pun’hwe’num’ – is the term we use in Stz’uminus for the month of May. This is named for speenhw “blue camas” [Camassia leichtlinii (Baker) S. Wats. and/or C. quamash (Pursh) Green. Some Elders say tum’peenhw – tum’ – time of camas, or tum’pe’un’hw – time of getting camus. This was an important starch food for our people. It was gathered from island bluffs and high fields and baked, steamed or roasted. It has a sweet taste similar to marshmallows. There were strict rules about who could harvest where and when. And our ladies tended the camas plots to make sure that they thrived. The dried camas would be put away in the winter box and used in soups during the winter time, along with wild onions, and wapato.
Roxanne Seymour from shtsum’inus on camas
Featured Plant
xpey’ | Red Cedar
This is a large, scale-leaved tree, which reaches a height of 60 m (197 ft). The branches spread or droop, turning up slightly at the ends. The bark is grey to reddish brown and fibrous rather than chunky and hard. The seeds are borne in small, egg-shaped cones. Red cedar usually inhabits moist to wet soils in shaded forests but it may also occur in drier areas and in bogs. It occurs in low to high elevations throughout the coast and also in a band east of the interior plateau of British Columbia.
The red cedar is a tremendously important species. Its wood and inner bark have been especially prized for making numerous items including houses, canoes, and spreaders used when barbecuing salmon.The inner bark of red cedar may be used for clothing, hats, ropes, headbands and headdresses. In the past, butter clams were strung onto strips of red cedar inner bark to dry over a fire.The branches are split and used for baskets.