ISO 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph by C. Hart Merriam 



INDIAN WOMAN OF THE CHUKCHANSY TRIBE, NEAR ERESNO FLAT, CALIFORNIA, 



SHUCKING ACORNS 



Note the newly gathered acorns of the black oak in the carrying basket, the flat stone upon 

 which the acorn is poised, and the small stone in the right hand with which it is split. The 

 picture shows also one of the flat, circular winnowing baskets in which the acorn meal is 

 agitated to separate the fine from the coarse, and a bowl-shaped basket in which the acorn 

 mush is cooked. The work is done in a small opening in the manzanita bushes adjacent to 

 the Indian's home. 



leached acorn meal mixed with corn 

 meal in the proportion of one part acorn 

 to four parts corn makes excellent corn 

 bread and pones, and mixed with white 

 flour or whole-wheat flour in the same 

 proportion makes palatable bread and 

 muffins, adding to the cereal value the 

 value of a fat nut product. 



I have often eaten the pure acorn mush 

 and bread as made by the Indians, but 

 prefer the mixed product above men- 

 tioned. John Muir, during his arduous 

 tramps in the mountains of California, 

 often carried the hard, dry acorn bread 

 of the Indians and deemed it the most 

 compact and strength-giving food he had 

 ever used. 



Another kind of bread was made by 

 the Indians of Sacramento Valley. The 

 eminent geologist, James D. Dana, who 



traversed the valley with the Wilkes Ex- 

 pedition in 1841, said: "Throughout the 

 Sacramento plains the Indians live mostly 

 on a kind of bread or cake made of 

 acorns . . . kneaded into a loaf 

 about two inches thick, and baked. It 

 has a black color, and a consistency like 

 that of cheese, but a little softer; the 

 taste, though not very pleasing, is not 

 positively disagreeable." 



Chesnut tells us that this kind of bread 

 usually contains a red clay which is 

 mixed with the dough before baking, in 

 the proportion of one part clay to 20 of 

 acorn dough. It is then embedded in 

 leaves and baked overnight on hot stones, 

 either in the cooking hole in the ground 

 or covered with earth and hot stones. 



"When removed the next morning the 

 bread, if previously mixed with clay, is as 



