The Pomo Shaman Bear Doctors of Northern California

Following is excerpts from Pomo Bear Doctors , a book about the Native American Pomo beliefs prior to the coming of pioneers . Its a great story and we encourage your thoughts!

THE POMO BEAR DOCTORS

“Introduction
One of the most concrete and persistent convictions of the Indians
of a large part of California is the belief in the existence of persons
of magic power able to turn themselves into grizzly bears. Such
shamans are called “bear doctors” by the English-speaking Indians
and their American neighbors. The belief is obviously a locally colored
variant of the widespread were-wolf superstition, which is not yet
entirely foreign to the emotional life of civilized peoples. The California
Indians had worked out their form of this concept very definitely.
Thus Dr. Kroeber says:
1
i A. L. Kroeber,
Religion of the Indians of California,
present series, IV,
331, 1907.

A special class of shamans found to a greater ‘or less extent among probably
all the Central tribes, though they are wanting both in the Northwest and the
South, are the so-called bear doctors, shamans who have received power from
grizzly bears, often by being taken into the abode of these animals which
appear there in human form, and who after their return to mankind possess
many of the qualities of the grizzly bear, especially his apparent invulnerability
to fatal attack. The bear shamans can not only assume the form of bears, as
they do in order to inflict vengeance on their enemies, but it is believed that
they can be killed an indefinite number of times when in this form and each
time return to life. In some regions, as among the Pomo and Yuki, the bear
shaman was not thought as elsewhere to actually become a bear, but to remain
a man who clothed himself in the skin of a bear to his complete disguisement,
and by his malevolence, rapidity, fierceness, and resistance to wounds to be
capable of inflicting greater injury than a true bear. Whether any bear shamans
actually attempted to disguise themselves in this way to accomplish their ends
is doubtful. It is certain that all the members of some tribes believed it to be
in their power.
beliefs differ rather fundamentally from those here summarized.
In the first place, the Pomo appear to know nothing of the
magician acquiring his power from the bears themselves. Since they
ascribe no guardian spirit to him, he is scarcely a shaman in the strict
sense of the word. The current term “doctor,” misleading as it may
seem at first sight, may therefore be conveniently retained as free from
the erroneous connotation that “shaman” would involve.
In the second place, the power of the doctor was thought to reside
wholly in his bearskin suit, or parts thereof, and apparently was
considered the result of an elaborate ceremony performed in its manufacture
and subsequent donning. This distinctly ritualistic side of
the bear doctor’s practices removes him still more clearly from the
class of the true shaman.
Thirdly, there is a detailed Porno tradition of the origin of bear
doctors. This story is cast in the mold of a myth ; in fact, its initial
portions may be taken from the current mythology of the tribe.
Other parts are, however, remarkably unmythical and matter of fact.
The resultant whole is therefore rather incongruous, and, in the form
recorded, may have been somewhat influenced by the speculations of
an individual. But the events which it describes agree so closely with
the beliefs which the Pomo at large entertain concerning the practices
of recent bear doctors that the question of the extent of the prevalence
of the myth among the group is of less importance than the insight
which the tale affords into the Pomo mind. Its many specific references
make it a suitable introduction to the presentation of the other data
secured.

These peculiarities render a comparison of Pomo bear-doctor beliefs
with those of other Californian groups desirable, but the published
data from elsewhere are unfortunately too fragmentary to make such
a study profitable at present. It has only seemed feasible to append
some comparisons with Yuki and Miwok beliefs.
It may be added that the statements which constitute the body of
this paper are the statements of native informants cited as representative
of their convictions, and not as the opinions of the author.
The degree to which the reputed practices of bear doctors were actually
practiced is far from clear, as Dr. Kroeber has stated. Whether,
however, they rest mainly, partly, or not at all on reality, they furnish
interesting psychological material.

ORIGINAL ACCOUNT
The following tradition was obtained in January, 1906, from an
old Eastern Pomo man and his wife. The husband stated that he
had himself been a bear doctor at one time in his life. In his later
years he became a noted practitioner of ordinary Indian “medicine,”
and was much in demand as a ‘ ‘
sucking doctor. ‘ ‘ His old wife proved
a very valuable informant on Pomo mythology, and it was while
relating myths that the subject of bear doctors was mentioned and the
fact developed that her husband had practiced this craft when a
younger man. The incident led to a full discussion of the entire
matter with the couple, and resulted in the recording of the following
material. This was given by the Indians more as a personal favor
than for any other reason, and was communicated only after a pledge
that their story would not be spread about as long as the two were still
alive. Both are now deceased, as is also the interpreter who aided in
recording the material, so that there is no reason for longer withholding
this information.

Out of deference to the relatives of the
three, it seems best not to name them in these pages.
Besides the myth, these two old people furnished the greater part
of the descriptive information given in the remainder of this paper,
but additional data from other informants have been included. Unless
otherwise stated, the Porno terms are in the Eastern dialect.
In the days before Indians were upon the earth, and when the birds and
mammals were human, there was a large village at dano xa. z These people were
2 This is the site of an old Eastern Pomo village and is situated in the foothills
about two miles northeast of the town of Upper Lake. It is located on the
western slope of a hill and overlooks the lake.

great hunters, pursuing their game with bows and arrows and spears. But
chiefly they set snares in every direction about the village.
They had caught many kinds of game, but finally found a large grizzly bear
in one of the snares. They saw that his carcass would furnish a great feast, but
they were confronted with the difficult problem of getting their prize to the
village. Each of the birds tried unsuccessfully to carry the bear, first on his
right shoulder and then on his left, in the following order: tsai (valley bluejay),
auau (crow), ilil (a species of hawk), tlyal (yellowhammer), karats (red-headed
woodpecker), sawalwal (mountain bluejay), balcaka (pileated woodpecker),
Icabanasiksilc (a large species of woodpecker), cagak ba biya (a species of hawk),
kiya (a species of hawk), slwa (mountain robin), tsitoto (robin redbreast),
tcumatsiya (grass bird), and tlnltal.
Finally a very small bird, tsina bitut Tcaiya patsork,3 succeeded in carrying the
bear. He first tied its front and hind feet with a heavy milkweed-fiber rope in
such a manner as to enable him to sling the carcass over his shoulder with the
body resting upon his hip. No one else had thought of any such method. The
ingenuity of this bird, the smallest of them all, won success and enabled him
to walk away easily with the heavy load. The others laughed uproariously and
shouted their approval of the feat, immediately naming him burakal-ba-Mdjon,*
literally grizzly-bear-you-carrier. Thus he carried the grizzly home to the village,
and Bluejay, the captain, cut it up and divided the meat among all the people.
As a reward for his service buralcal-ba-Mdjon was given the bearskin. This was
a very valuable present, worth many thousands of beads.s
With this skin in his possession, burakal-ba-Jcidjon thought a great deal about
the grizzly bear and became very envious of his powers of endurance, his
ferocity, and his cunning. He forthwith began to study how he might make
some use of the skin to acquire these powers. He needed an assistant, and
finally took his brother into his confidence. The two paid a visit to co dano, a
high mountain east of the village. They then went down a very rugged canon
on the mountain-side and finally came to a precipice the bottom of which was
inaccessible except by way of a large standing tree, the upper branches of which
just touched its brink.
In a most secluded and sheltered spot at the foot of this precipice they dug
a cavern called yelimo, or burdkal yelimo, which they screened with boughs so
that it would be invisible even if a chance hunter came that way. They dug
an entrance about two feet in diameter into the side of the bank for a distance
of about six feet. This led slightly upward and into a good-sized chamber.
The mouth of this entrance was so arranged as to appear as natural as possible.
Some rocks were left to project and twigs were arranged to obscure it. As a
further precaution against detection the brothers always walked upon rocks in
order never to leave a footprint, in case any one became curious about their
3 Identity unknown, and common Indian name not recorded.
* This name in the Northern dialect is bnta baom, and in the Central dialect
is bitalca yalo djak, literally grizzly bear between the legs flew. The Northern
people say that the name of the bird previous to the accomplishment of this feat
was mdbasdmsd. In speaking of this bird one Northern informant stated that
when the first people were transformed into birds this man was wearing a very
large head-dress. This accounts for the fact that the bird now carries a large
topknot.
6 In very early times it is said that a string of four hundred beads was worth
an amount about equal to two and one-half dollars. Later, after the introduction
of the pump-drill, this value dropped to one dollar. On the basis of modern
valuations of such skins, and under the higher rating of beads, this hide would
have been worth 12,000 beads.

