{"id":"WELCH2013-001","label":"Potter Valley Pomo Thunder Ceremony bullroarer","people_or_site":"Potter Valley Pomo (Northern Pomo)","country_current":"United States","historic_region":"Potter Valley / Mendocino County, California","macroregion":"North America / California","local_name":"","source_term":"bullroarer / Thunder stick","source_language":"English with Northern Pomo ceremonial terms","object_description":"Wooden staves swung in circles to produce a thunderous sound; Northern Pomo bullroarers were made of manzanita, Fremont's cottonwood or oak, about 8 by 30 cm.","function_summary":"In A' la hai' tcil, the May Thunder Ceremony for rain and prayer, four Thunder-stick wielders at the cardinal points whirled for about two minutes to attract the gods' attention; the high priest then prayed.","attestation_type":"ethnographic_attestation","source_key":"welch2013_sprouting_valley_potter_pomo","source_type":"scholarly_monograph","source_url":"https://ethnobiology.org/sites/default/files/publications/contributions/Sprouting-Valley-2013-online.pdf","page_or_plate":"printed p. 159; local PDF p. 176","map_confidence":"high","plot_status":"plot_with_caveat","coordinate_basis":"Potter Valley community anchor; the source identifies the community and assembly-house ceremony but not one surviving performance site.","jade_complex_role":"","blurb":"About May first, the Potter Valley Pomo gathered at dusk in the assembly house while four Thunder-stick wielders took position at the four cardinal points. At high priest Yum-ta's signal, the drummer sprang onto his foot drum and rolled it with his heels, the lightning-stick clapper struck a loud slap, and the bullroarers roared for about two minutes to draw the gods' attention. When the noise stopped, Yum-ta prayed for rain. Ukiah physician John Hudson, who married the painter Grace Hudson and then gave up medicine to study Pomo life, wrote down its name: A' la hai' tcil — Thunder Ceremony, or ceremony for rain and praying.","pull_quote":"Northern Pomoans considered the sound to be the voice of the thunder deity.","pull_quote_translation":"","pull_quote_cite":"James R. Welch, Sprouting Valley (2013), p. 159, after Loeb 1926","term_gloss":"A' la hai' tcil: Hudson's Northern Pomo name for the Thunder Ceremony, glossed by him as a ceremony for rain and praying; no separate local instrument name is given.","cls":"weather","class_label":"Weather / fertility magic","color":"#2F6FA3","is_candidate":false,"flags":["spirit_voice","weather"],"f_jade_complex":false,"f_women_taboo":false,"f_women_special":false,"f_snake":false,"sources":[{"citation":"James R. Welch, Sprouting Valley: Historical Ethnobotany of the Northern Pomo from Potter Valley, California (2013), p. 159; reconstructing John W. Hudson’s unpublished Potter Valley fieldnotes; comparative Loeb (1926)","url":"https://ethnobiology.org/sites/default/files/publications/contributions/Sprouting-Valley-2013-online.pdf","archive":"https://web.archive.org/web/20250812190547/https://ethnobiology.org/sites/default/files/publications/contributions/Sprouting-Valley-2013-online.pdf"}],"source_citations":"James R. Welch, Sprouting Valley: Historical Ethnobotany of the Northern Pomo from Potter Valley, California (2013), p. 159; reconstructing John W. Hudson’s unpublished Potter Valley fieldnotes; comparative Loeb (1926)","source_display":"James R. Welch, Sprouting Valley: Historical Ethnobotany of the Northern Pomo from Potter Valley, California (2013), p. 159; reconstructing John W. Hudson’s unpublished Potter Valley fieldnotes; comparative Loeb (1926)","date_citation_display":"","object_display":"Wooden staves swung in circles to produce a thunderous sound; Northern Pomo bullroarers were made of manzanita, Fremont's cottonwood or oak, about 8 by 30 cm.","function_display":"","confidence_display":"high","attestation_label":"ethnographic attestation","etymology_hedge":"","people_key":"potter valley","display_name":"Potter Valley Pomo Thunder Ceremony bullroarer","image":{"full":"assets/objects/NAAIN-001_naain-001-nmai-20-5062.jpg","thumb":"assets/objects/NAAIN-001_naain-001-nmai-20-5062_thumb.jpg","alt":"Catawba wooden bullroarer with a long rounded blade and cord threaded through its squared end.","credit":"Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, 20/5062","license":"Usage Conditions Apply (© Smithsonian NMAI); authorization required for website publication; proposed for non-commercial research rehosting. Metadata CC0.","source_page":"https://americanindian.si.edu/collections-search/object/NMAI_219016","rehosted":true,"representative":true,"caption":"Catawba carved wooden bullroarer with its cord","pool_id":"auto-NAAIN-001_naain-001-nmai-20-5062"},"slug":"welch2013-001-potter-valley-pomo-northern-pomo"}