Video -- The return of the wapato potato

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Nine months ago as a graduate student, Emily Washines' research led her to rediscover a largely missing piece of her culture: a wild, native potato traditionally eaten by the Yakama.

A graduate student at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washines was reading about a similar tribal root vegetable in the Midwest when she decided to search for the potato on her own Yakama reservation.

"Am I going to write a paper about somebody in the Midwest who gathers this, or am I going to go out there and do this myself?" Washines, 30, asked herself.

Her research took her to a wetland area south of Toppenish, where a habitat restoration project has brought the wapato back. Donning rubber waders, Washines jumped into the water and danced in the mud until a small bulb-like root floated up -- a wapato.

"It took about five minutes, and I found one," she said.

Much smaller than the common commercial potato, the average wapato is about 2 inches in diameter. The root tastes like a potato with a twist of corn flavor, and can be prepared just like its modern cousin.

The wapato was usually gathered in late spring and early fall, though the Yakamas haven't conducted a harvest in decades. But the return of the potato is generating memories and stories from elders, Washines said.

"I like to say that our knowledge is dormant and we're waking it up and having it revitalized," she said.

The wapato normally grows in marshy areas, and has a long stalk with green arrowhead-shaped leaves.

The wild plant disappeared for a while after irrigation systems and modern farming displaced much of the traditional habitat of the Yakima Valley. Water diversions dried up wetlands, and as a result much aquatic and plant life were lost.

But in recent years, the Yakamas have repurchased land lost to farmers around the turn of the century, restoring wetlands near creeks and rivers. More than a decade has passed since the tribe embarked on the 440-acre restoration project south of Toppenish off U.S. Highway 97, where Washines found the wapato. It had returned on its own.

"It's just another benefit of that restoration work," said Washines, now a habitat specialist for the Yakama Nation. "You have a plant that came back."

She compares the wetland restoration to her Shaker Church, where water comes before each traditional meal.

"The way this wetlands restoration work is taking place, they fixed that water first," she said. "And it's just like at church: They put the water on the table first."

It's not entirely uncommon for plants to return years later, said Tom Elliott, a Bonneville Power Administration habitat ecologist who works with the tribe to manage more than 20,000 acres of flood plain land on the reservation.

In 1994, Bonneville Power helped the tribe buy back the 440 acres for the wetlands restoration project along Toppenish Creek.

"Basically you have a bunch of plants that used to be there, and the seeds of some plants have an incredibly long life span when they get in the soil," Elliott said. "And they wait around until the conditions are right and there they are."

The wapato hasn't been entirely missing from the Pacific Northwest. It can still be found on Sauvie Island near Portland on the Columbia River. That island was once named Wapato Island by Lewis and Clark because of the plant's abundance. The Lower Valley city of Wapato was also named after the indigenous plant.

Although there are no plans to cultivate the wapato commercially, Washines hopes to see it return to ceremonial dining tables and will lecture on the topic next week at the Yakima Area Arboretum.

Plant lovers, tribal and nontribal alike, will be interested in learning about the potato's return, said Katrina Strathmann, chairwoman of the local chapter of the state Native Plant Society.

"I think it's a wonderful opportunity and I think there is a huge public interest in restoring these cultural resources," she said.

Like most of the traditional food of the Yakama, the wapato is full of protein and low-fat, healthy carbohydrates, said Dr. Rex Quaempts, a Yakama who oversees the Yakama Indian Health Service diabetes program.

He advocates traditional foods.

"I think it's culturally important to identify a natural food that is in our area that we will hopefully start going out and gathering again," he said. "I think it's great if Emily can find it, figure out how to harvest it and bring it back."

* Phil Ferolito can be reached at 509-577-7749 or pferolito@yakimaherald.com.

If you go

WHAT: Presentation about the Wapato, a native potato traditionally prepared by the Yakama and other Northwest tribes.

WHEN: 7-9 p.m. Monday.

WHERE: Yakima Area Arboretum, 1401 Arboretum Drive, Yakima.

ADMISSION: Free.