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Klamath Indians
The Klamath Indians now live upon a
reservation in the State of Oregon, which lies within a
somewhat larger area occupied by them long before their
discovery by the white race. The reservation is in the
southwestern corner of the plateau of eastern Oregon, at the
eastern foot of the Cascade Mountains and near the southern
border of the State. The rainfall of the region averages
only about 20 inches a year, the greater portion of the
moisture that comes from the Pacific Ocean having been
precipitated in passing over the Cascade Mountains. Most of
the Klamath Plateau is covered by forests of yellow pine (Pinus
ponderosa), but toward the east and toward the south are
tongues of treeless sagebrush country (Artemisia tridentata
and other species of the same genus) which extend along the
valleys into the timber from the sago plains of eastern
Oregon and northeastern California, while about the lakes
and marshes mentioned below are several large areas,
originally lake deposits, which are now raised above the
surface of the water and are covered with grass, but which
are still too wet to have acquired a covering of timber.
That portion of the Cascade Mountains opposite the Klamath
Reservation is made up largely of volcanic rook, covered by
a layer of pumice gravel and dust. With such a porous soil
the heavy precipitation in the mountains is not carried off
by surface streams, but sinks into the ground and appears
upon the plain at the base of the mountains in innumerable
large springs of very cold and very clear water, which has
filtered for many miles down the mountain slopes. As a
consequence, the Klamath Plateau, although having a
comparatively small rainfall, is nevertheless well watered
and possesses some of the most beautiful streams on the
continent. The drainage from these springs and streams
produces two bodies of water, Klamath Marsh and Klamath
Lake, which furnish a wealth of game. The richness of
vegetable life, particularly in Klamath Marsh, is no leas
remarkable than that of the animal life, and the latter is
in fact dependent upon the former, for the birds feed upon
the seeds and starchy roots of the larger plants or upon
fish or other animals that ultimately depend for their
supply of food upon the minute algae with which the waters
of the marsh and lake abound.
One of the plants growing abundantly in the marsh and less
extensively in some of the bays of the lake, the great
yellow water lily (Nymphaea polysepala), was a staple
farinaceous food of the Klamaths in primitive times and now
is regarded by them as a delicacy (Plates 1 and 2). An
opportunity presented itself to spend a week at Klamath
Marsh in August, 1902, and to see the Indians harvest their
crop of wok's (makes),a or waterlily seed. The industry is
well preserved in so nearly its primitive form that a
detailed record of it has seemed desirable and is herewith
presented. A wokas gatherer's camp is shown in Plate 3.
It is estimated that Klamath Marsh contains about 10,000
acres of solid growth of wokas. The plant is so vigorous and
has such a habit of growth as usually to occupy an area
suited to it to the complete exclusion of other
characteristic and conspicuous marsh plants, such as tule
and cattail. Certain plants associate themselves habitually
with the waterlily, but these plants are for the most part
submerged in the water, are inconspicuous, and subsidiary in
their relationship to the waterlily, and in no effective or
important way contest its spread. The principal of these
latter plants are bladderwort (Utricularia vulgaris), mare's
tail (Hippuris vulgris), and pondered (Potamoyeton natans
and other species). Index | Next
Wokas, Primitive Food of
the Klamath Indians
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