Mosquito Bar Fish
Camp Day 1:
Monday
morning in Nome I woke up at 7am to bright sunshine. The rain had finally stopped. I had a quick breakfast and began repacking my bags for the
drive to Council. At 9am we met
outside of the Aurora Inn and loaded the school’s Expedition and the mini bus
with our gear and climbed inside.
Tom
had spent the night in Nome so he led the way in his truck. The road was covered with potholes and
we passed two graders outside of Nome that were working to fill in those holes. The road changed from potholes to
smooth to potholes to gravel until just over the 62-mile point where the road
had been torn up. For the next
eleven and a half miles of road was 3 to 6 inches of soupy mud. We unloaded the mini bus and all 13 of
us piled into Tom’s truck and the school’s Expedition. Then we headed into the mud.
11
miles and many slips later we reached to road again. A little while later we came to a straight stretch of road
and in the distance we could see the village of Council. Soon we came to the end of the road and
unloaded the two trucks onto Tom’s boat.
Tom’s son Hunter was there with a boat as well and six of us rode on
that boat downriver to Tom’s and BeeJay Gray’s camp. We went around bends and watched the forest grow thicker along
the riverbank. On the top of one
tree was a bald eagle and in the tree next to it was its nest and an eaglet.
We
arrived at fish camp and were greeted by their three dogs. One even jumped in the boat as soon as
we got to shore. BeeJay was there
to show us around the camp. As
soon as the rest of our group arrived and we had unloaded all our gear and
supplies we ate lunch. We
had tomato soup, home-canned smoke salmon spread, pilot bread, fruit and
chips. Delicious!
After
lunch a few of us cut yarn and tied the pieces into loops for hanging
fish. The others in our group went
outside with Tom to learn how to cut salmon into strips for drying. They used a wood table with long
notched cut in the ends so that strips will be uniform. We lined the straight side of the fish
with the skin close to the edge and used a knife to cut the salmon into neat
even strips. Then we used the
loops of yarn to connect two strips and hang them on the drying rack.
We
let the fish hang there and drip (they had been soaking in a brown sugar and
salt mixture for a day) before moving the pieces of wood holding the salmon
into the power house to dry. The
air is constantly moving through the power house which speeds the drying
process.
We
noticed that as soon as we hung the fish the flies began buzzing around and
landing on the fish. Tom said that
as the fish begin to dry they develop a crust that will prevent the flies from
laying eggs. He brought out a fish
that he had been using to make stink eggs (fermented eggs) and cut it open to
show us the maggots inside. He
told us he wouldn’t eat the eggs but his wife still would.
In
the evening we had a fire and played the TP Game to get to know each
other. It was fun and let us be a
little silly with the things we shared.
After that we had time to talk before dinner. Dinner was caribou soup with noodles and vegetables. BeeJay made fresh bread too. For dessert Katya (Hunter’s girlfriend)
made pecan and rhubarb custard pie with meringue. I also got to try agutak (Eskimo Ice Cream). After dinner we did a roundtable
discussion about teaching in Alaska and different questions the new teachers
had about the communities, parents, and students. I am looking forward listening and learning more as the week
continues.
Day 2:
This
morning I woke up around 8 am and we headed over to the big cabin for breakfast
and our morning roundtable discussion about our reading assignment. We talked about the issues that come up
with students’ home lives. We had
a break and then ate lunch.
Lunch
was hot dogs cooked on sticks over the fire. I found two great spots and cooked my hot dog until it was
brown and bubbly on the outside and hot on the inside. After the hot dogs we roasted
marshmallows to make s’mores. I
love roasting marshmallows and
soon became known as the most meticulous marshmallow-roaster at camp.
After
everyone was finished with lunch we got ready to go seining. WE each put on a pair of neoprene chest
waders and boots. My boots
wouldn’t fit over the waders so I wore my water sandals instead. I wore my fleece over my long-sleeved
shirt and then my rain jacket on top of everything. Tom gave us a seining lesson by drawing a diagram in the
sand before we loaded the boats.
Then we headed downstream toward White Mountain. We drove the boat to a gravel beach and
got out.
How
to Seine:
Tom
and a helper are in the boat. On
the bow of the boat is the net.
The net had a rope at attached to both ends. One rope is attached to the boat and the other rope is being
held by the people on shore. The
boat goes out until the rope is tight and then they begin to let the net
out. While they are doing that the
people on the beach begin walking up the beach and the boat turns in the same
direction. The people on the beach
run to make a “C” with the net.
