The Nez Perce and
Use of the Common Camas
Bryan Peterson
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What is a Camas?
The Harvest
Preparation and Cooking
Preservation of the Camas
Where Are All the Camas?
How to Identify a Camas Prairie
Conclusion
Works Cited
Introduction
There is no doubt that Native Americans utilized the environment
in which they lived. The many uses of forest products as well as the
multiple uses of land topography contributed to the survival of many
great tribes. The utilization of fire, for instance, to clear brush
and other impediments from the forest floors so as to more easily
gather acorns, is a good example. Burning also prepared a seedbed
that was rich in nutrients for plant uptake. This made natural
regeneration as well as propagation of other plants very easy.
Native Americans utilized the new growth of forbs and nutritious
greens, which followed a burn, to attract game such as deer and elk
that was hunted for food. The open savanna terrain that fire created
was also more suitable for hunting because of the increased
visibility. Fire helped many different tribes stimulate the natural
production of food. However, the purpose of this paper is to educate
on the Nez Perce usage of Camas.
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What is a Camas?
Common Camas, or (Camassia Quamash), is a plant that grows
in open savannas or in open wet prairie lands distributed throughout
the United States. It is a native plant in the states and appears to
be a flower with a two to three inch edible bulb. Many different
tribes utilized this plant, such as the Nez Perce. The Nez Perce are
a tribe based in Idaho and depended on the camas as a food source as
well as a form of currency. Currently, the Nez Perce reservation is
located in north central Idaho.
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The Harvest
The following are early agricultural practices of the Nez Perce
tribe, taken from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural
Resource Conservation Service:
The bulbs were usually dug after flowering, in
summer, although some peoples dug them in spring. Harvesting the
bulbs traditionally took weeks or months among the Nez Perce.
Each family group “owned” its own camping spot and harvesting
spot. These were passed down in families from generation to
generation. Turf was lifted out systematically in small sections
and then replaced after only larger bulbs had been removed. The
bulbs were dug with a pointed digging stick. Bulbs were broken
up and replanted. Annual controlled burning was used to maintain
an open prairie-like habitat for optimum camas production. Areas
were harvested only every few years. (USDA, NRCS)
Camas provided a generous source of food for the Nez Perce. Their
use patterns indicate a level of domestication of the crop than is
higher than is generally reported for this species. The author
believes that the management of the camas prairies qualifies as
agriculture and that the species deserves some attention as a
potential agricultural crop. Additionally, the fact that it
suggested that the Nez Perce tribe showed ownership of land was
another interesting implication. Notice that the word “owned” is in
quotes, so actual ownership like we would think of it today was not
the case. The fact that certain family groups had different plots of
land that was passed on through generations definitely shows a
certain possession of the land even if it is territorial. The
ownership of land that is talked about in this quote is basically a
right of use, not much different that a mineral right.
The Nez Perce managed a vast area of prairie and open savannas as
camas beds. Typically, the harvesting of the camas was done by the
women of the tribe, as the men were out hunting and fishing.
Harvesting camas was not an easy process. Much like harvesting
potatoes the camas had to be dug up to acquire the bulb. A digging
stick was typically used to do this. Only the large camas bulbs were
taken, if the bulbs were too small they were left for seed, unless
they were trying to expand their camas field by breaking up larger
bulbs and replanting for seed.
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Preparing and Cooking
One had to be very cautious when picking camas because of a
similar camas, Zygadenus nuttallii or death camas, that was
poisonous. The only difference in the appearance of the death camas
was that instead of blue flowers it had white. The harvesting of
camas typically took place after the flowers have already fallen off
so one had to know, remember that is, which plants were good and
which plants were bad. In my opinion, the death camas were more than
likely weeded out of the fields where harvesting took place when the
flowers were still on the plants so distinguishing one from another
was still easily possible. Once the camas were harvested they could
either be eaten raw or they could be pit cooked, which is by far the
more popular way of eating the camas. One typical method of pit
cooking is as follows, described in a memoir by Herbert Joseph
Spinden:
A pit from six to ten feet in diameter and about
three feet deep was lined with split dry wood to the depth of
almost one foot. Upon this wood was placed a layer of smooth
stones averaging about five inches in diameter. The wood was set
on fire and the stones allowed to become red hot. When the fire
had burned down the stones were leveled and some earth and a
layer of coarse grasses were spread over them. Then twenty or
thirty bushels of camas bulbs, which had been previously cleaned
and the black outer layers of the bulbs removed with the
fingers, were thrown into the pits and arranged in a conical
heap. The white bulbs were then covered with a layer of grass,
some two or three inches thick. After this, water was poured on
till the steam began to rise, and then the entire heap was
covered with several inches of dry earth. Sometimes a fire was
kindled around the base of the heap. The bulbs were allowed to
steam for from twelve hours to three days. If cooked for the
shorter period the grass was removed and the roots permitted to
steam themselves dry, like boiled potatoes, and were then
commonly placed on scaffolds and further dried in the sun. After
having been cooked the roots were no longer white, but brown or
black, and had a much sweeter taste than when in the natural
state. They were fit for use immediately after being taken from
the pit, but soon spoiled if not subjected to further treatment.