movements. They even went so far as to have the rocks at the foot of the
precipice, where they stepped from the branches of the tree, covered with leaves,
which they were careful to adjust so as to obliterate the slightest vestige of
their trail should any one succeed in tracking them to this point. In this cave
they began the manufacture of a ceremonial outfit.
They went out from the village daily, 6 ostensibly to hunt, and they did, as a
matter of fact, kill deer and other game, which they brought back to the village;
but they never ate meat, nor did they have intercourse in any way with women.
When asked why he was thus restricting himself, buraJcal-ba-Jcidjon evaded the
truth by saying that he expected to gamble, and that he had a very powerful
medicine which would yield him luck only with the most rigid observance of
certain restrictions.
When they began this work of preparing the outfits, they also provided a
large sack of beads with which to bribe to secrecy any one who might discover
them.
The two worked thus in the cavern four months.
When the outfit for burakal-ba-Mdjon was done, the latter emerged from the
cavern and ran around its entrance eight times each way, first in a contraclockwise
and then in a clockwise direction. The two then prepared a level,
elliptical area, about twenty by fifteen feet, smoothed like a dancing floor,
where bilrakal-ba-kidjon might practice and become a proficient bear doctor.
Upon putting on the suit for the first time, the procedure was as follows:
While seated in the dancing area, burakal-ba-Mdjon took the bearskin in both
hands and swung it over his right shoulder and then turned his head to the left.
This was repeated four times in all. He next adjusted the skin carefully over
a basketry head-frame and placed the latter securely upon his head. He next
inserted his arms and legs within the suit and laced it up tightly in front,
beginning at the lower part of the belly and lacing upward to the neck.
He then tried to rise and act like a bear. This he did four times, saying
“ha” (strongly aspirated), and turning his head to the left after each trial.
He finally arose on all fours and shook himself after the fashion of a bear, some
of the hair falling out of the skin as he did so. He then jumped about and
started off in each of the four cardinal directions in the following order: south,
east, north, and west. Each time he ran only a short distance, returning to the
practice area for a new start. Finally, the fifth time he started off, he went
for about half a day’s journey up the rugged mountains to the east. He found
that he could travel with great speed and perfect ease through thick brush and
up steep mountain-sides. In fact, he could move anywhere with as much ease
as though he were on a level, open valley. 7 On this journey he hunted for soft,
sweet manzanita berries, finally returning to the practice ground after covering
a great distance, perhaps a hundred miles, in this half day.
He repeated this ceremonial dressing and the race into the mountains for
four days, returning each evening to the village and bringing the game he had
6 In giving the account the informant stated that while making their ceremonial
attire the two worked entirely at night, as was always done by Indian
bear doctors later, and then only upon perfectly dark nights, when the moon was
not shining or when it was obscured by clouds. In case the moon suddenly
emerged from behind a cloud they immediately ceased their work. This was
made necessary by the fact that many hunters were abroad at night.
7 Another informant told of a marvelous journey said to have been made by
his grandmother while the family resided many years ago in Eight-mile Valley.
She went during one night to Healdsburg, Sebastopol, Bodega Bay, and Big
Eiver, thence returning to her home, covering in those few hours about two
hundred miles.

