We are a small, wholly native-owned business dedicated to our traditional ways, living healthy and sharing that health with our community. We harvest wild foods direct from mother earth to bring them straight to your table, for the freshest, healthiest, most wholesome experience.
All of our Salmon is harvested by tribal fishers through traditional techniques that date back hundreds and even thousands of years. The spirit of the Salmon is honored as one of the sacred foods, and the utmost care and respect is taken in the handling of our Salmon. Fresh, wild, straight from the source. Mother Earth… We are a sustainable commercial fishery, ensuring the quality of our product is of the highest integrity and that we do all we can to preserve the Salmon fishery so that it can be available to community into perpetuity.
Our story came from humble beginnings. William grew up fishing out of ponds, streams, or anywhere in his backyard. Fishing has been in his family line for a long time and has been a way of life. His aunts and uncles are food gatherers and they have passed on much traditional ecological knowledge which they adhere to when handling Salmon and other wild harvested goods. His mom, aunts and uncles grew up poor on the Columbia River because of laws meant to oppress tribal fishing rights. Due to this oppression, they were involved in the fish wars in the 1960’s and 70’s. They fought and went to prison to maintain the right to fish on the Columbia River, which was a treaty right reserved to Yakama members in exchange for ceding millions of acres of land which now comprises a large portion of Washington and Oregon. They were incarcerated and tear gassed to be able to maintain this right to fish. Today William continued to fish, not only to feed his community, but to honor the sacrifices of his ancestors and to conjure to steward the spirit of the Salmon so it will continue to return into perpetuity.
William and Christina have owned and operated Native Candy since 2014.