The Ozette Prairies of Olympic National Park - Natural Resources ...
The Ozette Prairies of Olympic National Park - Natural Resources ... The Ozette Prairies of Olympic National Park - Natural Resources ...
“My father [Perry Ides] said that a long time ago that they used to burn the cranberries for harvest. They would burn portions of it too you know lay hay on there I guess and then burn the cranberries. And they said that kept cranberries going. They would do that every so often. They burned in September--when they’re all bloomed out and Thanksgiving Day the cranberries would be there. See after the east winds[stop] before the rain sets in you know. They always call it nine days wind you know. The plants would dry and they would start fires there--before the cranberries got sogged. I don’t know how often they burned--every year or every so often. Maybe five-year period. But they wouldn’t burn the same place all the time you know. But I imagine that it was to fertilize itself. My dad told me that it doesn’t burn the seeds. They said that after that it would get to be charred, but the root would not be hurt. And that’s how come it would come back and be cranberries. When they burned, they burned the whole bog. It was an ancient method of rejuvenating the earth. I imagine that they might have had the same thing there at Ozette. Because Ozette is similar to what the Ts’oo-yuhs Valley is. If Ozette had some [cranberries] it would be the same procedures of growing” (John H. Ides, Makah, pers. comm. 2006). “It’s a sixty or eighty acre bog out in Ts’oo-yuhs. It probably has shrunk to less than thirty acres now. They would gather the tea leaves [Indian or Labrador tea] and cranberries in there. I call it Ozette tea. With no activity in the bog, the little spruce trees are now six feet high. The only fire that I have witnessed in my lifetime or even heard about was set probably in 1986 and it was not intentionally started. It was a brush fire and the east wind kicked up. It burned about ten acres. The places where it got burned are the choicest cranberry pickings now and have the riches tea leaves. Before the tea leaves were very coarse and it was hard picking. Now in the areas where that fire was, you can fill up a bag in a little time. The cranberries are almost double the size in the burned area. It just shows me that somebody tended to that bog years ago. If you walk out there--as your standing on four feet of moss your foot might sink down underwater in some places. The 1986 fire was a fast, quick fire--that burned on top where it was dry” (Gary Ray, Makah, pers. comm. 2006). Pat Boachup says that Indian tea (Ledum groenlandicum) has five names: “Indian tea, wild tea, Hudson Bay tea, swamp tea, and Labrador tea. People burned in the cranberry marsh to promote a better crop of cranberries and Indian tea. Our people have been drinking the Indian tea for thousands of years. But you can never drink enough. A lot of people like the Indian tea. Another reason to burn was to keep the brush and trees from growing. Otherwise it would be a loss. The marsh behind the school, unless someone burns it, it will be history. It is being encroached by trees and shrubs. Unless they’re cut down and burned, they’ll eventually take over the cranberry marsh just like at Ozette” (Pat Boachup, Makah, pers. comm. 2002). Gary Ray, Makah, hunts on the Ts’oo-yuhs Prairie. He says (pers. comm. 2006): “There’s deer, 83
ear, and elk that graze in there. The reason that it’s so good is because you can walk so quietly in there. You just wait for a certain wind and then you enter the bog, whatever bog you want to hike in opposite the direction of the wind. There was good visibility and you can get so close--you could almost jump on the backs of some of them. These areas had to be maintained for hunting well back when all one had was a spear and bow and arrow. You can get that close to the deer when they’re chomping on those cranberries. Same way with the bears. Deer also eat the moss. I hunt there every year. Just about fill our freezer up with all that we need. There was good deer hunting on Ozette Prairies. It was always a pretty sure thing--that you could get one there.” Gary Ray, Makah, (pers. comm. 2007) learned from Lewis Trettivick that “the Makah used to burn the Ts’oo-yuhs bog to make the cranberries better.” Trettivick was married to a Makah woman for many years. “There was burning of the land—only the cranberry marsh. There was talk about that when I was young. I remember them talking about it so that the cranberries and the Indian tea would grow, you know, grow right.” (Sadie Johnson, Makah, pers. comm. 2002). Helma Ward, Makah, told Gill (1984:5) that “Formerly the cranberry marsh at Tsues [Ts’oo-yuhs] was burned every ten years or so to maintain cranberry production. At present, fruit production on the prairies near Neah Bay and Ozette is generally very sparse.” 84
