By Kristin Bigsby

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

Though Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu said those words centuries ago, they found another place in time last week during Klukwan’s first-ever Salmon Camp.

"We kept saying it over and over," camp coordinator Lani Hotch said. "It’s the truth, in many ways."

The Salmon Camp, part of Klukwan’s Traditional Knowledge Camp, which also encompasses traditional woodworking and construction techniques, was made possible through a grant from the Alaska Federation of Natives’ wellness program, administered by Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska.

"The camp went really well," said instructor Kim Strong. "The importance of it is everybody learning how to process fish on their own, so they don’t have to rely on other people to help them out."

Under the tutelage of Strong, a dozen students ages 8 and up spent five days learning traditional Tlingit methods for cutting, drying, smoking and storing salmon.

"They eat the (salmon)," Klukwan resident Joanne Spud said of her three children, two daughters and a son, who participated in the camp. "They have to know how to prepare it themselves, to get it when they’re hungry for it. They have to depend on themselves, to know the old ways… They haven’t really done anything like this yet. It’s who they are. They have to know it."

The camp began Monday, when men from the Tlingit village brought some 18 sockeye and king salmon to the smokehouse on the bank of the Chilkat River. Construction on the one-room, spruce structure began last summer and was finished this year by villagers using adzes and other traditional tools. Inscribed on the door, above a Tlingit salmon totem figure, reads "Atx ‘aan hidí," meaning smoke house.

Strong gathered her students by the river house and taught them how to fillet the fish. She showed them the fresh-pack process—canning fresh fish—and some of the fillets were placed in a salt-brine overnight.

On Tuesday, the fillets were hung above a wood-burning fire inside the smokehouse, where they began to slowly dry. "Smoke adds flavor and it keeps the flies away," Hotch said.

The next two days, the group cut lengthwise strips from the fillets and draped them over the curve of alder poles, which had been stripped of their bark, and hung them over the fire for more smoking.

Friday, the finished product was removed from the smokehouse, cut into two-inch segments and canned in pint and half-pint jars. Some of the fish was simply salted, boiled and canned. In all, about 60 fish were processed.

Camp participants divvied up the goods at the end of the week.

"It tastes really good," said Tony Stevens, 19.

"I get a sense of accomplishment completing something that the ancestors used to do," Stevens said.

"We’ve got to learn the old ways," added 12-year-old Paul Marks. "We must know them so we don’t lose our culture, our way of life."

Salmon is and always has been a staple, a mainstay in the diet of Tlingits— especially in Klukwan, where several families have their own smokehouses, Hotch said.

"When I was little, I didn’t like that I ate so much salmon," Hotch said. "Now, if I go a few days eating hamburger and not fish, I can’t even swallow it. I’m dependent on fish for my diet."

Primarily abundant during the summer and fall, the fish have to be carefully prepared and stored for winter consumption.

Before canning the fish was a storage option, fish were salted or dried and packed in wooden boxes, separated by hemlock branches, seaweed or leaves, Hotch said.

The happenings at Klukwan last week and today also include projects that incorporate traditional woodworking and construction methods.

Under the supervision of Jim Heaton, a crew of 10 is building a 50-by-35-foot house that will host future knowledge camps, part of a traditional construction class offered by the University of Alaska Anchorage. By pounding wedges into spruce logs, the crew is now splitting boards for the walls and floor. They hope to be done by the end of next summer.

Nearby, a dugout canoe is being carved from a cottonwood log. Funded by Sealaska Heritage Institute, the 20-foot-long canoe is "as close to a traditional canoe as possible," said master carver Wayne Price. Next summer it will carry passengers on a journey to Juneau.

In the winter, a fine arts camp will teach beading, weaving and carving.

The purpose of the knowledge camps is to help Tlingits reclaim a sense of Native identity, Hotch said.

The wellness grant from the Alaska Federation of Natives, which supports the camps, encourages sobriety among Alaskan Natives to "help people avoid such self-destructive behavior as drugs and alcohol," Hotch said.

"Our philosophy is that one of the reasons people get into that is because of years of cultural oppression, which made us turn away from our culture," she said. "It affected the self-esteem of the Natives… Our parents’ and grandparents’ mouths were washed out with soap for speaking our own language, their land taken away… To me, all those have lasting effects. It teaches us not to feel good about being Native, but we should. Now we’re going back and learning our ancestors’ skills. It’s important to know our way of life, because somewhere along the road we got off track. People who are able to take care of themselves are stronger. We must teach each other our ways."