to be made, a stick for pitching, iron
awls for chipping, skin pads to hold the glass while being flaked, and a pouch
to contain the ‘set.

[ 92]
UNIV. CALIF, PUBL. AM. ARCH, & ETHN. VOL. 13

[ WATERMAN ] PLATE 14

 

 

YAHI ARROW-MAKING OUTFIT
PLATE 15

Two Yahi baskets. The smaller was left at the cabin of F. D. Norvall on
Mill Creek by several Yahi Indians whom he had encountered and treated
kindly. It is deposited in the University of California Museum of Anthro-
pology. The tray was taken at ‘‘Bear’s Hiding Place’’ in 1908 and forms
number 30 in the J. McCord Stilson collection at Chico.

[94]
UNIV. CALIF, PUBL. Am, ARCH. & ETHN. VOL. 13 [ WATERMAN ] PLATE 15

 

YAHI BASKETS
 
PLATE 16

Moceasin of deerskin sewn with sinew. This was taken from the Yahi
camp at ‘‘Bear’s Hiding Place’’ in 1908. It now forms number 32 in the
Stilson collection. The shoe was too small for Ishi’s foot and must have been
worn by one of the women of his group.

[96]
UNIV. CALIF, PUBL. AM. ARCH, & ETHN. VOL. 13 [WATERMAN ] PLATE 16

 

YAHI MOCCASIN
PLATE 17

Deer snare found at ‘‘Bear’s Hiding Place’’ in 1908. It now torms number
7 in the Stilson collection. The tapering rope is twisted of three somewhat
unequal strands of milkweed or perhaps Indian hemp. The heavy end is
spliced into a loop for the running noose.

[ 98 ]
UNIV. CALIF, PUBL. AM, ARCH. & ETHN. VOL. 13 [ WATERMAN ] PLATE 17

   

esa oe 2
Gh hoe ata
ews

  

YAHI DEER SNARE
 
PLATE 18

Fig. 1—Hat patched of many fragments by a Yahi Indian and abandoned
when he was surprised in an attempt to rifle a cabin on Deer Creek. This hat
is now specimen number 1-19581 in the University of California Museum of
Anthropology.

Fig. 2—Much worn blanket or cape of strips of twisted rabbit skin with
double weft of twine. Most of the fur has been rubbed off. Thongs near
each end served to tie over the breast. The piece is about large enough to
keep the back and sides warm. University of California Museum of Anthro-
pology specimen number 1-16602, From ‘‘Bear’s Hiding Place.’’

[ 100 ]
UNIV. CALIF. PUBL. AM, ARCH. & ETHN. VOL. 13 [ WATERMAN | PLATE 18

 

 

HAT AND RABBIT-SKIN CAPE
UNIV. CALIF. PUBL, AM. ARCH. & ETHN., © Eweais: [ WATERMAN | PLATE 19

 

FLAYING A DEER
PLATE 20

Stripping the large back sinews from the carcass of a deer. These sinews
were valuable to the Yahi for backing bows and making bowstrings. One hand
draws the cord while the other guides the knife in cutting loose the adjacent
muscles.

[ 102 ]
UNIV. CALIF. PUBL. AM. ARCH, & ETHN. VOL, 13

STRIPPING OUT SINEWS

[ WATERMAN | PLATE 20

 
   

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. PUBLICATIONS — (continued)

~ Mole 7. 1; ‘The Emeryville. ‘Sheliziound, by Max Uhle,- Pp. 1-106, pla’
epee “38 text figures, June, 1907 ESS Mere te
ety! ‘Recent. Investigations bearing upon the ‘Question of the Occurrence of
; - Neocene Man: in the ‘Auriferous Gravels of California, by William
J. Sinclair, . Pp: 107-130, plates 13-14) February, 1908

 

231 text figures, December, 1908

dee ‘Shelimounda® -of the San. Francisco Bay Region, by_ N.C. Nelson,
Fees ae Pp. 308-556, plates 32-34. cbtdang NOOO 3S ee a ga
a “Be The: ‘Ellis ‘Landing Shellmound, by. Nt O. Nelson. Pp. 357-426, “plates
Pas --86-50.— April; 1910

 

 

   

