Part 3 (2/2)

Dreamers were gifted with a power to foretell special cla.s.ses of events in dreams. All Was...o...b..lieve dreams are likely to foretell the future, and they are alert to find meanings in any dreams they have. Certain persons, those thought of as ”dreamers,” are reported to have special gifts of this nature.

There are apparently no dreamers among the Washo today, in the sense that the term was used in times past. That is, no one is especially singled out as having infallible dreams foretelling certain cla.s.ses of events. It may be that the breakdown of the band structure, which was related to economic exploitative activity, in effect, forced everyone to dream for himself. In the past, dreamers were particularly important in setting the time and place for activities which were carried out by large groups, such as hunting, fis.h.i.+ng, pine-nut gathering, and war. With the disappearance of the last seminomadic bands in the middle 1920's, as well as with the reduced importance of hunting and fis.h.i.+ng as group activities, persons having dreams which directed group actions were no longer useful. Today, dreams appear to occur to a number of individuals, and those felt to be of social significance usually deal with catastrophe or other foreboding subjects. The following stories were told to me by the widow under the shadow of witchcraft. When I asked her if she thought any of her friends would tell me their dreams, she replied: ”No I don't think no Washo would tell you their dreams. But I'm not superst.i.tious about them things and I'll tell you these two dreams I had.”

”One summer I was up at the Lake [Tahoe] with my husband and I had a dream that the gambling house at Dresslerville [a structure known officially as the community center] was on fire. There was kids inside and they was screaming but there wasn't no water. I saw the men all around with buckets but they couldn't do nothing because there wasn't no water. I told my husband about the dream the next morning and he said I should take a bath and pray. That's what we do to keep a bad dream from happening.”

The following winter the community center did in fact burn down. A young Indian in a rage after having an argument with his father hurled a bottle of kerosene against a wood stove. The resulting fire could not be extinguished because the Dresslerville pump was not working. Whether the dream was really a prophecy after the fact I do not know. It is significant in any case that the prophecy appeared in the form of a dream.

My informant's second dream foretold the violent death of a young Indian woman. The prophecy came true two years later.

Her statement that other Washo would be reluctant to discuss their dreams was all too true, confirming the importance that dreams play in their daily lives. A number of tangential remarks suggest that the belief that dreams confer advance knowledge of the future and that they confer power is still common among the Washo. One informant said, in talking about ”old-time dreamers”: ”Today a lot of people will say they had a dream about something, and act real big. I just tell them they are crazy. They aren't real dreamers. They couldn't have a dream about their girl friend.”

Until very recent times a dream was justification for almost any group activity. The most common motivation for such events as a pine-nut dance, a war party, or a rabbit or antelope drive was usually that ”So-and-So had a dream.” An announcement would be made and others would gather for the event.

These dreams are clearly different from the visitations of spirits to prospective shamans, which occurred repeatedly and were kept secret.

Dreamers, on the other hand, publicly reported individual dreams. Being a dreamer appears to have been one of the important factors in attaining positions of leaders.h.i.+p, informal as such positions were among the Washo.

The almost legendary Captain Jim,(6) who was acknowledged as a leader by all the Washo in the late nineteenth century, is considered to have been a dreamer by many of the Washo. Those informants who remember the big times at Double Springs Flat, in which a large number of the Washo of the day partic.i.p.ated prior to the pine-nut harvest, usually begin their accounts with the statement that Jim would have a dream and announce the date of the meeting. Various parts of the ceremony were also validated by dreams.

It is equally clear that although Jim was an honored leader and had dreaming power he was not considered a doctor.

Negative testimony also indicates the importance of dreaming in Washo life. It is to the advantage of certain individuals to deny the ”chieftains.h.i.+p” of Captain Jim; they vehemently deny that he was a dreamer but insist that he was simply a good man who was trusted by the Washo.

”That Jim was just a good old guy that everybody obeyed because they liked him and the whole group selected him. He wasn't no more of a dreamer than I am,” is the way one claimant for the Washo chieftains.h.i.+p put it.

However, his own claim was based on his relations.h.i.+p to a man who was a rabbit boss and who dreamed when it was time to hunt rabbits.

Clearly the Was...o...b..lieved and still believe that dreams make one privy to the future and provide important insights on which one can base decisions.

The specific uses to which dreams can be put change with the situation.

Antelope dreaming is no longer important because there are no antelope.

Rabbit dreamers no longer exist because the rabbit drive has lost much of its importance in Washo life. Conversely, dreams dealing with modern problems appear to be taken seriously.

One informant often dreams of snakes and evidences a great fear of them.

The Washo view this behavior as a rational response to a real warning and consider the man's caution as good judgment in the face of repeated warnings.

RITUAL ACTIVITIES

Few, if any, Washo activities do not contain an element which we can describe as religious, supernatural, or magical. This element is most commonly revealed by specifically ritualized behavior carried on while a regular course of action is being taken by a Washo. The following sections will deal with this ritualized behavior and the rationale for it offered by the Washo.

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