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In This Section... Migration and Language Trade Houses Crafts and Utensils Money Food Salmon Magic Coming of Age as a Shasta Girl Shamanism and Healing Treasures of Mt. Shasta Hidden Lakes of Mt. Shasta The Ghost Dance Why Mt. Shasta Erupted

Food

Acorn meal was an important staple for the Shasta, and their preference for the tan oak over the black and white oak encouraged trade with the tribes further down the Klamath where the tan oak grew. They also enjoyed crushed manzanita berries for cider, as did many California tribes. Sugar pine nuts were steamed in an earthen oven, dried and later used to make little cakes. But it was the salmon fish that was the unique food source for Northern California Indians. The salmon meat was eaten fresh, it was smoked and dried in strips, and it was even dried into a powder and later made into little salmon cakes combined with other meal. Even the bones of the salmon were ground and stored to make a mid winter soup. Deer meat was hung and smoked; bear meat was first boiled then hung and smoked