Created by the Muckleshoot Traditional Foods Program

Cedar Box

Teaching Toolkit

Created by the Muckleshoot Traditional Foods Program

with funding from the First Nations Development Institute

& the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board

NPAIHB

Indian Leadership for Indian Health

CREATIVE COMMONS NOTICE - 2017 materials

This teaching tool was created by Elise Krohn and Valerie Segrest, and is licensed under

the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

License.

You are free to share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format —

under the following terms: Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a

link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable

manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes.

NoDerivatives — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not

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To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ or

send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA.

This resource is available through Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board.

Posters and the Feeding 7 Generations Recipe Book are also available through

www.chatwinbooks.com

Table of Contents

About the Cedar Box Teaching Toolkit

How to Use this Curriculum

Introduction

From White Cap to White Cap – Cultural Ecosystems by Abe Lloyd and Elise Krohn

Feeding 7 Generations by Valerie Segrest and Elise Krohn

The Impacts of Colonization on Native Foods Access by Valerie Segrest and Elise Krohn

Traditional Food Harvesting, Cooking and Preservation by Abe Lloyd

Cedar by Elise Krohn

Water by Elise Krohn

Camas by Elise Krohn

Cattail by Elizabeth Campbell

Clams by Valerie Segrest

Deer and Elk by Valerie Segrest

Duck by Abe Lloyd

Hazelnut by Elise Krohn

Huckleberry by Elise Krohn and Joyce LeCompte

Nettle by Elise Krohn

Salal by Elise Krohn

Salmon by Valerie Segrest and Elise Krohn

Seaweed by Elise Krohn

Strawberry by Elise Krohn

About the Cedar Box Teaching Toolkit

This Toolkit is an educational resource featuring important native foods in Salish Country

and the rich cultural traditions that surround them. The foods were selected because of

their high nutritional value, cultural significance, and reasonable availability. The toolkit

includes:

• A cedar bentwood box, cooking tongs, cooking rocks, display containers, teaching

cards and preserved samples of 13 native foods.

• Videos about foods and food traditions that feature native storytellers.

• A curriculum including Salish food descriptions, recipes, stories and activities.

• A Feeding 7 Generations poster.

• A Feeding 7 Generations recipe book.

Educators can use the cedar box toolkit in a variety of settings including classrooms,

community workshops and other educational events. Possible presentation formats

include a “show and tell” overview of Salish foods, an exhibit, or a complete curriculum

for teaching in depth classes on individual foods.

The information in this curriculum only scratches the surface of the vast cultural

knowledge for each food. We hope that you can add your own community knowledge,

stories, artwork, preserved foods and language to your toolkit over time.

How to Use This Curriculum

Chapters on specific foods can be used as handouts. Recipes, activities and stories

provide a culturally based learning style. Short videos about several of the foods in this

book can be accessed at https://vimeo.com/cedarboxstories. They include traditional

Salish stories and people sharing their knowledge about the foods. Educators may want to

show them as part of a classroom activity.

It is our hope that educating people about the significance of these foods will

encourage them to preserve and promote them. This toolkit may inspire hands-on

stewardship, restoration, or political action related to native foods that are becoming

scarce.

For example, we can plant native berries and wild greens in home gardens and public

landscapes; and we can work to restore the health of our waters and wild spaces.

Harvest ethics are an integral part of this curriculum. Wise gatherers, hunters and

fishers teach us to take only what the land can handle and leave enough so that plant or

animal communities continue to thrive. Likewise, it is essential to give back to the land

so it will not become depleted. For example, we can return shells to beaches and compost

to the soil. Teaching people about appropriate harvest and land management techniques

will preserve these precious foods for future generations. Tribal elders, knowledge

keepers and tribal natural resource managers can be additional sources for understanding

harvest ethics.

Have fun! We hope this curriculum builds your knowledge and inspires you to

engage with native foods. Getting out there to harvest berries, dig camas, or fish for

salmon not only feeds our bodies, it also nurtures our relationship to place, builds

community and connects us to cultural traditions.

Text copyright Elise Krohn and Valerie Segrest, Creative Commons

Introduction

The Salish Sea region was one of the most densely populated and richest food places on

the planet before Euro-American colonization. Stories passed down through generations

tell us that many types of berries, roots, bulbs, nuts, and seeds were eaten as part of a

well-balanced diet. These nutritious foods contributed to the excellent health and rich

cultural traditions of Northwest Coastal Native Peoples. These foods include:

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Fish: salmon, smelt, trout, minnows, halibut, codfish, pollock, hake, rockfish,

sculpin, perch, eel, flounder, sole, skates, anchovy, sturgeon

Shellfish: clams, oysters, muscles, barnacles, scallops, limpets, snails, chitons,

crabs, shrimp, sea urchins, octopus, squid

Mammals from the water: whale, porpoise, seal,

Mammals from the land: deer, elk, bear, mountain goat, cougar, Bobcat, rabbit,

mountain beaver

Birds: swans, geese, ducks, grouse, quail, pelicans, hawks, gulls, doves, pigeons

Greens: nettle, spring beauty, miner’s lettuce, cattail, fiddlehead ferns, horsetail

fertile shoots, salmonberry and thimbleberry sprouts, purslane, evergreen tree tips

from Douglas fir, true fir, hemlock and spruce, violet leaves and flowers

Roots: camas, wapato, wild onion, yampah, bracken fern, chocolate lily, rice root,

glacier lily, spring beauty, silverweed, spring bank clover, biscuit root

Fruits: huckleberries, salmonberry, thimbleberry, blackcap raspberry, cranberry,

salal, serviceberries, soapberry, wild strawberries, blackberry, elderberries,

crabapple, wild cherry, currants, gooseberries, Indian plum, wild roses

Nuts: Hazelnut, acorn

Many Tribal elders agree that their happiest times were those spent gathering and

preparing native foods with their friends and family. These were unifying moments when

people worked together over a common purpose. Stories and laughter were shared while

hands processed fish, berries, and nuts. As author Dr. Rudolph Ryser, Chair of the Center

for World Indigenous Studies says, “For me, the kitchen table was a place where cultural

knowledge was passed from one generation to the next.”

Despite ruptures to native food systems and the introduction of Euro-American

industrialized foods, many Native People continue to harvest, hunt, gather and grow the

native foods that have nourished their ancestors for countless generations. These foods

and the traditions that surround them provide people with top-quality nutrition, physical

activity, a connection to the land and the seasons, as well as strong ties to family and

community.

The story of our relationship to the earth is written more truthfully

on the land than on the page. It lasts there. The land remembers

what we said and did. Stories are among the most potent tools for

restoring the land as well as our relationship to the land. We need to

unearth the old stories that live in a place and begin to create new

ones, for we are storymakers, not just storytellers. All stories are

connected, new ones woven from the threads of the old.

-Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

Text copyright Elise Krohn and Valerie Segrest, Creative Commons

From White Cap to White Cap

From the deep waters of the Pacific Ocean to the snow capped peaks of the Cascade

Mountains, the land and waters of the Coastal Pacific Northwest are teaming with wild

foods. Within this land thrives a great diversity of ecosystems, from open grasslands to

wetlands to dense forests. This abundance of food and diversity of landscapes is directly

linked to active management by Native People. As we look into the past to see how

native foods were harvested, processed and maintained, it becomes clear that our

ancestors had an advanced understanding of their food systems. Special techniques

including burning, weeding, aerating the soil, pruning and modifying waterways and

beaches have all been utilized to increase the bounty of foods, which is mutually

beneficial for many non-human species. Without these techniques, many important foods

may well have disappeared from the this region long ago. Examples include:

Camas Prairies – Prairies naturally formed in the Puget Sound region about 14,000 years

ago, after glaciers retreated. Many foods including edible bulbs, roots, nuts and berries

thrive in this open landscape. Burning the prairies releases nutrients into the soil and

prevents trees from taking over. Open meadows are attractive to deer, elk, and other

animals that graze on prairie plants. Through selective harvest and pruning, you can

increase the bounty of edible plants.

Mountain Huckleberry Meadows – Shrouded in snow most of the year, these highlands

are only accessible in summer and early autumn. The growing season is short, but very

productive. Mountain huckleberry, alpine lilies and many other foods, as well as basketry

plants and medicines thrive in these meadows, which have been traditionally maintained

through burning, specialized harvesting techniques and weeding out unwanted species.

Many Native People still maintain that it is well worth making the journey to harvest

huckleberries and other mountain foods and medicines in late summer.

Lowland Forests – Like a broad green belt

between the rocky summits and watery seas,

ancient forests carpet the majority of the land.

Beneath the shady canopy of giant cedar,

hemlock, spruce, and fir trees are many types

of foods and medicines including salal,

lowland huckleberries and nettles. The forest

is home to a variety of wild game. Forest

edges and sunny openings are especially

productive food areas that can be maintained

for diversity and abundance.

Wetlands – Wetlands include the margins of lakes and ponds, shallow freshwater

marshes and peat bogs. Food plants specially adapted to these wet conditions include

cattail, wapato and bog cranberry. Many basketry plants including cattail, tule, sedges

and willows are harvested from wetlands. Birds including ducks and geese rely on these

areas for feeding and nesting grounds.

Saltwater Beaches – Tribal elders say that when the tide is out, the table is set. Beaches

provided a rich abundance and wide variety of foods. Clams thrive in sandy and gravelly

beaches, while seaweed and other shellfish flourish on rocky shores. Tidepools are hiding

places for octopus and crabs. Because of the mild climate, food can be harvested from

saltwater beaches all year round. Through modifying beaches and creating “clam

gardens” you can increase the number of clams and other ocean species.

Text copyright Abe Lloyd and Elise Krohn, Creative Commons

Feeding 7 Generations

Food is a gift. Salish Elders remind us that true wealth is having access to native foods

along with the knowledge of how to gather, prepare and serve them. Our values and food

traditions are a living legacy that links us to past, present and future generations. Several

times a day, we encounter opportunities to reflect on what we eat and how our choices

change our world. When we harvest native foods and incorporate them in to our modern

lifestyle, we strengthen our cultural identity, our relationship to the land and tribal

sovereignty. It will take all of us to feed the next seven generations.

Live with the Seasons. From spring camas prairies to summer huckleberry meadows to

autumn fish runs, seasonal foods connect us with the rhythm of the land. For thousands of

years we have organized our lives to gather what is in season. In return, we receive peak

nutrients that keep us healthy all year long.

Diversify Your Diet. Our ancestors ate a wide variety of foods just a few generations

ago. Today, most Americans eat only 12-20 foods on a regular basis, limiting their

consumption of minerals, vitamins and other nutrients. When we eat many types of

foods, we receive the nourishment we need to stay strong. We also promote the diversity

and health of the land.

Eat More Plants. All health advocates agree that we need to eat more plants. Plant foods

help us maintain a healthy weight and prevent chronic diseases including heart disease,

diabetes and cancer. Eating more plants also reduces climate change and environmental

destruction.

Traditional Foods are Whole Foods. Imagine walking through the grocery store with

your great grandparents. What would they recognize as food? Our ancestors thrived on

whole foods that weren’t industrialized, genetically modified, refined, packed with sugar

or blended with additives, dyes or chemicals. Whole foods feed the wholeness within us.

Gather Wild Foods. There is a store outside your door. Wild foods are the most

nutritious and flavorful foods we can find. Free and accessible, they thrive all around us

from forests to fields to back yards. Tasting wild foods connects us to the gifts of the land

and attunes us to the seasons.

Cook and Eat with Good Intention. Cooking is a time to offer respect to the plants and

animals that gave their lives to nourish us. It is also an opportunity to honor our culture

and the people with whom we share food. If we eat while on the go, we miss the pleasure

of eating, and do not have sufficient time to savor and digest. Harvesting, preparing,

serving and consuming food with good intention feeds our bodies and spirits.

Give Back to the Land. When we harvest and grow food in a way that

supports plant and animal communities, we express native values of

generosity. Generosity includes both giving and receiving. Organic and

sustainable practices return basic life materials to the soil. Through

caring for the land, we continue the ancient practices of our ancestors

and pass down a world that supports generations to come.

Text copyright Elise Krohn and Valerie Segrest, Creative Commons

The Impacts of Colonization on Native Foods Access

Native food has always been an integral part of Coast Salish culture, yet peoples’ ability

to access food traditions has rapidly declined in the last few generations. Starting in the

mid to late 19th century, most Native communities were moved from their homeland onto

small reservations by Territorial and Federal governments trying to make room for

American farmers and industrialists. These governments then outlawed many traditional

management practices and forced Native People to farm in the European style where land

is cleared, plowed, and planted with cereal grains. Children were sent to boarding schools

in an attempt to assimilate them into the American society and strip them of their culture.

They were given English names and were prohibited from speaking their language.

Practicing many cultural traditions, including food traditions, became illegal.

The health of Coast Salish people has also

suffered from the loss of ancestral food traditions, which

were replaced with commodity foods that are high in

carbohydrates, sugar, dairy and poor quality fats. This is

vastly different from a traditional diet with food rich in

vitamins, minerals, good quality fats and antioxidants. As

people became more sedentary and adopted new

European-style foods, diabetes began to appear. Diabetes was virtually non-existent

among Northwest Coastal Indian people about 125 years ago, and now it is at epidemic

levels. Studies also link trauma from colonization directly to diabetes and other diseases.

Despite treaties that guaranteed harvesting rights, access to native foods has

steadily declined in the last 150 years as private property, corporate interests, and

preservationist priorities have grown to dominate the public discourse regarding land

management at the local, state and federal levels. The ancestral economy of Coast Salish

people has been exploited and the health of the land reflects the health of the people.

Environmental toxins in wild foods deter people from hunting, fishing and gathering in

some areas. Elders from many communities grieve that they can no longer harvest and

prepare the foods they grew up eating. New generations have had little exposure to

traditional foods and their teachings, making it hard for them to incorporate these foods

into their modern lifestyles. The implications of this are vast. As the availability of these

foods decreases, the stories, songs and language connected to them also fall silent.

In the face of these great obstacles, it is incredible that Northwest Coastal People

have continued to hold on to their food traditions... and yet they have. The current

resurgence of cultural traditions is nothing short of a renaissance: Elders are gathering to

remember and to teach; families and communities are picking up the digging stick and

basket and restoring harvest areas; gardens are

being planted; land partnerships and food policy

initiatives are shaping programs; and partnerships

with local, state and federal governmental bodies

are emerging to address these issues. Native foods

are being embraced as a powerful organizing tool

to fight modern chronic diseases. They are

reconnecting people to the seasons, the land, and

their community.

Text copyright Elise Krohn and Valerie Segrest, Creative Commons

Traditional Food Harvesting, Cooking & Preservation

Native American Harvesters

In most cases the right for Native Americans to harvest food and ceremonial items is

protected by either Federal treaty or the Constitution which both exceed regulations

imposed by the multitude of land managers below. For more information, Native

American harvesters can check with the Natural Resources office of the Tribe that they

are registered. In Western Washington the treaties guaranteed Native Americans an

"exclusive right" to all resources within the boundaries of the reservations and an "in

common" right to off-reservation fishing, hunting and gathering of roots and berries, at

all “usual and accustomed grounds and stations.” The Boldt decision further clarified the

Native American right to harvest shellfish and finfish stating that Native Americans have

rights to 50 percent of the harvestable surplus (http://nwifc.org/about-us/shellfish/treatyrights-faq/). Non-native harvesters would do well to recognize that Native Americans

were the original stewards of many of the natural resources enjoyed by everyone today.

Harvest Ethics

Those harvesting wild plants and animals have an ethical responsibility to ensure that

they do not exceed the capacity of a particular ecosystem to both replenish itself, and

provide for other organisms. Please respect the organisms that you harvest and the land

that supports them by not overharvesting and leaving as little trace as possible.

Below are some general guidelines for harvesting different types of plant and

fungal resources. (Plants guidelines from Nature’s Garden by Samuel Thayer)

• Annual weeds: are plants that produce seed and then die within one growing

season. These plants reproduce prolifically and are usually only restricted in

abundance by the available habitat. They can generally be harvested with little

restraint.

• Biennials: are typically tap rooted plants that produce seeds the second year and

then die. Harvesting the roots destroys the plant but they usually produce an

abundance of seed and the soil disturbance that results from harvesting the plants

is an ideal germination environment for future plants. Harvest no more than half

of the plants in a particular colony.

• Perennial greens: are plants that die back to a root that persists year to year (like

stinging nettles). Harvesting the leaves does not significantly damage the plant

unless they are picked repeatedly over the course of a season. Take less than a

third of the available foliage.

• Perennial shoots: are stems that die back to a root that persists year to year (like

cattail). They are more sensitive than greens because the entire above ground

portion of the plant is often removed. Take less than a third of a particular colony

in a given year.

• Fruits, Seeds, Nuts, and Berries: are gifts from the plant to us. While they are

important to the reproduction of a particular plant, taking them does not harm the

plant in any way. Overharvesting of berries is almost impossible, but think of

needs of wildlife and other harvesters, and be a good steward by planting a few

seeds after you are done picking.

Multiple Underground Storage Organs: are things like tubers and some rhizomes

from plants that grow in communities (cattails). They can be harvested in

moderation from healthy patches, but leave at least half to continue growing. The

remaining plants will often benefit from soil that was loosened during your

harvest.

