KPLU Local News
(2009-08-03)
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Linda Jones, left, and her sister, prepare fry bread for nearly 200 guests at the Umatilla tribes' annual huckleberry feast near Pendleton, Oregon.
Anna King Photo
For more information:
Umatilla Indian Reservation
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During the huckleberry ceremony, Linda Jones doesn't have much time to dance, or sing. The 64-year-old woman is busy in the kitchen. There're about 200 people to feed. Jones explains that these petite huckleberries they are celebrating are more than just food.
Linda Jones: "We have always been taught these foods we honor, our salmon, our meat, our fish, all our roots and these berries are how our elders who have already passed on, this is how they come back and nourish us, help us. So that is a belief, ages old."
But Jones says sometimes traditional sites have been picked clean before they get there. And they've had to travel long distances to find berries. Across the Northwest, huckleberries and other forest products are becoming more desirable. Companies buy wild berries to make foods, pharmaceuticals and toiletries. But despite rising demand, huckleberries still aren't grown commercially and little is known about the mountain plants.
Gary Harris is a tribal liaison for the U.S. Forest Service in Portland. Harris says his agency has tried everything from fire to grazing to try and bring more berries.
Gary Harris: "And it seems as though, once a huckleberry field has decreased in productivity, there isn't very much we can really do to turn that around."
Armand Minthorn is the tribes' spiritual leader. He too, sees changes in the forests.
Armand Minthorn: "If people could realize at some point how important this land is, how important water is, how important air is. Maybe there would be a hope that my, great grandchildren will know the same things I do."
Minthorn worries that these tiny berries face enormous challenges --- Over use, pollution and global warming.
I'm Anna King outside of Pendleton, Oregon. © Copyright 2012, N3
