LAWS OF THE FISH DAM.
When the fish dam is put in, they have very strict laws governing it.
There are nine traps which can be used, one belongs to Lock and his
relatives, one to Lock-nee and his relatives, one to Normer and her
relatives, and so on down the line. These families come in the morning
and each one takes from the trap that which belongs to them, as many
salmon as they need, by dipping them out with a net that is made and
used for this purpose, and they must not let a single one go to waste,
but must care for all they take, or suffer the penalty of the law,
which was strictly enforced. After all these get their salmon, then
comes the poor class, which take what they can use, some of which they
use fresh and the rest they cut up, smoke them lightly then they are
dried. When they are dried they are taken down and packed in large
baskets with pepperwood leaves between each layer, so as to keep the
moths out of them, and then they are put away for the winter. The
Indians from up the river as far as they are able to come, can get
salmon, and down the river the same. In these traps there get to be
a mass of salmon, so full that they make the whole structure of the
fish dam quiver and tremble with their weight, by holding the water
from passing through the lattice work freely. After all have taken
what they want of the salmon, which must be done in the early part of
the day, Lock or Lock-nee opens the upper gates of the traps and let
the salmon pass on up the river, and at the same time great numbers
are passing through the open gap left on the south side of the river.
This is done so that the Hoopas on up the Trinity river have a chance
at the salmon catching. But they keep a close watch to see that
there are enough left to effect the spawning, by which the supply is
kept up for the following year. The whites have often said that the
Indians ought not to be allowed to put in the fish dam and thereby
obstruct the run of salmon to their spawning ground, and it has been
published in the papers that the fish dam ought to be torn out. One
year it was published in the county papers that it had been torn out
by the wardens, this was a false publication as it was never torn out
by Indians or whites. On the other hand after the salmon cannery was
established at Reck-woy, which is at the mouth of the river, the whites
and the mixed bloods commenced to fish for the cannery; the whites have
laws that no one is allowed to let a net extend more than two thirds
the distance across the river, and wardens are paid to see that the
law is obeyed, yet the whites set one net from one side two thirds
across, and then just a few steps up another net from the other side,
and which extends two thirds across in distance, and in a distance of
sixty yards, there will be from eight to ten nets, making so complete
a net-work that hardly a salmon can pass. Will the whites preserve the
salmon through all the ages, as the Klamath Indians have done, if they
should survive so long? Not unless they enforce the laws more strictly.
While the fish dam stands against the strain of the pressure of the
water and salmon, Lock, Kock-nee, Normer, all the girls (wah-clure)
and the boy (char-rah) remain and watch things until the water raises
and washes the dam out, which often takes two and three months, and
then they all go to their homes, glad that the dam is washed away. Lock
and Lock-nee, during all this time at the fish dam, use the utmost care
and precaution to see that they are all kept in good health, bathing
daily and keeping clean, so as not to soil their beautiful buck skin
dresses that has taken the most skillful and patient work to make,
and the most patient and skillful work to clean if soiled. All this
whole ceremony of putting in the fish dam has been carried through
so precisely with the teachings that have been handed down to them
through many generations as God’s laws, that a white man, to see it
and understand the meaning of the different parts, and then not have a
decent respect for it and carry himself accordingly, has not been born
of a God-loving mother. The writer has helped as a Normer in putting
in the fish dam and knows the meaning of every move that is made.
These sacred laws were given to us by the white race of people that
inhabited this country when my people first came to this land. The
Wa-gas in ancient times first put in the fish dam some twenty-four
miles farther down the river, at a place called by the Indians as
Tu-rep, which is a flat bar containing some eighty or a hundred acres,
and is located on the south side of the river, the north side which is
steep, being nearly a bluff, the same as it is at Cap-pell. The Wa-gas
changed it from Tu-rep to Cap-pell, saying that Tu-rep was to close
to the ocean. At that time the river went into the sea at Ah-man, six
miles north of the present mouth of the river at Reck-woy. Cap-pell
gave more of a chance for the people to get to the fish dam, and
therefore benefit a greater number of them. They taught my people to
put in the fish dam, and gave them all the secret and sacred teachings
of the laws governing it. This was done before the great deluge that
covered the world, and drowned all but the two Talth and their wives,
who went through it all. The present site where the fish dam is built
has been there for long ages, and the laws governing the fish dam are
very ancient, and are now lost forever. They may put it in, but not by
the sacred laws and regulations that was used so many generations, as
they are lost, and no one can get them.