WEBVTT 00:00:08.717 --> 00:00:12.554 My name is Clymie Blackned Weistche. 00:00:13.138 --> 00:00:18.518 I’m from right here in Waskaganish and I was born here. 00:00:19.519 --> 00:00:26.401 I’m going to talk about fishing, when people used to stay at Smokey Hill 00:00:26.401 --> 00:00:30.530 and what I saw people doing in the past. 00:00:31.072 --> 00:00:36.953 When people used to go to the Smokey Hill site when the fish spawned, 00:00:37.162 --> 00:00:41.249 people would go to scoop the fish. 00:00:41.249 --> 00:00:45.045 Some people used a net. 00:00:45.045 --> 00:00:51.009 The fish would be cooked and dried. 00:00:51.009 --> 00:00:53.303 There was various ways to do it. 00:00:53.303 --> 00:00:56.598 Splitting the fish to dry, dried fish, 00:00:56.598 --> 00:01:02.854 fish flakes and powder, and people who fed their dogs. 00:01:02.854 --> 00:01:13.406 Even the heads were kept and cooked on a spike. 00:01:13.406 --> 00:01:17.285 The heads would be stuck upright on sticks to dry. 00:01:17.285 --> 00:01:20.663 They’d be kept for the dogs. 00:01:21.039 --> 00:01:25.919 So that’s what they’d do with the fish to dry them. 00:01:25.919 --> 00:01:29.547 People used to keep them when they had little to eat. 00:01:29.547 --> 00:01:37.597 When it was winter or fall, that’s when people would eat the fish. 00:01:40.391 --> 00:01:43.228 They would gather them and keep them. 00:01:43.436 --> 00:01:52.487 In September, when it’s fall, that’s when people would gather their fish. 00:01:52.487 --> 00:02:00.745 There used to be plenty back then, today, not so much it seems. 00:02:00.745 --> 00:02:12.632 The intestines used to be boiled and the grease was skimmed from the top. 00:02:12.632 --> 00:02:17.345 They’d keep that grease to use later. 00:02:17.345 --> 00:02:19.722 That used to be done back then. 00:02:20.223 --> 00:02:26.354 Today people don’t bother with it. 00:02:26.354 --> 00:02:32.694 Thankfully there are still people who fish to eat them, but they’re not dried anymore. 00:02:32.694 --> 00:02:34.988 Nobody is making the fish powder. 00:02:34.988 --> 00:02:38.158 People don’t keep fish. 00:02:40.118 --> 00:02:42.120 The dried one. 00:02:42.328 --> 00:02:55.842 That grease comes from the grease in the intestines when they’re boiled. 00:02:55.842 --> 00:03:01.139 I’ve seen my mother skim that grease often from boiling the intestines. 00:03:01.764 --> 00:03:05.935 That’s how people got the grease. 00:03:05.935 --> 00:03:08.688 People used to use that to cook. 00:03:08.688 --> 00:03:19.699 Those are things I saw when people used to fish up at Smokey Hill 00:03:19.699 --> 00:03:24.579 because that’s where people used to camp. 00:03:24.579 --> 00:03:28.082 There would be many people. 00:03:28.708 --> 00:03:31.127 That’s where people used to be. 00:03:31.127 --> 00:03:42.513 When the blueberries would grow, that’s when people would gather their berries. 00:03:42.513 --> 00:03:44.807 They would make what’s called “Paashiminan”. 00:03:45.266 --> 00:03:50.146 I didn’t see it myself, but my father told us about it. 00:03:50.146 --> 00:03:54.651 It takes a lot of berries to make it. 00:03:54.651 --> 00:03:59.781 They’d boil them then dry them to make jam. 00:03:59.781 --> 00:04:03.076 You spread it like this on a piece of wood. 00:04:03.076 --> 00:04:07.747 That’s where it was done and then it would be dried. 00:04:07.747 --> 00:04:14.879 You’d cut a piece off for jam for dipping. 00:04:14.879 --> 00:04:22.220 My father said that’s how it used to be done when they gathered blueberries. 00:04:23.304 --> 00:04:29.060 We’ve lost many things and we don’t see them now. 00:04:30.061 --> 00:04:34.357 They say that there was someone in charge of that in the past. 00:04:34.357 --> 00:04:43.032 Only when the fish were abundant would the people scoop them. 00:04:43.032 --> 00:04:55.295 People would set their nets, but someone was in charge at the scooping site. 00:04:56.129 --> 00:04:58.881 Only when it was announced. 00:04:58.881 --> 00:05:02.969 Not like today where people scoop whenever. 