Seeds of Connection
Since moving back to California’s Bay Area this fall, I’ve been trying to learn about the Native peoples, cultures, and histories of this region. This is how, on a recent Saturday, I found myself at a public library, talking to Gabriel Duncan about acorn flour. Duncan is a descendant of the Utu Utu Gwaitu Benton Paiute Tribe who grew up in Alameda, California. He’s the founder of the Alameda Native History Project, which has been working to produce acorn flour to share with the local Muwekma Ohlone Tribe and other Indigenous communities — and with non-Indigenous people like me through workshops. Like many Americans, I didn’t learn much about Indigenous peoples in school, and what I did learn was often inaccurate or referred to them in the past tense, as if all Native peoples had gone extinct. Of course, they’re still here, and they’re still producing flour from acorns — once a staple food source for Indigenous peoples in California and around the world. “[Acorns are] mostly water, and then fat, starch, and protein,” Duncan told me. “They’re a superfood that’s, like, magic.” At the workshop, acorns had already been harvested, sorted, and cracked open. The next step was grinding. But Duncan wasn’t using a mortar and pestle like I had seen in the picture books; he was demonstrating on a metal grain mill mounted to a table. “If we had technology to grind in a day instead of a month, we’d use it,” Duncan said, cranking the mill’s handle. “That’s survival.” This combination of tradition and technology, Indigenous knowledge and modern food science, is a hallmark of the ACORNS! Project Arc, Duncan told me later. The larger goal is to reconnect people with the land and Indigenous foodways, from harvesting acorns in local oak groves to transforming the finished flour into crepes or cookies. Duncan emphasized that eating acorns is not exotic — it’s something people in this region have been doing for more than 10,000 years. But colonization has severed such food practices in part by turning Indigenous lands into private property. The Alameda Native History Project partners with organizations like the John Muir Land Trust to harvest acorns from private properties, and is looking for other partners — including farms and vineyards — with oak trees. Now that I’ve watched acorns get ground and soaked (to remove harmful tannins), I look forward to tasting dishes made with acorn flour, and to helping harvest what’s expected to be a bumper crop next year. There’s so much to learn, and unlearn, and I appreciate hands-on opportunities like this to connect in a way that feels reciprocal. Do you have any plans to incorporate native foods and cultural traditions into your holiday celebrations? We’d love to hear about them.
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