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Mountain Maidu

Songs of the California Indians

Collected by Coyote Man

The Maidu Indians live in the northern Sierra Nevadas of California and in the adjacent Sacramento Valley. Anthropologists have divided the Maidu who live in the Sierra Nevadas into three major groups: the Mountain Maidu, who live along the edges of mixed coniferous forests in what now is Plumas and part of Lassen County; the Concow, who live in the foothills and mountains of Butte County; and the Nisenan who live in the oak parklands of Yuba, Placer, Sacramento, Nevada, and parts of Sierra and El Dorado Counties.

For many thousands of years the Maidu lived in the same place. Their way of life changed but slowly. The great stability and depth of the Maidu material culture, coupled with the simplicity of their musical instruments and their relative isolation in the vastness of the Sierras, suggests that Maidu music reaches deep into mankind's archaic past.

Maidu singers generally use a relaxed and nonpulsating vocal technique. And, compared with Native American songs from other musical areas, they sing large amounts of music with an unchanging beat and with a simple rhythmic organization. The music also has characteristic sequences and syncopations. A rise, a section of song with a higher pitch–a kind of musical plateau–can be heard in some of the songs. This rise can be one of three varieties: 1) no higher than the rest of the song but the melodic movement stays around the high tone of the range already established, 2) both higher and different from the nonrise part of the song, and 3) a transposition, frequently of an octave or a perfect fifth, of the non-rise part of the song. The scale of Maidu music is the series of pitches actually used that are not duplicated in another octave. Most Maidu songs, moreover, have a small range, averaging only five or six tones, many less. Maidu songs from the adjacent Sacramento Valley, studied by Densmore, resembled other Native American songs in beginning in double time, but she found that they have a more direct attack in that a larger portion begin on the accented part of the measure.

The basic vehicle of Maidu music is the human voice. But Maidu songs are frequently accompanied by one or more musical instruments. Some of these musical instruments unfortunately are no longer being played. These discarded instruments include the hunting bow, which was reportedly tapped with an arrow; a skin drum, which the Concow stretched between tree branches; a bullroarer, which the Concow used to cause snow to fall; a flageolet or elder flute, which the Maidu played for amusement; baskets which were either drummed or scraped (the Maidu were fine basketmakers), and abalone shell pendants, which were worn on certain dance outfits and made a fine tinkling noise. The Maidu also quit using birdbone whistles and the footdrum, but these have recently been reintroduced by the Maidu themselves (Band 8, song 1). They have retained, however, most of their idiophones, which combine in one element the properties of vibrators and resonators. These include clappers, rasps, rattles, sticks, jingles and so on. There has also been some borrowing of occidental musical instruments; namely the fiddle and guitar, both of which on occasion have been used to play Maidu tunes.

At the time the songs in this record were collected (1965-74), most of the singers lived in scattered houses in the mountains. Some, however, lived in towns and cities adjacent to the Sierras. All of the Maidu now speak English fluently.

Many of the younger singers take shortcuts in the words of the songs and leave out the "Indian twists." But this is not so important, as many Maidu songs never had meaningful words-and many other songs had archaic words whose meanings were known only to a few. In other words, the songs can exert the same effect upon an English-speaking person as they can upon a person who speaks fluent Maidu. The full effects of the music can only be gained by performing it, however.

A good singer, the Maidu believe, should be able to sing both high and low and be able to produce a musical tone like a bell ringing. They should be able to sing loudly for a long time also. The old-time singers sing from deep within their chests rather than higher up in their throats as singers often do in recent years. Maidu songs usually have a slow beat. But, in recent years, the singers have tended to sing faster. Nonetheless, Maidu music yet has a distinct stamp that differentiates it from the music of any other peoples. After 125 years of repression, the Maidu are still singing. And it is certainly possible that four thousand years from now people in the Sierras will still sing homage to the acorn.


CHARACTERIZATION OF THE MUSICIANS

When the animals were still people, the Mountain Maidu say, they all had a singing contest to find out who was the best singer. It turned out that Humans sang the best. And so it is today.

Tom Epperson. (Born about 1886). Raised by his grandparents, who lived an essentially stone age existence. Tom was generally recognized as the spiritual and religious leader of the Mountain Maidu. Tom was an intelligent and pragmatic man with a wide knowledge of the old ways in
the Sierras.

