Acorns were their main staple article of breadstuff, and they are
still used by the present generation whenever they can be
obtained.
[Illustration: _Drawing by Mrs. Jorgensen._
CHUCK´-AH.
Storehouse for nuts and acorns, thatched with pine branches,
points downward, to keep out mice and squirrels.]
They are gathered in the fall when ripe and are preserved for
future use in the old style Indian _cache_ or storehouse. This
consists of a structure which they call a _chuck´-ah_, which is
a large basket-shaped receptacle made of long willow sprouts
closely woven together. It is usually about six feet high and
three feet in diameter. It is set upon stout posts about three
feet high and supported in position by four longer posts on the
outside, reaching to the top, and there bound firmly to keep them
from spreading. The outside of the basket is thatched with small
pine branches, points downward, to shed the rain and snow, and to
protect the contents from the depredations of squirrels and
woodpeckers. When filled, the top also is securely covered with
bark, as a protection from the winter storms. When the acorns are
wanted for use, a small hole is made at the bottom of the
_chuck´-ah_, and they are taken out from time to time as
required.
The acorns from the black or Kellogg's oak (_Quercus
Californica_) are considered much the best and most nutritious
by the Indians. This is the oak which is so beautiful and
abundant in the Yosemite Valley.
These acorns are quite bitter, and are not eaten in their natural
condition, as most fruit and nuts are eaten, but have to be quite
elaborately prepared and cooked to make them palatable. First,
the hull is cracked and removed, and the kernel pounded or ground
into a fine meal. In the Yosemite Valley and at other Indian
camps in the mountains, this is done by grinding with their stone
pestles or _metats (may-tat´s)_ in the _ho´yas_ or mortars,
worn by long usage in large flat-top granite rocks, one of which
is near every Indian camp. Lower down in the foothills, where
there are no suitable large rocks for these permanent mortars,
the Indians used single portable stone mortars for this purpose.
[Illustration: _Photograph by Fiske_.
HO´-YAS AND ME-TATS´.
Rude mortars and pestles for grinding acorn meal. The holes have
been worn in the granite by constant use.]
After the acorns are ground to a fine meal, the next process is
to take out the bitter tannin principle. This is done in the
following manner: They make large shallow basins in clean washed
sand, in the center of which are laid a few flat, fan-like ends
of fir branches. A fire is then made near by, and small stones
of four or five pounds in weight are heated, with which they warm
water in some of their large cooking baskets, and mix the acorn
meal with it to the consistency of thin gruel. This mixture is
poured into the sand basins, and as the water leaches out into
the sand it takes with it the bitter quality--the warm water
being renewed until all the bitter taste is washed out from the
meal sediment, or dough.
This is then taken, and, after being cleansed from the adhering
sand, is put into cooking baskets, thinned down with hot water to
the desired condition, and cooked by means of hot stones which
are held in it with two sticks for tongs. The mush, while
cooking, is stirred with a peculiar stirring stick, made of a
tough oak sprout, doubled so as to form a round, open loop at one
end, which is used in lifting out any loose stones. When the
dough is well cooked, it is either left _en masse_ in the basket
or scooped out in rolls and put into cold water to cool and
warden before being eaten. Sometimes the thick paste is made into
cakes and baked on hot rocks. One of these cakes, when rolled in
paper, will in a short time saturate it with oil. This acorn
food is probably more nutritious than any of the cereals.