We Tahltans have always traveled back to the Stikine when the salmon are running. That is also the case today. People who live in the area put up fish for most of the summer. Our people who live Outside go back to put up fish. They do not have much time, but they get fish for most of the year.

Everyone enjoys fish camp. It is (and always has been) a time for meeting friends and relatives. In between periods of hard work, we visit, sing, play games, and just have fun.

Our relationship with salmon is a very long one. These fish have been so important to our people. Salmon were a staple food, one that we could count on every year. We treated this fish with great respect. Our legends and landmarks emphasize our close connection to salmon.

The methods used to work with fish have not changed much throughout the years. However, the tools used to catch and work on the fish have changed quite a bit. But they are still the same kinds of tools.

All kinds of fish were eaten, not just salmon. Salmon were the most important because they were the largest fish and were the most plentiful. There are many ways to catch fish, including the following:

Fishhooks

This is among the simplest ways to catch fish. Long ago our hooks were carved from bone or antlers. Nowadays we have hooks made from metal. But they still work the same way. And, if you are fishing for dolly varden in the Stikine during salmon runs, salmon eggs are the best bait.

Weirs

Weirs are basically chutes for herding fish into small holding fences. Weirs were built in shallow waters of rivers and streams when fish were spawning. These were built of small spruce trees lashed together with withes. They were built so that when the fish swam through, they could not swim out. It was a simple matter to gaff the fish which swam into the holding pens. Several hundreds of fish could be caught this way in a matter of hours.

Basket Traps

Large, long baskets were made to trap salmon in narrow passages on the Stikine River. These had a cylindrical, inverted basket attached to the mouth of the long basket. When the fish swam in, the opening in the little basket prevented it from swimming out.

When the trap was filled, it was lifted out. It took several strong men to haul on the ropes attached to the basket to lift it clear of the water.

Gaffs

Gaffing fish is not as common as it once was, but some people still gaff fish. Our gaff is a long, thin pole about 5 m or 15 feet long. The gaff hook is made so that it fits over the end of the pole at the narrowest end. The hook is attached to the pole with a thin strip of hide.

To use a gaff, run the back end (not hook end) of the gaff along the bottom of the river. When you feel a fish, then flip the pole and hook the fish. When the fish is caught, the hook slips off the pole and dangles. This is the way the fish stays on the hook. If the gaff was attached solidly to the pole, the fish could wiggle off.

Dip Nets

Our people netted, or tied, their own fishing nets. They were made in different sizes, depending on the fish that was being caught.

Spears

Two kinds of spears were used. One was a three-pronged spear. The middle prong was a sharpened bone. The outside prongs had smaller sharpened bone which were angled backwards. This type of spear was used for ice-fishing.

A second type of spear was made similar to a gaff. The spearhead slipped over the end of the shaft. It, too, was attached so that it would dangle when a fish was speared.

Gill Nets

Our people made long, narrow gill nets for use in lakes. These were hand netted of twisted sinew, shredded willow bark, or babiche. The nets were about 2 m (6 feet) by 7 m (20 feet). Wooden floats were attached to the top so that it would not sink. It was held in place with rocks.

In the 1920's, the government banned the use of weirs. Our people then adapted the gill net for catching salmon in the back eddies in the Stikine River. We made our own nets. The mesh was made larger than those used in lakes.

In early days, we made nets of sinew or babiche. Later, we bought strong twine for making the net. Our traditional wood spindle may have been replaced by plastic or factory-made wood.

Nowadays we might buy our net, although some people still make them or know how to make them. One way to get a net is to buy used commercial nets and cut them to the size we want.

We still need floats to hold the net up, but these are bought, not made by us. When we set the net in the river, a long pole is used as a boom to run the net far out into the current. The boom is held in place by placing rocks on the platform that holds the boom.

Gill netting is the most common way of getting fish today. The net is pulled as often as needed, usually about 3 or 4 times a day. Several hundreds of fish can be pulled easily in a day when the fish are running.

Drying is our traditional way of preserving fish. Each season, about 1600-2000 fish would be dried in a communal smokehouse long ago. Drying was the ideal way to keep them for winter sin ce their size reduced when they were dried. Dried fish is very lightweight. It will keep "forever" if it is kept dry.

We dried freshwater fish as well as salmon. But salmon was our main fish and we adapted our life to mesh with the yearly salmon runs.

