Connections to Life ~ Salmon Life

Heritage Lifestyle

In March and April, enormous schools of herring swarm the shallows around Sitka, Alaska. Their eggs and milt turn the water pale. Attracted by the sudden abundance of herring and the tiny whitish eggs they leave on kelp, sea grass, and nearly any other submerged surface, creatures large and small come to dine. Whales, seals, sea lions, crabs, eagles, and screeching seagulls, drawn by the sudden, silvery rush of herring, burst onto the scene in a mad rush. “That marks my spring. It gets exciting. It just explodes with life,” says Jerrod Galanin. For Galanin, it also means salmon season is on the way.

Galanin is from Sitka, where he lives and works as an artist. As the chilly southeast Alaska spring blooms, he starts getting excited about summer, and seeking out the fish that draws him, his friends and his family together. Through fishing and gathering for meals, salmon sustains his family and relationships.

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"My dad would take me in the boat when I was still in a baby carrier."

Fishing with his dad makes up some of his earliest memories. “My dad would take me in the boat when I was still in a baby carrier.” He still fishes with family and generously shares fish with friends or other people not able to get out fishing. For his own household, he estimates 40-60 sockeye will get him through the year.

Come June, Galanin starts gathering reports on one of his regular dipnetting spots – Redoubt Bay and Redoubt Lake, a 40 minute boat ride away from his place in Sitka. “You’re always checking up with people – ‘Hey, you heard anything about Redoubt?’ Everybody’s talking about it.” By this time, his 17’ Boston Whaler is all ready to go, and will remain loaded with gear for the next couple of months.

When word comes that the run is in, Galanin typically brings someone with him – his brother, girlfriend, dad, friends – and heads out for a day trip to work on filling the freezer for the winter. Depending on the runs, this can take several weeks. “Redoubt’s run varies, so you might go out and get nothing or two fish. I’ve also been there on really good years where you’re literally getting four or five sockeye in one dip of your net. It becomes a huge production. Your fish is coming on, you’re knocking them out, bleeding them, putting them on ice, cleaning them. It’s a big production but it’s great.”

"Every single time you go, there's a bear in there too. That can get exciting."

As a relatively near-to-town fishing spot, Redoubt is popular, especially on weekends when it can be a bit of a circus, according to Galanin. As a working artist, his flexible schedule allows him to go during the week, when it might be a little quieter. That doesn’t mean they’re alone out there. “Every single time you go, there’s a bear in there too. That can get exciting,” he says.

"When I get serious and really want to get fish, I head up north to Klag Bay. It’s harder to get to and more dangerous."

“When I get serious and really want to get fish, I head up north to this place called Klag Bay. You’ve got some of the biggest, most beautiful sockeye and coho that come in. It’s two hours north and you cross open waters so you’re really exposed. It’s harder to get to and more dangerous.” A trip to Klag Bay is usually an overnight trip and involves at least four people, maybe more, since they’ll set up and haul in a beach seine. A beach seine is a land-based net set to loop out into the water and back to shore, and is dragged up to be emptied. He says the fish there are big and healthy and bright. It’s Galanin’s favorite place to fish.

A sense of family and community is an important part of fishing for Galanin. He attributes a summer trip to a local culture camp with teaching him to beach seine. Founded in 1986 by John and Roby Littlefield, Dog Point Fish Camp taught Tlingit language and culture for more than 25 years. One summer, when he was 10 or 11, Galanin got his first experience with a beach seine at Dog Point. “I went there with my cousin and my brother and we did a beach seine there. We pulled in all this fish and got to smoke it. We hung it up and I remember taking shifts in the smokehouse to keep the fire going.” In addition to beach seining, the children ate traditional foods and were shown how to harvest beach foods. Galanin hopes his own children will attend fish camp one day.

“I went there with my cousin and my brother and we did a beach seine. We pulled in all this fish and got to smoke it. We hung it up and I remember taking shifts in the smokehouse to keep the fire going.”

Today, as a fisherman, hunter and artist, Galanin reflects on how the natural environment of Southeast Alaska influenced the development of Tlingit culture. Noting the abundance of fish and other food sources, he observes that in the summer months one could put away all the food they’d need to get through the winter. “It’s a lot of work but you can do it and put away enough food. It’s so abundant it allowed our people, in the winter months, to have a lot of downtime and time to develop a complex, beautiful culture – storytelling, language, art forms.”

When asked what he loves about salmon, Galanin first spoke of it as food – “it’s my favorite food,” he said. Then, its importance to community – the bonds that grow between people who fish together, and the value of a freezer full of fish in a place with a high cost of living, like Sitka. Reaching beyond even that, he expressed the sense of identity, belonging and place that he develops and navigates as he fishes. “I’m out there with my dad, my brother. We’re out there experiencing it together. The connection that I know my great-grandfather was out here doing this. His great-grandfather was doing this. And it’s another way to feel I’m doing the same things that they did. This is one way to keep a grasp on who we are.”

"I’m out there with my dad, my brother. We’re out there experiencing it together. The connection that I know my great-grandfather was out here doing this. His great-grandfather was doing this. And it’s another way to feel I’m doing the same things that they did. This is one way to keep a grasp on who we are."

Salmon Life

Connections to Life

The Story of Jerrod Galanin

Waiting for that Feeling

Guiding the Salmon Life

Connections to Life

The Story of Jerrod Galanin

Waiting for that Feeling

Guiding the Salmon Life

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