Opinion: Tribes turned to natural resources for food supply

The quest for food, whether by farming, hunting or fishing, was always a way of life for the American Indian. However, among the numerous tribes all across North America, the Indians of the Northwest coastal area had the most plentiful food supplies. They lived along the coast of Oregon, Washington, British Columbia and Alaska, where the harvesting of “wild food” was the basis of their lives.

The Indian tribes who lived to the east of the coastal region in the Plateau, to the south in California and into the desert-like Great Basin had a much more sparse food supply. They depended mainly on roots in the Plateau, acorns in California and wild plants, roots and seeds in the Great Basin.

The food source of the Plateau Indians, east of the Cascade Mountains, was mainly salmon that passed through upstream on the Fraser and Columbia rivers. Their staple food was the camas root, a type of onion. This bulb-like vegetable was eaten raw, roasted or boiled. It also was dried and ground into meal for cakes and breads.

In California, Indian tribes like the Hupa and Mohave used acorns from six species of oak trees. Once they found how to leach out the bitter tannic acid of the acorns, the tribes relied on the acorns as the staple of their diet. In the fall, women collected the acorns in baskets after the men climbed the trees and shook down the nuts. The nuts were shelled, split, dried and stored in woven baskets. The acorns also were ground with stones for meal to make bread.