killed. Finally, on the fifth day, he again put on his ceremonial dress and went
over to a creek,, called taaiaka, situated a considerable distance northeast of his
hiding place. Here he found a bear standing erect and eating manzanita berries.
The bear attempted to escape, but burakal-ba-Mdjon gave chase and by virtue
of his supernatural power was able to tire and outdistance the bear, overtaking
him at length and killing him with an elk-horn dagger, which was part of his
outfit.
He returned and brought his brother, who tied the bear’s legs together, as
had buralcal-ba-Mdjon when he won his name, and carried the carcass to the
village, burakal-ba-Mdjon meantime returning to the secret cavern.
The brother skinned the bear and told the captain to call all the people into
the dance-house to receive their portions of the meat. On the following day a
great feast was celebrated, every one joining and providing a share of acorn
mush, pinole, bread, and other foods.
The two brothers then announced that they were again going out to hunt.
Instead, they really went to this secluded spot and made a second bear doctor’s
suit. This one was for the brother, who underwent the same training as his
brother.
Finally the two brothers started out one day toward the north, going up to
a creek called guhul bidame. Here they found a deer hunter coming down a
chamise ridge. They hid until the hunter came within about fifteen paces of
them. They then sprang out and attacked him, the elder of the two bear doctors
taking the lead. This hunter was followed at a distance of perhaps a quarter
of a mile by four others, and when he saw the bears he made a great outcry to
his comrades. After a short chase the bear doctors caught and killed him.
They tore his body to pieces, just as bears would do, took his bow and arrows,
and started off.
Meantime the other hunters, who were Wolves (tsihmeu), hid and escaped
the fate of their companion. After the bear doctors had departed, they gathered
up the bones and whatever else they could find of the remains of the dead
hunter and took them back to the village. The usual funeral and burning rites
were held, and the whole village was in special mourning on account of the fact
that the hunter had been killed by bears.
The bear doctors went back to their hiding place, disrobed, and returned to
the village as quickly as possible, arriving shortly after the four Wolves had
brought in the remains of their comrade. They ate their supper and retired
almost immediately, though they heard the people wailing in another part of
the village. Their own relatives, the Birds, were not wailing, for they were not
directly concerned, since the different groups of people lived in different parts
of the village and were quite distinct one from another. During the evening
the captain, Bluejay, came in and told the brothers the news of the hunter’s
death, asking if they had heard anything of the manner of it. They replied:
“No; we know nothing of it. We went hunting, but saw nothing at all today.
We retired early and have heard nothing about it.” Bluejay then said: “We
must make up a collection of beads and give it to the dead man ’s relatives, so
that they will not consider us unmindful of their sorrow and perhaps kill some
one among us. ‘ ‘ The bear doctors agreed to this and commended the captain
for his good counsel.
Accordingly, the next morning Bluejay addressed his people, saying: “Make
a fire in the dance-house. Do not feel badly. Wake up early. That is what
we must expect. We must all die like the deer. After the fire is made in the
dance-house I will tell you what next to do. ‘ ‘ Every one gave the usual answer
of approval, “O”.