A Tahltan fish house

We still dry our fish in smokehouses, just as our ancestors did. When we build our smokehouses today, they built the same as our traditional smokehouses. Today our smokehouses are not built large enough so that we can live in it. Our smokehouses still have a waterproofed roof, to keep our fish dry. The walls are made of saplings with openings between them to allow air to blow through. They still have branches against the outer walls to keep dirt out. And they still have smudges burning inside to keep flies away. (See Houses for how we built our smokehouses.)

Our methods are the same as always.. We have some differences, though. For instance, when we make ennacauga today, some of us take a shortcut. We smoke it for a day in a smokehouse (if we have one). Then we take it and dry it in a small electric dehydrator.

The way to prepare fish is the same. When the fish is caught and being cleaned, the first cut is at the tail to make a handhold for hanging onto the fish. It is then gutted, then hung to dry overnight in the smokehouse. Next day the fish is cut, skin on, from the inside so that it folds out. The flesh is scored and hung over rails to begin drying. As the fish dries, it is moved to higher poles. A smudge is always burning to keep flies away. The fish is ready to store when it is completely dry. It takes about 3 weeks.

Our people had lots of practice in making dried smoked fish. They knew "everything" about how to make good dried fish. And they knew how to use their resources. For example, they knew that different kinds of wood resulted in different flavoured salmon. Today we try different spices to add variety to our dried salmon.

Salting fish was a more modern way of putting up fish. When the non-natives came, they taught us how to preserve using salt. Salt salmon is considered a delicacy today.

Freezing is the simplest way to preserve fish. All that is needed is to wrap the fish as airtight as possible. Plastic bags work very well. Freezing fish in a block of ice is an excellent way to keep fish. It is Ôalmost' as good as fresh.

Long ago our people used nature's icebox. Salmon ran in upper waters until late fall. If we needed more fish, we might go there to get them. Wooden cribs were built beside the water. As we caught fish, they were dropped into the cribs where they froze solid. Another way was to put fish in little pools of water. When the pools froze, the fish were frozen also.

Canning is the main way we preserve salmon today. In the past, metal cans were used. But today we use jars. The fish is heated to a high temperature for several hours. Or the jars might be cooked in a pressure cooker for about 2 hours. The heat kills bacteria and preserves the salmon. Great care must be taken when preparing fish by canning. Poorly processed fish means that deadly bacterial are not destroyed. A can of poor fish can kill.

It was great to have bundles of salmon, dried meat, dried plants, and other food. But think about storage. All of this takes up a lot of room. If we tried to keep enough food on hand, even today, we would need a very large building for storage.

Our people solved the problem of storage by making caches. The oldest caches were pits. Or for short term, food could be hung from a tree branch. Later, wooden caches were built above ground. The pit caches were in use for a very long time. They were dug in well-drained areas. It was important that the food stay dry. We had caches all over our country, since we moved over the whole area throughout the year.

Each family had several caches. They would need lots because this is their food for the year. Thorman (1890's) noted that there were 1500 caches along the Tahltan River and Tahltan Lake. A cache was like a family's bank account. It was absolutely forbidden to take from anyone else's cache unless it was a dire emergency. Even then, the owner must be told and paid for it somehow. If a person did not tell, people knew. The Family would have a family council to decide what to do. They would pay for this because it reflects on the honour of the Family. If the person stole again, the Family would take serious action. They might even decide that the person had to pay the penalty of death. A cache was a serious matter.

A cache could be used to store fish

The pit cache was about 3 m by 2 m (10 feet by 6 feet) and 2 m (6 feet) deep. Some people lined the whole pit with slabs of bark before they began to fill it. A layer of poles, branches and dried leaves was put in the bottom of the pit. This layer was about 30 cm or 1 foot deep. It kept the food off the ground and allowed room for a bit of seepage.

Layers of food and bark were put in. A layer of food, then a layer of bark, to about 45 cm or 1 1/2 foot from the top. They another layer of branches, bark, leaves, etc. was put in to keep animals and water out. Rocks were placed on top to keep animals out.

Making a pit was a lot of work. But everyone pitched in and helped. Men, women, children, and older people all could do something to give a hand. Children helped by carrying branches, and whatever they could. They were "helpers" while still young. They were learning how to make a pit from the time they were young. Each year they could do more and more. Finally, as adults, they knew everything they had to know about making a pit cache.