California Indian Acorn

Culture

Before contact was made with Europeans…

– Acorns were a major and stable food resource• Availability: more than 18 species of oak• Productivity: varies, good crop 2-3 years in fall

• Storability: caches or granaries, unshelled up to 12 years

• Nutritional content: 18% fat, 6% protein, 68% carbohydrates, vitamins A & C, amino acids, high in calories

Acorns as a Food Source Continued

• Acorn oil• Acorn shells can be

roasted and steeped for a coffee drink

• In some groups, an adult would consume a ton of acorns a year

• Edible after leaching out tannic acids

How to Process Acorns

For future use:

1. Dry acorns

2. Store in granaries for up to 12 years

For immediate use:1. Dry acorns2. Shell and winnow using

hammer and anvil3. Pound into flour with

mortar and pestle4. Leach out tannic acids by

flushing with water in a shallow, sandy basin or in a basket filter

5. Use flour to make soup, bread, mush, etc

Traditional Preparation of Acorns

Mrs. Freddie, a Hupa, leaches acorn meal in a sand basin

Rock outcrop with holes used to crack open acorns by native people at Palomar State Park

Miwok acorn granaries in Sierra Nevada foothills, near Railroad Flat, 1906

After contact was made with Europeans…

– Acorns were discontinued as a major and stable food resource• Demographic collapse, dispossession of land, assimilation policies– Disrupt cultural transmission – Inaccessibility of oak groves and traditional maintenance practices such as burning

– Pressure to relinquish traditional ways

• Increase in nonnative people population and environmental degradation due to resource extraction

Present Day Acorn Use• Alteration of processing techniques– Traditional ways not lost– Modified to use modern technology

• Acorn as a connection between the past and present

• Prepared and eaten at special gatherings

• Logos and business names of local tribes

“The Way We Lived”

“And you women, strike out, gather wild onions, wild potatoes! Gather all you can! Gather all you can! Pound acorns, pound acorns, pound acorns! Cook, cook! Make some bread, make some bread! So we can eat, so we can eat, so we can eat…Make acorn soup so that the people will eat it!…Don’t talk about starvation, because we never have much! Eat acorns! There is nothing to it!”

- Song of Chief Yanapayak, Miwok

Questions?

ReferencesACORN - FOOD RESOURCE - OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY. (n.d.). Retrieved May

29, 2009, from http://food.oregonstate.edu/glossary/a/acorn.html

Acorns. (n.d.). Retrieved May 29, 2009, from http://www.hastingsreserve.org/oakstory/Acorns2.html

California Indian History. (n.d.). Retrieved May 29, 2009, from http://ceres.ca.gov/nahc/califindian.html

California Oaks Foundation: OAKS 2040. (n.d.). Retrieved May 29, 2009, from http://www.californiaoaks.org/html/2040.html

Central Valley. (2009). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved May 29,

2009, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://search.eb.com/eb/article-9022094

United Auburn Indian Community . (n.d.). Retrieved May 29, 2009, from http://www.auburnrancheria.com/