By Jackie Clay
When I was just a little girl, I used to collect acorns by the box full as they fell in the fall. I didn’t know why. They just felt nice in the hand and somehow a big bunch of them felt satisfying. Could that be because somewhere in my ancestors’ time, acorns were a very important food? Native Americans all across oak-growing North and South America harvested acorns, which were nearly as important a food as corn or beans. Such tribes as the Cherokee, Apache, Pima, and Ojibwa routinely harvested and used the acorn. These Indian gatherers taught early settlers how to harvest and use acorns in their cooking, as they did
corn and other traditional foods. Even today, many Indians gather acorns, both to use themselves and to sell in Mexican markets.