by Jody Seitz

Excerpted from Alaska Department of Fish and Game Technical Paper No. 186, May 1996

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF RESOURCE USE

SEASONAL ROUND

It is appropriate to begin the seasonal round in spring, for that is the season Clark's Point residents anticipate perhaps more than any other. Breakup began in 1990 during the latter part of March. Everyone watched for the first signs of returning ducks and geese and the annual migration of the seals into Nushagak Bay. While watching, waiting, and anticipating calm weather, residents dug out their boats from under the snow cover and began to ready their gear for seal hunting (Fig. 6). Usually seals began arriving in late March and stayed as late as April 20th. Normally, eider ducks and geese also began arriving during this time. In the spring of 1990 residents found few seals or waterfowl in the bay when the weather was calm enough to go out. Residents preferred to wait to hunt marine mammals until Nushagak Bay was "like a glass" because seals were too difficult to spot otherwise. In a normal year, while out hunting seals and, infrequently, belukhas, hunters would also harvest ducks and geese. In spring of 1990, due to the windy weather hunters did not have many opportunities to harvest seals from early to mid-April. They also reported seeing fewer ducks in Nushagak Bay. During April, preparations for herring fishing took place. Residents repaired and readied boats, skiffs, motors, and nets for the subsistence and commercial herring fisheries in Kulukak and Metervik bays. A few residents who traveled to the Togiak area for herring also harvested some spawn on kelp for their own use. There was some hunting of ducks and geese for immediate consumption while fishers were awaiting the beginning of commercial fishing. Some hunters harvested larger quantities of waterfowl to bring back to friends and family for later use. When the tides and weather permitted, a few residents went claming on the mud flats. During herring season, walrus were hunted in the Togiak area and at Protection Point. Seasonal residents had already begun to arrive in Clark's Point when the herring fishers returned. Preparations began for subsistence fishing in June. In 1988 and 1989, residents of the Nushagak watershed were allowed to fish for subsistence within the commercial district by emergency order only. Unlike 1988, when only a few subsistence emergency openings of 24-hour duration were called, in 1989, the subsistence emergency order lasted most of the month of June. Seasonal and year-round residents set out nets on the beach near their fish racks and smokehouses, in front of the old village of Clark's Point.

June generally has the best weather for drying salmon. In June, chinook were the targeted species but sockeyes and chums caught incidentally were also split and dried to be smoked later. Sockeyes were most commonly taken from the commercial catches, as the entire month of July was open to commercial fishing. Throughout the month of July those who had commercial salmon permits dedicated most of their energy toward earning their cash for the rest of the year. Those without commercial salmon permits continued drying and smoking salmon they had caught earlier or which had been brought to them out of another's commercial catch. In July, wild plants and the first berries were also harvested.

After the commercial sockeye season closed, residents subsistence fished for cohos off the Clark's Point beach during closed periods and during the emergency opening for subsistence. August of 1989 was the first year since statehood that subsistence fishing was allowed within the Nushagak commercial district after all commercial fishing there had ceased. Previously, Clark's Point residents had to travel above the district to fish for cohos, even though commercial fishing usually came to a halt in Nushagak Bay after July. This involved calculating the timing of fish movements, good weather, and having access to transportation and the ability to use it. Unfortunately, although the bay was open to subsistence fishing, August and September of 1989 were very rainy and thus it was still difficult to dry fish.

In August, berry picking began in earnest and continued well into the fall until snowfall or frost finished the season's crop. During this time women also gathered beach grass for making baskets.

Moose hunting in August and September was also a combination of hunting and gathering activities. Groups of hunters and occasionally whole families went up the Nushagak River for moose hunting and berry picking, also hunting ducks and geese as they became available. During August and September, families occasionally traveled up the Nushagak River or the Wood River to the lakes to fish for spawned-out sockeye salmon and freshwater fish. Residents also enjoyed dipnetting smelt off the beach at Clark's Point in August, since there was an early run. According to residents, the main run of smelt occurs later in the fall, around late September and October.

