The basic economic function of the Straits Salish was the harvest of salmon. Other subsidiary groups went about in search of other foods
In early spring the herring spawn was caught and used as bait in trapping ducks. Ducks were lured into the spawn and were tangled in nets. Women cooked the ducks and the feathers were kept for clothing and trade.
In May the camas came into bloom. Families would come to the San Juan Islands to gather these, while others set up camp for the salmon run later in the summer. Camas beds most chosen for picking were those in shallow dirt on rock, preferably from the southern parts of the islands. Using a digging stick, tiny camas bulbs were colled in baskets. The soil was then crushed and stems of the camas were replanted in order to insure another crop.
While the women were busy collecting camas, men were busily repairing reef nets, making fish hooks, and setting up the reef net location. Closely following the bulb collection came the sockeye salmon run in July and August. At this time entire families moved to the fishing sites in the San Juans or along the coast.
Salmon fishing with reef nets was of principal importance to the island Indians. Lingcod, rockfish, halibut, dogfish, sculpin, perch, and octopus were also taken. Most fish were preserved by wind drying or smoking over a fire.
June was the best time to hunt deer in the islands, and they were very plentiful. They would usually be caught in nets and then clubbed or speared to death.
Men fished and hunted, and women tended to food gathering and cooking and preserving food. Foods collected were strawberries, gooseberries, blackberries, huckleberries, and other edible fruits. Horsetail and bracken fern rhizome and tiger lily roots were taken from the marshes.
In September the island residents would concentrate at clam beds and many moved back to the mainland near clam beds. Women would collect and dry cockles, mussels, oysters, clams, sea cucumbers, purple snails, chitons, barnacles, sea urchins, and crabs.
Back on the mainland, those who were not busy collecting seafood were hunting deer, elk, mountain goat, and other wild animals.
In late fall, usually by the end of October, the winter villages were again occupied. Fish were caught in nearby rivers, beaver, otter, mink and other fur-bearing animals were also taken.
This was also a time for much celebrating over the prosperous year. Potlatches were held, and guests from all over the area were invited.
Winter was a time of relative ease, but not for the craftsmen who made adzes, needles, chisels, spearpoints, fishhooks, and of the women who wove new clothing and blankets.
The Straits Salish were a people that made their livelihood obtaining various economic resources (food and clothing) from various locations. This meant that during the working months, spring to fall, the families established temporary campsites, and during the winter months lived in a more populated and permanent village. Typical of the Straits Salish was their choice of establishing village and camp sites: usually along a protected beach with houses usually arranged in a single row along the waterfront.
The Lummi houses were not quite as extensive as the Samish, but still quite long, that is, a 400 foot potlatch house at the portage.
The types of houses used by the local Indians varies from village to village. Some villages were made of large, segmented longhouses and others of small, unsegmented houses. The three basic village types were: those with one or more plank houses parallel to the beach; those with several small and scattered houses; and those with a solid row of houses which resembled a single building. The typical house is described as being about sixty feet wide, comprising a varied number of sections each approximately sixty feet long.
Dwelling for the summer months consisted of transportable material. At the beginning of each seasonal migration a collection of reed mats, bark, planks, and other materials were built. Cedar planks were often carried from place to place for use as roofing material. These were usually assembled in rectangular houses. Some of the summer dwellings were in the form of a teepee; slender poles were tied together at the top and covered with reed mats or other materials.
Three basic house types were used by the Straits people. These were the shed- roof houses, gable roof houses, and the lean-to or hip-roof houses.
The shed roof consisted of four walls and a one-pitch, slanting roof. The roof was covered with overlapping boards which were sometimes grooved to allow for better drainage. The roof boards were movable near the center and top to let smoke out and sunlight in. The walls, made of split cedar, were most often placed horizontally between vertical poles and fastened to the latter with cedar ropes.
Some of the cedar board used had dimensions of sixteen to twenty inches wide, sixteen to twenty feet long, and one and one half to two inches thick. The house was approximately forty feet square and it had three fires.
