The Tlingit have stewarded the land and ocean known as Tlingit Aaní, also called the Tongass National Rainforest, since time immemorial.
Smoking Hooligan is a fishcamp tradition! Hooligan run in the Stikine River region around mid-April when the migratory birds arrive on the river flats.
I was born in s’áxt’ harvesting season, but my story begins 10,000 years ago in the Southeast Alaskan landscape. Many people know me as the “Devil’s Club Lady.”
Two weeks ago, we went out fishing in our boat for the fall coho salmon run, and my 81-year-old dad caught two cohos. Back at fishcamp, we cleaned and fileted the fish and packaged them up for the freezer.
Even in the winter, we are surrounded by a living world. Underneath the snow, everything is still alive. The sandpipers have migrated, and the berries have dropped on the ground or into our buckets.
The National Folklife Network is a national initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in cooperation with Southwest Folklife Alliance and in collaboration with Alliance for California Traditional Arts and First Peoples Fund.