California Natives:Plants & People 10/16

Question 1

Plants, Uses, and Kit Contents:

oak tree & acorn

Answer 1

• food, tools, and games
• oak seedling, 1lb whole acorns, pounded acorns, ring & pin game, acorn top photos: oak tree, acorn preparation, basketry

Question 2

Plants, Uses, and Kit Contents:

tule

Answer 2

• shelter, transportation, food, and clothing

Question 3

Plants, Uses, and Kit Contents:

Agave

Answer 3

• fiber, tools, and food

- Agave in pot, leaf with fibers, spine with attached fibers (“needle & thread”) photo: Agave in bloom

Question 4

Plants, Uses, and Kit Contents:

CA poppy

Answer 4

• medicine, dye

Question 5

Plants, Uses, and Kit Contents:

soaproot

Answer 5

• food, fishing, tools, dye

- soaproot in pot, bulb (~cut open), brush, tinder photo: soaproot bulb with leaves

Question 6

Plants, Uses, and Kit Contents:

sagebrush

Answer 6

• medicine, ceremonies, bug/rodent repellent

- sagebrush branch photo: sagebrush

Question 7

Plants, Uses, and Kit Contents:

elderberry

Answer 7

• food, medicine, tools, ceremonial music
• split branch showing pith, 2 clapper sticks, 2 flutes, CD of Ohlone songs & player photo collage: elderberry tree, flowers, berries

Question 8

Objectives 1:

Answer 8

Imagine living in California before the time of supermarkets, stores, cars, and the Internet, when everyday life required having a deep understanding of nature—its wildlife, plants, and cycle of seasons.

Question 9

Objectives 2:

Answer 9

Explore the resourceful ways California Indian tribes living in diverse environments have used plants from different plant communities for food, shelter, clothing, tools, fiber, medicine, music, toys, and games.

Question 10

Objectives 3:

Answer 10

Investigate some plants with many uses (e.g., soaproot) to illustrate how California Indians used each kind of plant in as many ways as they could.

Question 11

Concepts 1:

Answer 11

Everything California Indians wanted or needed to live had to be gathered, traded to obtain, or made from nature.

Question 12

Concepts 2:

Answer 12

California Indians were hunters and gatherers who also “managed” the land (e.g., gardening with digging sticks; intentionally burning areas).

Question 13

Concepts 3:

Answer 13

A tribe’s knowledge and traditions evolved over thousands of years and were
handed down from generation to generation. Today many California Indians proudly learn, practice, and teach the knowledge, skills, and traditions of their ancestors.

Question 14

Terminology (See text for meanings.):

Answer 14

bulb, ceremony, granary, marsh, tinder.

Question 15

Introduction (Docent #1):

Answer 15

1. Introduce docents and the UC Botanical Garden — a “living museum” with thousands of plants from around the world.
2. Have students use their imaginations. “Let’s imagine we’re living in California 500 or more years ago. Only Indians lived here then. Would there be stores, schools, cars, TV, phones, the Internet…?”
3. “What would your family need to live?” (Food, shelter, clothing, medicine, entertainment…) “Everything you need or want, your family or tribe would have to
   gather, trade to get, or make from nature! ”
4. Introduce students to the first plant of the presentation. “By observing plants through the changing seasons, California Indians knew the proper time to gather a particular plant or parts of that plant for use. Some plants have many different uses. Let’s begin with an especially important plant.” Hint, if needed: “What plant is the city of Oakland named after?” Show the photograph of a mature oak tree.

Question 16

Oak Trees & Acorns (Docent #2):

Answer 16

1. Show an acorn and an oak seedling. “Here’s how an oak tree begins—growing from an acorn, a dry fruit with a seed inside. Oak trees provided a very nutritious food for CA Indians.” - to be continued

Question 17

Oak Trees & Acorns (Docent #2):

Answer 17

2. “About how many pounds of acorns do you think a family would gather each fall?” (500 lbs!) Show the 1lb. bag of whole acorns.

Question 18

Oak Trees & Acorns (Docent #2):

Answer 18

3. Describe a simplified version of how acorns were prepared for eating, while showing these photographs:
   - Whole acorns were stored in a granary for a year to dry.
   - Granaries and baskets were woven from the flexible stems of many different plants.

• The hard shells of dry acorns were cracked and removed. Note the variety of
  baskets being used.
• The nuts/seeds were then pounded into a fine powder using a rock.
• Acorn powder, mixed with water, was cooked in a tightly woven basket using hot rocks from a campfire. Cooked acorn mush is similar to oatmeal, but with a mild, nutty flavor.

Question 19

Oak Trees & Acorns (Docent #2):

Answer 19

4. Explain that the hard wood of oaks makes excellent tools (e.g., digging sticks).
5. Demonstrate the ring & pin game made with sliced acorn caps. Spin a whole acorn on a desk to show its use as a toy top.

Question 20

Oak Trees & Acorns (Docent #2):

Answer 20

6. Summarize: Oak trees have been used for food, tools, and games.

Question 21

Tule (Docent #1):

1. Show a tall tule stem.
   
   • “Here’s a useful plant that’s very different from an oak tree. Instead of growing in dry, grassy valleys and on hillsides like an oak, where do you think this kind of plant grows?”

Answer 21

(In the shallow water of marshes.) “Much of the shore around San Francisco Bay used to be tule marshes before people filled the marshes with rocks and soil and built over them.”

