Students listen as Sidney Fellows talks to students about camas plants on July 21.
By DANA HERNANDEZ
Sho-Ban News
FORT HALL — The Shoshone-Bannock summer youth students from the Tribal Youth Education Program (TYEP) got the opportunity to learn about camas and how to harvest and plant it at the Shoshone-Bannock Tribal Museum on Wednesday, July 21.
The students worked in conjunction with the Tribes’ Language and Cultural Preservation Department and with Idaho State University.
Nolan Brown who is LCPD’s Original Territories and Historical Researcher gave a presentation to students and spoke about the significance of gathering roots and how camas played an important role in sustaining the survival of the Tribes.
The camas is a traditional plant that was collected since time immemorial by the Shoshone and Bannock tribes who traveled and moved with the seasons. The camas root was a major food source and requires great effort in order to harvest it for cultural subsistence.
Fellows talks to students in attendance.
Sidney Fellows, an ISU student and tribal member, taught the students what she knows about camas and how to properly plant it. She is currently working on a research project that analyzes how camas grows and thrives within different environments. Fellows explained students would be planting the dormant camas bulbs and that dormant bulbs do what bears do right before hibernation, they soak up water, minerals and nutrients in the spring and summer right before entering their dormant stage. “When the camas has no visible flowers then it is dormant,” said Fellows.
She also provided background information to students and said enough camas would be gathered to last a family an entire year in order to make it to the next gathering season. Gathering sometimes lasted weeks and sometimes months in order to gather the needed amount and it is estimated that one family could harvest as much as 200-350 pounds in two days, and 500 pounds was the estimated amount one family needed to last the year.
“Our ancestors gathered enough camas to sustain themselves and to gain energy, the bulbs contain a good amount of protein and carbohydrates. One of the carbs it contains is inulin and it’s delicious and sweet when cooked just right,” said Fellows.
A Summer Youth studen plants camas.
Back then, camas was cooked by using earth pits and hot rocks where it was cooked with other layers of plants for three days. Fellows emphasized the patience that was required to prepare the camas and the luxury we have now to be able to go to McDonalds and order fries when we want.
Overall, the museum gained two plots of camas that were planted with the bulbs that were harvested by Fellows and the LCPD. The plots are representations of the eco-regions that the camas were originally from. The plot in front of the museum represents the Snake River Plain and the plot in back of the museum represents the Rocky Mountains. The camas collected from the Camas Prairie Centennial Marsh was planted in the Snake River plot and the camas collected from Grays lake was planted in the Rocky Mountain plot.
Fellows said, “this was a day to expose the students to scientific research using the camas bulbs, but also including it with our culture and history.”