The Ozette Prairies of Olympic National Park - Natural Resources ...

in the wet areas, and salal berries
and evergreen huckleberries in
the drier areas and ecotones (see
Figures 19, 20, and 21). There is
evidence to indicate that berries,
as a group, were considered one
of the most important resources
that the wetlands had to offer.
James Swan found that the
people at Wuh-uhch’ Village
were reluctant to give him their
names for a census in the late
Figure 21. Edie Hottowe, Makah, picking evergreen huckleberries (Vaccinium ovatum
var. ovatum) in front of the Makah Cultural and Research Center.
1850s because they feared that doing so
would result in “the Bostons” bringing
“great herds of cattle” that would “eat up all their grass and berries” (Swan 1971:111–13). In an interview
for this project, Cindy Lee Claplanhoo (Makah, pers. comm. 2002) put cranberries on a short list of the
important items the Ozette people lost access to when they moved to the Makah Reservation. Another
indicator of the importance of berries is that four months of the year were named after berries.
Berries were a healthy, tasty food, and in addition to being eaten fresh, they could be dried in
cakes for future use (Gill 2005:409). We know through archaeological evidence that berries were very important
to the Ozette people. Gill (1984:412) says: “The 448,943 non-coniferous seeds recovered from the
excavation area of the Ozette Village provide ample evidence of the importance of berries in the diet. Of
these seeds 99.69 % were salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis), elderberry (Sambucus racemosa var. arborescens),
salal (Gaultheria shallon) or huckleberry (Vaccinium spp.).”
While we do not know the species of Vaccinium eaten at Ozette (through archaeological evidence),
we do know that large quantities of one Vaccinium---Vaccinium oxycoccus (bog cranberries) were gathered
by the Makah at Neah Bay and that they formed an item of trade with non-Indians as Swan recorded in
his diary on October 23, 1859 that “Mr. Webster shipped on board of the Hartford 23 barrels of cranberries”
(Swan 1859-1866).
The leaves of most of these berries had various other uses. Salal leaves were used to flavor
smoked fish and to remove the fishy taste when cooking halibut heads (Densmore 1939:14). Gary Ray
(Makah, pers. comm. 2007) reports that “salal leaves were gathered and chewed for stomach disorders
and diarrhea.” The leaves of bog blueberries were sweetened and used to make tea given to mothers for a
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