Courtesy photos by Jeanine Moy
Above: Joshley Howell, Sharla Strong and Corey Strong in a field of yampah
Below: Yampah root
Courtesy photos by Kathy Kentta
Matt Garrett: “Tribal ceremony stuff
was special to me because I never knew
that stuff was still done today and I
never got to experience it until I went on
this trip.”
Apolinar Howell: “We learned a lot about
our people’s traditional practices. It was
an honor to connect with the land, the
opportunity was nothing less than immer-
sive. I enjoyed connecting with other
youth in addition to getting to hold inter-
esting dialogue with an important elder.
All around it was fun and educational.”
Youth help protect traditional foods through Healthy Traditions leadership camp
By Sharla Strong, Healthy Traditions
Program Volunteer
I held my breath and watched, know-
ing what an honor it was to be a witness.
I knew I should be taking pictures, but
if I looked away for a moment, I would
miss it. To some, it was a moment that
may appear small, but for me, it was like
watching history.
He smiled at us with shy eyes and said
it tasted like a carrot. It could be that this
was the first time in more than 150 years
a Siletz youth had tasted this traditional
food, commonly called yampah.
The July heat radiated from the dry
cracked earth as the youth circled around
to combine the seed they had gathered
from the field and we thanked them for
their hard work. This is important work.
They may not quite understand it now
at their young age, but they are healing
the land and protecting our traditional
foods for future generations and I am
proud of them.
Healthy Traditions Project Coordi-
nator Kathy Kentta worked for a year to
plan and fund the Youth Leadership Camp
where youth collected seeds of traditional
foods, learned about environmental pro-
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Siletz News
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tection from a Siletz elder and learned
about the Jordan Cove LNG Export Ter-
minal and Pipeline proposal that would
impact our cultural resources.
The Youth Leadership Camp started at
Vesper Meadow, located east of Ashland,
Ore. Jeanine Moy, director of the Vesper
Meadow Restoration and Education Pro-
gram, took the youth on a tour of the Vesper
Meadow property where youth saw wildlife
and learned about different restoration
projects being done throughout the area.
Vesper Meadow is located near the
headwaters of Dead Indian Creek and
also the headwaters for two major north-
west Pacific Coast watersheds: the Rogue
River and Klamath River basins. Shasta,
Takelma, Molala and Latgawa ancestors
likely could have visited and gathered
foods within this area.
In testimony from elder Molly Orton
documented in 1933 by ethnographer
John Peabody Harrington, she describes
a favorite camas gathering place that has
a likeness to Vesper Meadows. Youth
assisted with camas seed collection,
which is an important aspect of restor-
ing our traditional food population and
the youth learned about protecting plant
October 2019
diversity by planting seed near where it
was collected.
Camas is a common food for Tribes of
the Pacific Northwest and has many differ-
ent names from different Tribal languages.
The Siletz Dee-ni language name is gus,
pronounced like “goose.”
For thousands of years, camas mead-
ows were managed by local Tribes and
grew in great abundance. Caucasian
explorers Lewis and Clark made notes
on many plants in their travels and the
distinct blue/violet flower color of camas
was noted by Lewis:
“The quawmash (Chopunnish word
for camas) is now in blume and from the
colour … at a short distance it resembles
lakes of fine clear water, so complete is
this deseption that on first sight I could
have swoarn it was water.” Meriwether
Lewis, June 12, 1806
On one of the afternoons, Siletz Tribal
elder Grandma Agnes Baker Pilgrim, and
her daughter, Nadine Martin, joined the
youth for lunch. Grandma Aggie just cel-
ebrated her 95 th birthday and also recently
received the President’s Award from
Southern Oregon University’s president,
Dr. Linda Schott.
The youth introduced themselves to
Grandma Aggie and they enjoyed hearing
how she knew their families and grand-
parents. Jon Duarte shared that, “She
reminded me of my grandma.”
Grandma Aggie’s visit added a rich-
ness to the educational experience by
sharing about her work on environmental
protection and especially about the need
to take care of our water. It is especially
inspiring for youth to see an elder doing
work to improve the world and she called
on the youth to take care of each other and
to speak kind words.
Many of the youth had great things
to say about what they learned from
Grandma Aggie. Nevaeh Jackson said,
“Grandma Aggie taught us that we are all
born water babies.”
Grandma Aggie spoke about the
importance of water and how we are
all born “water babies” in our mother’s
belly and it is from water that we are born
and how all life is sustained. She said
we need to be thankful to water, even when
we are using small amounts of water for
washing.