Tule Technology: Northern Paiute Uses of Marsh Resources in Western Nevada

Abstract

The Northern Paiute of western Nevada, particularly the Cattail-eater subgroup, had a number of uses for locally occurring marsh plants, particularly for food and technology. Common items manufactured from cattails, tules, and rushes include bags,mats, sandals, clothing, houses, duck decoys, and boats. The rhizomes, shoots, seeds, and pollen of several species also provided nutritious foods. In the early 1950s, Margaret M. Wheat of Fallon, Nevada, began working with Cattail-eater people to document on audio tape, on film, and in print the many uses of these plants, as well as other aspects of their lifeways. In the late 1960s, she was joined in these efforts by Fowler; together they concentrated on the knowledge held by the George family of Stillwater, Nevada. Wuzzie and Jimmy George had been raised by grandparents who themselves had witnessed the settling of their region by non-Indians. They in turn were in the process of passing some of their knowledge to their children and grandchildren. The monograph focuses on the lives of Wuzzie and Jimmy George and the many uses they knew for marsh plants. It describes the making of simple bags of tules for collecting duck eggs in the marshes; tule duck decoys once covered with duck skins and used in hunting; cattail mat-covered houses, common shelters in the region; and tule balsa boats, watercraft well adapted to marshes. Comparative data from the archaeological record in western Nevada as well as from other Native American groups, principally in the Great Basin and California, are added to place the Cattail-eater data in context. The role of the Georges in transmitting their knowledge to future generations is also explored briefly. The monograph is designed to accompany a film by the same title made in 1981 by the Smithsonian Institution's Office of Folklife Programs.