00:05:03.469 --> 00:05:09.017 There’s a spot and people know what it looks like. 00:05:09.017 --> 00:05:13.313 It’s not very big, where they scoop/clean the fish. 00:05:13.313 --> 00:05:15.481 It’s not very big. 00:05:15.481 --> 00:05:18.234 That’s where people set their nets. 00:05:18.484 --> 00:05:27.076 When it’s time to fish, people kill whitefish, walleye. 00:05:27.076 --> 00:05:34.417 Sometimes I’ll see red sucker, white sucker, pike, 00:05:34.417 --> 00:05:39.964 and all kinds of fish they can catch there when they set a fish net. 00:05:39.964 --> 00:05:44.010 They set nets for sturgeon too. 00:05:49.140 --> 00:05:50.641 White fish, 00:05:50.641 --> 00:05:51.476 walleye, 00:05:51.476 --> 00:05:53.895 pike, sturgeon, 00:05:53.895 --> 00:05:55.605 burbot… 00:05:55.605 --> 00:05:57.148 Do you know burbot? 00:05:57.148 --> 00:05:59.567 Yes. They catch those too. 00:06:00.026 --> 00:06:06.157 They remove the scales of the fish, then cut it to smoke it. 00:06:06.366 --> 00:06:10.995 I teach them how to prepare the fish. 00:06:10.995 --> 00:06:18.211 They remove the scales, then cut it up to dry. 00:06:18.503 --> 00:06:25.468 When they’re done they hang them to dry. 00:06:25.760 --> 00:06:34.894 When they’re done they cook them over the fire. 00:06:34.894 --> 00:06:38.523 Then you hang it up to dry. 00:06:38.523 --> 00:06:40.149 That’s how they do it. 00:06:40.691 --> 00:06:44.028 We keep the intestines and clean them. 00:06:44.028 --> 00:06:49.909 When we clean them we cook them in a pan. 00:06:49.909 --> 00:06:54.372 We fry them and add some flour. 00:06:55.623 --> 00:07:00.586 When we think they’re cooked they are eaten. 00:07:00.878 --> 00:07:08.594 People go crazy to eat fried intestines. 00:07:09.554 --> 00:07:14.725 The other way to cook them is to boil them. 00:07:17.687 --> 00:07:28.906 When you put them in a pan they boil in their own grease. 00:07:28.906 --> 00:07:31.742 They cook that way. 00:07:31.742 --> 00:07:42.920 When they’re cooked through we add the flour. 00:07:44.630 --> 00:07:51.804 The flour then cooks. 00:07:52.305 --> 00:07:57.852 I don’t know what other stories to tell except what I saw as a youth. 00:07:57.852 --> 00:08:00.688 I kept what was taught to me. 00:08:00.688 --> 00:08:07.320 Any youth can do the same when seeing someone teach them. 00:08:08.321 --> 00:08:13.951 They can learn too when they’re on the land. 00:08:13.951 --> 00:08:17.997 But they don’t go out there much anymore. 00:08:19.832 --> 00:08:23.753 You learn a lot when you’re on the land. 00:08:23.753 --> 00:08:30.801 When I still lived with my parents in the bush, that’s where I learned. 00:08:30.801 --> 00:08:32.637 They taught me many things. 00:08:33.346 --> 00:08:39.352 A woman’s role in the bush such as gathering boughs, 00:08:39.352 --> 00:08:45.107 getting firewood, cleaning the camp and the kill. 00:08:45.107 --> 00:08:48.361 I was taught all those things. 00:08:48.361 --> 00:08:52.698 When I got married I did all those things. 00:08:53.074 --> 00:08:58.704 I was never unsure of what I had to do. 00:08:58.955 --> 00:09:02.124 I cleaned everything. 00:09:02.708 --> 00:09:06.212 I saw many people doing things in the past. 00:09:06.212 --> 00:09:08.839 I saw many people dry fish. 00:09:09.006 --> 00:09:12.385 It’s difficult to lay a fish net in the winter. 00:09:12.385 --> 00:09:14.470 You have to pierce the ice. 00:09:14.470 --> 00:09:16.639 It’s very different in the summer. 00:09:16.639 --> 00:09:19.100 You can just set your net openly. 00:09:19.100 --> 00:09:24.063 In the winter you have to run your rope under the ice. 00:09:24.063 --> 00:09:26.482 Then you’d set your net. 00:09:27.858 --> 00:09:30.319 It’s difficult in the winter. 00:09:30.653 --> 00:09:39.453 The fish travel, such as the ones at Smokey Hill. 00:09:39.453 --> 00:09:45.418 They travel to the rapids and then go back to where they came from. 00:09:45.418 --> 00:09:47.211 I don’t know where that is. 00:09:47.211 --> 00:09:49.964 They must return to the deep. 00:09:49.964 --> 00:09:52.383 They’re not always around. 00:09:52.383 --> 00:09:54.927 I don’t know what else to say.