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In This Section... · Migration and Language · Trade · Houses · Crafts and Utensils · Money · Food · Salmon Magic · Coming of Age as a Shasta Girl Shamanism and Healing Treasures of Mt. Shasta Hidden Lakes of Mt. Shasta The Ghost Dance Why Mt. Shasta Erupted

Crafts and Utensils

Shasta people carved stone and elk horn, and used a grub for an ingenious carving technique. A hard stick was cut crosswise and stood in a container of salmon oil. The center of the stick being softer and more porous would absorb the oil and move it upwards through the cells of the center of the stick. After it had been saturated by the oil up this core, a hole was drilled on one end and a grub was inserted into the hole. Then the stick was set aside for the winter. By spring, the grub would have ideally eaten its way along the oil-saturated core, and come out the other end, making a finely drilled tunnel with human handiwork. Such a stick would then become the stem of a pipe. Other natural items incorporated into crafts were salmon vertebrae for game pieces, spoons from elk horn, rattles made of deer hooves, stone grinding pestles, string from the iris plant, and baskets. Shasta basketry was commonly cone shaped, much like the Indian Basket project the Camp provides as a learning activity. For transportation, the Shasta acquired redwood canoes from the neighboring Karok, who had traded for them with the original makers, the coastal Yurok.

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