Leaning forward, Gordon Max Najera Jr. of the Port Gamble S’klallam Tribe used his weight to push the sharp edge of a ground-lifting tool into the soil. An avid clam-digger, he said he saw similarities between harvesting the beach-dwelling shellfish and the prairie-grown camas bulbs.
Najera was one of dozens of tribal members who gathered in May for a multi-day, intertribal campout on Whidbey Island to engage with the traditional prairie food.
The group learned how to identify previously bloomed camas in a sea of greenery on the island, dig it out of the soil, clean and peel the bulbs, wrap them in the leaves of wetland plants, dig a firepit in the ground, layer vegetation and soil around the wrapped bulbs, stoke the underground oven, unearth the cooked camas two days later, and serve and savor the sticky balls of starch.
“It’s definitely a great learning experience to see how they had to do it back in the day,” Najera said of the long and labor-intensive process.
“I think about our ancestors; the ones who perfected this science, this art, this way of life,” said Laura Price, cultural director of Port Gamble S’klallam. “I’m really proud to be a part of this.”
Like for Najera, many campers, youth and adults alike, experienced camas for the first time at the event. Some spoke about it around the earthen oven as it began to smolder.
“This was really my first time to acknowledge her,” said Tayna Greene of the Tulalip Tribes, describing camas as a relative, similar to how salmon are viewed by Coast Salish people. “This was my first opportunity to see her. This was my first opportunity to touch her.”
Like for Najera, many campers, youth and adults alike, experienced camas for the first time at the event. Some spoke about it around the earthen oven as it began to smolder.
“This was really my first time to acknowledge her,” said Tayna Greene of the Tulalip Tribes, describing camas as a relative, similar to how salmon are viewed by Coast Salish people. “This was my first opportunity to see her. This was my first opportunity to touch her.”
It was also, for Greene and most participants, a first opportunity to taste camas. Event organizer Sam Qol7ánten Barr, a member of Samish Indian Nation and program director of the Coast Salish Youth Coalition, said he hopes the community of tribal members reconnecting with camas will continue to grow.
“For many of us, it has been three or four generations since this food has been tasted,” Barr said. “We’re rebuilding it, we’re protecting it, we’re making sure it goes forward.”
The annual event on Whidbey Island is hosted by the Coast Salish Youth Coalition as an opportunity for families to engage with camas, other traditional resources and each other. The Pacific Rim Institute for Environmental Stewardship—a nonprofit that preserves and studies prairie ecosystems on the island—welcomes tribes to their property for the event.
Above: Mercedes MacCurdy of Stillaguamish, left, and Tayna Greene of Tulalip share a laugh while placing wrapped camas into the steaming fire pit during an intertribal camping cookout in May. Photos and story by Kimberly Cauvel.
More camas coverage:
Swinomish Tribe nurtures fields of camas to revitalize traditional food
