The Achomawi, along with their linguistic relatives the Atsugewi, are also known as Pit River Indians. Their homeland was located along the Pit River in northeastern California, from Big Bend to Goose Lake, extending to the present boundary between California and Oregon. The Pit River is so named because of the local Indians’ practice of digging pitfalls for the purpose of catching game. The Achomawi had as many as 28 villages; among them were Achomawi, Atuami, Hamawi, Hantiwi, Ilmawi, and Madehsi. The Atsugewi lived to the south of the Achomawi along three streams draining northward into the Pit River—the Burney Creek, Hat Creek, and Horse Creek (Dixie Valley).
The languages of the Achomawi and Atsugewi have been referred to as Palaihnihan and classified by some scholars as related to the Shastan language family spoken by the SHASTA and other tribes. Both Palaihnihan and Shastan are part of the Hokan language phylum, common to many CALIFORNIA INDIANS. The name Achomawi, pronounced ah-cho-MAH-wee and sometimes written as Achumawi, is derived from the Palaihni-han word for “river.”
The Achomawi lived by hunting and fishing, especially for deer, wildfowl, salmon, bass, trout, pike, and catfish, as well as by gathering wild plant foods, eggs, insects, and larvae. Tule (a type of bulrush) sprouts were gathered in the spring. Acorns, a staple of California Indians, were obtained mostly through trade. Achomawi villages were organized into autonomous tribelets, that is, one central village with satellite villages. In summertime, tribal members lived in cone-shaped dwellings with tule-mat coverings. Their larger winter houses were built partly underground, with wooden frames supporting a combination of tule, bark, and grass coverings. The Achomawi, like other California tribes, crafted beautiful basketry of grasses and willow, colored with vegetable dyes. Materials for clothing included deerskin and shredded juniper bark. In Achomawi religion, the chief spiritual being is Annikadel. Adolescent boys sought guardian spirits known as tinihowi. Deer-hoof rattles were used in girls’ puberty ceremonies. About half of the Achomawi shamans were women.
Both the Achomawi and Atsugewi were victims of slave raids carried out by tribes from the north, especially by the KLAMATH and MODOC, who would sell them at an intertribal slave market at the Dalles on the Columbia River in Oregon. Starting in about 1828, non-Indian fur trappers and traders reached Achomawi lands, but it was not until the late 1840s and the California gold rush that outsiders began arriving in great numbers and appropriating lands and disrupting traditional tribal life. The Rogue River War of 1855-56, involving the TAKELMA and Tututni living in southern Oregon, to the north of the Achomawi and Atsugewi, brought a greater U. S. military presence to the region.
In 1871, tribal members took part in the first Ghost Dance revitalization movement, founded the year before by a prophet, Wodziwob, from among the PAIUTE living to the east. Along with other tribes forced on reservations in the region, the Achomawi participated in other religious revitalization movements as well. In 1921, a smallpox epidemic depleted Achomawi members.
Achomawi hold the following rancherias (reservations) in California: Alturas, Big Bend, Likely, Lookout, Montgomery Creek, and Roaring Creek. They share Round Valley, Susanville, and X L rancherias with other tribes. Some Achomawi live in Oregon. A small number of Atsugewi descendants also live in their ancestral homeland.
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World History
