Pacific Northwestern Regional Cookery: Potatoes

In the 1850s immigrants often encountered Native Americans selling potatoes. Most likely the Indians added the potato to their diet in the late eighteenth century and obtained their first seed potatoes from the Spanish gardens on Vancouver Island and Neah Bay, the European ships that sailed along the coast, or the early forts managed by the fur traders. An early variety was called the “ship potato,” giving credence to the idea that ships brought the first potatoes to the Northwest.

The tuber was successful among the native tribes because it could be harvested and prepared like camas. Tools used in harvesting the camas root made perfect implements for digging potato holes at planting time and for removing tubers at harvest time. Steaming in pits seemed to be the preferred method of cooking potatoes. The Makahs, a tribe that lives near Neah Bay at the tip of Washington, peeled off the skins and dipped the potatoes in fish oil. The Makahs still raise potatoes that some people believe are the progeny of the first potatoes raised at Neah Bay. Called Anna Cheeka’s Ozette, Haida, or Kasaan fingerlings (tests show they are all same variety), these potatoes have creamy yellowish flesh and an unusual number of deep-set eyes.