• Single Underground Storage Organs: are things like tubers, bulbs, and taproots.

They are the most prone to overharvesting as the removal of the bulb results in the

loss of the entire organism. Space your harvesting out so that you don’t remove an

entire clump. Only remove a small percentage of the entire population and replant

the smallest and the largest of the roots that you dig up. The largest roots usually

produce the most seeds and will help replenish the population.

For information on rare plants and animals that should not be harvested, see the

Washington Natural Heritage Program website.

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Safety

The things we put in our mouths have the capacity to damage us and wild foods are no

exception. Poisoning from misidentification, improper harvest season, inadequate

preparation, or contamination, as well as allergies, all threaten wild food harvesters.

Fortunately, these hazards are easily avoided with knowledge, experience, and a few

simple guidelines.

1. Do not rely solely on a wild food book for identifying plants. These books are

best used in combination with expert help and field guides that are specifically

designed for identification.

2. Never eat something the first time you identify it.

3. Never eat something unless you have total confidence

in your identification.

4. Be sure you understand the proper season for

collecting edible parts and process them according to

instructions from a reputable source.

5. Just try a little bit the first time. Never serve new

foods to other people if you don’t have experience

eating them yourself.

6. Let others know when you serve them wild foods in

case they have never tried a particular food before.

Advise them to start by only trying a little bit.

7. Avoid harvesting plants near busy roadways or areas

were contamination is suspected.

Aleta Poste harvesting nettles

Text copyright Abe Lloyd, Creative Commons

Digging gear:

Only a few light tools are needed for harvesting and managing the hidden food treasures

buried beneath the earth. With nothing more than a stout digging stick, a harvesting

basket, and a strong back, a feast of clams or roots can reward the knowledgeable and

persistent. Throughout the Pacific Northwest, two different styles of digging sticks are

traditionally used by those tending root and clam gardens. “T” handled diggers are most

commonly used for unearthing roots in hard ground. Securely fastened to a sharpened

vertical piece is a horizontal handle, which provides a comfortable surface to exert the

necessary force to break through dry or rocky soils. These digging sticks are usually

round and unshaped in cross section and fairly straight to slightly “J” shaped from tip to

handle. Softer soil sites and clam gardens are traditionally cultivated with a digging stick

made out of a single piece of wood that is often more substantially carved with broadly

sharpened head, narrow shaft, and rounded or squared handle.

Digging sticks are made from the hardest and toughest material available.

Historically Indigenous People west of the Cascades preferred yew or oceanspray wood,

while those living east of the Cascades preferred serviceberry, hawthorn, mock orange,

and oak. The tips of all wooden digging sticks are carefully sharpened, fire hardened, and

rubbed with tallow to form resilient, waterproof points. Digging sticks are usually three

to four feet long, or roughly the length of the root gardener’s leg. Top handles are made

either of the same wood, or occasionally of antler. Today, steel digging sticks are often

forged.

Traditional gardeners use digging sticks in

a similar manner to short-handled shovels

or potato forks. The tip of the digging stick

is driven into the ground near the target

root or clam and the handle pushed

downward, prying the food from the

ground. Hard, uncultivated ground must

usually be dug from several different

angles. Digging sticks are the perfect tool

for their designed task and allow

traditional gardeners to remove

undamaged roots and clams from even the

driest and rockiest soils.

After a quick dusting to remove the largest clumps of sediment, the gardener

places the root or clam in an open-work basket. This basket is never far from the digger

and more roots or clams are harvested until the basket is full. The open weave of the

basket allows dirt and sand to fall freely, and in some instances, the basket is submerged

partially in water and shaken, like a colander, to rinse off any remaining dirt. Thus

cleaned, the roots or clams are ready to be cooked or dried.

Berry Picking Gear

The Pacific Northwest bursts with a bounty of berries. From the spring’s first

salmonberry to the winter’s last cranberry, our region boasts a delicious diversity in the

dozens. Nearly every ecosystem from coastal fringe to mountain meadow has berries to

offer, and the ready picker must not only know when and where to find each fruit, but

have the proper gear to pluck, stow and clean their crop.

A handful of our fruit and nut bearing plants are either too tall or too short to

comfortably get our hands on. Shrubs such as chokecherry, crabapple, elderberry,

hazelnut, and serviceberry all have long flexible limbs that suspend the majority of their

fruit just beyond the reach of the unaided arm. To this evolutionary problem, the berry

hook is an ergonomic solution. Functionally no more than a long stick with a branchcatching barb on one end, the berry hook nullifies the need to climb anything (thus

sparing our own limbs from damage) by bending the fruit to the level of the picker. For

those seeking a leg-up on the competition, tying a foot loop on the bottom end of the

berry hook will free both hands for picking.

Berry hooks are often made on the spot from materials at hand. The long straight

shoots of oceanspray, hazelnut, and serviceberry are just a few of the preferred woods.

The hooked end is usually part of an attached low-angle crotch.

Bog cranberries and Cascade blueberries present

the opposite problem. They are so low that a stiff back

from constant stooping is the primary hazard. Once

removed, berries are placed in a small berry picking

basket that is tied around the waist. This basket has a

wide enough weave for unripe berries, insects, and small

debris to fall through, but narrow enough to retain the

desirable fruit. Traditional berry baskets hold about 1-3

gallons. When the front basket is full, it is emptied into a

large burden basket that is placed in a central location, or worn on the back with a

tumpline. Some tribes also employ a third, intermediate sized basket. Today, many

people pick berries into ½-1 gallon ice cream containers, which are nearly as fun to

empty as they are to fill. Whatever container is used, picking speed increases

dramatically when the container is tied to your waste as both hands are then free to pluck

fruit.

Back home, the berries must be cleaned to remove leaves, undesirable berries, and

other debris. The age-old technique of rolling berries down a wet board still works as

well today as it has for countless generations. The flat leaves and squishy over-ripe

berries stick to the board while the ripe berries roll to the bottom. Be sure and use a wide

board with a gentle slope and leave plenty of room at the bottom of the ramp to catch

your berries. A variation of the same technique makes use of a dry towel on the board,

which is nice if you are going to freeze your berries because they stay dry. Berries can

also be cleaned in a more dynamic process by placing them on a damp bed sheet with the

four corners spread tight. The fruit is then tossed in the air and finally rolled off into a

container while the debris sticks to the sheet. Whichever method is used, some degree of

hand sorting is usually needed to remove under-ripe fruit before the berries are ready to

be cooked, dried, or eaten.

Fishing Gear

Any fisher will tell you that having the proper gear is vital to a successful catch. Scores of

species swim through our coastal, intertidal, and river waters, and many require a unique

selection of tackle, making fishing one of the most sophisticated categories of tools and

technologies among Indigenous societies in the Pacific Northwest. Broadly, most fishing

gear can be broken down into three basic methods: trapping (with weirs, nets, or traps),

stabbing (with gaffs, spears, or rakes), and hooking (with lines and hooks), but each of

these techniques (and the associated tools) are specifically tailored to a particular species

at a particular life-history stage. For example, a fisher may troll a hook for salmon in salt

water, but pursue the same species a few months later with a gaff in a stream. Some tools,

however, have more general utility across fish species, such as canoes, fish clubs, and

fish cutting knives.

Fish weirs are traditionally among the most efficient means of capturing food

because they are designed to temporarily obstruct not just one, but entire schools of fish.

Simple designs include crescent shaped stone walls placed along the beach that take

advantage of tidal action to trap fish within the enclosure at low tide, and wooden latticework fences placed across streams and small rivers. Both designs build upon areas where

fish are naturally forced to congregate, and further inhibit the mobility of the fish. The

most desirable fish from those aggregated by the weir were then netted, gaffed, or forced

into traps, while excess and undesirable fish were allowed to escape through an opening

in the weir. The following illustration depicts a river-based salmon weir. Other

specialized weir designs were also employed to catch eulachon and smelt in rivers, and

salmon, ground fish, and herring in estuaries and along coastal beaches. The power of

flowing water imposes a practical limit to the height of a weir, and most are used in water

no more than about six feet deep.

Early colonial settlers quickly adopted Indigenous weir techniques, but failed to allow an

adequate number of fish to escape, leading to the eventual prohibition of weir-based

fisheries.

Aggregations of fish in deep water are traditionally caught using other techniques

such as reef netting. These nets were originally made of willow fiber and positioned

along the salmon migration path in reefs that naturally concentrated the salmon. Two

canoes held the mouth of the net open, and the bottom was anchored to the reef. Since

salmon travel in schools that are destined for the same spawning grounds, an opening in

the center of the trap allowed some of each school to escape to sustain each run.

Shoals of smaller fish, such as herring, could be “raked” with a specialized tool

called a herring rake. This was made from a split cedar plank that was about 6 feet long

with a long round handle and a narrow head that contained a row of sharp bone spikes.

The rake was sliced through the water to impale herring, which were then removed from

the spikes and used for bait or eaten.

Additional hand tools such as spears and gaffs were used to catch salmon and

other river fish in shallow streams. Gaffs were made from a long pole with a detachable

hooked head that was attached to a line. Many types of spears were used to catch fish in

estuaries and rivers including those similar in construction to the seal spear, and others

with two barbed prongs.

Hook and line fishing was as common in the past as it is today. Halibut were

taken with bentwood hooks made from yew or hemlock and baited with octopus, and

small bone hooks were used for catching salmon. Fishing line was usually made from the

stipes of bull kelp or fiber from willow or stinging nettle.

Fish cutting knives were originally made from sharpened mussel shells or thin

sheets of slate that were hafted on one side and ground sharp on the side opposite the

handle.

Hunting Gear

Modifications on many of the same technologies used to catch fish were adapted to

hunting other animals from the sea, land and sky. Traditional hunting gear including bow

and arrows, nets, traps, harpoons, and spears were all used to capture quarry ranging from

deep diving seals to high climbing mountain goats and fast flying ducks.

Bows and Arrows

Prior to guns, bows and arrows were the quintessential hunting tools of humans nearly

everywhere. On the coast, bows were usually made from yew or vine maple, although

ocean spray and yellow cedar were sometimes used as well. Yew and bighorn sheep horn

were commonly used in the interior. Most bows were short with recurved tips and sinew

backing. Bowstrings were made of sea lion gut, sinew, or plant fiber. The material

selection and construction of a bow was a meticulous process requiring several weeks of

dedicated work. Yew wood, though revered by bowyers around the world for its unique

combination of dense hardwood and elastic sapwood, is often twisted and knotty. Much

care was thus taken to select a stave from a straight trunk or branch. This piece was split

in half to make a stave, which ranged in length from the distance between the archer’s

elbows when his fists were put together, to the span between his hands when his arms

were stretched outwards. The heartwood was carved away until the stave was roughly 3

inches wide and a half-inch thick. Each limb was wrapped in seaweed and buried in sand

near a hot fire until it was softened by the steam and could be bent into shape. The

sapwood faced away from the archer and was usually covered with many layers of deer

sinew that was dried, pounded, and fastened with glue made from fish skins or sturgeon

spinal cord. The best bowstrings came from sea lion gut, but it was not uncommon to use

the gut, sinew, or leather from other animals as well as nettle, willow, and dogbane

cordage.

Arrows were specially designed for each type of animal. On the coast the shafts

were usually made from the long shoots of oceanspray or split from western red cedar

wood. Fletching was made from eagle or cormorant feathers. Detachable foreshafts were

commonly used and arrowheads were made from bone, wood, or stone. In the interior,

arrow shafts were usually serviceberry with hawk or grouse fletching and arrowheads of

stone, wood, or bone.

Nets and Traps

Fish weren’t the only creatures captured by net. The Salish also used nets to snare ducks

and even deer. Duck nets had a mesh coarse enough for small species such as teal to pass

through, but fine enough to retain larger ducks, geese, and swans. Willow or nettle fiber

nets were suspended between poles or trees at the mouth of narrow flyways in the

evening when it was difficult for the birds to see. After several birds got stuck in the net,

it was dropped to the ground so that the birds could be killed.

Nets were also used to force seals close to shore and keep them from diving, so

they could be harpooned or clubbed. Deer were similarly corralled into narrow canyons

and driven into stout willow fiber nets where they were easily speared or shot with a bow

and arrow. More commonly, deer were killed with pit fall traps or deadfall traps. Dead

fall traps were positioned across a deer trail in such a manner that when the deer stopped

to go under a large log, the deer pushed a trigger that caused the log to fall and break the

deer’s neck.

Harpoons and Spears

Seals and other sea mammals were hunted with a large harpoon about 15 feet long. The

main shaft was made of Douglas fir, and the foreshaft made of a hardwood, such as yew

or oceanspray. The head was a composite of three pieces, the center point usually made

of bone or hardwood and two barbs of elk horn. The pieces were lashed together with

cherry bark and sealed with pitch. A line was tied to the head and once speared, the

foreshaft would separate from the main shaft and twist the head sideways into the wound.

Ducks and geese were hunted with a pronged spear that was designed to catch in

the feathers and not damage the meat. It was difficult to get close enough to the

waterfowl to spear them, without a stealth and cunning technique. On a moonless night, a

pair of hunters would canoe through a marsh—the person in the bow with a spear and the

person in the stern with a pitch wood torch. Perceiving the flame to be farther off than it

actually was, and blinded of the presence of the hunters by the torchlight, the waterfowl

allowed the hunters to get within spearing distance.

Once available, guns quickly replaced the bow and arrow, harpoon, and spear.

They also changed animal behavior. For example, ducks were said to be much more

skittish after the introduction of firearms. During the early period of transition, some

Native American hunters loaded pieces of stone arrowheads with each bullet, believing

that the stone more effectively killed the animal than the bullet.

Text copyright Abe Lloyd, Creative Commons

Cooking

Northwest Coastal Ancestors used a variety of cooking techniques such as roasting or

steaming in earthen pit ovens, spit roasting next to a fire, baking in or on hot coals, and

boiling in tightly woven baskets or bentwood boxes with hot rocks. Deer, seal, and

numerous root vegetables were sometimes cooked whole in underground roasting pits.

For this, a large pit was dug and filled with volcanic rocks. Then a hot fire was kindled

inside the pit and burned until the rocks were glowing hot. The coals were scraped out

and the pit was lined with vegetation such as salal, sword fern, and skunk cabbage before

the food was placed in the pit. The oven was then sealed with mats and soil and left to

cook for several hours to as long as 3 days. A fire was usually lit on top of the pit for

foods that required more than 1 day to cook. This technique varied considerably by food

type. For example, clams could be placed directly on the hot rocks and only required

seaweed—not earth—to be placed over the top; many root vegetables were steamed

inside of earth ovens by adding water to the hot rocks. Typically, only large quantities of

food were pit roasted, such as a year’s supply of camas or clams, or enough meat for a

feast.

Smaller portions of food such as fish, de-shelled

clams, venison, and waterfowl were traditionally roasted

on spits. Large fish were “butterflied” or split down the

back and folded open along the belly. The fish was held

open with small pieces of split cedar and mounted on an

upright spit near the fire, where they were periodically

turned. Upright spits of various sizes were used to roast

many whole animals ranging in size from clams to

marmots, as well as pieces of larger animals. Spit roasting

or barbecuing is still a popular means of preparing these

foods. Some foods were roasted directly on the hot coals,

such as clams that were still in the shell, and the rhizomes

of cattails and bracken fern. Small portions of other foods

could be wrapped in skunk cabbage leaves and buried in

the coals of a fire.

Family sized portions of food were also regularly

boiled in watertight baskets. Special cooking stones,

usually about the size of ping pong balls, were heated in a

fire and dropped into the baskets using fire tongs. Crabs,

fish, meat, and berries were all cooked in this manner, or

water was simply heated for medicinal tea or used to

soften dried foods such as hard smoked salmon and dried

camas.

Text copyright Abe Lloyd, Creative Commons

Preserving

Having food throughout the winter and a balanced diet throughout the year has always

been a necessary part of life that is made possible in our region by preserving food. Not

surprisingly, many of the same techniques used today were also used traditionally,

including storing fresh food live, cold, wet, or frozen, and processing food by drying,

smoking, or fermenting. Live storage was perhaps the simplest and most intuitive means

of ensuring future meals. Some roots, such as springbank clover, were harvested in the

fall, while dormant, and kept alive in damp soil near the house where they could easily be

dug up during the winter. Those that wouldn’t actually stay alive could be kept fresh in

cool places. For example, blue elderberries were bundled with pine needles and cached in

the snow where they could be retrieved later in the winter. Similarly, crabapples were

stored in baskets in cool dry places or, more rarely, submerged in water. Water storage

was more common for cooked red elderberries and acorns, which were packaged and

buried near streams or swamps for a month or more. Bitter constituents could be leached

out of these foods when stored in this manner, so this was also a form of passive

processing.

Many foods required more complex

processing such as dehydrating, smoking, and

fermenting. Wind drying salmon and sun drying roots

and berries were common in the upper river valleys

and dry interior where wind and sun are more

predictable. On the coast, where air humidity is

higher, heat and smoke were often necessary elements

to hasten the process and ward off bugs. For example,

salal berries were dried on skunk cabbage leaves near

a hot fire, and salmon and elk meat were usually

smoked in a special smoke house or hung in a smoky

part of the main house.

