Since Time Immemorial is a recurring series featuring community members whose families have been here since time immemorial. The ancestral knowledge carried by Lhaq’temish, Nooksack, and other Coast Salish peoples is knowledge about how to live in our shared home in a good, life-sustaining way. We live in a time when we need to restore our relationship with Mother Earth and with one another. We are grateful for these stories, told in the words of each featured individual.
Steven Solomon, Sr. is a Lummi tribal fisherman. He has served as an elected member of the Lummi Indian Business Council and of the Lummi Nation Fisheries and Natural Resources Commission. He is deeply involved in Lummi hatcheries, and is featured in the forthcoming documentary film “Scha’nexw Elhtal’nexw Salmon People: Preserving a Way of Life” from Children of the Setting Sun Productions.
My traditional name is Tla kalin Ces-xen. Ces-xen clan. Christian name is Steven Solomon. I’m a lifelong resident here on Lummi Nation. I seen many things, witnessed many changes. No changes more evident than there is today with global warming. Low fish returns, weather is completely haywire—we’re losing habitat faster than we can restore it. The fish need our help.
I’m wondering, Steve, because we’re standing here today in your yard and we’ve got all these nets in front of us. Can you tell us what you’re doing with the nets?
Oh, I’m just sorting through them, seeing which nets we’re going to be using for every species of salmon that we got. I got seine web to go through and take out the good pieces and create another beach seine. I’ve got every size gill net you could think of for salmon. I keep 1000 fathoms of net for Sockeyes, Silvers, Chum, and King.
So there’s a different kind of net for each type of fish?
Yes, the mesh is different sizes. We seen the sizes in the Sockeye net go down. Before Boldt* come along, we were fishing five and a half which would catch the big Humpies and Sockeye. And then when they reaffirmed Boldt in ’79, everybody was using five and an eighth. Right now today, guys are fishing four and three quarters and four and seven eighths. The fish are smaller. Kings are the same way. I used the eight-inch mesh for 20 years but now I got my eight-inch over there in that tote and you know it’s just gonna be a museum piece.
Talking about nets makes me think about reefnet, the beautiful Lhaq’temish way of fishing where the fish come to you, in a net that you’ve made to look like the safety of eelgrass.
It’s like catching fish with a makeshift basket. You just pull up the bunt end when the fish come rolling over the crown. My grandfather would have 10,000 Humpies before noon in his site. They had reef canoes that would hold 5,000 fish. 5,000 in one canoe! That was a big piece of wood. Reefnet brings on a different dynamic of sustainability. You can, in essence, be a monitor. You can be selective and let the protected fish go without even touching them, you just push the cork line down and shoo them out like shooing the chickens out the door of a chicken coop.
What sxwole (reefnet) means to the community is really knowing who you are, where you come from, and where you’re going. Grandpa Felix told us about all the sites that they used to fish. Each family had seven different locations. Reefnet has an identity that goes along with the family and the site. The onset of traps really forced the reefnets out, but we’ll eventually go back to it. It’s who we are.
How old were you when you started fishing?
Probably six or seven, when I could start to remember. When I was 9, 10, 11 years old I was helping our grandmother fish while all the men left to go to Alaska.
You spent a lot of time with your grandparents?
We’re just the echoes of our past. All the values that I’m carrying today come through my grandparents. My grandparents give me them echoes, and I got teachings and messages to relay on. We take everything in reverence. If you have to go out and get one of those heifers or the pig or chickens for the family, we thank them for giving their life up to so that we may live.
When you’re not working, what do you like to do?
I like to spend time with the kids, and have a barbecue. Marshmallow s’mores. Let the kids play on the beach. My fondest memories are going over to West Shore with all of our cousins. My grandpa owned the property, he had a road right down the beach. He had a horse and buggy, he could take the buggy down there. When the tide was out, it heated that sand up, and when the tide come in, that was the warmest water you ever wanted to be in. A lot of the parents will just bring some soap and make their kids wash up because it was so warm. It was a place of gathering.
Hy’shqe for your time and for sharing some of your story, Steve!
Photograph by Dani Winters Photography
*The Boldt Decision of 1974 reaffirmed the rights of Treaty tribes to half of the total harvestable catch of fish, and to fish in their usual and accustomed territory, not only on designated reservations.
About the Writer:
Julie Trimingham is grateful to make her home on traditional Lhaq’temish territory, and to work for the Sacred Lands Conservancy (SacredSea.org), an Indigenous-led 501c3 nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the life, culture, and sanctity of the Salish Sea.
