My Father's Smokehouse

Vivian Faith Prescott

Description

Filled with stories of family, food, and culture, and interwoven with personal recipes and photographs taken by the author, My Father's Smokehouse folds the reader into a beautiful island landscape.

"Prescott emphasizes the importance of learning the traditional values of where one lives, gratitude for what the land and sea provide, and the responsibility to share with community."
—Anchorage Daily News

"[Prescott’s] book is filled with traditions, memories and stories surrounding Southeast Alaska life, including a family’s perseverance, the wisdom of Sámi and Tlingit cultures, and respect for elders and their knowledge of the culture. The smokehouse at the fish camp is named after her father."
—Wrangell Sentinel

The smokehouse at Mickey's Fishcamp holds more than fish. It is filled with traditions, memories, and stories of a thriving Southeast Alaskan life—of a family's perseverance, of the wisdom of Sámi and Tlingit cultures, and of respect for Elders and their knowledge of the natural world.

Mickey's Fishcamp is named after three generations of Prescott fishermen who commercially fished the waters of the Inside Passage, and is located near one of the oldest Tlingit settlements in Wrangell, Alaska. Here, next to the rainforest and sea, author Vivian Faith Prescott has found her place in the world. She is a student and teacher of the natural environment—harvesting spruce tips, berries, sea lettuce, and goose tongue and processing salmon, halibut, and hooligan—who combines traditional practices with modern knowledge.

Heartwarming and introspective, My Father's Smokehouse tells one woman's stories of Traditional Knowledge that is learned and passed on, from one generation to the next.

Introduction: Sense of Time, Sense of Seasons: Sea and Forest Seasoning; Spruce Tip Juice & Salt

FIRST FISHCAMP CYCLE
Skunk Cabbage: A Harbinger of Spring: Roasted Salmon in Skunk Cabbage Leaves
Harvesting the Soon Bloom: Oven-Dried Popweed
Ceremony: Cute-Little-Raven's Herring Egg Salad
Eat Your Trees: Spruce Tip Iced Tea
My Father's Smokehouse: Fishcamp Salmon Spread; Dad's Salmon Spread
Lessons from the Devil's Club Lady: Black Bean Salad with Devil's Club Tips
The Underside of Leaves: Salmonberry Scones
A Family of Crabbers: Island Crab Cakes; Spruce Tip Mayonnaise; Wild Alaskan Berry Sauce
Art-Thinking at Mickey's Fishcamp: Salmonberry–Spruce Tip Artisan Butter
Being Mummo: Foraging for Goose Tongue: Wrangell Ranch Dressing
13 Ways of Looking at Dog Salmon: Fishcamp Ikura (Salmon Caviar)
Afloat: Spruce Tip–Labrador Tea–Salmonberry-Infused Water
Halibut Sustains Us: Halibut Crepes
Backyard Glaciers: Tote Ice
Tea for Community: Labrador Tea
Encounters with the Giant Pacific Octopus: Smoked Octopus Salad
Red Huckleberry: Food for Songbirds: Mickey's Huckleberry Dream Pie
Wrangell Winter Games: Shrimp Sandwiches
Winter Stories: Salmon Patties; Spruce Tip Tartar Sauce; Fireweed Dipping Sauce

SECOND FISHCAMP CYCLE
Field Guide to Finding Hope: Put an Egg on it and Dip it in Coffee
Gathering Red Seaweed: Dried Red Seaweed
A Bunch of Hooligans: Smoked Hooligan Fresh Spring Rolls
Carrying on Traditions: Spruce Tip Oatmeal; Spruce Tip Toast
The Art of Salmon: Fishcamp Salmon Tacos
The Treat Beneath Your Feet: Dried Sea Lettuce
Muskeg Love: Muskeg Muffins
Gifts from the Porcupine: Spruce Tip Chocolate Brownies
It's the Little Fish in Life: Rainbow Smelt: Fried Rainbow Smelt (How Dad Does It)
The Bunchberry Yoik: Mixed Alaskan Berry Hand Pies
Lungs of the Island: Usnea Tea
Highbush Cranberries and Traditional Values: Highbush Cranberry Jelly
Listening to the Forest: "Stop the Shouting and Listen to the Sunset"
Stink Currants and Landslides: Stink Currant Jelly
Winter Blues: Blueberry Water; Winter Blueberry Smoothie
Salmon Head Soup: Salmon Head Soup
The Practice of Gifting: Spruce Tip Sugar Cookies
Winter Kings: White King Salmon Chowder
What I've Learned from Living at Fishcamp: Mickey's Fishcamp Tips

