The traditional homelands of the Bitterroot Salish (sometimes called Flatheads) were in Montana’s Bitterroot Valley. By the end of the nineteenth century, the greed and racism of American settlers trespassing on their lands resulted in the Army force marching the Bitterroot Salish north to the Jocko Reservation (now known as the Flathead Reservation) where they joined the Pend d’Oreille (another Salish-speaking group) and the Kootenai. Today, the Historic St. Mary’s Mission includes a small encampment.
Traditional Plants
Planted within the encampment display are some of the traditional plants used by the Bitterroot Salish. Among the Plateau tribes, some 60 species of fruits, seeds, and nuts were used in the traditional diet.
The bitterroot (Lewisia rediviva) was a major food source that was gathered in the spring, sometimes as early as March or April. The stored starch in the root makes the roots both nutritious and tender. Archaeologist Dale Rominger, in his University of Montana M.A. Thesis High Altitude Aboriginal Occupation in Southwestern Montana, reports:
“The white fleshly interior is easily exposed by peeling the outer root coverings. The white interior is then boiled, baked, or powdered to make meal.”
In his 1948 University of Montana M.A. Thesis Language and Social Change Among the Flathead Indians, Vernon Malan reports:
“It must be gathered right at its first flowering if its flavor was to be at its best, and it was also very difficult to find unless the delicate pink blossom was showing.”
In his book Montana: Native Plants and Early Peoples, Jeff Hart reports:
“Gathering bitterroot was a tedious, although not difficult task. Women often worked three or four days to fill a fifty-pound sack. Each women gathered at least two sacks, enough to sustain two people through the winter.”
According to Salish oral tradition, the bitterroot comes from the tears of a starving woman who wept as she sang her song of death. The Sun heard her sorrow and asked her guardian, the Red Bird, to help her. In this way a woman’s tears of bitterness have given the people food.
Prior to the harvesting of the bitterroot, the Bitterroot Salish would hold a two-day First Roots Ceremony. In general, a group of four or five women would gather and cook the first ripening foods. Then the people of the camp would ceremonially consume the food. Following this ceremony, general harvesting could be conducted. Jeff Hart reports:
“Flatheads believed that bitterroots would become small and scarce if this ceremony was not observed.”
In addition to being used for food, the bitterroot has medicinal properties and the Salish would use the roots to make a tea for the pain of heart trouble and pleurisy.
The roots of the biscuit root were dug in the spring just after the plant had bloomed. The roots could be peeled and eaten raw or boiled. Some of the crop was sun dried for future use. The sun-dried roots were then pulverized so that they could be used in gruel or made into cakes. The cakes tended to be large – about a foot wide, three feet long, and up to a half inch thick.
To make the cakes, the biscuit root flour was moistened and formed into bricks which were then suspended on a frame of sticks so that the bricks could be partially baked over a fire. The finished cakes could be pierced and strung together on a thong. The cakes were good for about a year.
Also known as purple coneflower, this plant was used medicinally.
This species of sage-- Artemisia tridentata—was used by the Bitterroot Salish to make a tea which was used in treating colds and pneumonia.
Kinnikinnick, an Algonquian word meaning “that which is mixed”, was traditionally mixed with tobacco for smoking. Among the Bitterroot Salish, the kinnikinnick leaves would be hung in the sweat lodge where the heat would dry them.
In his 1930 University of Montana M.A. Thesis The Selish: Spartans of the West, Albert Partoll writes:
“Smoking was not a habit among the Selish in its present sense, but was reserved for occasions such as a council meeting, a symbol of amity, and as a tribute to nature.”
In addition to using kinnikinnick in preparing smoking mixtures, the Bitterroot Salish also dried and powdered the leaves to make a condiment used in preparing deer liver.
Kinnikinnick leaves were also used in medicinal preparations. Jeff Hart reports:
“The leaves are fairly rich in chemicals, including tannic and gallic acids and the organic glycosides arbutin, ercolin, and ursone. The medicine is administered as an infusion, used chiefly as a mild astringent, a diuretic (to increase urinary flow), and for various bladder and kidney complaints.”
Many of the Plateau tribes used the wild rose medicinally. In his book Montana: Native Plants and Early Peoples, Jeff Hart reports:
“To many, the rose was a celebrated remedy for diarrhea and stomach maladies.”
The Bitterroot Salish also used it for treating snow blindness.
Indians 101
Twice each week—on Tuesdays and Thursdays—this series presents American Indian stories. More about the Plateau Indians from this series:
Indians 101: Plateau Indian Basket Hats and Trinket Baskets (Photo Diary)
Indians 101: Plateau Containers in the Maryhill Museum (Photo Diary)
Indians 101: Plateau Indian Beadwork at the Maryhill Museum (Photo Diary)
Indians 101: Plateau Women's Clothing in the High Desert Museum (Photo Diary)
Indians 101: The Horse and the Plateau Indians
Indians 101: Raising a Tipi (Photo Diary)
Indians 101: Plateau Horse Regalia (Photo Diary)
Indians 101: The Plateau Indian vision quest