Neander97 / Historical Trivia: Firmly rooted in the history of Montana, the Mountain West, and especially in the history of the Flathead (Salish), Kutenai, Kalispell, Pend d'Oreille, Spokane, and Nez Perce tribes--one finds a beautiful (and nutritious) flower, the Bitterroot, Lewisia rediviva Pursh.
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THE BITTERROOT
Each
spring as the bitterroot's vibrant pink and white flowers splash across the green canvas
of Montana's prairies and foothills like drops of paint from an artist's brush, one is
reminded that Montanans made a wise choice with their decision to adopt the bitterroot as
their state flower. Indeed, the very name bitterroot is firmly rooted with the land,
history, and myth of Montana.
The bitterroot not only gave its name to a mountain range, river, and valley, but took its scientific name, Lewisia, from the explorer, Captain Merriwether Lewis. On July 1, 1806, while pausing at the mouth of Lolo Creek, near Traveler's Rest, Captain Lewis collected a specimen of the bitterroot. After a journey of some 3,000 miles the specimen reached the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, where noted botanist Fredrich Pursh formally christened the bitterroot, Lewisia rediviva Pursh. The French Canadians who hunted and trapped throughout the Northwest, being far more descriptive and down-to-earth than eastern academicians, simply named the plant raceme amere, which literally meant bitterroot. Both David Thompson, a geographer and explorer in the employ of the North West Company, and David Douglas, pioneer botanist of the Northern Rockies, noted that the bitterroot was highly prized as a food-stuff by Native Americans throughout the region. At a somewhat later date, Montana's grandfather, Granville Stuart, wrote that although he, himself, only ate it when very hungry, many of the region's pioneer Euro-American inhabitants were extremely found of the bitterroot.
Of course, no one was more familiar with the bitterroot than were the various Native Americans of the region. The Flathead People, who perhaps valued the bitterroot more than another tribe tell of the time when they first came to learn the secrets of this beautiful, edible plant.
Once, while living in what is now known as the Bitterroot Valley, the Flatheads suffered from a great famine. One old woman who had no meat or fish to feed her grandchildren, no longer able to look at their starving faces, went down the bank of the river. There she sat alone, weeping, and began to chant her death song for she believed her grandchildren to be dying of hunger. The Sun, hearing the woman's song and took pity on this good mother. The Sun instructed a Red Bird to fly to the woman and to provide her with food to nourish her starving people and with beauty to nourish their spirits. "Grandmother," announced the Red Bird, "A new plant will be formed from your sorrowful tears which have fallen to the ground. Its flowers will wear the red of my wing feathers and the white of your hair. Your people will eat the roots of this plant. Though it will be bitter from the tears of your sorrow, it will be good for them and nourish them." And so the Sun caused the bitterroot to grow from the seeds of the good grandmother's tears.
The bitterroot was the most important root crop of the Flathead and Kutenai peoples of western Montana. The Kutenais dug their annual supply at Tobacco Plains and along the Little Bitterroot Valley. Because they lived in the Bitterroot Valley, the Flatheads had access to the best bitterroot grounds in the region. Each spring, the allied tribes of the region--members of the Flathead, Kalispell, Pend d'Oreille, Spokane, and Nez Perce nations--gathered along the Clark Fork River, near present day Missoula, to harvest bitterroots. Usually, this was a time to renew old friendships, cement alliances, and celebrate the departure of winter and the arrival of spring. Sometimes, it was not. Occasionally, warriors of Blackfeet Confederation, knowing that many of their enemies would be at the bitterroot grounds, rode over the mountains and raided the camps along the Clark Fork.
Angus McDonald, who in 1847 established Fort Connah in the Flathead Valley for the Hudson's Bay Company, described one such raid. According to McDonald, a band of Flatheads were camped on the flats at the mouth of Hell Gate Canyon when their scouts spotted four buffalo grazing on slopes above the canyon. Immediately, the Flathead men mounted their buffalo ponies and thundered out of the camp in pursuit of this unexpected bounty. When, however, they reached the spot where their prey had been observed they found no buffalo, only the tracks of Blackfeet moccasins. Fearing the worse, the Flathead warriors desperately raced back to their camp, only to find that the deadly raid was over and that their foe had escaped into the hills.
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