Achomawi (also Achumawi, Ajumawi and Ahjumawi) are the northerly nine (out of eleven) bands of the Pit River tribe of Palaihnihan Native Americans who live in what is now northeastern California in the United States.

[10] Each of the nine tribes in the "Achomawi" language group had defined separate territories up and down the banks of the Pit River (which they called "Achoma").

Partially underground, these winter homes had wooden frames which supported a covering made of a mix of bark, grass and tule.

When children were born, the parents were put into seclusion and had food restrictions while waiting for their baby's umbilical cord to fall off.

[12] The Achomawi buried their dead in a flexed position, on the side, facing east; at times they were placed in woven baskets at burial.

After a widow's hair grew to reach her upper arm, she was permitted to marry her dead husband's brother.

A deerskin with a hole cut out in the middle was put over the heads after the sides were sewn together to provide armholes, and then it would be belted.

The salmon was sun dried, lightly roasted or smoked, and then stored in large bark covered baskets in slabs or in crumbled pieces.

Made of stone, the traps consisted of a large outer wall that connects two points of land on the lake.

One type, called taláka'yi, was suspended on the prongs of a forked pole, and was used from a canoe, land, or from wading and was used for catching suckers, trout and pike.

The mesh at the lower edge of the bags opening are threaded along a stick which is then placed in the water to catch the fish.

Cylindrical in shape, the mouth of the trap had splints converging inwards, which would prevent the scape of the fish, were controlled by two weirs.

The tafsifschi consisted of two fence sections which extended from opposite river banks at a down-stream angle; almost meeting mid-river.

Adolescent girls would stuff their nostrils with fragrant herbs to avoid smelling venison being cooked while going through their maturity ceremony.

Due to a scarcity of oak trees in the Achomawi territories these nuts were largely procured from neighboring cultures.

Other plants harvested annually included camas, in addition to several species of seed bearing grasses, Indian potatoes and lilies.

[23] (The letter q was supposed to represent a velar spirant x, as in Bach, in the system generally used at that time for writing indigenous American languages.

Dixon described the qaqu as a bundle of feathers which were believed to grow in rural places, rooted in the earth, and which, when secured, dripped of blood constantly.

He stays several nights away, lighting fires, piling up stones and drinking through a reed so that his teeth would not come into contact with water.

[26] In general Achomawi held a significantly negative view of actual warfare, finding it be an undesirable outcome.

[3] Their basketry is twined, and compared to the work of the Hupa and Yurok are described as being softer, larger, and with designs that lack the focus on one horizontal band.

The shapes are similar to those made by the Modoc[11] and have slightly rounded bottoms and sides, wide openings and shallow depth.

Some baskets are created for women to wear as caps, some for cooking on hot stones, holding semi-liquid food or water.

Anthropologist Alfred Kroeber believed that by 1925 the Achomawi were no longer cooking in baskets, and were merely making them for sale and trade.

These bad feelings arose in part from particular Atsuge trespassing upon Illmawi territory while traveling through to collect obsidian from the nearby Glass Mountain (sáttít - ″flint place″, also name for Medicine Lake).

Through these commercial dealings goods from the Wintun (iqpiimí - ″Wintun people″, númláákiname - Nomlaki (Central Wintu people)), Modoc and possibly the Paiute (aapʰúy - ″stranger″) were transported by the Achomawi.

[15] Contact between the Achomawi and Atsugewi speakers with the Klamath (ál ámmí - ″Klamath people″) and Modoc (lutw̓áámíʼ / lútʰám - ″Modoc people″) to the north largely wasn't documented.

The nearby Shasta (sástayci / sastííci - ″Shasta people″) and Yana (tʰísayci - ″Yana people″) were "powerful enemies" that would on occasion attack Madesi settlements.

It wasn't until the 1840s and the California gold rush when outsiders began to arrive in large numbers and taking land and disturbing the Achomawi lifeways.

Atsugewi bands[36] that since time immemorial have resided in the area known as the 100-mile (160 km) square, located in parts of Shasta, Siskiyou, Modoc, and Lassen counties in the state of California.