The knowledge and use of tobacco are among the important elements which our own culture of today has inherited from the Indians of North America. Of what benefit this has been is a debatable matter, but its effect has been profound, both on our customs and our economy.
Local tribes used simple one piece wooden pipes of tubular design for the most part in smoking tobacco. Atsugewi and mountain Maidu commonly employed elder and other woods with a pithy and easily removed center. Although not otherwise being considered in this account, the Shasta Indian technique of pipe making is mentioned here because of its uniqueness. These folks hollowed pipe stems by soaking the end of a suitable stick in salmon oil. The larvae of the salmon fly were then introduced, and these worm-like creatures, eating the nourishing fishy core, would bore their ways lengthwise through the center of the heartwood where most of the salmon oil was concentrated. The Yana habitually used the wood of ash as pipe stock. Mountain Maidu found but did not manufacture a few simple stone pipe bowls also of tubular design. These had considerable spiritual significance and were treated with great care. Garth states that Atsugewi also had short stone pipes, tubular in shape, to which elder or rose wood extensions up to eleven inches in length were applied. Stone pipes were apparently not common in the Lassen region, however.
[Illustration: Steatite stone pipes were used without wooden stems, each between three and four inches long. The holes in such pipes were made by tapping a deer antler piece in the depression containing some sand, a slow but effective boring process. This was commonly done by Valley tribes.]
[Illustration: Yana reddish porous lava (dacite?) pipe, broken half, both sides shown. Note funnel-shaped depression in the bottom of the outside (lower half)]
Pipes were used at social gatherings, after sweating, and at bed time. The pipes of the local tribes did not have any bends or curves. These straight tubular pipes were therefore most conveniently smoked when the Indians were reclining on their backs thus keeping the tobacco from falling out. Pipes were normally passed around, and used only by the men. However, women shamans of the mountain Maidu also smoked them. Shamans regularly used pipe smoking in ceremonies, especially when healing the sick.