Category: Salmon

Lifeblood.

For millennia salmon has been our lifeblood, touching every community with it’s nutrition.  This has been a hard summer.  The fish have been scarce all over Alaska with the exception of Bristol Bay.  We hope that our salmon are not disappearing and that this summer was just an off year.  Our salmon have to contend with many obstacles to make it home to our streams:  warming waters, hazardous wastes, plastics, pollution, and becoming by-catch of fishermen fishing for other species.  Once they get here,  we make sure the escapement for spawning is sufficient for future years.  Our subsistence foods feed our physical nutritional needs, but also fill our cultural needs; one is just as important as the other.  (Turn the sound down…that is just our constant wind drowning out the sound of splashing salmon.)

Visions of fishing

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My mother and I have noticed that time seems to be whizzing by particularly fast this year.  We are already into May.  Mom informed us she is not fishing this summer.  That is a daunting statement coming from her, as she had taught all of us that salmon is one of the most important components of our lives.  Her reason?  No time.  She is in the final preparations for a show at the Anchorage Museum.  When she announced that she would not be fishing, we were all a little stunned.  Not that she actually “fishes” anymore, but she is still the catalyst that drives the process.  She is an unrelenting stickler for perfection in her subsistence practices.  From catch to filleted and prepped for final process is typically never more than 15 minutes or so, depending on the number of fish hitting the net.  Usually we must twist her arm to let us do the filleting.  She just loves the whole process.  So, we shall all step up to the plate this year to see if we have learned well and have what it takes.  I have the faith.  It is unfortunate that one of the best fish cutters will be self-exiled for an intense language immersion opportunity this summer.  This is an opportunity that couldn’t be passed up.  Our language, Unangam Tunuu, has only fluent speakers who are over the age of 70.  So, while we all have our own visions this spring and summer, we know in our heart of hearts that we will fill our freezers, our drying and smoking houses, and our salt buckets to the best of our abilities.  Having had the best teacher in life, we will be successful.