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Open Access Publications from the University of California

Volume 27, Issue 1, 2007

Volume 27 Issue 1 2007

Issue cover

Front Matter

Articles

Upriver and Downriver: A Gradient of Tobacco Intensification Along the Klamath River, California and Oregon

This paper identifies the types of locations where coyote tobacco (Nicotiana attenuataj has been found along the Upper Klamath River and demonstrates how that information illuminates the regional ethnographic record of Native American tobacco use and culture. Locations where coyote tobacco has appeared within the Upper Klamath River vicinity were documented during a fourteen-year period. These data are supplemented by observations from the surrounding region. The aggregate of these observations suggests that coyote tobacco is an ancient, widespread, and potentially common species over a large portion of the landscape within the Cascade Mountain section of the Upper Klamath River watershed. This information, when combined with ethnographic, biogeographic, and experimental data for another tobacco species, Indian tobacco (Nicotiana quadrivalvis), helps to reconstruct a regional history of the horticultural intensification of tobacco by indigenous peoples living along the Klamath River Several lines of evidence indicate the Shasta Indians were intermediate in the transition from less intensive to more intensive methods for procuring tobacco. The evidence also indicates the Eastern and Western Shasta relied on different species of tobacco.

The Bonneville Flood Debris Field as Sacred Landscape

This study argues that the debris field left by the Bonneville Flood in southwestern Idaho can be viewed as a sacred landscape. A correlation is made between petroglyph placement and flood-produced Melon Gravel. The significance of this correlation is then discussed within a mythic framework.

Reports

The Plantation Cache and a New Charmstone Type from Southern California

The discovery of the Plantation Cache has called attention to an unusual assemblage of archaeological remains. We have presented evidence that supports the hypothesis that they comprise the cached paraphernailia of a shaman. Ethnographic data from a variety of tribes indicate that the caching of ritual items was common, so it is not surprising that archaeologists might occasionally come across such a feature. The Plantation Cache contributes to the small sample of known caches of charmstones in northern California. We have also demonstrated—in light of the discovery of six nearly identical artifacts from northern California—that the Plantation Cache "football" variety of charmstone constitutes a distinctive type. We believe that the football-shaped charmstone represents a legitimate formal artifact type that has heuristic value for California archaeology. Criteria have been presented that identify the proposed football type of charmstone and discriminate the type from similar forms. We predict that additional examples will be identified, and hope that this paper contributes to that outcome.

A Contribution to Delta Yokuts Vocabulary: Some Items from Tamukan

A manuscript at the National Anthropological Archives containing words in seven different languages—some of which were misidentified in the past as being "Yukian"—is reevaluated in the light of new information. A number of unattributed Yokuts words are identified, and arguments are presented for attributing these to a little-known Delta Yokuts tribelet dialect, Tamukan. Delta Yokuts was probably spoken by a greater number of tribelets than any other Yokuts language (with the possible exception of Valley Yokuts). It is evident that the known tribelet dialects exhibited a fair amount of lexical variation. Since Delta Yokuts is one of the least attested Yokuts languages, any new information concerning it is welcome.

Petroglyphs, Lighting, and Magnetism

The passage of a lightning discharge over the surface of a rock is shown to produce two roughly parallel loci of maximum anomalous magnetization, having opposite polarities, marking the edges of the discharge path. For an electron flow from sky to earth, the north-seeking end of a compass needle is attracted to the right-hand locus. Perpendicular to the path, the magnetization varies like that of the field induced in and around a long, straight cylindrical conductor by the flow of an electrical current. Magnetization due to lightning has been observed on the surfaces of rocks in the Providence Mountains of southern California. Petroglyphs on one of these rocks appear to be related to the magnetic anomalies. The present study suggests that a lodestone may have been used to detect and mark certain of these anomalies, rather than observing the actual lightning strikes or their physical traces on the surfaces of the rock.

A Kawaiisu Healing Cave

During a field trip to the Nettle Spring area in 1994, Andy Greene, a Kawaiisu elder, pointed out a small cave to one of us (MQS) that was located on the side of a hill southeast of Nettle Spring. He said that this cave was where the Kawaiisu people living at the Nettle Spring village site would go when they were ill. There was, however, more to this cave than just a place to go when one was sick. Andy said that the large, bushy plant growing just below the cave had medicinal healing powers; when someone from the village became sick, they would go to the cave, take a piece of the plant, grind it up m the mortars (or cupules) at the site, and use the mixture for healing. Andy noted that the village at Nettle Spring could be seen from the operung of the cave, so that an afflicted individual would not be cut off entirely from the everyday happenings of the village. The following is a brief report on this small cave and on the medicinal plant that Andy identified there. The site is now within Tomo Kahni State Historic Park, and is known as the "Wizard Cave" or supply the "Healing Cave."

