Iqaluich Niʀiñaqtuat, Fish That We Eat
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Iqaluich NiƦiñaqtuat, Fish That We Eat Anore Jones January 2006 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Subsistence Management Fisheries Resource Monitoring Program IQALUICH NIBIEAQTUAT, FISH THAT WE EAT Final Report No. FIS02-023 Anore Jones Independent Investigator 48008 South Fork Drive Three Rivers, California. 93271 559-561-3161 [email protected] January 2006 Chum salmon hanging at Sisualik. ii Abstract This report, Iqaluich Nibieaqtuat, Fish That We Eat, honors the traditional Ieupiaq fish food wisdom of northwest Alaska. Each fish native to the study area appears along with its Ieupiaq, English, and Latin names, a sketch, identification details, a brief life history, and associated recipes for gathering, preparation, and use. Each recipe is presented with respect and a genuine appreciation of the food. The directions give as much detail as possible, including background information, enabling readers to continue creating and eating these foods forever. The preparation techniques include raw, boiling, roasting, fermenting, drying, freezing, salting, and pickling. Photos and sketches of fish and processes, plus personal stories, enrich the text, along with Ieupiaq words commonly used today. The vibrant health and vigor enjoyed by past Ieupiat came from eating the whole fish, especially the more flavorful and nutrient-dense liver, eggs, and head. These highly nutritious traditional recipes and preservation techniques remain as delicious and well loved today as they have always been. Key Words: Alaska, cookbook, Eskimo, fish, food, food preservation, health, Ieupiat, Kotzebue, northwest Alaska, recipes, traditional ecological knowledge. Citation: Jones, A. 2006. Iqaluich Nibieaqtuat, Fish That We Eat. United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Office of Subsistence Management, Fisheries Resource Monitoring Program, Final Report No. FIS02-023, Anchorage, Alaska. iii CONTENTS Executive Summary 1 Preface 4 Introduction 5 Methods 10 Results 12 I Saltwater Fish 14 Pacific herring 15 Tomcod 25 Arctic cod 40 Flounder 43 Smelt 49 Bullhead 57 II Anadromous Fish 60 Chum salmon 61 Pink-, king-, red-, silver salmon 92 Dolly Varden 103 Arctic char 125 Lake trout 126 III Anphibrous Fish, Whitefish 128 Sheefish 130 Humpback whitefish 153 Least cisco 187 Bering cisco 194 IV Freshwater Fish 197 Broad whitefish 198 Round whitefish 219 Mudshark 222 Arctic grayling 234 Northern pike 241 Long nose sucker 257 Blackfish 263 Stickleback 266 V Invertebrates 268 Discussion 276 Conclusions 289 Recommendations 290 Acknowledgements 291 iv Appendixes 292 Glossary 293 Fish names 302 Traditional Ieupiaq Fish Foods Chart 305 Ieupiaq Fish Anatomy 306 Fish Biology 307 Village View 309 History of Niqipiaq Project 332 Literature Cited 334 Non-Discrimination Statement 337 v EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Anore Jones, [email protected], +1 (559) 561-3161 Starting with a body of food-data, gathered informally and unofficially over the previous 40 years, this Final Report No. FIS02-023 breaks with the typical protocol of fishery research papers by presenting a unique recipe collection of the traditional food-use of local fish by the Ieupiat of northwest Alaska. In 1960, the investigator developed a fascination with the local culture, especially their foods, with all the accompanying time and temperature-sensitive complexities necessary to gather, prepare, store and thus have these foods ready to eat throughout the year. That the Ieupiat ate well in their arctic environment allowed them to survive through the centuries as a healthy, vigorous, intelligent population. This collective oral food-history of the region was extracted from many notebooks where the memory of conversations or experiences had been recorded through the years. The quotes in this report come mostly from the real experts, the Elders, the masters at survival, who have lived their lifetimes in the area, eating the foods provided by the land and waters. For 23 years, the Investigator and her husband lived in the area and raised their family, following a subsistence lifestyle along with many other local people. They visited, traveled, and camped with the elders, following the foods available at each time of year. The investigator not only learned and recorded the recipes taught by the elders, but these foods became a cherished core of everyday family meals. The recipes in this report are not theoretical. They have been a mainstay of the culture for centuries, and most remain so to this day, still prepared and enjoyed, at least by the elders themselves. This report presents the traditional, ecological food knowledge of the Ieupiat peoples living in the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Kotzebue Sound Management Region of Alaska during the last half of the 20th century. It addresses the need to document this valuable information while the elders who grew up eating these foods can still teach the old ways. These ancient