Kamas lillies at the Centennial Marsh in Fairfield, Idaho.

FAIRFIELD — On May 17, a tribal group of harvesters went and gathered Kamas at the Centennial Marsh, Fairfield.

Shoshone-Bannock Language and Cultural Preservation manager Darrell Shay said enough of the Kamas was harvested they are able to serve the food at some of the cultural events. There were other folks from the Tribe who also went on their own throughout the last two weeks since then.

On Saturday, May 21, the LCPD had a gathering that included the 19 mile relay run and a 6 mile walk. Unfortunately they were not able to field a relay run so they just had the 6-mile walk. There were 15 walkers and 1 runner, who ran the 6 mile course. Upon finish at the Centennial Marsh Campground, a luncheon of buffalo meat, salads, fruit and drinks was served. They did a limited history presentation on the Kamas Prairie and our tribal history.

On Sunday, June 5, the second part of the gathering was held. Shay said the reason there were two separate events was they were initially invited to perform at the Lily Day Festival that was over the weekend. “If we came to harvest the Kamas at this time we would have been too late. Therefore we held our gathering ceremonies on Saturday, May 21, and that is where we gathered the food plants and did the run.”

Shay said they did this weekend’s performance to fulfill the Lily Day invitation, and made good inroads with all those folks to understand the Tribes belonging to the Kamas Prairie.

There were six dancers, a drum group and MC for the event. There were visiting regional folks participating from the towns of Fairfield, Hailey, Cary, Jerome, Ketchum, Gooding and Wendell. Shay said they had numerous spectators praise the dancers and singers. The event was well received and the area wants a bigger event next year. “Our hope is to one day have a huge dance gathering,” he said.

He added the prairie technically still belongs to the Shoshone and Bannock people as it was one of the two regions Chief Taghee claimed and reserved for a reservation under the Fort Bridger Treaty, but the typist for the federal government typed the cursive written document and misspelled it as “Kansas” prairie, thus it never got reserved as our reservation.

Shay said the staff and other volunteers did an excellent job in making the return to the Kamas Prairie Gathering for 2016 a huge success.