Py Pig : AS Index; pp. 427-443, ;
Rae 4%) 8. ae A Mission Record of the ‘California Indiens from-2 Manuscript in the
ay Bancroft Library, by A. L. Kroeber: ‘Pp. 1-27. May, 1908 —2.....-
eo Oe The Ethnography of the Cahnuilla ‘Indians, by A. L: Brocher. Pp. 29-
: a 68;; plates 1-15.’ July;- 1908.
S$: -The Religion’ of the Luisefio and Dieguenio itadians of Southern Cali-
eRe fornia, by~ Constance. Goddard Dubois. Pp. 69-186, -plates 16-19.
ae) = June, 1908-2...
eget “The Culture: of the “Luisefio Tidians, by Philip Stedman Snarknian:
<=." Pp.-187-234; plate'20.° August, 1908 -
b. Notes: on Shoshonean*Dialecta of Southern
oe ber. <Pp.. 935-269.~. September, 1909/0020. co on

 

 

 

 

 

ae: 271-358, plates 21 =28. March, 1910 - CE SE Fray tea oe care eae

a4 >; Index, pp. 359-369: - ; :
5 4. Yana. Texts; by. Edward Saptr, together with: “Yana Myth collected es
Pas “Roland: B. Dixon. Pp; 1-235. February, 1910
23 The Chumash. and-Costanoan ‘Languages, by A. i. Kroebe :
OT, ‘November, 1910. :

  

286 ‘Pomo ‘Indian Basketry, by S..A. Barrett. Ep. 133-306, Plates. 15-30, —.

6. “The Religious. Practices of ‘the Diéguefio thats by TT. Waterman, i

 

8. ms Languages of the Coast-of California North of San. Prancisco, by.

       
  
 

 

BERT > Index; pp./437-439.
» Vol. 10, 1 Phonetic. Constituents of the “Native Languages ot California, by, A.
Gi _ > di. Kroeber, Bp. 1-12. May, MO seo ese nage eae he dara te cr

 

. “Waterman. Pp. 18-44, plates*1-5, November, 1911-202.

3 < 45.96, plates 6-20.. November, 1911-20. ee

4. The Ethnology (of. the ‘Salinan Indians, by J. Aiden Mason. ‘Pp. 97-

Y= - -240; plates 21-37. December, DSO acne os ahd ace a es ea Beak

“Bb, Papago Verb Stems, by: Juan Dolores..-Pp, 241-263." > August1913 2...

pe ae Oy: ‘Notes on the Chilula Indians. of Northwestern California, by. Pliny

ice Seren -Barl Goddard: Pp. 265-288, plates:38-41. April, 19140...

fas. ‘Chilula Texts, by: Pliny Earle Beams. Pp, = 289-379. “Noveniber,

es F 1914. i : cs :

©) 40 Index, pp. 381-885. “

Vole A a é i. Blements of the Kato Language, by Pliny: Earle Goddara.- ee 1- 178,

~ << plates 1-46. October, 1912. .:

2, Phonetic Elements. of ‘the. Dieguefio Language, by A. L. Kroeber and
J.P Harrington. Pp. 177-188. “April; 1914! oo...

se Sarst Texts, by. Pliny: Barle Goddard. Pp. 189-277. February, -1915::.

 

 

 

 

February, 1915

<> ward Winslow Gifford, Pp. 291-296. February, 1916 —-..-------.--1..-
6. The Delineation ofthe Day-Signs in the Aztec Manuscripts; by T. T. -
= Waterman, »Pp. 297-398. Watch, LOU one oie ete c ete arc neem natee
ae The Mutsum Dialect of Costanoan Based on’ the Vocabulary of-De la
sy <Questa, by-J. Alden, Mason." Pp. 399-472, March, 1916 ee erage
t fe Endex, pp. AT3-4795 =
‘Vol. 1a 4, Composition of. California Shellmounds,. by Edward Winslow Gifford.
a Pp. 1-29. February, 1916...
= 9, California Place-Names .of Indian Origin, by ‘A. L. Kroeber. Pp.
; 31-69. “June, 1916.

 

 

 

4, Miwok~ Moieties,. by “‘Bdward Winslow Gifford; Pp. 139-194... June,

; "1916 =
Be On Plotting the Inflections of the Voice, by. Cornelius B. Bradley. Ep

es = LOB 218, plates 1-5. October; 1916

 

2 Li, ‘Kroeber. Pp: 273-435, and map. “April, so hf) bageaes eng ete 8 cot ari, :

po ae » 9. "Fhe Phonetic Elements of the Northern Paiute Language, by , T. :
oe Li Phonetic Blements of the Mohave Language, by A. L. Kroeber. Pp.

4 Seren, Tequistlatecan,. and Hokan, “by A. L. Kroeber. Pp. 279-290.
“6. Dichotomous Social Organization-in South ‘Central California, by Hd-

3. Arapaho Dialects, by A. L. Kroeber. Pp. 71-138. Tie ise on *:

 

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