Native Cultures: Mesquite Flour. (click this link)

TREE OF LIFE NURSERY: in San Juan Capistrano

Featured New Product: Mesquite Flour

From the Seri People of the Sonoran Desert

Premier of this new item, cooking demos and Tasting Event, Saturday December 3, 2011 – 9a-1p

Mesquite Flour ($9.50 for 8 oz bag)
(Prosopis glandulosa var. torreyana)

Collected, fire roasted, and milled by the Seri People
of Sonora, Mexico.  Purchased directly from the Seri.

Indigenous food.  High in protein and gluten free.
Can be mixed with other flours for baking and cooking
to add delicious sweet flavor and increase health benefits.
Suggested use: 1/4 cup Mesquite Flour + 3/4 cup Flour of
your choice to substitute for 1 cup Wheat Flour.

Slow Food Foundation Information about Seri Fire Roasted Mesquite Flour

Recipes from Arizona Mesquite Company

Reconnecting to our food traditions in America
Article by Colin Dunleavy, Tree of Life Nursery Intern, Fall 2011

Native people sustained themselves for centuries by eating the pods of mesquite trees (Prosopis glandulosa). The pods of the mesquite tree were simply ground into a flour or meal. Mesquite flour is not only nourishing for our every day diet but is also a sustainable source of food found in our local ecosystem. By incorporating native plants into our agricultural and landscaping practices we can encourage conservation and better protect the health of our environment.

The mesquite tree grows among desert regions in southwest America and Mexico in conditions unsuitable for most agriculture. It takes little cultivation and prospers without supplemental irrigation, pesticides or fertilizers. The Seri people of the desert regions continue to support themselves by sustainably harvesting and consuming the pods of the mesquite tree. These people are known for their ability to survive and prosper among harsh conditions while maintaining harmony with the land. Their survival can be credited to the connection they have to their natural resources and sustainable methods. They produce their mesquite flour by integrating traditional knowledge with ecological practices. Seri mesquite flour is made from sustainably harvested mesquite pods, fire roasted and milled in Sonora, Mexico.

Mesquite flour has a rich, caramel and nutty flavor and can be used in baking or as a seasoning. It is high in soluble fiber and has more protein than most grain flours. Mesquite is also a good source of minerals including magnesium, calcium, zinc, iron and potassium. It is low in carbohydrates and is naturally gluten free. Although mesquite has a subtle sweetness, its natural sugar comes in the form of fructose, which does not require insulin for it to be metabolized. It has been reported to be effective in balancing blood sugar. Thus, it can be an important addition to low-glycemic or diabetic diets, since it can help maintain steady blood sugar levels that are disrupted by processed flours. When you first begin using mesquite flour, for every cup of flour needed, use ¼ cup mesquite and ¾ cup of any desired flour. This is a general guideline to use as you adjust to its rich flavor. It is also a great addition to smoothies and any amount can be used according to the flavor or nutrients you want to obtain.

Websites used in the compilation of this article:

The Center for Sustainable Environments at Northern Arizona University
Mesquite Flour: The Rediscovered Food Phenomenon
HubPages Entry: Using Mesquite Flour to Prevent Diabetes

Thank you Jill Replogle from KPBS Fronteras Desk.

Here is the link with photos and transcript.

Teodora Cuero, Leonor Farlow, and Mike Wilken will be speaking at my Art and World Cultures class at 5:30 pm on Wednesday, November 9. Their lecture/multimedia presentation is free and open to the public. Hope to see you there! They recently were featured in an article in the LA Times. Thanks to CSUSM Arts & Lectures for funding this event, and to Marilyn Huerta for creating the poster. (There is a fee for parking.)

These tunas are the domesticated variety, Opuntia ficus_indica, that grow wild all over the San Diego County back country roads. The really red ones are ready to eat and/or juice, the yellow-orange ones, which get more shade, should ripen in a couple of weeks. Longer gathering season . . .

These are some of the reddest tunas I’ve ever seen. I’ll be back in a few days to gather them to make juice, which I freeze for the coming months. The tunas are incredibly nutritious. Several articles about the health benefits of the juice are posted on the Arizona Cactus Ranch website here. For recipes, there’s the Prickly Pear Cookbook by Carolyn Niethammer. The pads are edible as well, but it’s the young, bright green pads that ripen in the spring that are good to eat, minus the spines, of course.

