Half-Dried Fish

I challenged readers of the Athabascan Woman Blog to help me come up with some one-word writing prompts. The prompts will help inspire me throughout the year. My goal is to do one blog post a week. Worpdress’ daily one-word prompts is originally what inspired me. I thought it would be great to make the words more related to Alaska or Alaska Native people, culture and more. I hosted a giveaway for you all to help me. Thank you to all who participated!

The first word is k’eyoge’. Thank you to Margaret David for suggesting the word. K’eyoge’ means half-dried fish in Denaakk’e (Koyukon Athabascan). I spent my summers in fish camp along the Koyukuk River near Huslia, and we were fortunate to catch, cut and smoke a lot of fish. We would smoke the eating fish in a smoke-house. Half-dried fish is exactly has it sounds. We smoke it until it is half-way dried, and bake it or put it in the freezer.

K’eyoge’ is a little softer in consistency than fully-dried white fish or salmon. It also is half-smoked, so you get that delicious smoked flavor. We used dead cottonwood to smoke fish. It’s making me hungry thinking about it. 🙂

Have you eaten k’eyoge’? I am very grateful when I get to eat some. Sometimes potlatches are the only place to get it. Check out Susan Paskvan’s Athabascan word of the week article on cutting fish on the Fairbanks Daily Newsminer.

Do you have a word you would like to me to add to my suggestion jar? Comment below or send me a message on my Facebook, Instagram or Twitter pages. Be sure to like the Athabascan Woman Blog on Facebook for future giveaways.