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

Dan Rose. (Born about 1900). A blue-eyed Nisenan living in Yuba County. When he was a child, Dan and his yunger sisters lived for awhile as feral children along the bottom lands of the Yuba River. Dan is a happy-go-lucky type, and a well-known herbalist in his neighborhood.

Lizzie Enos. (Born 1881). A, Nisenan woman born at Johnson Crossing,
near Camp Far West, Placer County. The early part of her life was spent living essentially the life of a hunter and gatherer of wild foods. She and her people often had to hide from the soldiers in the early days. Lizzie was afraid to go to many of the "big times" out of fear of being poisoned. But she went anyway, for each time she missed a "big time" she lost some of her power.