The Achomawi traded basketry caps, salmon, acorns, dentalia, tule baskets steatite, and rabbit-skin blankets to the Atsugewi for seed foods, epos roots (Pteridendia bolanden), furs, hides and meat. They gave the Modoc shell beads, twined baskets, braided grass skirts and pine nut string skirts. From the Modoc they got furs, bows dentalia, and in historical times, horses. They supplied the Northeastern Maidu with green pigment, obsidian, bows, arrows, deer skins, sugarpine nuts and shell beads. From the Northeastern Maidu they obtained clam disc beads, salt and digger pine nuts. To the Northern Wintun they gave salt, furs and bows, and obtained salmon flour, clam disc beads and dentalia. To the Northeastern Modoc they gave sinew-backed bows, arrows, baskets, dried fish, women's basketry caps, clam disc beads and dried salmon flour, and obtained sinew, arrowheads, red paint, buckskins, moccasins, rabbit-skin blankets and basketry water-bottles. They gave the Yana obsidian, and obtained buckeye fire drills, deer hides, buckskin, dentalia and salt.(Davis: 1966)
In "California Indian Shamanism" Floyd Buckskin tells of one belief of his people, that quartz crystals to empower were gotten by diving into a falls, where, in the pool below, you would meet a spirit (he says, perhaps a mermaid) who would lead you to a cave where the crystal grew. Other dangerous, hard to get magical objects were the giant moth cocoon, which he says symbolized the heart of the world, and a baqua, which was like a bundle of feathers and had a root which reached to the center of the world, the heart of the world.
The Atsugewi or Hat Creek people live north of Mount Lassen. The Atsugewi gave the Achumawi furs, hides, meat, seed foods, epos roots and other roots and vegetables, and got basketry caps, salmon flour, steatite, acorns, salmon, dentalia, tule baskets and rabbit-skin blankets. They gave the Northern Paiute bows, baskets and shell beads, and got horses, buckskins, red ochre, glass beads, guns and olivella beads. They gage the Northeastern Maidu bows, twined baskets, furs and horses, and got clam disc beads, coiled baskets and skins. They gave the Yana buckskin, arrows, wildcat quivers and woodpecker scalps, and got salt, dentalia, and buckeye fire drills. They traded with the Klamath of Oregon for baskets, and with the Northern Wintun (Wintu) with clam disc beads and dentalia.(Davis: 1966)
The Shasta had rectangular winter houses about 16 ft by 20 ft, with the floor excavated 3 feet below the surface, a steep roof, dirt side walls and board end-walls. These houses were placed so they faced the river. They used tule pillows and elkhide or deerskin blankets. They sat on wooden stools. Their assembly houses were constructed in the same way as their dwellings, but they were larger, 20 ft by 27 ft. They had a nearly flat roof covered with dirt, split board sidewalls and 1 ridgepole, and a centerpost which in Shasta Valley was painted red and black. The Shasta also constructed summer brush shelters and bark shelters that would house one family in the acorn season. They made dome-shaped single family sweathouses of willow poles, pinebark slabs and skins (these were constructed by the other Shasta groups also). Their foods were deer, elk, bear, salmon and small mammals, and, of course, acorns. (Heizer: 1978)
They traded with neighboring groups, giving deerskins, sugar-pine nuts, green pigment, bows, arrowheads, manzanita berries, pelts, meat, dentalia, and obsidian to the Northern Wintun, and getting woodpecker scalps, acorns, baskets, pine nut beads, clam disc beads, deer hides, dried salmon clams, and shell beads. To the Karok they gave juniper beads, basketry caps, salt, dentalia, white deer skins, woodpecker scalps, whole Olivella shells, large obsidian blades, obsidian, deer skins, sugar pine nuts, wolf skins and horn for spoons. From them they got abalone shells and ornaments, salt, seaweed, tobacco seeds, baskets, pepperwood pods and canoes. They gave the Rogue River Athabascans acorn flour, and got dentalia shells. They gave the Modoc bows and dentalia, and got buckskin shirts and dresses. They gave the Klamath bows, clam disk beads and conical burden baskets. They got otter skins, skin blankets and buckskin dresses and shirts. They supplied the Yurok with horn for spoons, and got canoes, acorns, baskets dentalia and salt. Horn for spoons was also traded to the Hupa, and obsidian to the Yahi. They traded tobacco seed to the Achomawi. (Davis: 1966)
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