On Friday we had a special field trip to a very special tree, the Great Oak on the Pechanga Reservation in Temecula.
According to Pechanga's website "The Great Oak is the largest natural-growing, indigenous coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia ) wi'aashal tree in the United States and is estimated to be anywhere from 850 to 1,500 years old, making it one of the oldest oak trees in the world."
Our tour guide invited us to enter the great oak through a tunnel-like opening in the huge canopy and then shared many interesting facts and legends about the incredible tree. It would have been enough to simply stagger back in admiration, or to spend all day playing "house" in the many rooms the canopy made, but we enjoyed hearing about the history of the arborgryphs [tree graffiti], the circumference of the immense trunk and branches, and more. Some of the branches would measure 3-7 feet around, and the trunk measures 22 feet in circumference. You can do the math: if each foot represents about a hundred years of growth, how old is this tree? [Hint: it may be more than the above estimate.] We found some acorns on the ground and observed the effects of drought on this main traditional food source.
We were also treated to a tour of the Pechanga Youth's Indian village. We sat in a large sweat lodge and peeked into several huts that demonstrate the different types of building materials & construction used by peoples in different areas. We admired the granary used to store acorns for up to two years [large woven basket-type structures suspended off the ground on posts] and the pottery that the Pechanga Youth are learning to create.
We hope to follow this field trip with a nature-based Native American craft in early October. Stay tuned!
