First Nations Fish Camp

Welcome to our First Nations Fish Camp! The First Nations fish camp was constructed in 2005 to preserve the history of the Lheidli T’enneh people within the area during the 1900’s.

The fish camp construction was based on one of the temporary Lheidli T’enneh settlements that would have been constructed near the homestead property. The Carrier often had many dwellings set up that they could move back and forth to depending on the season. They used canvas pioneer tents, made with peeled wooden poles in the summer, where they would live while they hunted, trapped, picked berries and fished. In the fall and winter they would usually remain in a log home, depending on which area they were residing at during that time.

The Carrier people relied on hunter-gatherer methods for survival. Because of the abundance of fish in the great rivers that pass through the region, fishing was the single most productive and prominent way of attaining food. They would use large nets which they would cast out into the river, then pull in. The nets would collect several fish at a time.

Drying fish out with the air or wind is one of the first steps used to preserve fish after they have been caught, gutted and cleaned. They would construct the drying racks out of different types of wood, usually alder, which they would then peel, cut to size, then tie together with babiche. Babiche was leather, which had been cut into thick or thin strips, depending on its intended use.

The next step would be to either air dry for a month, or to put the fish into a smokehouse. A smokehouse was a structure generally made out of pine. Since some woods would create an unpleasant taste in the fish, they would light specific types of wood to smolder u nderneath, generating smoke. The smoke would then rise up penetrating the fish, which were hanging from poles from the ceiling, drying it out and giving it a smokey flavour. The smokehouse was also equipped with an opening in the roof to let excess smoke escape.

Another very important part of the Carriers' way of life was the canoe. Although it was possible to fish and travel without the use of this mode of transportation, it did make setting weirs and nets, travelling and interacting with other people, and transporting of good a lot easier. The canoe that was indigenous to the Carrier of the Prince George region was the cottonwood dug out canoe. Although other types of canoes were utilized by the Carrier people such as the spruce and birch bark canoes, the cottonwood was most widely used in this particular area because of the trees abundance.

Cottonwood Canoe

This is our traditional dug out canoe. It was built by a local Carrier artist named Robert Frederick. It took Mr. Frederick a little over a month to build the canoe. This canoe is not only a beautiful piece of art, but is also fully functional. It is important to note that the Carrier people, unlike their west coast neighbours, did not engage in much artwork or craft making. They rarely had the time to produce such items or the means to carry them when they moved to different areas, therefore, the construction of their canoes remained quite simple and without much elaborate decoration.