Come spring, thousands of qáwm’, or camas, flowers will blanket Cowlitz Indian Tribe’s tribal land.
The tribe is celebrating a successful volunteer campaign planting more than 10,000 camas bulbs.
Donning ponchos and galoshes, a fleet of more than 60 volunteers fanned out across a grassy field on the third annual qáwm’ planting day Dec. 9. Organizers passed out black nursery trays filled with camas bulbs to attendees.
Then, they got to work, using skinny, tapered shovels to dig shallow holes in the wet soil before filling them with a handful of compost and a camas bulb. The event was successful — volunteers planted more than 10,000 bulbs in December. It’s the tribe’s third year hosting the events — a win for food sovereignty, giving tribal citizens the means to deepen their relationship with camas — and they grow more popular each year.
After its first event in 2021, the tribe split the project into 1-acre parcels, where they will plant thousands of bulbs each year.
More than a food
The Cowlitz Tribe conducted a survey in 2020 that found only a small percentage of Cowlitz tribal citizens were familiar with the tribe’s staple first foods like camas and wapato.
The camas planting events are part of the tribe’s efforts to bolster citizens’ cultural knowledge and familiarity with first foods and provide an opportunity for elders and community members to share vital cultural knowledge.
The effort is a collaboration between the Cowlitz’s Health and Human Services and Natural Resources departments.
Since colonization, camas prairies have come under increasing threats from habitat destruction and urban encroachment, leading to a decline. Before colonization, vast, grassy meadows and wetlands serving as camas habitat once blanketed the Pacific Northwest. Since colonization, its typical habitat has been lost to threats like agricultural conversion, wetland drainage and urban and invasive species encroachment.
The Cowlitz’s commitment to dedicated camas prairies is combatting the issue in their homeland.
Edible camas, a bulb-producing lily flower, is primarily known for its violet-purple blossoms that pop up in the mid-spring months — but its bulbs are also an essential first food for many tribes in the Pacific Northwest, including the Cowlitz.
Camas hold deep significance for many Indigenous communities in the Pacific Northwest. Traditionally used as a staple food source, camas bulbs are a crucial first food containing high levels of carbohydrates.
Plant knowledge is essential when it comes to harvesting camas, as there are a variety of camas species, and some are inedible.
Traditionally, camas bulbs are slow-roasted in an earthen pit oven over many hours. Specific methods and plants utilized in the oven’s composition vary between tribes.
Today, more modern cooking methods can be used when cooking camas. Still, the slow-roasting is key — camas bulbs contain inulin, a prebiotic fiber compound that research has linked to health benefits like helping control diabetes, and the slow-roast method converts the inulin into a digestible compound.
Camas can be preserved and used throughout the year. Camas harvest nourishes not only the body but also the mind and spirit of many Native peoples whose ongoing relationship with camas has persisted for thousands of years.
The bulbs are harvested in late spring or early summer when the flowers are in bloom. Camas are perennial, meaning they return each year from the same root system. Many families have been harvesting the same camas prairies for generations.
Large fields of camas carefully tended over thousands of years through controlled burning and rotating harvest continue producing this vital resource, and the Cowlitz’s commitment to providing resources to create new fields and sharing knowledge with its citizens assures this knowledge transfer will continue for future generations.
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