Closed Captions

Two speakers demonstrate traditional and modern Nez Perce fishing instruments and techniques, including gaff hooks, dip nets, and their use along the Columbia River and other waterways. They discuss pre-dam fishing practices, treaty rights that allow continued fishing today, and how they pass these skills to younger generations. The presentation includes historical photographs and personal accounts of fishing practices.

Transcript

0:29 e here inside the tenary voices we bring in a lot of presenters from all over the country and actually sometimes internationally to speak with you on something related to Lewis and Clark or the cultures and communities that they met along their journey and with us at this hour are Jay mcconville and Daryl
0:54 Broncho they're here to share with you a little bit of some fishing instruments and all kinds of interesting fishing equipment and styles of the nesp people so let's give them a nice warm welcome thank you well I don't know where to start so I never done this before and it's all new to me other than the fishing I've but done out quite a bit um this is the
1:19 Gaff hook um I'm not sure when we started using them before that we were using Bones from our kills you know made little Bears out of them now we resorted to
1:34 these we have a dip net [Laughter] here 80 lb test line these are made from uh old bed springs they have a trigger on here when
1:58 the fish gets in there this trigger will let loose this will wrap around the fish the fish won't can't get out these nets we these nets we used down at the Columbia River before the dams were
2:20 built we have several pictures here out of our tribal members and yakas and Warm Springs and mellas off this was uh Salo Falls right here um if I had have known earlier I was going to be doing this presentation I would have brought a DVD of my uncles he's got
2:43 about 50 minutes of footage that's soilo fall um see these before these are down where the dall's
2:59 dams built right now my family used to go down in quite a few years back they used to have a uh like a trolley type thing that went across on a wire that ran across the top of the
3:21 river to get from side to side yeah they would send the kids across their I from what I heard there was people that were younger that would go across on that that right yeah yeah that's what I was saying they
3:46 used to send a uh there was like a trolley that used to go across the top of the water yeah I was there I was there pretty when
4:07 I a little kid he's got some more pictures over here yeah see these people here they
4:30 using in the G I mean the dip Nets they're a little longer than the 14o oh they have guys standing around in the back grab another some days they're like 30 lbs or better now they're they're
4:50 hardly 20 another this is the Gaff pole had a r a gaff pole it's a little weather beat it's hav
5:13 had it for three years and my Point's too big hope I can just get it to stay for a little bit this is anyway it goes right here TI almost
5:35 18 oh yeah I wish I would have got to see it yeah yeah there was a that used to they used to um go across to uh what was I
5:58 going to say oh no not here this is damned up now uh I've done dip netting but reason we tie so far up if the tip breaks we'll still have their fish with the extra line we have on here uh at this point in time it was Native Americans I believe um this they damed it up and pretty much just there's
6:22 no way to over there anymore running water this is will fill the fish all gone now but you tell a rock from a fish cuz it's softer you'll turn your a hook and then St it pull it out this will be hanging like it like it was and the fish will still be on there I learned how to
6:45 Gaff before they built Ro Granite down in Al powerway down there by Clarkston or chief Timothy have back in the house they have um old people carrying every time they carry their po over there they dip it in and they pull it out and like one after another they'd go over there and they pull them out they ate everything they ate the head
7:09 fast one after another though um the dipnet knock out back in the early out well probably in the 50s probably in the 40s before before the dams were bril and we use these today still we use the Gaff hooks today still um
7:32 there's times the tribe will tell us not to use these because the damage of fish we'll have to resort to the dipnet and that's happened quite a few quite a few years recently because of the runs but we have pretty strong runs here lately um I fish I teach my boys to fish my future son-in-law here
7:56 um he fishes too but um I would I'm getting to know him a little more we hunt a lot well this is not about hunting but this about fishing uh we stole fish down by Cascade Locks down at the Middle Fork of the salmon we still fish at Rapid River we
8:18 still fish at uh down to Columbia in zone six I think it is um we still fishing Clear Creek don't fish we fish all our old Rivers D naha the grand round you know Oregon Idol Watcher we still fish today because it's within our treaty we signed a treaty with the United States
8:42 government and Chief Joseph at the time was thinking of the future and that's where we're at today still so even though we're on a small reservation and we don't cross I don't anymore cross private property of fish anymore I go pretty much where everybody else goes CU some people don't want us passing their
9:06 land or whatever so anyway this this is a gap hook this is what they look like before we start them but they're you know excuse me I got this in here at the white elephant uh
9:31 Spokan a lot of these you can get over in Portland OR uh uh my buddy he gets his out of Florida because he has a daughter down there she send them up to him they're not Rusty these these hooks here belong to
9:53 my dad so they're keepsakes they're pretty old old they've been around for quite a while uh eventually my sons will have
10:05 them one of my sons over there the dipnet
10:30 The Dip Net if the river is Flowing you want to go down with the down with the net where the fish will get in there like I demonstrated earlier once fish gets in there the weight will trigger that this thing will close like I said this is 80 80 lb TX so
10:55 you use some people use 50 lb or better leave that down here um that's I don't know what else people like to know but that's what I know about fishing and once we get the fish out we Club them so they don't jump back in the
11:17 water that's but I all I have to say so there are a few questions in the group if you don't mind taking questions if you have a question go ahead and put your hand up I'll come around with a microphone we can all hear your question uh do you tie your own Nets or
11:41 do you buy those already tied um I my dad used to tie those I don't know how I mean you know I haven't learned I think if I had someone to show me I have a nephew does it his name's Tom Williamson he he T he ties these nets um but there's a lot of Elders you know they hand us on down a lot of young
12:05 young guys younger than I am I'm in my 50s so I there's young guys that know how to do this and ladies yeah again y other questions where's some
12:28 more oh I thought I saw someone how often do you guys go fishing once a year twice a year and how many do you usually catch in one at one time well I usually catch like for my I have a sister-in-law she not done best house I usually fish for the elders or people that can't fish I fish for myself
12:52 or I fish for the for our power committee you know they might need 10 fish we'll catch 10 fish but you know this year I didn't catch any fish so last year I caught three and that was enough for me so what type of fish do you prefer to eat and what type of fish do you normally catch or looking for in the season should I mean I I
13:17 caught three steel head this year had them smoked there only e steel head but I prefer trout it you know I trout fish quite a bit and I have like six or eight poles at my house but haven't we been out lately so but I was last year I kind like four that's thr last
13:39 year do you have a Whopper fish story for us not really well let's see no I better not [Laughter] see might embarrass myself my son's probably thinking well what's
14:01 new Dad yeah he can tell it are there any other questions all right well I want to thank you guys so much for coming and sharing with us your culture of fishing let's give them a big nice thank you thank
14:25 you if you didn't have an opportunity to check out the pictures they have you're welcome to come up we have lots of time and if you too shy to ask a question with the microphone I do welcome you to ask them personally thank you all so much for coming that was a [Music]
14:47 lot

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Jay McConville and Daryl Broncho on Nez Perce Fishing Traditions

Jay McConville

Nez Perce

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Jay McConville and Daryl Broncho on Nez Perce Fishing Traditions

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