Then Tom drives the boat to the beach to make a loop while the people on
the beach begin pulling the net to the beach. As soon as the boat reaches the beach half of us get in the
water and begin pulling in the other end of the net until it reached the
beach. Then we begin pulling in
the lead line (named for the lead weight the weighs it down) until we bring it
to the shore. As the net get
pulled it we can see the fish we caught.
We
were seining for silver salmon. The
first time we seined we didn’t catch anything. We moved to a new spot, seined and caught a humpy (Pink
Salmon). We moved to a new spot, seined
and caught a lot of humpies and a silver.
We kept the silver and released the humpies. We seined 10 times that day in eight different locations
with varying levels of difficulty.
From gentle gravel beach to flooded meadow and a drop off. At the end of our seining trip we three
silvers and one king salmon (an identification mistake). Still not enough for dinner so we
headed back to a previous location hoping to get a dog salmon. We pulled in a net full of humpies and
four silvers.
We
took all the fish this time. The
silvers were for dinner and the humpies were for practicing fish cutting and
for making dry fish. We loaded up
and headed upriver just as it started to rain. When we arrived back at camp we moved the fish cutting table
into the river and learned how to cut fish with ulus (Iñupiaq). I volunteered to be first. First you cut out the bottom fins and
cut the belly down to the tail and then to the head. Then you cut off the head between the cartilage joints in
the jaw. Then you use the ulu, at
a slight angle down to cut in front of the dorsal fin on the back down to the
backbone where you follow the bones down to the belly for a nice fillet. We cut the meat off high on the tail
but do not cut off the tail. Then
we flip the whole fish over, bend the tail up to break it, and then repeat the
filleting process on that side. We
cut up high on the tail again but don’t separate the meat from the tail. We fold back the fillets and cut
through the backbone close to the tail and discard the bones, and the guts,
saving the eggs for stink eggs.
Then we take the meat connected by the tail and hang it in the smoke
house.
When
everyone had a chance to cut fish with an ulu I was about to practice more on
the humpies. We were going to make
dry fish with the humpies so after I cut the fillets I made cuts in the meat
every ¾ to 1 inch so when the meat hangs air can flow between the cuts. After we finished cutting all the fish
we moved them all into the smoke house.
I
cut a silver and three humpies. I
was praised on my cutting technique for each fish and that made me feel
wonderful. Tom asked if I had ever
cut a fish before. Dinner was
silver salmon fresh from the river, boiled salmon eggs, seal oils to put on
them, cooked cabbage, and spiced biscuits. I tried everything.
This was my first taste of seal oil. It is very different and hard to explain. After dinner we talked about our
experiences fishing and headed back to our cabins to do our homework just after
10 pm.
Day 3:
Today
after breakfast, our round table discussion, and lunch we learned how to can
fish. We cleared the dining table
and covered it with cardboard. We
got 32 pint-sized jars and washed them , the lids, and canning rings. Tom brought in the three silvers, king,
humpies, and smoked silver salmon strips and used ulus to cut the fish into
jar-sized pieces to put in the jars.
I was expecting to cut the fish into small pieces.
We
filled all 32 jars and put 16 in each pressure cooker. We put 1-2 inches of water in the
bottom of each pressure cooker, secured the lid, and put them on the
stove. Then we watched and waited
until the steam began to steadily come out of the valve. Then we put the weight on the valve and
waited until the pressure reached 12 pounds. Then we set the timer for 100 minutes. If the pressure fell below 10 lbs we
would have to start the time over again. We had a least one person watching the canners all the time
to make sure the pressure stayed around 12 lbs. We had to keep adjusting the flame on the stove to keep the
pressure stable. When the time was
up we turned off the flame and waited until the pressure reached zero before
removing the weight or opening the lid.
If we didn’t wait the sudden release of pressure would cause the jars to
explode. When we finally opened
the lid and removed the jars, we saw that all 32 jars had sealed. We set the jars out on the counter to
wait for them to cool.
We
put on our waders and set out for our last seining trip. We loaded up three boats and went to
the first site. We unloaded onto
the beach, and held our rope as the boat drove across the water dropping the
net. When the boat returned to
shore we grabbed the rope from the boat and began pulling in the net. It was heavy and we could feel the fish
pulling against the net. When we
got it to shore the net was full of humpies! It took all of us to pull in the net.
Tom
said, “Now you know what a full net feels like.”
