The Skeena River is the second longest in British Columbia, a critical artery and resource for the Tsimshian and the Gitxsan peoples. This film claims that the Skeena had eclipsed the Fraser as the ‘greatest salmon river in the world’. The region was also the site of early gold rushes and the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway, completed in 1914, followed the river. The fishing, lumber and mining industries exploited this area intensely in the early twentieth century. Following the two-person crew boats as they are pulled by larger motorized craft, we see how each craft leaves the line to begin fishing. One person steers while other tends to the nets. Live salmon are clubbed by the fishers as they are pulled into the boat. The haul is brought “nearly alive” to one of the 12 canneries that operate on the river’s shores. Close-ups provide insights to both the gender and ethnic segregation of occupations in the Skeena canneries. Though abundance is suggested in the film, overfishing led to the closure of many fisheries later in the 1920s.  

On the Skeena, film, 1922, 7 minutes, 5 seconds, Australia. National Film & Sound Archive Collection, Accession number 1994-0215, Item number ISN 230262, Library and Archives Canada. 

Film editing and musical direction: Mariana Hutten

Songs: Aggravatin' Papa - Vincent Lopez and His Hotel Pennsylvania Orchestra; Turk; Robinson, 1922

On A Moonlight Night- Kaplan's Melodists; L. Wolfe Gilbert, 1922

Red Moon Waltz- Cameo Dance Orchestra; De Martini; Kortlander, 1922

Further Discussion

Voices of the Skeena: An Illustrated Oral History, Robert Budd and Roy Henry Vickers, Harbour Publishing 2019

Two short documentaries were produced by the NFB in 1949; “Peoples of the Skeena” “Skeena River Trapline” are available online and may serve as useful points of comparison, each made about a quarter century after On the Skeena.  See: https://www.nfb.ca/film/peoples_of_the_skeena/https://www.nfb.ca/film/skeena_river_trapline/

Lutz, J. (1992). After the Fur Trade: The Aboriginal Labouring Class of British Columbia, 1849-1890. Journal of the Canadian Historical Association / Revue de la Société historique du Canada, 3(1), 69–93.