Tribal elder Zelphia Towersap points at invasive grass roots in the hands of Original Territories Researcher Bailey Dann as Yvette Towersap looks on.
By LORI ANN EDMO
Sho-Ban News
FAIRFIELD — Woho sonnip – enemy grass, otherwise known as Garrison’s creeping meadow foxtale has taken over upwards of 30% of the Camas Prairie Centennial Marsh near Fairfield.
Camas is a traditional food source of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes and a second Bannock War is being waged on the enemy grass so the camas will continue to grow. The Camas Prairie was included in the 1868 Fort Bridger Treaty but the area was excluded because of a stenographer error spelling it Kansas Prairie.
Major Jim, a Shoshone-Bannock leader, said in 1877, “We cannot eat without food and the camas root has always been our food. When the camas is destroyed our children will suffer from hunger. We never sold or gave away the Camas Prairie. We had nothing to do with any treaty which would take it away from us.”
The invasive grass was introduced in the late 1800s for grazing purposes. It spreads rapidly through rhizomes (plant stem that sends out roots and also creeps) according to a brochure the Tribes Language and Culture Preservation Department developed. The grass forms a mat blocking sunlight to camas plants. It doubles in size every three to five years.
Garrison’s creeping meadow foxtail is seen overcoming the camas at the Camas Prairie Centennial Marsh.
Tribal member Yvette Towersap, whose family returns every year to harvest camas during the Camas Prairie Homecoming, said “It used to have a lot of purple at this time of year but now it’s really sparse – it’s still here but it’s a little more work.” The bulbs are there, it’s the grass roots that’s the problem and she sees a lot more of the invasive grass.
She believes it’s a real problem, “I think that it's something that we should pay attention to because my fear is, you know, it's only been a few short years and seeing the reduced number of camas that are blooming is really alarming because where else are we going to get this?”
Susan Avila smiles as she collects camas at the Camas Prairie Homecoming on June 8.
“It’s important for us to keep harvesting and keep cooking in the traditional way because this is an important food and it’s something I try to teach my kids and my grandchildren,” Towersap continued. “We need to keep coming back and if the plant is not here, that worries me because I think that it will make people not come back here and we will lose the importance of the land, of the place here.”
Bailey Dann, LCPD Original Territories Historic researcher, was busy pulling the woho sonnip at yambadai and placing the invasive grass in trash bags then later placed them into a trailer Idaho Fish and Game provided to transport away from the marsh. “And so if we don't do anything at all within the next 10 years, this whole prairie will be covered by this grass that chokes out the camas due to the way that it grows.”
She noted the Tribes have partnered with Idaho Fish and Game to come up with a management plan to eradicate this grass that will be a year’s long effort. “There's not an overnight solution,” she continued. “Especially as we know this is where our traditional foods come from, our newe dikkup. And so we want to be able to still harvest our newe dikkup. And in order to do that we cannot use chemicals.” She said they’re going to explore different chemical-free methods to eradicate the grass. “And so essentially that means a lot of elbow grease, a lot of hand pulling. And so we need as many people as possible from all walks of life, from the community around here, from our tribal community, anyone and everyone that we can get to help us with this second Bannock War.”
Close up of garrison’s creeping meadow foxtail.
Bailey explained when the grass dies it becomes a thick covering over the camas plants. If nothing is done about the invasive grass, it will be the only thing that grows. “Instead of yumba dai (wild carrot land) or Camas Prairie, will become the Garrisons prairie.”
Nolan Brown, Tribes Original Territories manager, said he could only imagine what is was over 200 years ago for our tribal people. “And so it makes me want to work extra hard to get it back to that because it's like we have this beautiful garden here and we were prevented on tending to it. So I feel like now that we're back in it, we spent the day pulling these invasive grasses and our tribal members too were harvesting our pasigo (camas) that it knows now, the land knows, pasigo knows, we are going to take care of it.”
“I really appreciate the help that we had today from all of our tribal people who made it out and as well as the volunteers from other organizations, non-tribal people that are also aware of the problem and willing to help us out,” Brown said.
Original Territories Manager, Nolan Brown, with his daughter, wants to work hard to bring the camas back.
Concerning the significance of the traditional food, in his own personal journey in learning about his family history, he descends from Chief Egan who fought in the Bannock War. “How many of our people fought and died for these lands for these foods and that's how important it is enough that our ancestors gave up their lives for they put it into the treaty because they seen that our newenaipe — our Indian way of life and our newe tekka were that important to us for our wellness so we can have a good life,” He said it’s not easy to come out here and dig these bulbs, have to be mobile, you have to bend around, it’s wet, it’s not easy. “We’re choosing this mode of being in order to be a pasigodika (camas eater) – you pray for that, let that food be your medicine, your sustenance, all your healing it’s all part of that natural cycle that we are in, it’s not separate from. This has been ongoing for thousands of years, it’s not going to be us that breaks that cycle, we’re going to keep it going.”