Sujets

• Cuisine
• Cuisine du monde
• Cuisine d'Amérique
• John Muir
• Parc national de Glacier Bay
• Sami
• Wrangel
• Tlingit
• Cooking
• Indigenous peoples
• Memoir
• Tongass National Forest
• Alaska Natives
• Alexander Archipelago
• Glacier Bay Basin
• Bahía de los Glaciares
• Wrangell
• Native American
• Regional cooking
• Ethnic Cooking

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 05 avril 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781513128634
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 6 Mo

Extrait

MY FATHER’S SMOKEHOUSE
Stories and Recipes from Fishcamp
VIVIAN FAITH PRESCOTT
Text and photographs © 2022 by Vivian Faith Prescott
Edited by Emily Bowles
Cover: Smoked hooligan fresh from the smokehouse before the final “secret” processing stage. © 2022 by Vivian Faith Prescott
Map by Kiara Shea Meissner
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Prescott, Vivian Faith, author.
Title: My father’s smokehouse : stories and recipes from fishcamp / Vivian Faith Prescott.
Description: [Berkeley] : Alaska Northwest Books, [2022] | Includes bibliographical references. | Summary: “A collection of short stories and recipes shared from a family fishcamp on Wrangell Island. The book explores the author’s way of life as she uses traditional Tlingit and Sámi knowledge to care for the people and the world around her”-- Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021045202 (print) | LCCN 2021045203 (ebook) | ISBN 9781513128610 (paperback) | ISBN 9781513128627 (hardback) | ISBN 9781513128634 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Tlingit Indians--Food--Alaska--Wrangell. | Tlingit Indians--Alaska--Wrangell--Social life and customs. | Indian cooking. | Wrangell Island (Wrangell, Alaska)--Social life and customs.
Classification: LCC E99.T6 P74 2022 (print) | LCC E99.T6 (ebook) | DDC 979.8004/9727--dc23/eng/20211014
LC record available at https:// lccn .loc .gov /2021045202
LC ebook record available at https:// lccn .loc .gov /2021045203
LS2022
Published by Alaska Northwest Books®
an imprint of
WestMarginPress.com
WEST MARGIN PRESS
Publishing Director: Jennifer Newens
Marketing Manager: Alice Wertheimer
Project Specialist: Micaela Clark
Editor: Olivia Ngai
Design & Production: Rachel Lopez Metzger
To my dad, Mickey Prescott
and
to my children
Vivian Mork Yéilk’, Mitch Mork, Breanne Pearson, and Nikka Mork
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Map INTRODUCTION: SENSE OF TIME, SENSE OF SEASONS Sea and Forest Seasoning Spruce Tip Juice & Salt FIRST FISHCAMP CYCLE SKUNK CABBAGE: A HARBINGER OF SPRING Roasted Salmon in Skunk Cabbage Leaves HARVESTING THE SOON BLOOM Oven-Dried Popweed CEREMONY Cute-Little-Raven’s Herring Egg Salad EAT YOUR TREES Spruce Tip Iced Tea MY FATHER’S SMOKEHOUSE Fishcamp Salmon Spread Dad’s Salmon Spread LESSONS FROM THE DEVIL’S CLUB LADY Black Bean Salad with Devil’s Club Tips THE UNDERSIDE OF LEAVES Salmonberry Scones A FAMILY OF CRABBERS Island Crab Cakes Spruce Tip Mayonnaise Wild Alaskan Berry Sauce ART-THINKING AT MICKEY’S FISHCAMP Salmonberry–Spruce Tip Artisan Butter BEING MUMMO: FORAGING FOR GOOSE TONGUE Wrangell Ranch Dressing 13 WAYS OF LOOKING AT DOG SALMON Fishcamp Ikura (Salmon Caviar) AFLOAT Spruce Tip–Labrador Tea–Salmonberry-Infused Water HALIBUT SUSTAINS US Halibut Crepes BACKYARD GLACIERS Tote Ice TEA FOR COMMUNITY Labrador Tea ENCOUNTERS WITH THE GIANT PACIFIC OCTOPUS Smoked Octopus Salad RED HUCKLEBERRY: FOOD FOR SONGBIRDS Mickey’s Huckleberry Dream Pie WRANGELL WINTER GAMES Shrimp Sandwiches WINTER STORIES Salmon Patties Spruce Tip Tartar Sauce Fireweed Dipping Sauce SECOND FISHCAMP CYCLE FIELD GUIDE TO FINDING HOPE Put an Egg on it and Dip it in Coffee GATHERING RED SEAWEED Dried Red Seaweed A BUNCH OF HOOLIGANS Smoked Hooligan Fresh Spring Rolls CARRYING ON TRADITIONS Spruce Tip Oatmeal Spruce Tip Toast