Why these foods mattered
Among the many wild foods that sustained Apache communities, a few appear again and again in historical sources: agave, acorns, piñon nuts and deer. They did not matter equally in every place. Agave and piñon were especially important in dry southern and mountain country, acorns where oaks grew, and deer across much of the region. This article looks at what each offered and, more importantly, at the knowledge needed to use it well. It does not speak for any nation, and it stays at a general, public level.
Agave
Agave, commonly called mescal, can offer a large amount of food from a single plant, and when roasted slowly it produces a sweet, filling food that can also be dried and kept. That combination of quantity and storability helps explain why so many roasting pits survive in southwestern landscapes.
Getting it right depended on knowing which plants to take. Gatherers had to identify plants at the right stage, generally before the tall flowering stalk had used up the stored sugars in the heart. The work of cutting, trimming and transporting the heavy hearts, and then tending a pit through a long cook, called for planning and cooperation. These tasks are discussed in the articles on cooking methods and communal gathering, so they are only touched on here.
Acorns
Oaks provided acorns in a number of Apache homelands, particularly in the Arizona and New Mexico mountains. Acorns can be eaten roasted or ground into meal, and different oak species produce acorns that vary in taste. Reports describe Western Apache gathering of acorns from oak groves in autumn.
Oak harvests are uneven: some years produce heavy crops and others very little. Knowing where good stands were, and which locations tended to produce reliably, was therefore valuable. This kind of knowledge, built up over many years, is part of what researchers mean by traditional ecological knowledge, and it is a recurring subject in discussions of Apache ecological practice.
Piñon nuts
Piñon pines grow across high, dry country in New Mexico, Arizona and neighboring states. Their nuts are rich and storable, and are generally described as gathered in autumn. Because piñon trees tend to produce large crops only in some years, rather than annually, communities valued being able to recognize a good year and travel to the stands in time. The Jicarilla and Mescalero, in particular, are associated in the literature with piñon-bearing country, and the Western Apache gathered the nuts where piñon grew.
Competing animals also gather the nuts, so timing mattered. Knowing when cones open and nuts fall, and how to collect them efficiently, was part of the skill.
Deer and other game
Deer provided meat, hides, bone and sinew. They were hunted across many Apache homelands, and in many sources they are described as the most important large game. Hunting required close knowledge of the animals’ habits, the land and the season, along with patience and skill with weapons. Hunting is also surrounded by customs of respect in many Native cultures. Specific beliefs and rituals vary and, where they are ceremonial, are not appropriate to describe here, so this site does not attempt to do so.
After the hunt, work on the animal was shared among a household, with meat dried or cooked, and hides prepared. Apache hunting and the craft of tanning are more fully described elsewhere.
The knowledge behind the harvest
Across these foods, several kinds of knowledge recur.
- Timing: when a plant or animal is ready, and how that shifts with the weather.
- Place: where the best stands, springs and trails are, and which are reliable in poor years.
- Technique: how to cut, collect, roast, grind, dry or store each food without waste.
- Restraint: accounts frequently emphasize taking what is needed and leaving enough for the plant or animal population, though how consistently this was done varied.
- Transmission: the passing of all of this to the next generation through example, instruction and story.
These are among the reasons that harvests were treated as skilled work and not simply as an easy way to collect what was lying around. The idea is also sometimes summarized by saying that wild foods are not “free” but depend on the labor and learning of the people who use them.
Foods in a changing world
Reservation-era restrictions, loss of land, and the arrival of ration and store-bought foods shifted daily diets in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Wild foods remained valued, however, and many families have continued to hunt and gather. Today the details of access, permits and land use depend on the nation and the land in question, and readers should consult each nation’s own sources. Anyone who is not a member of a community should not assume that they may gather plants or hunt on tribal land.