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The Southern Sierra Miwok Language (1964), by Sylvia M. Broadbent

3. Wild Foods (Pages 152-159)

3. Wild Foods
(Conversation between John Lawrence and Chris Brown)

JL: (1) Say that I'm eating angleworms with acorn mush, I'm eating angleworms with biscuits, say that.
CB: (2) You do the talking. Where can I get angleworms when I go fishing?
JL: (3) Right in front here, in the flat ground.
CB: (4) I want to get some angleworms.
JL: (5) I can eat angleworms with biscuits, you'd better say that.
CB: (6) I can eat angleworms with biscuits, sir. (7) Tell me if you ever ate any.
JL: (8) No.
CB: (9) When is it that edible cocoons will come out, sir?
JL: (10) What's that?
CB: (11) Cocoons.

3. Wild Foods (Pages 154)
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JL: (12) Oh, there aren't any of those cocoons around this time.
CB: (13) Are they coming out now?
JL: (14) No, they won't come out.
CB: (15) They went, isn't that it.
JL: (16) Oh, a long time ago they used to come out twice [a year].
CB: (17) A long time ago the Indians used to eat those cocoons.
JL: (18) Yes.
CB: (19) And these grasshoppers, isn't that right.
JL: (20) In a soup, those.
CB: (21) And some things they call /?oko•met/.
JL: (22) /?oko•met/.
CB: (23) We used to eat any old thing, sir.
JL: (24) Pandora moth caterpillars.
CB: (25) But Pandora moth caterpillars are from higher up [in the mountains].
JL: (26) We used to eat that just the same.
CB: (27) Yellowjackets, too, isn't that right.
JL: (28) Yellowjackets, I guess so.
CB: (29) Those used to be the Indians' food, long ago.
JL: (30) Uh-huh.
CB: (31) They used to be smoked out, to get them . . .
JL: (32) They used to chase them.
CB: (33) We used to chase them when we were children, a long time ago, that's what the shaman [JL] means.
JL: (laughter [at being called a shaman]).
CB: (34) Hey, I, one time—(er, er)—I dug him up, he stung me all over. I yelled and yelled for sure.
JL: (35) I yelled loud, say.
CB: (36) Hey, I really hollered, sir.
JL: (37) His feet were pretty hot, you would say.
CB: (38) Yes.

JL:	} (laughter)
CB:

* * *

CB: (39) This is my older brother,' he came out from the east; we are people from the mountains, Yosemite Valley people. We are the only ones left alive, isn't that right, sir.

———
¹Although John Lawrence and Chief Leeme may have been related, they were not literally brothers; this statement probably refers to membership in the same moiety. John Lawrence did not otherwise claim to belong to the Yosemite Valley band; even here, his agreement with Chief Leeme is a little reluctant.

3. Wild Foods (Pages 156)
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JL: (40) That's right.
CB: (41) There's nobody else.
JL: (42) No.
CB: (43) Nobody left.
JL: (44) (uh-huh).
CB: (45) Maybe there isn't anyone now who could keep up with us.
JL: (46) Nobody.
CB: (47) That can call himself that.
JL: (48) Surely not, nobody.
CB: (49) Playing that, what did we used to do?
JL: (50) (uh-huh), yes.
CB: (51) They want to listen to this one that the Indian women used to play.
JL: (52) Oh, those things.
CB: (53) How did they do those things?
JL: (54) They used to shake dice in their hands.
CB: (55) They used to shake them [in a box], these dice.
JL: (56) All of it, playing dice, playing football, all sorts of things they used to play. Long ago, that was what the women used to play.
CB: (57) The women used to play that.
JL: (58) (uh-huh); they used to play handgame at night.
CB: (59) Just the women.
JL: (60) Just the women, that's the way I saw it.
CB: (61) We've all seen that.
JL: (62) (uh-huh).
CB: (63) The women used to play this on something, too, on bone awls, isn't it.
JL: (64) They used to play that too, on those little awls or something, yes.
CB: (65) Yes, and this too, weaving.
JL: (66) They used to weave baskets.
CB: (67) That's it, sir, their baskets.
JL: (68) They used to make baskets.
CB: (69) Yes.
JL: (70) They used to do basketry, cooking baskets, carrying baskets, hey:
CB: (71) Hey, that's it, that what the Indians did, lots of them. Where are they now? There aren't any, they're all dead.
JL: (72) They're all gone that could do that kind of work.
CB: (73) They used to like this, cracking these, to eat this . . . that . . .

3. Wild Foods (Pages 158)
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JL: (74) (an unidentified seed)
CB: (75) Their seeds.
JL: (76) Redmaids.
CB: (77) Redmaids.
JL: (78) And something else, manzanita berries.
CB: (79) Yes.
JL: (80) And here's another—sourberries.
CB: (81) Sourberries too.
JL: (82) Gooseberries.
CB: (83) Gooseberries.
JL: (84) Hey, strawberries.
CB: (85) The strawberries are now all gone everywhere.
JL: (86) Blackberries.
CB: (87) Blackberries there are still below here.
JL:. (88) Yes, all those things the Indians used to eat, long ago.
CB: (89) They probably lived pretty well.
JL: (90) (an unidentified plant)
CB: (91) /hak•ahi?/, maybe; what's that, sir?
JL: (92) Here in the valley near the bridge, it has white flowers.
CB: (93) So that's /hak•ahi?/.
JL: (94) Yes.
CB: (95) I'm forgetting all these things.
JL: (96) Yes, I know that. Grass nuts.
CB: (97) Grass nuts.
JL: (98) The Indians used to eat that, long ago.
CB: (99) And this, also, that they call /?o•luju?/, isn't that right.
JL: (100) Yes, that's right.
CB: (101) What's that /?o•luju?/?
JL: (102) Something or other, what's it, what is its name, they used to say "niggertoes."
CB: (103) Is it /?o•lu•ci?/? /?o•luju?/?
JL: (104) It's /?o•lawci?/, yes.
CB: (105) I know, then, lots of things, also brodeia bulbs, the Indians used to eat that.
JL: (106) Brodeia bulbs, (107) that's another kind of meat to the Indians.
CB: (108) Hey, they used to enjoy eating that.
JL: (109) Yes.
CB: (110) Think of some other things.
JL: (111) I'm [trying to think of] other things. Here's one, they used to eat clover.

4. Measuring Worm (Pages 160)
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CB: (112) Clover, that's it.
JL: (113) Sour clover.
CB: (114) We eat that sour clover.
JL: (115) Grass nuts [another kind].
CB: (116) That's a different kind of grass nuts, I don't know them.
JL: (117) (an unidentified seed)
CB: (118) I know those.
JL: (119) All that. A kind of grass.
CB: (120) Grass. (121) Our people used to eat that.
JL: (122) Yes, the Indians used to eat it.
CB: (123) Hey, it's a long time since the people used to eat that kind. Now we're nothing but hungry.
JL: (laugh) (124) That's the truth, that's what the Indians used to eat
long ago. (125) Now there's nothing.
CB: (126) Now there's nothing.
JL: (127) Everybody now is looking for bread, the Indians.
CB: (128) Now everybody's thinking about bread.
JL: (129) That's all they think about.
CB: (130) Yes.
JL: (131) But these old-timers, the old women, hey, they'd put on a pack basket and go out to gather sour clover.
CB: (132) Hey, they'd put on a pack basket.

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