Subsistence
In the years before 1850, the native peoples of northwest California enjoyed a fantastic wealth of natural resources with salmon and acorns (supplemented with deer, seeds, and bulbs) being the principal staples for inland groups, while the coastal populations added large quantities of marine shellfish (principally the sea mussel, Mytilus californianus) and hunted sea mammals, especially the Steller sea lion (Eumetopias jubata), and to a lesser extent the California sea lion (Zalophus californianus, sea otter (Enhydra lutris), Northern fur seal (Callorhinus ursinus), and harbor seal (Phoca vitulina). Men did the hunting and fishing while women and children concentrated on collecting, transporting, and preparing plant foods.
Sea mammal hunting required the most complex technology and for the Tolowa this was the highest level of group organization. Late each summer, the Tolowa had a first sea lion hunt, somewhat like the pattern of the first salmon ceremony and other "first fruits" ceremonies held by inland groups. Valued for their meat and oil, sea lions were hunted from large redwood dugout canoes and either clubbed to death while resting on rookeries or taken with sophisticated complex harpoons.
Salmon were the main source of animal protein for riverine groups and were taken by a variety of efficient devices: fishermen would stand on platforms erected over suitable pools and eddies, and dip out the salmon with long-handled nets. These fishing spots were usually privately owned and when the salmon were running, one man could catch enough fish in a day to feed his family for a whole season. The salmon ran mostly in the spring and autumn, but since there were several species, there were fish in the river almost every month of the year. Salmon also were taken using gills nets set in still pools or by several men combining their labor and using dagnets to ensnare hundreds of salmon at a time.
The taking of salmon frequently involved an entire community,
or several communities. For example, once a year the Yurok held a large
gathering that was both a ceremony and a cooperative food producing venture.
Every autumn hundreds of people from several miles up and down the Klamath
River gathered at the village of Kepel to build a fish weir. They
spanned the river with a structure of logs, poles, and small stakes. It
didn't halt the water flowing downstream, but its mesh was fine enough to
keep salmon from passing upstream to spawn. It had ten sections, each with
a gate and a pen behind the gate. As the salmon passed through a gate and
were trapped in a pen, they were pulled out with nets and divided among
the men who had built that section of the weir. For ten days the men pulled
the fish out of the pens while the women split and dried them for storage.
Each pen provided enough fish to last several families an entire year.
Other anadromous fish besides salmon were taken including steelhead (Salmo gairdnerii), candlefish (Thaleichthys pacificus), and Western sea lamprey (Entosphenus tridentaus), as were various land mammals including deer and elk.
Acorns were the most important vegetable food for the northwest people. Although relatively poor in acorn-bearing oak tress compared to other parts of California, northwest California contained three species of oak: valley oak (Quercus lobata), canyon oak (Quercus chrysolepus), &tanbark oak (Lithocarpus densiflora). These trees occur in groves on small, grass covered flats near the coast and on open grassy bald areas on the tops of many hills and low mountains.
In late fall, individual families went to collect acorns at family owned groves. Gathered in baskets, each large enough to hold about 100 pounds, the nuts were transported back to the village where they were stored in specially constructed acorn granaries. To become edible, the acorns needed to have the bitter tannic acid removed from them. The most common method was to crack and dry them, rub them to remove the skins, then grind them to flour with a stone pestle in a mortar, sift the flour, then leach the flour by pouring either cold or hot water over it. The resulting dough was either mixed with water and boiled in a large watertight basket with heated rocks to make soup or
For additional information on the Northwest
Region,
please select a topic most applicable to your interests:
Languages | Subsistence | Settlement Patterns | Sociopolitical Organization | Religion
Northwest
Coast | Northeast | Central
Coast and Central Valley
East of the Sierra Divide | Interior Desert | Southern Coastal
Native Peoples of California - Topics
To comment on this page please send email to Chuck Smith at crsmith@cabrillo.cc.ca.us.
Page last updated: 23 August 1999
To comment on this page please send mail to Chuck Smith at crsmith@cabrillo.cc.ca.us.