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- Title: shxetl’ ni’ ’u tthu quw’utsun’ sta’luw’ | Weir on Cowichan River
- Title spoken by: Pul-hwuletse’ | Wayne Charlie
- Description: Salmon weir on the Cowichan River with a person walking on the weir and a canoe on the shore.
hwuhwilmuhw knowledge
- Speaker/Story Teller: Sti’tuma’t | Ruby Peter (Kwa’mutsun Elder)
- Date of recording:
- Listen to the recording in Hul’q’umi’num’:
shxetl’ ’i ’u tthu quw’utsun’ sta’luw’ | Weir on the Cowichan River
- shxetl’ ’i’ ’utl’ s’amuna’.
Weir at Somena. - ni’ tthu snuhwulh.
There’s a canoe there. - saay’stum’ tthu shq’utuw’ulh nem’ shhwhunum’, shhwhunum’s kws hwxwuy’xwute’wut thu shxetl’.
They have a platform in the middle where they walk on to open the gates of the weir. - ’uw’ sxuxits ’ul’ tthu ni’ ’u kwus wulh m’i hwiwul tthu stseelhtun, ’i’ ’uw’ sxuxits ’ul’ tthu stseelhtun ni’ m’i kwukwun’utum’.
It’s only certain salmon coming up the river that our people take out from the water. - ni’ hwyuxwutum thu shxetl’ sus nem’ ’uw’ tslhaqw tthu stseelhtun nem’ tuyul.
They would open the gate and let the salmon swim through to go up the river. - ’uwu niis mukw’ ni’ kwunutus tthu hwulmuhw tthu stseelhtun.
They native people never took all the salmon. - nuw’ stl’atl’um’ ’ul’ ’u tthu ni’ tswe’ ’u tthu shxetl’
And they would take just enough (for their winter supply) from the weir. - ni’ kw’in …. sht’eewun’ tsun ’iilh t’xum tthu shxetl’ ’i ’u tun’a quw’utsun’ ’i ’u tthu quw’utsun’ sta’luw’, ni’ ’utl’ lhumlhumuluts’, kwa’mutsun, s’amuna’, qw’umi’iqun’, ts’alha’um.
There were how many, I think there was about 6 Cowichan weirs here on the Cowichan River: one at Clemclem, Quamichan, Somonoes, Comiaken, River Bottom. - ’i’ nuw’ kw’iinu, kw’iinu kwthu ni’ tswe’ ’uwu niis na’nuts’a’, hwnuts’ulwum nuw’ kw’iinu ttthu ni’ tswe’ ’u thu shxetl’.
And there are quite a few people who own weirs; it’s never just one person that owns the river, so many families share ownership of the weirs. - ’i’ nuw’ sxuxits ’ul’ tthu ni’ yu kwukun’utus ’eelhtun, nuw’ yu stl’atl’um’ ’ul’ ’u tthu tum’xuytl’ kwus pekw’utus ’i’ ni’ nilh ni’ s’ulhtuns.
And every family will take only certain amount for their winter supply and they smoke them and dry them. - ’uwu kws ’uw’ qul’qul’ilt-s ’ul’ tthu stseelhtun, yath nuw’ yu ha’kwushus.
They never let the salmon get spoiled, as they always made sure there was a use for them. - nilh niilh sht’es ’u kw’un’a wulh hith.
That’s how it was a long time ago. - ’i’ nilh tu’i snuhwulh ’e’ut ’u tu’i, nilh ni’ shhw’aalhstewut tthu stseelhtun ’u kwus wulh m’i qw’imutus tthu stseelhtuns, ’i’ nilh ni’ shhw’aalhstuxws kws nem’ t’ukw’st-hwus.
And the canoe that’s by the weir, that’s what they put the salmon on when they got them out of the water, and that’s how they transported their salmon to home. - niilh ’uw’ sxuxits ’ul’ kwus m’i thuytum, sht’es kws m’i’s hwiwul tthu stseelhtun ’i’ ni’ wulh saay’ thu shxetl’.
They only prepared the weir a certain time of the year when the salmo were coming up the river and they had the weir ready. - quxulh tthu stseelhtun kws m’is hwihwuwul’ ’u tthu quw’utsun’ qa’, sta’luw’.
And there was always a lot of salmon in the Cowichan River. - ’uwu kws skw’ey’s tthu hwulmuhw kws quxs stseelhtun.
