Harvest Ingredient 20: The Devil's Claw

Dried Fruit/Pod From Pima Country

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Since today is Halloween, I thought I would present a little write up on a plant that is popularly know as The Devil's Claw!  This is another high desert plant of the southwest and norther Mexico; it prefers arid conditions of 1,000 to 5,000 feet in altitude.  It is also known as Devil's Horn, Ram's Horn and the Unicorn Plant, with the scientific name of Proboscidea for the genus.  It is ihuk in the Pima language.  The plant most often utilized as food by people is the species parviflora, although all members of the genera as edible.  This is not to be confused with the South African plant that is marketed by the same name as a supplement for arthritis.  Nor is it the same as the species of Acacia native to North America, which goes by the same name, but is not as well known, and occupies the same general area as this plant (that is for another post).

The strange looking fruit is so shaped so that, when dried and falling off the plant, it hooks on animals walking in search of food; the pod stays remarkably well and eventually the pod is crushed open by the animals and the seeds exposed, thus being naturally dispersed for reproduction.  The are also a source of food for certain types of wildlife as well.  In ancient times they were an important source of food for dietary oil processing, as the seeds contain about 36% oil.  They have always been an important food source for various O'odham groups and also have been used to provide a distinctive black design on the baskets of the Tohono O'odham and Akimel O'odham (Papago and Pima respectively).  They are a very traditional food of the Hia C-ed O'odham.

Flowering Probascidea parviflora the most common type of Devil's Claw

Although it has been determined that the seeds produce a high quality oil in the same vein an sunflower seed oil, there has never been any real commercial attempt to produce the oil on any scale usable for culinary applications.  The oil produced in trials was useful as both a base for salad dressing and has a shortening for frying (since it has also been compared to cottonseed oil, I would also surmise that it has a high smoking point when heated to temperatures higher, than say, corn oil would have.).  So as a food source, it remains, largely, a gathered food; although some people do grow it deliberately in their gardens, the plant is said to give off a distinctive odor.  As mentioned above, the seeds were the primary source of human and animal food, but the pods can also be eaten in their green stage, boiled like a vegetable.  Fresh green seeds provided a source of moisture in the arid Sonoran desert for people out gathering or hunting.  The fresh pods are supposed to be really good buttered or tossed in some very flavorful nut oil.  The Tohono O'odham ground the dried seeds to make a nutritious mush.

Devil's Claw green pods under cultivation of the University of Tennessee--they look a lot like fuzzy green chiles.

In these most modern of times, the Pima of Arizona now run a casino and resort as so many Federally recognized tribes do.  The entire place is filled with decor that reflects both their ancient agricultural practices (they were, by far, the most reliant on agriculture of the O'odham), it is also filled with decor in tribute to their traditional desert foods, among them Devil's Claw.  In their Wild Horse Pass And Spa located on the Gila River Indian Community, which also includes the Maricopa, Devil's Claw wall sconces line the resort...visitors often mistake them for animal horns.

A mid-Twentieth century Pima basket with Devil's Claw  (the dark parts)

Grilled Lamb With Guajillo Pepper And Spinach

I confess that while the spirit of this recipe is completely in-line with modern restaurant dishes prepared by Native American chefs it is not really a Native recipe at all.  But....the spirit is so close and it reflects a number of things published long after this recipe was.  It comes from a book entitle Peppers:  A Cookbook by a trio of then chic as hell New Yorkers, one a professional chef, one a professional photographer and one graphic designer.  It is a book part of a series.  Years and years ago I purchased their book Berries:  A Cookbook; it was not until recently that I realized that they had published a series of books in the same vein; so naturally I purchased the one book that was based solely on a food from the New World.  I confess a weakness for cookbooks that have serious professional photographers listed as part of the authorship.  And, while many of the recipes are not authentic native recipes, some like this one have a pedigree.  For example, a non-native chef (in fact he's English!), John Sharpe made it into an edition Native People's Magazine's  food section when he debuted a serious lamb dish in the very same vein, featuring beans from Native Seed Search and Churro Lamb from the Navajo Reservation.  This particular dish could be made totally native by substituting the spinach for amaranth greens and the rice for wild rice. This is a skewered meat affair and is definitely better with fresh spinach.  Information in parentheses is mine.

