Tag Archives: halibut hook
The Halibut Hook Revival – An ingenious Indigenous fishing technology with spiritual significance
Jonathan Rowan lowers his handmade wooden halibut hook into the tranquil early-morning water off Klawock, Alaska, and urges it to go down and fight: “Weidei yei jindagut,” he says in the Tlingit language. From his skiff, the tribal leader, who is joined by two friends, watches the V-shaped hook about as long as his forearm slowly sink and hopes the imagery he carved on the seafloor-facing arm—a beaver perched on a chewed stick—entices a halibut. >click to read<12:48
The Sheldon Jackson Museum’s Artifact of the Month: halibut hook
The Sheldon Jackson Museum’s July Artifact of the Month is a halibut hook (SJ.I.A.645). Despite serving the same purpose and having the same basic principal design as the other halibut hooks in the museum’s collection, the Artifact of the Month is very different from the other hooks in its construction and simplicity. All coastal tribes have historically caught halibut, though the Makah on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington and the Tlingit and Haida were the most extensive harvesters of the fish. The species is most abundant in the spring before the arrival of salmon, but can be caught year round, an excellent source of food, fresh or cured. The featured halibut hook is made from the natural crotch of a tree. The large heavier arm has an iron barb bound into place in a vertical groove with two-ply commercial cord. Read the rest here 09:09
