Ketchikan
After seven remarkable days of travel through the wilderness of SE Alaska, we are now headed south through the Inside Passage towards British Columbia. In Ketchikan, our focus was on the Native people who have inhabited this area for at least the past 11,000 years when they traveled here from Siberia via the Bering Land Bridge.
At Saxman Village we were able to watch native carvers at work on new totem poles as well as learn the stories behind several of the poles raised around a Tlingit cultural center. We also viewed some very old poles that have been preserved and stored at the Totem Heritage Center.
However, our picture of the day shows one of the modern enterprises of the Ketchikan Native Corporation-rebuilding the salmon runs of Alaska. At the Deer Creek Hatchery, more than 200,000 healthy fish are released into the wild each year. During a tour of the facilities guests from the Sea Bird were told how the hatchery operates to meet its goal of improving the catch for commercial, as well as sport fishermen. This is just one example of how the Native tribes, seeking to preserve their traditional ways, are benefiting us all.
After seven remarkable days of travel through the wilderness of SE Alaska, we are now headed south through the Inside Passage towards British Columbia. In Ketchikan, our focus was on the Native people who have inhabited this area for at least the past 11,000 years when they traveled here from Siberia via the Bering Land Bridge.
At Saxman Village we were able to watch native carvers at work on new totem poles as well as learn the stories behind several of the poles raised around a Tlingit cultural center. We also viewed some very old poles that have been preserved and stored at the Totem Heritage Center.
However, our picture of the day shows one of the modern enterprises of the Ketchikan Native Corporation-rebuilding the salmon runs of Alaska. At the Deer Creek Hatchery, more than 200,000 healthy fish are released into the wild each year. During a tour of the facilities guests from the Sea Bird were told how the hatchery operates to meet its goal of improving the catch for commercial, as well as sport fishermen. This is just one example of how the Native tribes, seeking to preserve their traditional ways, are benefiting us all.