subsistence details that allowed the Ieupiaq culture to flourish evolved over many centuries for reasons we may never understand, but they warrant documentation for their historic interest, to maintain culturally relevant food technologies, and as a guide to delicious, healthy eating. The indigenous recipes in this report are presented by first introducing each fish, because each species of fish is unique, and those characteristics that define these fish determine how they are used and how they are experienced as food. The spiritual and emotional aspects of fish as food in the Ieupiaq culture do not constitute a part of this report. Nonetheless, for the subsistence person, food is more than a package off the shelf. It is the combination of one’s life- long association with that fish: seeking it, catching it, cleaning it, preparing it to eat or store, keeping it safe from theft or spoilage, and finally enjoying it as food. People put a great deal of thought, time, and effort into having fish to eat; they worry about not having fish to eat. They receive their fish with gratitude as a gift from the waters and go to great effort to assure that the spirit of the fish is pleased and not offended, so it will keep allowing fish to be caught. Included in this report are all 26 species of fish occurring in this study area, although about 12 of those are rare or seldom used for food today. Each species has a separate chapter beginning with its English, Ieupiaq, and Latin names, along with a map of its range. A sketch accompanies a brief description and life history, including its foods, migrations, spawning patterns, and how it is caught. The bulk of each fish chapter, and of this report, systematically explains all the various traditional ways this fish is processed and eaten. In each chapter, recipes 1 are listed in the following sequence: roast; boiled; use of the eggs, stomachs and insides; hung to half-dry and dry; fermented; frozen; salted; and pickled. However, this sequence is only approximately followed because each fish has its own unique properties and uses, and all of these preparation techniques overlap with each other. This can best be seen in the Appendix Traditional Fish Foods. It is a general, yet detailed, flow chart of all the possible ways a freshly caught fish might be traditionally used, acknowledging that most but not every fish may be used in each of those ways. Over 200 photos are included, taken by the investigator over the last 40 years, plus a few yet older, borrowed photos, to help the reader visualize the fish and foods. Sketches further help to explain the text, especially several sets showing how different fish are cut to hang or to eat. Many of the sketches include some handwritten explanation, and are presented as ‘notebook pages’. This includes the Traditional Fish Foods and the Ieupiaq Fish Anatomy pages. All photos and sketches in this report are the work of the author unless otherwise indicated. Following the fish chapters with their recipes, there is discussion under Results of each of the six main processing techniques listed in the chart of Traditional Fish Foods—drying (including smoking), freezing, fermenting, cooking, salting, and pickling. Whereas the average American would usually boil, roast, or grill a fish, the Ieupiat would more often choose to dry, ferment, or freeze it. Actually, eating fish dried, frozen, or fermented is nutritionally similar to eating it raw, because the proteins have not been denatured by the heat of cooking. Two main factors which have contributed to the excellent health of the Ieupiat through the ages are the availability of fresh, naturally fed fish and in how they ate their fish, seeking out the fat- and nutrient-dense parts: invariably the eggs and often the liver, head, skin, and edible parts of the stomach and intestines. Another obvious and most interesting aspect of Ieupiaq fish use is the prevalence of freezing as a preparation technique. Although most indigenous peoples of the world routinely dry and ferment their fish, the practice of eating frozen fish, both frozen when freshly caught, and in its many degrees of fermentation, is unique to the peoples of the Arctic where temperatures remain below freezing for about six or seven months each year and may some months average below 0ºF. Dr. Weston A. Price’s excellent research data [Price 1989], confirms what the investigator observed during this study: that the traditional diet and preservation techniques were adequate and healthy in the broadest sense of the words. The nutritional problems that did trouble the old Ieupiat arose from periods of starvation when less optimal foods were eaten. Three safety issues of eating fish today are discussed, also under Results: 1) Chemical pollution is continually worsening, particularly in the arctic, where it tends to accumulate in the food chain. However, the consensus among those studying this problem is that it is still far better to eat the local fish than any available alternative foods which are adulterated and polluted in other ways.