Northwest Coastal Indians

MacGregor had a project due last Thursday on the Northwest Coastal Indians, fishing and whaling.  I think he did an outstanding job.  He used a lot of things we had at home but we did buy a few things like green playdough and a "Toob" of indians.  We had the whale and canoe at home but we had lost our indians from when Chase did a project like this.  Gregor used toothpicks to make the spear and fish roasting rack.  He used a mesh bag (that had play coins in it) to create the "weir" to stop the fish flowing down stream.  We cut some pieces off of our real Christmas tree to create the forest.  He cut out paper fish.  He used clay to make the totem pole in which he incorporates a fish and an eagle.  Chase helped on the eagle.  In fact, Chase was helping a little too much and MacGregor was getting frustrated and saying..."This is MY project Chase."  I told Chase he needed to be asked to help first.  Incidentally, MacGregor said his was the "best" project (I'm sure there was no bias there) and that everyone in his class crowded around to see it.  There certainly was a lot to see.

Front:

River:

Ocean - Whaling... whale pushing up through the waves and getting speared.

Back:

Here is his report:  

Fishing and Whaling

By MacGregor Henrichsen

 The Northwest Coastal Indians fished a lot.  They used many tools like herring rakes, stone traps and dip nets.  The hooks on their fishing poles were made of wood or bone.  They would also use basket traps.  Weirs are fences that go across the river so the fish can’t get by.  The fish think they can jump it but before they do the Indians would spear them.  They caught a lot of things like salmon, whales, seals, otters, clams, oysters, octopi, mussels, herring, codfish, halibut, shellfish, abalone, sea lions and limpets. 

The Northwest Coastal Indians also went whaling.  They went whaling because they needed oil from the whales’ brains.  They used this oil to light their fires.  Some Indians thought it was too hard to go whaling so they caught candle fish because they have oil too.  They would use harpoons and spears to catch the whales.  The spears were 18 feet long with sealskin floats. The blade was made out of mussel shell.  That’s how the Northwest Coastal Indians went fishing and whaling.