Spring Seasonal Settlement Patterns of the Takelma

During the spring, the focus was on catching the spring run of salmon, an important food source for the Takelma (Gray 1987:32). Some of the methods used to obtain fish included hook and line, long nets used from canoes, dip-netting, and harpooning. Dams made of sticks were constructed across small channels with cone shaped baskets attached to the sticks. These baskets would catch the fish as they became trapped by the stick dam. Early white explorers remarked on how the Takelma captured spawning salmon from small streams by scooping them up by hand and tossing the fish onto the bank. Other foods harvested from the river included trout, steelhead, freshwater mussels, crayfish, and probably lamprey.

Salmon

Salmon

Dip-net fishing

Spring was also the time to collect camas bulbs and basketry materials. Both men and women gathered and carried foods and materials in large woven baskets called "burden baskets."

Camas

Burden Basket Collection of Aleena Turpin

Coastal woman using Burden Basket Southern Oregon Historical Society: #1160

Game animals included deer, elk, and rabbits. These animals were hunted with bows, atlatals, and snares and/or were driven into makeshift corrals. Waterfowl were also known to be eaten. Squirrels, chipmunks, and other small animals were sometimes hunted (Gray 1987:34). Acorns that had been gathered the previous fall were stored over the winter and processed into a valuable food resource in the spring.

Atlatal tool used to propel a spear

Black Tailed Deer

Elk

Jackrabbit

Chipmunk