# Grease trail

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{{Short description|Type of overland trade route in America}}
thumb|200px|Eulachon

A '''grease trail''' is an overland [trade route](/source/trade_route), part of a network of trails connecting the [Pacific coast](/source/British_Columbia_Coast) with the [Interior](/source/British_Columbia_Interior) in the [Pacific Northwest](/source/Pacific_Northwest).

== History ==
Trails were developed for trade between [indigenous people](/source/Indigenous_peoples_of_the_Americas), particularly the trade in [eulachon](/source/eulachon) oil (also spelled oolichan oil).<ref>{{Cite web
| title = Grease Trails
| work = Living Landscapes
| accessdate = November 6, 2012
| url = http://www.livinglandscapes.bc.ca/northwest/oolichan_history/grease_trails.htm
}}</ref> The grease from these small fish could be traded for furs, [copper](/source/copper), and [obsidian](/source/obsidian), among other things. The [Stó:lō](/source/St%C3%B3%3Al%C5%8D) people of the [Fraser River](/source/Fraser_River) simply ate the fish, either fresh or smoked, but the people of the interior used the oil as a condiment (similar to [butter](/source/butter)) and in various other ways.

== Origin of the name ==
<blockquote>
"Grease Trail", [Carrier](/source/Carrier_language) /tl'inaɣeti/. The name comes from the fact that the most important item traded into the interior was the processed oil of the [eulachon](/source/eulachon) fish Thaleichthys pacificus. Indeed, the Carrier word /tl'inaɣe/ "eulachon oil" is a compound of Carrier /xe/ "grease, oil" (combining form /ɣe/) with /tl'ina/, a loan from [Heiltsuk](/source/Heiltsuk_dialect) or [Haisla](/source/Haisla_language), [North Wakashan](/source/Wakashan_languages) languages spoken on the coast.<ref>{{Cite web
| title = Words from the West
| work = Language Log
| accessdate = November 6, 2012
| date = September 27, 2004
| url = http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001500.html
}}</ref>
</blockquote>

"Because these trails were commonly used to transport Oolichan grease, they are now referred to as 'grease trails.' For thousands of years, First Nations traders followed well-trodden 'grease trails,' usually the easiest routes across plateaus, highlands and over challenging mountains far into the western interior, back-packing heavy boxes of valuable Oolichan grease, held in place by cedar rope 'tump-lines,' attached to headbands. The trails, operating on a relay system, covered a geographic area from what is now the Yukon Territories in Canada south to what is now northern California in the United States and as far east as central Montana and Alberta, to interior peoples like the Babine, Carrier and other Athabaskans."{{sfn|Hirch|2003|p=3}}

==Grease trails and former grease trails==
*[Alexander MacKenzie Heritage Trail](/source/Alexander_MacKenzie_Heritage_Trail)
*[Chilkoot Trail](/source/Chilkoot_Trail)
*[Cheslatta Trail](/source/Cheslatta_Trail)
*[Dalton Trail](/source/Dalton_Trail)
*[Nyan Wheti](/source/Nyan_Wheti)

== Citations ==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* Birchwater, Sage. ''Ulkatcho. Stories of the Grease Trail'', Anahim Lake, Ulkatcho Indian Band 1993.
* Harrington, Lyn. (1953, March). Trail of the Candlefish. The Beaver Magazine Of The North. (pp.&nbsp;40–44)
*{{cite conference|last=Hirch|first=Mirjam|date=September 12, 2003|location=Kamloops, BC|institution=University College of the Caribou|title=Trading across time and space: Culture along the North American "Grease Trails" from a European perspective|conference=Canadian Studies International Interdisciplinary Conference }}
*''Grease Trails'', in: Turkel, William Joseph. ''The Archive of Place. Unearthing the Pasts of the Chilcotin Plateau'', pp.&nbsp;108–135.

==External links==
*[https://whatscookingamerica.net/History/Smelt.htm Smelt], What's Cooking America?
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070706020543/http://www.fraserriverdiscovery.org/pages/stories.html Fraser River Discovery Centre]

Category:Grease trails
Category:Trade routes
Category:Roads in Canada by type

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Grease trail](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grease_trail) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grease_trail?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.