Customer Reviews

California Indian Shamanism (Formerly Ballena Press Anthropological Papers ; No. 39)

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"When the doctor sings it's like he's snake charming. The pain gets hypnotized by the songs and starts rising in the body to see what it is and when it's close enough to the surface the doctor can take it out by sucking, or with his hands." a Yurok shaman, p. 139

This is a seminal work edited by LJ Bean, today perhaps the foremost authority on CAlifornia Indians. It compiles, in one place, field data from the Northern tribes (Yurok, Karuk, Wintu, HUpa), Central California (Miwok) and the South (Cahuilla, Luiseno etc). In addition, there are chapters on rock art, toloache (the Datura-based religions of the Cahuillas, the Luiseno and even the Miwoks), the Kuksu (among Pomo and Maidu) religion and the Revival religions such as the Ghost dance.

A central concern of this book is that of the Native relationship with power: personal power, acquired by one's ability to perceive sacred beings and power sources (ritual paraphernalia, quartz crystals, human and animal bones, feathers, and plants such as angelica) and community power, derived from the shaman's status as a leader, healer and witch-doctor (In California as opposed to the Plains, priests and shamans usually came from chiefly families and were trained in high caste secret societies. Power was, according to the Indians, differentially distributed in both time and space and came from the sacred "Dreamtime" when the universe was created. The authors provide many anecdotes from transcribed sessions with their informants; what I especially liked was that, in general, the emphasis was on description and not on analysis. This makes for exciting reading.

Shamans were political leaders, and they supervised the regular yearly burning process under oaks, pines and mesquite to maintain good harvests, control plant diseases, parasites (mistletoe), bugs and poison oak as well as to improve the quality of seed and straightness of basket grasses and arrow reed. They were also healers, prophets and poisoners enaging in "doctor wars".

I found the discussions on the use of datura, Rattlesnake shamans, Deer- or Antelope shamans, Bear shamans, Acorn shamans, "Poison doctors" , soul loss and Singing doctors very informative. The poison doctors, for example, often obtained their powers hereditarily and were taught by a parent the use of quartz crystals and the eating of roots of poisonous plants, and they were encouraged to practice hitting a feather stuck in the ground as a target with porcupine quills so that they could successfully hit people with their darts. Many of these practices seem to me to be very similar to Australian aboriginal ones.

The book concludes with a couple of excellent chapter written by native Californian Indians themselves, and with an analysis of the worrisome encroachment of non-native traditions (such as the sweat lodge, as it is practiced by the Plains tribes) into native (Californian) practices which are consequently facing the danger of disappearing, as the young strut the sexier Lakota style. Also we see the tenuous and often antagonistic interactions between the the New Age "neo-shamanism" and indigenous tribes, who resent the encroachment of the white man and his perceived usurpation of their religion. This book doesn't take sides; it does however provide a valuable contribution that will be of interest to anthropologists and laypeople alike.

Most of the book was interesting, but when I came to the section of the supposed Southern Sierra Miwuk shamans I was once again not surprised by the total misinformation that the Yosemite National Park Service's Craig Bates, who besides being a federal employee for the park for over 30 years, is an author.

Again he adds his own fable instead of fact this time about Charlie Dick, a Yosemite - Mono Lake Paiute. Craig Bates wrote that Charlie Dick was one of the most prominent Southern Sierra Miwuk shamans, which is interesting, because Charlie Dick was a full blooded Paiute. Even in the Southern Sierra Miwuks petition for federal recognition they acknowledge that most information about Charlie Dick states he was Paiute.

Charlie Dick's father Chief George Dick was related to Lancisco Wilson, who on his grave marker in Yosemite National Park's cemetery has a big "PIUTE" craved in it. Something that Craig Bates must have not noticed in his 30 years plus service for Yosemite National Park as the "official" Indian expert for Yosemite. His own office being about a couple of yards from the cemetery. Maybe the author, when he walks by it, diverts his eyes to something he does not WANT TO SEE. Yet the same author must have realized that when he wrote his jibberish, that does not make any sense.

In a 1930 census when others around Yosemite were claiming they were "Diggers", Charlie Dick specifically put down he was "PIUTE"...full blooded.

In the book The Ahwahneechees by John Bingaman it is documented that Charlie Dick, son of Chief George Dick, brother of Sally Ann, was a "Piute, born at Mono Lake". John Bingaman was a Yosemite Ranger who knew the Indians of Yosemite for decades. Bates came into the picture later when the so-called Southern Sierra Miwuks were starting to go for federal recognition. For federal recognition you need scholarly work and written documentation to prove that your tribe was in the area since the beginning of time. So Craig Bates writings, to me, look extremely suspicious and biased to wards that group.

In one of Bates' writings he states that Charlie Dick's mother was Mary Williams a Yosemite Indian. Yes, she was a Yosemite Indian, a Yosemite PAIUTE Indian, whose parents were Big Jim and Mattie Williams. Something, that once again Craig Bates in his position and writings should've have realized. Since it was his job for about 30 years to study.

I had heard the author of that section, Craig Bates, is a white man raised by a Miwuk family, that as a teen he was fascinated by Miwuk culture. He even grew and married a Miwuk woman, had 1/2 Miwuk son and dressed in Miwuk regalia, but who would've thought he would've TRIED to re-write Yosemite Indian history to match his own Miwuk lifestyle.

Than most of the religious pieces he quotes in the book are Paiute, not Southern Sierra Miwok. Once again a white man steals the legacy of the Indian people. This time my people, the Paiutes.

It is best to look at the book critically, than believing everything that Craig Bates, the federal employee and well-known author, writes.

That is just that section of the book.