For generations, purple camas lilies have been cultivated, traded and consumed by the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest including the Kalapuya, who were removed to the Grand Ronde Indian Reservation in 1855. Though much sparser now than in the days it turned the Willamette Valley purple each spring, it remains a central piece of Kalapuyan lifeways.
The Camas Festival began when Linfield’s environmental studies students cleared invasive Himalayan blackberry in efforts to restore the Cozine Creek Natural Area on campus. The next spring, a dormant patch of camas grew, a native flower and Indigenous First Food.
A partnership between Linfield and the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, the annual festival coincides with the spring bloom and celebrates the cultural, ecological and artistic significance of the camas flower. Highlights of past festivals include tours through the Cozine Creek camas patches, artifacts from the Chachalu Tribal Museum and Cultural Center, an Indigenous Creators’ Market, guest speakers, children's activities, and an art exhibit. The event is free and open to all.
Please check back for more information on the upcoming festival.
April 21, 2025
Fourth-annual Camas Festival features art, natural history, Indigenous Creators’ Market and more
At the festival, members of the Grand Ronde staff and Linfield faculty led tours of the Cozine Creek camas patches.
May 10, 2024
Third-annual Camas Festival features pop-up restaurant, Indigenous Creator’s Market, panel on food sovereignty and more
The hills of the Willamette Valley may no longer turn purple with blooms of camas, but in one small patch of land, the flower is once again getting its day in the sun.
May 24, 2024
A wildflower is teaching the non-Native public about food sovereignty
Oregon's third Camas Festival highlights the joys and responsibilities of tending the iconic northwestern plant.
Linfield University
At Linfield, we recognize that the land that our physical campuses are located on were the traditional territories of the “Yam Hill” band of the Kalapuya people in McMinnville and the Chinookan peoples known as the Clackamas and Cascade Tribes in Portland. In January 1855, the people of these tribes were forcibly removed from the land after the signing of the Willamette Valley Treaty. They are now among 30 tribes and bands that make up the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde.
