| Food / Hunting |
- The people of the Northwest Coast were hunter-gatherers, so they relied on hunting, fishing, and gathering edible plants as their main sources of food.
- Since there was plenty of food available to them, they never needed to develop a system of agriculture to sustain their people.
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Nuxalk fishing in canoes |
Nuu-chah-nulth man fishing with a net |
Fishing |
- The people of the Northwest Coast learned to exploit the natural waterways in the area, and became very skilled fishermen.
- The Pacific Ocean was the main source of food for the people, and, therefore, the men spent a lot of time fishing along the coast.
- Pacific Salmon
- Pacific Salmon was abundant in the waters, and became the most important food resource of the people.
- In the fall, the salmon would travel up the rivers to spawn, making them easy to catch with nets, harpoons, and traps.
- They would literally catch thousands of fish in a small area- more than enough to feed a family for a year.
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Pacific Salmon |
Pacific Salmon spawning grounds |
Pacific Smelt
Crab |
The Ocean also provided them with... |
- Other fish (Halibut, Smelt)
- Crab and other Shellfish
- Seaweed
- Whales
- It sometimes took men days to kill a whale. It was dangerous to hunt whale, because they were able to overturn a canoe.
- Clams, Oysters, Mussels
- It was the women and slaves who collected the clams, oysters, and mussels from the ocean.
- Other animals (sea otters, seals, turtles)
- Oils
- The people of the Northwest used a lot of fish oil to add flavour to their food.
- They typically used the oil from whales, seals, and eulachon, a type of smelt.
- Eulachon was full of oil, and the women had a special process of squeezing all of the oil out of the fish.
- The oil was valued trade good, so the majority of pressed oil was saved for trading.
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Humpback Whale |
Oysters |
Sea Otter |
Turtle |
Seals |
Eulachon Fish |
Woman pressing Eulachon for oil |
Drying Eulachon |
Black-tailed deer
Elk |
Hunting / Gathering |
- For the most part, summers were spent hunting and gathering in nearby forests.
- They hunted for:
- Black-tailed deer
- Elk
- Mountain goat
- Bear
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Mountain Goat |
Bear |
Salmon smokehouse |
Preparing the Food |
- Food, including meats and vegetables, were baked, steamed, or boiled without the use of pots or pans. Instead, they heated rocks in the fire then put the hot rocks into a cedar box or basket full of water, which would boil the water and cook the food.
- The women prepared fish in two ways: some fish was eaten fresh, but most of it was dried and saved for the winter months.
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Cedar bentwood box for cooking |
Fish cooking over the fire |
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| Tools |
| Most tools that the Northwest Coast people used were made out of cedar wood, stone, and shells. |
| Sledgehammer |
Haida sledgehammer |
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Sledgehammers for splitting wood were made out of stone.
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| Hunting |
Nuu-chah-nulth man hunts sea otter with bow and arrow |
| For hunting they used bows and arrows, snares, deadfalls, and harpoons. |
Seal Clubs |
| Fishing |
Basket for clams |
| For fishing they used nets, underwater traps, bone and wood hooks, and harpoons. They also used fishlines, which were made out of cedar. |
Haida halibut hook (bone) |
Haida fishlines |
| Serving Bowls |
Bentwood food dish |
| Food was served on wooden platters and trays that the women made. |
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