Other Jobs – gill netting (Autobiography Part 3)

Arnold Guerin
Recorded 23 July 1986.

  1. tl’e’ulh ’uw’ ’i’luqutum tthu s’axwa’, ni’ ’utl’ Sidney.  
    They used to buy clams in Sydney as well.   
  2. ni’ kw’in skweyul kw’us t’ut’hwa’ulh,’us ’uw’ nem’ hwayum nem’ ’utl’ Sidney.  
    You had dug clams for a few days, and then you loaded up and went and sold your clams in Sydney. [It was a four-hour run for a sale from Kuper.]
  3. qwul’sew’t-hw tu ni’ ’u kwthey’.  
    There was a cannery there.   
  4. ’uw’ ni’ ’utl’ Sidney kws cantewut tthu s’axwa’.  
    It was in Sidney, where the clams were canned.   
  5. nuts’us telu tthu nuts’uqun lisek tthu shnenutss tthu s’axwa’ kws ’iluqutewut.  
    One dollar a sack, a hundred pounds, is what they paid for those clams in those days.   
  6. tus ’u kwthu shhwyuxws tthu sqwse’yun yelhus tl’e’ tuw’ tstelunamut.  
    When the salmon gillnet season opens, that is the time when you will make a few extra dollars.   
  7. 1929 sil’anum kw’unus hwun’a’ hwq’uwilt kw’unu men kws qwusi’yun’s, ’i ’u tun’a s-hwmuthkwi’uma’lh sta’luw’.  
    It was in the year 1929 that I first fished with my dad at gill netting, here on this Musqueam’s river [the Fraser].    
  8. ’uwu te’ n’an ’uw’ hay tst ’u kwthey’ sil’anum.  
    We did not make too much money that year.   
  9. hwts’aluwun ’u kwthey’ ’i’ ni’ tsun hwi’ nem’ ’utl’ Skeena River.  
    The year following that, I went to the Skeena river to fish.   
  10. ni’ tsun nem’ hwq’uwulnuq, ’uwu nu swe’us tthu pout, ’i’ tthu swultun, ni’ hakwushut.  
    I went to be a boat puller; the boat was not mine, nor was the net that we used.   
  11. ni’ tsun ’uw’ hwq’uwulnuq ’al’.  
    I just went in as a boat puller.   
  12. toohwulhsha’us ’al’ tthunu hay tun’ni’ ’u kwthey’, ’u kwthey’ skw’e’lus ’u kwthu 1931.  
    All I made was 90 dollars that summer of 1931.   
  13. 1935 ’i’ ni’ tsun hwi’ nem’ ’utl’ Rivers Inlet kw’unus tsthuqi’.  
    In 1935, I went to River’s Inlet to fish for sockeye.   
  14. sil’ew’ t’xum nets’uw’uts telu tthunu hay ’u kwthey’ sil’anum.  
    I made more than 600 dollars that year, that summer.   
  15. nilh shni’s ’i’ ni’ tsun hay kw’unus qwusiyun’.  
    That year then was the end of my gill netting career.