Herb Young. (Born about 1900). An old-time doctor named Shem Taylor held a contest between Herb Young and Ernest Baker to find the best singer. He decided Herb sang better than Ernest. So when Shem died Herb got his shamans rattle. Herb said if you sing any Maidu song long enough spirits will begin coming to you and you will get the power. But some songs work better-they are faster. He sang one of his songs for two or three hours every morning, beginning in the fall of the year. By the next spring he began to get results.

Bill Baker. (Born about 1910). His brother Ernest did become a doctor. Bill's father was a doctor, his grandfather too. Bill is an intelligent, happy-go-lucky man who still carries the old Maidu spirit and speaks Maidu fluently.

Jasper Peconom. (Born about 1900). jasper's parents were Maidu but his stepmother was a Pit River doctor-woman, and he knew many Pit River songs also. Jasper used to sing:

I tried to climb the mountain,
But the mountain was too high.
So I stuck my hand in an eagle's nest
To hear the little ones cry.
Marie Potts. (Born about 1895). A good teacher and an intelligent woman, Marie is well known in Sacramento for her efforts to teach the Maidu way. Marie is a basket maker whose children and grandchildren sing and perform many of the traditional Maidu songs and dances.

(Upper Feather River)

Rex Edwards. (Born about 1890). His singing has affinities to that of Bryon Beavers, and they used to sing together. Rex was a retired logger who spoke fluent Maidu.

Starry Potts. (Born about 1890). Starry was the sister of Rex Edwards and no blood relative to Marie. She lived in a tiny trailer parked alongside the highway. Sometimes she sang as she worked in the trailer, but only after looking about to be sure no one could hear her.

Bryon Beavers. (Born about 1900). Bryon was born under unusual circumstances in the French Creek area. While Bryon's grandmother dug mushrooms with a digging stick, she inadvertently unearthed her grandson. As she trudged back to camp, Bryon kicked some mushrooms out of her basket, and she first noticed him. Bryon was a suicide beetle too--one of those beedes that fly into trees and knocks itself down, one that has rainbow colored wings. Byron's brother, Chelekto, is another kind of beetle. And his grandmother discovered him as he was being drug out of her yard by a huge black ant, clasping his ear. The old people trained Bryon to be one of those kinds of people who made everyone laugh. Then the old world came apart so much there was no longer a need for that kind of a person. So Bryon became a logger and a fiddle player. In later years he lived in an isolated cabin in the bottom of the Feather River Canyon. While he was young, an old woman told him he wood die at the age of seventy. Shortly after he turned seventy he fell and injured his back. In the hospital room he said he could see spirits crowded all about the room, waiting to take him away. After about a week he died. henwakano wano kawanasup

Alta Fitch. (Born in 1896). Alta, a friendly woman with a strong personality, likes to go to grass games and loves to sing her people's songs. Alta knows many old Concow songs Her parents told her not to speak Maidu but she went ahead and spoke it anyway.

(Bald Rock)

Leland Scott. (Yewope). (Born about 1900). Leland was the grandson of Oregon City Charlie, a famous shaman, who raised Leland. Leland picked fruit and hops in the summer, and in the winter he lived in an isolated cabin located a couple of miles from where he was born. He was too poor to have children. If he got sick, why he just had to "tough it out."

Frank Day. (Born about 1902). His father was one of the last Captains (headmen) of the Concow. Frank also has affinities with the Miwok, immediately to the south of the Maidu. Frank has been teaching the younger people in the Sacramento area traditional songs and dances. When I first visited Frank, he was sitting in his darkened house, singing to himself.

