Tuba Food

Also called tuba, pine nuts have been a fundamental food supply for the inhabitants of this region. During the hotter summer months, people would migrate up into the higher mountain elevations for cooler temperatures, and collect pine nuts from pinyon trees, above the 7,000-foot elevation level. Plentiful pine forests exist in both the Panamint and Amargosa Ranges on either side of Death Valley. Each fall, the nuts fall onto the ground from the cones for a three week period, and the native folks would gather them up for the winter food supply. A single person might gather more than a hundred pounds of these nuts each year. It was essential for each family to gather enough nuts before the snows fell to avoid a food shortfall later in the year.