The Makah Ozette potato, a type of fingerling long cultivated by the Olympic Peninsula’s Makah Tribe, has a unique story. All potatoes originated in the  Peruvian Andes, but, until recently, experts assumed that the tuber reached North America only by way of European immigration. The oral history of the Makah Tribe gives a different account. It traces the potato grown in coastal gardens near Neah Bay to the arrival of Spanish explorers from South America in the late 1700s. The Spaniards’ settlement was short-lived, but this potato remained.

According to Janine Ledford, director of the Makah Cultural and Research Center and Museum, the tribe calls itself the “Cape People,” or “people who live by the rocks and seagulls.” Ledford explained that the tribe has traditionally focused on whaling, sealing and fishing, and never grew potatoes commercially. But, Ledford added, “people were growing them in their gardens,” and “this potato seemed to grow well in our climate.”

The Makah enjoyed the potato, according to Ledford, dipped in whale or seal oil, a tradition no longer available due to environmental regulations. Whaling restrictions have long been challenged by the tribe based on rights guaranteed by treaty, Ledford explained. The issue remains unresolved to date. Nevertheless, in spite of the greater ceremonial and subsistence role of marine animals, Makah gardeners have succeeded as stewards of the land, sustaining a distinctive potato for more than 200 years.

The nam “Makah” comes from a S’Klallam word that means “generous with food.” True to this spirit of generosity, a woman named Anna Cheeka shared potatoes from her garden with a potato enthusiast from Idaho in the 1980s. Word of its likely history spread. In the early 2000s, Makah elders agreed to allow plant geneticists to study the potato in order to establish its origins. The tribe had been approached by a team led by researchers from Washington State University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Genetic analysis concluded that the Makah Ozette (and other Native American cultivars) did indeed relate more closely to South American potatoes than to those brought to North America by Europeans, thus upending long-held assumptions in the scientific community.

This effort to trace the tuber’s origins involved the Seattle chapter of Slow Food, an international organization devoted to preserving food culture. The Makah Ozette potato was listed in Slow Food’s Ark of Taste, a 3,500-item catalog that raises awareness of foods facing extinction. (Other local foods in the Ark of Taste are Marbled Chinook Salmon, Olympia Native Oyster and Geoduck.)

Action to propagate the Makah Ozette became a collaborative effort in 2006. According to Slow Food Seattle, the group joined the Makah Nation, Chefs Collaborative Seattle, individual farmers, and a USDA seed laboratory in a Presidium, a Slow Food-funded biodiversity project to support growers who propagate the endangered tuber by growing seed potatoes. To be healthy, a potato needs special care every few generations to remove plant diseases that develop over time. This need for care underscores the skill of Makah gardeners who maintained the health of their potato for more than two centuries.

Unfortunately, climate change has begun to affect the Presidium efforts, and those of other growers. Several Pacific Northwest farmers contacted for this article have left the business or discontinued offering the variety. Most recently, home gardeners seeking the Makah Ozette have relied on social media to find others willing to share. Contacted for information on finding seed potatoes, Slow Food’s Washington State Regional Councilor Kim Marshall said that Slow Food is “currently in a rematriation process with the seed” and working to set a new course for its development.

Given current challenges to growers of the Makah Ozette, local residents may feel fortunate to learn that John Bellow of Chimacum’s Spring Rain Farm & Orchard has harvested a crop of the the fingerlings this year. Bellow, whose organic family farm is a regular vendor at the Port Townsend Farmers Market, has been among this potato’s biggest fans. Bellow says, “I grow it because I like how it tastes.” Unique history aside, for those of us who “live to eat,” Bellow’s expert opinion may be encouragement enough to seek out the Makah Ozette potato for the holiday table.