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Women's work: layers of tradition

Camas Bake at the People's Center helps pass on a traditional role

By Kim Swaney

PABLO -- It is hard to say when Native American Awareness Week began. It has been proclaimed by government officials for different months, days and weeks for more than 25 years. This week, the People's Center is conducting daily activities for students and teachers in the valley. One of the highlights is the camas bake

It is one of Lucy's favorites of all the native foods still available to the Kootenai and Salish peoples here. When baked for four days in the ground, camas tastes like sweet potatoes, says Lucy Vanderburg, director at the People's Center. Others say it tastes like black licorice or molasses. In any event, all agree, it is not like bitterroot, which is another traditional staple of the peoples here.

When properly prepared, camas is a delicacy but one few have enjoyed. In order for it to be prepared properly, men are forbidden to help near the fire pit, just as it has been for centuries. Inquiring about why was it so, Alec Quequesah and numerous others on hand at the People's Center all said the same thing: "It's women's work," meaning baking camas.

Quequesah's yaya? (his mother's mother) told him it was women's work and he was taught that if he were to help near the fire pit, it [camas] wouldn't come out right. Typically in the old days, men stood guard over the women during the long baking process and they helped chop wood and gather all the necessary things to bake camas, such as alder branches, moss from the trees, skunk cabbage, ferns, bark, rocks and of course, camas.

Traditionally and still today, women do the work, including digging a fire pit. A fire is built in the bottom. Once the fire is going, layers of bigger alder branches and rocks are laid over the coals and a larger fire is built on top of the rocks. Once the rocks are hot, layers of smaller alder branches with leaves are placed on top of the coals.

Alder wood is the primary wood of choice for flavor. Skunk cabbage leaves are then layered in a criss-cross pattern and ferns are laid over the skunk cabbage and then another layer of skunk cabbage. The ferns and the cabbage leaves also aid in the flavor and steaming process.

Camas bulbs are dug usually in the latter part of June when the purplish-lavender flowers fall from the stems. The bulbs are then cured or dried until ample time is available for preparation. A quick soak in cool water for approximately 30 minutes or until slightly moist and the bulbs are ready for baking.

The blackened-greenish moss that hangs from the trees is gathered, cleaned of twigs and debris, and washed. Once cleaned the moss is placed with the camas bulbs in cloth bags and sewn closed. The cloth bags are then placed in the fire pit over the layers around a pole that has been placed in the middle of the pit.

A final layer of skunk cabbage is added and bark is placed on top. The bark keeps the camas from getting burnt during the baking process. Felicite "Jim" McDonald says that pine bark works best because of its thickness and typically because pine trees grow large enough to obtain bigger pieces of bark.

After the bark layer is complete, dirt is placed over the top and packed down. The pole is then removed and water is poured down the hole left from the pole. If all goes well, steam begins to rise from the hole, and that is a good sign, the women agree. The hole is filled with more dirt and a fire is built on top of the covered pit.

For the next three days, a fire is built on top of the pit, once in the morning and once in the evening.