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The birds will not like the light from the fire that shines on the water at the sides of the canoe. They will paddle to a place in the cove where lots of birds are resting on the water.
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Hanging from the rod is a big piece of cedar board that will block the light and cast a shadow, making the water dark in front of the canoe. My other uncle will be sitting in the darkened bow of the canoe with a net. It is his job to steer the canoe, and at the same time, he holds a special rod in his teeth. My older brother explains that one of the men will sit in front of the board with the fire behind him. Next, one of my uncles builds a fire on top of the sand. Then they cover the board with sand from the beach. They place a board across the sides of the canoe. We watch from the beach as the men prepare to leave. One very dark night, my two uncles go out to trap some birds. The first chiefs of the other houses do the same thing for their people. Usually, whenever anyone gets a lot of food, that person gives it to my uncle to use for a feast. Now he will be able to give a feast for all the people in the house.Īs first chief of our house, my uncle must look after the people who live here. He is pleased that we have picked so many berries.
#Nootka tribe history full#
When we arrive at the house, we give the full baskets to my older uncle, the first chief of our house. My sister and I trail behind, laughing and tasting the berries. We walk back to the village slowly, carrying many baskets of berries. When my own little basket is full, I help my mother fill hers. Everyone starts to strip the berries from their branches. My mother, my sister, and I make our way with the other women and girls to the berry patches at the edge of the forest. I dress quickly and put on my cedar bark cape. The animal was honoured in death so the whales would return the following year.One day when I wake up my mother comes to my sleeping platform and tells me that it is a crisp, sunny day so we are going to pick some winter huckleberries. The chief had to strike the first whale and when one was taken, there was a prolonged feast to celebrate the fact and the whale's various parts were apportioned according to rank. Attached to the rope were twenty to thirty inflated sealskins that impeded the whale's diving once he was harpooned, a technology borrowed from the Inuit and Aleut to the north. They used ten-foot harpoons linked to a bark rope.
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But the boats of the Nuu'chah'nulth were the same length, elaborate dugouts made from a single tree, planed and burned to a smooth finish then elaborately painted with ochre. They were hunting grey whales, which could grow to more than forty feet in length. The whale judged the couple, divined their fidelity and their worth. "Between her thighs is where she has to rub, the whale hunter's wife, rubbing until it breaks open at her crotch with the sharp vines of the wild blackberry."Īs she rubs, she recites her own prayer, "May you not look at my husband when he is paddling towards you, that you may stop there on the water when he comes near you." The village's fate was greatly affected by the whale hunt, but it had a metaphysical element too, it provided a moral structure. His wife had to as well, scrubbing herself raw. It wasn't just the whaler who had to endure the rituals. Styles of Native Canoes, National Archives of Canada C-113196 Only me they would love, me most of all." That it would put my harpoon point under its bosom, that I may cause it to roll on the sea as I would spear it fatally. That all females would favour me, that they would 'catch' my spear. That it may look away from my fellow whalers. That the females would want me, that the female whales would want to marry me. May I cause it to become lame when I start paddling after it. May I cause embarrassment to my fellow whalers, may it surface right where I am on the water, that it may wait for me. "May I cause the whale to emerge from the head area, may it come up my canal. The Nuu'chah'nulth or Nootka of Vancouver Island had a whaling prayer that reads like a cross between a Christian litany and an erotic courtship. The hunt was a seduction the whale chose his killer and would only submit to a worthy suitor.
#Nootka tribe history skin#
The hunter fasted before the hunt, abstained from sex and bathed several times daily with increasing intensity, scouring himself with shells until his skin bled. (As portrayed in Canada: A People's History) Because of this vital relationship, the whale hunt incorporated a spiritual element. Whales were especially critical to village survival, supplying food, oil, sinew and bone. On the West Coast, a culture formed about 7,000 BC around salmon fishing and whaling.