Your Chinook Wawa Word of the Day: Salal

SALAL 

[SAL'-AL]  — noun.

Meaning: The salal shrub or its berries.The salal berry; fruit of Gualtheria shallon.

Origin: Chinook klkwushala 'salal berries'.

Sometimes called ‘sallal’ or ‘shallon’, the salal (Gaultheria shallon) is an evergreen shrub, restricted mainly to the Cascadian coastline which possess clustered dark-purple berrylike fruit about the size of the common grape.  Before the coming of Euro-Americans, it was one of the most valued native fruits, and was gathered in large quantities by the coastal First Nations. Both its berries and young leaves are both edible and are efficient appetite suppressants, each with a unique flavor. Salal berries were a significant food resource for the people of the First Nations who would eat them fresh, make a sort of syrup, from them, or dry and press them into tick, brick-like cakes for winter storage. They were also used as a sweetener, and the Haida used them to thicken salmon eggs. The leaves of the plant were also sometimes used to flavor fish soup.

In modern times, salal berries are used locally in jams, preserves, and pies, and are often combined with Oregon-grape because the tartness of the latter is partially masked by the mild sweetness of the salal.

Gaultheria shallon has also been historically used for its medicinal properties; the leaves have an astringent effect, making it an effective anti-inflammatory and anti-cramping herb, and a poultice of the leaf can be used externally to ease discomfort from insect bites and stings. Furthermore, the leaves prepared in a tea or tincture are thought to decrease internal inflammation such as bladder inflammation, stomach or duodenal ulcers, heartburn, indigestion, sinus inflammation, diarrhea, moderate fever, inflamed / irritated throat, and menstrual cramps.

Your Chinook Wawa Word of the Day: Shot Olallie

Shot Olallie

[shot O-lal'-lie] or [shat U-lal-i] — noun.

Meaning: huckleberry

Origin: English shot “bullet; lead” + Heiltsuk, olallie “salmon berry”; Chinook, ulali, “berry”

The Red Huckleberry (vaccinium parvifolium) is a species native to western North America, where it is common in forests of Cascadia. In the Oregon Coast Range, it is the most common variety, occurring mostly at low to middle elevations in soil enriched by decaying wood and on rotten logs, from sea level up to 1,820-meter (6,000 ft).

The First Nations of Cascadia found the plant and its small, shot-sized fruit very useful; the bright red, acidic berries were used extensively for food throughout the year. Fresh berries were eaten in large quantities, or used for fish bait because of the slight resemblance to salmon eggs. Berries were also dried and often into brick-like cakes for later use. Dried berries were stewed and made into sauces, or mixed with salmon roe and oil to eat at winter feasts.

The bark or leaves of the plant were brewed for a bitter cold remedy, made as tea or smoked.[2] The branches were used as brooms, and the twigs were used to fasten western skunk cabbage leaves into berry baskets.

Your Chinook Wawa Word of the Day: Seahpo olallie

Seahpo olallie

[se-áh-po O-lal'-lie] or [se-áh-pult U-lal-i] — noun.

Meaning: Raspberry

Origin: French, chapeau  “hat”, “cap” + Heiltsuk, olallie “salmon berry”; Chinook, ulali, “berry”

There are several varieties of raspberry in Cascadia, including the Snow Raspberry (Rubus nivalis), which is native to northwestern North America: British Columbia, Washington, Idaho, and far northern California, and the White Bark Raspberry (Rubus leucodermis), who’s range extends from Alaska to as far south as Mexico.

Cascadia is also home to the Arctic raspberry (Rubus arcticus), a species found in arctic and alpine regions in the Northern Hemisphere from Alaska-Yukon all the way across Eurasia to the Fenno-Scandian peninsula, is sometimes known as the ‘nagoon’ or ‘nagoonberry’, a name which derives from the Tlingit neigóon. 

Raspberries and leaves are rich in iron and they also contain minerals-phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, which help build the blood by carrying iron from stores in the liver, spleen, and bone marrow to needy tissues.

Raspberry leaves can be used fresh or dried in herbal teas, providing an astringent flavor as well as relief from nausea women might experience while pregnant, as well as  assists contractions and checks hemorrhage during labor and delivery.

Your Chinook Wawa Word of the Day: Amote

AMOTE

[a-MO'-teh] or [a-MU-tee],  occasionally corrupted into [al-mo'-ta] — noun.

Meaning: Strawberry (plant or fruit)

Origin: Chinook amuti; Clatsop tl’amōte, “strawberry”.

Fragaria chiloensis, the ‘beach strawberry’ or ‘coastal strawberry’, is one of two species of wild strawberries that were hybridized to create the modern garden strawberry. The plant’s natural range is the Pacific Ocean coast, from Alaska to California, though migratory birds have dispersed the plant from the Pacific coast of North America to the mountains of Hawaii, Chile, and Argentina.

In addition to serving as a food source, the whole strawberry plant, including leaves and roots, can be used for purposes of cleansing the system, both a blood purifier and blood builder; the wild strawberry is a laxative, diuretic and astringent, and the leaves and berries are rich in iron as well as contain small amounts of magnesium, potassium and sodium.

Your Chinook Wawa Word of the Day: Olallie

Olallie

[O-lal'-lie] or [U-lal-i] — noun.

Meaning: Berry; berries; fruit

Origin: From a Lower Chinook úlili ‘salmon-berry'; Heiltsuk, olallie “salmon berry”

Originally this word referred only to salmon-berries (Rubus spectabilis), but in Chinook Wawa it grew to mean any sort of "pil olallie" (red berry), along the Salish Sea it became a catch-all for any sort of berry. One can collect “piah olallie" (ripe berries) to both eat and to make into  "olallie chuck" (berry juice). Though introduced by Europeans, grapes would come to be called “wain olallie” (wine berries), and naturally the grapevine was called “wain olallie stick” (wine berry tree). This also leads to two heady archaisms for wine, “wain ti” (wine tea) or “wain olallie yaka chuck” (wine berry’s water).

The unincorporated communities of Olalla, WA, and Olalla, BC are named after local adaptations of this word, as is Ollala Dam and its associated reservoir, Ollala Lake, which are located near Siletz. There is an Ollala Creek in Oregon and British Columbia, as well as an Olallie Creek in Washington.