Most interesting were traditional methods of fermenting foods such as salmon: the

fresh roe of Spring Salmon was buried in a deep hole that was lined with several layers of

perforated bigleaf maple leaves, which allowed the oil to drain away as the eggs cured.

The eggs were then covered with more leaves and soil, and then left to ferment. Whole

salmon were sometimes buried for up to 10 days before they were boiled and eaten, and

in some areas, sockeye were fermented and rendered for oil in the same manner as

eulachon grease.

Text copyright Abe Lloyd, Creative Commons

References:

Burgeson, T., Ash, M., Hurtado, D. (1988). Indians of Washington State. Washington:

The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction

Castile, G. (1985). The Indians of Puget Sound, the Notebooks of Myron Eels. University

of

Washington Press.

Elmendorf W. and Kroeber, A. (1992). The Structure of Twana Culture. WSU Press.

Gill, S. (1983). Ethnobotany of the Makah and Ozette People, Olympic Peninsula,

Washington. Ph.D dissertation, Washington Statue University

Gunther, E. (1973). Ethnobotany of Western Washington. University of Washington

Press.

Gunther, E. (1927). Klallam Ethnography. University of Washington Publications in

Anthropology Volme 1, Number 5.

Keohane, S. (2005). The Reservation Boarding School System in the United States:

1870-1928. Retrieved December 30,2006 from http://www.twofrog.com/rezsch.html.

Kimmerer, R. W. (201). Braiding Sweetgrass. Mildweed Editions.

Krohn, E. (2007). Wild Rose and Western Red Cedar.

Krohn, E. and Segrest, V. (2010). Feeding the People, Feeding the Spirit. Northwest

Indian College.

The Quinault Indians. University of Washington Publications in Anthropology Volume

VI,

Number 1.

Ryser, R. (2004). Salish Country Cookbook. Day Keeper Press - Center for World

Indigenous

Studies.

Schmid, R. (1987). Native Nutrition. Healing Arts Press.

Stewart, H. (2008). Indian Fishing. D and M Publishers.

Thayer, S. (2010). Natures Garden. Forager’s Harvest.

Turner, N. (2005). The Earth’s Blanket. University of Washington Press.

Turner, N. (1995). Food Plants of Coastal Northwest Peoples. UBC Press

Photo Credits:

All photos from Elise Krohn except Huckleberry/mountain by Abe Lloyd, carbohydrates

photo from istock, historic photo of camas harvester:

http://curtis.library.northwestern.edu/curtis/viewPage.cgi?showp=1&size=2&id=nai.07.b

ook.00000024.p&volume=7

Page 6, Grace Anne Byrd harvesting nettles at Nisqually

Art Credit:

Cover page art, table of contents salal and Introduction huckleberry hands, Joe Seymour.

Feeding 7 Generations leaf circle, Roger Fernandes

Western Red Cedar

Cedar has made possible the rich culture and historic wealth

of Salish People by providing for them from birth to death. It

has been called Grandmother, Long Life Maker and Rich

Woman Maker. Majestic longhouses, swift and rot-resistant

canoes, durable clothing, watertight baskets, cordage, tools,

art, medicine and many other things have been, and continue

to be, fashioned from cedar.

Other names: Thuja plicata. Whulshootseed: Xepayac

Identifying Cedar: Cedar is a distinctive tall evergreen tree with a wide buttressing base,

and a fibrous, fluted trunk with gray to cinnamon-red bark. Greenish-yellow leaves are

flat with opposite scales. Branches are often J-shaped with upward pointed tips. Simple

round flowers bloom in late summer and give the tree a yellowish appearance. They can

rain a cloud of pollen in the spring that makes the air appear hazy, covering everything in

fine golden dust. Cedar seed cones have 8-12 scales, are about ½ inch long, and are

shaped like rosebuds. They are ingeniously engineered to funnel pollen grains into the

small spaces between the scales, like wind turbines. The largest cedar trees are up to 19

feet in diameter and 200 feet tall, which is three fifths as long as a football field! Some of

the oldest trees are thought to be as much as 1,000 years old.

Where it Grows: Cedar thrives in moist soils in lowlands, flats and mountain slopes. It

prefers wet, misty forest, and is very common on the west side of the Cascade Mountains

from Northern California up into S.E. Alaska, as well as the foothills on the west side of

the Rockies in Montana and Idaho.

Season: Cedar bark is stripped in the late spring and early summer when the sap is

running. Wood can be harvested any time of year. Leaves are harvested any time as well,

but they are most aromatic in summer.

Harvesting and Processing Cedar: All parts of cedar are highly valued, including the

wood, bark, roots, branches and leaves. Harvesting cedar bark takes a lot of expertise.

You must understand when, where, and which trees to harvest from, along with how to

cut and pull the bark, separate the inner bark from the outer bark, and dry it. It helps to

have an elder or culture keeper take you out and show you several times! Bark is peeled

from trees with straight trunks by making a single cut and pulling upward on the trunk.

Strips can be as long as 30 feet, and are carefully separated into layers.

To harvest cedar leaves, carefully prune small fan-like branches here and there on

the tree so you do not leave a visible impact. Leaves can be used fresh, or they can be

dried by bundling several small branches with a rubber band and then hanging them, or

placing them on baskets in a dry place with good ventilation. Keep them whole to retain

the volatile oils, and then crush them just before you use them. Store in a paper bag or

glass jar.

Traditional Technologies: Cedar bark is prized for its

durability, flexibility and water resistance. Soft fibers have

been used for clothing, mats, napkins and towels. Weavers

create beautiful, ornate cedar baskets and hats from narrow

strands of cedar bark. Long straight cedar roots are split and

used in basket making. Branches have also been made into

rope, fish traps, binding material and baskets.

Harvesting Cedar bark is a tradition that remains

vibrant today. State and Federal Partnerships have made it

possible for Native People to continue harvesting cedar bark

even when trees are not found on their reservations. Along with

traditional harvest methods, protocols for gathering during the

correct season, and conventions of honoring the tree, are still practiced. When walking in

the woods, you might notice missing strips of bark that can be new or very old. If done

correctly, the tree continues to thrive. Older cedar trees are rare and should be protected

resources for Native People since they are so significant to the culture.

Cedar wood is highly rot resistant and beautiful. Native carvers use it to make

beautiful masts and welcome figures. Cedar is universally acclaimed for exterior

applications such as, siding, fencing, and decks. The beautiful and aromatic wood is also

prized for interior paneling and trim. If you travel through the Olympic rainforest from

Aberdeen north to the Makah Reservation, you will see many old cedar shake (shingle)

mills. Very few are still running, since most of the old forests have been logged.

Cedar Leaf Medicine: Cedar is a powerful antimicrobial.

Reflect on where it lives: cool wet forests where fungi and

molds thrive. When you scratch cedar leaves or cut the

wood, strong essential oils are released. These oils are

cedar’s medicine to repel insects, molds, fungi, bacteria and

viruses. Our ancestors discovered this long ago and used

cedar’s medicine in and on themselves to ward off external

forces.

Cedar leaves have long been a popular internal and

external medicine for painful joints among Coastal Native

Peoples. They have also been infused for cough medicine,

tuberculosis and fevers. The leaves make wonderful

incense and are used in smudging for purification.

Cedar leaf is a useful anti-fungal for skin and nail fungus. The tincture, infused oil

or salve can be used topically and should be applied 2-3 times a day until a week after the

fungus disappears. Fungal infections are pernicious and need to be treated aggressively.

You can also soak your feet in cedar tea by steeping a cup of dried cedar leaves in about

10 cups of hot water. Let the tea steep until it is warm, and then place it in a bowl or

basin large enough for your feet. Soak your feet for 10-15 minutes – a nice activity when

you are reading or watching television.

Cedar promotes immune function through helping white blood cells to work

better. By stimulating our immune cells to fight infection, clean up debris and denature

cancer cells, we are keeping our tissues healthy. Doing several cedar steams a day can

help to clear respiratory infections. You can also drink cedar tea by steeping a tablespoon

of fresh or dried chopped cedar leaf per cup of water. Many herbalists prefer to steep

cedar in cold water and let it sit for several hours or overnight. You only need to drink ¼

to ½ cup twice a day to get a medicinal effect.

Caution: Cedar contains strong volatile oils including thujone, a ketone that is

known to be toxic in large quantities. Cedar should be used internally with care – the

dosage is usually low and it is not used for long periods of time. It should not be used

during pregnancy, breastfeeding or with kidney weakness.

Additional Resources:

The Teachings of the Tree People: The Work of Bruce Miller.

Teachings of the Tree People Curriculum: Curriculum for Engaged Learning through

Film

https://www.newday.com/sites/default/files/resources/TeachingsCurriculum.pdf

Cedar by Hillary Stewart

People of Cascadia by Heidi Bohan

Northwest Native American Basket Weavers Association: http://www.nnaba.net

References:

Arno, S, and Hammerly, R. (2007) Northwest Trees. Mountaineers Books.

Krohn, E. (2006). Wild Rose and Western Red Cedar. Chatwin Books.

Miller, B. (1998) Sayuyay a ti tuwaduc, Herbal Medicine of the Twana.

Moore, M. (1993). Medicinal Plants of the Pacific West. Museum of New Mexico Press.

Pojar, J. and Mackinnon, A. (1994). Plants of the Pacific NW Coast. Lone Pine.

Preston, Richard J. (1980) North American Trees. Iowa State University Press.

Stewart, H. (1995) Cedar: Tree of Life to the Northwest Coastal Indians. University of

Washington Press

Text copyright Elise Krohn, Creative Commons

Grandmother Cedar Tree

A Samish Story as told by Roger Fernandes, Lower Elwha S’Klallam Storyteller.

A long time ago there was a Grandma Cedar Tree. She was very big and very old.

One day a little tree began to grow next to her. It was her grandson. He was growing

right next to her and she was very happy.

The little tree grew and grew.

One day a big windstorm came and the wind blew very hard. The wind was blowing on

the little tree and he could not stand up to it. It was going to snap him and he would die.

But Grandma Cedar Tree placed her arms, her branches, between him and the wind. She

blocked the wind and protected her little grandson.

And he grew some more.

One summer day, the sun was very hot. It beat down upon the little tree and it was so hot

it hurt him. He was drying out. But Grandma Cedar Tree put her branches over him and

made shade. She protected him from the hot sun.

He grew some more.

One night deer came to the little tree. The deer liked to eat the fresh green branches of a

growing little tree. But Grandma waved her arms at them and chased them away! She

protected him from the deer.

He grew even more.

Sometimes the little tree was sad because there were no other little trees around to visit

with. He was sometimes very lonely. Grandma used her spirit power to call the birds to

the little tree. The birds flew around him and sat in his branches and sang and talked

with him. So he did not feel so lonely.

So he grew and he grew. And now he was bigger that his grandma. He was a big cedar

tree and he was taller than her.

Grandma was getting very old. She was very old now.

One day a windstorm came and began to push old Grandma Cedar Tree with its great

wind power. She was too old to fight back and the wind was so strong it was going to

break her and she would die. But Grandson Cedar Tree put his arm branches between

her and the wind. He protected her from the strong wind.

One day during the summer, the hot sun beat down upon old Grandma. She was

miserable in the heat and was too old to stand it any more. Her grandson put his arms

over her and made shade, protecting her from the hot sun.

One night the deer came. They wanted to nibble the green branches of the old tree. But

her grandson waved his arms at them and chased them away. He protected her from the

deer.

Grandma was very old and all her old friends were gone. They had died many years

before and she felt alone. Grandson used his power to call the birds to Grandma. They

flew to her and landed in her branches and sang and talked to her. She did not feel so

lonely.

She said, “Grandson, don’t worry about me. I am old now. Take care of yourself. Do not

worry about me any more.”

But he said, “Grandma, when I was little you protected me. When the strong wind blew

upon me, you blocked the wind with your arms. When it was so hot in the summertime,

you made shade with your arms and protected me. When the deer came at night to eat my

branches, you chased them away with your arms. And when I was lonely, you called the

birds to me so I would not be alone. Grandma, you did all these things for me, and now I

will do them for you.”

And so Grandson Cedar Tree took care of his beloved Grandmother Cedar Tree.

And that is all.

Text copyright Roger Fernandes, Creative Commons

The Girl Who Was I-I-Esh

A Yakima Story as told by Roger Fernandes

A long time ago...

On the other side of the mountains there lived a little

girl.

Now this little girl didn’t always listen or pay attention when the grown-ups were talking

to her so she would always mess something up or lose something or break something.

And the grown-ups would say to her, “Ooooh, you are so i-i-esh! You don’t listen!”

And that little girl thought, “Maybe I am i-i-esh. Maybe I can’t learn anything.”

When she would play with the other children in the village, she didn’t always listen or

pay attention to what they were saying so she would make her team lose or mess up the

game. And the other children would say, “You are so i-i-esh! You don’t know anything!”

So after a while that little girl believed she was i-i-esh. She believed she couldn’t learn

anything. And because of this she would sit by herself watching the other children play.

She wished she could play with them, but she knew they would laugh at her and call her

i-i-esh. So she was always alone.

One day she was so sad and lonely, she left the village. She followed the trails and

walked into the woods. She followed the trails a long ways and finally she sat down by a

tree and she started to cry. She cried and cried and she woke up the tree. It was an old

grandma cedar tree. Grandma Cedar Tree said, “Little girl, what are you crying for?

You woke me up.”

“Oh, I’m i-i-esh,” said the little girl. “I can’t learn anything.”

The tree said, “Oh, little girl! I can teach you something if you want to learn.”

The little girl said, “Yes! I want to learn! What can you teach me?”

The tree said, “I want you to very carefully dig up some of my roots and take off some of

my bark. Then I want you to tear them into strips. Can you do that?”

“Yes!” said the little girl. And she dug up some roots, took off some bark and tore them

into strips. She stood there holding the strips of bark and roots in her hand. “What do I

do with them now?” she asked.

“Come sit by me and I will show you,” said Grandma Cedar Tree. So the little girl sat by

the tree and Grandma reached her branches down like hands and guided the little girl

until she made...a little basket.

Now it was a crooked little basket and it had big holes all over it and there were several

strands of bark and root hanging from it, but the little girl asked, “Did I make a good

basket?”

The tree said, “The only way you will know is to take your basket down to the river and

put it in and lift it out. If it holds water, you have made a good basket.”

The little girl cried, “Do I have to? I don’t want to go to the river! Can’t you just look....”

“Little girl, this is how you will know you have made a good basket! Take it to the river

and see if it holds water,” said Grandma Cedar Tree.

The little girl sighed loudly and went down to the river. She dipped the basket into the

water and all the water leaked out of the big holes. She carried the basket back up the hill

to Grandma Cedar Tree. “All the water poured out. What do I do now?” she asked.

Grandma Cedar Tree said, “You must take it apart and weave it again.”

“Do I have to?” cried the little girl in protest.

“Little girl, this is how you learn,” said Grandma Cedar Tree.

The little girl groaned and she took the basket apart and wove it again. This time it didn’t

look so lopsided and this time there were hardly any holes in it at all. Only a few small

ones. “Did I make a good basket this time?” the little girl asked.

Grandma said, “The only way you will know is to take it down to the river. Dip it into the

water, lift it out, and see if it holds water. Then you will know.”

The little girl cried, “Do I have to? Just look at it and tell me!”

“Little girl, this is how you learn. Take your basket to the river and see if it holds water,”

Grandma Cedar Tree explained.

“Oh, all right,” snapped the little girl. She took her basket back down the hill to the river

and dipped it in. She lifted it out and saw that it was holding water, but the water was

leaking slowly out of those little holes. She rushed back to the cedar tree, but by the time

she got there, all the water was gone. “Well, it was holding water,” she said, “but all the

water leaked out. What do I do now?”

“What you must do, is take it apart and weave it again,” Grandma Cedar Tree explained.

The little girl cried, “My fingers are sore from weaving baskets all day! Can’t you just

look at it....”

Grandma Cedar Tree said, “This is how you learn, little girl. Take it apart and weave it

again.”

The little girl shrugged her shoulders, but she took the basket apart and wove it again.

This time it didn’t look crooked at all and when she held it to the light, she didn’t see any

holes. “Did I make a good basket now?” she asked.

Grandma Cedar Tree said, “The only way you will know is if you take it down to the

river and see if it holds water.”

Then the little girl cried, “Do I have to? I am getting tired going up and down the hill all

day.”

Cedar Tree said, “This is how you learn. Take it to the river and see if it holds water.”

The Little Girl groaned, “Awwwww.” Then took the basket down to the river. She dipped

it in the river and this time, it held water. She ran back to the cedar tree, carrying the

basket of water.

“Look. Look!” she said. “It’s holding water!”

Grandma Cedar Tree said, “You did it little girl. It is a wonderful basket. It is a perfect

basket. You did a very good job.”

The little girl was so happy. She poured water around the roots of Grandma Cedar Tree

as a way of saying thank you. She was so proud of her basket, she made it herself and it

held water.

Then she noticed something. Her basket had no designs on it; there were no designs at

all. It was naked. The little girl began to cry again. Grandma Cedar Tree said, “What are

you crying for now little girl?”

