Plants have flowered and seeded here for at least the past thirty years, serving as a ready seed source for downstream dissemination.In 2004, an event occurred which ultimately helps clarify the relationship between regional riverine and roadside-growing plants and the surrounding flora by providing a biogeographical context for the meager ethnographic information regarding tobacco use by Native Americans living in the vicinity of the Upper Klamath River. During the summer, a fast-moving, wind-driven range and woodland fire swept parallel to, but well above, the north side of the Klamath River and Irongate Reservoir. In the summer of 2005, coyote tobacco appeared, scattered through the burned area. The plants grew most abundantly where fire intensity and duration were relatively high, such as through bmsh fields and around the bases of charred juniper trees. Because of favorable growing conditions, many plants were especially robust, growing to a height of about two meters, and setting enormous quantities of seed . Prior to the fire, tobacco plants within the study area had only been encoimtered in association with machine disturbance along roads or with water disturbance along the river. In locations such as these, tobacco seeds may have been recently transported from elsewhere into the zones of disturbance, where seeds were apt to germinate. It is now obvious that tobacco plants exist as a hidden seed bank across large portions of the landscape above the river within the Cascade Mountains. Thus,raspberry container while seeds may be transported by river from head water sources in or near the Klamath Basin to the east, seeds may just as Ukely derive from the surroimding landscape.
Likewise, roadside plants may derive from the locally indigenous seed bank in addition to being transported by road maintenance vehicles from more distant sources. The 2004 fire demonstrated that through and below the Upper Klamath River Canyon, coyote tobacco is not a recent or localized introduction, but is an ancient and widespread but cryptic component of the indigenous flora. These observations supplement and illuminate the regional ethnographic record regarding the cultural use and propagation of native tobacco. The Shasta people lived and continue to live in a variety of environments along what is now the Oregon Califomia border . This paper is concemed primarily with the ethnographic Shasta groups having along the Klamath River and in the nearby Shasta Valley. A strong east-west climatic gradient along the Klamath River results in comparatively lush vegetation in the western portion of Shasta territory, where average aimual rainfall may be greater than 102 cm. . To the east, in the Shasta Valley and along the lower reach of the Upper Klamath River, the yearly rainfall average may be as Uttle as 30 cm. , resulting in open, Ughtly vegetated landscapes where trees are confined to the more mesic locations. Although the Shasta are a distinct people with a common cultiure and language, the ethnographic Westem Shasta and Eastern Shasta adapted some aspects of their culture to their differing environments and adopted some cultural practices from their respective neighbors. There are notable differences between the Westem and Eastem Shasta uivolving such significant cultural elements as house styles , basketry materials and techniques , and diet . The Shasta not only responded to the different environments in which they Uved, they were also influenced by their immediate neighbors, with whom they traded and intermarried.
The Western Shasta shared many cultural attributes with their Karuk, Hupa, and Yurok neighbors, whUe the Eastern Shasta had many practices that corresponded to those of the indigenous peoples who lived to their east: the Klamath, Modoc, and Achomawi. The ethnographic Shasta culture, up and down the river, was attuned to the widely different environments through which the river coursed. Although there is little ethnographic information pertaining directly to tobacco use by Native Americans living along the Upper Klamath River, regional information is useful and pertinent. The most robust source of information is Voegelin , who recorded tobacco growing and harvesting practices from two Shasta sources. Her Eastem Shasta source of mformation was Emma SneUing, who was familiar wdth the Shasta VaUey and Upper Klamath River traditions. A comparative summary of the foUowuig information is presented in Table 1. Tobacco Was Cultivated or Semi-Cultivated. This pattern was shared by most Native Americans living west of the Cascade-Sierra Nevada uplift . Regionally it was also shared with the Modoc and Achomawi who resided east of the Cascade Mountauis crest . Tobacco Was Sown. Seed was intentionally planted. This could have been done in the manner quoted previously for the Achomawi, where wild tobacco seeds were scattered at grass-seed harvest time. More intensive practices, where seed was saved from year to year and sown specifically in areas devoted primarily or exclusively to tobacco horticulture, were also likely possibiUties. Tobacco Was Sown in Ashes. If the seeds were not sown where there had recently been a fire, the germination rate would be low and those seeds that did sprout might result in small plants, either because of competition for sunhght and water or lack of sufficient readUy avaUable nutrients. Tobacco Was Thinned.
