The Kutzadika'a: The People of the Brine Fly
Near Mammoth Lakes, California
Long before miners and skiers, this high country was home to the Kutzadika'a, a band of the Northern Paiute, who lived around Mono Lake and the Eastern Sierra. Their name tells you how they made a living in a harsh land. It means eaters of the brine fly pupae.
Along the shores of salty Mono Lake, countless tiny alkali flies breed, and their protein-rich pupae wash up in windrows. Kutzadika'a women harvested them with finely woven baskets, then dried them for a nourishing food that could be stored and traded. The name Mono itself comes from Monachi, a Yokuts word for the peoples on both sides of the Sierra.
These were not isolated communities. The Kutzadika'a carried obsidian, the sharp volcanic glass quarried from the nearby Mono Craters, and their fly pupae and pine nuts up over high Sierra passes toward Yosemite, trading with the peoples of the western Sierra for acorns and other goods. Their descendants remain here today.
When you look out over this landscape, you are seeing a homeland that has been lived in, and traded across, for thousands of years.
