Wapato and camas

[terry glavin]

answering a few requests in one email. . . .

 the chilcotin "potatoes" of the potato mountain range are . . . wait for
the drum roll. . .Claytonia lanceolata! aka spring beauty. other plant foods
harvested on potato mountain are (not just "were") balsamroot sunflower and
avalanche lilies.

 and the references cited in that excerpt i sent along are (in the numbers
as they appeared as footnotes in the text):
17) Suttles, Wayne. "Coast Salish Essays," University of Washington Press,
Seattle, 1987.
 18) McKelvie, B.A. "Fort Langley: Outpost of Empire," Vancouver, 1947.
 19) Suttles, Wayne and Jenness, Diamond. "Katzie Ethnographic Notes and The
Faith of a Coast Salish Indian," Anthropology in B.C. Memoirs Nos. 2 and 3,
British Columbia Provincial Museum, 1955.
 20) Stern, Bernhard  J. "The Lummi Indians of Northwest Washington," 1934.
 21) Suttles, Wayne. "Economic Life of the Coast Salish of Haro and Rosario
Straits," PhD dissertation, University of Washington, Seattle, 1951.
 22) Bogoras, W. "The Chuckchee, Part I - Material Culture," Memoirs of the
American Museum of Natural History (Jesup Expedition), Volume XI, 1904.
 23) Turner, Nancy J. and Taylor, Roy L. "A Review of the Northwest Coast
Tobacco Mystery," Syesis, Volume 5, 1972.


-----Original Message-----
From: Theresa Kishkan <tkishkan at UNISERVE.COM>
To: CHINOOK at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG <CHINOOK at LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG>
Date: 21 September 2000 13:33
Subject: Re: Wapato and camas


>This is interesting! And what about Claytonia lanceolata or Spring Beauty
or
>"Indian Potato"? These were dug in abundance at Botanie and traded.....What
>are the potatoes in Chiwid, Terry? And Starflowers (Trientalis latifolia)
>have tiny tubers that people have eaten for centuries. I've tried them raw
>and they are not unlike Jerusalem artichokes...I think it's inulin that
they
>contain and not starch.
>
>Camassia quamash and Camassia leichtlini both produce
>>big potato-like bulbs, and it was most likely the practice of camas
farming
>>that allowed the peoples of the Strait to adopt the potato so
>>enthusiastically. Unlike the potato, camas was harvested in the spring
when
>>it is in flower
>
>I bet the camas was harvested when in flower so as not to confuse it with
>Zigadenus venenosus, or Death Camas. The flowers are very different but
they
>often grow adjacent to one another. There's a place near us where both grow
>and every year I think I'm going to dig up some of the blue camas to try
but
>then I forget until the flowers are finished. Try to figure out which was
>which after they've gone to seed!
>
>Theresa
>Theresa Kishkan
>RR1 Site 20 C11
>Madeira Park, B.C.
>V0N 2H0
>(604)883-2377
>Red Laredo Boots (1996); Sisters of Grass (2000)
>
>"This is the old west where a secret cove with an old house
>  is called history, a raven cackling on a limb, mythology."
>                                            --Charles Lillard