The cultural and traditional way of life has been practiced by the Nisga'a since time immemorial. We have attained and learned the behavior and living patterns from our forefathers. The Nisga'a have maintained traditional ways of life, though we were continuously subject to gradual modifications by our succeeding generations.

The culture and tradition of the Nisga'a people is prominent in the Nass Valley. The Nisga'a have always been great at preserving seafood in every season of the year. In the fall, Git Gingolx go out to the digging grounds to dig for cockles and clams.

 

Freshly dug cockles

A crew of four to five guys go out on a gillnetter for one to two weeks to dig on their ango'oskw (traditional hunting and gathering grounds). Digging tides are 0 tides which means that the tide is zero feet and they usually occur in October, November, December, and January.

After the Nisga'a New Year in February (Hobiyee), the people work together for the ooilcan harvest and sea-lion hunts. In the oolican season there is the first catch and the second catch. The first catch is usually to test and determine if the oolicans are ready for harvest. If they are too small in size, the people wait for the second run, leaving the first run to spawn and thrive.

 

Oolichan fishing at Fishery Bay - Nass River

The village smoke-houses have to be prepared also. The rafters and the oolican sticks have to be washed and cleaned. Then, wood for smoking or curing is collected for the smoke-houses. Usually the preference for smoke-house wood is birch wood or cottonwood. While the people in the villages are doing their work of smoking oolicans and sea-lion meat, there are people at Grease camps located at Fishery Bay. It is here that they prepare the Oolican grease. The preparation of oolican grease is a very strenuous and industrious job that can take up to six weeks to be prepared right.

Arbutus Stewart hanging up Oolichan for smoking