Tribe hosts First Fish Ceremony

 

By Nicole Montesano

Smoke Signals staff writer

Under a clear, sunny sky, Tribal drummers drummed and sang the Tribe’s gratitude to the salmon people for the gift of food at the annual First Fish Ceremony on Thursday, July 11, at the Tribal fish weir on Agency Creek.

More than 30 people attended the ceremony. Tribal Council Chairwoman Cheryle A. Kennedy delivered the invocation and Tribal members drummed and sang, first the Salmon Song, and later, as the bones were placed in the river, a song of thanks.

Tribal Council member Kathleen George said she wanted to thank the Tribe’s Natural Resources Department for working for decades to have the Tribe’s hunting and fishing rights restored, and for continuing to make sure everyone is safe during fishing season.

Tribal Council members Jon A. George and Brenda Tuomi also attended the ceremony.

Once the smoked fish, brought in on a cedar plank dish carved by Cultural Policy Analyst Greg Archuleta, had been consumed, the bones were carried to the river, where the spine was carefully set under the rocks and the remainder allowed to float downstream, along with the cedar branch garnish.

Cultural Advisor Bobby Mercier told participants that the ceremony “is to let their people, the salmon people, know that we took the time to honor them, so they will come back and keep feeding us. … We want them to know that we didn’t just take.”

The bones that float downstream, he said, travel to the salmon people, letting them know they have been properly honored, while the ones pinned down by the rocks tell them where to return.

“They come back to where the bones are buried,” he said.

The Tribe has an ancient agreement with the salmon people, Mercier said.

“One time, our people were starving, and the animals were deciding who would feed us,” he said. “And the salmon stepped forward. But they said, ‘remember us, honor our people.’”

The Tribe held its inaugural First Fish Ceremony in 2011, after regaining the right to fish at Willamette Falls. Every year, the first fish caught at the falls is celebrated and the bones returned to the river.

“We have other uses for the bones and skin,” Mercier said, “But the first one must always go back to the river in thanks. It’s our unwritten law.”