Subsistence
Hunger was unknown to the Central Region's people. They had a liberal food surplus due to the sheer diversity of their wild foods. No one item, with the possible exception of acorns, was so necessary to their diet that its sudden disappearance could not be made up by other items. Of all the foods available, acorns were the most important. The harvest was reliable year after year, with little or no fluctuation, and the nuts and flour were easily stored for winter. The finding and gathering of food was the responsibility of the entire family and through a rough division of labor, women and young children harvested the acorn and seed crops, gathered bulbs, roots and other plant foods, collected shellfish and insects, and sometimes used their digging sticks to unearth small rodents. Men were responsible for hunting medium and large size game animals, as well as most fishing activities.
Prior to the mid-nineteenth century, the valleys and plains of central coastal and interior California were full of natural forests of oaks: more than 15 species of oaks are found in California, with seven species growing throughout the central coast and central valley. In some regions, such as the foothill zone north and south of the lower Kings River, these oak forests stretched for miles; similar stands of oaks clothed portions of the Sacramento River Valley. Although the acorn harvest varied with each species, in general, those species that were relied upn by the central region nations were fairly prolific: yields of 200 to 300 pounds of nuts per a single large tree could be expected in alternate years (some oak species produced up to 500 to 1000 pounds of nuts per single tree).
Generally, within each nation there were one or more oak groves with individual families usually "owning" gathering rights to particular trees within each grove. In all groups, it was the women who in the late fall went to the oak groves and gathered the acorns, often aided by boys and men who climbed the oak trees and shook down the acorns or dislodged them with long poles. After harvesting, the acorns were stored in large baskets or granaries until needed.
Because acorns were easily stored and high in protein and oil, they were a great asset to a largely vegetarian diet; and they were essential to the maintenance of dense, semisedentary to sedentary, pre-agricultural populations throughout much of California.
Preparing acorns for eating required much labor on the part of the women. First the nuts had to be dried and hulled, then pounded or ground into flour using stone pestles in combination with sturdy basket mortars or bedrock mortars. Finally the meal was leached of its bitter tannins and either stone-boiled in watertight baskets or baked as bread in warm ashes.
In addition to acorns, a wide
variety of other plants were gathered and eaten. Techniques for harvesting
and preparing grass seeds were highly developed in California Indian cultures
(and were rapidly applied to weedy grasses introduced by the Spanish, including
wild oats). California grassses, along with many chaparral shrubs, produces
prodigious amounts of seeds, and grass and chaparral shrub seeds were an
important protein source, especially in treeless zones. Seeds of grasses
and small, flowering shrubs, harvested with the aid of a long-handled basketry
seed beater (image at right), were parched, ground into flour, and consumed
as dry meal or formed into cakes. Bulbs, tubers and roots were dug from
the ground with a hardwood digging stick and eaten uncooked or roasted in
hot ashes. Berries of many kinds were picked and eaten raw, or dried, pounded
into flour and stored for winter use when they were reconstituted by mixing
with water. The tender leaves and stems, along with the flowers, of many
plants were eaten with relish, either raw as salad or steamed. And along
the coast, seaweed was an important food item.
Game was plentiful and varied and for many groups provided a good share of their diet. Men hunted and trapped deer, elk, bear, mountain lions, rabbits, squirrels, and along the coast seals, sea lions, and sea otters. They also caught birds such as quail, woodpeckers, ducks, and geese. In many areas insects, such as grasshoppers, ants, caterpillers, and crickets, also formed a part of the diet, as did the larvae of moths, bees, and sometimes yellowjackets. And among some of the Pomo-speaking groups, earthworms were also added to the diet.
Although most men hunted individually, cooperative hunting was far more important. Among some groups, a small party of men drove deer toward a good marksman, disguised with deerhead mask, who shot them down with relative ease. Among other groups, a more ambitious group project involved construction of a pole and brush corral into which frightened animals were driven and killed at will. Another form of cooperative hunting involved the erection of nets (somewhat resembling tennis nets) into which rabbits would be driven. Smaller game animals and birds were mostly taken in snares and traps while a number of special devices - blinds, nets, slings - were used for capturing water birds.
Fish was another main source of food and were caught from shore and from
boats with spears, hooks, traps, snares, and 
nets, and also by means of plant poisons
that paralyzed the fish's breathing mechanism but were harmless to humans.
And like the northwest coast societies, brush weirs or rock fish dams were
used by some groups to take fish, although netting was by far the commonest
method. Freshwater streams yielded salmon (and in places sturgeon) while
a other fish species were available in the various lakes and marshes. Along
the coast, abalone, mussels, and many other shellfish were found in abundance
and for some groups were more important sources of animal protein than mammals.
And some inland groups made periodic journeys to the coast to collect marine
resources.
While most coast dwellers fished from the shore, some, such as the Pomo and Yokut lake-dwellers, and the Ohlone and Coast Miwok nations used boats. The Pomo and Yokut lake-dwellers often built huge floating platforms of tules (a species of rush) which they move along the lakeshores by pushing long poles into the lake bottom. The coastal Miwok and Ohlone nations built small canoes (or balsas) from the tule and used them in the small bays, inlets, marshes and along the shoreline of what is now San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Although none of the California people, with the exception of those nations living along side the Colorado River, were agriculturalists, many groups did use of number of environmental management practices which enhanced the yields of nature's bounty. For example, some groups cut back various berry and seed producing bushes to increase growth; other nations transplanted plants to form "wild" gardens that could be tended and harvested more efficiently. And throughout California, the native people understood the principles of fire ecology, and used controlled buring of meadows, grasslands and woodlands to promote fresh growth. By altering the timing of plant growth and maintaining simple stages in ecological succession, fire assisted the spread of preferred food plants; by imporving forage for herbivores, fire enhanced the availability of game. Tender new sprouts appeared within a month of a spring burn. Fall burning provided a rich ash which winter rains carried into the soil, which contributed to a richer springtime harvest of greens and bulbs. By burning in the fall, fire released nutrients that would otherwise be bound up in slowly decaying plants, and encouraged grasses and forbs to sprout earlier in the fall and to grow more luxuriantly than they would have under natural conditions.
Judicious burning also increased the available grazing lands for deer, elk, and antelope (as well as providing open spaces when these animals could be more easily hunted), and facilitated the gathering of acorns that ripened after the burning took place. In frequently burned areas, oak trees were not harmed; in fact, their accessibility and productivity were usually improved by the removal of underbrush. Periodic controlled buring of the underbrush also eliminated the danger of destructive, out-of-control wildfires--which all too often darken today's California summer sky. And deliberate burning may also have been practiced in conjuction with game drives, warfare, and communications.
In addition, a number of nations in the Central region (including the Yokut, Miwok, Maidu, Wintun) engaged in quasi-agricutlure by cultivating wild tobacco. Planting areas were chosen, burned off or cleared of competing vegetation, and seeds (gathered from the wild) were planted. The planting were regularly trimmed, thinned, weeded, and in some cases, watered.
For additional information on the Central
Region,
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To comment on this page please send email to Chuck Smith at crsmith@cabrillo.cc.ca.us.
Page last updated: 23 August 1999