Native American Foods: Technology and Food Sources: California

California tribes were discovered early, but the relatively late arrival of Spanish missionaries from Mexico in 1779 began the catastrophic decimation of the tribes that continued with the influx of gold prospectors in 1848. Many Native Americans were lost to disease, conversion and assimilation, and newcomers’ hunger for land. Relatively little remains of many of the original tribes of the coastal Southwest, although several small tribes have retained strong cultural identity. The precontact foodways of California locales were substantially different from one another and included coastal, inland plateau, and southern deserts. Fish and shellfish dominated the foodways of coastal hunting and gathering tribes. Foodways of the inland plateau and basin were characterized by plant gathering and, to a lesser degree, the hunting of large and small mammals, particularly rabbits, and water birds, all eaten in the usual variety of methods. Insects, trapped in “surrounds” (a method similar to that used to hunt plains buffalo) or smoked out of trees, were a major source of animal protein and often were roasted. Acorn-based breads and camas roots provided staple starches along with roots and seeds of wild cattail (in wetlands) and a grassy rice. Pine nuts were not only used as seasonings but were also ground into meal for cooking and baking. Rose hips were a common food. The cuisine of Southern California reflected coastal fishing, inland arid conditions, and Mexican influences. Desert cacti provided a number of important foods, among them nopal leaves (genus Nopalea), barrel cactus buds (genus Ferocactus and Echinocactus), and yucca flowers (genus Opuntia), that were often cooked over mesquite. These dishes have survived alongside Mexican atole (a corn porridge or drink), which was brought from Mexico by early missionaries.