We
released all the humpies and moved on to a silver hole. We caught one silver and one dog
salmon. We seined the same area
once more and caught two more silvers before heading back to the camp. We returned to camp, cut our fish, and
hung them in the smokehouse before going inside for dinner. BeeJay made us musk ox, mashed
potatoes, and fresh rolls. We also
ate the smoked salmon strips that we canned earlier. For dessert we had peach cobbler and fry bread (doughnuts)
with maple frosting. We went to
bed at 11pm after our evening round table discussion.
Today
I also got to try stinkweed tea.
This helped my cold!
Day 4:
After
lunch today we put on our rain gear and loaded up the boats for the trip 14
miles downriver to White Mountain.
14 miles on a river is a long way.
It was beautiful.
Everything was green from the rain. We came around a bend and there was the village of White
Mountain set around a small bay and built up the side of a hill. We stopped the boats in the river and
Tom gave us a verbal tour of the village pointing out the old school and the
new school, the store, the post office, and the clinic. Then we took the boats to the beach and
unloaded.
Tom
took us up to the school and met with Andy, the principal, who gave us a tour
of the school including the new shop.
After our trip to the school we walked back down through the village and
went to the store so the Nome teachers could experience a village store. It was about half the size of the store
in St. Michael. After our time in
White Mountain we boarded the boats again for a slow trip upriver in the
rain.
Dinner
tonight was very special. BeeJay
made us Eskimo food. We had smoked
salmon strips, dry fish, moose teriyaki sticks, seal jerky, cooked seal, fried
seal, seal oil, seal blubber in seal oil (raw), bowhead whale mungtuk (skin and
blubber cut in 2 inch strips: raw), beluga whale mungtuk (inch long pieces),
dry white fish, herring eggs (on kelp: raw), walrus goak (hide and blubber:
raw), beluga jerky, whitefish stink eggs (fermented eggs: raw), dry seaweed,
Tunyuk (like wild celery), and atchaagluk (beach greens) in seal oil. So many new flavors! Delicious! My favorites?
Beluga jerky, atchaagluk in seal oil, bowhead mungtuk, and smoked
salmon. To drink we had tundra tea
made from a needles and twigs (not sure what kind)
After
we finished eating we got ulus and helped BeeJay make Eskimo salad. We cut up smoked salmon, bowhead
mungtuk, beluga mungtuk, herring eggs, beluga jerky, Tunyuk, dry seaweed,
atchaagluk, carrots, and onions and topped it with seal oil.
For
dessert BeeJay had made atchaagluk and berries. Instead of putting the atchaagluk in seal oil, she had
fermented the atchaagluk then added berries and froze it. WOW! I’m definitely going to try to make this. We have beach greens in St. Michael. I could even have my students make this
with me at school. While eating
dessert we had our evening discussion and after our discussion we went outside
and roasted marshmallows again. A
few teachers decided to go for a midnight canoe ride across the river in the
slough. They saw six beavers. I went to bed after 1am.
Day 5:
Today
we had to go home. We went to the
big cabin for breakfast and our closing discussion. We presented our hosts with gifts and then headed back to
our cabins to pack and clean. We
helped clean the outhouses, the cabins, the bathhouse, and the main cabin. BeeJay gave us the Eskimo salad to take
for lunch along with some snack food and smoked fish for the drive back to
Nome.
We
loaded the three boats, all of us: Tom, BeeJay, Hunter, Shane, and the 12 of us
teachers who went to camp.
Katya left early that morning to go to work. She is a flagger on the road to Nome (that 11.5 mile stretch
of mud). We took the boats upriver
to Council, moved the luggage into the two trucks, and headed off. We stopped to say hi to Katya and less
than a mile from the end of the mud, we got stuck. A few teachers got out and pushed and we got unstuck pretty
quickly. When we reached the good
road the mini bus was waiting for us.
We unloaded our things from Tom’s truck and loaded up the mini bus. Four people moved from the crowded
Expedition to the mini bus as well.
Then we began the 62-mile drive back to Nome (on dirt and gravel
roads).
When
we returned to Nome we said our “see you later”s and went our separate ways
mainly in pursuit of showers and flush toilets after the week at camp. We had a night to ourselves to prepare
for our final class session on Saturday.
Overall this was an incredible experience and I would
recommend that every teacher in rural Alaska living in a subsistence community
take part in a fish camp experience like this. This year I will have new and exciting ways to relate to my
students, their families, and my co-teachers.
Pictures to follow (I need to sort through 2200+ to choose
the best ones).
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