The lean-to or hip-roof houses were an adaptation of American architectural styles of early settlers. They were similar to the types just discussed, but had an addition of a lean-to all round or at least one side of the house.
General features of Indian houses included a dirt floor with compressed shells (swept with hemlock boughs), internal support frames, walls, roofs, cattail mats, moss, mud, clay, bed platforms from 1 to 2 feet high and 3 to 4 feet wide, running along the walls (cattail mats serve as bedding, and also furs and bird skins), and a fireplace. The latter was usually a central pit, from 1 to 5 feet deep and entered by steps or a ramp. Smoke escaped through a hole in the roof made by pushing aside some of the planks with long poles. Bark was the principal fuel. Roofs were made of planks much like modern tile, bound to beams with cedar withes. Cracks, knotholes, and other defects were filled with lay, pitch or clamshells.
Wall planks ran both vertically and horizontally. Battens were placed over cracks. Wedges held loose planks in place.
The tools of the Straits Salish were fairly simple. There was the knowledge of working with stone to produce cutting blades, arrow heads, pounding and grinding stones. Bone and antler could make more precise objects, especially for fishing and hunting utensils. Knowledge of twisting or spinning of vegetable fibers enabled them to make a variety or cordage. With woodworking tools one could make the great cedar dugout canoes or the huge cedar-plank houses. Fishing was the most essential source of food, and the Salish produced efficient methods of fishing.
STONE was worked by flaking, pecking, and grinding. Arrow heads were trimmed by heating them and dropping old water on them before striking. Recently, agate and flint were utilized for arrowheads.
BONE, ANTLER, AND SHELL. Bone was used for spear points, fish hooks, and awls. Deer, elk, and whale bone and antler were used for spurs of harpoon heads; for drilling points, and wedges. Sea mussel shell were used as pincers in making twine. Knives could be made from slivers of large shell. Horse clam shells were used as spoons or cups.
WOOD. Besides the woodworking tools listed here, there were many other tools used. A drill for making holes was composed of bone or antler point and implanted in a wooden shaft. It was used by twirling the piece between the palms of the hand. Knives were made of shale or shell. The accessories included dried dogfish skin (an abrasive), pitch, and hemlock pegs.
Of the woods used by the Straits Salish Indians, Cedar was by far the most common used. Houses and canoes were made almost entirely with cedar.
CEDAR TREES WERE FELLED by a combination of chipping and using a fire to eat away at the base of the tree. Chisels and hand mauls were used to make cuts. Hot ashes of fires were placed around the tree and burnt a circular ring around the base.
If BOARDS were needed for making houses, a man would climb sixteen to twenty feet above the base (the length of a board), and would cut a notch into the tree. Between the bottom cut and top cut would be driven wedges with hand mauls. Since cedar is so evenly grained, very flat boards could be taken off.
Wood was cut across grain with an adz or chisel. It was bent by softening it with steam. The wood to be bent was wrapped in kelp blades and buried in hot ashes. After steaming, it could be twisted until limber, and bent into shape. Holes were sealed with the pitch of trees. Wood was joined by drilling holes and driving hemlock-knot pegs or sewing with cedar with rope. Fish hooks could be made of hemlock, white fir, iron wood (hard trees) limbs or knots, which were wrapped in kelp and laid in hot ashes to be steamed and bent to form.
CANOES were made, beginning with a cut-to-length cedar log. Chipping and hot coals were then placed in the center of the log until a correct depth was obtained for people to sit or kneel in. The shell was then filled with water, and boiling rocks placed inside. The wood could then be bent to the form of the canoe.
The Indians of the islands used a variety of watercraft including dugouts, reef-net canoes, and bark canoes. The more commonly known canoe was their salt water canoe described by Suttles "...pointed at both ends with a cutwater in the bow; the stern profile was an oblique angle. The bow tip was usually notched horizontally. It varied in size, in the angle of the cutwater, and in the elevation of bow and stern...". The usual hunting or fishing canoe was 20 to 30 feet long; its cutwater was inclined forward, and its ends were level with the center or gently rising.