1/2 lb. lamb from leg cut into cubes
2 skewers
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 guajillo pepper, soaked in hot water (not boiling) for 30 minutes, seeded
   and julienned
1 1/2 tsp. cumin
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
10 oz. fresh or frozen spinach--thawed and drained
Salt and pepper to taste

1.  Prepared grill.  This dish may also be broiled.  While waiting for the grill, skewer the lamb.  Grill the lamb to desired doneness (I'm a rare meat kinda gal myself, especially the lamb).

2.  While lamb is cooking, heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat.  Add the guajillo and saute for 3 to 4 minutes.  Add the cumin and thyme and saute for another minute.  Add the spinach and cook until just hot.  Season with salt and pepper.

3.  Arrange spinach on 2 plates.  Unskewer lamb over spinach, serve with rice, barley, couscous, pasta or potatoes (looks great with the bed of spinach over a bed of rice, this would also be really good with some native red beans, cooked and surrounding the whole dish).

Note:  This divides easily if you are looking for a nice one person meal.  Just buy some heat and serve brown rice.

These Can Be Made With Chops

                           

Navajo Churro Ram

Harvest Ingedient 19: The Guajillo Chile

This is a specific type of dried red chile that has been gaining serious popularity in the last ten years.  It is now widely available in supermarkets, not to mention Latin and Mexican markets.  They are a rubbery, but thin skinned dried chiles that have a nice deep rosy translucent glow when held up to the light.  They are one of my personal favorites in the world chiles, dried or otherwise.  They are a medium spicy with all kinds of bright notes from start to finish (yes people taste chiles like wine...chile tastings are fun without all the intoxication...or the spitting!!).  

They rate at 2,000 to 5,000 on the Scoville Scale, which puts them, according to that measure, at 2 peppers out of 5, which, as stated above, is a solid medium in heat.  Cooking with the seeds increases the spiciness, and every once and a while, like with all chiles, you'll happen on a mouth searing pod.  The spiciness from the traditional capsaicin can be pretty easily detected by smell...so sniff your peppers!  This pepper hails from the valley of Mexico in the central part of the country and is very popular there in both chiles pastes and salsas.  They often make up a simple and thin sauce for tamales in that region.   It's closest relative is the much rarer Mexico City chile the Pulla, which is much hotter! Both are members of the Caspicum annum.

Packages Guajillos

Famed Chef Mark Miller penned a helpful book of chiles entitled The Great Chile Book for Ten Speed Press, in his describes the Guajillo in the following manner:

Thin fleshed; green tea and stemmy flavor, with berry tones.  A little piney and tannic, with a sweet heat.  Commonly used in salsas, chile sauce, soups and stews.

I'm really not at all sure about the "stemmy flavor," I would agree, or say, that they have a very earthy taste and the heat definitely builds toward the back of the throat.  In addition to the above mentioned uses, they are excellent in traditional Mexican dried chile relishes, that these are all the rage in my house. Additionally, when pureed that can go into cream sauces, salad dressings, marinades and dips; the make a really interesting sour cream to go over tacos and, when proceeds to a powder while dry, are an excellent traditional ingredient to native hot chocolate.

Nutritionally, they are quite high in vitamin A, Phosphors, Vitamin K,  and some B-vitamins, especially Niacin and Magnesium and has some easily soluble iron.  It is actually used as a digestive aid.  Each pod ranges from about 15 to 20 calories with seeds (which have most of the oil in them).  Each also has about 8 grams of carbs.

Pinkakbet

Pinakbet

This is probably the most famous dish that utilizes the Ampalaya or Bitter Melon (gourd), it you can't find the gourd, or just can't take bitter foods, are pregnant or allergic, then, by all means, substitute zucchini, or any other soft squash that you like.  As you can imagine there are many, many version of this dish; this one come from The Philippine Cookbook by my favorite Filipino food writer Reynaldo Alejandro.  This is cooked a great deal like a classic stir0fry.  This can be make vegetarian easily!  If you are not a pork eater, substitute chicken and/or shrimp.  Of course, you may use fresh okra, that's a must here in the south!

1 tbsp. minced garlic

1/2 cup, finely chopped onion

2 tbsp. corn or vegetable oil

3/4 lb. pork, sliced thinly into cubes
5 inch thick pieces of ginger
4 ripe tomatoes, cubed
1/2 cup bagoong (the saute' type, I like the shrimp paste, in a pinch you
   substitute fish sauce with some hoisin)
1/3 cup water
3 Asian eggplant (or 1 regular)
2 cups bitter melon, seeded and cut into 2 inch lengths, (or use the same with
    zucchini, only not seeded)
1 10 oz package frozen lima beans
1 10 oz. package of frozen okra
Salt and pepper to taste.