After the usual sweating and cold plunge by the men, the captain again
spoke, calling their attention to the fate of their friend the day before and
asking that every one contribute beads to be given as a death offering to the
relatives of the deceased.
Bluejay himself contributed about ten thousand beads, and others contributed
various amounts, but the two bear doctors contributed about forty thousand
beads. This very act made the other people somewhat suspicious that these
two were concerned in some way with the death.
As was usual, under such circumstances, word was sent to the Wolf people
that the Birds would come over two days hence with their gift. The Wolf
captain accordingly told his people to go out and hunt, and to prepare a feast
for the Bird people for the occasion. On the appointed day the beads were
brought by the Bird people to the house in which the deceased hunter had
formerly lived, the usual ceremonial presentation of them to the mourners was
performed, and the return feast by the Wolves was spread near by.
The next morning the two brothers again left the village, saying that they
were going hunting. They went to their place of seclusion, donned their bear
suits and again started out as bears. By this time they had established regular
secret trails leading to their hiding place, and regular places on these trails
where they rested and ate. These trails led off in the four cardinal directions,
and when they put on their suits it was only necessary to say in what direction
they wished to go and what they wished to do, and the suits would bear them
thither by magic.
Upon this occasion they went eastward, and finally, in the late afternoon,
met Wildcat (dalom) carrying upon his back a very heavy load. They immediately
attacked and killed him, but did not cut him to pieces as they had Wolf.
It is a custom, even now, among bear doctors never to tear to pieces or cut up
the body of a victim who is known to have in his possession valuable property.
Hence they stabbed Wildcat only twice. When they looked into the burden
basket which he had been carrying they found a good supply of food and a
large number of beads of various kinds. They took only the bag of beads,
which one of them secreted inside his suit. Upon reaching their place of
seclusion they removed their suits and were soon back in the village. After
supper they again retired early.
Now Wildcat had started off early one morning to visit friends in another
village, saying that he would be absent only two nights. When at the end of
four days he had not returned his relatives became anxious about him, and his
brother and another man set out for the other village to ascertain whether he
had been there or if something had befallen him on the way. They found that
he had set out from the other village to return home on the day he had promised.
Then they tracked him and found his dead body. They made a stretcher9 and
carried the body home.
They arrived at the village about mid-afternoon, and when about a half
mile off they commenced the death wail, thus notifying the village of their
s The bringing of beads as a death offering from one village to another, or
from one political group of people to another, is called leal kubek, while such an
offering taken to the home of the family of the deceased by relatives in the
same village is called Teal banek.
9 This stretcher is called kaitsak, and consists of two side poles with short
cross-pieces bound to them in such a manner as to resemble a ladder. It was
used in early times for carrying the wounded or the dead back to the village.
A corpse was bound to it by a binding of grapevine and the two ends of the
stretcher rested upon the shoulders of the bearers.

coming. The people came running out to meet them, and the first to arrive
were the bear doctors, who immediately assisted in carrying the stretcher into
the village. Every one wailed for the departed, but the two bear doctors were
loudest in their lamentations. Also they contributed liberally, in fact, more
than all the other people together, when the death offering was made up.
For sometime thereafter the bear doctors did not go out, but finally they
did so, returning with four deer, which they gave to their captain to be divided
among the people for a feast. This the captain did, after the usual sweat -bath,
on the following morning.
The next day the two brothers left the village before daybreak, donned
their bear suits and journeyed southward to the Mount Kanaktai region. They
made the journey by way of the east shore of Clear Lake, Lower Lake, and on
down to near the present site of Middletown. Here they found a hunting party
setting deer snares. 1 ** One of these men was driving the deer up out of the
canon toward the place where the snares had been set. He saw the bear doctors
and called out to his comrades: “Look out for yourselves; there are two bears
coming. ‘ ‘ The hunters were up on the open, brushy mountain-side. Two of
them ran down the hill to a tree, but the bear doctors reached it as soon as
they, and, as they started to ascend, attacked and killed the two, taking their
bows and arrows.
The other hunters then attacked the bear doctors, who fled northward,
pursued by the hunters, whom they outdistanced. The bear doctors became
tired and very thirsty, for they had drunk no water all day, so they ran up
Mount Kanaktai to a small pond just southwest of its summit.11
The bear doctors first ran four times each way around the pond and then
disrobed completely, even taking off their bead armor. Leaving their entire
suits lying on the shore, they first swam and rested, and then hung their suits
on some small trees near by.
Shortly two men appeared, who approached close to them. The bear doctors
said: “Oh, you have come; well, let us eat.” The strangers came and seated
themselves beside the bear doctors. They then had a good meal of seed-meal
and meat.
The belts and strings of beads worn as armor inside the suit were piled up
on the shore near by, and when the meal was finished the bear doctors gave all
these beads to the two men, saying at the same time: “You must never tell
any one, not even your brothers, mothers, or sisters, what you have seen and
what we are doing.” They even told the two men who they were, where they
lived, and all about their activities. The men looked closely at the bear suits
hanging near by and then went their way. The bear doctors again put on
their suits and returned to their hiding place, disrobed, and traveled home in
the evening, retiring early as usual.
When the people heard of the killing of two more hunters by two bears,
they suspected the brothers, and formulated a plan to spy on them. All were
to go hunting and certain ones were to keep a close watch on these two, and
see just where they went and what they did. They also discovered that the
10 They were making a bice go; i.e., setting snares in the brush without
making a brush fence. The fence with snares is called bice wan.
11 This pond, which is said to furnish the only water on this great mountain,
was called lea Tcapa, and is said to be one of a very few ponds apparently without
a spring, and called lea dabo, which are supposed to have been made in prehistoric
times by bears as resting places for themselves. This pond is nowadays almost
never visited by any one except hunters who have lost their way.