Caribou season also opened in August, and lasted until March 31. However, during August hunting effort appeared to be concentrated primarily on moose, since the season was only from August 20 through September 15 and again during December. Caribou were harvested during moose season only if convenient to the hunting party. Both moose and caribou have been taken opportunistically year-round, though the primary effort in recent years occurred during hunting seasons established by the state. During late August and September of previous years women have flown to the Goodnews Bay and Platinum areas to pick blackberries and grass for making baskets. Walrus hunting also has taken place during August and September, though it did not during the study year.

As the weather turned cooler and the snow cover deepened, transportation changed to snowmobiles. Trapping season began again in November for coyote, fox, lynx, marten, mink, weasel, land otter, wolf, squirrel, marmot, and wolverine. Clark's Point trappers attempted to harvest coyote, weasel, land otter, and wolf primarily in the area between the community and Halfmoon Bay to the southeast, on the Kvichak River, and Portage Creek to the north, on the Nushagak River. Porcupines and other furbearers might be taken incidentally, as well as those which were targeted. Trappers attempted to check their trap lines daily, but weather and equipment failure sometimes prevented them from going out.

In December, the moose season opened again and hunters tried to get their last moose for the year at that time. Beaver season opened in January and brought on the most concentrated effort by local trappers. Hunters checked their trap lines when weather and machinery permitted during the months of January and February. Occasionally there were shorter forays for wood or ptarmigan when they were locally abundant.

Beaver Roundup, usually held around March 1 in Dillingham, marked the end of trapping season and the final days of winter. The festivities generally lasted several days and attracted trappers and their family and friends from villages throughout the region. Clark's Point residents brought furs and crafts for sale, and gifts of wild food were exchanged among relatives and friends in Dillingham.

Beaver were trapped through March and sometimes through April. Residents generally stopped taking hares by the end of April. In March the days lengthened and temperatures rose. Occasional thaws and freezing, in combination with light rain, condensed the snow and left its surface hard enough to travel on with all-terrain vehicles. These vehicles offered faster, more fuel efficient means of transportation than snow machines and residents enjoyed being able to travel farther and easier overland. Once freed from their daily routine of checking their trap lines, trappers enjoyed a greater variety of activities and the opportunity to catch up on household chores. Those who had not yet taken their limit of caribou tried to take advantage of optimal weather and snow conditions to hunt. Caribou hunting was interspersed with gathering wood for steam baths; hunting ptarmigan; and taking day trips and camping trips to Portage Creek in order to ice fish for Dolly Varden, northern pike, and smelt.

RESOURCE SHARING AND RECEIVING

Results of the harvest survey indicated that sharing of resources with friends and relatives is a common practice at Clark's Point. For most species the percent of households which used the resource exceeded the percent of households which harvested the same resource. Categories of species for which successful harvesters equaled the number of users were: furbearers, geese, cranes, and a few species of ducks, as well as eggs, clams and plants and berries. Salmon, land mammals, marine mammals, non-salmon fish, and ptarmigan were the categories of wild resources for which there were high use levels and lower numbers of households actually harvesting them. Several species were harvested by comparatively few households and widely distributed. Moose, for example, was used by over three times as many households as the number which harvested it. Chinook and sockeye salmon were harvested by 70.6 percent of all households, and used by 94.1 and 100 percent respectively, of all households. Coho salmon were harvested by 52.9 percent of all households and used by 76.5 percent of households. Smelt was used by 94.1 percent of households, but only harvested by 76.5 percent. Nearly twice as many households used caribou (76.5 percent) as harvested it (41.2 percent). Forty-one percent of households used Dolly Varden and pike, but only 17.6 percent of households harvested Dolly Varden and only 11.8 percent harvested pike. Herring roe on kelp was harvested by 11.8 percent of households and used by 29.4 percent of the households.