REEF NETS were usually located along a shoreline or reef in the path of salmon migration. A fake reef made of kelp, marsh grass, twinnage, held down with anchor stones and weights, lured the salmon to the surface and into a narrow passage. At this point were two canoes, on either side of the passage, and laid in-between was a net. The net was at the surface in the rear, and about twenty feet submerged in front. Men in both boats looked for salmon, and pulled the net up to catch them. Nets were usually made of nettle string.
FISH LINES for trolling and jigging were made of kelp, or a good line was made of willow bark or nettle fiber.
To catch cod, have a long line with a lure on it; go out to rocks at low tide. When you see a fish, spin the lure to the surface. When the fish comes to the surface, spear it. Throw cracked sea urchins in the water to attract smell. A fish fly could be made of a single or group of feathers, tied to a hook with human hair. Worms were used for fresh water fish.
Bow and arrows were made of yew, vine maple, or yellow cedar. Yew is best and yellow cedar had to be imported. The basic form is a simple low arc with re-curved tips. It is rather wide and thin, with a flat inner side, and a rounded out side (maybe 3# wide and 1/2" thick).
Make a bow by obtaining a straight stem of the proper length and thickness; split it down the middle, and use half for the bow stave. Work the piece into shape, then wrap it in kelp blades and bury it in hot ashes. After steaming, it is twisted until limber, and bent into shape.
BOW STRINGS were best made of sea lion guts, or deer back-muscle sinew, or tightly-spun willow line. Bow is kept in deer skin case for protection. Arrow shafts were made of cedar or service berry wood; smoothed with a stone knife and dogfish skin. Arrows are as long as from the middle of the chest to the finger tips. Arrows should have two feathers (eagle, goose, and cormorant feathers are best).
Larger game were taken with arrows with points or stone or mussel shell on a detached foreshaft. The foreshaft is split and wrapped with cherry bark to prevent further cut.
LOCARNO MARPOLE TRANSITIONAL/ BEACH PHASE RECENT PHASE PHASES DEER 69.0% 82.0% 72.5% ELK 13.8 4.0 7.7 MOOSE 5.2 0 2.0 MINK 1.7 0 0.1 BEAVER 0 0.3 0.2 SEAL 3.4 7.7 12.9 SEA LION 6.9 4.3 0 WHALE 0 0.3 1.0 TOTAL # BONES 58 300 804 (Note: Dog 18.4 % of total, but not included with the rest)
3.41 � 0.35 cm
DEER
5.03 � 0.40
ELK
7.67 � 0.80
SEAL
13.49 � 0.58
WHALE
22.16 � 0.79
ARTIFACT GROUPING CHARLES LOCARNO MARPOLE TRANSIT MARITIME RECENT
BEACH
Chipped Project. Points 4.2% 3.7% 6.2% 1.8% 13.0% 5.2%
Ground Project. Points 0.2 3.2 1.6 0.0 4.4 5.8
Antler/Bone " Points 6.3 2.8 2.1 13.1 1.2 10.2
TOTAL % OF PHASE 10.7 9.7 9.9 14.9 18.6 21.2
RATIO
Chipped Points 39 38 63 12 70 25
Ground Points 2 33 16 0 24 27
Antler/Bone 59 29 21 88 6 48
100 100 100 100 100 100
Fishing Gear 1.3 4.7 2.8 7.2 14.0 19.2
Pounding/Grinding Tools 69.0 27.0 32.0 34.0 28.0 19.0
Wedges 1.3 12.2 4.8 4.6 4.5 8.7
Sharp Edge Tools 12.6 21.3 12.0 11.6 6.2 16.3
Weaving Tools 1.9 10.8 9.8 22.9 25.8 12.5
Ornamental 4.1 8.1 27.4** 3.3 3.1 2.4