Editing Pinyon pine (section)

== Piñon seeds in Native American cuisine ==
The seeds of the pinyon pine, known as "[[pine nut]]s" or "piñóns", are an important food for [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|American Indians]] living in the mountains of the [[Indigenous peoples of the North American Southwest|North American Southwest]]. All species of [[pine]] produce edible seeds, but in North America only pinyon produces seeds large enough to be a major source of food.<ref>{{cite web |title=Piñon Nuts: The Manna of the Mountains |publisher=Mother Earth News |url=http://www.motherearthnews.com/real-food/pinon-nuts-zmaz77jazgoe.aspx |access-date=29 July 2015}}</ref>

The pinyon has likely been a source of food since the arrival of ''Homo sapiens'' in the [[Great Basin]] and American Southwest ([[Oasisamerica]]). In the Great Basin, archaeological evidence indicates that the range of the pinyon pine expanded northward after the [[Last glacial period|Ice Age]], reaching its northernmost (and present) limit in southern Idaho about 4000 BCE.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Simms |first=Steven R. |year=1985 |title=Pine Nut Use in Three Great Basin Cases: Data, Theory, and a Fragmentary Material Record |journal=[[Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology]] |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=166–167 |jstor=27825234 |url=http://escholarship.org/uc/item/8bp9f88b}}</ref> Early Native Americans undoubtedly collected the edible seeds, but, at least in some areas, evidence of large quantities of pinyon nut harvesting does not appear until about 600 CE. Increased use of pinyon nuts was possibly related to a population increase of humans and a decline in the number of game animals, thereby forcing the Great Basin inhabitants to seek additional sources of food.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hildebrandt |first1=William R. |last2=Ruby |first2=Allika |year=2006 |title=Prehistoric Pinyon Exploitation in the Southwestern Great Basin: A View from the Coso Range |journal=Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology |volume=26 |issue=1 |pages=11–32 |jstor=27825820 |url=http://escholarship.org/uc/item/3qx6161h}}</ref>

The suitability of pinyon seeds as a [[staple food]] is reduced because of the unreliability of the harvest. Abundant crops of cones and seeds occur only every two to seven years, averaging a good crop every four years. Years of high production of seed tend to be the same over wide areas of the pinyon range.<ref>{{cite web|author=Jeffers, Richard M.|title=Piñon PIne Seed Production, Collection, and Storage|publisher=United States Forest Service|url=http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs_rm/rm_gtr258/rm_gtr258_191_197.pdf|access-date= 30 July 2015}}</ref>