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

way I prepare it is sort it, taking out unwanted plants, and then I put it in brown paper sacks to let it dry.
Then after it’s dried totally, then I put them in plastic bags. I store the leaves in a dark, dry place where it
doesn’t get real hot or cold. It is brewed like loose leaf tea. You can drink it all day long and it’s good for
keeping you well. It’s good for colds. It’s getting harder to find healthier looking Indian tea. A lot of the
plants have sparse leaves that are blemished with disease. They’re not full and green like they used to be.
The area out at Ts’oo-yuhs for our Indian tea and cranberries is the size of a football field” (pers. comm.
2006).
Tea made from the leaves of Indian tea was, and still is, considered a general health tonic. William
Tyler (pers. comm. 2002) noted that Indian tea “was good for just about everything—for your lungs, for
breathing and for colds” (see Figure 28).
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Two “root” crops
were dug on the Ozette
Prairies: bracken fern
rhizomes and the fleshy,
thickened tubers of
Vancouver groundcone
(Boschniakia hookeri).
Bracken fern rhizomes
were dug with a digging
stick, roasted in ashes,
peeled, and the starchy
center eaten (Gill 1984:50)
(see Figure 29).
According to Ed Wilbur
Figure 28. William (Makah) and Klara (Nu-chah-nulth) Tyler. Photographer unknown, 2002.
(pers. comm. 2008) the
tubers of Vancouver
groundcone were dug by Helma Ward, Makah, and her family in August and September on the Ozette
Prairies, and according to Helma “They used to be everywhere” (see Figure 30). Although camas may
have grown on the Ozette Prairies in prehistoric times, as far as we know the Ozette did not gather the
edible bulbs of this plant on any of the wetlands in their territory (Manny’s Prairie might be an exception—see
Table 5) —instead, they got their camas from the Quileute in exchange for dentalium shells
(Curtis 1913:145).