{"id":"COYOTEMAN1975-001","label":"Concow roarer that brought snow","people_or_site":"Concow (Konkow) Maidu, Butte County","country_current":"United States","historic_region":"California, Butte County, Feather River foothills and mountains","macroregion":"North America / California","local_name":"","source_term":"bullroarer","source_language":"English","object_description":"A bullroarer among the Concow, one of the Maidu instruments no longer played by 1975; its form is not described.","function_summary":"Sounded to make snow fall.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"coyoteman1975_songs_california_indians","source_type":"published_account","source_url":"https://drumhop.com/music.php?page=215","page_or_plate":"liner notes, musical-instrument paragraph","map_confidence":"low_medium","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Concow Valley, Butte County; the liner notes place the Concow 'in the foothills and mountains of Butte County' and give no site for the practice.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"The Concow, the Maidu of the Butte County foothills and mountains above the Feather River, once had a bullroarer that brought snow: whirled, it made the snow fall. By the 1970s it had gone silent, one of the old instruments no longer played, along with the skin drum the Concow stretched between tree branches and the hunting bow tapped with an arrow. Further up in the Sierra the Northern Maidu remembered the bullroarer only as a children's plaything.","pull_quote":"a bullroarer, which the Concow used to cause snow to fall","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"Coyote Man, Songs of the California Indians, vol. 1 (1975), liner notes.","term_gloss":"Concow (Konkow): the Northwestern Maidu of the Feather River foothills, Butte County.","cls":"weather","class_label":"Weather / fertility magic","color":"#2F6FA3","is_candidate":false,"flags":["weather"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"Coyote Man (Robert Rathbun), Songs of the California Indians, vol. 1: Concow, Nisenan, Mountain Maidu (Pacific Western Traders, 1975), liner notes","url":"https://drumhop.com/music.php?page=215"}],"source_citations":"Coyote Man (Robert Rathbun), Songs of the California Indians, vol. 1: Concow, Nisenan, Mountain Maidu (Pacific Western Traders, 1975), liner notes","source_display":"Coyote Man (Robert Rathbun), Songs of the California Indians, vol. 1: Concow, Nisenan, Mountain Maidu (Pacific Western Traders, 1975), liner notes","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"A bullroarer among the Concow, one of the Maidu instruments no longer played by 1975; its form is not described.","function_display":"Sounded to make snow fall.","confidence_display":"low to medium","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"concow maidu","display_name":"Concow roarer that brought snow","image":{"full":"assets/objects/FEWKES1903-001_fewkes1903_plateIII_tcolawitze.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/FEWKES1903-001_fewkes1903_plateIII_tcolawitze_thumb.jpg","credit":"Hopi artist, in J. W. Fewkes, Hopi Katcinas Drawn by Native Artists, BAE Twenty-first Annual Report (1903), Plate III","license":"Public domain (US, published 1903)","source_page":"https://archive.org/details/hopikatcinasdraw00fewk","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Hopi Fire-god personation Tcolawitze swinging a corded bullroarer","pool_id":"auto-FEWKES1903-001_fewkes1903_plateIII_tcolawitze","auto_assigned":true,"last_modified":"2026-10-19"},"slug":"coyoteman1975-001-concow-konkow-maidu-butte-county"}