Interview with an Athabascan woman

I met Faith Peters at the Tanana Village Administrative Tribal Center when I arrived in Tanana Village the first day. A quiet and soft-spoken Athabascan woman, she seriously presented herself. But she is also a fisherwoman with deep roots in the Tanana culture and subsistence fishery, and I was here to learn about salmon fishing along the Yukon River. With her mild demeanor and, I realized, a true passion for her people and culture, I soon decided to ask if she would be willing to be interviewed about the fisheries and life of the people in Tanana Village. She cordially agreed and a few days later I rigged the camera and set up the microphone in one of the offices. Listening through the interview later I realized that through her soft-spokeness she is an articulate woman with serious words.

How to Prepare a Salmon

The Great Salmon Tour, Alaska Expedition - Salmon Processing from Peter Johnsen on Vimeo.

This is part of the material from the Great Salmon Tour. The people of Tanana Village, Alaska, live of salmon subsistence fishing. Salmon appears in high numbers during a limited time of the year and for the fish to be a viable source of food throughout the winter, it must be preserved. Cutting of the salmon is the most important part of this process and how a salmon is prepared depends on its size, fat content, and species. To read more about what goes into traditional salmon processing, visit the salmon preparation page.