Pit Moss Cooking

Image of a pit with a coal bed of embers

PIT COOKING MOSS—The Colville Confederated Tribes' Language Preservation Program hosted a demonstration on pit cooking moss at the Diabetes' Prevention program's Yellowcloud building on the Nespelem agency campus. The moss was washed clean—washed until water flowed clearly through it, said tribal elders. Moss is only picked from larch and fir, no pine, said elders: Pine sap is too hard to clean. To cook, tribal members dug a 3 foot hole and coals were started last night to heat 30 rocks—"the size of coyotes' heads," said Language's Rodney Cawston. The moss will cook for 30 hours. Photos by Nanette Vaughn

Prior to European contact all of the original 12 tribes were semi-sedentary, traveling to usual and accustomed places to gather roots, fish, hunt and to pick berries, returning to traditional winter villages along the rivers in late fall.