News and Events
Too Mush Fun:
A Tasty Approach to Kumiai Uses of Native Plants
Michael Wilken-Robertson
Seven Kumiai plant specialists put an unusual group of students to work pounding, grinding, leaching, cooking and tasting acorns, chia and manzanita in a hands-on workshop held at the future site of the Kumiai Community Museum in Tecate, Baja California, Mexico. The students included Native Californians, Mexican and US citizens from a variety of backgrounds: interpretive guides, college professors, museum curators, archaeologists, a saddle maker, and other assorted lifelong learners who came to experience the region’s original “slow food.”
Even before the workshop officially started, teachers and students were already cracking open acorns, peeling off the skins and grinding the seeds. “Kutu, kutu!” exclaimed Kumiai Norma Meza, showing students the pounding action used to break open the acorns on a metate polished from generations of use. “Tuwá, tuwá” she said as she ground the acorn pieces with a smooth push. The students repeated the verb and tried their hand at grinding on a metate (a portable grinding stone), finding it harder than expected. Student Judy Alvarez commented, “It looks easy when the teacher shows us the technique, but when we try it, we realize how much art and skill is involved in working with these ancient tools.”
Teodora Cuero, a Kumiai elder of La Huerta community (see Teodora Cuero, the General of La Huerta, News from Native California, Summer 2008), used an agave brush to move the acorn flour from the grinding stone to a basket. “We call this a huchí in Kumiai.” Cuero was one of the few elders who remembered how to sift the acorn meal with a winnowing motion of the basket. Smaller bits of ground acorn, ready for the next step of leaching, were separated from larger bits that would need to be re-ground. “These days we usually grind the acorns in a metal hand grinder or in a blender. But the students should know the traditional way to prepare it,” explained Cuero.
Abby Barker, a Senior Park Aid who specializes in interpretative work at the Anza Borrego Desert State Park Visitor Center, helped her instructor Norma Adams peel the paper-thin skin off acorn seeds. “After doing this myself, my appreciation for the work that Kumiai families do to process and prepare their food has grown by leaps and bounds.” Naturalist and author Diana Lindsay commented, “What makes this memorable is that it’s a hands-on workshop. I was particularly interested to find the slight variations in technique that the instructors had for leaching the acorn meal; each of the Kumiai chefs had her own method within the process.”
By lunch time, students had the opportunity to taste the fruits of their labors. A pot of shawii acorn mush accompanied a buffet of carne asada, cactus leaf salad, beans and tortillas. “Shawii isn’t something we make just for special occasions,” explained Kumiai instructor Julia Meza. “We like to eat it as often as we can.” Meza and her daughter Telma, who have several large coast live oaks (Quercus agrifolia) on their property at San Jose Tecate, collect acorns in the fall and enjoy them as long as the supply lasts.
After lunch, students had to choose between three mini-workshops: traditional medicine from native plants, chia preparation and manzanita drink. Norrie Robbins, a retired biogeologist who directs the Explorer’s Club, a free outdoors science program for elementary school kids living on reservations, somehow managed to be in all three workshops. “For chia drink, we watched Kumiai Aurora Meza roast the seeds over a wood fire. Kumiai Cecilia Adams showed us how to use Manzanita berries to make a sweet and refreshing drink. Norma Meza taught us about traditional Kumiai uses of native plants. There were a lot of experts in the room, so the discussions were lively. We learned about laurel sumac, yerba santa, yerba manza, buckwheat, white sage, elderberry, and creosote bush.”
“This workshop is a historic first,” explained Zella Ibañez, director of Corredor Historico CAREM, the Tecate-based community group that promotes the region’s cultural heritage and that organized th workshop in coordination with the Kumiai. “It is the first activity of our museum programs, which we are starting before we even have the museum building because we can’t wait. The Kumiai have made it clear they want the museum to become a reality and in the meantime this is a way to keep Kumiai culture vibrant in our region.” Ibañez provided some background about the museum project to the students. “In 2004, Mike Wilken and Lynn Gamble of San Diego State University carried out extensive interviews with Kumiai cultural authorities of the Tecate region and found that all were concerned about long-term preservation of cultural materials and the revitalization of Kumiai culture. The Kumiai and the SDSU team joined forces with CAREM, which had long dreamed of creating a community museum. Visionary San Diego architect James Hubble has actively collaborated in the innovative design of the Kumiai Museum. The Baja California Secretary of Tourism has agreed to provide funds for the basic construction of the museum. Currently CAREM is seeking funding for the exhibit and other aspects of the museum.”
Workshop coordinator Norma Meza, a Kumiai speaker and plant specialist who is on the board of CAREM, was delighted with the highly edible results of the students. “We hope that people will better understand the contributions of Kumiai people to the cultural heritage of this land. Especially now that they’ve had a little taste of it.”
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