- Page 41 and 42: 32 were small, but they were in abu
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- Page 45 and 46: The Makah harvested the leaves of c
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- Page 49 and 50: She arrived early enough on the Mak
- Page 51 and 52: Prairie was not surveyed (see Table
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- Page 55 and 56: Figure 37. Bracken fern (Pteridium
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- Page 63 and 64: happened “yearly or whenever it w
- Page 65 and 66: such as parent material, land form,
- Page 67 and 68: to advance onto the Ozette Prairies
- Page 69 and 70: near Ozette; their meat and oil are
- Page 71 and 72: support their existing flora or par
- Page 73 and 74: References Agee, J.K. 1993. Fire Ec
- Page 75 and 76: Croes, D.R. and E. Blinman. 1980. H
- Page 77 and 78: Howie, S.A., P.H. Whitfield, R.J. H
- Page 79 and 80: expanded by G. Peterson and G. Pete
- Page 81 and 82: Vanderhoof, M. 1960. Death of pione
- Page 83 and 84: num hummocks dominated by Empretum
- Page 85 and 86: Linda Kunze’s Survey of Sand Poin
- Page 87 and 88: Appendix 3 Evidence of Indian Burni
- Page 89 and 90: Appendix 4 Evidence of Indian Burni
- Page 91: Appendix 5 Evidence of Indian Burni
- Page 95 and 96: the spiritual world of the prairies
- Page 97 and 98: Prairie Animal Resources. The prair
- Page 99 and 100: Ram Singh discussed the importance
- Page 101 and 102: long by ½” thick. It was found o
- Page 103 and 104: Ha’hiba, Trees common around the
- Page 105 and 106: Vine maple (t’apsiyoqwpat, “spl
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- Page 109 and 110: Mint (k’i’ilt’adapat, “cool
- Page 111 and 112: THE TRADITIONAL CULTURE OF QUILEUTE
- Page 113 and 114: property (with the exception of bea
- Page 115 and 116: which can be used without permissio
- Page 117 and 118: that spirits were just as natural a
- Page 119 and 120: ture Spirit, T’siq’ati) rewarde
- Page 121 and 122: to the sky and tried to obtain the
- Page 123 and 124: 2) Each family had a part of a prai
- Page 125 and 126: you waste what you are given, you w
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- Page 129 and 130: (a) Trail maintenance. Keeping up t
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ear, and elk that graze in there. <strong>The</strong> reason that it’s so good is because you can walk so quietly in there.<br />
You just wait for a certain wind and then you enter the bog, whatever bog you want to hike in opposite<br />
the direction <strong>of</strong> the wind. <strong>The</strong>re was good visibility and you can get so close--you could almost jump on<br />
the backs <strong>of</strong> some <strong>of</strong> them. <strong>The</strong>se areas had to be maintained for hunting well back when all one had was<br />
a spear and bow and arrow. You can get that close to the deer when they’re chomping on those cranberries.<br />
Same way with the bears. Deer also eat the moss. I hunt there every year. Just about fill our freezer<br />
up with all that we need. <strong>The</strong>re was good deer hunting on <strong>Ozette</strong> <strong>Prairies</strong>. It was always a pretty sure<br />
thing--that you could get one there.”<br />
Gary Ray, Makah, (pers. comm. 2007) learned from Lewis Trettivick that “the Makah used to burn<br />
the Ts’oo-yuhs bog to make the cranberries better.” Trettivick was married to a Makah woman for many<br />
years.<br />
“<strong>The</strong>re was burning <strong>of</strong> the land—only the cranberry marsh. <strong>The</strong>re was talk about that when I<br />
was young. I remember them talking about it so that the cranberries and the Indian tea would grow, you<br />
know, grow right.” (Sadie Johnson, Makah, pers. comm. 2002).<br />
Helma Ward, Makah, told Gill (1984:5) that “Formerly the cranberry marsh at Tsues [Ts’oo-yuhs]<br />
was burned every ten years or so to maintain cranberry production. At present, fruit production on the<br />
prairies near Neah Bay and <strong>Ozette</strong> is generally very sparse.”<br />
84
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