Pounding Rock

Back in 2019 we had the chance to visit Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks. The indigenous people of these lands are known as the Miwok. In their language, “Miwok” means people. (me-wuk)

As you look at some of the sights in both Sequoia and Yosemite, remember that this land was home to many Miwok people. And what’s one thing that people need to survive? Food!

There are a couple of spots in both parks where you can clearly see, and touch, what is called a pounding rock. The first time I saw a pounding rock, it appeared to be a spot in the ground where geologist took a cylinder sample. But in reality, the holes and divots in the stone are where the women of the tribe would take acorns, berries, and grains and pound them into flour.

Found on the National Park Service’s website for Yosemite National Park; Women had distinct preferences for how deep mortar holes should be for pounding different types of foods. This pounding rock is ideal for pounding acorns. Shallow mortar holes were preferred for processing black oak acorns, while deeper holes (6 inches or more in depth) were used for manzanita berries.

As acorns were pounded into flour, about a gallon of acorns are mounded up over the shallow hole. They are repeatedly pounded with a pestle (weighing from 5-12 pounds), which eventually reduced the dried, cleaned, acorn-nut meat into a coarse meal. The meal is sifted with a special basket and only the finest flour is kept aside; the coarser meal is again pounded with more nut-meats, and the process is continued.

After pounding, the acorn flour is placed in a sand basin and the bitter tannin compounds are removed by repeated applications of water. The resultant dough is mixed with water and boiled in watertight baskets by placing and stirring red-hot stones directly in the mush. https://www.nps.gov/yose/learn/historyculture/tools-and-trade.htm