April 22, 23 and 24, 2026
Westly Gravelle (Salmon Warrior) and Dawn Scout (Indigenous Knowledge Coordinator).
Total of Ktunaxa Nation participants 15-17.
On this hide session everyone gathered on Alfred Joseph’s property in ʔakisq̓nuk.
They got hands-on experience learning how to make the brain solution to soak the hides in.
They learned how to stretch the hides and what happens when you start stretching it.
They learned how to scrape the deer and elk hides which can take many hours and how messy it can be; there was also a pig hide.
They also learned about the necessary tools that are needed for different steps of doing hides.
Dawn and Westly got invited to the Wiyu Lodge in ʔakisq̓nuk for dinner and Westly got to show his music talent and play piano for everyone who came for dinner.
Dawn and Westly also got to go visit a couple sites while on this trip. They went to a spot where on the Columbia River and learned that the salmon use to go there.
After we went on a hike up to the top of the Hoodoos and here Richard Bryce explained how everything they saw up there fit into the Creation Story.
Margaret Teneese brought Dawn, Westly and Richard on a driving tour of the Columbia River and talked about the history and relevance to the salmon of the sites they saw.
After the tour they also got to go to the Radium Hot Springs to debrief and relax.
They met lots of friendly people and made connections from another community in the Ktunaxa Nation.
The lessons they learned and connections they made will help support them on their journey of doing complete hide sessions with the salmon warriors in the near future.
