The Cultural Conservancy - “Traditional Foodways of Native America – Oral Histories of Native Food Revitalization” Audio Recording Project
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Pauline Esteves
Biography
Pauline was born and lived her whole life in Death Valley, CA. She led both battles for her tribe’s federal recognition (1983) and the transfer and return of part of Timbisha ancestral homelands. In March 2000 the Timbisha received five parcels of land. This included 300 acres of Furnace Creek in Death Valley. The first and only tribe to get back land that is inside a National Park.
Interview Script
My name is Pauline Esteves and I live here in Timbisha which is the proper name of Death Valley, by the people. And I was born and raised here, and retired here. I’m a member of the Timbisha Shoshone tribe.
I would say that the foods that, what you call traditional is part of our way of life, as to who we are. Because the foods come from the land and the land is our identity. So we believe in foods to be eaten in a spiritual way,
So some of these foods, you know, they use it for medicinal purposes also. That’s what they do when they’re going to eat, and they will say this, you know, after they bless the food and bless themselves, that it’s for that, to heal.
And being a Shoshone, the pine nut tree has always been sort of a symbol – that’s the English word for it, of the Shoshone people. In one of the old legends, as it goes on, it says that Shoshone people will never disappear. They will always be here because, on account of the pine tree, they’re like the pine tree, they have the little ones. And the little ones that grows from the pine tree seeds. And the Shoshones are like this, there will always be little ones coming up. We are not like some other people that is very strong and has a symbol, maybe a mountain or a large rock or something. And those deteriorate. But the pine tree will never deteriorate. And this is the reason why we believe in, you know, taking care of the pine tree which is not only the symbol of the Shoshone people of all over, from different areas. And it’s well-known and then our responsibility and caring for all of Mother Earth’s belongings is also in that legend, that we care for all living things. And we believe in this. We just don’t believe that it is to be, you know, eaten and so we can become nourished by it. But it is part of our responsibility and we live by that value of the responsibility that was put upon us. And it is heavy on the shoulders of our people, and to care for all of our food sources from the different parts of our homelands.
We do a lot of harvesting of the pine nuts, about twice, depending on the abundance of it. But, even if there is just a small amount of pine cones on the trees, we still go there to show respect to the spirits of the land and for the pine nuts that it was given to us by our creator. And this way we believe that we are caring for the pine trees. And the harvesting at firstly, sometime around in August and they’re beginning to ripen and we go there with the respect. Ask for acknowledgement of the spirits that’s all around, on the spirit of all things that are placed there, the belongings of Mother Earth, again I should say. And then we will harvest them and then we’ll check to see if we can cook some of the cones in the fire and underground. And if it is ripe enough to do that, we will do that. And this is the first time we will use the pine nut. And this only lasts, the cooking it underground in that way, only lasts for about a couple of weeks. And then the final harvest begins where the cones are ripened, the pine nut is ripened and is still hanging on the tree. We go out there with long sticks and whack them down and start picking the raw pine nuts that’s in the cone.
My elders picked as much as they could until their fingers almost froze, you know, because the pine nuts, you know, they grow up in a high elevation. This is the main staple of food for the Shoshone people. And still today we know that value and we protect it. You know, we try to work with all the developers in protecting those trees.
But like the old people, my elders, always said, “If we do not treat the land right or to protect the land in the way it’s supposed to be protected, that somehow or other it was going to turn against us.” And I see it happening, and this is happening due to the developing people. They don’t seem to care and they go and destroy, you know, different areas where wildlife lives and where some of the native foods grow, and disturbing the water sources also. And down here that happened when a developer came in here and diverted the water. And we have our rights and we’re going to continue along with our rights. We have our human rights, all the rights that you people say that we don’t have. So we’re not animals and we’re not savages,” I said “We know more about this land than you do and we can educate you.”
Related Websites:
Death Valley National Park – Shoshone Indians: www.nps.gov/deva/parkmgmt/tribal_homeland.htm
Wikipedia Honey Mesquite: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey_Mesquite
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