The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-05-04


fessional careers in American anthro-
pology and ethnolpgy. 1t is an Interest,"
ing fact that good positions in this
field with universities, museums, gov
crnment bureaus. etc. are far more
numerous than the supply of trained
men
Agriculture was wholly unknown to
the Sainans. as to all the other abor-
lginal Inhabitants of California. Living
by hunting and fishing and upon Wild
products of the earth, the Salinan In
dlans included in their bin of fare a
vast variety of native foods which the
present inhabitants of California allow
TO go to waste
Rattlesnakes and other serpents.
roasted in the ashes. were favorite It'd
bits at the feasts of the Salinan In
dians other delicacies were lizards,
toads, horned lizards ground squirrels,
chipmunks. rats, mice, the owl, the
eagle and the hawk. The skunk they
did refrain from eating although It's
| flesh was much relished by the fokuts
and other California peoples. One
DAINTY not familiar to modern palates
was the larvae of the yellowjacket,
| toasted over the Goals.
Among the vegetable foods We're a
soup made of the seeds of wild oats.
| clover eaten from the stalk: buckeyes,
| fter the poison had been leached out:
acorn muS0 ana DTedu bdheu from
acorn -four Christmas berries, seaweed
and tamales made from various seeds.
Tobacco was highly esteemed and
| deemed to possess semi ma gical powers.
1t was smoked in a pipe made of a
straight piece of reed or mixed with
burned abalone shell and chewed to
| produced a desired semi i-intoxication. To
chew this wild native tobacco was an
essential part of successful deer hunt
I we'll nndarStnnd h.
If the hunter would chew tobacco assid-
uously while approaching the game this
v ould make the deer drunk and less
wary His head covered with a stuffed
deer head the hunter would crawl steal
thily through the brush to the leeward
side of the deer and sometimes bring
down two or three before the herd
would take flight.
Spears were used in fishing, or nets
made of milk weed twine. or some
times a lake or stream would be poi
soned with the soaproot or the buck
eye. and so plentiful harvest of fish
obtained.
Save for occa asional hunting expedi-
tons or journeys to the sea or to ,Tu-
lare lake for fishing the Salinan In
dians dwelt peacefully in their little
villages 4 council of the older men
would select as chief some nan notabl lie
for his bravery. Sometimes one man
would be overload over half dozen viii
lagos, all of which would pay him
tribute of food implements etc.
Don Pedro Fages later governor OF
California, wrote in 1775 an account
of the Indian tribes which he saw when
member of the famous expedition un-
Ger Portola. which discovered San Fran
cisco bay. There were at that time
some 80 villages of the Salinan Indians
Their society was much less demo-
cratic than that of the plains Indians
or those of the eastern woodlands
There was little warfare among the
California Indians. and their wealth was
greater than that of any of the abor-
iginal inhabitants of North America
save those of British Columbia and
Alaska. Their money consisted OF
heads. of which the blue were the most
valuable, red next, and white last. One
particular sort of bead, made probably
from the columela of a certain shell
was so rare and precious that the pos
session of two was sufficient to make
a man wealthy