The Skeena River is one of the great rivers on the North American continent, flowing from the northern Northwest Coast mountain ranges to the Pacific Ocean. The river widens and narrows, changing from calm waters and eddies to canyons and rapids before flowing into the sea and passing coastal islands on its way to the open ocean. It has been a route for migration and a commercial corridor for millennia and the home of the Gitksan and Tsimshian at least since the end of the last ice age.

Every year this river teemed with salmon - an abundance that was the mainstay of a society that developed sophisticated systems of harvesting and preservation that allowed the society to grow and flourish. The history of this river can be found in images, oral narratives, personal accounts and on the ground itself. Everywhere the interaction between the salmon and the Gitksan and Tsimshian has left its footprint, in the rock traps along the coastal islands that are 'hidden in plain sight', in the oral histories that relate the relationship between the people and the salmon, and in the ceremonies and songs that were created to honour them.

For thousands of years, Gitksan and Tsimshian life has revolved around the salmon, no matter what the changing times have brought, the efforts to maintain respect for this great species have persisted in the face of enormous difficulties. This is just a glimpse of this remarkable story.

Overlooking Metlakatla Pass where some of the Tsimshian located their winter villages and where some salmon harvesting locations were also located

The remains of an early Cannery at the mouth of the Skeena River

Looking across the lower Skeena River

A small lake where one of the Skeena River tributaries flows into the river

Looking upriver to the mountain ranges of the upper Skeena River

One of the islands that dot the lower Skeena