Our Quinnipiac Heritage Legacy
Shell-Fish Traditions
by Iron Thunderhorse and Gordon Fox-Running Brainerd
Clamming, crabbing, lobstering and oystering are an integral part of our Long Water Land Heritage Legacy. These traditions are thousands of years old. The soft shell clam (Mya arenaria) and the hard shell clam (Venus mercenaria) are in abundant supply throughout the New Haven Harbor and vicinity. The hard shell clam is called quahog in our language. The meat of this bi-valve marine mollusk is used in clam chowder, clam fritters, raw as clams on the half-shell and fried clams is a special treat. The quahog shell is revered for its rippled shades of purple in cylindrical beads known as wampumpeague (see feature on The Wampum Makers).
The soft shell crab and clue crabs are seasonal catches familiar to many seafood enthusiasts — available at the autumn runs in the Connecticut River and the Sound. Soft shell crab sandwiches are popular at Savin Rock and many fine restaurants of the area serve linguine in blue crab sauce with claws on the side.
Stuffed lobster, lobster cakes, lobster ravioli are some of the favorite delicacies made from the white meat of tails and claws of this shellfish. They are caught past the sandbars and along the breakers (granite slabs that protect the coastal shores from hurricanes). Lobster pots/baskets are made from dried grapevines and ash splints woven together in a long funnel shape with inverted spikes at the open mouth. Lobsters can crawl in to eat the bait but cannot crawl back out. Lobsters were traditionally steamed (using white hot rocks with seaweed on top) or they were smoked and dried (as were clams and oysters) and preserved for lean times.
Oysters (Crassostres virginica) are by far the most abundant shellfish of the region, Its meat is used for stews, chowders, and its shells were used for beads. Oysters on the half shell are iced and eaten with lemon juice and hot sauce.
Mussels (Mytilus edulis) are a marine mollusk blackish-purple bi-valve some of which produce small pearls. They are used to make fine sauce with their meat chopped served over rice or wild rice. Sea snails (a sub-species of Proso branchia) are small marine mollusk with a black spiral shell. They are abundant along the beaches of Savin Rock, West Haven. They are boiled and eaten in a seafood sauce or with Tabasco sauce. Their shells were used to decorate bracelets, women's dresses, and basket containers.
A Long Water Land History of Oystering
Oysters in our language are caleld apoonahac/oag and are filter-feeders that pump an amazing one-hundred-gallons-per-day of seawater extracting tiny particles to feed themselves. Hundreds of thousands of oysters grow in oyster seedbeds in New Haven Harbor, and throughout Long Island Sound (just outside the breakers and along the mouths of rivers and creeks, e.g. Quinnipiac River, Mill River, Morris Creek, Stony Creek, etc.). Oysters spawn only in waters that are warm and only slightly salty. The Quinnipiac meadows (salt-marshes) are a perfect habitat for their spawning.
In ancient times our ancestors rowed along the coast at the mouths of these estuarine rivers in mishoonash (dug out canoes). They used long poles with antlers fastened to the ends like rakes to harvest the oysters in abundance. Ancient oystering processing sites near Savin Rock were called "Oyster Point" and "Oyster Shell Fields" where tons of shells were stockpiled and used to fuel the wampumpeague trade system.
Oystering reached its pinnacle between 1800 to 1900. By the year 1903 over 100 oyster steamers could be seen throughout Long Island Sound and at New Haven Harbor. Over 4 million bushels of oysters were harvested that year. Fair Haven and New Haven, Hamden along State Street, Grand Avenue and at Savin Rock the Long Water Land oyster bars became a tradition. Oysters and clams on the half shell were sold by the dozen and placed with sliced lemon and hot sauce on round tin trays. They came daily in barrels of crushed ice. The ice was purchased at ice houses and the oysters were purchased daily at the fish-market where the fleets unloaded their oyster catches and sold them right off the docks. Everyone in the Greater New Haven/Long Water Land area ate oysters at least several times a week during this period and many still do. For the Quinnipiac shellfish (with oysters being predominant) equaled 80% of the diet in the summer and fall seasons.
An annual oyster festival takes place each year in Milford and has been that way for centuries. Oyster festivals have also been held at the Guilford and Branford sub-sachemships as well. Today oysters (along with clams and other shellfish) are strictly regulated by The National Shellfish Sanitation Program. The Quinnipiac River Watershed, a 38 mile stretch that runs from Farmington to New Haven is the third largest port in New England and is one of the most productive seed oystering habitats in the USA. Yet, because of water pollution, the seed oysters have to be re-located several times spending 14 days in cleaner waters (near Guilford, Milford and Norwalk, CT).
Lobstering Trends Warning
Lobsters are an important part of the seafood industry in the Long Water Land; yet water pollutants have caused federal officials to announce a warning according to USA Today (July 29, 2008, Better Lifestyle Section). Officials say that white meat from tails and claws is okay to eat but the green substance found in the lobster body cavity (known as tomalley) "may be contaminated with dangerous levels of toxins" that are known to cause PSP (Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning). This warning applies to all American Lobsters which are harvested from Canada to the Carolinas in the Atlantic coastal waters.
ACQTC has included this warning as a public service for the health and welfare of all long Water Land People (indigenous and non-indigenous).
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