As with so many walks of life, Coast Miwok valued salt, kojˑo, which was accessible through springs and lakes which would evaporate in the summer and leave behind crystals. Similar to most modern cuisine, salt was incorporated into food such as vegetables and meat like it is done in many different cuisines throughout the world, a garnish and flavor enhancer (Barrett uses “sprinkled,” “to taste,” “a little”). Salty was a flavor, the Miwok word for it is kojkoj-ˑe-. Dry-salting meat was common but most likely a practice that was introduced by outsiders, perhaps Russians as Coast Miwok were known for preserving meat with dirt. Surrounding cultural groups also traded with the Coast Miwok and salt was an important part of economic activity as it was often traded for fish in a cake form. There is a great deal of overlap between Coastal and Eastern (or Lake) Miwok culture in salt’s place in each culture which shouldn’t be surprising since there was a great deal of contact to the extent of intermarriage.
Department:
Still and motion photography
Title:
Undisturbed large salt pan, Bodega Bay. (Title Subject)
Comment:
*Heading for slides 1759-1787: “Salt, Bodega Bay; Sarah Smith Ballard” cf. Barrett, Samuel Alfred, and Edward Winslow Gifford. Miwok material culture. Yosemite Natural History Association, 1933. http://www.yosemite.ca.us/library/miwok_material_culture/miwok_material_culture.pdf Levy, Richard. "Eastern Miwok." Handbook of North American Indians 8 (1978): 398-413. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/0160/9c120473b81a21a8ad96b4bcdbba224e363c.pdf Golla, Victor. California Indian Languages. Univ of California Press, 2011.