Northwest Tribes; Traditional Huckleberry Harvest
Since time immemorial, Native people have come to the lakes and meadows along the crest of the Cascade Mountains in the area we now know as Indian Heaven Wilderness. The oral histories of tribal elders, written accounts of early visitors, and archaeological evidence show us clearly that this place has always been of traditional cultural importance. Walking the Indian Heaven trails, you are, in many cases, following footpaths and horse trails used for generations – possibly millennia - by Indigenous people, pathways connecting us to these deep roots in the landscape.
Native people from several tribes came to the Indian Heaven area each summer to collect and process huckleberries, or wíwnu, drying quantities of the fruit for over-winter storage and use. Among the groups that used the area were the Klickitat, Yakama, Wishram, Skinpah, and Kamiltpah, now part of the Yakama Nation, the Wyam from Celilo Falls, and the Cascades people from the Columbia River Gorge. The summertime gatherings in the mountains were important for their social value, as well: an opportunity to see friends and relatives, trade with people from other villages, racehorses, or compete in palyúut, the bone game. There was a spiritual side to these gatherings, too – the annual berry feast – a ceremony of thanks to the Creator acknowledging the sacred and sustaining importance of the food. This is still an important part of Native tradition.
Racetrack Trail (#171) enters the southern portion of Indian Heaven Wilderness from the west. This is part of the ancient Native pathway called the “Klickitat Trail” by then Captain
George B. McClellan, who led a survey and exploring party along the route in August of 1853. At a place called Chequoss, not far from Red Mountain, the survey party met large numbers of Native people encamped for the annual huckleberry harvest. The berries were laid out on mats along a trench, and dried with reflective heat from a smoldering log fire.
At Surprise Lakes, a principal access point for the northern part of the Wilderness, you may see signs indicating that huckleberry picking east of FS Road 24 is for Indians only. This area was set aside for exclusive tribal use in the Handshake Agreement of 1932 between representatives of the U.S. Forest Service and the Yakama Nation. Interpretive signs near the trailhead commemorate the historic event and describe traditional use of the area.
Huckleberry Legend: A Traditional Yakama Indian Legend
as told by Virginia R. Beavert
A long time ago, this world was inhabited by animals. They could talk and understand each other just like we do. One day the Creator called all the animals in council and announced: “There are new people coming to inhabit this earth. You must make room for these people and select new names and identities. You have the choice of what you want to be in this new world, and I will help you.”
The animals lined up and declared what they would like to be in the new world. The creator asked each one to perform certain feats to qualify for his selection. If the animal failed, he had to make another selection for which he was more qualified. For example, the coyote was monopolizing all the best selections, and each time, he failed to qualify. First, he wanted to be an eagle, but he could not fly high in the sky and he did not have the keen eyesight the eagle must have. He failed. Then, he wanted to be a salmon, but he could not swim. Finally, the only thing he could qualify for was to be just a plain, old coyote, which he is today.
Every time an animal qualified for what he wanted to be, the Creator took part of his own body and placed it in the new creature. This is why the Indian people respect everything that has life – plants, animals, humans – because they are all part of the Creator.
When the Creator finished his work, he surveyed it and discovered he did not have any berries in the mountains. The only part of his body left over was his eyes. He took his eyes and put them down on into the ground in the mountain. The veins in his eyes bled into the earth and became the roots. The roots became the plant, and then the berries sprouted and became the huckleberries. Because the huckleberry was the last to be created by God, by the Creator, it is the last food tasted in the first food communion ceremonial at the longhouse religious ceremony.