Salt
editMark Kurlansky, in his book, Salt: A World History, asserts that if any trail is followed sufficently, salt will be found. For the Ohlone the salt trails ran to either the Pacific Ocean, the San Francisco Bay or a natural brine spring. And except for a half dozen tribes, all California natives ate salt in one form or another, including plants as a salt source.[1] As for "rock salt" (halite), since salt is water-soluble it usually requires dry, arid climatic conditions to develop.[2] Rock salt was not recorded in the Ohlone landscape, hence, was probably unavailable to the Ohlone.
Value
editSalt wars have been recorded for California tribes. Trade became the preferred method for obtaining salt. The usual barter was bead money or food.[3] Once the transaction was agreed to, salt gathering could be accomplished by whatever means needed.
If an agreement could not reached, some tribes were known to sneak into nearby salt areas, then work under moonlight. If needed, enough salt was taken for several months.[4]
Lastly, besides being eaten with food, salt was used a medicine for stomach aches and colds.[5]
Sources
editAlong the coast and in the San Francisco Bay, it is assumed that the Ohlone did as other coastal natives did. Along the coast they scraped salt from rocks where it had accumulated by evaporation. Inside the bay, it is assumed that the natives similarly scraped salt from natural bayside evaporation ponds. It is not known if they evaporated water for salt, or used the ocean or bay water for cooking.
From plants, natives ate a purple seaweed (Porphyra perforta); this from Monterey Bay and south to Santa Barbara. The seaweed was gathered, pressed tightly into cakes, dried and nibbled at sparingly at meals. It was considered a food and dietary salt.[6]
References
edit- Brown, Alan K., Salt for the Scraping in California Historical Society Quarterly, Vol. XXXIX No. 2, June 1960.
- Brown, Alan K., Place Names of San Mateo County, © 1975, Published by San Mateo County Historial Association.
- Goldman, Harold B. Salt, Sand, and Shells: Minerals Resources of San Francisco Bay in Geologic and Engineering Aspects of San Francisco Bay Fill, California Division of Mines and Geology, Bulletin #97, 1969.
- Heizer, Robert F., in Salt in California, State of California, Department of Natural Resources, Division of Mines, Bulletin #175, March 1958.
- Heizer, Robert F & Elsasser, Albbert B., The Natural World of the California Indians © 1980 ISBN 0-520-0896-7.
- Kurlansky, Mark, Salt: A World History, © 2002 ISBN 0-14-200161-9.
- Murphey, Edith V. A., Out of the Past, told by Lucy Young, California Historical Society Quarterly, Vol. XX No. 4, June 1941.
- Ver Planck, William E., Salt in California, State of California, Department of Natural Resources, Division of Mines Bulletin #175, March 1958.