The native people never went hungry because they always had a good supply of salmon. - ni’ yu ’eeye’q ’u kwus yu…tthu ni’ yu ha’kwushus—tthu stth’aqwi’, tthu kw’a’luhw.
They rotated through what they would use—springs, chums. - nilh tthu kw’a’luhw nilh hay ’ul’ ’uw’ ’ulh tl’i’st-hwus tthu hwulmuhw.
The chums were the most treasured for our people. - nilh kws hul’iqs kws (tl’ehwt-s) ts’uy’hwt-s.
It was the easiest to (heat up) dry. - ’i’ n’uw’ qxe’luts tthu ni’ thuyt thu shxetl’ ’uwu niis ’uw’ na’nuts’a’ ’ul’, qxe’luts, nuw’ kw’iinu wuwa’ …
It was by many different families that prepared the weir, it was never prepared by just one family, many people, maybe so many…. - qux niilh ha’kuwshus ’eelhtun kwus yu they’tus [thu shxetl’] ’i’ nilh tthu xpey’ [sluwi’] nilh niilh xwi’lum’s tthu hwulmuhw.
And it was always the red cedar used, the bark was made into rope. - [Ruby notes that the poles were also made form the cedar tree.]
- ni’ thuytum t’um’utum sus ’uw’ t’um’ushtum ni’ hwu xwi’lum’.
The rope was prepared from the cedar bark by pounding it and braiding it into rope, which was strong. - nilh niilh yath ’uw’ sht’es ’u kw’un’a wulh hith ’u kwsus they’tum’ tthu shxetl’.
And that’s how they used used to make the weir long ago. - nanulh ’uw’ tl’i’st-hwus tthu hwulmuhw.
And that was very valuable to the First Nations people. - hay ch q’a’.
Thank you.
Key information
- Time period or Date: 1860s
- Theme(s): Fishing/Fisheries, Rivers and Lakes, Food Harvesting
- Location: Cowichan River near Duncan
- Source info (type – name): Museum — Cowichan Valley Museum & Archives
- Photographer credit: Frederick Dally
- Individuals identified: N/A
Learn more
About the photograph:
This photograph is from the Cowichan Valley Museum & Archives collection.1 The Royal BC Museum and Archives also has this photograph in their collection (H-06525).2 The image was taken by Frederick Dally sometime between 1866 and 1870 on the Cowichan River.
Frederick Dally was a photographer who owned a studio in Victoria during the late 19th century. At his studio, people could order albums with a selection of Frederick Dally prints in it. The album this image comes from included the following caption for the photograph:
“The two salmon traps shown in this photograph are most beautifully made, and are fished in and watched during the night, the boy has take his place beside a long pole which is cleft at one end and which he lets depend from his nose, and with the trap door up, and open, goes to sleep, and when a salmon rushes in he immediately feels the jar given to his nose, drops the door, and spears the fish, which he is well able to see as it swims about from the brightness of its scales. N.B. Whenever I told this in Victoria to my friends they were always incredulous, and remarked if any one else had told us this we should not have believed them.”3
About weirs:
shxetl’| weirs were first introduced into the Quw’utsun homeland by Syalutsa, the first person to fall from the sky. Syalutsa and his brother built the very first shxetl’on the Cowichan River.
This photograph is one of the most well-known photographs of a salmon weir. Salmon weirs were used by Quw’utsun people to capture salmon as they traveled up river to their spawning grounds. Before the arrival of Europeans to Quw’utsun territory, it was not uncommon to find anywhere from 15 to 21 weirs on the Cowichan River.4 The use of salmon weirs required a team of experienced fishers to build, operate, and maintain the weirs and traps safely and effectively. Knowledge was highly specialized and was passed on through kin-groups.
In 1894, under pressure from cannery owners, the federal government brought in legislation that effectively banned weirs. The Quw’utsun people resisted this ban by, among other things, hiring a lawyer to assert their rights to use weirs. Although the use of weirs continued during the early 20th century, the introduction of government regulations and pressure from commercial interests and non-Indigenous settlers eventually resulted in the end of the Quw’utsun use of weirs.
Footnotes:
- The Cowichan Valley Museum & Archives dates the photograph to the 1890s but the Royal BC Museum says that it was taken by Frederick Dally and dates to between 1866 and 1870.
- The Royal BC Museum and Archives dates the photograph to the 1860s.
- Royal BC Museum & Archives: https://search-bcarchives.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/album-5
- Daniel Marshall, Those who fell from the sky: A History of the Cowichan Peoples, p.139
Related images
Related images to come.
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