Clark's Point demonstrates a pattern common to mixed subsistence/cash economies of having a few households which usually harvest more, on average, than the majority, and provide wild foods to other households. The variation between households in total pounds harvested was quite large. The minimum household harvest was 22.8 pounds, while the largest household harvest was 5,531.7 pounds. On the other hand, the median number of resources given away was 11, while the largest number of resources given away by any household was 29. The harvest survey also showed higher levels of attempting to harvest than successful harvesting for several species, primarily land mammals, a reminder that not all hunts are successful.

Clark's Point also demonstrates another pattern common to mixed subsistence/cash economies--that of being tied into a network of exchange with other communities. Sixteen different resources were received from other communities by Clark's Point households in 1988/89. Clams, sheefish, and whitefish were brought to Clark's Point by Toksook Bay residents when they arrived in the spring for commercial salmon fishing. Halibut and clams were brought by Homer residents. Walrus, herring spawn on kelp, and murre eggs were brought by Togiak residents. Trout, blackfish, and spawned-out salmon were received from Manokotak. Salted salmon heads and spawned-out salmon were received from Soldotna. Fresh vegetables and crab were brought to residents of Clark's Point from Palmer households. Whitefish was received from Ekwok and Nondalton. Smoked salmon was received from Nondalton and the most unusual gift, herring eggs on spruce tree limbs, was received from Sitka. Clark's Point residents called these "herring on Christmas trees."

Clark's Point residents gave gifts of beaver, moose, caribou, seal oil, whole seals, seal meat, belukha fat, belukha skin, walrus, herring, herring roe, spawn on kelp, salmon, salmon heads, smelt, berries, pike, ptarmigan, porcupine, and ducks to a variety of other communities. Dillingham, Anchorage, New Stuyahok, Soldotna, Koliganek, Homer, Ekwok, and Naknek all received wild food from Clark's Point in 1988/89.

HARVESTING AND PROCESSING

In late May and early June of 1989, Clark's Point residents began to set out nets on the beach in front of the community to harvest the first salmon as they began to arrive. During the study period, harvesting salmon for home use at Clark's Point was a process in which individuals chose the time to set out their nets based on an optimum set of conditions. Basic to the success of the venture was the presence of fish. Without runs of chinook, sockeye, and chum salmon coming in close enough to shore to be caught with 10 fathom nets, setting out nets was pointless. Another critical fact of nature was the height of the tide. During periods typified by low high tides and during the low tide each day some of the residents' nets were not covered by water for long, if at all. The weather was also of great importance. For many residents the goal of harvesting salmon in June was to dry and smoke enough to last throughout the winter, and to get through most of this process before the commercial fishing season began. The best weather for drying salmon is dry and windy. Wind helps dry the fish and keeps the blowflies from laying their eggs in the flesh and spoiling it. Too many still, rainy days can ruin an entire rack of fish for human consumption.

Harvest quantities desired were generally "enough to fill the smokehouse." Families would strive to catch, split, and dry enough salmon to fill their smokehouses in order to have all the fish go through the process evenly. This economized labor as well as wood. During the summer, families tried to smoke enough to supply their immediate needs, to use as gifts when visiting, to give to visitors, for holidays, and to share with their children's or their siblings' households, especially if the latter cooperated in harvesting and processing the salmon. Time and labor were two other necessary factors in processing fish. The process of drying and smoking salmon could take two weeks to three weeks depending on the weather. Time was needed to cut all the fish according to its intended use, and then, to brine them and either hang them to dry, bury them to make fermented fish (known as "stinkheads"), freeze them, can them, or salt them.

If a family did not have electricity at their house, or did not possess a freezer, they might not have the option of freezing whole fish, to be put up or cooked as desired later. However, a few households did store salmon in the Ekuk cannery freezers during the summer, to be collected after commercial fishing was over.

During commercial fishing periods, families involved in commercial fishing who had the facilities to freeze fish frequently chose to do this in order to wait and dry them later, or to keep them as frozen fish. Seasonal families sometimes chose to freeze fish they withheld from the commercial catch because they did not have time during commercial fishing to do the laborious process of splitting, brining, drying and smoking their fish during commercial fishing. So some families preferred to do it all together at the end of the season. This was an attractive alternative for the additional reason that they tended to withhold only a few fish at a time from the commercial catch, and so could freeze enough to make a full smokehouse if they waited until later to dry and smoke them.

THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF HARVESTING AND PROCESSING SALMON

As a legacy of the gender differences in commercial fishing from the 1930s and 1940s, most people operating set nets on the Clark's Point beach in 1989 were women. Although some men operated commercial set nets, subsistence nets were largely set out by women and women were the majority of set net permit holders on the beach at Clark's Point during the commercial season. Husbands and sons, if available, would help check the nets. Men participated in the commercial set net fishery primarily as partners and crew. There were no male set net permit holders in Clark's Point in 1989, other than one emergency medical transfer. On the other hand, very few commercial drift permits in Bristol Bay were held by women in 1989. There were no female drift permit holders in Clark's Point. Men brought home salmon from their commercial catch when there was a break in fishing and at the end of the season. They brought home chinooks and sockeyes during early July and cohos after they began to run in late July and early August.

The study found that women in seven Clark's Point households were the organizational centers of processing subsistence salmon for eight other households within the community, which usually consisted of their sons and daughters and their families. The majority of these women were the mothers and mothers-in-law of the women who helped them harvest, split, and hang fish to dry. A few of the younger generation who had their own families also put up fish on their own, but the majority reported cooperating with an older female relative to dry and smoke salmon. Another form of organization was through sisters and neighbors. When the oldest woman in a family was no longer able to organize the processing, one of her daughters would organize the splitting, smoking, and drying of fish for the entire extended family, which might consist of several households linked through kinship through sisters.

Five Clark's Point households had daughters who returned for the summer from other places in Alaska. These women processed salmon with their parents and siblings who lived in Clark's Point during the winter, and shared the fruits of their joint labor at the end of the summer. Most of the nine households which put up fish in Clark's Point in 1989 processed salmon for their own use as well as other households. The central households were usually the ones which received subsistence permits from the Department of Fish and Game. These central households put up fish for as many as seven households and as few as one household. An average number of three households worked together and then divided the salmon.

Of the 33 seasonal households who returned to Clark's Point in 1989, the vast majority (29) had members who were born and raised at Clark's Point. Only 12 of these households continued to reside within the Nushagak watershed. This fact influenced their strategies for obtaining fish for home use. Those who were domiciled within the Nushagak watershed and who continued to return to Clark's Point for commercial fishing had the option of fishing prior to the season on the Dillingham beaches. Several households, both domiciled and those not domiciled within the Nushagak watershed, joined relatives in Clark's Point early in the summer in order to combine their efforts in harvesting and processing salmon for home use, dividing up the product of their labors at the end of the season. Those families not domiciled in the watershed and without relatives in Clark's Point were generally forced to wait until the onset of commercial fishing before they could harvest fish for home use. These were removed from the commercial catch.

Until 1989, when a long emergency opening for subsistence allowed residents to fish for salmon conveniently on the beach in front of the community, residents were obliged to fish outside the waters of the commercial district. The same conditions for fishing were necessary when fishing above the commercial district, near Lewis Point, as when fishing within the commercial district. Namely, the weather had to be good for drying fish, the fish had to be present, and the fisher had to be able to have a setnet in water at the time and place the fish were passing by. Going above the commercial district meant taking time to travel to and from the place; waiting for the fish to arrive; camping out for several days if necessary; timing the trip to coincide with good weather; and possibly, competing with others for a set net site. Moreover, although the production of salmon for subsistence is socially ascribed to women, operating a skiff is widely perceived as a man's job. When setnets can not be set out, it is seen as the province of men to go and get fish for home use. Yet, most Clark's Point men were involved in some aspect of the driftnet salmon fishery and were busy during early June preparing their boats to fish commercially, and were waiting to hear about openings. Some women had neither skiff nor male relative or husband to help them get fish before the commercial fishing season began. These individuals reported relying on relatives who lived outside the Nushagak Commercial District for their salmon, sometimes traveling to other locations to fish and preserve salmon, and in many years, going without dried salmon.