Spring Fishing

The Ojibwe had a defined itinerary of where they were to be at specific times of the year, based on the occurrence of natural events. Their year started at their winter hunt camps. They would then move to the location of the family sugarbush camps. From there they would gather at the locations of the spring fish spawn, and then head to the summer camps. After summer finished, they would head for the areas of the wild rice harvest, and after harvest, travel to the fall fishing sites. Once freezeup came, they returned to their winter hunt camps to complete the cycle.

Waterways were the main Ojibwe conduit for year-round travel and transport. Fishing provided the greatest extent of their protein sustenance. They harvested fish using large birch bark canoes and seine nets (later gill nets) constructed from twisted and knotted strands of willow bark, among others. They also speared through the ice and fished with hand carved decoys. Spring was the time for spearfishing, though frequently ice still remained on the water and men still had to cut through it to fish. The fishermen would lie flat over the hole with their head and shoulders covered by a blanket. This veil blocked the sunlight and made it easier for them to see their prey. A lure was dangled in the water and the fish were speared when they came up to the surface.

Chippewa bait and lure

In the old days pemmican was used to preserve fish. Pemmican is a smoked fish that is dried on a flat pan over an open fire until it is crumbly and then mixed with ground nuts and dried fruit or berries. Fish leftovers were either dried over racks to preserve them for a short time or, when taken late in the fall, they were hung from racks of poles and allowed to freeze quickly. Frozen fish and cranberries, often used by the Lake Superior tribes, seem to be an early form of the frozen foods of convenience today!

The Ojibwe knowledge of fish focused on spawning indicators and sites, behaviour (such as feeding), and uses for all parts of the fish. Families would participate in fishing and processing, congregating in Spring. Traditional fishermen's knowledge ~ or what has been called “profound knowledge of the environment” ~ of fishing locations mirrored the biological characteristics of the fish.

Fishing areas were not individually owned, rather, they were to be used by all in the community who they became available to. One had to not only claim an area but also actively maintain a presence. Fishing took place near the shore on larger rivers and lakes depending on where fish were available. Men would gather at fast water, spearing, trapping and netting individual fish (which varied between 1-8 feet in length). The varieties of fish in the Ojibwe Spring camps included walleye, pickerel, pike, suckers, whitefish, trout, sturgeon, and even snapping turtles.

The patterns of migration-spawning in sturgeon seem to have been relatively stable over many generations. Seasonal fishing camps, such as the 3000 year old site at the Forks (Winnipeg), have been documented by archaeologists (Kroker et al. 1993). On smaller rivers, such as the Roseau River, Ojibwe fishing structures could block the entire river to fish movements (Waddell 1970). Interestingly, high Spring waters would render such weirs useless and they could therefore only operate with water levels below the level of the rock fence.

Sharing sturgeon extended from immediate family members, close relatives, community members and eventually to the settler newcomers. Co-operation-sharing also formed, for a time, the basis for trade relations in the later 1700's. Within reserve communities, up to present, sharing still served the function of cementing the esteem and value of a fisher/hunter to feed others. This has often been overlooked by economists and social planners.

The Sault Ste. Marie Ojibwe, as well as other divisions of this nation, who made their homes around Lake Superior, were called Ke-chee-gum-me-win-e-wag or "Men of the Great Water." In 1641, French Jesuit missionaries arrived at the Sault. Their accounts describe the Ojibwe as living in a large fishing village. During the summer months, whitefish ran the falls in great numbers. Ojibwe fishermen caught large quantities of these fish in their canoes with dip nets. They had enough fish and other food resources to maintain a large village for the summer months.

As Europeans pushed into the Great Lakes region, the Native Peoples used fish to trade with French and English outposts and fish soon became one of the mainstays in the diets of the early fur traders. The Ojibwe of Flambeau Lake still find night fishing by torchlight highly successful. The name of this village means "Lake of the Flames" because the French fur traders came upon the local Ojibwe spearing fish at night using torches attached to the end of their birch bark canoes.

This traditional Ojibwe fishing method came under attack in Northern Wisconsin in the 1980s when the Wisconsin Chippewa attempted to reassert their treaty rights to fish in non-reservation waters. After numerous legal delays the Wisconsin Chippewa's right to spear fish in non-reservation waters was upheld by the Supreme Court. The Ojibwe have always held the practices of hunting, fishing and gathering as spiritual and sacred, not only for survival, but as the observance of a way of life which the Creator, Gichi Manitou, bestowed upon the people.

There is always an offering of tobacco when the Ojibwe take something from Creation. Through this offering, the people give thanks for the many blessings that the Creator has provided. When Gichi Manitou made the Anishinabe (First People), he had already instructed the rest of Creation on how they were to take care of them. When the Ojibwe were created, they were instructed on the many sacrifices made for the by their brothers and sisters in the animal,fish and plant worlds. They were taught to hold all Creation sacred.

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