Native American Foods: Technology and Food Sources: The Pacific Northwest and the Plateau

The hunting and gathering cuisine of the Pacific Northwest and the Plateau was based on halibut, euchalon (a small, oily fish also called candlefish), herring, and other fish; acorns; numerous berries; camas and yellow pond lily roots; and tender buds of pine. The most important food in the Northwest, salmon, was fished and eaten year-round, although it was consumed in heavier concentrations during spawning time. Berries were also an abundant and basic component of the northwestern diet. Varieties included salal berries, (Gaultheria shallon), blueberries, soapberries (genus Sapindus), buffalo berries (genus Shepherdia), salmonberries (Rupus spectafilis), dewberries (genus Rupus), and saskatoons (genus Amelanchier). Camas root was a staple starch. Yal, a favorite dessert, was made by whipping soapberries into a frothy mixture; in later times the dish is sweetened with sugar. The late-eighteenth-century coastal trade brought potatoes, and they became another staple.