THE ART OF SALMON Fishcamp Salmon Tacos THE TREAT BENEATH YOUR FEET Dried Sea Lettuce MUSKEG LOVE Muskeg Muffins GIFTS FROM THE PORCUPINE Spruce Tip Chocolate Brownies IT’S THE LITTLE FISH IN LIFE: RAINBOW SMELT Fried Rainbow Smelt (How Dad Does It) THE BUNCHBERRY YOIK Mixed Alaskan Berry Hand Pies LUNGS OF THE ISLAND Usnea Tea HIGHBUSH CRANBERRIES AND TRADITIONAL VALUES Highbush Cranberry Jelly LISTENING TO THE FOREST “Stop the Shouting and Listen to the Sunset” STINK CURRANTS AND LANDSLIDES Stink Currant Jelly WINTER BLUES Blueberry Water Winter Blueberry Smoothie SALMON HEAD SOUP Salmon Head Soup THE PRACTICE OF GIFTING Spruce Tip Sugar Cookies WINTER KINGS White King Salmon Chowder WHAT I’VE LEARNED FROM LIVING AT FISHCAMP Mickey’s Fishcamp Tips References Lingít Pronunciation Guide
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Gunalchéesh, Shtax’héen K wáan, for allowing me to live at my fishcamp, Mickey’s Fishcamp, in K aachxaana.áak’w, Wrangell, near K eishangita.aan (“Red Alder Head Village”).
Gunalchéesh to the Kiks.di, Naanyaa.aay, Kaach.;di, Kayaashkiditaan, S’iknax.di, Xook’eidí, Kaasx’agweidí, and Taalkweidí Clans. I acknowledge I’m a guest here in Tlingit Aaní and I write these words on your precious land.
First of all, I want to thank my dad, Mitchell Prescott, aka Mickey, for accompanying me on this fishcamp journey. Thank you for sharing your knowledge, especially your fishing secrets. Thank you for being willing to learn along with me and for taste-testing all my recipes.
Gunalchéesh, giitu, and much gratitude to my sister Tracey Prescott Martin for writing, transcribing, and taste-testing my fishcamp recipes, and for collecting my father’s recipes. Without you, this project would’ve been overwhelming. Thank you to Vivian Mork Yéilk’ for her consulting work on Tlingit culture, language, and harvesting protocols. Gunalchéesh, X ’unei Lance Twitchell, for your assistance with the sound charts. Your work with the revitalization and preservation of the Lingít language is invaluable. Also, thank you to Vincent Balansag and Lynn Torres Balansag for sharing your fish head soup recipe. And my deepest thanks to all you Wrangellites who’ve enjoyed my photos and writing over the years. Thank you for reading and for inspiring me to write about our island life.
Many thanks to Mary Catherine Martin for encouraging me to share my life at Mickey’s Fishcamp in the Juneau Empire ’s Capital City Weekly , where versions of the chapters in this book first appeared. It’s great to have someone believe in your writing. Thank you to my Planet Alaska column editors at the Capital City Weekly over the years: Clara Miller, Mary Miller, and Ben Hohenstatt. The essay “The Underside of Leaves” first appeared in Alaska Women Speak , a great little Alaskan literary journal. I offer profound thanks to my husband, poet Howie Martindale, for his editing skills. And to my many, many grandkids, and great-grandchildren, these stories and recipes are for you. When I’m long gone you can mix some berries into a batch of cookies, or toss in some spruce tips, and you’ll think of me. You come from a long line of camp cooks who toss in a little bit of this and a bit of that and then cook it up in the hopes it tastes good. (It usually does, but not always.)
Gunalchéesh, Kiara Shea Meissner, for contributing your map art for this book. Kiara is a Tlingit artist from Wrangell, Alaska, who operates a graphic arts business called On The River. After a book is written, there’s more work to do before we hold it in our hands, and I appreciate the experts at West Margin Press. Much gratitude to editor/publisher Jennifer Newens for encouraging me to include my recipes in this foodoir and for her recipe-editing expertise. And giitu to editor Olivia Ngai, copy editor Emily Bowles, and designer Rachel Metzger for making this book magic happen.

