In late fall, the parched hills of Northern California are wilting hot, but relief can be found in the dark patches of shade cast by towering native oaks. Some are hundreds of years old, with spreading limbs as thick as human torsos.
In Lake and Sonoma Counties, this is the season Indigenous people once harvested vast stores of ripe acorns, a staple food in native diets for thousands of years. A small group of Pomo and Miwok youth from nearby tribal communities are gathering beneath oak groves h