By late afternoon, the pit had been steaming for hours, teasing us with this curiously mingled smell of foggy seashore and back-yard barbecue.
Finally, it was time. Someone raked off the top layer of skunk cabbage, then gingerly peeled back the thick fronds of kelp, then scratched through more skunk cabbage. The tidbits of food began to appear: First a few mounds of pink prawns, then the shells of scallops and clams, then little green packages: squares of halibut and lingcod wrapped in more skunk cabbage. Sticking out here and there was an occasional crab leg. Dinner, at last, was on.
This was only part of the afternoon`s demonstration of centuries-old coastal native cooking techniques. There was also split-roasted fish and the bentwood box of food.
Visit to April Point
We hadn`t gone to Vancouver Island with the idea of ”doing” Native American culture. But the history and presence of the coastal native people seem so close to the surface that one hardly can visit without being exposed in one way or another.
We were at a fishing camp named April Point on a thin squiggle of land named Quadra Island just 10 minutes by ferry off Vancouver Island, which itself lies off the western coast of British Columbia. Two anthropologists, Hilary Stewart and Joy Inglis, live on Quadra, and their lifelong focus has been the coastal natives. Both are friends of the family who owns April Point. A half dozen times or so each summer, Stewart and/or Inglis come over, do a cooking demonstration and talk about how the early people lived.
Take the bentwood box. A single plank is scored, stuffed in a pit to steam, then bent and pegged together on the fourth side. Before it is used for cooking, the box is soaked in water all day, which is why it doesn`t burn or crack.
As Inglis spoke, April Point owner Eric Peterson carefully transferred heated rocks to a small, water-filled box (to clean them), then to a larger box for the cooking. It took hardly a minute for the water to boil. Then Peterson dumped in prawns and scallops and in seconds, we had our appetizer.
Firing up the food pit
The pit involved more ingenuity. The bottom was lined with flat rocks and filled with driftwood, which burned most of the day. After the coals were raked out, the cooks put down a layer of bull kelp.
Next comes a layer of bracken fern and skunk cabbage, then the food, then more skunk cabbage to seal in the steam. Then water is poured down the kelp tubes, which creates steam when it hits the rocks. The cooking takes an hour. In addition to food from the pit and box, we also had spit-roasted fish.
Tsa-Kwa-Luten potlatch
From April Point, we headed south for the southern tip of Quadra, where we visited Tsa-Kwa-Luten Lodge and watched traditional dances performed at potlatches-winter festivals. For coastal Indians, the potlatch was the center of life. On the surface, it was a giant party where the host bankrupted himself giving away all his worldly goods. This alarmed early missionaries and government officials, and led Canada to outlaw potlatches for 50 years. But what outsiders didn`t understand was that the potlatch was the linchpin of the culture. These blowouts were a chance for families to pass on inheritance and the rights to family dances. Gifts were ”payment” to guests for witnessing the ceremonies. When the law was rescinded in 1951, potlatches resumed.
And the dances performed at Tsa-Kwa-Luten Lodge are for real. Daisy Sewid-Smith, the narrator and lead dancer, does dances that only her family can do. The dancers wear carved masks that sometimes cover the entire body.
Each dance tells a story: about the wild woman of the woods who carries off bad children, or a comedy in which the Full Moon and Half Moon argue over who makes fish come upriver. Tsa-Kwa-Luten, owned and run by American Indians, is on the site of one of Quadra`s earliest tribal villages.
Minutes from the lodge is the Kwagiulth Museum and Cultural Centre. Many of the priceless ceremonial objects are on display here. This is the place to learn coastal history and, specifically, about early potlatches. The spiral-shape museum houses masks and bowls, totems, button blankets and a handful of the copper shields used to denote a family`s wealth.
While the Quadra museum is limited mainly to masks confiscated after one last potlatch in 1922, the Chiefly Feasts exhibit at the Royal B.C. Museum in Victoria covers half a century of collecting. It shows how the masks were used and includes photos of early and modern potlatches as well as a display of modern potlatch gifts.
On our way to Victoria at the southern tip of Vancouver Island, we stopped off at Duncan. The town bills itself as the City of Totems, and with good reason. There are at least a dozen of these beautifully carved and painted poles outside the train station and plenty more around town.
Since mid-1990, there also has been something else: The Native Heritage Centre. The staff does a good job of teaching the history and culture without sinking to the usual tourist triteness.
The week of learning had come in bits and pieces. But it did sink in. In a gift shop we spotted a curious square ”pail” of cedar bark.
”Hey, nice boat bailer,” we said to the shop manager. ”Wow,” she responded. ”You`re maybe the third person ever to know what this is.”
Dinner and dancing
April Point does spit-roasted salmon almost every weekend during summer, then offers it on the night`s menu. The cooking demonstrations occur a half dozen or so times from April through October and are open to the public. The demonstrations also can be done on request for groups staying at the lodge. For more information, contact April Point, Box 1, Campbell River, B.C. V9W 4Z9; 604-285-2222.
Tsa-Kwa-Luten Lodge performs dances every Friday night. Admission to see the dance only is $10. With dinner (spit-roasted salmon, local shellfish and other traditional dishes) the fee is $35. Contact Tsa-Kwa-Luten Lodge, Box 460, Quathiaski Cove, B.C. V0P 1N0; 800-665-7745.
The Chiefly Feasts exhibit will remain at the Royal B.C. Museum until Nov. 29. Contact Royal B.C. Museum, 675 Belleville St., Victoria, B.C. V8V 1X4; 604-387-3701.
The Feast and Legends program at the Duncan Native Heritage Centre costs $35 and runs Friday and Saturday nights June through August. General admission without the dinner show is $6. Contact Native Heritage Centre, 200 Cowichan Way, Duncan, B.C. V9L 4T8; 604-746-8119.
