Spetlem

A peeled root lies in the gravely, well-drained soil it prefers.

he Flathead, Kutenai, Shoshoni, and Nez Perce Indians regarded the bitterroot with reverence. No other root could be harvested until the elder women of the tribe had conducted the annual First Roots ceremony, just after the leaves appeared, and before the buds opened for the first time. That was the moment when the dark, bitter skin could easily be peeled away. Each family carefully collected a bushel or two--enough to last for a year--and dried them in the sun. Some people used the bitter root as a medicine, though it has only that unique flavor to recommend it.

Flathead Indian woman peeling spetlem.
About 1920.

For the past hundred years the bitterroot meadows by the Bitterroot River of western Montana have been given over to other uses. One of the greatest ancient beds is covered with houses; another is now the campus of the University of Montana. Today the bitterroot is most likely to be found in a domestic rock garden somewhere else in the United States.

The root was once considered highly nutritious, and it is indeed starchy, though not as much so as the root of the common dandelion. In any case, the starch is very hard to digest, which may account for the fact that even the Indians ate small portions of the root, usually mixed with other ingredients. At best, according to some wild-food epicures, it's an acquired taste. But you won't find it in a health-food store.

Thus it may be that the unique life-cycle of the bitterroot is what made it appealing. It beautifully represented the mystery of birth, death and rebirth, and the irrepressible, universal human dream of immortality.

--Joseph Mussulman; rev 5/03