1.  Heat oil and saute the garlic and onion.  Add the pork and cook for 15 minutes, stirring.  Add in the ginger and tomatoes, cook, stirring, for another 10 minutes.  Add the bagoon and cook for another 3 minutes.  Add the water and bring to a full boil.  Add the rest of the vegetables and cook for 15 minutes at a simmer.  Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve hot.  This dish is sometimes called "Filipino Ratatouille," and like the classic, it can be served at room temperature.  When serving hot, serve with white rice.  Adding shrimp at the last minute is done in some parts of the islands.  To make vegetarian, skip the meat and substitute the fish paste with soy sauce mixed with hoisin.  Can also add pepper or chiles to this to make it spicier.

Harvest Ingredient 18: Ampalaya/Bitter Melon

This is another of those Asian "dealies" that has made it into New World cuisine,  by way of Pacific isles.  It is mostly consumed in the Caribbean, where it is called variously called caralli, bitter gourd, or more popularly, Corilla.  they have even been adopted the native tea culture of the tribal remnants on Dominica (not read more about this, click here.)  Though they originated thousands of years ago in India, these strange member of the squash and melon family have long since made their way, via China the most of the island nations close to the Asian mainland, such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Formosa (Taiwan), New Guinea, and, of course, The Philippines, where it is known by it's indigenous Tagalog name of Ampalaya; it is here this vegetable really makes a splash.  In English speaking areas of the Caribbean, it is sometimes sold as "bitter gourd."

Caribbean Corillas

There are number of sub-types, and given the extremely knobby skin of most Caribbean varieties, it seems that they most likely were brought directly from India, where these types are still the best known.  Smoother skin varieties, also known in some small areas of the Caribbean, are known to have evolved under cultivation in China and spread to places like The Philippines.  Some of these vary a great deal in bitterness, but all varieties are more bitter the darker the skin.  In some places, the suggestion to par-boil it to reduce bitterness is given, this is especially true of the knobby types found in India and the Caribbean:  some people swear by it, others are not so sure.  

Burst ripe fruit

In some places it is grown exclusively to ripen it to a bursting stage.  At this point the bright red flesh around the seeds is very sweet and the pulp can be eaten fresh and raw and often makes it's way into several different types of salad in southeast Asia, including fruit salads.  At this point, the fruit itself is bright yellow to orange and that part of the "melon" is now inedible.  In it's green state, the stage that it is most used in, it must be cooked, or even double cooked (as mentioned above) to render it edible by most standards (there are exceptions!).  

The smooth skin type of "Bitter Melon" aka Ampalaya is the type most typically found in The Philippines.

The plant has been used in a number of different ways medicinally wherever it is found.  In the New World country of Guyana it is used as a vegetable to prevent malaria; and in Colombia and Panama, a tea (also drunk in Dominica, see above) is used to treat malaria.  In the 1960's it was found to have powerful properties that aid people with diabetic conditions.  In The Philippines a recent medical study showed that ingestion of a specific dose of bitter melon supplement was as effective in glucose reduction as some drugs marketed for the same reason.  The fruits contain a compound that increase sensitivity to insulin, thus allowing people with Type 2 Diabetes to utilize insulin in their systems better, in other words, it reduced insulin resistance.   In normal people, this can lead to a brief case of hypoglycemia if too much of the fruit is eaten.  Other more recent research suggests that it may have implications for treating certain types of cancer.  CAUTION:  this should not be eaten by pregnant women!  One of the other uses for this in the Pacific is to induce abortion; for that reason it is a traditional medicine for childbirth.  It has even been used in some places as birth control.

Bitter Melon leaves are eaten as well in The Philippines.

Food uses for it are actually quite wide ranging and varied for such a bitter tasting "vegetable." I'm not to even try to touch on all of them (there are actually that many!), but a few are just too strange not to mention!  One is it's use in beer making in China and in Okinawa in Japan.  In Vietnam it is served raw with pulled dried meat; it is also used in a stewed state there for the Tet holiday, meant to remind people to be thankful for what they have now, i.e.:  they don't have to eat bitter melon everyday!  There is even a soft drink made from these strange things!!  In parts of the Caribbean and northern South America it is cooked with really hot indigenous Scotch Bonnet chiles, onions and garlic in a saute that makes it really crisp.  In other parts of the Caribbean it is cooked and put into a traditional salad, and supposed to be good for digestion. In Guyana, the same saute is used, minus the hot peppers, however the gourds of well boiled first and the saute not crisp.  

