Editor,
Elders remind us of not wasting anything, regardless of how much or how little is left. But when it comes to harvest the tasty salmon over the seasons, that's a different story.
We have learned from time immemorial through legends that teach us the way of preserving and giving back to the Mother Earth. By using such stories as the Salmon People - and each family has their own legends - we teach our future generations to preserve what we have left of this Earth.
Historians dig the earth to see how our first nations people lived, and find treasures like tons of seashells and salmon remnants that have turned into fossils of our rocks, earth and wood.
Our people knew how to preserve and recycle our everyday living styles that we still use today when we harvest the wonderful smoky salmon we preserve for the long wintery nights ahead.
At each campsite, the women know how to set up the camp in order to cut and flavour the salmon, as the men would bring them lots to wind dry or smoke dry. They would sit by the river and recycle what was left of the salmon back into earth as it gave nutrition back to our Mother Earth.
By the camp, elders would have a barbequed salmon of the body and the heads, as well as a pot of stew on the fire for the fishermen all the time.
I loved that as I would help cut and put herbs on the salmon and smell the flavours that would live in my mind forever and keep the tradition going by teaching our young ones who are eager to learn.
The Salmon People legends have taught us that in order to receive more salmon we are to put it back into the oceans and rivers so we will receive plenty more when we harvest in all the seasons.
I'm sad to say we don't get the sockeye salmon anymore due to man's building of dams. But we do get the spring salmon, my favourite, and the Coho and the pink and the chum and the steelhead.
So we should all keep recycling. As my late Mother Keekyick would say "Do not forget to give back when you take something from our beautiful Mother Earth."
Swanamia
Diana Billy
Squamish