Play song

Name

Performed by

Description

Native Words

Translation

Notes

Talking To Pine Squirrel Tom Epperson Tom calls talulu, the Mountain Maidu word for pine squirrels, while the pine squirrel chatters back. This name has, clearly, been derived from the call of the squirrel. The native peoples of the Northern Sierras believe their languages are the world's easiest to learn because the words and rhythms bear such obvious relationships to the sounds in the forests, the streams, the wind and the animals. Mountain Maidu
A Song To Blue Jay Tom Epperson Kasakasa, the word for blue jay, was obviously derived from the raucous call of the bird. The translation goes:
kasa kasa lu han pi kasa kasa lu han pi
Bluejay, Bluejay, anyway to build your nest
(he just spreads a few sticks in a tree for a nest).
The Worldmaker then bawls out Bluejay
Because he steals from people.
"But that's all right, " Jay says. "I already know
That I steal too much. Keep up your life.
Sweat out the dirt. Live that way.
Live a long time and feel happy. Brrpt.
The invocations in the central portions of the song exemplify the poetic speech used in talking to the spirits and on other exalted occasions. This song, or is it a speech, shows the close relationship betweet Maidu language and song.
Mountain Maidu
Boomer Squirrels Song Bill Baker The jubilant song Boomer Squirrel (sawali) sings while picking up acorns and storing them. A boomer squirrel can be heard chattering before and after the song. The song imitates the chattering of squirrels and it shows one way that Maidu music as well as the Maidu languages relate to the land.

The Maidu learn many of their songs simply by listening closely to nature and copying what they hear in song. For instance, Frank Day says a hummingbird, a bee and an ant all sing the same song. "How can an ant sing?" you might ask. - "That's easy," Frank would respond. "At a certain time of year, flying ants come streaming out of the nest. Just put your ear close to them and hear their wings buzzz. Now, imagine that you are listening to them through a long pipe. Listen. And you will hear a tiny voice singing into the other end of the pipe–that's Ant's song." In this as in many other ways does Maidu music stem from the land they live upon. And their music is in harmony with the land.
Mountain Maidu
Begging Dance Herb Young The Concow have five principal types of singers. They have: a) the doctor or shaman; b) the doctor's helper, the clown; c) the basket singer; d) the dancing singer; and e) the yutbi.

During the big meetings that take place in the semi-subterranean dance house, the sacred clown is the first to sing. He has the thought of all the people, and they select him to be the leader and teacher first. The clown engages in a great deal of tomfoolery, provoking laughter. But his aim is always serious in that he is attempting to reach the world of the spirits.

The other four singers cannot perform until the clown comes down from the roof of the dance house. Became the clown is also the Sentinel and stands guard on top of the dance house, while the others perform. The Yutbi is the man who jumps over everyone with his songs. The Yutbi learned what the old people did before that he may do it now–like a human bridge from the past into the present, spanning the generations.

And almost all of the songs the dancers sing are right in line with the doctor's songs. They have dealings with the same things. The Maidu dance partly to help people get well, to make friends with the spirits of the land, to encourage different kinds of food to appear, and to experience their indwelling spirit. Formal dances used to be held in a dance house. While a group of especially trained dancers performed in their fantastic costumes, one or several singers would stand and chant the songs, either with or without the aid of such instruments as a drum and split-stick clapper, depending on the outfit doing the singing. The movements of the dancers are reflected in the rhythm of the songs. Frequently, the dance and the song imitate the sounds and movements of some animal or spirit.
________

At the annual Bear Dance, a group of dancers with long sticks would go among the people and plead for food while this begging song was being sung, That person had better quickly put some food or tobacco into a burden basket or the dancers would jab him with sticks until he complied. After the dance they distributed the food among the poor. Notice the pleading tone of the song.

