wapatoo and camas

[Mike Cleven]

Yudiff at aol.com wrote:
>
> Dear Iron Mountain:
>
> I am a childrens' book author writing about Sacagawea.  I was hoping you
> might inform me how the wapatoo is used.  Is it indeed a potato?

No, although the word was used for potato; it is a potato-like root, but
as far as I know is not in the potato (nightshade?) family.

   How is it
> cooked?   Was it pounded and prepared by the Chinook in the early nineteenth
> century?  How would Chinook women have dug and prepared this root?
>
> Books about the Lewis and Clark expedition often mention the wapatoo and
> camas, but don't explain how they were then used. HELP!!!!!  I'm operating on
> a late September deadline.

I have the "Food Plants of British Columbia" publication by the BC
Provincial Museum, which has some accounts of who wapato and camas were
prepared in British Columbia.  For accuracy in reference to the
territory covered by the Lewis & Clark Expedition, however, I'm copying
this reply to the CHINOOK mailing list for input by the list's members,
who will be more familiar with how wapato and camas were used in the
Columbia-Snake country that is the subject of your book.

Mike Cleven
http://members.home.net/skookum/