From the Tree of Life website: “Workshop back by popular demand!  Native American foods have been around for centuries, but now, with the use of some modern tools and conveniences, learn how to use native ingredients (plants!) in creative, appetizing and modern presentations. Through both study and experimentation, Abe Sanchez has developed a vocabulary of native materials to use in contemporary ways.  An accomplished basket weaver as well, Abe will bring a beautiful display as well as delicious foods to sample.  Formal discussion at 10 AM, samples available until 1pm.  A “contribution” of $5-10 per person would be much appreciated to help pay for the delicious food ingredients.”

Photos below from Abe’s workshop in Spring 2011.

Another of Abe’s amazing baskets woven with sumac as the coiling material, juncus and dyed juncus as the design material, and deergrass for the foundation. See a multitude of links about Abe Sanchez here.

This is so exciting to see our friends Teodora Cuero and Mike Wilken on the front page of the LA Times!

Her mother and grandmother taught her about the plants along the way. A red shank rinse eased a toothache. Elderberry flowers reduced a fever. Buckwheat blooms settled an upset stomach. And later in whispers: Woolly blue curls were for ladies trying to seem chaste who, as she says now, “needed to tighten things up.”

She laughs and adds, “So I hear. I never used it.” —excerpt from the LA TIMES article by Joe Mozingo

Below is a photo of Teodora gathering woolly blue curls.

Teodora and Mike, as well as Kiliwa elder Leonor Farlow, will be joining us in my World Cultures class on November 9th at California State University San Marcos at 5:30 in ARTS 111 as part of the Arts & Lectures series. The event is free and open to the public.

Don Bartletti also created a short video of Teodora and Mike. Click here.

Film Screening of Ishi tonight at CSUSM during my World Cultures class at 6pm in ARTS 111. The grant to bring Nicole Lim to campus was written by colleague Dr. Joely Proudfit. The event was coordinated by Tishmall Turner, CSUSM’s Tribal Liaison, and Arts & Lectures.

ISHI seeks to enrich and expand the story of Ishi and build upon the public’s awareness and appreciation of California Indian history. For many years, Ishi’s legacy has been a non-native construct framed by public and scientific fascination with stereotypical views of the past. 100 years ago (29 Aug 1911) Ishi, considered the last Native American to make contact with European Americans, was “discovered: in Oroville, California.

The accompanying lecture will examine the creation of the California Indian Museum’s new Ishi exhibition.  The exhibit’s approach is to reframe Ishi’s legacy through the inclusion of California Indian voices and perspectives on issues, and to build upon current scholarship that helps to change the ways in which Ishi’s legacy is characterized and taught in public schools. Ishi’s character and courage provide lessons for all humanity. CIMCC will gift our campus a copy of the film for our library.

Nicole Lim is Pomo. She received her Bachelor of Arts Degree from the University of California at Berkeley and a Juris Doctorate from the University of San Francisco School of Law. She has worked for the National Indian Justice Center and the California Indian Museum and Cultural Center over the past decade. She has taught numerous undergraduate courses on Native American Studies at San Francisco, Sonoma and Sacramento State Universities.

Ms. Lim serves as a trainer for NIJC’s regional and on-site training programs in the subject matter of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and its Impact on Justice Systems, Juvenile Delinquency and Gang Violence and Federal Indian Law. She is the executive director of the California Indian Museum and Cultural Center, which seeks to educate the public about California Indian history and cultures from a native perspective.

On Sunday, we had a Full Moon Juncus Gathering at the Cahuilla juncus patch in Anza. We gathered at the full moon because it’s easier to pull the juncus, healthier for the plants, and produces better material, according to Luiseño basket weaver Lydia Vassar, who organized the gathering with Cahuilla basket weaver Tangie Bogner.

Tangie Bogner, left, and Lydia Vassar, right

Our friend, basket weaver Rose Ramirez, couldn’t make it to the gathering, but she wrote on her Facebook page that she planned to gather from the Juncus textilis patch she planted by her pond on the Pechanga Reservation where she lives. Rose also likes to gather her juncus during the full moon.

Juncus, a riparian plant, is one of the four primary plants used by Native American basketweavers in southern California, along with sumac (Rhus trilobata); deergrass (Mulenbergia ribens); and yucca (Yucca whipplei). The juncus in the Cahuilla patch is fed by an underground spring.

