Paleo Foraging

Pinus ponderosa Douglas ex Lawson & C. Lawson

Synonyms: = P. brachyptera, P. scopulorum

Common names: Ponderosa pine, western yellow pine, pitch pine, bull pine, silver pine, pino blanco

Apache: bentciye – “wind blows against it” (Castetter and Opler 1936:62)

Northern Cheyenne: shéstotoʔe (Hart 1981:6)

Flathead: saʔatkwlshp (Hart 1979:269)

Karok: sarum (Schenck and Gifford 1952:378)

Klamath: nkōs (Coville 1897:89)

Navajo: ntischii’ / ntistchii’ (Elmore 1944:23)

Tewa : nwæn (Robbins et al. 1916:41)

Location in Texas: far west.

Food

Cones – before the pollen was released, the young male strobiles were chewed by the Northern Cheyenne to suck out the juice, then spit out the quid (Hart 1981:6).

Seeds – eaten by the Northern Maidu (Dixon 1905), Shasta (Dixon 1907), Northern Cheyenne (Hart 1981:6), Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache (Castetter and Opler 1936:43), and all Natives where the trees were found (Palmer 1871:411). The seeds were were ground, rolled into balls, and eaten raw (Castetter and Opler 1936:43). Cones were gathered before the nuts fell but after they had fully ripened, and the nuts were shaken out of the cones (Castetter and Opler 1936:43). Green cones were put in a fire, removed after the scales opened, and the roasted nuts eaten by the Flathead (Hart 1979:269). The nuts were roasted and hulled, or sometimes the seeds and shell were ground together, and the meal eaten (Castetter and Opler 1936:43).

Inner bark – the thin layer was scraped off and the sweet material eaten by the Northern Maidu, Shasta (Dixon 1907), Klamath (Coville 1897:89), Chiricahua and Mescalero Apache (Castetter and Opler 1936:43), and Flathead (Hart 1979:269). An incision was made in the bark to gauge the flow and sweetness of the sap before peeling the bark (Hart 1979:269). A large square of bark was cut off the tree with a long and pointed stick, and the inner bark was scraped off this square using a sharpened piece of wood (Castetter and Opler 1936:43). Alternatively, a bison or elk rib bone was used (Hart 1979:269). Sometimes the inner bark was eaten raw, but it was usually boiled (Castetter and Opler 1936:43). Sugar could be extracted by boiling the inner bark for a long time (Castetter and Opler 1936:43). The resulting sweet decoction was at one time fermented into an alcoholic drink by the Mescalero Apache (Castetter and Opler 1936:52).

Sap – chewed a gum by Natives in the Pacific Northwest (French 1965:380).

GS – inner bark for food: spring (Dixon 1907).

Notes – the tree is host to the Pandora moth (Coloradia pandora), caterpillars that were gathere in huge quantities for food by California Natives in late June through early July when the caterpillers were dropping to the ground to pupate (Essig 1931).

Medicine

Sap – the warmed resin was placed on boils by the Flathead and a leaf of Oregon grape (Berberis repens) was placed over it until it broke (Hart 1979:269).

Material

Bark & needles – used for the final firing of Jicarilla Apache pottery, since it makes a lot of dark smoke, turning the pottery nice and black (Basso and Opler 1971:31).

Stems – used for the fire drill spindle in Klamath friction fire-making (Coville 1897:89).

Bark – slabs of the bark were used by Shasta to form the outer walls of a hemispherical sweathouse framed by willow (Dixon 1907).

Sap – the resin was melted in a pot by the Jicarilla Apache and applied to the outside of pottery with a grass brush or a bison leg hair brush to give the pottery a hardening gloss (Basso and Opler 1971:31). The sap was used by the Choctaw to make red paint (Bushnell 1909:14). For this, a decoction of equal parts of the bark of Quercus texana and Q. stellata, plus a lesser amount of Q. virginiana bark, was boiled until beginning to thicken, the bark removed, and the decoction boiled further to thicken (Bushnell 1909:14). Then, a small piece of Pinus ponderosa resin was added to melt and mix just before removing from the heat (Bushnell 1909:14). This concoction was used to paint Choctaw drums (Bushnell 1909:14).

Wood – used for roofing timbers by the Jemez (Cook 1930:26) and Isleta (Jones 1931:37). It was the main source of firewood among the Isleta (Jones 1931:37).

Root – used by the Shasta for horizontal twining on radial withes of hazel root and twigs (Dixon 1907). The root was cut or dug up in pieces 30 cm. or more long, and 5-10 cm. diameter (Dixon 1907). These pieces were baked, then steamed, then carefully split into thin sheets, 4-6 cm wide (Dixon 1907). These sheets could be dried and stored, and when wanted, they were boiled and steamed and split into finer strips (Dixon 1907). These strips were dyed black with acorn shells, or red by passing them through the mouth of one who has chewed alder, probably white alder (Alnus rhombifolia), bark (Chesnut 1902, Dixon 1907). The Northern Maidu used these roots for the “sewing splint” or weave of large burden baskets (Dixon 1905). The roots were first dyed black by burying them in a mixture of mud and charcoal for some time (Dixon 1905).

The roots were also used by the Karuk for basketry (Baker 1981:45, Schenck and Gifford 1952:378). They were dug out with a digging stick and cut with a wedge and maul (Schenck and Gifford 1952:378). The roots were cooked in an earth oven for up to two days (Schenck and Gifford 1952:378). Then, each root was split into four strips for storage, and split further into more strips with a deer bone awl and scraped with a mussel shell to make them soft and pliable (Schenck and Gifford 1952:378).

[unspecified parts] – the soot burned from an unspecified part was used for tattooing by the Choctaw (Bushnell 1909:10). This was likely the resin, needles, or bark, which produce dense soot when burned.