This bulb, to which the Indians give the name of wappatoo,(1) is the
great article of food, and almost the staple article of commerce on the
Columbia. It is never out of season; so that at all times of the year
the valley is frequented by the neighboring Indians who come to gather
it. It is collected chiefly by the women, who employ for the purpose
canoes from ten to fourteen feet in length, about two feet wide and nine
inches deep, and tapering from the middle, where they are about twenty
inches wide. They are sufficient to contain a single person and several
bushels of roots, yet so very light that a woman can carry them with
ease. She takes one of these canoes into a pond where the water is as
high as the breast, and by means of her toes separates from the root
this bulb, which on being freed from the mud rises immediately to the
surface of the water, and is thrown into the canoe. In this manner these
patient females remain in the water for several hours, even in the depth
of winter. This plant is found through the whole extent of the valley in
which we now are, but does not grow on the Columbia farther eastward."
(1) In the Chinook jargon "Wappatoo" stands for potato.
The natives of this inland region, the explorers found, were larger
and better-shaped than those of the sea-coast, but they were nearly
all afflicted with sore eyes. The loss of one eye was common, and not
infrequently total blindness was observed in men of mature years, while
blindness was almost universal among the old people.
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