Veronica Rose admiring a juncus stalk with a deep red-brown earth end

All of the basketweavers are particularly interested in gathering juncus with a deep rust-color on the earth end of the juncus. Today, they find the richly colored juncus growing he wetter, swampier areas as well as near elderberry trees, which are always a good sign that there’s moisture in the ground.

“. . . when you find the juncus, and you pull it out and you’ve got 12 inches of this rich deep brown on the bottom, then you’ve struck gold. It’s just so exhilarating.” —Lydia Vassar

Lydia Vassar and Reid pulling juncus

 Gardeners who plant by the phases of the moon say that soil moisture is at its peak during the new and the full moon. The moon helps moisture rise in the earth, and the wetter the soil, it seems, the more easily the basket weavers can gather the juncus.

According to Bev Ortiz, Baja Kumiai basket weavers such as the Celia Silva and her daughter, the late Gloria Casteñeda, from the basketweaving village of San José de la Zorra, Baja California, Mexico, harvest their juncus throughout the year, but only during the full moon. According to the Baja weavers, juncus harvested during the full moon is tougher than juncus picked at other times. See Kumeyaay Basketry

Guadalupe Montes from San Jose de la Zorre, featured on the cover of News from Native California

Guadalupe Montes, holding her coiled juncus basket

Lydia said that she first learned about gathering juncus during the full moon when she was at an artisans’ gathering to demonstrate green weave basketry at the Museum of Man in Balboa Park, and several Baja basket weavers were there as well. They told her it was easier and better for the plants to gather during a full moon.

For the last five years, Lydia has made every effort to gather at that time and encourages other weavers on this side of the border to do the same. She finds there is less mid-stalk breakage because she doesn’t have to tug so hard on the stalk. When she gathers at other times of the month, she notices a 40-50% mid-stalk breakage or cracking along the stalk.

Juncus as spider habitat

By gathering during the full moon, Lydia tells me, “you’re not disturbing the root system by pulling so hard on the above-ground stalks. You don’t disturb the rhizomes. You don’t find chunks or pieces of rhizomes attached to the stalks you’ve just pulled up. And you’re also helping stimulating the growth of new stalks.”

Reid carrying a juncus bundle he helped the basket weavers gather

Lydia gathers a great deal of juncus. She teaches basket weaving at the Pechanga Chámmakilawish School on the Pechanga Reservation. She’s gathering juncus today not only for her own baskets, but also for her students who are learning the traditional southern California open-weave and coiling techniques.

Lydia Vassar's open-weave juncus basket

Lydia teaches her students that “juncus isn’t just an important plant because it’s useful. It’s also a sacred plant whose use stretches back hundreds of years. It’s intimately connected with a hugely important and ancient cultural practice.”

 These days, it’s very difficult to find undisturbed stands of juncus—loss of habitat from development and the invasion of non-native plant species have greatly diminished riparian ecosystems that support thickets of juncus. So this Cahuilla juncus patch is very special, and basket weavers have been gathering here for a long time. Several elders have told us that their grandmothers gathered juncus here.

Veronica Rose with juncus bundle waving to the newly arriving basket weavers

Cahuilla basket weaver Veronica Rose, from the Santa Rosa Reservation, said she has never gathered juncus for her baskets anywhere else.

Maren Peterson helping the basketweavers gather juncus

The land is now under the care of Tangie and Sean Bogner, and they generously share their juncus stands with native southern California weavers, helping to promote the revitalization of basket weaving.

Tangie Bogner with juncus bundle

Sean and Tangie have been discussing the possibility of doing a controlled burn to help manage the Cahuilla juncus stands with various agencies and their tribal council. In some areas in the middle of the juncus, the old dead juncus has matted down for years, creating uneven terrain and making walking through the stands difficult.

Controlled burns have been one of several traditional native management practices that maintained the health and vigor of juncus and other plants used for basket weaving.

Lydia Vassar with her juncus bundle

Fire near Pala Temecula Road moving East at about 1pm. This view from my front porch. Hard to focus on finishing my syllabus for class tonight . . . According to East County Magazine’s emergency reports, the fire started when a car struck a power pole, sparking the fire. Over 100 firefighters are battling the blaze.