The little girl said, “My basket needs designs, but I don’t know any designs. I am i-i-esh.

I do not know anything.”

Grandma Cedar Tree said, “It is very simple little girl. All you have to do is go up into

the mountains with your basket. Walk around and keep your eyes open. If you keep your

eyes open the design will give itself to you.”

The Little Girl cried, “Do I have to? I don’t want to go up in the mountains, that is too

far to go!”

Grandma Cedar Tree said, “This is how you’ll find your design little girl. Take your

basket up into the mountains.”

The little girl took her basket up into the mountains. She carried her basket, keeping her

eyes open, or so she thought. But she couldn’t see any design and she thought, “No

design will give itself to me because I am i-i-esh.” Because of this she began to cry again.

She cried so loud she woke up the Mountain. The Mountain said, “Little girl, what are

you crying so loud for? You woke me up.”

The Little Girl said, “I am looking for designs for my basket, like Cedar Tree said, but I

can’t find any because I am i-i-esh.”

The Mountain said, “Little girl, look at me. Can you see that I am a design?”

The Little Girl said, “Yes, you look like a big triangle.”

The Mountain said, “You can use that as a design for the bottom of your basket.”

So the little girl wove what we call the mountain design, a triangle with steps going up

the side. She thanked the mountain and kept walking around because she needed one

more design for the rim of the basket. She walked around but she couldn’t find another

design. “I am so i-i-esh! I will never find another design!” said the Little Girl and she

began to cry again.

She cried so loud she woke up a rattlesnake. Rattlesnake slithered from under the rocks

and said, “Little Girl, why are you crying so loud? You woke me up.”

The Little Girl said, “I need another design for my basket. Mountain gave me one, but I

can’t find another design because I am i-i-esh. I don’t know anything.”

The Rattlesnake said, “Little Girl, look at me, can you see a design on my back?”

The Little Girl said, “Yes it looks like diamonds hooked together.” The Rattlesnake said,

“Little girl you can use that for your basket.”

And so she wove what we call the Rattlesnake design, diamonds linked together, around

the rim of her basket. The Little Girl thanked the Rattlesnake and went back down the

mountain. She went by the Cedar Tree, crossed the river and walked into her village. The

people saw her coming, carrying something. They went up to her and said, “Little Girl,

what is that?”

She said, “A basket.” When they asked where she got it, she said, “I made it.”

They said, “Where did you learn how to make a basket?”

She said, “Cedar tree showed me how to make it out of bark and roots. It holds water

too.”

The people said, “What are those designs on the basket Little Girl?”

She said, “This is the Mountain and this is the Rattlesnake.”

Skeptically, they asked, “Where did you get those designs?”

She said, “Mountain and Rattlesnake gave them to me.”

They said, “Little Girl, will you teach us how to make a basket like that?”

She said, “Yes I can.”

They said, “Little girl can you teach us how to put designs on the basket like that?”

She said, “Yes I can.”

And so the Little Girl taught her people how to make what is called the cedar coiled

basket, made out of cedar bark and roots and so tightly woven it can hold water. And do

you think the people called her i-i-esh anymore? That is all.

Text copyright Roger Fernandes, CreativeCommons

Making Cedar Oil

This deep-green aromatic oil smells just like the

forest on a warm day. You can use it as a body

oil, lamp oil, furniture polish and a topical

healing remedy in healing salves and chest rubs.

1. Finely chop fresh cedar leaves and place

them in a double boiler. If you do not have a

double boiler you can create your own by

adding a little water to a larger pot and then

placing a smaller pot inside it. This helps to warm the oil gently so it does not overheat.

2. Place the cedar leaf in the smaller pot and just cover with extra virgin olive oil. You

can use other rendered oils including coconut, grape seed, jojoba or even lard if you

prefer.

3. Gently heat the oil so that it gets warm but does not boil. It may be necessary to turn

the pot on and off several times throughout the day. Warm the oil like this for several

days to a week so that the oil becomes dark green and smells strongly of cedar.

4. Strain the cedar oil with muslin cloth. Compost the pressed leaf and place the oil in a

glass jar.

5. Label and store in a cool dark place. Cedar oil will usually last several years.

Cedar Facial Steam

You can use dried herbs or essential oil and will need a medium sized bowl and a towel.

Place one handful of herbs like cedar leaf, fir needle, pine needle, eucalyptus leaf,

rosemary, peppermint or lavender in the bowl. Cedar is a good medicine for coughs and

colds because it helps to fight infection, increases circulation in the lungs and stimulates

your immune system. Add one to two drops of essential oil if desired. Pour boiled water

over the herbs until the bowl is about half full. Put your face over the steaming herbs at a

comfortable distance and cover your head with a towel. Breath deep! Try to steam for at

least 5 minutes. Pour more hot water in if necessary. For severe coughs or sinus

congestion, do several steams a day.

Text copyright Elise Krohn, Creative Commons

Cedar Bentwood Box

From Abe Lloyd

With sides folded from a single slab of cedar, bentwood boxes are crafted into watertight

canteens, cooking vessels and storage boxes. These containers are not found anywhere

else in the world and are traditionally constructed from cedar planks that are split from

standing trees or fallen logs with yew wood wedges. The plank is planed smooth, notched

through most of the board’s thickness where the corners will be, and steamed until the

remaining wood is soft and supple. The sides are then bent around a solid base, and the

joints (where the ends of the board come together) are fastened with pegs or sewn with

spruce roots.

Cooking boxes and canteens were so tightly constructed that they hold water. Any

leaks that form over time can be sealed with clay. Together with fire tongs and cooking

rocks, a quick meal can be boiled or steamed inside a piece of wood! Many Salish people

boiled food in baskets in the same manner as bentwood boxes.

Pete Peterson Sr. (Skokomish) and Alex McCarty (Makah) making cedar boxes at the Evergreen State

College. Cooking in a bentwood box with Abe Lloyd and Northwest Indian Treatment Center patients.

Western Red Cedar

I am the heat of your hearth on the cold winter nights, the friendly shade screening you

from summer sun, and the dancing bows that capture your imagination.

I am the beam that holds your house, the board of your table, and the roof that shelters

you from rain.

I am the handle of your shovel, the bark of your basket, and the hull of your canoe.

I am the medicine that heals you, the incense that carries your prayers, and tea that is

used to cleanse your home.

I am the wood of your cradle and the shell of your coffin.

I am the breath of kindness and the flower of beauty.

“Ye who pass by me, listen to my prayer: Harm me not.”

“Prayer of the Woods,” a Portuguese forest preservation prayer that has been used for more than 1,000

years. Author unknown, adapted by Elise Krohn

Text copyright Elise Krohn, Creative Commons

Water

Water is one of our most important spiritual medicines. The

morning dew from the sword fern, the rain, and even the water

we drink every day can purify and cleanse us. Water is precious

and you have to ask for it’s healing.

-Kimberly Miller, Skokomish Tribe

Water is life. Cultures around the world equate water with healing and energy. People

travel great distances to drink or bath in water from mountains, wells and springs that are

imbued with special energy. Many people believe that water has the ability to absorb

prayers, cleanse unwanted energy and bestow good medicine.

Water is the most important thing we can drink. It makes up 60-85% of our body

weight and plays many essential roles including carrying nutrients, removing waste,

cooling us when we are overheated, digesting food and cushioning our organs and joints.

When we are fully hydrated we feel more energized and experience less pain and hunger.

In a time when sugary drinks are so prevalent, people drink less pure water. Drinking

sweet beverages on a regular basis negatively impacts our health and reduces our ability

to enjoy the subtle flavor of water.

Clean water is increasingly hard for people around the world to access, and many

are standing up to protect it. If we do not drink water and understand how dependent our

bodies and our planet are on water, we will not connect with it or fight to protect it.

Water is called the universal solvent. The hydrogen and oxygen bonds that make

up water eagerly react with and bind almost everything on earth. Given time, water will

corrode metal, dissolve rock and move mountains. Water is the perfect medium for

extracting nutrients, medicinal properties, and flavors from plants. Healthy examples

include:

•

Flavored waters – Sliced fruit, vegetables and aromatic herbs add nutrients to

your water. Examples include lemon, lime, orange, melon, cucumber, fresh or

frozen berries, fir or spruce tips, mint, rosemary, lavender or lemon balm. Add

fresh ingredients each day and feel free to eat the fruit after you drink the water!

•

Tea – There are many ways to make tea including boiling plant parts in water

(decoctions) and soaking herbs in water of varying temperatures (infusions). Tea

can be drunk hot or cold and will last up to 3 days in the refrigerator.

•

Broths – You can make vegetable and bone broth and add them as a base to soups

or drink them as a nourishing beverage. Minerals from the vegetables or bones

dissolve into the water and become readily available for us to digest.

•

Smoothies – Smoothies make an excellent meal or snack. Use water, milk, nut

milk or juice that is low in sugar as a base with fresh or frozen fruit, veggies and

thicken with protein rich foods such as nut butters or yogurt. Spices like

cinnamon, vanilla, ginger or cocoa powder can boost flavor and medicinal

qualities.

Text copyright Valerie Segrest and Elise Krohn, Creative Commons

Camas

Camas is one of the most important traditional

foods in Salish country. The small bulb-like roots

of two species are dug and roasted, eaten fresh or

boiled, and can be dried for use as a winter food.

Open grasslands, or “camas prairies,” were

traditionally maintained by families by aerating

the soil with digging sticks, weeding out unwanted

species including the poisonous death camas, and

by periodically burning the entire prairie.

Other names: Quamash. Common camas: Camassia quamash. Giant camas: Camassia

leichtlinii. Whulshootseed: ReAufel. Twana: Qa’?w3b. Lushootseed: cabidac. Klallam:

Ktoi

Identifying Camas: Camas is a member of the lily family with beautiful six-petaled

purple flowers and grass-like leaves. Camas bulbs grow four to eight inches beneath the

ground surface and resemble small dense onions or lily bulbs.

Where it Grows: Common camas has symmetrical flowers and is found throughout the

Pacific Northwest. Giant camas has asymmetric flowers that bloom a couple weeks later

and twist together as they whither. It is more common west of the Cascades, in the San

Juan Islands and in Southwestern British Columbia in places with deeper soil.

Season: Flowers bloom in April through June, depending on the season and elevation.

This is the time they are harvested for food.

Harvesting and Processing Camas: Camas is dug in April through early June when the

flowers or seed pods are visible. Using traditional harvesting techniques, you can increase

the bounty of prairie foods like camas. Narrow T-shaped digging sticks that are made

from hard wood, bone, antler or metal make it possible to selectively harvest bulbs

without damaging those around them. When you dig bulbs, keep the larger ones and

replant the smaller ones. Be careful not to split camas bulbs in half with your tool. This

takes practice. Only keep bulbs that are attached to the flowering or

seed stalks since the bulbs and leaves of death camas

(Toxicoscordion venenosum) look almost identical.

To insure future harvests, leave some large flowering plants

so they can go to seed. If camas has already gone to seed, you can

sprinkle the seeds back on open soil. Harvesting camas actually

aerates the soil and allows moisture pockets to form, making it

easier for new seeds to sprout. Consider weeding invasive plants

including Scotch broom and St. Johns wort. Many families return to

Elizabeth Campbell

harvesting camas at

Chehalis prairie

the same prairie areas year after year to carefully steward their family plot. Over time,

they notice that traditionally harvested areas contain more camas plants with larger bulbs.

*CAUTION: Be sure to properly identify

camas before eating it. The bulbs of death

camas are deadly poisonous and look very

similar to camas. Death camas (right photo)

has white flowers with tighter flower clusters.

They bloom a couple of weeks later than

camas.

Eating Camas: To clean camas bulbs, pinch off the stem where it enters the bulb and

where the small roots come out of the base of the bulb. The brown outer skin will peel off

easily and you will be left with a white bulb that resembles an onion. Rinse remaining

dirt from the bulbs. If you are pit-roasting camas, you can leave the outer skin and peel

the bulbs once they are cooked.

Camas bulbs can be boiled, baked or slow roasted.

When cooked for a shorter time, camas is fairly

tasteless. When slow roasted for 24-48 hours, it

becomes dark-colored and sweet. Before sugar was

introduced, roasted camas was used to sweeten other

foods. Cooked bulbs were made into cakes and dried

for later use. Fresh bulbs can also be dried or frozen,

and then used later in soups. Camas is considered an

anti-diabetic food because it does not raise blood

sugar. It also supports healthy flora in our gut.

Ecological Relationships: Many camas prairies in our region were originally shaped by

massive glaciers about 14,000 years ago that altered the soil in such a way that made it

difficult for evergreen trees to grow. These prairies were subsequently sustained by a

warming climate and natural fires, and offered Native People an open landscape perfect

for hunting game and harvesting edible plants such as camas and other edible lilies,

bracken fern rhizomes, lomatium (biscuit root), acorns from oak trees, and several types

of berries. Medicinal plants including yarrow, kinnikinnick, violet, wild rose and

balsamroot flourish here too. The prairies are also home to many species of butterflies,

birds and small land mammals.

Stories and cultural practices passed down through the generations teach us how

prairies have been cultivated like gardens. Techniques including burning, weeding,

pruning, selective harvesting, and aerating the soil enhance the growth of many nutritious

prairie foods and medicinal plants. Without these practices, most of the prairies would

have turned into dense forests thousands of years ago.

What we see today are tiny remnants of vast prairies that were common just a few

generations ago. A Wasco elder recalls his grandfather telling stories of riding on

horseback from the Willamette Valley near Portland, Oregon all the way to the land of

Chief Sealth (present day Seattle, Washington) in open prairies that were managed by

fire. European settlers made burning the prairies illegal because they saw fire as a

destructive force rather than a life-giving one. In just a few generations, colonial land

management practices such as farming

and grazing have reduced prairies to less

than 5% of their former size.

Many tribes and other agencies are

actively working to conserve and restore

prairies and prairie foods. Camas is a

main focus because it was a prized staple

to many Salish People. In fact, for many communities, it was the second most traded food

next to salmon. Camas continues to be an important cultural food that is celebrated in

first foods feasts and other ceremonies. Digging the bulbs may be labor intensive

compared to buying edible tubers at our local grocer, but elders remind us that when we

eat the food that sustained our ancestors, it not only feeds our bodies, it also feeds our

spirits.

Growing Tips: Camas can be easily started from seed. It thrives in well-drained sandy or

pebbly soil with full sun. It is best to grow in trays in a greenhouse, as it closely

resembles grass. Keep camas root gardens carefully weeded to avoid confusion with

grass. Other companion plants include chocolate lily, violet, Idaho fescue (a bunch grass)

and Columbia lily.

Additional Resources: Watch this video on cooking camas with Elizabeth Campbell:

https://vimeo.com/163888029

Prairie Appreciation Day: http://www.prairieappreciationday.org

South Sound Prairies: http://www.southsoundprairies.org

Cascadia Prairie Oak Partnership: http://cascadiaprairieoak.org

Vascular Plants of the South Sound Prairies. Edited by Frederica Bowcutt and Sarah

Hamman.

References:

Kruckeberg, Arthur R. The Natural History of Puget Sound Country. Seattle,

Washington: University of Washington Press, 1994.

Leopold, Estella B. and Robert Boyd. “An Ecological History of Old Prairie Areas in

Southwestern Washington.” Indians, Fire and the Landscape in the Pacific

Northwest. Ed. Robert Boyd. Corvallis, Oregon: Oregon State University Press, 1999.

Turner, Nancy. The Earth’s Blanket. Seattle, The University of Washington Press, 2005.

Photo Credits:

All photos from Elise Krohn except:

Prairie Burning photo from http://www.southsoundprairies.org/photos/prescribed-fire/

Text copyright Elise Krohn, Creative Commons

Camas: A Plateau Native Story

as told by Roger Fernandes, Lower Elwha S’Klallam

A long time ago in a village on the other side of the

mountains, there was a time of great hunger. There was

no food to be found - no game to hunt, no plants to

gather. The People were very hungry. The elders and the

children were crying from the hunger, but there was

nothing to give them.

There was a grandmother who heard her grandchildren crying because they were

hungry. She was so sad that she had nothing to give them. She was so sad she left the

village and went up a hill nearby. She went to the top of the hill and sat down.

She began to cry. She cried and she cried for her grandchildren. As she cried, she began

to sink into the ground. She kept crying and was sinking deeper into the earth. After a

while she was gone. She was under the earth.

Her grandchildren, a boy and a girl, missed their grandmother. They wondered where

she was. They began to look for her. They climbed the hill.

As they reached he top of the hill, the granddaughter said, “Grandma is under the

ground! I can feel her!”

The children dug into the ground. They dug and dug and they found camas bulbs.

Grandmother had become camas and now the children and the people had food to eat.

Camas is a main food of the Native people of the Plateau region. And that is all.

Text copyright Roger Fernandes, Creative Commons

Baked Camas

Preheat oven to 275 degrees. Clean camas so you are left

with white bulbs. Rinse and drain. Place in a baking pan

and drizzle with a little bit of butter, olive oil or a

traditional oil. Cover and bake until the camas is soft and

tastes slightly sweet, usually about 1 hour. This method

will produce a dish that is starchier tasting and less sweet

than the slow roasting method.

