Sotol [Dasylirion texanum]

This spiny evergreen plant was an important food staple for the native peoples in the western and southern Plateaus and Canyonlands. Several other sotol species can be found to the west across much of the Chihuahuan desert in northern Mexico and the southern part of the American Southwest. The pulpy central stems or "hearts" of sotol plants were baked and then pounded and formed into chewy patties which could be dried and stored. This carbohydrate food source was probably a mainstay in areas where sotol grew in abundance, particular in the western and southern Edwards Plateau and the flanking canyonlands.

Although sotol is sometimes called a "cactus" or an "agave," it is neither. Scientists today classify it a member of the Nolinaceae family, like bear grass, an inedible plant whose tough leaves were used for making woven mats and twine. The tough fibers from sotol leaves were also used for making mats and twine and its woody flower stalk was valued as a straight, lightweight wood useful for many tasks. Sotol seeds are also edible, and have been recovered from coprolites (preserved human feces) analyzed from dry caves in the Lower Pecos archeological region.

Details

Sotol is a evergreen rosette plant, with long spine-clad leaves that attach in a series of circular tiers around a shortened, central stem. The central stem is very fleshy or pulpy, and serves as a storage organ, containing both moisture and carbohydrates. The central stem, often referred to as the “heart,” is edible, but only after it is baked in an earth oven for 36-48 hours. The very long cooking time is needed to break down indigestible long-chain carbohydrates and poisonous compounds, mostly saponins, which are a combination of a sapogenin, a steroid compound, and a sugar, usually glucose. The heat and steam generated by an earth oven, however, breaks down complex carbohydrates, splits the sugars from the steroidal compounds, breaks down the compounds, and leaves the pulpy central stem edible. Usually the cooked, fleshy pulp was pounded into thin patties and sun-dried. If kept dry, baked sotol patties can remain edible for months: chewy, but sweet and nutritious. It tastes like nutty molasses syrup.

Most researchers associate agave use throughout the Chihuahuan and Sonoran Deserts of northern Mexico and the adjacent American Southwest (including west Texas) with earth oven processing. It is, however, increasingly evident that both sotol and yucca were utilized as important food sources in the Edwards Plateau region. For example, San Angelo (or narrow-leaf) yucca [Yucca reverchonii], a plant with an inedible fruit, was identified from deposits at Baker Cave (Brown 1991). Both yucca and stool have been identified in abundance from Hinds Cave (Dering 1999). When baked in an earth oven the central stem of San Angelo and other related yuccas is edible and can be prepared much like sotol.

It is very likely that sotol and yucca were among the main food resources that were routinely cooked at many archeological sites in the western and southern Plateaus and Canyonlands. Over time, this process results in the accumulation of “burned rock middens,” the highly visible, common, and easily identified prehistoric site feature in the region. Archeologists have recovered charred sotol and/or yucca fragments (leaf sections) from burned rock midden sites on the Edwards Plateau, such as the Honey Creek site. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible for paleobotanists (specialists who identify plant remains from archeological sites) to tell the difference between sotol and yucca from small charred fragments. Therefore, most of what we know about sotol and yucca use comes from the dry caves of the Lower Pecos area.

One fascinating account of sotol baking comes from The Life of F. M. Buckelew: The Indian Captive, As Related by Himself (1925). Buckelew was captured as a 14-year-old boy by Lipan Apaches in 1866 near what is today Utopia, Texas on the Sabinal River. He lived with the Lipan for about a year in the western Edwards Plateau and further west in the Big Bend area before he escaped. His account describes in detail the preparation of the sotol "bulb" or central stem, in earth ovens. He describes large quantities of the sotol being cooked in a "kiln" covered with earth to make it airtight. The heated rock, he said, cooked the bulbs, which were then made into "bread."

Printed Sources:

Bell, W. H. and E. F. Castetter 1941 The Utilization of Yucca, Sotol, and Beargrass by the Aborigines in the American Southwest. The University of New Mexico Bulletin 372, Biological Series 5(5). The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.

Dennis, T. S. and T. S. Dennis 1977 Life of F. M. Buckelew. Reprinted. The Garland Library of Narrative of North American Indian Captivities, vol. 107, W. E. Washburn, general editor. Garland Publishing, Inc., New York. Originally published 1925, Hunter’s Printing House, Bandera, Texas.

Brown, Kenneth M. 1988 Some Annotated Excerpts from Alonso de Leon's History of Nuevo Leon. La Tierra 15(2):5-20. [Historic accounts of sotol and yucca use among Indian groups in northern Mexico.]

1991 Prehistoric Economics at Baker Cave: A Plan for Research. In Papers on Lower Pecos Prehistory, edited by S. A. Turpin, pp. 87-140. Studies in Archaeology 8. Texas Archaeological Research Laboratory, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas.

Dering, J. Phillip 1999 Earth-Oven Plant Processing in Archaic Period Economies: An Example from a Semi-Arid Savannah in South-Central North America. American Antiquity 64(4):659-674.

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photo of sotol
Sotol grows mainly on rocky, well-drained slopes with thin calcareous soils and tends to form dense stands. This photo was taken in Bandera County upon the southern Edwards Plateau in the Texas Hill Country. Photo by Steve Black.
photo of sotol
Harvesting sotol is no easy matter, even with modern metal tools. Prehistoric peoples used sharp stone tools to trim off the spiny leaves and expose the “heart” which grows at ground level. Unseen is the tough central tap root that firmly anchors the plant and must be severed by a well-placed blow with a sharp instrument such as a chisel-shaped hardwood stake (or a metal shovel). Photo by Steve Black.
photo of charred sotol
These charred fragments of the leaf base or sotol hearts were baked by prehistoric peoples at Hinds Cave in the Lower Pecos. The edible central stems were removed and eaten, while these inedible charred parts were discarded. Photo by Phil Dering.
photo of Dering harvesting sotol
Archeologist and paleobotanist Phil Dering harvesting a mature sotol growing in an atypical circumstance—a flat area with somewhat deep soil. This happenstance makes it easier to sever the above-ground plant from its tenacious tap root. Although Phil is harvesting this plant to bake in an experimental earth oven, he is “cheating” by using “sharpshooter” shovel instead of traditional wooden and stone tools. The shovel allows him to postpone trimming off the leaves (he wanted an intact specimen to show others what the plant looks like).
photo of a cut-open sotol heart
This desiccated sotol heart (a modern teaching sample) has been sliced with a saw to show the structure of the plant. The knife points to the edible central stem from which the leaves grow, something like an artichoke. Below this is the tap root and a small portion of the finer roots that spread widely to find moisture in the arid Lower Pecos. This specimen is dried out because it was harvested for "show and tell" during a prolonged drought period and then allowed to dry out even more. Photo by Phil Dering.