EUCHA, Okla. – Each year in late September, Cherokee Nation
citizen Mark Dunham and his father Tad check chinkapin trees,
which were once plentiful in the area, for prickly, green burs
that hold nuts.
Logging practices and a chestnut disease in the 1950s and 1960s nearly wiped out the Ozark chinkapin or Chinquapin. The Dunhams now compete with squirrels, deer and other animals for the small amount of nuts produced by the chinkapin trees on their land in Delaware County.
“It’s a tree that’s becoming scarce because of a fungal virus. The fungal virus came from Chinese chestnut trees, which are very closely related to these trees,” Mark said. “Historically, the tree used to grow about 3 foot in diameter and would grow anywhere from 60 to 80 foot tall. It was a really good producer every year of nuts. The Cherokees, a long time ago, would make bread out of the nuts. The nuts are really high in protein, and they’re very good for you.”
According to the Ozark Chinquapin Foundation, the Ozark chinkapin is also called the Ozark chestnut. It was drought tolerant and grew on acidic dry rocky soils on hilltops and slopes. It bloomed in late May to early June after the threat of frost. The wood was prized because it was rot resistant and made excellent railroad ties and fence posts.
“The Ozark Chinquapin nuts were delicious, and we waited for them to fall like you would wait on a crop of corn to ripen. They were that important. Up on the hilltop the nuts were so plentiful that we scooped them up with flat blade shovels and loaded them into the wagons to be used as livestock feed, to eat for ourselves and to sell. Deer, bears, turkeys, squirrels and a variety of other wildlife fattened up on the sweet crop of nuts that fell every year. But, starting in the 1950s and 60s all of the trees started dying off. Now they are all gone and no one has heard of them,” said a 96-year-old Missouri outdoorsman to the Ozark Chinquapin Foundation, describing chinkapins before the blight reached the Ozarks.
Mark said these days the trees usually grow 4 inches in diameter and about 20 to 25 feet tall. Periodically, a tree dies but sends up sprouts that grow for a few years before they too die. He said the trees usually grow four to seven years before dying and sprouting again.
In 2015, Mark said he and his father harvested a pint of chinkapin nuts from one tree, and this year they managed to get about 10 nuts from a tree.
“So, this was really a poor year,” Mark said.
The Dunhams use leather gloves to handle the “spiky hull” that holds chinkapin nuts. Once the hulls or burs are pulled off a tree, Tad uses his pocketknife to split open the bur, which are three-quarter to 1-1/2 inches in diameter, to remove the nuts. Often the burs form in clusters on stems, but each bur contains a single, shiny brown acorn-like nut, which are called oo-na-geen or oo-ha-geen in Cherokee, Mark said.
Mark said there is also a chinkapin oak tree that sometimes people mistake for Ozark chinkapin. The chinkapin oak produces acorn nuts and the nuts from the trees look similar, he said, but the leaves are different with the Ozark chinkapin leaves, being more elongated and about 3 to 6 inches long.
He said besides making bread, he has eaten the nuts raw and roasted. Mark said the nuts have an “original taste” while Tad said the nuts taste similar to hazelnuts.
Tad has planted Chinese chestnut trees in his yard, which are disease resistant and produce a larger nut than the Ozark chinkapin, usually more than twice the size. Mark said the Chinese chestnut produces a nut about the size of a quarter while the Ozark chinkapin produces a nut smaller than a dime.
The Dunhams said they have a heritage of living off their land. Tad maintains a garden and keeps and feeds catfish in his pond. The family also gathers wild onions, morel mushrooms, black walnuts and black haws, which are a dark-black berry fruit. The family also hunts deer on its land. Tad said he is proud that his family could nearly sustain itself off of his property.
Logging practices and a chestnut disease in the 1950s and 1960s nearly wiped out the Ozark chinkapin or Chinquapin. The Dunhams now compete with squirrels, deer and other animals for the small amount of nuts produced by the chinkapin trees on their land in Delaware County.
“It’s a tree that’s becoming scarce because of a fungal virus. The fungal virus came from Chinese chestnut trees, which are very closely related to these trees,” Mark said. “Historically, the tree used to grow about 3 foot in diameter and would grow anywhere from 60 to 80 foot tall. It was a really good producer every year of nuts. The Cherokees, a long time ago, would make bread out of the nuts. The nuts are really high in protein, and they’re very good for you.”
According to the Ozark Chinquapin Foundation, the Ozark chinkapin is also called the Ozark chestnut. It was drought tolerant and grew on acidic dry rocky soils on hilltops and slopes. It bloomed in late May to early June after the threat of frost. The wood was prized because it was rot resistant and made excellent railroad ties and fence posts.
“The Ozark Chinquapin nuts were delicious, and we waited for them to fall like you would wait on a crop of corn to ripen. They were that important. Up on the hilltop the nuts were so plentiful that we scooped them up with flat blade shovels and loaded them into the wagons to be used as livestock feed, to eat for ourselves and to sell. Deer, bears, turkeys, squirrels and a variety of other wildlife fattened up on the sweet crop of nuts that fell every year. But, starting in the 1950s and 60s all of the trees started dying off. Now they are all gone and no one has heard of them,” said a 96-year-old Missouri outdoorsman to the Ozark Chinquapin Foundation, describing chinkapins before the blight reached the Ozarks.
Mark said these days the trees usually grow 4 inches in diameter and about 20 to 25 feet tall. Periodically, a tree dies but sends up sprouts that grow for a few years before they too die. He said the trees usually grow four to seven years before dying and sprouting again.
In 2015, Mark said he and his father harvested a pint of chinkapin nuts from one tree, and this year they managed to get about 10 nuts from a tree.
“So, this was really a poor year,” Mark said.
The Dunhams use leather gloves to handle the “spiky hull” that holds chinkapin nuts. Once the hulls or burs are pulled off a tree, Tad uses his pocketknife to split open the bur, which are three-quarter to 1-1/2 inches in diameter, to remove the nuts. Often the burs form in clusters on stems, but each bur contains a single, shiny brown acorn-like nut, which are called oo-na-geen or oo-ha-geen in Cherokee, Mark said.
Mark said there is also a chinkapin oak tree that sometimes people mistake for Ozark chinkapin. The chinkapin oak produces acorn nuts and the nuts from the trees look similar, he said, but the leaves are different with the Ozark chinkapin leaves, being more elongated and about 3 to 6 inches long.
He said besides making bread, he has eaten the nuts raw and roasted. Mark said the nuts have an “original taste” while Tad said the nuts taste similar to hazelnuts.
Tad has planted Chinese chestnut trees in his yard, which are disease resistant and produce a larger nut than the Ozark chinkapin, usually more than twice the size. Mark said the Chinese chestnut produces a nut about the size of a quarter while the Ozark chinkapin produces a nut smaller than a dime.
The Dunhams said they have a heritage of living off their land. Tad maintains a garden and keeps and feeds catfish in his pond. The family also gathers wild onions, morel mushrooms, black walnuts and black haws, which are a dark-black berry fruit. The family also hunts deer on its land. Tad said he is proud that his family could nearly sustain itself off of his property.