Mountain Maidu
A Bear Dance (Weda) Song Tom Epperson One of a cycle of songs still sung at the Bear Dance. A large group of people, holding a bundle of wormwood in each hand, alternately flex and unflex their arms while marching in place. At the end of the song they raise their arms and shake the wormwood. Mountain Maidu
War Dance Jasper Peconom "The headman ordered all of the married women to dance while their men fought. They allowed one day maybe two (time for the battle to begin) then they danced through the night, kept dancing to give their men good luck. One woman said, 'To hell with the dancing every night. If he (her husband) wants to get killed, let him get killed.' That was the cause of him getting shot" (See Coyote Man's The Destruction of the People, 1973.) Mountain Maidu
A Brother's Song Tom Epperson A fellow got mad at his sister and took off toward the west, toward the Sacramento Valley. As he went along he sang this song. . . Mountain Maidu
A Sister's Song Tom Epperson .... So his sister got her daughter and started after him, singing wenni heni jo. She saw the sun would set before she caught up with him. So she (in the middle of the song) talked to the sun and lifted it back up with her eyelid. She flipped it up high. She then "wished" the valley to become long. Her brother finally passed out and fell down, died of thirst before he made the Sacramento River. She and her daughter picked up his dried bones and threw them into the "creek." Out he came the next morning, a different man altogether, a different human. And brother and sister walked away, across the valley and back home.
Mountain Maidu
Thunderhead's Daughter's Song Tom Epperson The story of the Worldmaker's pursuit of old-man Thunderhead's daughter has been recounted in Roland B. Dixon's Maidu Myths, 1902. Dixon however makes no reference to this song and the following three songs, which all form an integral part of the story. The story basically recounts the Worldmaker's magic chase of Thunderhead's daughter and the ultimate struggle of power between the Worldmaker and Thunder. Mountain Maidu
The Worldmaker's Song Tom Epperson The Worldmaker only had one song. Wherever he appears in the old stories he always sings the same song. And he is a frequent subject of those stories. This version tells of his struggle with Old Man Thunder. Moutain Maidu
Water Parsnip Man's Song Tom Epperson Water parsnip (Tauschia hartwegii) is the most poisonous plant in the region. It's bound to be a strong plant because Water Parsnip Man (momwaso wajsj), the spirit being behind the water parsnip plant, was one of the Worldmaker's helpers. Water Parsnip lives near the water and its poison lies in its roots under the earth. If a person pulls Water Parsnip out of the mud without talking to him and without leaving a gift, why that person will go crazy. This is a medicine song. If a person plans to use Water Parsnip for poison he must sing Water Parsnip Man's song and leave gifts such as feathers and beads.

After crossing a pond filled with rattlesnakes (in pursuit of Old Man Thunder's daughter), the Worldmaker came to a river filled with huge chunks of ice. "This will not stop me." The Worldmaker calls upon Water Parsnip Man to hold him up from beneath, when he crosses the river. "We're not going to lose our power here," the Worldmaker sings.
Mountain Maidu
Ochikaskasi's Song Tom Epperson The Worldmaker then called to his helper, Ochikaskasi, who lives in the world above this one, the world over the sky:
Ochikaskasi, Ochikaskasi. Help me.
Reach down (through the hole in the center of the sky)
And hold me by the shoulder.
Come down and help me get across.
If a big hunk of ice hits me, Ochikaskasi, I might die. But
They're not going to overpower us, Ochikaskasi!
We're going to cross just the same.
So Water Parsnip Man was holding up the Worldmaker from below while the man from the world above, Ochikaskasi, held him from above. Ice could not knock over the Worldmaker. It just knocked itself to pieces. And the Worldmaker made it across the river.
Mountain Madu
Sunflower Girl's Song Tom Epperson When the world before the one we now live upon was flooded by the Worldmaker's dream, all the animal people except the Worldmaker and Sunflower Girl drowned (see Coyote Man's Sun, Moon and Stars, 1973). The Worldmaker Put up a great pole. The same thing as the center pole of a dance house. And when the water came he crawled up the pole and she crawled up right behind him. He'd go up and she would
go up. As Sunflower (janneni) Girl moved up the pole she sang about the high
water:
I'm Sunflower I'm Sunflower I'm Sunflower Girl
Looking down on something light and bright.
There's water. Too much water.
Water covers the mountains, I cannot see the mountains
(Water covered everything).
Maybe someday the water might go back down
And we can get back to earth.
But the water never did go down The Worldmaker built another world, the one we live upon, over the water.
Mountain Maidu
Eagle Dance Song With A Deer Hoof Rattle Marie Potts The Maidu sometimes boiled the dew-claws of deer until they softened enough to pull off. When enough, twenty or even fifty, were collected they strung them to the top of a shut stick, to make a deer hoof rattle. This rattle is held vertically and shook up and down. This song was
recorded by Don Jewell.
Mountain Maidu
Doctor Johnson's Shaman's Song Tom Epperson Doctor Johnson was a Pit River shaman who lived many years among the Mountain Maidu. And he spoke Mountain Maidu too. Henry Smith went crazy and Dr. Johnson came to cure him. He sang (this song) until daylight. His power (spirits) told him how to cure Henry, recalls Tom. "Dunk him in the creek at daylight," they said. So the people led Henry to a ditch–chains wrapped around his stomach. And Dr. Johnson, still singing this song, picked up Henry by the pants and skirf of the neck and dipped him into the water. It cured him all right. Mountain Maidu
Ringo's Song Tom Epperson Dan Williams, one of the most recent Maidu shamans and also Tom's brother-in-law, used to sing at Tom's place. One of the last spirits Dan picked up was the spirit of Ringo: a Spanish gold seeker who died about 100 years ago He sings:
Ringo, Ringo, my name is Ringo.
A shaman learns songs in his dreams and often passes them down to others. Some songs are given to other singers as well. The songs just come into their head. At other times musicians hear a song sung by another tribe, and they take a pattern off of it, changing the song to suit the needs of their people. And thus does California Indian music grow.
Mountain Maidu
Doctors Song With Cocoon Rattle Tom Epperson A spiritually inclined person is said to frequently find large, silver cocoons dangling from willows or deer brush. These are the cocoons of Sokotern, a huge moth, who was once a woman. Tom says that it is wrong to harm Sokotem Woman–she is a powerful person who can cause a person to go blind. If a shaman wanted to make a cocoon rattle he would gather the cocoons and place them in a warm place until the moth hatched. He would then pour the smooth stones from the croup of a grouse (or a coot) into the cocoon. Then he would tie five or six of these cocoons onto a short stick. He used the cocoon rattle to call the spirits and, occasionally in the old days, during such other sacred times as when singing the songs in the ancient legends. The doctor alternatively pounds the rattle against his heart, shakes it in the air or hammers it on the main dance house support pole. When the spirits come they buzz down the pole and grab the projecting upper end of the rattle (see photo). The spirits yank the rattle out of the doctor's hand and carry it up the pole to the dance house roof, where it can be heard CHIM CHIM CHIM–rapping against the beams.