Steamed Camas

Recipe and photo from Abe Lloyd, arcadianabe.blogspot.com

Place an expandable vegetable steamer inside a slow cooker and fill the slow cooker with

water to just below the level of the steamer. Put the camas bulbs in the steamer and cover

the slow cooker. Set the slow cooker at a moderate to high temperature and steam the

bulbs for 36 hours (yes, you read that right). Check the water level every 2-4 hours and

refill as necessary. The bulbs will begin to brown and smell like molasses after 12-24

hours. Cook until they are a very dark brown.

Spring Salish Soup

This delicious soup is packed with spring vitality. Nettles are incredibly dense in

nutrients and salmon provides essential fatty acids and a good source of protein. White

beans could be used as an alternative to the camas, and leafy greens like chard or kale

could be used in place of nettles.

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

6 cups of water

3 cups fresh or frozen camas bulb or 2 cups dried camas bulbs

1 grocery bag full of fresh spring nettles

2 cups of baked, canned or smoked salmon

Salt and pepper to taste

In a soup pot on medium heat, cook the onions and garlic in olive

oil until they become translucent, about 5 minutes. Add water

and camas and then bring to a boil. Turn down heat, cover with a

lid and simmer for about 20 minutes. While the soup is

simmering, wash nettles in a colander then cut them into small

pieces with scissors. Once the camas is tender, add the nettles.

Cook an additional 5 minutes. Add the salmon and then season

with salt and pepper. Enjoy!

Cook time: 40 minutes. Serves: 4-6

Text copyright Elise Krohn, Creative Commons

Cooking in an Earthen Oven (Steam Pit Cooking)

Northwest Coastal Ancestors used a variety of techniques for cooking such as roasting

over a fire, baking food wrapped in skunk cabbage over hot coals, boiling in bentwood

boxes or tightly woven baskets with hot rocks, and steaming foods with hot rocks in

earthen pit ovens. The following instructions for cooking in a pit oven were taught to our

Northwest Indian College Traditional Plants Staff by Abe Lloyd, a student of

Kwaxsistalla, Chief Adam Dick.

You will need: Clippers for gathering plant foliage, large fire tongs, shovels, gloves,

about 20-25 rocks that are unlikely to burst in a hot fire (volcanic rocks work best),

firewood, matches, food for roasting, 2 quarts of water, 2 burlap sacks or a large piece of

cotton canvas, sturdy salad tongs, and platters for cooked food.

1. Dig a pit that is about 2 feet deep and 3 feet across.

2. Collect 4 grocery bags full of foliage including salal branches, skunk cabbage

leaves, sword fern or other fern fronds, and branches from alder, salmonberry or

thimbleberry. If you are cooking in the sand, many people prefer to use seaweed.

3. Lay a single layer of firewood in a square in the bottom of the pit and then cover

with rocks. Place rocks around the firewood, so that once the wood burns, the pit

will be completely lined with rocks.

4. Light the fire and keep it going until the rocks are red hot – usually about an hour.

You may need to fan the fire to help it burn hot.

5. Remove unburned wood and charcoal with a shovel and fire tongs, then spread a

small amount of sand (if available) over the rocks.

6. Quickly lay down a layer of salal followed by sword fern and other vegetation.

7. Place food on the foliage and quickly place more foliage over the food.

8. Pour water into the center of the cooking pit.

9. Quickly lay down skunk cabbage leaves (if available) and cover the pit with

burlap sacks or canvas.

10. Use a shovel to bury the entire pit with dirt or sand until no steam escapes.

11. Mark the pit so no one steps on it. Leave for 2 hours to 36 hours depending on

what type of food you are cooking.

12. Carefully uncover the pit with a shovel and gloves. Remove food with tongs and

place on platters… enjoy!

* A nice variation to this technique is to place one end of a 2 ft long hollow section of

bull kelp into the center of the pit. Then pack the pit with vegetation, food, and more

vegetation, taking care to route the stalk out the side or top of the pit. Don’t add water

until the pit is completely covered with tarps and buried with soil, at which point you can

pour the water down the kelp stalk onto the hot rocks. Cork the kelp with a round stick to

prevent steam from escaping.

Cooking Times for Pit Roasting

• Clams, shrimp, crab, fish wrapped in skunk cabbage: 2 hours

• Vegetables including carrots, onions, potatoes, yams, garlic: 3-4 hours

• Camas bulbs, black moss pudding: 24-36 hours

Text copyright Elise Krohn, Creative Commons

Thanks to Abe Lloyd and Nancy Turner for helping us to learn this cooking technique.

Cattail

Get out your waders or rubber boots! Cattails grow on the

margins of ponds or in marshes and wetland areas. These

incredibly useful plants have been used for many things

including food, medicine, shelter, tools, fiber, clothing,

insulation, diapers and dolls.

Other names: Typha latifolia. Whulshootseed: ?ulal

Identifying Cattail: Cattails grow in colonies that are connected by underwater networks

of rhizomes. Long, flat, spongy green leaves emerge in bundles and look like giant blades

of grass. They are 1-2 inches wide and grow 3-10 feet tall. The base of the leaves feels

spongy because they contain air-filled cellular tubes called aerenchyma, which carry

oxygen down to the base of the plant. This adaptation helps cattail roots to live

underwater. The flowers emerges from the center of the plant on a tall, round stem. The

namesake “cattail” is actually a spike of thousands of tightly packed tiny female flowers

with another spike of more loosely clustered male flowers on top. Once fertilized, the

female flowers swell into the iconic brown sausage-looking spikes. These eventually turn

to fluffy white plumes that are filled with seeds and are readily carried in the wind.

Where it Grows: Cattails grow in swamps, marshes, bogs, wetlands, and in moist ditches

on the side of the road. They are found throughout North and South America, along with

Europe, Africa and Asia. Cattail is native to all US states except Hawaii.

Season: Cattails offer something useful all year long. Leaf shoots are edible in early

spring. Flowers and pollen are gathered in early summer. Leaves are harvested for

basketry when fully formed in late summer. Underwater rhizomes are harvested in fall.

Harvesting Cattail: Harvest in clean, pristine areas. To avoid contamination, do not

harvest near heavy agricultural areas, dairy fields or roadsides. Wash with boiling water

before consuming. Leave the oldest plants and the ones on the edges. These are the

soldiers that help to protect the plant community from invasive species like yellow flag

iris and reed canary grass. As with all plant gathering, only take what you need, look after

the future of the patch, and never remove more than 10% of a stand. Correctly identifying

cattail is of utmost importance when it is not in flower. The toxic yellow flag iris leaf

looks similar, but the stem is flattened with a prominent vein down the center, while

cattail is round stemmed and spongy.

Eating Cattail: Cattails provide nutritious food

throughout the year. In early spring, cut the base of

the new shoots and remove the outer green leaves to

reveal a tender white to light green stem that

resembles a leek. These cattail hearts can be eaten

fresh or lightly cooked and added to stir-fry.

In late spring to summer, immature flower spikes are ready for harvest. Peel the

outer sheath back to reveal the spike, which looks like baby corn. This can be steamed,

boiled or sautéed and has a pleasant flavor like artichoke. Gently nibble off the flower

and leave behind the strong inner core.

In summer the male flower on top of the spike produces pollen to fertilize the

female flower just below it. Pollen is harvested by placing a sack or wide-mouthed milk

jug over the brown flowering spike and shaking it. Cattail pollen can be used similarly to

bee pollen for energy and as a source of protein. It is delicious when added to biscuits,

muffins or pancakes. You may need to use a fine sieve to separate out bugs. Freeze the

pollen for long-term storage.

The rhizome is best harvested in the fall, but can be harvested throughout the

year. Each rhizome has a starchy core surrounded by a spongy layer that must be peeled

away. The fibrous cores can then be dried, pounded, and sifted to remove the starchy

powder. You can also massage the fresh or dried cores in water to make a thick soup

base. Cattail offers more edible starch per acre than potato, rice, taro or yams!

Cattail Medicine: Cattail is rich in beta-carotene, niacin, riboflavin, thiamin, potassium,

phosphorus, protein, amino acids and vitamin C. Like aloe vera, cattail leaf contains gel

that keeps the plant moist when water levels drop. It also has antimicrobial properties that

protect the plant from insects and diseases. People apply cattail gel to their skin as a first

aid remedy to sooth burns and to ward off infection.

Traditional Technologies: The versatile nature of cattail extends into the material

culture as well. The long, straight, and fully mature leaves of cattail are used by people

all over the world as a weaving material for making mats, baskets and cordage.

Northwest Coast Native People have used cattail mats as screens, fans, seats, sleeping

and kneeling mats, insulating wall covers, and covers for cooking pits and boxes.

Because of its ability to both insulate and shed water, rain capes were also made out of

cattail. A beautiful rain cape is on display at the

Burke Museum of Natural History in Seattle, WA.

Cattail has also been used to make quick

containers and gathering baskets, as well as

temporary walls for shelters in the summertime.

The waterproof cattail leaves swell when wet,

providing a tighter protective wall, and shrink a

little when dry, allowing a gentle breeze in on hot

days. Though not very durable, cattail mats are

Matt Warbis with a cattail needle, Lummi

easy to make. A needle made from ironwood was used to push through the leaves to sew

them together, but it takes a lot of force. A creaser is used to hold the leaf in place and

keep the edges of the needle hole from tearing out.

The fluffy winter seed heads are traditionally used for diapers, padding,

insulation, pillows and mixed with wool to make yarn. If using the fluff for pillows, use

thick fabric to seal in the cattail fluff because it can cause hives. The seeds can also be

used as a thickening agent. Cattail stalk can be lit and used as a torch or a fire starter.

Ecological relationships: Wetlands, including the margins of lakes and ponds, shallow

freshwater marshes and peat bogs are critical parts of both watersheds and food sheds.

Edible plants specially adapted to these wet conditions include cattail, wapato and bog

cranberry. Many basketry plants including cattail, tule and other bulrushes, sedges and

willows are harvested from wetlands. Birds including ducks and geese rely on these areas

for feeding and nesting grounds. Red winged blackbirds, herons, turtles, muskrats, frogs

and fish are all at home in cattail ponds.

Many wetlands in the Pacific Northwest have been drained and developed into

farmland or suburban areas. Join your local wetland restoration efforts to preserve native

plants and wildlife habitat of this important cultural ecosystem.

In some native languages the term for plants translates to “those who take care of us.”

Through natural selection the cattails developed sophisticated adaptations that increase

their survival in the marsh. The people were attentive students and borrowed solutions

from the plants, which increased their likelihood of survival. The plants adapt, the people

adopt.

-Robin Wall Kimmerer

Additional Resources:

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Section entitled “Sitting in a Circle.”

Pacific Northwest Foraging by Douglas Deur

The People of Cascadia by Heidi Bohan

The Foragers Harvest by Samuel Thayer

Keeping it Living by Douglas Deur and Nancy Turner

Photos by Elise Krohn except cattail in pond (istock) and cattail pollen (Abe Lloyd)

Text copyright Elizabeth Campbell and Elise Krohn, Creative Commons

Cattail on the Cob

A delicious and simple way to enjoy cattail flower heads!

You will need:

• Young cattail flowers

• A pot with a tight fitting lid and a steamer basket

• 1 cup of water

• Butter and salt to taste

1. Harvest the male and female flowering heads in the spring to early summer by clipping

with scissors or a knife. You will find the green flowering heads in the center of the

cattail plant. Peel away the outer sheath. You will see the top male flower and the bottom

female flower. They can both be used, however, the top male flower has more “meat” to

it.

2. Bring water to boil.

3. Wash cattails.

4. Add steam basket full of cattail flower heads to boiling water. Turn heat down to low,

cover and steam for 10-12 minutes.

5. Add butter and salt to your liking. Nibble stalk as if you were eating a tiny corn on the

cob. The center of the stalk is tough, but the outer cattail flower is tender, nutritious and

delicious!

Cattail Quinoa salad

Quinoa is a nutty tasting grain that is high in protein

and low in carbohydrates. This recipe can be adapted

with a variety of seasonal vegetables and is delicious

served hot or cold.

• 1 cup quinoa

• 2 cups water

• 2 tablespoons olive oil

• 2 cloves garlic, minced

• 3 carrots, diced

• 1 cup spring cattail shoots, rinsed in boiling water and chopped

• 2 tablespoons chopped wild onions or ½ cup green onions

• 1 cup smoked salmon, cubed

• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

• Salt and pepper to taste

Rinse quinoa. Boil water in a medium sized pan, add quinoa, then turn down to simmer

and cover until cooked, about 15 minutes. Add olive oil to a medium sized sauté pan and

heat on medium. Add onions, garlic and carrots, and sauté until onions are translucent.

Add cattails and onion tops and sauté until tender. Add cooked quinoa, salmon, lemon

juice, salt and pepper. Blend and serve.

Cook time: 40 minutes. Serves 4.

Text copyright Elizabeth Campbell and Elise Krohn, Creative Commons

Making a Cattail Mat

Materials: Dried cattail leaves, furniture legs (barstool),

poles in the ground, or other object to hold leaves in

place, Ironwood needle or large upholstery needle,

sewing fiber (could be sinew, nettle cordage, hemp or

strong twine)

*Optional- mist bottle.

Harvesting cattail leaves for mats: you can weave or sew fresh leaves, but when they dry,

you are left with a shrunken, loose mat. For a tightly woven mat, dry leaves first and then

rehydrate them when you are ready to weave. Leaves can be dried in a well-ventilated

area, in a single layer, on screens or a sheet for about 1-2 weeks. Take care to turn them

over at least once a day to ensure even drying and to prevent mold. Drying leaves in the

sun can damage the leaves and make them too brittle to work with. Once dried, the

delicate leaves can be wrapped in paper or cardboard until you are ready to use them.

A Closer Look: Cut cross sections of a cattail leaf and notice the holes or tubes that run

up the length of the leaf. Cattail is an excellent insulator because it traps air inside the

leaf. Woven mats create a buffer that keeps cold outside of a house or tent during winter.

During the summer months, the mats create a cool wicking layer for heat to escape.

Cattail Mat Making: Depending on how much material you have, your cattail mat can be

as small as a coaster or larger. Smaller children can do an over and under simple weave

instead of sewing the leaves together.

1. Begin with dry cattail leaves. Rehydrate leaves in a bucket or sink to make pliable.

2. If you are sewing the cattail leaves, cut the edges of the leaf length wise so they will be

easier to sew and more uniform in width.

3. Cut the cattail leaves to the length of the mat you desire. Arrange the leaves in similar

size, alternating wide end to narrow end. This will give your mat a nice uniform shape.

4. Tie cord to furniture legs or poles horizontally to desired length of mat. Place leaves

along cord. Fold tops of leaves over cord and twist weave cordage around each leaf to

secure in place.

5. Sew through the middle of each leaf every 3-6 inches down,

depending on the size of your mat. You will need to gently

press/hold the leaf as you sew to make sure the leaf doesn’t

break. Continue to sew through the leaves every 3-6 inches until

you have reached the bottom.

6. Finish the bottom as you did the top by twist weaving the

leaves over. Trim leaves for a nice even finish.

Additional Resources:

Visit YouTube for “how to make a cattail mat” tutorials.

Text copyright Elizabeth Campbell and Elise Krohn, Creative Commons

Clams, Mussels & Oysters

Bivalves are abundant along the Pacific Coast and the

beaches of the Salish Sea. They are a staple to many

Northwest Coastal Natives. Edible species include

butter clams, horse clams, little neck (steamer clams),

cockles, blue mussels, gooseneck barnacles, Pacific

oysters and Olympia oysters. Most harvesting sites do

not require a minus tide to gather these delectable

seafoods. Families traditionally managed and were

responsible for productive shellfish beaches that were

often located near villages. Mussels, oysters and

various clam species were dried and used as winter

food. They are fondly considered the cornerstone of

traditional feasts. Elders from throughout the Salish

Sea share stories of digging clams, harvesting seaweed

and building a hot fire to cook a meal right on the beach.

Other names: Bivalve, Mollusk, Shellfish

Identification: The bivalve family of sea species includes clams, geoduck, mussels, oysters

and scallops. These are soft-bodied sea species with two hard shells of equal size as a layer of

protection. They are related to other mollusks such as gastropods (one-shelled animals, think

snails and limpets), and chitons that used to be eaten more commonly, but bivalves are a bigger

and more consistent part of the traditional diet.

http://www.doh.wa.gov/Portals/1/Documents/4400/332-087-Shellfish-ID.pdf

Where they grow: These tasty beach findings can be found at saltwater beaches during

middle to low tide zones.

Text copyright Valerie Segrest, Andy Dalton & Maurice Major, Creative Commons

Harvesting and processing bivalves:

Traditionally, the only tools used for clams were a basket,

a keen eye and a digging stick made of ironwood (also

known as oceanspray, Holodiscus discolor). Large

amounts of shells from previously eaten bivalves are

found throughout the Salish Sea, remnants of a feasting

site. These are called “middens” and consist of bivalve

shells. Middens are typically found at major harvest

locations, sometimes piled up several feet thick,

representing generations of harvest. When a shellfish bed

was not close to a village, the bivalves were sometimes

dug, removed from the shell, and smoked or dried before

paddling back home with the food. Often, these shell

heaps are also found near streams, where fresh water was

used to clean the meat.

