Acadian boucanière
A Cap-Pelé boucanière is an Acadian herring-smoking building. The documented Willie Niles example is a one-storey wood-frame structure with a ridge smoke vent and interior bays for hanging fish-bearing cannes.
Built structures · Smokehouses and smoke rooms
Nuu-chah-nulth family smokehouse
A household smokehouse used for salmon by named Tseshaht and Hesquiaht families near the Somass River. A 2019 report records different supports and smoking outcomes; it gives no standard building plan.
History
Denise Titian's 2019 Ha-Shilth-Sa report records named Tseshaht and Hesquiaht family salmon-smoking accounts near the Somass River.
Site
SettingHousehold and backyard smokehouses near the Somass River, as described in the 2019 report.
GroundNot described by the source.
ClimateThe source mentions salmon returning in late summer and early September smoking activity, but gives no building-climate specification.
FootprintNot described by the source.
NotesThe article documents use and supports inside separate households, not a construction plan or common building material.
A build is made where it stands: moving it means building it again.
How it is built
Risks and precautions
Historical and contemporary description only; not a building plan, fire-safety specification or validated food-preservation process.
Materials
- Cedar sticks
- Metal racks
- Alder wood
- In a September 2019 report from the Somass River area, Ha-Shilth-Sa describes late-summer household salmon smoking among named Tseshaht and Hesquiaht families near Port Alberni. The article follows individual people and practices rather than laying out one Nuu-chah-nulth smokehouse pattern.
- Tseshaht elder Linda Thomas's smokehouse stood in her backyard. She said she had stopped using hanging sticks after fish fell to the floor, and instead smoked salmon on metal racks. The source gives no room dimensions, wall or roof materials, firebox arrangement or construction sequence.
- In a separate Hesquiaht household, elder Jean Ignace checked salmon bellies with her granddaughter inside a dark smokehouse. The reporter describes thin strips and bellies draped over cedar sticks. Ignace called the batch half-smoked: it would keep more moisture while taking on alder flavour, rather than being dried completely.
- These accounts show why the supports and desired finish should remain attached to the named households. One elder used metal racks; another used cedar sticks. The source gives no measured temperature, drying endpoint or full building plan, so this record describes the smokehouse in use rather than a construction specification or validated preservation method.
Places
Port Alberni
Documented use · Locality evidenceThe report follows named Tseshaht and Hesquiaht household accounts near the Somass River. It does not establish one smokehouse design for all Nuu-chah-nulth communities or families.
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Sources
Ha-Shilth-Sa, newspaper of the Nuu-chah-nulth Tribal CouncilGeography · Household use · Support arrangement · Smokehouse form · Food use · Visual reference
September is salmon smoking time along the Somass RiverThe report describes late-summer home-use fish deliveries and visits to Tseshaht households smoking salmon near Port Alberni in early September.
Tseshaht elder Linda Thomas described her backyard smokehouse and her use of metal racks after salmon fell from sticks.
Hesquiaht elder Jean Ignace checked smoked salmon bellies with her granddaughter in a dark smokehouse; the report describes thin salmon strips and bellies on cedar sticks.
Ignace described a half-smoked, not completely dried batch with alder-smoked flavour.
The source distinguishes these named household practices and does not provide a universal design, measured process endpoint or construction plan.
The article's photographs are credited to Denise Titian; no reuse licence is stated.