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Fishing
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Fishing successfully competed with agriculture, and sometimes even surpassed it. Most Indians fished using hooks, in some regions fish was choked with vegetative poisons. For Indians of the North-West cast, in particular, for the Tlingit people, fishing served as the main source of existence. In the summer, during the spawning period, the Tlingits caught salmon (king’s salmon, hunchback salmon, etc.) with the help of traps, weirs and large landing-nets. Salmon trade formed the basis of the economy of the Yupik people living along rivers. When catching halibut large wooden hooks were used in the form of slingshot. An Indian would install a wooden fishing float in the form of a waterfowl at a short distance from the ban, and tie to it a fishing line with a stone sinker. To the line several wooden hooks were attached with metal or ivory tips and with bait. On hooks figures of mythical characters (people or animals) were carved, as people believed that this figure would definitely attract the curious halibut. The caught halibut, that sometimes weighed up to 40 kg, was finished off with an ivory club.
River Yupik people caught salmon and other red fish with the help of nets, traps and bars. A net was tied to trees on both sides of a river and placed into water. Floats were attached to the upper edge, and sinkers to the lower. Narrow tributaries and streams were partitioned off with bars. Fish accumulated at the edge of the bar, and it was simple thrown to the shore. Often traps in the form of large baskets were set in the bar, and when they filled with fish, they were taken ashore. The catch of salmon was so large that it was enough to provide people with food for most of the winter.
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