Grease trail
As Grease Trail (fat paths), even Oolichan trails , traditional trade paths have been designated on the similar to the butter used fat of candles fish ( Thaleichthys pacificus ) was transported to the northwest of America. It was a much sought-after commodity that was bartered throughout British Columbia , the Yukon , Washington and Oregon , but also further east. Its advantage was that, unlike other fish oil, it was solid and could therefore be transported over long distances. Therefore, the coastal inhabitants, such as Tsimshian , Tlingit , Haida , Coastal Salish and Kwakwaka'wakw, not only took care of themselves, but also the hinterland. An extensive network of trade routes was created between the Pacific coast and interior British Columbia. The main fishing area was the mouth of the Nass River , where thousands of Indians met in February and March to stock up on the important staple food.
On the one hand, trade was faced with enormous geographical hurdles, because the huge mountain ranges that stretch along the coast made the exchange with the hinterland difficult. A second obstacle was the enormous linguistic fragmentation of the region. In British Columbia there were 25 languages from six language families. This is how an interpreting system was created along the paths .
The fur and fur trade that began at the end of the 18th century profited greatly from the Grease Trails system. Alexander MacKenzie and Simon Fraser were often able to rely on interpreters on their long journeys. This extreme dependence on labor, paths, translators and the logistical system of the paths continued into the fur trade era (around 1770-1850). This was due to the fact that almost only Indians lived in the huge area . In 1824, George Simpson of the Hudson's Bay Company found that in the Columbia District , that is, in what is now British Columbia, Washington and Oregon, there were only 151 officers and men together. Even in 1855, fewer than a thousand whites lived on Vancouver Island and around Puget Sound . The number of indigenous people is likely to have been 70 to 100 times higher.
The starting product was the candle fish, which was either eaten or cooked on site. George Dawson reported in 1876 that he saw "Indian women cooking fish heads in one-square-foot pots" with walls 3/8 of an inch thick. They put heated stones in the watertight pots and stirred with long sticks. The skimmed off fat was packed in wooden containers and was thus well preserved and ready for transport. The transport took place either by waterways or on foot, often on horses.
Control over the paths, as with all major farm roads, was often fought over. For example, a Tsimshian chief occupied a hill in the middle of the Gitxsan area, on which the Gitwangak Battle Hill can be found today . The fortified village existed between (before) 1700 and around 1835. It was mainly about the 60 km long Grease Trail, which connected the Nass and Skeena Rivers . The Kitwankool Grease Trail , in turn, connected the Gitxsan villages with the mouth of the Nass River, the main catching area for candle fish.
When the Europeans established trading posts on the coast, the range of goods changed significantly. European goods included blankets, calico, kettles, axes and knives, traps, rifles and other metal goods, but also coffee, tea, flour and tobacco. In addition to fish fat, the Indians carried edible seaweed, baskets made of wood fiber, mussels that were processed into jewelry, slaves, dried meat, hides and furs, berries and the fruits of the camas , but also blankets made of dog hair and seaweed, tree fibers and other animal hair at.
Some of the fat paths are partially well preserved or are still used, albeit for different purposes. These are the 450 km long Alexander MacKenzie Heritage Trail (also Nuxalk Carrier Grease Trail or Nuxalk Carrier Route ), the Chilkoot and Cheslatta Trail , the Dalton Trail and the Nyan Wheti .
In the case of the Alexander MacKenzie Heritage Trail , which had been used as a fat trail by the Nuxalk and southern Dakelh for millennia , the First Nations resisted being named after a European who "only walked the trail once" (on the first crossing North America north of Mexico by a European). The addition Nuxalk Carrier Route appeared on the waymarks and signs . The path aims to highlight four historical and contemporary aspects, namely the role of the British in discovery, archeology and natural history, and the relationship between the First Nations and the path they established and used for millennia. These four aspects were included in a 1985 government-First Nations cooperation agreement.
literature
- Say Birchwater: Ulkatcho. Stories of the Grease Trail. Anahim Lake, Bella Coola, Quesnel. Ulkatcho Culture Curriculum Committee, Anahim Lake 1993.
- William Joseph Turkel: Grease Trails. In: William J. Turkel: The Archive of Place. Unearthing the Pasts of the Chilcotin Plateau. University of British Columbia Press, Vancouver 2007, ISBN 978-0-7748-1376-1 , pp. 108-135.
Web links
Remarks
- ^ William J. Turkel: The Archive of Place. Unearthing the Pasts of the Chilcotin Plateau. University of British Columbia Press, Vancouver 2007, ISBN 978-0-7748-1376-1 , p. 165.