The Washo
Great Basin
Recorded and Edited by Willard Rhodes
Music Of The American Indians From the Archive of Folk Culture AFS L38
The Indian tribes that inhabited this vast geographic area have been described by Dr. Ruth Underhill in her book Red Man's America as "those who had little to lose." The Great Basin is an intermountain desert country, bound on the east by the Rockies and on the west by the Sierras and Cascades. The ecology of the desert provided a hard and meager living, and the small seminomadic family groups were kept moving in their ceaseless quest for food.
Women dug for edible roots and gathered seeds and nuts. Grasshoppers were driven into trenches, roasted alive, then ground into flour. Men hunted for rats, lizards, and small game, and with nets made of hemp, they snared rabbits and birds. The wikiup, a dome-shaped arbor of poles and reeds, was their shelter from the heat of the day and the cold of the night. It was a hard life, and one wonders how the people were able to survive in this hostile environment.
Great Basin Indian culture was determined to a large extent by the land. Living in small family groups, they had no need for a formal social organization, and the physical demands of keeping alive left little time for the development of religion and the arts. Their lack of contact with other tribes and the stimulus that results from such contacts may be regarded as impeding the technological development of these people to whom the derogatory name "Diggers" was applied by some whites who regarded them as living no better than animals.
THE WASHO
The Washo is a small tribe living in Nevada that speaks a language of the Hokan linguistic family that is quite unlike the languages spoken in neighboring Indian tribes. About 1860-62 the Paiute conquered them and forbade them to own horses. Now found in the country between Reno and Carson City, they depend almost entirely upon towns and ranches for employment.
After 1934, the government set up a number of small reservations in the Basin area, with decent houses for workers in the towns. Children attend public schools, and a boarding school at Carson City accommodates those who must live away from home.
Women dug for edible roots and gathered seeds and nuts. Grasshoppers were driven into trenches, roasted alive, then ground into flour. Men hunted for rats, lizards, and small game, and with nets made of hemp, they snared rabbits and birds. The wikiup, a dome-shaped arbor of poles and reeds, was their shelter from the heat of the day and the cold of the night. It was a hard life, and one wonders how the people were able to survive in this hostile environment.
Great Basin Indian culture was determined to a large extent by the land. Living in small family groups, they had no need for a formal social organization, and the physical demands of keeping alive left little time for the development of religion and the arts. Their lack of contact with other tribes and the stimulus that results from such contacts may be regarded as impeding the technological development of these people to whom the derogatory name "Diggers" was applied by some whites who regarded them as living no better than animals.
THE WASHO
The Washo is a small tribe living in Nevada that speaks a language of the Hokan linguistic family that is quite unlike the languages spoken in neighboring Indian tribes. About 1860-62 the Paiute conquered them and forbade them to own horses. Now found in the country between Reno and Carson City, they depend almost entirely upon towns and ranches for employment.
After 1934, the government set up a number of small reservations in the Basin area, with decent houses for workers in the towns. Children attend public schools, and a boarding school at Carson City accommodates those who must live away from home.
Play song |
Name |
Performed by |
Description |
Native Words |
Translation |
Notes |
 |
Washo Song 1 | The first two Washo songs are limited to three tones the third and fourth to four tones, and are thus typical of much of the music of this area. The Washo Girl's Puberty Ceremony is similar to those of other tribes in the southwest, with restrictions on the diet of the celebrant during the four days of the ceremony and for thirty days afterward, during which she may eat no meat, grease, salt, or pepper. At the end of thirty days another big feast is held, but there is no dancing. The distribution of gifts by the family of the girl is an important part of the ceremony. | Washo | |||
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Washo Song 2 | Washo | ||||
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Washo Song 3 | Washo | ||||
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Washo Song 4 | Washo | ||||
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Washo Song 5 | Washo |