Tribal Gatherers Draw Strength from First Foods in a Changing Climate

MISSION – The Umatilla Indian Reservation community gathered at the Mission Longhouse on March 2 for the annual Nixyaawii Celery Feast. Several days before the feast, gatherers collected the tender shoots of latit latit or Indian celery according to ancient protocols, but concerns about the impacts changing weather and climate on this First Food weighed on the minds of many of the elders.

The annual feast, to honor the latit latit (Lomatium grayi, Indian celery) is rooted in the promise to honor and care for First Foods. Like other Columbia River Plateau tribes, the Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla people have upheld this tradition for generations, ensuring the foods that have sustained them continue to be honored despite ongoing environmental changes. This plant “sister” of the Nixyaawii people grows in rocky hillside terrain and is ready for harvest in the spring. Native teaching considers all First Food roots as elder “sisters” of the people.

A Changing Landscape

Travelling out to the hills for the harvest provided a real touch point to the changing climate, both on impacts to the First Foods as well as harvesting conditions.

The relatively balmy conditions at this year’s gathering was a notable change to what many of the elders remembered. The week of this year’s harvest saw a high of 65 degrees—almost 30 degrees warmer than last year’s and 20 degrees warmer than the year before that.

Trinette Minthorn, the most experienced gatherer in the group this year, has been harvesting First Foods for over 30 years. She recalled the stark contrast between past and present conditions. “Normally, we’re digging celery in the snow,” Minthorn said. “We had to bundle up in gloves and hats, sweeping the ground to see the tops of the celery. Now, everything is dry. Even with the rain we got last week, the ground isn’t vegetating like it should.” Minthorn noted that the feasts have been getting later each year, aligning with the growing unpredictability of the seasonal round.

Colleen Sanders, Climate Adaptation Planner for the First Foods Policy Program at CTUIR, was among those gathering latit latit for the first time at this longhouse.

Sanders, who has worked extensively with First Foods harvesters, emphasized the ecological significance of this shift. “The seasonal round is an ecological calendar,” she explained. “When you follow it, you stay in harmony with the land. But this year, it was clear something was off—no snow, dry soil, and a landscape behaving like early spring when it should still feel like winter.”

Sanders first began gathering with the women of the longhouse as part of her work in climate adaptation and First Foods policy. Her role involves coordinating across tribal departments to integrate climate resilience into natural resource management. She has been instrumental in collecting data on First Foods availability and tracking environmental changes affecting traditional harvesting. While this was her first time gathering latit latit, she has participated in root feasts before, both as a researcher and as a gatherer, deepening her understanding of the connection between land stewardship and cultural survival.

As the day went on in the unseasonably warm weather, the diggers felt a somber mood settle over them.

Swan Bybee, a Nez Perce gatherer and member of the Nixyaawii Longhouse who traveled from Portland, described a moment of unease: one of her “longhouse sisters” encountered a rattlesnake. This type of sighting isn’t uncommon in the rocky terrain where the women were gathering, but typically snakes are still hibernating at this time of the year. There was also an unusual abundance of rabbit activity.

“There was this feeling of mourning,” Bybee said. “The land isn’t the same, and neither are the foods. The celery was scarce, and even what we did find didn’t have the smell we know and love.”

Finding Joy and Strength from the First Foods

Although Bybee acknowledges there was concern and sadness within the bunch, there was a shift into determination and celebration amongst the women as they directed their attention to other areas of the digging grounds.

“As soon as we lifted our moods and held love in our hearts, the Sisters started appearing,” said Bybee. “They revealed themselves to us and we were able to gather enough for feast.”

The gatherers were able to locate an abundant patch of celery, but they had to work for it. On a steep hill outside of their normal digging territory, only the younger, more agile gatherers were sent up the difficult climb. Staying down below, the elder gatherers took the opportunity to clean and separate the celery from their stalks.

The plants the young gatherers brought down from the climb were more mature and had the smell the elders knew meant the Sisters were ready to be harvested.

Thanks to the hard work and determination of the gatherers, the feast carried on, as it always has. The gathered latit latit was cleaned, prepared, and shared, strengthening not just bodies but the covenant made with the earth by the tribes.

For Sanders, the experience reinforced a core belief: that Indigenous stewardship is a climate adaptation strategy in itself. “First Foods have been here longer than the burning of fossil fuels,” she said. “These feasts are a way of keeping preexisting relationships alive, ensuring these foods survive alongside us.”

Minthorn, too, remains committed to the responsibility handed down to her. “No matter how the climate changes, we will keep our promise,” she said. “We have to. That’s what it means to be a river person, a Plateau person.”

By Jill-Marie Gavin, CRITFC Communications