cooking camas and bitter root
TRANSCRIPT
Cooking Camas and Bitter RootAuthor(s): Harry Turney-HighSource: The Scientific Monthly, Vol. 36, No. 3 (Mar., 1933), pp. 262-263Published by: American Association for the Advancement of ScienceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/15372 .
Accessed: 07/05/2014 13:56
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].
.
American Association for the Advancement of Science is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve andextend access to The Scientific Monthly.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 169.229.32.136 on Wed, 7 May 2014 13:56:51 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
262 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY
number of individuals than all other families of large plants combined.
VALUE oF GRAssEs The most valuable crops in the world
are grasses-the cereals, sugar-cane, bamboo and hay. Statistics do not in- clude the grass on ranges and pastures which is consumed directly by animals without going into commerce, where its value can be recorded. In the United States, maize, hay, wheat, barley, oats and rye have an annual worth of about six billion dollars.
SUMMARY The geologic Age of Mammals was, in
large measure, made possible by the for- mation of grasslands.
The almost exclusive food-supply of primitive man was the meat of the animals which lived upon grass or which
preyed upon grass-eating animals. Early man was a nomad, following these animals from one grassland to another.
Every known civilization had its be- ginning in the cultivation of one or an- other of the cereal grasses.
At present, grasses furnish all the breadstuffs and most of the meat and sugar consumed by man. They also supply housing material for millions of people in the tropics.
Grasses are adapted for growth in a greater diversity of environmental con- dition than are any other large plants. Probably the greatest portion of the earth's dry-land surface is covered by grasses.
In general, human existence and civil- ization have thus far been very closely related to the natural and agricultural importance of grasses.
COOKING CAMAS AND BITTER ROOT By Professor HARRY TURNEY-HIGH
DEPARTMENT Or ECONOMICS AND SOCIOLOGY, THE UNIVERSITY Or MONTANA
Now that the old way of life is passing so quickly in western Montana, the local anthropology staff is frequently asked about the ways the Interior Salish tribe of Flatheads (improperly so-called) pre- pared their staple vegetable foods, the root of the camas (Quamasia quamash), and the bitter root (Lewisia rediviva). The process is becoming increasingly difcult to observe. For with every re- curring bitter root season, we notice fewer and fewer tipis pitched on the flats south of the university. The cul- ture of the Salish is passing, along with their grand old men, whose descendants are not content to be Men Without Ma- chines. The rapid diffusion of the easy Woolworth-pot-and-pan complex has perhaps made the following cooking method impossible ever to see again. I am deeply indebted to my friend, Mr. John Frohlicher, who has lived longer
among the Salish and has witnessed the preparation of the feast untainted by white culture oftener than I have, for this description.
The roots of the two foregoing plants have been, and to a considerable extent, still are, the primary cause of the spring- time tribal movement of these semi- nomadic people from their winter game areas around Flathead Lake to the re- gions where the plants are plentiful. The eamas root is found in appreciable quantities north of Flathead Lake on the old lake bed, and southwest of the lake on its former channel to the Columbia. The bitter root is found in great quan- tities on the flats on which the city of Missoula and the campus of the State University of Montana now stand, as well as in the Bitter Root Valley, which extends many miles south of Missoula.
It must be remembered that these peo-
This content downloaded from 169.229.32.136 on Wed, 7 May 2014 13:56:51 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
COOKING CAMAS AND BITTER ROOT 263
ple of the northern part of the Plateau culture area are tribes without pottery or even basketry, unless they could trade with their cousins, the Nez Perces, for the latter. The ancient method of pre- paring the camas bulb is a variant of the pit-baking process. A pit about 10 feet long and from 2 to 3 feet wide is dug, and a fire of intense heat is therein kindled. The Salish prefer to use cot- tonwood limbs and bark for this fire, since they burn longer than the conifers so plentiful in this region.
When the wood is reduced to glowing coals, red willow sticks with the sap still in them are crisscrossed over the fire-bed in the form of a gridiron. Over this is laid a blanket of green grass, ordinarily the abundant bunch-grass, some 2 to 3 inches thick. Upon this, in turn, is placed a layer of moist earth. The final layer of this blanket consists of another coating of green grass. Then the camas roots are dumped into the pit. The mass is covered with more grass and a thick layer of earth. Another fire is now kin- dled on top of the heap, and kept alive from twelve to eighteen hours, when it is raked away and the oven opened for the prepared food.
The camas roots are then found cooked to the consistency of boiled beets. They are sometimes eaten raw. But in that state they have an unpleasant bitterness which is lost in the cooking. Actually, the camas bulbs have very little nutri- tive value, and, like our cooked onions, should be considered a condiment.
The bitter root is considered edible only when the plant is in flower. So at the time when this charming blossom is dotting the valleys, the tribesmen gather at the sites where the herb is plentiful. The women and children are then busily engaged in digging the roots while the gentlemen amuse themselves. The older Indians assert that the common way of cooking bitter root in the old days was
similar to the hot pit method described for the camas. However, the root was often dried for winter use and stored in parfieches. In this instance, they were usually ground into a flour, a paste made and baked into cakes about the size of a small pancake. Modern Salish have dis- covered that the cakes keep as well as the unprepared dried roots, and are very apt to save labor by cooking their win- ter 's supply into cakes immediately after the harvest. As it is said of olives, the bitter flavor of these cakes does not often appeal to the novice, but a taste for them may be acquired.
As with modern military empires, the ecology of the food plants and animals of the Northwest had profound effects upon the relations of the Flatheads with their neighbors. The camas and bitter root are not found on the semi-arid plains, and the Plains type Indians, lacking adequate vegetable food, sought treaties with the Salish monopolists, en- abling them to enter the valleys and gather the plants. In exchange for this privilege, the Plains people were to per- mit the Salish to enter the eastern grass lands in search of the bison. However, these treaties were rarely kept. The mil- itant Piegan Blackfeet often scorned to ask permission of the Salish, whom they despised, to enter the valleys to gather roots. On the other hand, the Salish, seemingly bent on losing their hair, claimed an inalienable, ancient right to enter the Plains whenever they saw fit. These treaty rights and the violation of them made this country a shambles for centuries. Whatever else may be charged against the white man in western Mon- tana, and his record is no more hon- orable than need be, his presence and that of his army undoubtedly kept the fierce Blackfeet from completing the process of exterminating the numerically inconsequential " gentle Salish" whom Lewis and Clark loved.
This content downloaded from 169.229.32.136 on Wed, 7 May 2014 13:56:51 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions