Herring and Relatives General
Fishing
Herring are reported to have been typically caught in spring during spawning season, but also in fall. Herring caught in fall are rich in high quality oil and were mainly used to render oil, while those caught in the spawning season contained less oil and were used for cooking [4-6, 14, 20, 21, 23, 26, 28, 32, 35-37, 41, 46, 51, 55, 56]. Many cultures traveled to set up fishing camps. The Tlingit set up fishing camps at shallow bays in spring [26, 37]. The Micmac (Mi'kmaq) traveled in bands to traditional fishing camps, usually inhabited by 200 or more people [14, 49]. The Nuxalk traveled by canoe to seasonal camps at inlets and the Nootka (Nuu-chah-nulth) canoed to inlets at the beginning of February to set up spring herring camps [4, 5, 36]. As herring season approached, the Northern and Central Nootka chiefs gave the order to move to the spring fishing camps on the lower regions of the inlets while the Hare (Sahtu) who caught them in summer, camped at the Ramparts above Fort Good Hope [15, 21]. Some North Pacific Coast cultures caught them from their winter villages while others needed to go to their summer village sites. Other North Pacific Coast cultures owned herring regions that were too far from both their summer and winter village sites so they had permanent camps comprised of tiny house frames [23]. The Kwakiutl (Kwakwaka'wakw) traveled by canoe to herring spawning regions; the South Kwakiutl traveled to seasonal camps located at inlets [17, 36].
Herring were typically caught in inlets where they spawned, in shallow bays, sheltered coves, and along the coast [3-5, 19, 23, 37, 52, 56]. Most cultures used the herring rake but other tools that were used included dip nets, drag nets and seines, baskets, weirs and other traps [1, 4, 6, 7, 9, 21, 22, 29, 32, 34-37, 41, 42, 46, 53, 55, 56, 60-62, 64]. The Kyuquot, Tlingit, Coast Salish (including the Northern Coast Salish, Central Coast Salish, Southern Coast Salish and Southwestern Coast Salish), several Northwest Coast cultures, Nuxalk, Nootka (including the Nootka of Vancouver Island, Northern and Central Nootka), Coast Tsimshian, Haida, Kwakiutl (including the South Kwakiutl), Puget Sound Indigenous Peoples, Natives of Southeast Alaska and Nootka Aht are reported to have used herring rakes, usually from a canoe [1, 5, 6, 9, 13, 17, 19, 21-23, 26, 28, 29, 32, 34-37, 42, 46, 55, 56, 60-62, 64].
When fishing from a canoe, one person would use a herring rake and the other would row. This duo was either a husband and wife team or two men [2, 19, 22, 28]. The Puget Sound Indigenous Peoples in earlier times used herring rakes which had sharpened ironwood spikes at the end, but which were replaced by tiny sharpened nails in later times. When the rakes were made of ironwood, the fisher carried extra wood spikes in case the rake nails were broken. A Puget Sound man and his wife usually worked together to catch herring with the wife rowing the boat and the man sweeping the water with the rake to catch the herring and jerking the rake to land them in the canoe [62].
The Kyuquot caught herring two ways: with a herring rake and with a cedar board. They used the herring rake in the winter. In earlier times, this was a long pole with small bones at the end, and in later times, the bones were replaced by iron nails. The cedar board was placed in the water and submerged under the herring; as the cedar board resurfaced, it forced the herring up. Three or four canoes would then retrieve the board full of herring and the emptied board was placed back in the water to catch more fish [35].
The Tlingit also caught herring two ways: with a herring rake and with a line of several hooks. The herring rake consisted of a long pole with a row of sharp nails at the bottom, or an oar-shaped implement with sharp bone or copper teeth at the end (in more recent times sharpened nails were used) [19, 37, 46, 64]. Two men occupied the canoe, one paddled it and the other stroked the water with the rake. Once the herring were caught, the rake was hit on the side of the canoe and the rake emptied. When using the line with several hooks, they let it down and pulled it up quickly to catch the herring [19, 37, 46].
The Northern Coast Salish caught them with dip nets or herring rakes but by the early 1900s, they had replaced these with gill nets and seine nets [34]. The Nuxalk and South Kwakiutl caught them with baglike nets and herring rakes made of cedar and having several sharp bone or wood points at the end and located schools of herring by noticing where noisy groups of gulls fluttered over the sea [36]. The Haida used herring rakes and dip nets, but also used open-mesh baskets, seines and dragnets [1, 6, 42].
The Coast Salish and Nootka used herring rakes and nets [2, 4, 7]. The Nootka rake is described as a long cedar pole with sharp bone pegs at the end, and the net as a long tapered sac made of nettle fiber. Two or three men paddled in a tiny canoe to the sea or an outside inlet and watched for hovering seagulls, which indicated the location of schools of herring that were close to the surface. Once spotted, they canoed quickly to the spot to excite the fish, clustered them and scooped them using dip nets [4]. The Nootka Aht used herring rakes and nettle nets. This rake could only be used in the daytime at the beginning of spawning season (April and May) because the fish were less cautious; in later months, the fish were caught at night with the help of light to attract them [55]. The Strait of Georgia cultures caught herring with rakes or a huge Deep Bay trap [41]. The Kutchin (Gwich’in) caught them with weirs into which basket fish traps were set, and the Coast Tsimshian caught them with drag nets, baskets and herring rakes [53, 56].
Preparation
Herring is reported to be eaten dried, smoked, raw, broiled, boiled and frozen [4, 8, 9, 12, 20, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 37, 39, 44, 45, 57]. The Kyuquot, Coast Salish and Micmac smoked herring [9, 35, 57]. The Eyak, Puget Sound Indigenous Peoples, Tsimshian, Kwakiutl of British Columbia, Gulf of Georgia Salish, North Pacific Coast cultures, Coast cultures of Southern Alaska and Northern British Columbia, and Tlingit dried it [8, 12, 20, 23, 24, 26, 27, 44]. The Alaska Native peoples and Coastal People of Chukotka ate herring frozen, sliced in tiny pieces and dipped in seal oil [45].
The Nootka ate herring raw, broiled on poles near a fire, or boiled in wood boxes using hot stones. They dried the herring for storage by cleaning, splitting and drying them in the sun or indoors over a fire for a week; they were stored in boxes [4, 21, 39]. The Kwakiutl and the Northern and Central Nootka also split herring and hung them to dry [12, 21]. The Northern and Central Nootka dried herring by splitting in half from head to tail using a bone awl or knife and hanging them to dry on a stick. The herring were not gutted because as spawning season approached, the herring did not eat and so had little viscera [21]. Unlike other cultures, the Puget Sound Indigenous Peoples dried herring whole [24]. The Tlingit dried herring on twine or alder sticks for later use, gutting it and stringing it through the gill and mouth, and placing them outside to sundry for a day or two. Afterward, they hung it for smoking [26, 37]. The Hutsnuwu tribe of the Tlingit only dried a small amount of herring for later use since it was more important to make herring oil, a major trading item [26]. The Gulf of Georgia Salish sun dried the herring flesh [8].
The Coast Salish strung the herring whole through their gills on a cedar bark pole to dry and smoke over a fire, and then the fish were placed in baskets for storage and winter use. They ate the smoked fish as is, in a chowder, or they broiled it first to soften it. They ate the smoked fish as is, like processed sardines [9]. The Micmac smoked herring on a twig rack above a fire [57].
The cultures of Southern Alaska, Tsimshian, Haida and the Hutsnuwu tribe of the Tlingit rendered oil from herring [6, 19, 26, 27, 32, 42, 44]. The Haida made grease by boiling the ripened flesh in a wood container, and skimming the oil from the top or squeezing the oil from the refuse. The refuse was the remains of the fish after the oil had been skimmed. The refuse was wrapped in mats and women hugged the mat with their arms and breasts to squeeze out the oil. The oil could be stored in the hollowed-stalks of seaweed or in boxes [6, 42]. The Coast cultures of Southern Alaska and Northern British Columbia extracted oil from the flesh by boiling ripened fish in a wood dish or watertight basket using hot stones to boil the water and skimming the oil that rose to the surface. The oil was stored in boxes, or at times, in tanned hollowed giant kelp stalk containers [44]. The Hutsnuwu was the only Tlingit tribe to render oil from herring: the ripened fish were placed in a small canoe filled with water, submerged in the ground and anchored with stakes. Hot rocks were added to boil the water; the mix was constantly stirred and as the oil rose to the top, it was skimmed using wood or bark spoons and placed in boxes. When no more oil could be obtained from the mix, the fish residue was removed from the canoe using a long wood straining spoon with slits and placed in an open-weave spruce root sac until it was half full. The sac was folded and placed on a frame over a box that was half-full of water. A heavy wood press was placed on the sac and pressed to release as much liquid with oil as possible. The oil was then skimmed with a wood ladle and placed in boxes or seal bladders The fish residue was also wrung by placing it in long openwork twined bags and having the people sit on it [19, 26].
The Haida of British Columbia and the coast cultures of Southern Alaska and Northern British Columbia used herring oil as a dipping sauce. The Haida of British Columbia used it as a dipping sauce for bark cakes, dried fish and many kinds of other food. The coast cultures of Southern Alaska and Northern British Columbia used the oil to dip morsels of dried fish. The Hutsnuwu tribe of the Tlingit used the oil to consume many foods including dried fish roe, dried berries (except soapberry), dried potatoes and dried seaweed. The more rancid the oil, the more the Hutsnuwu treasured it. Even so, they used the oil mainly in trade. When the Killisnoo Oil Company was established, they stopped making herring oil since it was more convenient to obtain oil from the company [26, 42, 44].
Uses other than food
Various cultures used herring as bait. The Nuxalk, South Kwakiutl and North Pacific Coast cultures used it for salmon fishing, the Nootka used it for spring salmon and the Nootka of Vancouver Island used it for lingcod and sablefish fishing [4, 5, 21, 23, 36].
Beliefs and taboos
Herring has been very important in the cultural and physical lives of many peoples. During herring season, the Kyuquot and Northern and Central Nootka had herring feasts [21, 35]. The South Kwakiutl and Nuxalk gave fresh herring as presents to chiefs [36]. Kyuquot children ate herring as a snack [35]. During times of famine, the South Kwakiutl and Nuxalk saved herring bones to be boiled in a stew [36]. When poor dog salmon or herring runs were followed by times of stormy weather that made it impossible to fish for cod and halibut, the resulting starvation forced the Northern and Central Nootka to roam the beaches in search of storm killed herring [21]. Herring was a main food source for the Nootka, second only to salmon. Consequently, herring was featured in their myths. According to tradition, a huge house existed under the sea, close to the shore. In this house, the Herring People lived in one half and the Salmon People in the other. Rituals were performed to honor both People and they believed that if they did not perform these, the Salmon and Herring People would “become dangerous”. As with salmon, they honored the first herring caught with a reverential welcoming ceremony [4]. Among the Nootka of Vancouver, the Yuquot chief performed rituals in a shrine full of the carved figures of dead whalers, whale carvings and human skulls to “bring in herrings and dead whales” [5]. The Eyak of the Copper River Delta in Alaska considered it taboo for pregnant women to eat fresh herring [10].
Herring has decreased in a number of locales. Herring has become scarce in the Kyuquot region, at least since the 80s, and commercialization and pollution have greatly reduced the herring in the Southeast Alaska region [32, 35]. However, at least up to the late eighties, the herring run of the Coast Salish was still plentiful, but less than it was before the opening of the commercial fisheries [9].
Pacific herring were reported to have been eaten by the Coast Salish, Nuxalk, Squamish, Mackenzie Delta Inuvialuit and Northwest Alaskan Inupiat [65-71].
Archeological remains identifying human use found Pacific herring from Oregon to Alaska [82]. The archeological record describes Pacific herring being harvested from the northern Salish Sea from Puget Sound in present day Washington State to Southeast Alaska [79]. Herring and roe are reported to be harvested from spawning beds on kelp and/or hemlock branches, and holding ponds were crafted from tidal areas to permit harvesting [80, 81]. Pacific herring were caught in spring using dip nets and herring rakes [67, 68, 70]. The Squamish used herring rakes; the Bella Coola (Nuxalk) and Coast Salish used both herring rakes and dip nets [67, 68, 70]. The Squamish caught them in Horseshoe Bay and other enclosed bays in the region using a herring rake from a canoe and from elevated land overlooking the herring habitats [68]. The Coast Salish used a herring rake placed from a canoe. The rake was a long red cedar pole with sharp bone teeth at the end. One man paddled the canoe while the other handled the herring rake, tapping it on the side of the canoe to dislodge the herring [67]. Herring were also caught with a scoop net made of stinging nettle fibre with a handle made of cedar and cedar rope. Northwest Alaskan Inupiat probably used small-mesh nets made of sinew or baleen fibre to catch herring, possibly stretching them over the mouths of streams and lake outlets, and at right angles to the beach [66].
The Squamish and Coast Salish also collected Pacific herring roe. Bark or trees were placed under water so that the herring would lay eggs on them, and the egg-laden branches would be collected [67, 68]. The Squamish placed cedar bark mats under water near shore so that the herring would lay eggs on the mats during high tide, and could be collected [68]. Herring spawned in Melanie Bay (or Melanie Cove) and in a tiny bay located in Von Donop Inlet and in other tiny, well-sheltered bays in the Coast Salish region for up to four weeks in April. They collected the roe by submerging cedar or hemlock tree branches in the water for about three days, attaching a rock weight at the end and a float at the top. They did not submerge it for more than three days or else the roe would be too thick and would not dry properly for storage. They harvested and dried the roe by separating the roe-laden branches and hanging them on a drying rack. Sometimes they collected the roe from sea wrack, edible seaweed and other kinds of common seaweeds. It was believed that if the herring did not spawn, the situation would be remedied if a male and female herring would be tied together with string and while still in the water, a set of twins would lead them on a string to a bay and release them [67].
The Coast Salish preserved the flesh for winter use by drying Pacific herring over red alder fire for two or three days and then sun-drying them until totally dry. They were dried in three different ways. In the first, they were strung through the gills and out the mouth on a hard wood rod, which was then hung between the smoking rack poles. In the second, they were strung as previous and the rod was laid on the ground nearly vertically touching the smoking rack. In the third, they were strung as previous, and the pole ends were tied together to form a loop, which was then hung on the smoking rack. When dry, they broke them at the neck from the rods, discarded the heads and stored the carcasses in a bent container or hung them for later use. Before consuming the dried herring, they warmed it first by toasting it over a fire using an ironwood toasting stick in precontact times, and in later times, a red cedar or Douglas fir toasting stick. The stick was in the shape of a paddle, was split through the middle, and the dried herring was put tail-end first over a fire. After toasting, the charcoaled scales were “tapped off” using a tiny stick, the fish folded, and dunked in mountain goat, deer or seal fat and consumed [67].
The Nuxalk, Squamish and Coast Salish also ate Pacific herring roe; the Nuxalk obtained the roe through trade with the Bella Bella (Hieltsuk) [65, 67, 68, 70, 71]. The Squamish and Coast Salish ate them sun-dried, the latter culture also eating them raw [67, 68]. The Coast Salish men hung roe laden branches on a drying rack made of hemlock poles. The branches were turned daily to dry evenly. When dry, the branches were broken in small pieces and amassed in a cedar root basket. Before using the dried roe, they immersed them in cold water for a few hours, drained them, put hot water on them, drained them again, and ate them as reconstituted. They did not boil the roe because they felt that they would harden and become tasteless if boiled. They also ate them directly from the branch once they had been collected from the water [67].
American shad was reported to have been consumed by the Eastern Abenaki [72], the Penobscot [73], the Rappahannock [54], the coastal Micmac (Mi'kmaq) of Richibucto, New Brunswick [74], and other indigenous cultures on the east coast of the US [75]. The Penobscot captured American shad using a harpoon with a toggle-head [73].
Atlantic herring were reported to have been consumed by the Micmac (Mi'kmaq) of Richibucto and Newfoundland, Inuit of Makkovik, Labrador, and East Coast Native Americans [74-77].
The Micmac of Richibucto caught Atlantic herring in spring while the Micmac of Newfoundland caught them in spring, late summer and fall. The Micmac of Richibucto smoked them over hardwood for later consumption and also used them to make fertilizer [74, 76].
Atlantic menhadens are reported to have been a highly treasured food source of East Coast Native Americans [75].
The Nootka (Nuu-chah-nulth) of Nootka Sound are reported to have consumed a sardine [78], which may have been the Pacific sardine also known as South American pilchard. The Nootka hung strings of this sardine from beams to dry them for later use [78].
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