MAIDU

group of California Indians speaking a language of Penutian stock and originally living in a territory extending eastward from the Sacramento River to the crest of the Sierra Nevada and centring chiefly in the drainage of the Feather and American rivers. Their culture existed in three primary forms dictated by differing habitatsthose of the valley dwellers, foothill people, and mountaineers. The valley people were prosperous; poverty increased with elevation among the Sierra inhabitants. The Maidu ate seeds and acorns and hunted elk, deer, bear, rabbits, ducks, and geese; they also fished for salmon, lamprey eel, and other river life. Ironically, those of the Maidu who were the least exposed to inclement conditions had the most sophisticated technology and were able to construct the most protective shelter. Thus, the valley people built large, earth-covered communal dwellings, whereas the hillmen and mountaineers made more fragile brush or bark lean-tos. The Maidu were settled in autonomous groups, each owning its territory communally and acting as a unit, though members might be dispersed in various settlements. Among southern groups the chiefs were hereditary, but among northern groups they probably achieved their position through wealth and popularity and could be deposed. Like many other central Californian Indians, the Maidu practiced the Kuksu cult, involving male secret societies, esoteric rites, masks and disguises, and special earth-roofed ceremonial chambers. Some of the purposes of the rituals were naturalisticto assure good crops or plentiful game or to ward off floods and other natural disasters such as disease. In the late 20th century, fewer than 200 Maidu remained, living in Sierran communities.