Ceremony was performed to insure an ample harvest of bitterroot 
as well as other plant foods. The gathering of food plants was 
coordinated with other subsistance activities. Teit (1930) sum- 
marized the annual Flathead food quest as follows: “In the 
springtime, digging certain roots, hunting and fishing on the 
nearer grounds; in early summer root digging and berrying, only a 
little hunting or root digging; in early fall (about September), the 
same occupations as in late summer; in late fall (October and 
November), root digging and hunting in the early part, and finally 
only hunting. In December they went into their camps and left 
them in March.” 
Flatheads usually gathered berries in cedar bark baskets, 
though sometimes bark from a young fir was used. These baskets 
measured about 18-20 inches by 8-10 inches in diameter and 
tapered from a round top toa pointed rectangular bottom. The 
seams were either sewn together with willow bark or were pierced 
and pinned together with small twigs, and then made waterproof 
with conifer pitch (Stubbs, 1966). 
Teit (1930) claimed that in prehistoric times the Flatheads 
gathered roots in baskets, but after the introduction of the horse, 
roots were gathered in flat woven and often decorated containers 
which measured 2-3 feet long and 15-20 inches wide. They 
obtained these from the neighboring Nez Perce. Dried roots and 
berries were stored in rawhide bags (Stubbs, 1966). 
Root crops were dug with digging sticks. The Flathead often 
used digging sticks of hawthorn or serviceberry with horn antler 
or wooden transverse handles. The points were fire-hardened and 
sharpened by burning and shaving or rubbing against rough 
stones. Wooden digging sticks proved impractical for camas 
which grows in heavy turf, in which case elk antler digging sticks 
were employed. These were probably similar to those used by the 
Kootenai which were about 15 inches long and contained the 
crotch of one prong which served as a handle. Wooden and elk 
horn antlers were replaced by iron digging sticks when the whites 
moved into the region (Malouf, 1971). 
The Flatheads either boiled or baked their vegetal food. The 
hot pit method of baking is described in the section where camas 
is discussed. Turney- High (1937) described the method of boiling: 
