health, the Takelma collected a variety of plant foods. However, consistent with optimal foraging theory, which suggests that humans, like other creatures, decide what foods to eat depending on what gives the greatest nutritional value for the work expended to get it, the Takelma strategically focused on two plant foods: acorns and camas, also known as camassia. They harvested acorns from the two species of oaks in their Rogue Valley territory, Oregon white oak and California black oak. When these foods were not available, or for variety in their diet, Takelma women also gathered and processed the seeds of native grasses and tarweed (Madia elegans), dug roots and collected small fruits. Dwellings During the winter months, the Takelma lived in semi-subterranean homes dug partly into the insulating earth with superstructures built of vertically placed sugar pine planks. Poorer people also lived in pole-and-bark dwellings, well banked with earth and dry leaves for insulation. Typically the planks rested on two 6-foot-tall vertical shafts that supported a horizontal central pole. Beds of cat-tail mats were placed adjacent to the fire pit, with openings in the roof to allow for ventilation. Takelma homes bore structural similarities to the semi-subterranean homes of the Klamath and Modoc peoples to the east, who spoke languages in the Plateau Penutian family, and to those of the Shasta to the south, who spoke various Shastan languages (which may be part of the hypothetical Hokan family). One historical account describes a rectangular, plank structure large enough to hold 100 people, but archaeologists in the region have typically found remains of much smaller dwellings. During the warmer months of summer Takelma lived in residences made of brush or forwent them altogether. See also Latgawa Takelma language Takilma, Oregon The US Navy "USS Takelma", now the ARA Suboficial Castillo (A-6), a patrol boat of the Argentine Navy Notes Bibliography External links SOHS - The Takelma Indians of Southwestern Oregon Native American tribes in Oregon Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians Rogue River (Oregon)