Ever Wild: A Lifetime on Mount Adams

Darryl Lloyd
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then mixed with dried berries and certain roots like camas. McClellan’s
expedition in 1853 reported that the Yakamas made use of some twenty-three
kinds of roots and eighteen kinds of berries.
Gathering materials for baskets was a top priority for Indians on their
annual migrations to the berry fields. The main materials were beargrass
leaves (Xerophyllum tenax) and the stringy bark and roots of western
redcedar (Thuja plicata), which were plentiful along their routes. Leaves
of beargrass, called yai, were coiled and closely interwoven with strips
of cedar bark and cedar roots. Natural dyes were also collected and used
for intricate, geometric designs woven into the baskets. The process
took much labor, patience, and skill. Cooking vessels, pouches, cups,
and even hats were constructed from the same materials. Vessels were
watertight and richly ornamental. They are functional to this day and in
high demand by collectors and museums. Passed down from my parents,
a large Klickitat basket of unknown date is perfect for holding maps that
I use frequently.
The simplest type of utilitarian basket, not watertight, was constructed
completely from bark that was stripped from a western redcedar tree. In
the 1930s, Art Jones of Trout Lake made the one I now own. It is a cylindrical
sleeve of cedar bark: rough on the outside, smooth on the inside, and
curved at the bottom. The cylinder is laced with cedar strips up each side
and woven together around the top.
Camas roots (or bulbs) were one of the most important food staples
of indigenous people near Mount Adams and elsewhere. The beautiful,
blue lily (Camassia quamash) bloomed in mid-elevation meadows and
prairies at the foot of the mountain, especially in Camas Prairie. Native
Americans pronounced it kamass or quamash, depending on the tribe.
The Yakama and Klickitat word for camas is wák’amu. Using pointed digging
sticks with antler handles, early Indians usually dug the bulbs after
flowering in July. Bulbs were then grilled or boiled. The surplus that people
couldn’t eat immediately was ground to paste, then shaped into little
loaves and cooked a second time into a form of camas bread, which would
stay wholesome for weeks. The whole, cleaned starch-rich camas bulbs
were preserved by smoking or sun-drying. In this form they were highly
valued for trading or given as gifts. Even today camas roots are eaten at
ceremonial First Foods feasts, such as at Celilo village.
The roots were harvested for thousands of years in Camas Prairie, long
before non-Native settlers moved in with their plows and domesticated
animals. The first white explorers named the valley Takh Plain. (Taák literally
means “meadow” in the Sahaptin language.) Dense patches of blue
camas still bloom every May or June on the southern edges of the valley.
A different species, Camassia quamish breviflora, is found at 4,400 feet in
Muddy Meadows on the north side of Mount Adams. Years ago Camassia
breviflora might also have bloomed in Takh Takh Meadow at nearly the
same elevation on the northwest side.
A stone point found at 7,300
feet on the north side was
likely the tip of a thrusting
spear or hafted knife, used to
dispatch a wounded mountain
goat.