The root is prized as a food by the tribes of the southern plateau of the Pacific Northwest.

Meriwether Lewis collected a specimen in 1806 while on his expedition.

[2] It is called x̣áwš in the Sahaptin language, and qáamsit (when fresh) and qáaws (when peeled and dried) in the Nez Perce language.

It is called shappelell by the Chinooks: "... and a kind of bisquit, which the natives make of roots called by them shappelell.

From The Definitive Journals of Lewis & Clark, Down the Columbia to Fort Clatsop.