Dakelh: Encyclopedia II - Dakelh - Way of Life

Dakelh - Way of Life

The traditional Carrier way of life was based on a seasonal round, with the greatest activity in the summer when berries were gathered and fish caught and preserved. The mainstay of the economy was fish, especially the several varieties of anadromous salmonids, which were smoked and stored for the winter in large numbers. Hunting and trapping of deer, caribou, moose, elk, black bear, beaver, and rabbit provided meat, fur for clothing, and bone for tools. Other fur-bearing animals, otter, lynx, wolf, marten, fisher, mink, ermine, muskrat and wolverine, were trapped to some extent, but until the advent of the fur trade such trapping was probably a minor activity. With the exception of berries and the sap and cambium of the Lodgepole Pine (Pinus contortus latifolia), plants played a relatively minor role as food, though Carrier people are familiar with and occasionally used a variety of edible plants. Plants are used extensively for medicine. Winter activity was more limited, with some hunting, trapping, and fishing under the ice. Although many Carrier people now have jobs and otherwise participate in the non-traditional economy, fish, game, and berries still constitute a major portion of the diet.

Carrier people engaged in extensive trade with the coast along trails known as "Grease Trails". The items exported consisted primarily of hides, dried meat, and mats of dried berries. Imports consisted of various marine products, the most important of which was "grease", the oil extracted from eulachons (Thaleicthys pacificus, also known as "candlefish") by allowing them to rot, adding boiling water, and skimming off the oil. This oil is extremely nutritious and, unlike many other fats, contains desirable fatty acids. Other important imports were smoked eulachons and dried Red Laver seaweed (Porphyra abbottae Krish.). "grease" and smoked eulachons are still considered by many to be delicacies and are prized gifts from visitors from the west. The route by which Sir Alexander MacKenzie and his party reached the Pacific Ocean in 1793 in the first crossing of North America by land was, from the Fraser River westward, a grease trail.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Way of Life", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki