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Show 12 Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters "In the surrounding area dwell Indians who live on the abundant fish supply from the lake; for this reason the Yutas Sabuaganas call them the Come Pescade [Fish-eaters]: In addition they gather green seeds on the plain and make gruel with them to which they add their catches of hares, rabbits, and wild hens of which there are many around here; they also have buffalo not far away to the north-northwest, but fear of the Comanches keeps them from this game." When approaching the Colorado River in southern Utah on the return trip, the Escalante party, in dire straits for food, on October 18, 1796, sent out scouts who returned after midnight "bringing a small amount of wild goat, some dried prickly pear made into a cake and some grass seeds." Under date of' October 19, Escalante further records: "Twenty of these Indians came into our camp with some prickly cake and several bags of seeds of different herbs for us to buy. We paid them for what they and asked them if they had meat, brought pine kernels and prickly pears to fetch them and that we would buy everything, especially the meat." Later in the day other Indians "brought no meat but several bags of the seeds mentioned -before, and some fresh prickly pears, ripened in the sun, and others dried in cakes. We bought about a bushel of seed and all the prickly pears They told us that they were Yulouincariri Indians and that they did not sow corn; that their food consisted of these prickly pears, seeds, and the pine kernels of which they gather very little, since they live frugally, and on what hares, rabbits and wild goats they can get. They added that on this bank of the river only the Parusis Indians sowed corn and squash." pears in a .... A few days later other Indians. (October 23) note is made of trading with "We bought about a bushel of pine kernels from them and gave them more than a half bushel of grass seeds." In the next century, the trappers, adventurers and explorers in the Great Basin region, separated for long periods of time from the remote frontiers of civilization, were similarly often reduced to a narrow subsistence margin and compelled to live upon the plant and animal products of the region, concerning which tl;,ley took over from the Indians much of their empirical knowledge. In the journal of Lewis and Clark occurs the graph: following para "Sacajawea gathered a quantity of roots of a species of fennel which found very agreeable food, the flavor of this root being not unlike anise seed These are called by the Shoshones Year-pah [Yampah]. These roots are very palatable either fresh, roasted, boiled or dried, and are generally between the size of a quill and a man's finger, and about the length of the latter The rind is white and thin, the body of the root is white, mealy, and easily reduced by pounding to a substance resembling flour which thickens with boiling water like flour, and is agreeably flavored." we ... .... Later on Fremont writes concerning this same plant ; "At this place I first became acquainted with the yampah which I found our Snake woman digging in the low-timbered bottom of the creek. |