Clams can live a very long time. A clam off

the coast of Iceland was found to be older than

500 years old and was the oldest living animal

known on earth.

Above: Digging Stick, courtesy of

Muckleshoot Preservation Dept

Food and Medicine:

Clams, mussels and oysters are perfect little packages of nutrition. Within their tiny bodies,

they contain important nutrients like iron, magnesium, zinc, and Omega 3 fatty acids that help

our bodies to build blood and maintain immunity. They are also low in calories, low in

cholesterol, and are an outstanding source of protein. In fact, regularly consuming shellfish has

been shown to help reduce cholesterol.

Oysters in particular, have a very long history of nourishing humans. Increasing

archaeological evidence shows that early humans relied heavily on shellfish, and that without

them we may not have survived as a species. Oysters have the highest concentration of zinc

than any food, a nutrient that promotes good health for our body’s immunity and specifically

our reproductive system, proving the lore of its aphrodisiac nature. They are referred to as the

“food of love” in many cultures.

Text copyright Valerie Segrest, Andy Dalton & Maurice Major, Creative Commons

Traditional Technologies – Clam Gardens:

Above: A photo of a clam garden in Canada. The line of rocks at the right is the terrace, and

the people are standing in the clam bed held up by the terrace. Photo contributor: Maurice

Major

It is important to highlight the dedication Coast Salish Ancestors had to the ancient shellfish

beds we thrive on to this day, as well as the health of the waters. Bivalves are the filter system

of the Salish Sea because each individual can clean out 15 to 20 gallons of water per day.

Ensuring healthy production of shellfish meant clean water and food security. Stewardship was

truly upheld through managing production on many levels. Historically, what we now call

shellfish beds or beaches, were treated just like the gardens they truly are. While harvesting

clams is nourishing and delicious, ancient gatherers were efficient multi-taskers. The shores of

the Salish Sea can be shallow and quite narrow, therefore innovative Coast Salish Ancestors

would build terraces using large rocks they would come across while harvesting, rolling them

down the beach in to what would overtime become a stone wall, or a rock terrace, located

beyond the usual high tides. Eventually the stonewall would accumulate with gravel, sediment

and shell hash that clams prefer and would create a broader clam bed where there originally

had been a steep drop-off into the sea. This would expand habitat and is an intentionally built

“clam garden.” These ancient clam gardens were sometimes built quickly and deliberately to

invigorate clam production, especially butter clams. By removing rocks and increasing the

amount of land at the tidal elevations preferred by clams, clam larvae have a safer and more

fertile place to take hold, and more clams can grow to adulthood. Acre for acre, a clam garden

produces four times the protein as nearby beaches without the garden terraces. When the clams

spawn, the next generation can drift to the next beach, making clam gardens nurseries for the

whole area.

Like many traditional ways of managing lands, clam gardens represent a nudge to the

natural system, rather than a replacement. There is no need for hatcheries, no need to add food

or fertilizer, and machinery is not required. Clams can be dug with the traditional digging

sticks that have been used since time immemorial—in fact, the removal of big rocks and the

creation of nice clam beds makes the digging even easier. Harvesting a clam garden helps to

maintain it.

Although many are not actively managed anymore, terrace walls will stand for

centuries. Their nooks and crannies provide shelter and habitat to juvenile fish, octopus,

gastropods, and other food species. Archaeologists have excavated a few, and used barnacle

scars and clams that were accidentally buried by the walls to get radiocarbon dates. These

show that some clam gardens have been in place for 2000 years! Further south in the Salish

Sea, natural conditions are friendlier to clams without the need for constructed clam gardens.

By the time you get to the southern inlets, tidal flats can be extensive and rich in clams without

need for terraces, and therefore clam gardens are not found there.

For more information and informational videos please visit:

https://clamgarden.com

https://clamgarden.com/media-education/

Traditional Technologies – Oyster Reefs

Unlike clams, which burrow into the gravel and mud, oysters like to have a rocky bottom and

also do not require digging. Their shells attach to the rocks as they sit at the bottom of the

water, and become exposed to the air during lower tides. Just as they observed and knew the

habitat requirements of clams, Northwest Coastal Natives recognized the needs of oysters and

helped make additional habitat for these bivalves by creating oyster reefs. And as with clam

gardens, they enhanced and increased habitat through slight adjustments to their own practices

and to natural systems, not through massive alteration.

How did tribes create oyster habitat? The story begins with traditional cooking, in

which rocks were heated up and used to steam, boil, and roast all sorts of foods. The rocks

could be re-used for a while, but eventually they begin to crack and fall apart, becoming too

small to be useful and potentially getting fragments into the food. Nobody wants sharp rocks

underfoot and in the way, and in some places people tossed them onto the tidal flats, away

from canoe landings. At T’Peeksin (Totten Inlet, in the far south Salish Sea), near the muddy

upper end of the inlet, there is an entire peninsula of discarded cooking stone, colonized by

oysters and barnacles in an area where these shellfish otherwise have no place to live.

Consuming Bivalves - Human Health concerns:

Washington has a reputation for safe, wholesome shellfish. Our state is the leading producer of

farmed shellfish in the nation, and commercial product is shipped around the world. Miles of

Puget Sound shoreline and Washington coastal beaches attract hundreds of thousands of

recreational and Tribal harvesters each year.

Text copyright Valerie Segrest, Andy Dalton & Maurice Major, Creative Commons

The Washington State Department of Health (DOH) regularly tests both molluscan shellfish

and the water where they grow to make sure the shellfish are safe to eat. The Tribes have

signed a Consent Decree with DOH and the Federal government and agree to follow their

regulation to insure that shellfish harvested and consumed by Tribal members are safe to eat.

Additionally, DOH licenses and inspects all Tribal commercial shellfish operations to

make sure shellfish intended for markets and restaurants are harvested, handled, and shipped in

a safe and sanitary manner. When environmental or operational conditions pose a threat to

public health, tidelands are closed to all harvesting.

For more information visit: http://www.doh.wa.gov/CommunityandEnvironment/Shellfish

Conservation Efforts and Resources:

The Olympia oyster is the only oyster that is native to the Puget Sound. The Pacific oyster was

actually transplanted from Asia. Olympia oysters are now on the threatened species list, and

tribes in the southern Puget Sound region, including Squaxin and Skokomish, have programs

centered on its preservation and recovery. Many tribes are maintaining bivalve beaches and are

even planting them in areas where they have become scarce. Although erosion is taking its toll,

numerous “middens” (heaps of discarded shells) throughout the Salish Sea region show how

important shellfish have been for thousands of years; these and other features highlight how

Salish Sea tribes managed shellfish sustainably. Numerous agencies and non-profits are

studying and working to restore the near-shore habitats of Puget Sound and the Salish Sea.

There is a wealth of information on the following websites:

Puget Sound Restoration Fund- Olympia Oyster Restoration:

http://www.restorationfund.org/projects/olympiaoyster

Puget Sound Marine Invasive species Identification Guide:

http://vmp.bioe.orst.edu/Documents/mism_ID_Cards5print.pdf

Health of the Salish Sea Ecosystem Report

https://www.epa.gov/salish-sea

The Puget Sound Ecosystem Monitoring Program

http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/WQ/psmonitoring/index.html

PSEMP is an integrated, coordinated monitoring and assessment program for Puget Sound is

needed to provide credible and useful information about the Puget Sound ecosystem and guide

the Puget Sound Partnership’s, Ecology’s, and others’ monitoring efforts and improve our

policy and management decisions.

The Puget Sound Nearshore Ecosystem Restoration Project

http://www.pugetsoundnearshore.org/

PSNERP is one of the largest habitat restoration and preservation programs ever undertaken in

the United States. We are building a plan of action by answering the questions:

- How has the shoreline of Puget Sound changed?

- Where are the most problematic changes and why?

-

What can we do to protect and manage the nearshore?

What actions should we take and where?

Encyclopedia of Puget Sound

https://www.eopugetsound.org/terms/379

Puget Soundkeeper Alliance

http://www.pugetsoundkeeper.org/

Soundkeeper’s mission is to protect and preserve the waters of Puget Sound. Founded in 1984

as the Puget Sound Alliance (PSA), PSA was the first grassroots citizens’ organization to focus

exclusively on protecting the marine environment of Puget Sound.

Text copyright Valerie Segrest, Andy Dalton & Maurice Major, Creative Commons

The Gossiping Clams

-A Suquamish Legend as told by Roger Fernandes

A long time ago, clams had feet. They walked everywhere. Wherever you went, there were

clams. If you were getting out of bed in the morning, there would be a little clam standing there

watching you. If you were cooking a meal, there would be a clam watching you. If you were

washing your face, there would be a clam watching you. No matter where you were or what

you were doing, there would be a clam watching you.

When the clams got together at night, they would tell each other what they saw people doing.

They would talk and talk about everyone. And if the story they told was not exciting enough,

they would make things up. They would exaggerate and lie about you. The clams would gossip.

One day Raven, that big black bird, was way out in the woods. He was doing something bad

and he did not want anyone to see him. I don’t know what he was doing, but it must have been

bad because he was hiding. When he was done doing that bad thing, he turned around and

there was a little clam watching him.

“Oh!” said Raven. “I didn’t know anyone was watching me. Please promise me you won’t tell

anyone what I was doing. I don’t want anyone to know.”

“I promise, Raven. I won’t tell anybody,” said the little clam.

“I’m serious!” exclaimed Raven. “You must not tell anyone!”

“I promise Raven. I won’t tell anyone,” said the clam.

But when that little clam got home, what do you think he did? Of course, he told everyone. He

told the story of what he saw Raven doing to all the clams. When Raven heard about this, he

was very angry. He spread his black wings across the earth and gathered up all the clam

people. He took them down to the beach. He would drop one clam onto the sand and with his

foot push it beneath the sand. He did this to one and then another. He did it to all the clams

until all of them were buried under the sand. Then he said to them, “Now if you want to talk

about people, go ahead. But now when you gossip, water and sand will rush into your mouth!”

So now the clam people are under the sand. That is their punishment for gossiping, for talking

about people behind their back. But do you think that has stopped the clam people? Of course

not. Whenever you cross a muddy stretch of beach, you will see little spurts of water coming

from under the sand. That is the clam people. They are still talking, and they are talking about

you.

Text copyright Roger Fernandes, Creative Commons

Elaine’s Clam Fritters

For this delicious recipe, Elaine Grinnell recommends using

clams that are fresh or frozen. Clams should be soaked

overnight in a bucket of salt water, changing the water twice

to ensure sand is out of the clams. Process immediately after

to preserve the flavor.

1 lb. butter clams, fresh or recently frozen, chopped in a food processor

1 lb. geoduck, chopped fine in a food processor

1 medium-sized onion, chopped

4 celery sticks, chopped

2 eggs, plus 1 egg yolk

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon salt

Oil for frying (lard, coconut or palm oil)

Combine all ingredients. A spoon should stand straight up in the mixture. In a heavy frying

pan, heat the oil. Spoon the mixture into the pan to make small cakes. Cook for five minutes on

each side or until the fritter is brown around the edges. Serves 10-12 people.

References:

http://www.pugetsoundnearshore.org/technical_papers/shellfish.pdf

An Environmental and Historical Overview of the Puget Sound Ecosystem

[https://pubs.usgs.gov/sir/2010/5254/pdf/sir20105254_chap1.pdf]

[http://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Legends/]

http://sciencenordic.com/new-record-world’s-oldest-animal-507-years-old

Deer and Elk

“The definitive expression and full embodiment of the plant

people are the four legged. For some, they are the most

sought after creature of our lands. With certainty, every year

the elk bugles from the mountaintops, singing to one another

and calling out our hunting families- pressing them to pursue

a living legacy.”

-Valerie Segrest, Muckleshoot

Whulshootseed name: sqiGec

General Description: Deer are browsers mostly feeding on

shrubs while elk are grazers feeding on grasses. Their diets

are broad and diverse however, and can include almost any type of vegetation. Migratory

behavior for both deer and elk is variable with some being long-range migrators of 30

miles or more, some moving only up in elevation, or not moving at all. They have

chambered stomachs that ferment foods like grasses and plants, this process allows for

more nutrients to be extracted than other grazers like horses and cows. Deer and elk are

the most important terrestrial animal for many Coast Salish Natives because of their

contribution as food and other valuable uses. Not only is the meat eaten but the hides,

sinew, hooves, bones, and antlers furnish valuable materials for clothing, ornaments, and

tools.

Deer: Columbian black-tailed deer are a sub-species of mule deer and are typically found

west of the Cascade Crest. They inhabit dense forests and forest edges where they browse

on a variety of plants. Black-tailed deer have small home ranges where they typically live

that can be as small as 0.25 square miles. As their name implies, they have a large, wide,

mostly black tail. Acute vision, hearing, and smell along with their inhabiting of densely

vegetated environment can make hunting deer difficult.

Mule deer are found east of the Cascade Crest and are found in more open

sagebrush habitats during winter and open forested stands in summer. Mule deer home

ranges are larger, in part due to less productive habitat as well as more open habitat. Mule

deer tend to be larger than black-tailed deer, have larger ears, and have a smaller mostly

white tail with small black tip. Hunting mule deer in open habitats is easier with a rifle,

but more difficult with traditional methods because they can see the hunter coming and

thus takes more stalking skill. Males are distinctive with antlers that are lost every year.

Black-tail and mule deer normally do not interbreed, but at the crest they may

come together in summer and hybridization has occurred. Hunters sometime notice an

animal the size of a mule deer but having a tail resembling black-tail with ears and antlers

not being typical of the deer found on particular side of the Cascade Crest. These are

often called bench-leg deer.

Text copyright Valerie Segrest and Dave Vales, Creative Commons

Elk: Elk are much larger than deer with distinctive

white rumps and massive antlers. Male elk can breed

30 or more females who they group up and defend as

a harem. Elk can live up to 22 years. Females live

longer than males due to the stresses and injuries

resulting from competition for mates during breeding

season. They can have large home ranges, typically

smaller in winter than in summer if migratory. They

prefer meadows, wetlands, and open forests where

they graze more on grasses and herbs than twigs.

Washington’s ancestral elk, the Roosevelt elk,

were hunted close to extinction in the late 1800’s due

to post-contact mismanagement of resources.

Nowadays, the native Roosevelt elk occur only on the Olympic Peninsula. During the

early 1900’s Rocky Mountain elk from Yellowstone were transplanted to various

locations along the western Cascade slopes and today most elk found east of Interstate-5

are of the Rocky Mountain variety. When they were introduced, they readily adapted and

expanded from the foothills into the mountains as the forests were cut. Both

archaeological evidence and oral tradition document that, prior to urban sprawl and

industrial development, elk were found in areas such as the banks of Duwamish and the

shores of Lake Washington. Elk have recolonized former areas and are now common on

the Enumclaw Plateau and along the White and Green Rivers to Auburn and Sumner.

Hunting Techniques: Orcas and dolphins, wolves and red tailed hawks, eagles and

humans are pack hunters. We have all learned that hunting cooperatively makes efficient

use of time and resources. In order to really understand hunting techniques, one must be

dedicated and willing to put the time in to learning through keen observation and

patience. Skilled hunters shoot big game with bow and

arrow, setting traps or driving animals in to large nets.

Nowadays, many hunters use rifles and aim for a quick

shot to the heart so that the animal does not suffer.

Processing: Once the animal is killed and located, the

hunter will work fast to gut the animal, then in a cool area

hang and skin the animal. At this time the animal is ready

to be butchered and packaged. This entire process is

necessary in order to have quality meat for consumption.

Every part of deer and elk – from the bone marrow, to the

hide, to the brains, to the eyes, tongue and antlers – was

and is traditionally utilized. The head was even boiled

and eaten as a stew.

Text copyright Valerie Segrest and Dave Vales, Creative Commons

Food and Medicine: Both deer and elk are higher in nutrients and lower in fat than beef,

which makes them a better food for our health. Domestically raised animals contain

antibiotics and/or hormones that can have negative effects on people, so game meat is

healthier. Meat processed by butchers into sausages may contain nitrites, nitrates, salt,

and maybe MSG, so consume these sparingly. It is preferable to learn how to process

wild game meat into sausages so that the preparer can control the amount of spices and

sodium, yielding a healthy version that the commercially available variety.

Wildlife Management:

Coast Salish Ancestors knew that high elevation open areas yielded productive deer and

elk herds. They burned forested areas to promote open meadows that provided abundant

nutritious forage for deer and elk. This not only enhanced deer and elk numbers, and

produced fatter animals, but also made hunting easier by bringing animals to these focal

areas. Burning also enhanced Berry production. Nowadays, tribes like Muckleshoot

actively manage elk herds by studying habitat and managing predators of deer and elk.

Fun Fact: Deer typically have twins but elk rarely do. Twins allow for greater hunting

opportunity and higher harvest. Black-tailed deer teeth show less tooth wear for the same

age of animal than mule deer due to the foods they eat, so black-tails can live longer than

mule deer because they have their teeth longer. When not hunted, both elk and deer

mortality is mostly caused by predators.

