Native American Delicacies

I found an article my mother Marion Deaver wrote about the Shoshones of Kern County, what they ate, and how they gathered it.

I thought you all might like to see a photo of my mother in action, so I have included a photo of her with Co-founder of the Tropico Gold Mine and Museum Glen Settle. She is going through old newspapers doing research of an article. The old newspapers were located at the mine museum. As women did in that era, she identified herself as Mrs. Paul Deaver.

Back to the article - the information concerning the Native Americans was provided by Ruby Rogers, who gave a presentation to members of the Kern-Antelope Historical Society at one of their meetings.

Rogers, who was the teacher at the Cantil School, gathered the information to be used in a third grade book for students in Kern County schools. She also served as a co-coordinator for the Kern County Superintendent of Schools office.

Rogers explained that some of the diet for the Shoshone was Joshua tree blossoms, desert tortoises and rattlesnakes. These were considered to be delicacies by the early desert Native Americans. (It is interesting to note that in this 1960 article Rogers referred to them as Indians.)

Rogers explained that the Native Americans were nomadic by nature, traveling almost constantly in search of food.

Joshua tree blooms, which were toasted before being eaten were considered a real treat because the Joshua tree does not bloom every year, depending on rainfall in the desert.

Rattlesnakes were beheaded as soon as they were killed, using a very sharp obsidian knife. Rabbits were not cleaned and were boiled, skin and all. Everything but the skin was consumed, so not to waste any nutritious part of the animal.

Desert tortoises were roasted over hot rocks, which were placed in a pit and heated. After several hours the tortoise was removed from the make-shift oven, the top shell removed, and everyone dug in with their hands to enjoy the hot meal.

Another meal, Rogers said was mush, made of mesquite beans, and again cooked with hot rocks. The rocks were heated in the fire, rinsed in water, and dropped into the mush to help it boil.

Making sure to get their "greens" the Shoshone ate squaw cabbage, also known as desert candle. It was eaten cooked with meat as a stew or raw.

Mountain sheep, found in the Black Mountains, was another food relished by the Shoshone. The Black Mountains are located between Red Rock Canyon and the Rand area.

Their food was seasoned with salt, taken from the Saltdale area just north of Cantil. The Native Americans used the salt to barter for other things they needed.

This article was taken from Rogers talk. Since 1960 more information has probably been found about the Native Americans who roamed the desert areas, so there may be more that needs to be added, or some taken away.

If you have such information email me and I will mention it in my next column.