Lost and Found

Arrows from the Long Ago

The three brief items that comprise this installment of Lost and Found each describes a rare and rather unusual type of archaeological site that seems so far to have been relatively neglected in the literature. The first article, from the Los Angeles Times, is an early account of a site in Nevada's Arrow Canyon Wilderness Area, in an area that is also characterized by considerable biodiversity and a great deal of rock art. The second, reprinted from Arizona Highways, discusses a site in central Arizona that is situated in a somewhat different context from the others. The third, which is reprinted from the Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly, describes a site in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park that is currently being restudied by Joan Schneider. Two other, similar sites are reputed to be located in Death Valley and Baja California, respectively (P. Wilke, personal communication 2007). Please note that a number of photographs that originally accompanied the last two articles could not be adequately reproduced here and have been deleted; interested readers are urged to consult the original articles, which are readily available in most libraries

Arrow Fever

The three brief items that comprise this installment of Lost and Found each describes a rare and rather unusual type of archaeological site that seems so far to have been relatively neglected in the literature. The first article, from the Los Angeles Times, is an early account of a site in Nevada's Arrow Canyon Wilderness Area, in an area that is also characterized by considerable biodiversity and a great deal of rock art. The second, reprinted from Arizona Highways, discusses a site in central Arizona that is situated in a somewhat different context from the others. The third, which is reprinted from the Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly, describes a site in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park that is currently being restudied by Joan Schneider. Two other, similar sites are reputed to be located in Death Valley and Baja California, respectively (P. Wilke, personal communication 2007). Please note that a number of photographs that originally accompanied the last two articles could not be adequately reproduced here and have been deleted; interested readers are urged to consult the original articles, which are readily available in most libraries

A Game of Skill?

The three brief items that comprise this installment of Lost and Found each describes a rare and rather unusual type of archaeological site that seems so far to have been relatively neglected in the literature. The first article, from the Los Angeles Times, is an early account of a site in Nevada's Arrow Canyon Wilderness Area, in an area that is also characterized by considerable biodiversity and a great deal of rock art. The second, reprinted from Arizona Highways, discusses a site in central Arizona that is situated in a somewhat different context from the others. The third, which is reprinted from the Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly, describes a site in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park that is currently being restudied by Joan Schneider. Two other, similar sites are reputed to be located in Death Valley and Baja California, respectively (P. Wilke, personal communication 2007). Please note that a number of photographs that originally accompanied the last two articles could not be adequately reproduced here and have been deleted; interested readers are urged to consult the original articles, which are readily available in most libraries

Reviews

Blackburn: An Artist's Portfolio: The California Sketches of Henry B. Brown, 1851-52

An Artist's Portfolio: The California Sketches of Henry B. Brown, 1851-52 Thomas C. Blackburn Banning: fVIalki-Ballena Press, 2006, 96 pages, 37 illustrations, $30.00 (cloth).

Leeds-Hurwitz: Rolling in Ditches with Shamans: Jaime de Angulo and the Professionalization of American Anthropology

Rolling in Ditches with Shamans: Jaime de Angulo and the Professionalization of American Anthropology Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2004, xxii + 359 pages, illustrations, and maps, $59.95 (cloth).

Quinlan (ed.): Great Basin Rock Art: Archaeological Perspectives

Great Basin Rock Art- Archaeological Perspectives Angus R. Quinlan (ed.) Reno: University of Nevada Press, 2007, 168 pages, $39.95 (cloth).

Laylander and Moore (eds.): The Prehistory of Baja California: Advances in the Archaeology of the Forgotten Peninsula

The Prehistory of Baja California: Advances in the Archaeology of the Forgotten Peninsula Don Laylander and Jerry D. Moore (eds.) Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2006 254 pp., maps, illustrations, tables, bibliography, index; $55.00, (cloth). ISBN: 0-8130-2939-2

Style Guide

Editorial Style Guide

This Guide augments information for authors that appears on the inside cover of each issue of the Journal. Instructions herein incorporate changes designed to standardize manuscript preparation, copy editing, and typesetting. They are particularly important because articles in most cases are set to type from an electronic file submitted by the author. The use of electronically formatted media is a standard practice m most publishing efforts and avoids the need for retyping every manuscript, saves time and cost, and minimizes errors. Prospective authors are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the following pages. Manuscripts submitted for consideration that do not conform to the editorial style guide of the Journal wiU be returned without being reviewed.