skins of the two bears killed by the brothers were nowhere to be found in the
village.
The captain called all the men to go on a deer hunt, and all set off westward
about midday to build a deer fence and set snares around Tule Lake, for they
knew that many deer were feeding in the tule marsh there. Nothing unusual
happened that day, but after all had left the village early the next morning
some children who were playing about the village saw the two brothers biiraJcalba-
Mdjon, who had remained away from the hunt, giving illness as their excuse,
start off toward the east. Some of the children stealthily followed them, while
two others ran over to Tule Lake to warn the hunters. About midday the
hunters saw two bears coming toward them. Several of the best hunters hid
at an advantageous point in the very thick brush and tule, while the others
continued their shouting and beating the bush to drive the deer into the snares
in order that the bear doctors would not suspect the trap that had been set for
them. The hunters had agreed to act as though they did not know that the
bear doctors were near, but to shout if they were seen, “Two brother deer are
coming!
” thus giving the hidden hunters notice of the approach of the bears.
If deer only were seen, they were to shout, “The deer are coming!
“
Finally, one of the hunters on the east side of the lake saw the bears a.nd
shouted, “Look out there; two brother deer are coming down the hill! ” There
were two trees standing some distance apart with a thick, brushy place on each
side. One hunter hid behind each tree. A third hunter stood very close to a
near-by opening in the deer fence and in plain sight of the bear doctors, who
immediately made after him. At each jump of the bear doctors the water in
their baskets rattled and made a great noise. The hunter was but a few feet
from these trees when the bears came close to him, so he dodged between the
trees and the bears followed.
Immediately the two hunters behind the trees attacked the bears from the
rear with their clubs and jerked the masks from their heads. The other hunters
came up armed with clubs, bows and arrows, and stones, and found the bear
doctors standing very shame-facedly before their captors. 12
Every one shouted: “These are the two we suspected; we have them now.”
Some wanted to kill them immediately with clubs, others wanted to burn them
alive, but the captain restrained them and insisted upon first questioning the
bear doctors. They finally confessed to the murders, and took the hunters to
their hiding place. Here they exposed their entire secret and told all the
details of their work: how they dug the cavern, how they made the ceremonial
outfits, and how they killed people. The hunters then stripped the bear doctors
and took them, together with all their paraphernalia, and the property they
had stolen, back to the village, placed them in their own house, tied them
securely, and set fire to the house. Thus ended the bear doctors. That is how
the knowledge of this magic was acquired. It has been handed down to us
by the teaching of these secrets to novices by the older bear doctors ever
12 This loss of magic power and their consequent capture was explained as a
supernatural penalty for their attempt to kill more than four victims in any
one year.
is One informant ascribed the source of Porno bear doctor knowledge to the
Lake Miwok, to the south. This opinion, of course, conflicts with the preceding
origin tale.

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