Bryon Beavers says that if the pupa of the Sokotem moth is removed from the cocoon and held near heat, it will wiggle to and fro, to and fro. And, the dance the shaman uses as he heals people imitates the
movements of the Sokotem pupa.

A characteristic pulsation of the voice, emanating from deep within the chest, occurs when the Maidu sing songs of power. At the end of a power song, the singer has to huslowi–ask forgiveness.
Mountain Maidu
About The Coyote Herb Young Cut off the Coyote's arms at the shoulder and throw them away out–

That's the only way to kill the Coyote. If you kill him,

He'll get back together and get up and walk around.

But if you cut the arms off and the head off and throw

All the different parts away out so they cannot get back together,

Then you can kill the Coyote.
Mountain Maidu
Gambling Song From Story Herb Young Birds were people one time. Two birds went around the world. One bird was over here. And he talked back and forth with the other bird, over there. When they came to a place they had to get trough (like the white man has a place you cannot get through, such as a gate–it's closed), they had to stay there and gamble and beat their way through. If they won they could go on (like the white man in a war: the beat man takes over, something like that). Those birds beat all the different animals. They sang like this:
One bird went over the blue sky–
It's blue as far as you can see.
Nobody knows what's behind the sky.
He went over the sky
just to show the others what he could do.
Mountain Maidu
Pleasure Song I Herb Young Herb says, "This is a kind of pleasure song to whoever is listening–like if a person where singing to some woman and wanted to show her he could sing a song, he might sing this. The song has no words just sounds. Make these sounds come in kind of lovely so the people will like the song, give the songs a twist."

Most of the songs that Herb sings came from Tom Young (Roland Dixon's principal informant). They were a gift to Herb when Tom died.
Mountain Maidu
Pleasure Song II Herb Young Herb says this song also gives time in the Bear Dance. But when Tom listened to it he commented that it would be hard to perform a Bear Dance to this rhythm. Herb says that if you sing any Maidu song long enough the spirit will come to you. Mountain Maidu
Womanhood Dance Herb Young When the young girls reach puberty they do a dance called watemino. The young boys spy on them and go out into the woods and mock the dance. They dance with their hind ends up in the air, rattling all around. And this is the song the boys sing.
Mountain Maidu
A Rasp I was shown a rasp made by Tom and taught how to play it. It was a notched branch of chokecherry wood about eight inches long, and was used to make songs sound pretty. The rasp is an extremely rare instrument in California, so I made my own and rubbed it with a notched stick–just like playing the fiddle. Mountain Maidu
An Indian Valley Grass Game Song Tom Epperson The Maidu, like many other Native Americans, love to play guessing games. To play one such game, the grass game, two groups of gamblers take up bets to make a pot. The opposing groups then kneel in two rows facing one another. Two players on the same side each take a black-striped and an all white bone and conceal them in big wads of grass that they hold in the fists. Hence the name of the game. They rotate their fists about one another, shifting the bones from hand to hand, beginning to chant a gambling tune. Meanwhile, the other side silently watches, trying to divine which fist hides what bone.

