Northwestern Coast Tribe Essay

The Northwestern Coast tribes became a thriving society using materials, religion and art, and their way of living to their advantage. They became known as one of the richest tribes in North America, due to their vast supply of resources. The tribe’s material usage was so efficient, allowing them to advance quickly. Religion was encouraged through art, stories, and ceremonies. Every person living here was placed onto the social ladder which was very laidback, but very important to the Northwest Coast. The religion in this region was very individual and some of it found only in the Northwestern areas. The tribes’ religious tolerations allowed everyone to get along even if they were not the same religion. Using these attributes

The Northwest Coast’s main food source was salmon, thanks to the Pacific Ocean they had plentiful amounts of it. Fishing was usually done in the summer, and stored for the winter, but they were able to fish all year long. Although they did eat and catch other aquatic animals, including whales, salmon was the easiest to catch and the most convenient to store for long periods of time. The Pacific Ocean supplied the tribes with fish, crab, seaweed, whales, mussels, some sea mammals, and fish oil. The people had many methods of catching the fish, the most drastic one was by using harpoons. In order to do this, they had to stab the fish while in a canoe and put the fish in the storage section. This proved to be more useful when catching larger fish such as swordfish, or blue tuna. The most effective method of catching salmon was by using large nets shaped like a V to catch hundreds of fish at a time. This was very useful because one thousand fish could easily feed a family for a whole year. Another way fish were caught was by using traps, most commonly a weir was used. A weir is a structure built in the water typically out of either wooden poles or stone, and is used for catching the fish as they swim in the current. The fishers would use hooks made out of bone and wood to catch fish as well. This was very helpful because they were able to catch whatever size fish they would like. The bigger