Coast Salish Ethnography: The Saanich, by Diamond Jenness Economic Cycle In the early 19th century life in the Saanich communities followed a seasonal rhythm, which varied slightly from village to village owing to slight variations in the economic and social environments. In the West Saanich village of Tsartlip, on Brentwood Bay, the cycle ran thus: December-February: This was the season of the winter dances, when the population remained in the village. On fine days the men fished off shore for cod and grilse, or caught a few ducks, and the women gathered clams and a variety of seaweed, green with brown edges; but for the most part the people subsisted on the dried fish and berries they had gathered during the summer. March: In this month seals and spring salmon supplemented cod, grilse and ducks. The regular winter dances ended, but the members of the secret Black Dance held their ceremonies. April: On land the men hunted deer and elk; at sea they fished for cod, grilse, spring salmon, halibut, and particularly herring, which spawned in this month. May: While the men pursued the same activities as in March the women gathered camass roots, wild carrots and rushes for making mats.1 The camass season lasted only about three weeks, but an energetic family could fill 10 or 12 bags with the roots during that period. If the weather was warm many of the people left the village and camped near their camass grounds on San Juan Island, using for shelter either a few boards taken from their houses, or rush huts. June: Many of the villagers went out to the islands to fish for halibut in deep water. Others contented themselves with capturing cod, spring salmon and grilse near the village. They paid many visits to neighbouring villages, and occasionally held a potlatch, though the usual season for potlatches was later. July: From the beginning of this month until the end of August the village was deserted. Its inhabitants crossed to Point Roberts, on the mainland, to net the sockeye salmon which was their staple winter food, and the humpbacked salmon that succeeded it. In the intervals of salmon fishing the men killed a few elk and deer, which were now in their prime. Throughout July and August the women gathered berries, and also dried large quantities of the consumption plant seeds that they used for flavouring their meat and fish, and as and antidote against supernatural contagion. August: Over and above the activities of the previous month, the men repaired their boats or made new ones, and one or two small parties, leaving their women behind, sometimes wandered away into the mountains to hunt goats. The women gathered and dried many saskatoon, salal and other berries that ripened in this month. September-November: Early in September the people returned to their village, where they set their houses and graveyards in order and laid in a stock of wood for the winter. Often three or four canoes manned by men only went out among the islands to hunt seals, sea-lions and sea-otters. Other men fished near the village, or hunted deer, while the women gathered clams, made blankets and rush mats, and attended to other duties around the homes. Late in September appeared the dog-salmon, which the Tsartlip Indians caught as they approached the river at Goldstream. Both September and October were favorite months for potlatches, so that there was much going and coming between one village and another. November with its frosts and high winds checked this travelling. In that month the villagers settled down for the winter, and the women left their homes only to gather clams and fern-roots while the men made canoes and hunted and fished in the immediate neighbourhood. The East Saanich natives, the Songish, and those near Chemainus followed practically the same routine as the west Saanich; they too abandoned their villages in the middle of summer and netted sockeye and humpbacked salmon on the mainland, off the mouth of the Fraser River. The Cowichan Indians, however, had no fishing rights on the mainland, but only over the waters immediately adjacent to their shore and around Mayne and Saltspring Islands; so while many of them fished for herring, cod and halibut off these two islands during the mid-summer months, living in rush huts on their shores, others preferred to remain the year round in their villages, where they were less exposed to enemy raiders coming down from the north. Food was always plentiful, even without the sockeye and humpbacked salmon, which did not enter the Cowichan River; for the steelhead salmon began to ascend this stream in January, increased in numbers during March, and continued until June, when the blue-backs made their appearance in the weirs. The blue-backs lasted until August, and were followed by the cohoe; and when the cohoe run ended in October the dog-salmon entered the river and ran until Christmas. Both in Cowichan Bay and near Saltspring Island herring appeared in great numbers during April; seals, too, frequented the waters near shore, and sea-lions a little further out. Deer, elk, bear and grouse abounded in the Cowichan woods and could be captured at every season of the year. There was no lack, too, of vegetable foods, since camass, fern and herring of every kind grew all about. Even rushes for mat-making were procurable in Quamichan Lake. The Nanaimo Indians followed the Saanich custom of visiting the mainland in midsummer. There were five communities in the district, Solachwan ("swampy ground"), Tewahlchin ("village to the north"), Anuweenis ("village in the centre"), Kwalsiarwahl (meaning unknown), and Ishian ("end village"); the first was within the present city of Nanaimo, the other four strung out along the Nanaimo River two or three miles away. These river villages were occupied only from about September till Christmas, when their inhabitants moved to Departure Bay to celebrate their winter dances, carrying with them the walls and roofs of their houses so that only the bare frames remained on the bank of the river. The Solachwan natives, however, occupied their village until about April, when they joined the others in moving out to False Narrows and Gabriola Island to fist for cod, grilse and other species, to hunt seals and sea-lions, and to gather clams and camass; for every family had its own bed of camass on Gabriola Island. In August all the Indians moved again to the mouth of the Fraser River for the sockeye and humpbacked salmon season, returning to Nanaimo in time for the dog-salmon. Footnote (1) Only the round variety of rush was gathered in May, when it was easily pulled out of the water; the bulrush, which required cutting, was usually gathered about July. After being thoroughly dried in the sun, the rushes were rolled into bundles and stored away until needed. Subsequently the woman steeped them in water, stripped off the outer [illegible] for thread, and, spreading them in rows, stitched them together with at 24" or 30" [illegible] of hardwood, usually Spiraea discolor. Then she bound their edges with a grass [illegible] that flourishes in the Fraser River valley, and flattened the seams with a curiously grooved wooden presser. In the 19th century the Vancouver Island Salish purchased many halibut from the Nootka Indians with rush mats. Back to text Back to Jenness Introduction