A traditional Indian salmon dinner

The Mill Casino, where the FMCA rally was held, is on tribal land, as are most casinos. This area is home to the Coquille Tribe and the rally attendees were treated to a traditionally cooked salmon dinner.

There is a cooking pit on the casino grounds where we were able to observe the process. The traditional Coquille method is to wrap the fish, and place it on top of hot wood coals. In the good old days, the Indians used seaweed and grasses to wrap the fish which they then covered with a layer of mud but today, several layers of heavy-duty tin foil is the modern method for achieving similar results.  Likewise, in days of yore, Indians included seal grease, myrtle leaves and berries to flavor the fish while it was cooking, and today butter, lemon, bay leaves, onion, salt and pepper season the fish.


We chatted with Don, a Vietnam veteran and elder of the neighboring tribe, who has handed down and taught the traditional secrets of this tribal cooking method to the Coquille's.










We watched the hotel chef, an expert in this cooking method, dig the foil packet out of the sand, and unwrap the whole cooked salmon with its two delicacies.... which were offered to us to try. One brave lady popped the eyeball into her mouth and declared it quite tasty, similar to eating an oyster. The other delicacy, a cheek, was snatched up by another brave lady who also said it was tasty, like fish.

Interestingly, I didn't see any men jump to accept the tempting offer!

an eyeball and a cheek

We were all given generous portions of the salmon.  Traditionally, one would eat it out of one's hand, though we were given napkins. The fish was delicious, and so moist that it melted like butter in the mouth.

The other method of cooking salmon, which is the traditional way of the tribes further north, is to barbecue the fish over a fire. The salmon fillets are skewered on special wood stakes that lean over the wood fire. Towards the end of the cooking process, they are smeared with berries. We watched this process too, and enjoyed the result at the FMCA dinner. At the dinner we also sampled a traditional fried bun with accompanying berry butter and berry jam.