Customer Reviews

Indian Fishing: Early Methods on the Northwest Coast

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is the ultimate guide to native American fishing practices on the NW coast. Not only is it very well researched, including seeking out original sources (people and materials), but Stewart tries to replicate much of the craft herself, which gives her a real world appreciation for what she's researching. It, with her book "Cedar", are 2 of the absolute best writings available on either subject. A plus, too, that they are both quite readable and alive. I just wish she was here to do more definitive work.

"An altogether fascinating view of the artistic flair and amazing ingenuity of the precursors to modern angling."

The author "finds her way close to the center of the old life, and she takes the reader along. The pages are aromatic with the scent of reality."

Of the many resources available to the First Nations of the Northwest Coast, the most vital was fish. The people devised ingenious ways of catching the different species of fish, creating a technology vastly different from that of today's industrial world. With attention to clarity and detail, Hillary Stewart illustrates their hooks, lines, sinkers, lures, floats, clubs, spears, harpoons, nets, traps, rakes, and gaffes, showing how they were made and used...."

There is also coverage how how the catch was butchered, cooked, rendered, and preserved. The spiritual aspects of fishing are described as well.

181 pp with over 450 drawings and 75 photographs. Bibliography and index.