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Show Man and Nature In Early Utah 5 purposely made to put in the creeks to catch the loathsome in they floated down the streams, and they caught them by tons, sun-dried them, then roasted them and made them into a silage that would keep for months. Their skill in this convinces me that the coming of the crickets had been continuous for ages." "baskets sects as It was, however, upon the plant kingdom that the Indians of the Salt Lake and Great Basin region in general placed their chief dependence for subsistence, a fact which in the trapper and MALE MORMON CRICKET ON SAGEBRUSH pioneer days led to their being designated as "Diggers" or "Root Diggers." In some areas certain vegetable products were of out standing importance. Such were, for example, the fruit of the nut pine iPinus monophylla and P. edulis). The expedition to the mountains for pine-nuts each fall was one of the great fixed events of the year. Much of their lore and store of legends pertains to this food and its season. To this day, when so little dependence is placed on most of their original sources, pine-nuts are gathered in season as of yore and both kept for their own use and marketed in trade with the white people. The method of obtaining the nuts is to gather the cones and partically char them in a fire in which process the nuts are roasted. The nuts are next beaten out of' the cones. If further roasting be found necessary it is done in ovens. The roasted nuts are eaten by some after shelling, by others with the shells on. They were also formenly often ground into |
