Around the turn of the last century, the growing Canadian Pacific salmon fishing industry thought there was no end to the boundless productivity of Pacific salmon. The growing fleet would not face significant restrictions for several decades to come, but scarcity of sockeye in some years and ongoing competition from Indians selling to the Hudson’s Bay Company led to predictable finger pointing. Government intervention on behalf of the canneries was to be the harbinger of economic hardship for the Stellat’en that would last more than 100 years. To blame, it was said, were the Indian fisheries on several major sockeye rivers in BC including the Stellako and the Stellat’en fishing weir, a fishing technique referred to by the industry as “barricading”. Stellatin weir photo from Nadleh Nautley River.
In 1904, responding to pressure from the canneries, the government of Canada decided to ban traditional fishing weirs and introduced the “Barricade Agreements” or fishing treaties, first to the Skeena, and then in 1911, to the upper Fraser River. These treaties outlawed the weirs and in return made extensive promises ranging from fishing nets and education, to farm implements, and in some cases additional reserve land. In addition, the treaties outlawed the sale of salmon by the Indians. Two formal agreements were signed in Fort Fraser. Chief Isidore, of Stella is recorded signing a Barricade Treaty on June 15, 1911.
The terms of the Barricade Agreements were never fully honoured by the Crown, and remain a significant matter of contention with many inland First Nations, including Stellat’en.
In 1994 Stellat’en engaged in the Aboriginal Fisheries Strategy (AFS) via the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council (CSTC). The AFS has supported Stellat’en’s engaged in stock assessment activities.
Stellat’en members, CSTC staff and DFO staff work together to enumerate sockeye salmon spawners returning to the Stellako River. In recent years, returns have been assessed utilizing DIDSON (acoustic) technology.
Sockeye spawners are also enumerated through visual counts by floating the Stellako River at which time sampling, mark/recapture and dead pitches are completed.
In 2014 Stellat’en experimented with the first modern commercial fishery of its kind in the area.
Local salmon conservation Issues
Stellat’en have a concern for all fish species, not just the sockeye or chinook salmon. Other important species include Rainbow Trout, Bull Trout, Whitefish, Kokanee, Burbot, White Sturgeon, and non-game species. We have concerns about short-term resource exploitation at the long-term expense of our environment.
The Endako River chinook population is severely depressed, and an early timed run of sockeye to the Nadina river is trending within a diminished status. While watershed environments are the constant focus of our stewardship, our greatest concern for wild Pacific salmon is directed at mixed-stock salmon fisheries that over-fish less productive stocks in their quest for the abundant ones. We promote local stock-selective fishing in areas where we know that the stronger stocks can be selectively harvested out of the path of weaker ones – sometimes this means fishing in the tributaries or at times when and with gear that cannot harm the weaker or less productive stocks.
This is our traditional knowledge and experience, and we hope by sharing our story with others we will bring about change before less productive stocks are fished out of existence.
Stellako River – the end of log drives in British Columbia
In the 1960’s the Stellako became the epicenter of an inter-jurisdictional controversy in BC surrounding the now outdated logging practices of log drives. The technique involved dropping fresh logs into a headwater lake blocked by a removable log dam. When released the flush of water and logs saved money in log transport but left behind its devastating affects on fish habitats. With many parallels around BC including the Quesnel, Adams and Kitsumkalum Rivers, it was the local economies around Fraser Lake that pitted Provincial government against Federal government. The Stellat’en found themselves unwilling by-standers in the fight between unsustainable logging practices and a coastal industrial fishery, neither which would survive in their current form beyond the next century. The sockeye runs were greatly diminished before log drives were outlawed in 1973, and a sockeye spawning channel was eventually constructed on the Nadina River in an effort to boost Francois Lake’s sockeye to help revive the run.