Resources:

For more on dressing deer see the video at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xUpUnG3lrE#t=19

If you are concerned about the food safety of the animal you kill and want to eat, consider

reading Is This Safe To Eat? The publication contains valuable information about various

diseases, parasites, and other afflictions encountered by hunters who kill wild game.

https://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/publications/disease_emergence/Chapter5.pdf

Text copyright Valerie Segrest and Dave Vales, Creative Commons

Vanessa’s Pemmican

Pemmican is well known for it’s high concentration of

nutrients and it’s long shelf life. This combination of fat,

protein and carbohydrate will keep you energized all day.

Traditionally dried meat like venison and elk would be

pounded together with fat and dried berries. Pemmican

makes an excellent snack and was utilized as a travel food.

1 cup dried venison, elk or beef jerky

1 cup dried berries (huckleberry, cranberry, salal or other)

1 cup raw hazelnuts, walnuts, sunflower seeds or almonds

1/3 cup nut butter (hazelnut, almond or peanut butter)

1 tablespoon honey

With a knife, chop meat into very small pieces. Add dried berries, nuts and nut butter in a

food processor, blend well. Add the dried meat and blend well. Store in plastic bags or

containers in a dark, cool place. This will keep for several months.

Recipe from Vanessa Cooper, Lummi

Seared Elk Roast

This easy recipe is a perfect solution to a busy schedule. You will be deeply satisfied with

the results. Elk meat is low in fat and high in nutrients. When slowly cooked it falls apart

and melts in your mouth.

2-3 pound elk roast

Salt (to season meat liberally)

Pepper (to season meat liberally)

Olive oil

4 medium-sized Ozette, red or yellow fin potatoes, cut in large pieces

1 large onion, cut in large pieces

3 carrots, chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

3 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped

1 teaspoon each – dried rosemary, sage and thyme

1 bay leaf

3 cups water or beef broth

Salt and pepper to taste

Rinse elk and pat dry. Salt and pepper all sides liberally. Heat a pan to medium high heat

and sear the roast on all sides. This process locks in the juices and provides an extra

savory flavor to the broth. In the bottom of a slow cooker or roast pan add vegetables,

garlic and herbs then place the seared meat on top. Add broth, bring to a boil on high,

and then turn down to low and let cook for 6-8 hours or until elk comes apart with a fork.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Cook time: 6-8 hours. Serves 6-8

Recipe from Valerie Segrest, Muckleshoot

Duck

Many varieties of birds are traditionally eaten in

the Pacific Northwest including the meat of

upland birds like grouse, ptarmigan, and quail,

the meat of shorebirds, the meat and eggs of

gulls, and especially the meat and eggs of

waterfowl such as swans, geese, and ducks. Our

regions mountainous and coastal terrain not

only affords a huge diversity of edible birdlife,

but it is also located in the middle of the Pacific

Flyway, one of North America’s largest

pathways for migratory birds.

Other name: Whulshootseed: sEalaS

Where Ducks Live: Most of our ducks are seasonal visitors that spend summers further north

and winters in our coastal and inland waters. Dabbling ducks such as Mallards, Widgeons,

Pintail, and Teals inhabit ponds, marshes, and other shallow waters where they browse on

shoreline vegetation, feed off the water’s surface, or dip their heads underwater to reach for

roots, fish, and invertebrates. Diving ducks such as Scaup, Canvasback, Goldeneye, Scoters, and

Mergansers inhabit deeper areas such as lakes, channels, and bays where they frequently

submerge themselves completely in pursuit of fish and invertebrates.

Hunting Duck: All ducks have excellent vision and require careful preparation, cunning, and

skill to hunt. Specialized duck hunting equipment includes nets, traps, spears, clubs, arrows, and

more recently, shotguns. The most efficient means of capturing these tasty waterfowl is a duck

net, but such a net depends on the collaborative work of an entire family to manufacture and use.

Duck nets are traditionally woven from the bark of

willow or stinging nettle that is collected in the

spring or fall and woven throughout the winter

(much like reef nets). The mesh is sized so that

only the larger duck species are captured and

songbirds and small duck species can fly through.

When completed, the entire net is died brown with

hemlock tree bark so that it is camouflaged by the

twilight sky. Duck nets are suspended between

trees across narrow flyways such as rivers, or hung

from poles that are erected in salt marshes. Just

after sunset, duck hunters raise their net, sneak

upstream, and then scare ducks towards the net. When the ducks strike the net, attendants

quickly lower the net and club the ducks that they want to eat. In this manner, a family can

efficiently kill dozens of ducks in one evening.

Ducks were also trapped in smaller numbers using snares and baited hooks. Small leg

loop nooses were hidden amongst the exposed soil of the salt marsh where ducks were likely to

ensnare their feet while foraging for roots. Lower in the estuary, two pointed hooks called throat

gorges were baited with herring, tied in long lines and anchored to the mud flats while the tide

was low. When the tide rose, ducks would dive for the herring, swallow the hook and drown.

Individual ducks were also taken by bow and arrow, spear, club, and hand net. Ducks

have excellent vision and under most circumstances, it is difficult for hunters to get within range

before they flush. However, a cunning technique called “pit lamping” confuses the ducks and

allows the hunters to get very close. After dark, when depth perception is challenging, a team of

two hunters would light a fire or torch at the front of their canoe. They could then paddle right

up to a duck and kill it with an arrow, spear, club, or net. After European contact, mining lamps

(pit lamps), and flashlights replaced torches and shotguns replaced projectiles. Duck blinds are

another traditional technique that enables the hunter to get close to a duck. Blinds are

constructed near duck feeding areas from sticks and limbs. The hunter then waits behind the

screen of vegetation for a flock to land within shooting distance. This method is still used today.

Eating Duck: Roasted or stewed duck is a fatty and flavorful meal. Clean the duck by removing

the head, guts, and feet and hanging the body upside-down for a day or two to allow the blood to

drain. The feathers are removed by hand and any down or small feathers that remain are seared

off over a fire, which adds a smoky flavor. Ducks are skewered and roasted horizontally over a

bed of hot coals, or hung from a rope and slowly spun vertically beside a hot fire until a leg can

be easily torn from the body. The meat can also be boiled with vegetables to make stew.

Flocks of Widgeons and Scoters historically numbered in the tens of thousands and

provided a significant source of food to Aboriginal communities. Some groups, such as the

Kanasisi of the lower Columbia River valley were even named for their reliance on waterfowl.

Kanasisi means “People of the Scoter.”

Text copyright Abe Lloyd, Creative Commons

References:

Castile, G. 1985. The Indians of Puget Sound, the Notebooks of Myron Eels. University of

Washington Press.

Edwards, G. 1979. “Indian Spaghetti”. The Beaver Magazine of the North. Autumn 1979.

Elmendorf W. and Kroeber, A. (1992). The Structure of Twana Culture. WSU Press.

Gunther, E. (1927). Klallam Ethnography. University of Washington Publications in

Anthropology Volme 1, Number 5.

Olson, R. (1936). The Quinault Indians. University of Washington Publications in Anthropology

Volume VI, Number 1.

Turner, N. (2005). The Earth’s Blanket. University of Washington Press.

Photo credits: Duck in water (Abe Lloyd), duck in flight (istock) duck soup (Elise Krohn)

Artwork of duck and cattail by Joe Seymour, duck blind (Edwards 1979)

Duck Soup

This fragrant and comforting soup is sure to warm your chilly bones in

wintertime. Duck imparts a fatty savory medicine that speaks directly

to our taste buds- ensuring satisfaction with every bite. Soups are a

great way to get nourishment into your body. The simmering of

wholesome ingredients like carrots, celery and good quality waterfowl

protein make it easy for your body to obtain the medicine.

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion

1 pound red potatoes

2 carrots

3 celery stalks

2 cups diced duck meat

Pinch of sea salt

Pinch of fresh ground black pepper

2 quarts duck stock

*optional – 1 teaspoon juniper berries

In a large soup pot warm up the oil over medium heat. Add onion, potatoes, carrots, celery and

meat. Add salt and pepper and sauté veggies until they turn translucent. Add stock and duck

meat, then bring to a simmer, allowing to cook for 30 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste and

serve with bannock bread.

Cook time: 45 minutes. Serves 6

Recipe from Valerie Segrest, Muckleshoot Tribe

Leftovers

by Inez Bill, Tulalip Tribes

When I was a young girl, we did not refer to the foods that we

ate as traditional foods. It was simply food that we were

grateful to have, be it breakfast, lunch, or dinner. My family

lived and continues to live a ceremonial way of life. Helping

people and feeding people was something we did as needed

without question. When we had a gathering, people would

bring whatever they had or could for the table. When that

particular occasion was over, we would send leftovers home

with elders and visitors. This is what I remember the food at that time was: ducks, shellfish, fish, deer,

elk, octopus, teas. Some families would share their home-canned berries and fruit, such as peaches,

pears, cherries and plums. As a young person, I would help in the kitchen. We would feed the visitors,

elders and locals. It was not until we fed everyone that we were able to eat. It was a real treat to have

some home canned fruit or even fruit juice.

At the times when we would serve duck soup, if there were any leftovers, sometimes we felt

lucky and excited to be able to take some home. Therefore, the next day my breakfast would be leftover

duck soup before I went to school. We all know that it tastes better the next day. For the most part, our

breakfast was not cheerios or corn flakes with milk, toast and orange juice. Our breakfast was

whatever was available or leftover from the evening meals. That was a time when hunters hunted,

fisherman fished, and families put food away. It really was a simpler, slower, natural way of life.

For a variety of reasons, in the past 40 plus years, we as a people have unfortunately drifted

away from that way of life. We still gather, we still feed, we still pray and dance but the food has

changed due to societal development, which has drastically changed our hunting and gathering sites.

Today areas are polluted and toxic. Our current situation has changed our cultural continuity in

regards to our health and spiritual wellbeing. We have always believed that to have a healthy people

you must have a healthy environment.

Within the past few years, we are collectively, as a people, working towards stabilizing the

natural resources by sharing our concerns with other tribes and state agencies. It is only now that we

are referring to our natural foods as traditional foods, by remembering how to gather them, prepare

them, cook them, and bring these memories to our tables.

Text copyright Inez Bill, Creative Commons

Hazelnut

When the hazelnuts are ripe, trees are

bustling with the sound of busy squirrels

and birds. Their sweet meat is filling,

flavorful and loaded with nutrients that

give us lasting energy and strength.

Other names: Filberts, Corylus cornuta

Whulshootseed: QaPuH

Identifying Hazelnut: Hazelnut trees grow 10 to 15 feet tall with multiple branches that

radiate out from the same root. The appearance of male catkins and tiny ruby-colored

female flowers are a sign of spring. One the female flowers are pollinated they grow into

nuts, which are made up of a hard-shelled pod containing the fruit and seed. A long

protruding husk wraps around each nut and looks like a long-beaked bird, giving this

plant the name “beaked hazelnut.” The nuts can grow alone, but are usually found in

clusters of two or more toward the end of the branches. European hazelnuts have also are

naturalized in the Pacific Northwest and are commonly called filberts. The nuts are

slightly larger, have husks that don’t completely cover the nut, and can be readily found

in supermarkets. The Pacific Northwest is one of the few places that they are grown

commercially in the world.

Where it grows: Hazelnuts grow in shady forests and forest edges. They are most

productive when they are in partial to full sun.

Season: The nuts are harvested in mid to late summer, usually July through September

depending on the season and elevation.

How to harvest: Hazelnuts are delicious but they require some effort to get to it. The

nuts are wrapped in a hairy sheaf that can be difficult to take off. Make sure to harvest

with gloves to avoid the irritating hairs. You can place the nuts in gunnysacks and let the

husks rot off, or you can use heavy gloves to remove them manually. Cure hazelnuts by

drying in a warm place right after harvest, and then store them in a cool dry place.

Eating Hazelnut: Hazelnuts are a late summer delicacy. The outer nut is cracked to

reveal roundish sweet meat, which is high in protein and good quality fats. Hazelnuts are

most nutritious when eaten raw and studies show that people who eat a few nuts a day

significantly reduce their risk of heart disease, type 2

diabetes and dementia. Just a small handful of nuts is rich

in balanced calories that will satiate hunger. They are a

healthy and satisfying replacement for processed snack

foods like chips or cookies.

Roasting hazelnuts brings out their distinct flavor.

After the nuts are cracked and shelled, place them on a

cookie sheet and bake them in the oven for about 10

minutes at about 300 degrees, until they are aromatic and just turning light brown. You

can also dry sauté them in a pan on medium heat until they begin to turn brown.

Hazelnuts are delicious when added to oatmeal, salads, baked goods, meatloaf and pesto.

Lucky for us, many commercially available products are made from European hazelnuts.

Hazelnut butter is expensive but is a delicious spread for sandwiches and toast. You can

also find hazelnut flour in many markets. Hazelnut oil has a nutty flavor and is a healthy

choice for salad dressing and baked goods.

Hazelnuts were an important late winter food for Northwest Coastal Native

People. They were stored in bags buried in the mud or under water, then were dug up in

the harshest months of winter when the spring greens are not yet up and the spring

salmon have not yet returned. The protein and good quality fats in hazelnuts helped

people survive.

In one Salish story, Raccoon could not stop eating the winter store of delicious

hazelnuts his grandmother had carefully set aside in a pit near the plank house, and he

used every trick he knew to steal those nuts. When Grandma finally caught him, she gave

him the black stripes he wears to this day by beating him with a fire-charred stick.

Traditional technologies: Arrows and fish sticks were made from hazel sticks because

they are straight and strong.

Ecological relationships: Hazelnuts are an important food for squirrels and birds. They

also provide nesting habitat for birds.

Additional Resources:

Nature’s Garden by Samuel Thayer

References:

Krohn, E. and Segrest, V. (2010) Feeding the People, Feeding the Spirit. Northwest

Indian College

Thayer, S. (2010). Nature’s Garden. Forager’s Harvest

Turner, N. (1995). Food Plants of Coastal Northwest Peoples. UBC Press.

Photo credits: Hazelnut in husk (Heidi Bohan), hazelnut flower (Andrew McKee),

hazelnut in husk, in shell, and leaves (T. Abe Lloyd).

Art by Joe Seymore

Text copyright Elise Krohn, Creative Commons

Hazelnut, Huckleberry, Salmon Soup

This Skokomish soup was traditionally made in winter with dried berry cakes and

smoked, dried salmon. The first step to this recipe is to find acorns. Crack the nuts and

cut them in smaller pieces, then soak them in water for three days to remove the strong

tannins. The water should be changed three to four times a day. If you do not have

acorns, you can replace them with extra hazelnuts.

2 cups traditionally smoked salmon, pulled apart into small pieces

6 cups water

½ cup acorns, ground

½ cup hazelnuts, ground

2 cups evergreen huckleberries

Salt and pepper to taste

In a crock-pot add salmon, water, acorns and hazelnuts. Cook on low overnight or for

several hours. When the salmon is soft and the broth is flavorful, add the huckleberries

and cook for an additional half an hour. Season to taste.

Cook time: 4-8 hours. Serves 6.

Recipe by Kimberly Miller, Skokomish

Salish Snack Mix

In order to stay strong and keep our energy high, we need

foods that are rich in diverse nutrients including vitamins,

minerals, protein, carbohydrates and good quality fats. This

snack mix is similar to pemmican, a food that is eaten during

physically demanding times including traveling, hunting or

gathering. You don’t need to eat much to feel satiated - about

¼ cup is a nice portion size. Many of these ingredients can be

purchased in bulk, and you can cater the recipe to your own

flavor preferences. Nuts are healthier when they are eaten

raw, but their unique flavor comes out when they are roasted.

Dried Fruit: blueberries, cranberries, salal, currants, plums, raisins

Nuts: hazelnuts, walnuts, almonds

Seeds: pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds

If you choose to roast your nuts, place them on a cookie sheet in

the oven at 300 degrees. Watch them carefully and remove them

once they start to brown and smell roasted. Blend all ingredients

together. Store in a cool dry place. You can also sprinkle this mix

on salad or add it to hot cereal.

Recipe by Vanessa Cooper, Lummi

Hazelnut

When the hazelnuts are ripe, trees are

bustling with the sound of busy squirrels

and birds. Their sweet meat is filling,

flavorful and loaded with nutrients that

give us lasting energy and strength.

Other names: Filberts, Corylus cornuta

Whulshootseed: QaPuH

Identifying Hazelnut: Hazelnut trees grow 10 to 15 feet tall with multiple branches that

radiate out from the same root. The appearance of male catkins and tiny ruby-colored

female flowers are a sign of spring. One the female flowers are pollinated they grow into

nuts, which are made up of a hard-shelled pod containing the fruit and seed. A long

protruding husk wraps around each nut and looks like a long-beaked bird, giving this

plant the name “beaked hazelnut.” The nuts can grow alone, but are usually found in

clusters of two or more toward the end of the branches. European hazelnuts have also are

naturalized in the Pacific Northwest and are commonly called filberts. The nuts are

slightly larger, have husks that don’t completely cover the nut, and can be readily found

in supermarkets. The Pacific Northwest is one of the few places that they are grown

commercially in the world.

Where it grows: Hazelnuts grow in shady forests and forest edges. They are most

productive when they are in partial to full sun.

Season: The nuts are harvested in mid to late summer, usually July through September

depending on the season and elevation.

