For thousands of years, the Kumeyaay people of northern Baja California and southern California made their homes in the diverse landscapes of the region, interacting with native plants and continuously refining their botanical knowledge. Today, many Kumeyaay Indians in the far-flung ranches of Baja California carry on the traditional knowledge and skills for transforming native plants into food, medicine, arts, tools, regalia, construction materials, and ceremonial items. Kumeyaay Ethnobotany explores the remarkable interdependence between native peoples and native plants of the Californias through in-depth descriptions of 47 native plants and their uses, lively narratives, and hundreds of vivid photographs. It connects the archaeological and historical record with living cultures and native plant specialists who share their ever-relevant wisdom for future generations. Book jacket.

The Kumeyaay occupied the largest and most diverse territory of any Native Californian group--from arid deserts to alpine mountains, foothills, and a large expanse of coast, from what is now San Diego County to northern Baja California. Living as complex hunter-gatherers, the Kumeyaay combined elements of both Californian and Southwestern cultures, including an acorn economy, floodwater agriculture, and the production of paddle and anvil pottery. The Early Ethnography of the Kumeyaay includes the pioneering research of three anthropologists of the early part of the twentieth century--Thomas T. Waterman, Leslie Spier, and Edward W. Gifford. An introduction by M. Steven Shackley and Steven Lucas-Pfingst explores the particular perspective brought to the research by these early scholars, contrasted with recent anthropological research in the region.

This cookbook invites you to experience the Native American cultures of Southern California through their foods. Full-color photos and detailed recipes showcase the diversity, health, and flavor of modern cuisine made from Southern California native plants in combination with other foods. The results are mouthwatering: dishes including mesquite-rubbed quail marinated in prickly pear juice, "superfood" cookies featuring chia and pine nuts, acorn dumplings, and tepary tart topped with an elderberry reduction. Accompanied by essays that bring to life the rich history and the hopeful future of the Native people of the area, Cooking the Native Way showcases the luscious scents and tastes of vibrant indigenous cultures and is for all who wish to reconnect with the land through gathering, cooking, and savoring.

Author Paul Campbell reveals the knowledge he has spent 20 years learning and reproducing from California natives. Included are sections on the basic skills of survival, the tools of gathering and food preparation, and the implements of household and personal necessity, as well as the arts of hunting and fishing. Sample topics include: shelter; greens, beans, flowers and other vegetables; meat preparation; how to make and shoot an Indian bow.--From publisher description.

This volume enables readers to identify California's native and naturalized plants by learning to recognize plant families. The heart of the book contains user-friendly keys and descriptions of seventy major families prominent in California's natural environment.

The Chumash people have lived for thousands of years in coastal California from San Luis Obispo to Santa Barbara, a homeland of uncommon biological richness and diversity. This thoroughly-researched book, in documenting some 175 of the plant species important to Chumash culture, offers a glimpse of life in southern California from pre-European contact through historic times. The 2023 edition adds a new Preface to address topics not explicitly discussed in the original text: plant management techniques that the Chumash employed and their ecological effects; organization of plant knowledge through classification systems and naming; and patterns of usage - which plant families predominated in providing particular necessities of life. The Introduction includes a brief history of the Chumash and explains the purpose of the book, how it is organized, sources, and acknowledgements. The body of the book is a Plant Catalog, organized alphabetically by scientific botanical name and including each plant's common name in English, California Spanish, and as many as six Chumashan languages. Each entry describes in detail not just how the plant was utilized but also its other roles in Chumash life and thought. Following the main text are a Bibliography, an alphabetical listing of Chumash plant-related names and words with their corresponding scientific name and English common name, and an extensive Index. Chumash Ethnobotany draws primarily upon the voluminous and richly detailed field notes and plant collections of John P. Harrington (1884-1961), who interviewed ten Chumash consultants over a period of 50 years (1911-1961). Harrington's Chumash materials comprise some 300,000 handwritten pages and over 450 plant specimens. Information was also incorporated from a wide variety of other sources: ethnographic accounts and modern Chumash consultants; archaeological reports; historical accounts by explorers, missionaries, and settlers; letters, botanical research articles, and floras. Documentation is also provided from neighboring tribes who use or used the same or related species in a similar fashion The book is intended to reach a broad audience, making the information accessible to both interested laypersons and scholars. It is illustrated with Chris Chapman's watercolor botanical portraits and Timbrook's own woodcut-like interpretations of scenes from Chumash life.