Hunting with the Bow and Arrow | Page 2

unequal, and the bow disappeared from the
land. The last primitive Indian archer was discovered in California in
the year 1911.
When the white pioneers of California descended through the northern
part of that State by the Lassen trail, they met with a tribe of Indians
known as the Yana, or Yahi. That is the name they called themselves.
Their neighbors called them the Nozi, and the white men called them
the Deer Creek or Mill Creek Indians. Different from the other tribes of
this territory, the Yana would not submit without a struggle to the white
man's conquest of their lands.
The Yana were hunters and warriors. The usual California natives were
yellow in color, fat and inclined to be peaceable. The Yana were
smaller of stature, lithe, of reddish bronze complexion, and instead of
being diggers of roots, they lived by the salmon spear and the bow.
Their range extended over an area south of Mount Lassen, east of the
Sacramento River, for a distance of fifty miles.
From the earliest settlement of the whites, hostilities existed between
them. This resulted in definitely organized expeditions against these
Indians, and the annual slaughter of hundreds.
The last big round-up of Mill Creek Indians occurred in 1872, when
their tribe was surprised at its seasonal harvest of acorns. Upon this
occasion a posse of whites killed such a number of natives that it is said
the creek was damned with dead bodies. An accurate account of these
days may be obtained from Watterman's paper on the Yana Indians.
[1][Footnote 1: Vol. 13, No. 2, _Am. Archaeology and Ethnology_.]
During one of the final raids upon the Yana, a little band of Indian
women and children hid in a cave. Here they were discovered and
murdered in cold blood. One of the white scouting party laconically

stated that he used his revolver to blow out their brains because the rifle
spattered up the cave too much.
So it came to pass, that from two or three thousand people, the Yana
were reduced to less than a dozen who escaped extermination. These
were mainly women, old men and children. This tribal remnant sought
the refuge of the impenetrable brush and volcanic rocks of Deer Creek
Canyon. Here they lived by stealth and cunning. Like wild creatures,
they kept from sight until the whites quite forgot their existence.
It became almost a legend that wild Indians lived in the Mount Lassen
district. From time to time ranchers or sheep herders reported that their
flocks had been molested, that signs of Indians had been found or that
arrowheads were discovered in their sheep. But little credence was
given these rumors until the year 1908, when an electric power
company undertook to run a survey line across Deer Creek Canyon
with the object of constructing a dam.
One evening, as a party of linemen stood on a log at the edge of the
deep swift stream debating the best place to ford, a naked Indian rose
up before them, giving a savage snarl and brandishing a spear. In an
instant the survey party disbanded, fell from the log, and crossed the
stream in record-breaking time. When they stopped to get their breath,
the Indian had disappeared. This was the first appearance of Ishi, [2]
[Footnote 2: Ishi is pronounced "E-she."] the Yana.
Next morning an exploring expedition set out to verify the excited
report of the night before. The popular opinion was that no such
wildman existed, and that the linemen had been seeing things. One of
the group offered to bet that no signs of Indians would be found.
As the explorers reached the slide of volcanic boulders where the
apparition of the day before had disappeared, two arrows flew past
them. They made a run for the top of the slide and reached it just in
time to see two Indians vanish in the brush. They left behind them an
old white-haired squaw, whom they had been carrying. She was
partially paralyzed, and her legs were bound in swaths of willow bark,
seemingly in an effort to strengthen them.
The old squaw was wrinkled with age, her hair was cropped short as a
sign of mourning, and she trembled with fear. The white men
approached and spoke kindly to her in Spanish. But she seemed not to
understand their words, and apparently expected only death, for in the

past to meet a white man was to die. They gave her water to drink, and
tried to make her call back her companions, but without avail.
Further search disclosed two small brush huts hidden among the laurel
trees. So cleverly concealed were these structures that one could pass
within a few yards and not discern them. In one of the huts acorns and
dried salmon had