(Spinden 201-201)
Another method of outdoor cooking for regions high in clay
content is to dig out a box or stove like hole in the side of a clay
rich hill and start a fire inside of it. The fire will dry out the
clay and harden it while it is being heated. When the fire goes out
or desired temperature is reached you remove the ashes and put what
ever is to be cooked into your makeshift oven and seal off the
opening (Peterson). Essentially the above pit method is the same.
Like any other cooking, spices or herbs could have been added into
the pit to flavor the camas. When cooking the camas for an extended
period of time (three days was common), more than likely a fire was
made around or on top of the pit to reheat the stones. Water would
also have to be re-added in order to create more steam to cook the
camas. Overall it was a very time intensive process.
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Preservation of the Camas
Further treatment of the camas that would help to preserve them
is described below:
Further treatment usually consisted in pounding
up the soft roots into a sort of dough and forming them into
loaves which were rolled in grass and again subjected to
steaming. Fresh bulbs were placed in the pit along with these
loaves to permit the free passage of the steam. When taken out a
second time, the loaves were made over into smaller cakes and
dried in the sun or over the camp fire. These cakes were
irregular in shape and from one-half to three-quarters of an
inch in thickness. When kept out of the moisture they remained
fresh for a long time. They resembled plug tobacco in color and
pliancy. When the initial steaming extended over a period of two
or three days, the roots when uncovered were found to be
converted into a dark-brown glue-like mass. From this, gruel was
made for immediate consumption and sun-dried loaves for future
use.
Camas was also sometimes simply boiled in water and in this
condition resembled mealy potatoes. It was occasionally reduced by
boiling to a sort of syrup or molasses. (Spinden 202)
Preserving the camas took a little more effort than the initial
steaming of the roots as explained in the previous paragraphs.
However, a lot of the time the extra effort was required to store
the camas for the winter months and even for the summer. Naturally,
food that keeps longer is going to be more valuable than food that
will spoil in a week. Drying is a standard method for preserving
food.
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Where Are All the Camas?
Today, camas are not so easily found because a lot of the natural
prairies where they used to grow have now been converted into
agriculture. Not to blame the massive loss of camas habitat on
farmers, who more than likely were oblivious to the fact. It seems
to me that the places where camas grew were ideally located where
agriculture would also thrive. The camas grew in wet moist loamy
soils that were very rich in nutrients. These prairies were very
large and probably flat for the most part which, would make it ideal
for converting into “modern” agriculture. In simple terms the most
work needed to turn a camas prairie into a modern agricultural field
would have been to dig drainage ditches to regulate the water in
your new field. There were no trees to have to cut down or brush to
clear.
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How to Identify a Camas Prairie
The scale of the camas culture seems quite large from historic
accounts. The average size camas patch needed to feed a five person
family was 2.7 ha (Thoms 1989). That is a substantial area for just
one family. To have enough camas to support a whole tribe would have
amounted to thousands of hectares. According to the journal of
Meriwether Lewis on June 12, 1806,
…the quawmash in now in blume and from the colour
of its bloom at a short distance it resembles lakes of fine
clear water, so complete is this deception than on first sight I
could have swarn it was water.
This indicates fairly large-scale plantings of this species.
Camas prairies served an additional purpose of acting as a natural
game attractant. The food resource provided by the camas as well as
other food sources in the area, such as deer, fish and edible
greens, would have been a very nutritious diet.
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Conclusion
Camas provided one of the food bases for the Nez Perce. The
production system used has the resemblance of low-impact
agriculture. While much of the camas prairies have been destroyed
after agricultural and other development in the area, this species
deserves additional attention as a potential new agricultural crop.
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Works Cited
Lewis, Meriwether. 1806. From PBS Online-Lewis and Clark: The
Archive, The Journals.
<www.pbs.org/lewisandclark/archive/intro.html>.
Thoms, A. 1989. The northern roots of hunter-gatherer
intensification: Camas and the Pacific Northwest. PhD
dissertation. Dept. of Anthropology, Washington State University.
Pullman, WA. 521 pp.
US Dept. of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service.
2007 Technical Notes, Plant Materials No. 25. June 2000
<http://www.NRCS.USDA.gov>
US Dept. of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service.
2007 Plant Guide 13 March 2007 <http://www.NRCS.USDA.gov>
Kindscher, Kelly. Edible Wild Plants of the Prairie.
University Press of Kansas, 1987.
Spinden, Herbert J. The Nez Perce Indians. American
Anthropological Association Volume 2, 1907-1915.
Bjorklund, Laura. Personal interview. 12 March 2007.
Peterson, Bryan. Personal interview. 3 April 2007.
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