Tag Archives: camas

My very first sp’e’qum tu speenhw

Posted by Jared Qwustenuxun Williams on June 17, 2024

Many of us GenX/Millennials were taught in grade school that Indigenous people were basic hunter gatherers, but this couldn’t be farther from the truth. Speenhw* is great example of Indigenous agriculture, or permaculture, or maybe just culture. See speenhw is grown in p’hwulhp* meadows and grasslands which date back thousands of years. Dendrochronological data, basically the rings found in the p’hwulhp, show annual burning of the grasslands going back generations. Burning that made way for the speenhw to grow. Certain family members would specialize in looking after their family’s fields. By breaking apart the dirt into square mats, and rolling … Continue reading My very first sp’e’qum tu speenhw