Salmon from the rivers of Northern California are one of the major foods for local American Indians.
Here, Merkie Oliver cleans one of the redwood stakes used to skewer the salmon fillets, which are cooked in the traditional manner by standing the stakes upright next to an open fire.
Historically, most spring chinook were cooked and eaten as soon as caught. It was, and still is, the fall chinook which are smoked and dried to be stored for winter subsistence.
