-1 101 Z The inhabitants of the arid Great Basin relied on a great diversity of wild resources. As these were available in different areas at different times of year, groups of people moved with the seasons to obtain them. The Humboldt/Carson Sink area was home to one such group. Lakes and swamps were a particularly rich source of food - wild fowl, plants, fish and animals - and were therefore occupied for much of the year, but adjacent hill areas were also important for providing game and storable seeds and berries.
# Great Basin Seasonal Round - opening PW
18 102 B Tents provide shelter for the group. Here children play while their mothers weave baskets and make and repair clothing, their babies secure in basketry cradles propped up beside them. Other women sit near their tents grinding seeds on a flat slab. These have been stored since last autumn.
# Tents
15 102 C Boys depend on their intimate knowledge of the local environment and animal behaviour to catch small game - musk rats, rabbits or other rodents - using snares of reeds and twine.
# Snare, Snare
21 101 x Men hunt small game, such as rabbits, felling them with throwing sticks. These are wooden sticks carved into a slightly curved shape, which act like non-returning boomerangs.
# Throwing stick, Throwing stick
19 102 A Decoy ducks made of reeds are floated on the lake when migratory wildfowl are flying over. Hidden hunters hope that the decoy ducks will lure the wildfowl to settle on the lake where they can be caught.
# Decoy duck, Decoy duck from Lovelock cave
14 101 x Here a group of men and boys stamp downstream, driving fish towards a net they have secured across a narrow shallow stretch of the river.
# Net fishing, Net from Hidden Cave
22 101 x A group of women are gathering cattail. These useful plants provide edible roots and flowers and the stalks are also used for plaiting baskets. Many other waterside plants are also gathered.
# Cattail
20 101 x While in camp, the men make and repair tools made of various types of stone. Highly prized obsidian (volcanic glass) is mined by other groups in the Brodie Hills. Members of this group probably obtain obsidian as gifts from relatives in neighbouring groups when they meet up periodically, perhaps for an autumn antelope hunt.
# Obsidian
7 101 x In temporary camp far up the Humboldt River, women catch minnows by skilfully sweeping them up out of the water with baskets. Others gather the seeds of several plant species, cutting the stalks with small flint knives, while a mixed group of men and women work together digging up various plants such as biscuit root and yampa using wooden digging sticks.
# Rye Patch Reservoir, Man using digging stick
17 101 x Hidden Cave is the group's spring base, where they also bury their dead. From here expeditions will go during the spring to early autumn to other regions, such as the mountain foothills, to harvest seasonally available resources. Moving to Lovelock for the late autumn and winter, they return here in the spring.
# Hidden cave
26 101 x Hunters disguised in animal skins approach a herd of deer. They have selected as their target a young animal that seems to have gone lame. Vulnerable animals - the young, old, sick or injured - are the usual victims of human and animal predators.
# Deer
27 101 x A group of men sit together discussing a planned antelope hunt. Using techniques like those employed on the Plains, they intend to stampede an antelope herd into a gully where they will be trapped and can easily be killed, using spears and spearthrowers (atlatls).
# Planning
25 101 x Everyone has their part to play in gathering the abundant wild harvest of early autumn. Children pick fruits and berries, eating as many as they put into their baskets.
# Berries, person (adult here - substitute child) with gathering baskets
23 102 D Women gather the cones of the pinon pine. The pinon harvest this year is a good one, something which only happens every few years. But the cones can be stored for four or five years so this harvest will tide over a few less abundant years if necessary.
# Pine harvest, Pinon pine cone
24 101 x Other women carry away the pinon cones, to be roasted in pits. This loosens the seeds which can be extracted by beating the cones against a stone. They will be parched, dehusked and ground to flour. The seeds, which are rich in protein, fat and carbohydrate, are a staple food for the group.
# Stored seeds
9 101 x Women bang sticks against the ripe ears of Panicum (a millet), knocking the seeds into their baskets. Many other wild grasses are also harvested in autumn. Several women and children carry baskets of seeds into the cave. Here they can safely be stored for the winter.
# Seeds
12 101 x Heron, pelican, mudhens, geese and ducks are among the waterfowl that can be taken on the Humboldt Lake. One hunter creeps into the water holding the stuffed neck and head of a waterbird, hoping to approach the waterfowl close enough to grab them by their legs. Other hunters wait in a hide to shoot any birds approaching over the water.
# Waterfowl
11 101 x Nets are spread on poles to catch an approaching flock of geese.
# Geese
8 101 x A large number of yelling men and boys, strung out in a curving line, beat through the valley towards a heavy net strung across its narrow end. Before them run terrified rabbits and other small creatures which will be trapped in the net and caught. Communal rabbit drives are a great social event.
# Rabbits
6 101 x Women dig for rhizomes (roots) with sturdy digging sticks in the soft earth beside the lake. These plants will keep all winter if necessary. Other women grind seeds of the pinon pine in a mortar. These have been stored since the autumn harvest. They will use the flour to make gruel.
# Women, Hut
10 101 x Men and women share the task of making decoy ducks, bags and mats from the fibres of reeds harvested from the lake. Willow is also used, to make the distinctive baskets.
# Crafts, reed mat
13 101 x Boys work together to set fish traps at the edge of the permanent lake. The lake waters hold many edible species of fish such as trout, minnow and chub.
# Fish trap, Fishtrap
16 101 X Most of the group moves in summer to the cooler uplands to hunt and collect summer plants and to escape the plaguing summer insects of the valley. An old man who has remained behind is relaxing in the shade of the cave, out of the baking summer sun. This cave serves as the group's main store, for both food and tools.