I drove to the high point near my house to get a better look. Several folks up there checking it out as well. Fire Season is here.
Update: as of 3:53 this afternoon, fire is now 300 acres and 40 homes evacuated.
Update:  as of 7:30 Tuesday morning, Aug 30, the fire is 60% contained, and those evacuated will be allowed to return to their homes later today. Last night’s marine layer really helped the firefighters.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELASE
Contact: Jacob Mejia, (951) 675‐0586

Pechanga Sponsors Legislation to Protect Tribe’s Place of Creation

Pechanga Indian Reservation, CA, August 4, 2011 – The Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians today announced it is sponsoring a bipartisan bill with more than 30 co‐authors in the State Legislature to protect the mountain that is the very birthplace of creation for Pechanga and other Luiseño tribes from being blasted and excavated as a mine for the next 75 years.

Granite Construction Inc. is seeking Riverside County’s approval of its Surface Mining Permit Application to develop the Liberty Quarry, which would be one of the largest open‐pit hard rock mines in the United States generating 5 million tons of aggregate each year.

Located just 500 yards from the Pechanga Indian Reservation, the Liberty Quarry would produce 270 million tons of aggregate by blasting a crater as wide as 117 football fields and as deep as the Empire State Building is tall less than 1/4 of a mile from the heavily populated City of Temecula.

Upon reviewing Liberty Quarry’s Draft Environmental Impact Report, the Pechanga Band determined the 414‐acre project would cause irreparable and immitigable destruction to this place of creation. “Our Tribe participated in the environmental review process and took extraordinary and unprecedented steps to provide Riverside County with ethnographic and other evidence detailing the significance of this area to Pechanga,” said Tribal Chairman Mark Macarro.

Granite’s own ethnographic experts acknowledged the site as significant to the Tribe.

Published in May 2009, the Ethnography Study noted, “…it is clear that much if not all of the Liberty Quarry project area… lies within a landscape that the Pechanga Tribe regards as spiritually significant…As such, this landscape is eligible for National Register of Historic Properties nomination as a TCP [Traditional Cultural Property] district.”

County planning staff in March, however, wrote in the Final Environmental Impact Report “…the County respectfully disagrees with the Tribe’s characterization of the area in and around the Project Site as a TCP” and found the devastating cultural impacts to be “less than significant” under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

“That county planners deemed our Tribe’s place of creation ‘insignificant’ under CEQA despite overwhelming and independent evidence to the contrary is disgraceful,” said Tribal Chairman Macarro. “Because county planners have failed to honor the spirit of the law designed to protect such areas, we are forced to seek additional legislation to protect our place of creation from destruction.”

Authored by Assembly Member Bonnie Lowenthal, D‐Long Beach, AB 742 would amend the Public Resources Code to include aggregate operations on the list of mining activities restricted near Native American sacred sites.

“I believe respecting one another’s religious beliefs is key to a healthy society,” said Lowenthal. “And there’s probably no better place to demonstrate this than on a mountain where some believe life itself began,” she said.

Scholars say that Káamalam Pomki is analogous to the Garden of Eden as the location of creation or to the Wailing Wall or Sistine Chapel in terms of spiritual significance.

“It is not an option to tell our future generations that their place of creation, the basis of their history and their very identity, used to be here,” said Macarro. “As any other People would, we will bring to bear all of the resources at our disposal to protect this sacred area from the permanent destruction this massive mine would cause.”

The controversial Liberty Quarry is also opposed by the City of Temecula, the Santa Margarita Ecological Reserve that is immediately adjacent to the proposed area, thousands of residents, hundreds of businesses, more than 150 physicians that live and work in the Temecula Valley, Southern California Indian Tribes, and every federally recognized Luiseño Tribe.

Proponents of the Liberty Quarry argue that the mine will create a total of 99 jobs. However, the Rose Institute of State and Local Government at Claremont McKenna College analyzed Granite’s economic impact report and found “these quarry jobs will be more than offset by job losses in tourism, real estate, construction, and agriculture.”

Calculating all of the benefits and the costs associated with the proposed Liberty Quarry, the Rose Institute estimates that “the quarry will reduce property values by $540 million and cost the region an additional $80 million per year” with an “estimated total cumulative net negative impact of $3.6 billion to the region.”

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