While learning to use a knife to cut along the bones of the salmon, creating one big filet, youth asked questions of the adults guiding their learning.
“What do you do with the heart?”, one kid asked, watching Donald Ryan, a Cowlitz tribal member, carefully remove the organs from the fish.
“Well, our ancestors used to eat all that stuff,” Ryan replied, explaining that other uses include fertilizer and fishing lures.
Some of the older youth began to take the lead, teaching the younger ones proper knife-handling skills, how to hold the salmon steady and how to slice through its flesh to cut the perfect filet.
Dressed in a red ribbon skirt and a cedar headband she got at canoe journey in August 2023, 12-year-old Lexi Okert, Cowlitz, coached a younger kid through preparing and cleaning a salmon. This year marked the first time that youth took on a central role in preparing the salmon at the First Salmon Ceremony, according to Okert.
“I love my tribe very much and it makes me very happy to be here,” Okert said. “I’m just really blessed that I have this community to be around.”
After Okert and her mentee finished fileting a salmon, they cleaned it and brought it to Koch to help secure it to cedar sticks to roast over the fire.
While most kids headed to the ceremony by the river after helping prepare the salmon, Tyreace Ashton, 12, stayed by the fire to watch over each roasting salmon until all the fish had been cooked and everyone had full bellies.
“It’s so important, the natural curiosity of those children,” said Chairman Iyall. “They will remember that for all their life and share with their future generations.”
Nika Bartoo-Smith
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