Historic Hood River
Pounding Salmon
Notes
The History Museum is reopening after the annual winter closure with a new featured exhibit entitled “Salmon Connections.” It looks at habitat, harvesting, hydropower, and hatcheries to talk about salmon survival in the Columbia River Basin. Drop by the museum to check it out. Weather has forced some closures this week, so I suggest giving a call to verify hours if the weather is questionable.
This seems like an ideal image to accompany this announcement. This Curtis photogravure shows a Native woman pounding salmon, presumably to make pemmican. Pemmican is a mix of protein, fat, and dried fruit or berries made by many Native cultures to preserve food for later consumption. In this area it included salmon and huckleberries, which were both seasonally plentiful.
L.E.
The backdrop is the same mat we saw in a previous photo. I am guessing it was provided by the photographer, rather than made by Native women.
Is the bowl wooden?
Charlott
It appears that that bowl what carved from one piece of wood.. It does look like her pestel is of the rock that we see so many made of. I think that is a huge woven bag beside her that they would used to carry some of the makings of the pennican or the pemmican itself..
I have always wondered what it tasted like. Probably not all that good, but with it being a huge part of winter meals probably they were just very grateful that they had it.