Ihinning is a departure from the normal pattem of tending coyote tobacco, the native tobacco of the region; it usuaUy does not involve intensive methods of cultivation. Of the sixteen groups m northeast Califomia that Voegelln surveyed, only two gave a positive response to “thinning.” However, where coyote tobacco plants seed naturally from the previous year, they often germinate thickly near the parent plant, with the close competition between individuals resulting m small plants. Thinning favors fewer plants, resulting in a more robust stature for those plants not removed. Tobacco Plants Were Not Irrigated. Irrigation is not recorded for any of the peoples who lived in close proximity to the Eastern Shasta except the Western Shasta. During normal summers, coyote tobacco—the indigenous tobacco of the region—usually grows well without supplementary irrigation. Tobacco Plants Were Not Pruned. Pruning is not recorded for any of the people who lived in close proximity to the Eastem Shasta except the Westem Shasta. Tobacco Was Gathered From the Wild.This practice matches the method of tobacco acquisition by peoples who live east of the Shasta and who gathered and still gather coyote tobacco from the wider landscape. The gathering of wild tobacco would necessarily be associated with a widespread tobacco seed source,large plastic pots for plants such as occurs withm the landscapes occupied by the Eastem Shasta and by tribes located to the east. In summary, practices documented for the Eastem Shasta indicate that they were using both more intensive and less intensive methods to procure tobacco. They practiced horticultural methods—such as sowing seeds in ashes and thinning—but also gathered tobacco from the wild. While intentionally sowing tobacco seed into ashes matches the practice of the Westem Shasta, the practice of gathering from the wild allies the Eastern Shasta closely with those peoples who lived to their east: the Klamath, Modoc, and Paiute. These groups are ethnographically recorded as using coyote tobacco, the species widely distributed throughout Eastern Shasta territory and points east. The use of coyote tobacco by the Eastern Shasta is confirmed by the unpublished notes of C. Hart Merriam who provided the Latin name Nicotiana attenuata within the context of information provided by Upper Klamath River Shasta people. Voegelin’s downriver Shasta source of information regarding tobacco was Sargent Sambo, who lived on Horse Creek, a tributary of the Klamath River about 56 km. below the Upper Klamath River Canyon. Sargent Sambo described the horticulture of tobacco as being an intensive practice dependent primarily on intentionally grown plants. The following annotated cultural elements regarding tobacco are derived from Voegelin and Holt . Tobacco Was Cultivated or Semi-Cultivated. This practice duplicated that of the Eastern Shasta and of most native peoples who lived west of the CascadeSierra Mountains crest. Tobacco Was Sown. This practice also followed that of the Eastem Shasta and of the neighbors of the Westem Shasta to the south and west. Tobacco Was Sown in Ashes. This practice was shared by the Eastem Shasta and by most peoples who cultivated tobacco in the Far West. Tobacco Was Not Thinned. Thinning was not recorded for the Westem Shasta, although it may have occurred if seedlings sprouted too thickly. Tobacco Was Irrigated.
The irrigation of native tobacco in the region was uncommon. In northeastem Califomia, it was only recorded for one out of sixteen groups: the Westem Shasta .Voegelin commented that “in dry weather plants [were] watered by hand with water from [a] basket” . Irrigation, only practical where plants are concentrated and near a water source, would assure that valuable plants contmued to produce large leaves during the characteristic mid- to late-summer drought. The size of newly produced leaves duninishes rapidly under drought conditions. Tobacco Plants Were Pruned. Voegelin suggested that “the stems [were] snipped off near [the] upper end, so growth goes into the leaves” . Pruning the stem tips would not only encourage larger leaves below the “pinch,” it would also make the plant more compact and increase its drought tolerance. Pinching would also likely increase nicotme content . Tobacco Was Not Gathered From the Wild. This followed the prevailing cultural prohibition on gathering wild tobacco plants that extended downriver from the Shasta to include the Karuk, the Hupa, and the Yurok . However, Voegelin did note that areas were burned for a volunteer crop, a practice indicating that a tobacco seed bank was widespread within at least those portions of the landscape devoted to tobacco procurement. Source of Tobacco and Tobacco Seed. Additional information regarding the use of tobacco by the Westem Shasta is derived from Holt , who also interviewed Sargent Sambo. Holt observed that tobacco seeds “were obtained from the Gamutwa [a downriver branch of the Shasta] who got them from the Karuk [who lived farther downriver], who in tum got them from the Yurok [who lived farthest downriver and along the Pacific Coast].” In a related statement Sargent Sambo stated: “The people here on the lower Klamath had the most tobacco, so if anyone from Oregon or Shasta Valley [upriver, near the study area] visited them they gave them tobacco. That is why the best and strongest medicine was made dovm here” . Why should the Shasta have acquired tobacco seeds from these dowouiver peoples when, as we have noted, there was a perfectly good supply upriver? Why should they have intensively cultivated and irrigated a plant that grows perfectly well with little or no attention under a much drier climatic regune to the east and throughout the Great Basin? It is obvious from ethnographic data that Westem Shasta people were practicing a very intensive form of tobacco horticulture that paralleled and—with the addition of irrigation—perhaps even surpassed the intensity of horticulture practiced by their western neighbors, the Karuk. The ethnographic Karuk and other nearby tribal peoples grew a species of tobacco that was not coyote tobacco but a closely related species that is sometunes called Indian tobacco .It is highly likely, based on the intensity of their tobacco cultivation, that the Westem Shasta cultivated Indian tobacco as well. J. P. Harrington, an anthropologist well versed in Native American tobacco culture, provides confirmation, observing that “the Takelma [an interior southwest Oregon tribe] tobacco was the same as that of their Shasta neighbors, Nicotiana bigelovii” . Nicotiana bigelovii, which is currently classified as Nicotiana quadrivalvis , is the species used ethnographically by the Shasta’s downstream neighbors. It is clear from Harrington’s unpublished notes regarding the Shasta that he was most familiar with the plants and Westem Shasta people occupying the downriver portion of the Shasta territory . Indian tobacco has never been identified within the Cascade Mountains portion of the Upper Klamath River or within the dry Shasta Valley. The most proximate location for which there is a herbarium specimen is, however, less than 44 km. downstream from the westem perimeter of the Cascades Mountains . Indian tobacco has a natural range that appears to be concentrated in the southem half of the Califomia Floristic Province . It seems to have a disjunct distribution along the Lower Klamath River, and it has been recorded as far north as the Queen Charlotte Islands in Canada .