The boss of the gamblers usually begins the grass game by singing his own song and his partners sing along with him. He'll keep singing his own song as long as it helps him win–maybe all night and all day and all night again. And if that song does not seem to be bringing luck (keeping team from being guessed), his team will switch to another song. All the while, the singers sway from side to side, singing, "rolling" the bones with perspiration streaming down their faces. Finally, perhaps hiding their eyes, they sing in subdued voices. The guesser on the other side claps his or her hands and sharply calls out the supposed location of the black-striped bones. If the guesser fails to guess the location of either of the bones, the singer energetically picks up amid, perhaps, jeers or laughter. If only one black bone is guessed, the singing also swells in volume; however, if the guesser succeeds in divining the location of all the hidden bones the disappointed musicians stop singing. The successful guesser's side then begins singing one of their own grass game songs while rolling the bones themselves.

One purpose of gambling songs is to trick the other side into listening to them, of being enmeshed by their beauty. Another purpose is to bring luck or power to the singers because the gambling song with power will aid in winning the pot. Grass game songs sung loudly and vigorously will help to bring power. If the players, however, grow discouraged and sing with dejected little voices, their luck will leave them and they will lose, for the players on the other side will vigorously chant and run them down.

In the old days, if a couple of young grass game players wanted to get a grass game song of their own, they would come together and pound on a log with sticks, maybe all day and all night, maybe longer, trying out different tunes. If a new song came into both of their heads at the same time, that was supposed to be their gambling song; and they were supposed to be gambling partners. Nowadays, however, players sing gambling songs handed down from the past or perhaps take a pattern off a song they have heard elsewhere.

Grass game songs are group songs characterized by a rapid rhythm, key words (such as honi, henna, or helli) and a reiterated phrase, the second portion in effect echoing the initial portion of the phrase. Maidu gambling songs were extremely simple before contact with the West-as exampled by Old Lawi's song (Song 2 below). More complex songs diffused from the Modoc in the northeastern corner of California and from the Shasta County Wintu. The tribes in the Sierras each in turn took patterns off some of this music.

________


Bryon Beavers says that an elder branch with just one leaf quivering, the rest standing still, is lucky. "He's good for a clapstick and good for a flute too. Clapstick knows lots of songs, and a singer using Clapstick knows the spirit will give him a song. He hums, clapping the stick. An pretty soon it will make him sing a song. It (the clapstick) might sing lots of things-but no good. The singer keeps humming, maybe he changes ten or eleven times. And then he comes out with a good song. It's a good stick if it does that-good songs come out of that stick."

To make a clapstick, an elder stick about one foot long is peeled and its soft core removed. The stick is split down the middle to within two or three inches of one end. Among the Nisenan and in the Cherokee area of the Concow the clapper was shaken or quivered. In the Feather Falls and Bald Rock regions of the Concow, a sturdier clapper was used which was hit against the hand or thigh. It was also hit against a horizontal log or the center post of the dance house. In this song Tom hits a sturdy clapstick against his palm while singing rather than playing the grass game. The idea of using an elder clapper came to the Mountain Maidu from Chico, in the Sacramento Valley, about 1910. In later years clappers were frequently made from two long pieces of lathe separated by a shorter, thicker piece of wood at the base.
Mountain Maidu
Old Lawi's Grass Game Song Tom Epperson An example of an extremely simple grass game song that the Maidu sang before the more complex songs came into the Maidu country in the early part of this century. Mountain Maidu
Captain Alex's Grass Game Song Tom Epperson Alex was one of the last headmen or Captains of the Mountain Maidu. It turns out that he was quite a big doctor also. Mountain Maidu