Autumn is more than a vital time to harvest foods across the Native American homelands of Inland Southern California. It is an important time for the people to gather foods and prepare for traditional ceremony.
Pinyon pine tree in San Bernardino National Forest (Pat Murkland Photo)
Fall Harvest: Pinyon Pine Nuts
By Michael K. Lerch
As the days get cooler and the nights get longer, we turn our thoughts to the fall harvest season, with a focus on pinyon nuts. (1)
Single-leaf pinyon pine (Photo by en:User:Toiyab courtesy of Wikimedia)
The single-leaf pinyon (also piñon) pine, Pinus monophylla, or tevat, served as a major food source for the Serrano. It was important in ceremonial and ritual activities as well, as noted in a 1924 article by Ruth Benedict, who wrote:
“Piñon nuts were important in the diet of all these [Serrano] groups. A trip was made over into the Bear Valley region every fall for these nuts. No group could go without its chief and the Maringa-Mühiatnim-Atü'aviatum group went together, under the leadership of the Maringa chief. The first two groups went first to Kupatcam, The Pipes, where the Atü'aviatum lived. From the time they left this place, the party began to witc-at. This term refers to communal, that is, ceremonial eating. When any ceremony whatever was to be undertaken, the requisition for the feast upon the proper heads of families was the witc-at. So on this trip all provisions were turned into a common fund by the heads of the families, and distributed by the chief through the paha. The first piñon nuts were given to the chief by every family, and these were used for his witc-at at the annual feast which always followed this trip very shortly.” (2)
Giving permission to harvest
One Serrano clan, the Atü'aviatum, was considered to be the ritually senior clan, from whom other groups had to obtain permission to collect pinyon nuts in the Baldwin Lake area. The Atü'aviatum leader, or captain, would invite as many other groups as could use the available yield in any particular year. The Serrano clan extended the invitation to Cahuilla from the San Jacinto Mountains and Colorado Desert, and even to the Gabrielino groups on the coast. The harvest lasted from September through mid-October.
A nut remaining in a cone that had fallen to the ground. (Pat Murkland Photo)
Boiling the nuts
John Peabody Harrington reported the historical methods of collection of pinyon pine nuts used by Santos Manuel and his son Tomás during a trip to the mountains in 1918:
“The piñones which we picked up [east of] Baldwin Lake partly shaking them out of cones that had fallen to the ground and partly direct from the ground, Manuel and Tomás boiled about fifteen minutes from a pot. When they put them into the water the ones that floated they took and threw away, saying they were no good. We opened several of these and found that it was true that they had no kernel. Manuel said that the piñones boiled thus were good, especially if dried after boiling. Manuel said it was very bad to eat them raw. Manuel and Tomás cracked the shell off the boiled nuts with their fingers and ate the kernels. They said that they had heard that piñones are good roasted in the oven of a stove.” (3)
Cones growing on a tree. (Pat Murkland Photo)
Eating during Ceremonies
Dorothy Ramon has shared her recollections of pinyon collecting in her story, “Gathering Pine Nuts.” (4) She said the old-timers went to tevayka, “to the pinyon pines,” year after year. Pine nuts were gathered and stored for later use. They were eaten during ceremonies.
“'Ipyu'm mih chawe'kam teva'ti'.
They would go and gather pine nuts.”
The Serrano used both hooked and straight poles to knock pinyon cones from the trees. In traditional times, the cones were roasted in earth ovens lined with sagebrush. Nuts were hulled by grinding them lightly on an unshaped metate, numerous examples of which are commonly found in archaeological sites in and near stands of pinyon. Similar practices were followed by the Cahuilla, who called the pinyon tevat, as noted by David Prescott Barrows (5) in 1900, and by Lowell Bean and Katherine Saubel in their landmark study entitled Temalpakh (6), in 1972.
The highly prized nuts are still collected today by Serrano people from the San Manuel and Morongo Bands. Cahuilla and Luiseño groups, including members of the Cahuilla Band of Indians, collect pinyon nuts from the tree called tévat on Thomas Mountain and in other areas in the San Jacinto and Santa Rosa Mountains. (7)
Pinyon pine nuts and acorns were among important foods to harvest in fall before the mourning ceremony.
Ernest Siva: Traditional Time for Ceremony
Hunts for major game such as deer and harvests such as the gathering of pinyon pine nuts preceded and prepared for an important fall ceremony. Elder Ernest Siva (Cahuilla-Serrano), president of Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, discusses how this time of year, and the coming of the bighorn sheep constellation in the night sky, marked the time for the important traditional mourning ceremony for the dead.
Notes
1. Editor’s note: This is an updated article that first appeared in the Heritage Keepers newsletter, © Dorothy Ramon Learning Center, Fall 2004, Volume 1, Number 4, Page 7.
2. Benedict, Ruth F., 1924, A Brief Sketch of Serrano Culture. American Anthropologist 26(3):366–392, pp. 391–392.
3. Harrington, John P., 1986, Native American History, Language, and Culture of Southern California/ Basin. The Papers of John Peabody Harrington in the Smithsonian Institution, 1907–1957, vol. 3, edited by Elaine L. Mills and Ann J. Brickfield. Microfilm ed. National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., and Kraus International Publications, Millwood, New York, Reel 101, Frames 453–454.
4. Ramon, Dorothy, and Eric Elliott, 2000, Wayta’ Yawa’: Always Believe. Malki Museum Press, Banning, California, pp. 471–472.
5. Barrows, David Prescott, 1900, Ethno-Botany of the Coahuilla Indians of Southern California. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois. Reprinted 1967, Malki Museum Press, Banning, California, p. 63.
6. Bean, Lowell J., and Katherine S. Saubel, 1972, Temalpakh (From the Earth): Cahuilla Indian Knowledge and Usage of Plants. Malki Museum Press, Banning, California, pp. 103–105.
7. Personal communication, Will Madrigal, October 9, 2020.
Thank you!
We thank Elder Ernest Siva for his video, anthropologist Michael K. Lerch for this article, and thank Will Madrigal of Cahuilla Reservation, a graduate student at UC Riverside’s Department of Ethnic Studies, for also contributing to this issue.
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Dorothy Ramon Learning Center is a 501(c)3 nonprofit that saves and shares Southern California Native American cultures, languages, history, and traditional arts. Join us at dorothyramon.org and Dorothy Ramon Learning Center on Facebook.