How to harvest: Hazelnuts are delicious but they require some effort to get to it. The

nuts are wrapped in a hairy sheaf that can be difficult to take off. Make sure to harvest

with gloves to avoid the irritating hairs. You can place the nuts in gunnysacks and let the

husks rot off, or you can use heavy gloves to remove them manually. Cure hazelnuts by

drying in a warm place right after harvest, and then store them in a cool dry place.

Eating Hazelnut: Hazelnuts are a late summer delicacy. The outer nut is cracked to

reveal roundish sweet meat, which is high in protein and good quality fats. Hazelnuts are

most nutritious when eaten raw and studies show that people who eat a few nuts a day

significantly reduce their risk of heart disease, type 2

diabetes and dementia. Just a small handful of nuts is rich

in balanced calories that will satiate hunger. They are a

healthy and satisfying replacement for processed snack

foods like chips or cookies.

Roasting hazelnuts brings out their distinct flavor.

After the nuts are cracked and shelled, place them on a

cookie sheet and bake them in the oven for about 10

minutes at about 300 degrees, until they are aromatic and just turning light brown. You

can also dry sauté them in a pan on medium heat until they begin to turn brown.

Hazelnuts are delicious when added to oatmeal, salads, baked goods, meatloaf and pesto.

Lucky for us, many commercially available products are made from European hazelnuts.

Hazelnut butter is expensive but is a delicious spread for sandwiches and toast. You can

also find hazelnut flour in many markets. Hazelnut oil has a nutty flavor and is a healthy

choice for salad dressing and baked goods.

Hazelnuts were an important late winter food for Northwest Coastal Native

People. They were stored in bags buried in the mud or under water, then were dug up in

the harshest months of winter when the spring greens are not yet up and the spring

salmon have not yet returned. The protein and good quality fats in hazelnuts helped

people survive.

In one Salish story, Raccoon could not stop eating the winter store of delicious

hazelnuts his grandmother had carefully set aside in a pit near the plank house, and he

used every trick he knew to steal those nuts. When Grandma finally caught him, she gave

him the black stripes he wears to this day by beating him with a fire-charred stick.

Traditional technologies: Arrows and fish sticks were made from hazel sticks because

they are straight and strong.

Ecological relationships: Hazelnuts are an important food for squirrels and birds. They

also provide nesting habitat for birds.

Additional Resources:

Nature’s Garden by Samuel Thayer

References:

Krohn, E. and Segrest, V. (2010) Feeding the People, Feeding the Spirit. Northwest

Indian College

Thayer, S. (2010). Nature’s Garden. Forager’s Harvest

Turner, N. (1995). Food Plants of Coastal Northwest Peoples. UBC Press.

Photo credits: Hazelnut in husk (Heidi Bohan), hazelnut flower (Andrew McKee),

hazelnut in husk, in shell, and leaves (T. Abe Lloyd).

Art by Joe Seymore

Text copyright Elise Krohn, Creative Commons

Hazelnut, Huckleberry, Salmon Soup

This Skokomish soup was traditionally made in winter with dried berry cakes and

smoked, dried salmon. The first step to this recipe is to find acorns. Crack the nuts and

cut them in smaller pieces, then soak them in water for three days to remove the strong

tannins. The water should be changed three to four times a day. If you do not have

acorns, you can replace them with extra hazelnuts.

2 cups traditionally smoked salmon, pulled apart into small pieces

6 cups water

½ cup acorns, ground

½ cup hazelnuts, ground

2 cups evergreen huckleberries

Salt and pepper to taste

In a crock-pot add salmon, water, acorns and hazelnuts. Cook on low overnight or for

several hours. When the salmon is soft and the broth is flavorful, add the huckleberries

and cook for an additional half an hour. Season to taste.

Cook time: 4-8 hours. Serves 6.

Recipe by Kimberly Miller, Skokomish

Salish Snack Mix

In order to stay strong and keep our energy high, we need

foods that are rich in diverse nutrients including vitamins,

minerals, protein, carbohydrates and good quality fats. This

snack mix is similar to pemmican, a food that is eaten during

physically demanding times including traveling, hunting or

gathering. You don’t need to eat much to feel satiated - about

¼ cup is a nice portion size. Many of these ingredients can be

purchased in bulk, and you can cater the recipe to your own

flavor preferences. Nuts are healthier when they are eaten

raw, but their unique flavor comes out when they are roasted.

Dried Fruit: blueberries, cranberries, salal, currants, plums, raisins

Nuts: hazelnuts, walnuts, almonds

Seeds: pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds

If you choose to roast your nuts, place them on a cookie sheet in

the oven at 300 degrees. Watch them carefully and remove them

once they start to brown and smell roasted. Blend all ingredients

together. Store in a cool dry place. You can also sprinkle this mix

on salad or add it to hot cereal.

Recipe by Vanessa Cooper, Lummi

Huckleberry

What could be more rewarding than wandering through the

woods and finding a bush covered in ripe huckleberries? In

the Northwest, there are more than 12 species of this tasty

berry, which range from the coast to the high mountains.

Huckleberries are one of the most important traditional

foods and also one of the healthiest.

Other names: Whulshootseed: (blue huckleberry) wedafX, (red huckleberry) sTixib

Identifying Huckleberry: Huckleberries come in many sizes. Dwarf whortleberry

(Vaccinium scoparium) is a mere six inches tall and is covered in tiny red berries that

would satisfy a mouse, while the bigger mountain blueberries and huckleberries are large

enough for a bear to gorge on and get full. All huckleberry fruits have a circular “crown”

on the opposite side from the stem. Berry colors range from orangey-red to purple to deep

blue-black.

Red Huckleberry (Vaccinium parvifolium). You will find

red huckleberry growing from nurse logs in shady forested

areas on the west slope of the Cascades. It grows to 12 feet

tall. Stems are angular and green, and the deciduous leaves

are lime green with smooth edges. The leaves of young

bushes remain on the bush throughout the winter. Greenishwhite bell shaped flowers bloom in April through July.

Pink to orange-red fruit is round and up to 1/2 inch in diameter. Berries are ripe in June to

August and are usually harvested right off the bush.

Evergreen Huckleberry (Vaccinium ovatum). You will find evergreen huckleberry in

gravelly or sandy soil in evergreen forests, open woodlands and clear cuts near the ocean.

This bushy evergreen shrub grows to 8 feet tall. Leaves are leathery with toothed edges

and a strong central vein. Flowers are white to pink and bell shaped. Berries are dark blue

to black, about ¼ inch in diameter, and are ripe in August through November when most

other berries have passed. They are sweetest after the first frost.

Many people cut whole branches of evergreen huckleberry that are covered with

ripe berries. Evergreen huckleberry benefits from some pruning and the small berries are

time-consuming to harvest, so many people prefer to do this at home. Make sure to take

less than 20% of a plant, and act as if you are pruning it. Cut stems at an angle with sharp

clean clippers. Proper pruning will help the plant to be more healthy and productive in the

coming years!

Evergreen huckleberry takes well to cultivation in

the home garden. These handsome bushes prefer partial to

full sun, but are intolerant of the cold winters experienced

in the mountains or east of the Cascades. Many nurseries

carry evergreen huckleberry and they are becoming popular

in native plant landscaping and restoration projects.

Huckleberry Medicine

Wherever you go in Indian country, people will tell

you that their huckleberries are the best kind of all.

This shows us how important huckleberries are to

the culture. Many people look forward to summer

as the time of berry picking. Huckleberries are not

only one of the most important cultural foods to

Salish People, they are also one of the healthiest.

Blueberries and huckleberries do not raise blood

sugar and are an important food for pre-diabetics

and diabetics. They are high in antioxidants, which help protect the body from the effects

of high blood sugar including diabetic retinopathies, kidney damage and poor tissue

healing. Recent research studies suggest that blueberries and huckleberries also lower

cholesterol, slow age-related dementia and reduce tumor formation. They are also

excellent for heart health and can ease varicose veins and hemorrhoids.

Huckleberries and blueberries contain arbutin, a plant compound that helps to

fight bacteria often associated with urinary tract and bladder infections. The berry juice or

the leaf tea can be used as a preventative and a treatment.

If you cannot gather your own huckleberries or blueberries, you can buy them

frozen in most stores throughout the year. They are relatively inexpensive to buy in bulk

at food coops. If possible, buy wild harvested or organic berries. You can add them to hot

cereal, sprinkle them on cold cereal, or mix them into dressings, sauces and desserts.

Cooking them actually increases their antioxidant content. The recommended daily

amount for health benefits is ½ cup a day. If you want to grow your own, Rubel

blueberries are available at many plant nurseries, which are close to huckleberry in

antioxidant content and flavor.

Huckleberry leaf tea: Huckleberry and blueberry leaves are as high in antioxidants as the

berries, and they can help to lower blood sugar levels. Harvest the leaves in spring

through summer when they are fully developed and

still a vibrant green color. Prune a few branches off

each bush, and then hang them in a warm dry place

out of the sunlight. When the leaves are fully dry,

strip them from the branches into a basket and then

store them in paper bags or glass jars. Use 1

tablespoon per cup boiled water and steep 10-15

minutes. Drink 2-3 cups a day. The leaves will last

about a year.

Text copyright Elise Krohn, Creative Commons

Big Huckleberry

“The berry to this day is considered by some to be worth its

weight in gold. The nutritional value alone places this food

gift in a very unique category, the medicinal properties which

can address some really serious health issues among Native

communities in the 21st century.”

-Warren KingGeorge, Muckleshoot Indian Tribe

Identifying Big Huckleberry: Big huckleberry (Vaccinium membranaceum) is a

deciduous shrub that is typically two to four feet tall. It has oval shaped, finely toothed,

somewhat translucent greenish-yellow leaves that taper to a fine “drip tip.” The urnshaped blossoms are round, wider than long, and pinkish white. They bloom just after the

snow melts, and are pollinated by long-nosed bumblebees. The fruits are shiny, about ¼½” around and very dark purple.

Plant taxonomists recognize fourteen species of Vaccinium in the Pacific

Northwest, some of which share the same habitat as big huckleberry. These include ovalleaf blueberry (V. ovalifolium), which has oval leaves with smooth margins, and a silvery

“bloom” on the dark blue, rather tart berries; Cascade blueberry (V. deliciosum), which

has steely blue berries, is very low growing and is typically found in colder areas and

open subalpine meadows; and grouse whortleberry (V. scoparium), which is also low

growing and an indicator of colder habitats, but has tiny red berries. All of these are tasty,

but many berry enthusiasts will argue that none are as delicious or nutritious as big

huckleberry.

Where it grows: As you climb in elevation from the lowlands and foothills on the west

slopes of the Cascade Mountains to about 4000 feet, western hemlock and western red

cedar give way to dense stands of Pacific silver-fir and mountain hemlock forests, which

occasionally open out to beautiful meadows of big huckleberry. In the late summer when

the air is tinged with the cool breezes of fall, the sweet, purple-black fruits can be

prolific. In relatively open meadows, big huckleberry may produce up to 100 gallons per

acre of delicious and highly nutritious fruit in a single season!

How to Harvest: Harvesting big huckleberry is not complicated if you know where to

find them. All that is required is a container to gather them in, patience, and a friend who

is generous enough to share the location of their favorite gathering place! Choose a

container that you can hang around your neck to leave both hands free for gathering. If

you are not lucky enough to have a woven gathering basket, a coffee can with rope

attached, or a one-gallon plastic milk jug with a strap attached to the handle and an

opening cut near the top of the jug opposite the handle will do.

Although some people use huckleberry rakes to harvest the berries more quickly,

many elders believe that berry rakes damage the bushes by stripping the leaves and

therefore should not be used. Walk carefully in berry patches to avoid breaking branches

and damaging the plants, and be sure to move around and take just a few berries from any

Text copyright Joyce LeCompte, Creative Commons

one location. In that way, we ensure that we leave enough food for all of the other critters

that rely on this tasty fruit. Finally, watch out for bears!

If you are lucky enough to have gathered enough huckleberries to preserve for

later use, you may want to can or freeze them. Canning does not require the addition of

any sugar or syrup, but heat processing does destroy some of huckleberry’s vitamin C

content. If you have enough room in your freezer, the easiest way to preserve berries is to

freeze them on cookie sheets, then save them in airtight plastic bags.

Eating Big Huckleberry: Northwest Coast people have

been journeying to the mountains for at least 6,000 years

to harvest this delicious fruit. Many Native communities

historically held a berry ceremony where an elder or

community leader would determine when the berries

were ripe, and the people would honor that food before it

was harvested.

The berries were traditionally gathered in hard,

coiled cedar-root baskets that were suspended from the

neck, and then smoke-dried or dried in the sun on hides

or smooth, flat rocks. Once dried, the people would pack

the little raisin-like fruits in large baskets and cover them with leaves for the journey back

to their winter villages. There they would be stored “as is,” or reconstituted with a little

water and formed into loaves and put away for the winter, when they would be eaten

without further preparation or added to soups and stews. Each family may have harvested

enough berries to put away as much as 10 gallons of the dried fruit in a given year. Big

huckleberries are especially prized today for their health enhancing properties. Unlike

many other fruits, this berry is loaded with antioxidants and does not raise blood sugar, so

it is an excellent choice for diabetics.

While big huckleberry season is an important food gathering time, it is also an

important social gathering time. In the past, people would stay in the mountains for three

or four weeks at a time during huckleberry season. Particular places were well known and

drew large groups of people from a wide area year after year. In this way, the berry

meadows were places of ecological and cultural diversity where a variety of activities

took place, including the making of marriage arrangements between families, trading,

games of skill and chance, and horse racing.

Ecological Relationships: Big huckleberry needs sun in order to produce its fruit in

abundance. It is tolerant of fire – in fact, it was one of the very first plants to return to the

slopes of Mt. St. Helens after the mountain erupted in 1980! Northwest Coast people

were well aware of big huckleberry’s need for sunlight. Historically, they would burn the

meadows where big huckleberry grows to prevent trees from encroaching on them.

For many plants and animals, big huckleberry meadows are an oasis of food and

light in an otherwise densely forested landscape. Deer and elk, black and grizzly bear,

mountain beaver, marmot, and other small mammals, as well as several species of

resident and migratory birds, rely on the foliage and fruit of big huckleberry and the other

plants that grow along with it. Northwest Coast people also hunted all of these animals

Text copyright Joyce LeCompte, Creative Commons

during their stay in huckleberry camp. Along with the big huckleberry, the people also

gathered many other plants for food, medicine and basketry, some of which are found

only in the mountains.

Additional Resources:

Wild Berries of Washington and Oregon by T. Abe Lloyd and Fiona Chambers. Lone

Pine.

Huckleberry video: https://vimeo.com/190192508

Photos:

All photos by Elise Krohn

Artwork by Joe Seymour

References:

Anzinger, D. (2002). Big huckleberry (Vaccinium membranaceum Dougl.) ecology and

forest succession, Mt. Hood National Forest and Warm Springs Indian

Reservation, Oregon. Corvallis, University of Oregon. MS.

Burtchard, G. C. (2003 [1998]). Environment, Prehistory & Archaeology of Mount

Rainier National Park, Washington. Seattle, WA, National Park Service.

Deur, D. (2002). Huckleberry Mountain traditional use study: final report, National Park

Service and USDA Forest Service (Rogue River National Forest)

Hitchcock, L. and Cronquist, A. (1973). Flora of the Pacific Northwest. University of

Washington Press.

Mack, C. A. and R. H. Mcclure (2001). "Vaccinium processing in the Washington

Cascades." Journal of Ethnobiology. 22: 35-60.

Mierendorf, R. R., et al. (1986). People of the North Cascades. Seattle, Wash., North

Cascades National Park Service Complex: Cultural Resources Division, Pacific

Northwest Region.

Pojar, J. and MacKinnon, A. (1994). Plants of the Pacific Northwest. Lone Pine

Smith, Allan H. (2006). Takhoma: Ethnography of Mount Rainier National Park.

Pullman: Oregon State University Press.

Huckleberry Medicine

A Coast Salish Story as told by Roger Fernandes, Lower

Elwha Klallam Tribe

A long time ago a man had a daughter who became very

sick. She was unable to eat and was in great pain. The

family tried all the remedies they knew, but nothing

worked. She became sicker every day. She was becoming

weaker.

The family called for Indian doctors to come and treat her. They tried all their medicine,

but nothing worked. She became sicker. The man was afraid she would die if a cure was

not found.

One night, before he went to sleep, the man prayed to the spirits to please help his

daughter.

A plant came to him in a dream that night. The plant taught him a song. The plant told

the man to go up into the mountains the next morning, singing the song. When he knew it

was time, he should stop singing and the medicine he needed would be there.

The man awoke and went into the mountains, singing that song. He went a long way, but

finally knew he should stop singing. He looked down and there was the Huckleberry

bush. The man picked the berries and took them back to the village. The girl was too

weak to eat so he pressed the juice from them and had her drink the juice. She got a little

better.

The next day he mashed the berries and feed them to her. Again, she felt better. Finally

after several days she was able to eat the whole berry. She was well now.

The people asked what he had done and how she got better. He explained about the

dream and the berries. The people did not believe him. They said it could not be from a

simple berry.

That night the man had another dream and a voice spoke to him. It said that the juice of

the huc

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