National Geographic : 1945 Jan
© National Geographic Society Oil Painting by W. Langdon Kihn In a California Reed-hut Village, Porno Indians Gather Acorns, Their Staple Food, for Storage inHivelike Granaries Their boats were buoyant bundles of tule rushes, resembling the balsas sailed by Andean Indians. Pomos, like otherPacific Coast tribes, did not farm. They turned wild acorns into flour by pounding and filtering until bitter tannic acid was leached out. California tribes, with a few exceptions, had virtually no totem organization. Simple and unwarlike, they fell easy prey to white invaders.