Learning From The First Peoples

Smoking salmon allows it to be kept a long while without refrigeration.

"Pepper nuts," are the seeds of the laurel plant. They are gathered one season, stored for a year, and then roasted and eaten.

The Karuk, Hoopa, and Yurok Indians live from the coastal plain, inland to the high mountain region of northern California and southern Oregon. They make seasonal rounds to utilize fully all that the land offers. The land is their super market, hardware store, pharmacy, and church.

They fully understand the sustainablility concept. They never harvest ALL of any resource. For five days in August every year, the Klamath River is closed to all boaters. At this time, the Karuk Indians perform the World Renewal Ceremony. This group of people still believe they have a part in the future of their world.

These Chantrelles come from the Marble Mts. They are only of about medium size. The ones we get on the Winchuck are smaller than these usually. They have not started to "bloom" at river level yet.

Frank Lake is a Karuk Indian. He shared the seasonal foods people of our watersheds have collected and worked to sustain for generations. The Siskiyou Field Institute was the scene of a fall feast that included smoked salmon, venison, pepper nuts, chantrelle mushrooms, blue huckleberries and madrone berries.