INTRODUCTION: SENSE OF TIME, SENSE OF SEASONS
Living with nature every day is my life story. The landscape is filled with stories, waiting beside our smokehouse or beneath a patch of devil’s club, hiding under a frond of sea lettuce, or rolling on an old cottonwood log in front of fishcamp. The Stikine Wilderness and the Tongass National Forest are a part of my life here in Southeast Alaska, where I’m a guest of the Shtax’héen Kwáan, the Stikine Tlingit. The stories I’m offering in this book come from life at and near my fishcamp—Mickey’s Fishcamp, named for my dad. Our fishcamp is in Kaachxaana.áak’w, the Tlingit name for Wrangell, near Keishangita.aan, meaning “Red Alder Head Village,” today called Shoemaker Bay.
In order to live in this landscape, I need to know the signs nature sends me. I take notice when bear activity begins in the spring because the spruce roots are ready. I notice the first heavy spring fog because I should then begin to look for fiddlehead ferns, salmonberry shoots, and fireweed. The first skunk cabbage sprouting up from the warm earth says king salmon are coming. And in the fall, after the first frost, it’s time to harvest Hudson Bay tea. In this worldview, the landscape measures time by the fluid motion of trees, water, new shoots, and animal activities.
When traveling and living in Tlingit country, Tlingit Aaní, it’s important to understand the Tlingit calendar begins a new year in July with Xáat Dís, the Salmon-Return Moon, also called the Fattening Moon, Gataa Dís. The month names describe an intimate knowledge of the Southeast Alaska landscape. For example, in the Stikine regional calendar, December, Saanáx Dís (Through-the-Head Moon), is when hair grows on the heads of seals in the womb, and March, Héen Taanáx Kayaaní Dís (Underwater-Plants-Sprout-Moon), is when underwater plants bud and seaweed grows on rocks.
US Forest Service Sign, erected on Wrangell Island in the Tongass National Forest by Mickey Prescott when he worked for the Forest Service as a field supervisor.
The Tlingit calendar is dependent upon what subsistence activities are occurring during the month. It is a calendar of motion, of doing, of being. However, since each community in Tlingit Aaní is unique, each community’s calendar varies according to what nature in that geographic area is doing at a particular time; for example, Wrangell’s Tlingit calendar in the Stikine region differs from the calendar of the village of Klukwan.
The Tlingit calendar contains the ecological Traditional Knowledge of my children’s ancestors, evi