Question 22

Tule (Docent #1):

2. • Distribute pieces of dry tule for students to examine. “What do you notice about a tule stem?”
   • “What’s in those spaces?”
   • “What do you predict will happen when you put your piece of tule stem in this container of water?”

Answer 22

(It has spaces inside.)

Hint, if needed:
“It’s what fills the space in this room.” (Air.)

Question 23

Tule (Docent #1):

Answer 23

3. When you remove the damp pieces from the water, spread them out in their own bsection of the tray and keep them separated from the dry tule and the replicas.

Be sure to use dry tule for each presentation.

Question 24

Tule (Docent #1):

4. “So now that we know that tule stems float, how might tule be used?”

Answer 24

After the students answer or have a moment to think, show the photograph of a tule boat in a marsh of tules.

Also, show the photographs of a shelter made of tule stems and a tule shoe. The air-filled spaces in the stems can insulate users from too much heat or cold.

Question 25

Tule (Docent #1):

Answer 25

5. Show the doll with the tule skirt.
6. Explain that tule roots were roasted and eaten.
7. Summarize: Tule has been used for transportation, shelter, clothing, food, and toys.

Question 26

Agave (Docent #2):

Answer 26

1. Show an Agave plant in a pot and the photo of an Agave in bloom. “Here’s a very different kind of plant that grows in dry, desert-like areas. What do you notice about this plant?

What vegetable does the flower stalk resemble?”

“How might an Agave be used?”

(Asparagus.)

(The buds, flower stalks, leaves, and seeds can be cooked and eaten.)

2. Show an Agave leaf with fibers exposed at its base, then show a spine with just fibers attached. “How could this sharp spine with these fibers be used?”

(Needle and thread, a needle for tattooing…)

3. Show the Agave net bag. “How could Agave fibers be used?”

(Ropes, nets, baskets…)

4. Summarize: Agave plants have been used for food, fiber, and tools.

Question 27

California Poppy (Docent #1):

Answer 27

1. Show a California poppy in bloom and/or the photograph. “Here’s a plant that’s so beautiful and common in California, it’s been named the state flower. What do you notice about this plant?”

(The root is the same color as the flower!)

“How might this plant be used?”

(A crushed root was placed on an aching tooth or gum to lessen pain.)

2. Rub a poppy petal, if available, on blank white paper. The poppy’s orange petals and root provide a yellow dye.
3. Summarize: CA poppies have been used for medicine and dye.

Question 28

Soaproot (Docent #2):

Answer 28

1. Show a soaproot plant growing in a pot. “You might not think so to look at it, but here’s a plant with many uses. Most of its useful parts are hidden underground!”
2. Show a cut-open soaproot bulb—a short, underground stem surrounded by fleshy leaves and protective fibers—and/or the photograph of a bulb with the green, aboveground portion of its leaves still attached. Let each student touch some part of the plant. “What do you notice about this plant?” (Lots of easily removed fibers, a fresh bulb is gummy and sticky inside…) “How might the bulb and fibers be used?”
   - Roasted soaproot bulbs were eaten and used as medicine (e.g., a tea for stomachaches; also mashed and placed on the skin to soothe soreness).
   - Crushed bulbs were also used as a glue and to seal seed-gathering baskets.
   - Crushed bulbs were added to slow-moving water to catch fish by coating their gills, causing them to come to the surface for air, where they could be easily captured.
   - Dry soaproot fibers make good tinder (a dry, easy-to-burn material) for starting a fire.
   - Hint, if needed: “There’s a clue in the name of the plant—soaproot.” (Crushed bulbs were used as a shampoo.)

Question 29

Soaproot (Docent #2):

Answer 29

3. Optional: Make a lather.
4. Show a soaproot brush. “The handle of this tool is made by tying the fibers together and putting layer after layer of the gummy bulb on one end, letting each layer dry. How might this tool be used?” (As a hairbrush and to brush acorn powder into or out of a basket—separate brushes would be used for each task.)
5. “How might soaproot leaves be used?”
   - Tender new leaves are a nutritious food.
   - Used as a green dye for tattooing.

Question 30

Soaproot (Docent #2):

Answer 30

6. Optional: Rub a soaproot leaf on paper, next to the yellow dye from the poppy petal.
7. Give an example of how California Indians “managed” the land: “California Indians used sticks of oak or other hard woods to dig up soaproot bulbs and other kinds of bulbs, too. This gardening loosened the soil, making it easier for more bulbs to grow, and spreading any baby bulbs attached to the big bulbs.”
8. Summarize: Soaproot has been used for food, medicine, soap, glue, fishing, fire making, brushes, and dye.

Question 31

Sagebrush (Docent #1):

Answer 31

9. Show the photograph of sagebrush. “Here’s a plant with a strong smell and taste.”
10. Have the students pinch and rub sagebrush leaves and sniff their fingers. “Do you like the smell? If a tiny bug were trying to eat a sagebrush leaf, how do you think it would react to such a strong smell and taste?” (It would be too intense for the bug to eat.) “So how might sagebrush be used?”

Sagebrush was placed in granaries, roofs, and walls to repel bugs.

Question 32

Sagebrush (Docent #1):

Answer 32

12. Sagebrush was considered a powerful medicine, used to treat many problems such as headaches, joint and muscle aches, breathing problems, and to prevent infections.  Sagebrush leaves were/are burned in sweat lodges and during ceremonies to keep away or remove “bad spirits.”