Each of these dances lasted 10 days. In the White Deerskin Dance, the dancers held white deerskins up on long poles as they danced. When doing the Jumping Dance, the men wore headbands decorated with woodpecker scalps.
Before each dance, there was a long recital of sacred words that told how the ceremony came to be. It was thought dangerous to speak to a dog, as he might be provoked to answer, which would be a fatal portent.
The area where the Hupa lived had a mild climate, and heavy clothing was seldom necessary. Men wore a piece of deerskin or several smaller animal skins sewn together, around their hips. Women wore skirts made from tree bark.
For ceremonies, women wore double aprons, with a larger section in back and a narrower section in front. The aprons, which reached from the waist to below the knees, were usually fringed. When more warmth was needed, robes made of animal skins were worn over the shoulders by both men and women. Moccasins made of deerskin were used when going on a journey.
The women wore basket hats to protect their foreheads from the straps of carrying baskets and baby cradles, and fancier caps for ceremonies. Hupa women had tattoos of three broad stripes on their chins. Both women and men had their ears pierced so they could wear shell ornaments in them. Men and women wore their hair long, tied back in rolls with thongs. The Hupa built their houses from cedar or fir planks which they cut from logs. The planks were set upright in a rectangular shape surrounding a pit which had been dug to form the inside of the house.
A lower spot in the middle of the pit was lined with stones so a fire could be built there. A dirt shelf around the pit was used for storage. The pitched roof of the house was also made from cedar planks placed in an overlapping pattern.
People entered the house through a small round hole cut at one corner, and climbed down a notched plank to the dug-out area of the house. Each family had its own house where they ate their meals. The women and children slept in the house. The men and older boys slept in the sweathouses.
There were several in each village, built in much the same way as the larger houses but with lower walls. The door was an opening cut into the roof. Villages varied in size from about 50 to people living in from six to 28 houses. Each village had a name taken from a landmark such as deep-water place or an incident that occurred there place where he was dug up.
Each village had a headman who was the richest man. He had certain hunting and fishing rights, and others in the village obeyed him because he gave them food when they needed it. Acorns and salmon were the two main foods of the Hupa. The salmon were caught in the Trinity River in the spring and in the fall as they swam upriver. Enough fish were preserved by smoke-drying them to last all year. Other fish such as trout and sturgeon were also eaten. Acorns were gathered each fall. After being ground into flour, the acorns were cooked into a thin mush.
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Native American Topics. Buffalo Hunt under the Wolf-Skin Mask. The women and children then collected the acorns that had fallen out of the tree in large baskets. Because of the large quantity that needed to be gathered for the whole tribe, gathering took several weeks to accomplish The Acorn. After acorns were gathered, the nutmeat inside the acorns was too soft to process for cooking.
The nutmeat would be either dried on a rock in the sun or over a fire in a basket. Generally acorns are stored in a granary for one year before they are used in any cooking Acorn Preparation. After gathering the acorns, the people brought their vast crop to the granary.
Some granaries could hold up to 2. Because of competition for the acorns among the native wildlife, such as bear and mice, proper precautions were taken to guarantee the acorns survival in the granaries. Waterproofing the granaries helped to keep the insect invaders out and also helped dehydrate the acorns.
Leaves and bark linings were another repellant used for drive away insects as well as rodents. Some leaves that were used would have been bay laurel or wormwood leaves. Just the aroma of these leaves was believed to repel the insects. The granaries were raised up on stilts to warn away attacks of rodents and larger animals, such as bears The Acorn.
If the acorn harvest survived through all these threats, unshelled acorns could be stored up to ten to twelve years Past and Present. Acorns were generally made into mush, soup or bread. The women of the tribe did all the acorn preparation and cooking. To prepare the acorn nutmeat for the cooking process was not an easy project, and also took several hours for each step.
When the acorns were dried from sitting in the granary, they were cut open by using tools such as a hammer stone and stone anvil. As the shell cracked open, the nutmeat in the shell would be carefully extracted by hand. The nutmeat would have a thin skin pellicle around it that the women needed to take off. This was done by winnowing.
In this process the acorns were placed in a winnow basket that was shaped like a large scoop. The acorns were then tossed into the air, allowing the pellicle to fly away in the wind, and the naked acorns returning to the basket Acorn Preparation. Pounding was the next step and took the greatest portion of the processing time. Grinding the acorns instead of pounding would lead to a paste instead of flour.
This is because of the heavy oils in the acorn that would be released under the pressure. Pounding used many tools. A basket hopper in the mortar held the acorns as they were being pounded. This basket helped to avoid any acorns that might hop out of the basket when in process The Acorn. Pestles were used to pound the acorn into meal.
Women usually spent the entire day doing this process. Acorn Preparation Sifting occurred regularly using a sifting basket. Larger pieces surfaced and were picked out to be pounded again.
The fine meal was brushed into another basket using a small brush called a soaproot Chlorogalum pomeridianum brush. The soaproot brush was also used to clean the mortar and pestle Past and Present. Leaching the meal was an intensive part of this process. Acorns have a high content of tannic acid. Tannin is bitter to the taste and used to tan animal hides.
If the tannins were not leached out, carbohydrates and other important nutrients could not be absorbed in to their body. Tannin makes the stomach lining tough and prevents non-absorption Acorns. To remove the tannin, a large basin is dug into the ground. Acorn meal is spread across the basin, and then covered with branches Acorn Preparation. The branches make sure that the flow of water is not too strong but just drizzles lightly and evenly over the acorn The Acorn.
Water is repeatedly poured over the meal so that tannins are thoroughly leached out. Tasting is done to make sure the meal is free of tannin, by detecting if there is bitter taste to the meal. When all the water is drained from the meal, it is then ready to be cooked Acorn Preparation. Cooking acorn meal can be done in various ways. The first is stone boiling. Large rocks are heated on the fire while acorn flour and water is mixed together in a basket. When the rocks are hot they are then added to the mixture and stirred with a large wooden paddle California Indian.
To prevent the baskets from leaking any water, they are coated with acorn gruel. When the mixture is boiling the soup or mush is done Acorn Preparation. For flavor, berries are added to the mush. For a well rounded nutritious meal, dried meat was also added The Acorn.
Bread was made in shallow pits. Preparation of the dough sometimes required adding clay, about five percent, to the dough. This removed the excess tannin that was left after the leaching process.
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