California Natives:Plants & People 10/16 Flashcards
(32 cards)
Plants, Uses, and Kit Contents:
oak tree & acorn
- food, tools, and games
- oak seedling, 1lb whole acorns, pounded acorns, ring & pin game, acorn top photos: oak tree, acorn preparation, basketry
Plants, Uses, and Kit Contents:
tule
- shelter, transportation, food, and clothing
Plants, Uses, and Kit Contents:
Agave
- fiber, tools, and food
- Agave in pot, leaf with fibers, spine with attached fibers (“needle & thread”) photo: Agave in bloom
Plants, Uses, and Kit Contents:
CA poppy
- medicine, dye
Plants, Uses, and Kit Contents:
soaproot
- food, fishing, tools, dye
- soaproot in pot, bulb (~cut open), brush, tinder photo: soaproot bulb with leaves
Plants, Uses, and Kit Contents:
sagebrush
- medicine, ceremonies, bug/rodent repellent
- sagebrush branch photo: sagebrush
Plants, Uses, and Kit Contents:
elderberry
- 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
Objectives 1:
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.
Objectives 2:
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.
Objectives 3:
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.
Concepts 1:
Everything California Indians wanted or needed to live had to be gathered, traded to obtain, or made from nature.
Concepts 2:
California Indians were hunters and gatherers who also “managed” the land (e.g., gardening with digging sticks; intentionally burning areas).
Concepts 3:
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.
Terminology (See text for meanings.):
bulb, ceremony, granary, marsh, tinder.
Introduction (Docent #1):
- Introduce docents and the UC Botanical Garden — a “living museum” with thousands of plants from around the world.
- 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…?”
- “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! ” - 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.
Oak Trees & Acorns (Docent #2):
- 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
Oak Trees & Acorns (Docent #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.
Oak Trees & Acorns (Docent #2):
- 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.
Oak Trees & Acorns (Docent #2):
- Explain that the hard wood of oaks makes excellent tools (e.g., digging sticks).
- 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.
Oak Trees & Acorns (Docent #2):
- Summarize: Oak trees have been used for food, tools, and games.
Tule (Docent #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?”
(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.”
Tule (Docent #1):
- 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?”
(It has spaces inside.)
Hint, if needed:
“It’s what fills the space in this room.” (Air.)
Tule (Docent #1):
- 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.
Tule (Docent #1):
- “So now that we know that tule stems float, how might tule be used?”
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.
