History Essay

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Note:This essay was selected by the History Instructor to be used as a 'How to Guide' on writing correct History Papers. I tried to add some Vedic wisdom into it. To my delight it was highly appreciated.

Vrndavan Parker

SALMON AS A SYMBOL IN

PACIFIC NORTHWEST HISTORY

M. Brannon Parker HIS264 Pacific Northwest – Spring 2006 Professor Nutting

June 2, 2006

The Columbia River has always been a vital and important part of the living organism that is our planet earth. In a symbiotic relationship that is nourished and in turn nourishes, the river always attracts other living organisms. Of all these life forms the salmon are the most well known. Attracted by the benefits of the Columbia river, salmon in turn attracted humans to the region. Over the millennia, human communities thrived in the area, primarily due to the abundance of salmon. For most of known history, the salmon and humans maintained a balanced relationship that guaranteed the river’s sustainability. This was directly due to the significance or value, both sacred and mundane, that the salmon represented to the humans.

In the past 200 years, what the salmon represent, their value and significance has changed dramatically. These perceptions have been diverse and at times contradictory. The arrival of Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery to the region represented an early clash of the alternative perspectives regarding salmon.

For the ancient Indian communities, salmon were gifts from the Creator, a primary source of nutrition and an integral part of their social and political structure. Salmon highlighted the fact, for the Indians, that the essence of existence itself was spiritual and mystical.1 Since separating the two would cause calamity that would lead to a decrease in salmon, the Indians applied strict taboos and rules that were integral to the fishing process. Yet to the new migrants to the region, these rules were perceived as superstition.2

Lewis and Clark were amazed by the vast number of salmon they saw being dried by the Indians. Clark assumed that such an “emenc quantities of dried fish,” were for trade. So, for him, salmon were a symbol of wealth to be traded as a commodity.3 However, the Indians did not think of salmon or other food items as trading commodities.4

Salmon soon became a despised food of last resort for Lewis, Clark and Company. A majority of the expedition became very ill from “eating the fish & roots too freely.”5 The men complained that the dried fish worked their stomachs as much as a dose of salts,6 and many of the men became very fond of eating dogs, and only ate the dried fish when they had no choice.7 Clark insinuated that the dried fish weakened them considerably. He wrote that once they began eating dog meat, “We were much more helthy strong and more fleshy then we have been since we left the buffolow country.”8

On the expedition’s return journey, the salmon became a symbol of anxiety for Lewis and Clark, who were counting on the salmon to be a guaranteed food source for the Corps, but were also aware of the fact that if they waited too long for the salmon runs, their path over the Rocky Mountains would become impassable and the Missouri river would ice over, making boat travel impossible.9

According to Lewis, the arrival of salmon brought ‘great joy’ amongst the Indians and a “harbinger of good news to them.”10 This image of salmon as a source of joy is based on the connectivity with nature that is still a part of Indian culture. As American culture became the dominant cultural paradigm in the Pacific Northwest, salmon runs decreased drastically and traditional Indian fishing spots rapidly declined.11 American fishermen physically took control of the ancient Indian sites, as treaties with the Indians were ignored and the Indians lost their right to fish in many areas.12

The Columbia River salmon were a dependable resource for the Indians but the Indians never took the salmon runs for granted. The loss of Indian stewardship was a first blow against the salmon. American gill-netters who started fishing in the Columbia in the 1800’s, also recognized the great bounty that salmon represented. They compared a salmon fisherman on the Columbia to a farmer rewarded with bountiful harvests despite having never planted any seeds.13

As time went on, salmon hauls became larger and larger, as those fishing salmon became more numerous and the technologies used to catch salmon became more efficient. The size and numbers of salmon in the Columbia seemed inexhaustible, but by the early 1900’s, the runs changed. Huge hog salmon or Spring Chinook salmon were the first to disappear.14 Profits were threatened with the loss of salmon and salmon soon became a symbol of conflict for all those who had anything to do with the Columbia River: Indians, Gill-netters, Fish-wheel operators, Industrialists, Environmentalists, Washington and Oregon State Government officials, US Government officials and agents, Academics and Journalists. All became embroiled in the battle for salmon, and salmon became central to the very identity of the Pacific Northwest. For many in the region, the same salmon became a symbol for many different causes and issues. For Indians it was a symbol that connected them to the ancient ways

and the Creator. For the newer fisher folk in the region, salmon became the symbol for income, food and abundance. For industrialists and agriculturalists, salmon symbolized an aspect of the river that needed taming and management in order to achieve the “greater good.” For environmentalists, it became a symbol of Nature hat had been raped, abused and savaged to near extinction, a symbol of that which needed a gentle management regimen. For some environmentalists totally isolating salmon from humans seemed to be the best approach. For various government agencies, salmon became a symbol of crisis management and bruising trial and errors in management, legal battles and controversy. For journalists and academics, it became a political football tossed wherever, to and fro, according to the mood of the times and in response to diverse political and social pressures.

In the end, salmon are, in fact, neither a symbol nor a distinct organism above and beyond any other creatures. All symbolism is transitory. It is what is held in the eyes and minds of the temporary participants in this cosmic play. Salmon simply have a role to play, just like all the rest of God’s creations. From a holistic perspective, salmon are just one aspect of a Universe consisting of billions upon billions of atomic particles. Each one of these particles contains the same Divine spark. If humanity can once again recognize this complete and holistic connectivity, not only salmon but the entire planet can find its rightful place in harmonious balance with the natural cycle of birth, death, creation and dissolution.

 

 

1 “The area of worship, *(for the Indian,) cannot be delineated from social, political, culture, and other areas of Indian lifestyle, including the Indian’s general outlook upon economic and resource development. Worship is an integral part of the Indian way of life and culture which cannot be separated from the whole. This oneness of Indian life seems to be the basic difference between the Indian and non-Indians of the dominant society.” Crow Tribe Indian Chief Barney Old Coyote

Paul W. Hirt ed., TERRA PACIFICA (Washington State University Press, 1998), 179.

 

 

2 Richard White, The Organic Machine (Hill and Wang, 1995), 19-20.

White writes that, “Thompson himself was inclined to dismiss this all as superstition, but when one of Thompson’s Canadians threw the bone of a dead horse into the river, he reported that the fish vanished. An Indian had to dive down and retrieve the bone. A few hours later the salmon returned.”

 

 

3 White, 23.

 

 

4 White, 24.

 

 

5 Landon Y. Jones, The Essential Lewis and Clark (HarperCollins, 2002), 113.

 

 

6 Jones, 114.

 

 

7 Jones, 120.

He quotes Lewis: “We purchased 8 small fat dogs for the party to eate; the natives not being fond of selling their good dish, compels us to make use of dog meat for food, the flesh of which the most of the party have become fond of…”

 

 

8 Jones, 129.

 

 

9 Jones, 146.

 

 

10 Jones, 149.

 

 

11 White, 43.

 

 

12 White, 40.

 

 

13 White, 47.

 

 

14 White, 40.