by Peter Twitchell
When I was growing up across the river from Bethel it was also our fish campsite where mom and dad made the best fish salmon slabs and strips. The fish was always shiny with a rich texture and taste. Mom Sarah always told me when you give fish to someone to give them the best.
Mom and dad made the best fish. They worked at it, they kept the smokehouse smudge going on cloudy rainy days. Our fish supply never molded or soured. The dried salmon fish was top grade, always looking rich. My cousin Joe Woods Junior – Beeps was his nickname – always had fish close to how my mother made it. I don’t know if spending a lot of time with us during the summer helped him to take care of his fish because it was always top grade and delicious the winter after the fishing season.
I spent some of my summers at my cousin Beeps’ fish camp because it was Grandma Hannah’s fish camp in the mouth of Straight Slough next or Henry Nanson’s fish camp. Sometimes Grandma Hannah’s dried fish supply had green mold on it but she swore it was healthy mold. I know she lived to be 104 years old, still very active.
I believe the green mold was like penicillin and kept the bad colds of winter at bay, in other words a lot of vitamin C. Some fish on the Kuskokwim River had white mold. Mom always cautioned me about eating fish with white mold and said it wasn’t good.
Some fish which was served to us when we visited villages along the Kuskokwim River fish was sour. You could tell it was neglected in rainy weather, not kept warm with Cottonwood smudge, or alder and not kept in the smokehouse to stay dry.
When salmon slabs and fish were drying on the racks Mom kept the flies’ eggs off the fish with a smudge of Cottonwood because flies and maggots spoiled the fish.
Fish that had been neglected and left out in the rain was used for sled dog food because that’s all we had in the 40s and 50s. The majority of our transportation on the tundra was by dog team. I’m certain the strong sled dog didn’t complain about how the fish tasted, it was still rich Kuskokwim River salmon.
I heard a lot of reasons why fish wasn’t well cared for – rainy bad weather and often windy. Fish was neglected. Fish campers partied and didn’t let the Elders take care of drying their fish. Some was just plain laziness and the hot sun cooking the fish. Fish need a lot of care shifting them on the fish racks, to the sides, or the front and in the back so fish could dry evenly.
Mom and Dad, my Grandma Hannah always told me to never waste fish, our food from the tundra, the river, and in the skies are gifts from Creator God who made them and gifted them to us to share.
It’s one thing to have good fish, top grade throughout the year until the next summer fishing season. I have bought fish from people downriver around the bend from Bethel whose fish when I opened the 5 gallon container was old and spoiled, not fit for human consumption unless you were absolutely starving. They were perhaps fit for a hungry dog.
I remember and I reiterate what Mom and Dad David and Sarah Twitchell and my Grandma Hannah Pitka used to tell me. They told me if I give fish to someone to make sure it’s the best fish you have or the best part of the animal which we harvest in the fall.