A traditional sauteed bitter melon from the Philippines:  a Ginisang Ampalaya

As mentioned above, it is in The Philippines that the "melon" or Ampalaya is used as a vegetable in a variety of different ways.  In addition to the above vegetable saute, it is also sauteed with beef and even tossed up with oyster sauce (showing it's Chinese roots).  As in the Caribbean, it is also put into the salad bowl, in most cases, not raw, but not cooked either; rather it is salted like cucumbers (of which this is a distant relative), squeezed and macerated in citrus juice, before going into the main dish.  As mentioned above, the leaves and tendrils are also eaten the this island chain, usually as a saute or in soups. They can also be scraped free of seeds and stuffed, stewed in garlicky hot sauces, with or without seafood.  It is also pickled and even goes into an iced tea.  Perhaps the greatest of all uses of the ampalaya comes in the regional specialty of Ilocos region of Luzon in the form of pinakbet and vegetable saute that typically sees this married with eggplant, okra, and beans:  lima and/or string (long) beans and tomatoes.  Sometimes with pork, sometimes, without; but always with the indigenous Bagoong (a paste typically made from shrimp).

Small Filipino Bitter Melons

Pumpkin Earings

I just ran across these.  They are done in the modern traditional beaded style and are really cool!!  Happy Halloween!!

Apache Bee Balm Pastry Bars

This is a really good introductory use of Bee Balm.  These bars are a bit "pecan pieish" and look a great deal like the pinion bars shown above.  This comes from E. Barrie Kavasch's wonderful seasonal book Enduring Harvests and provides an example of one of the many foods served at the annual Apache (Indeh or Ndee) Puberty and Sunrise ceremonies, held in July.  According to Kavasch other traditional foods were served on the occasion in the past; foods such as wild onions, tule pollen, yucca blossoms, wild potatoes, prickly pears, sweet acorns, etc.  Many of these foods are still a part of the Apache diet and show up in moder incarnations like this on these very special of occasions!  This recipe also includes the very important native grain Amaranth and the pastry and the topping both include honey.  In olden times, wild honey was a very important component of Apache ceremonial occasions.  Much of the honey wild in the area is from bee balm. Instructions in parenthesis are mine.

APACHE BEEBALM PASTRY BARS

For The Pastry:

1/2 cup butter

1/4 honey

3 tbsp. sunflower or hazelnut oil

1 egg, slightly beaten

1/2 tsp. (real) vanilla

1/4 tsp. baking powder

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup fine cornmeal (any color), lightly roasted

1/4 cup amaranths seeds, roasted in dry hot iron skillet (be sure not burn)

1/4 cup fresh beebalm leaves, finely chopped

Dash of salt to taste

For The Topping:

1/2 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup honey

1 tbsp. amaranth seeds, roasted

3 tbsp. fresh beebalm leaves, finely chopped

1 cup pinions, lightly roasted (be careful, they burn easily!)

3 tbsp. apple juice or cider

1.  Preheat oven to 350º.  In a mixing bowl, cream the butter, honey and oil.  Stir in the egg and blend well.  Add remaining (pastry) ingredients and just blend--do not overmix.  Pat this dough into and 10 by 10 inch glass baking dish.  Prick with the tine of a fork all over.  Bake for 12 minutes, prepare topping.

2.  Combine all topping ingredients in a saucepan.  Bring to a slow boil.  Simmer, stirring constantly, for about 3 minutes.

3.  Remove pastry from the oven.  Spread topping over it evenly.  Return to the oven.  Continue to bake for about 25 minutes, or until the topping as browned (I suggest you check on this often, ovens differ and this topping will burn if not careful).  Place the baking dish on a wire rack.  When slightly cooled, cut into slim squares or bars.  Serve immediately or freeze for later use.

Apache Gaan, or Crown, Dancers

Awesome Pumpkin Cake

Harvest Ingredient 17: Beebalms

This a true American original!  The entire genus of Monarda is endemic to North America and has many different names ranging from:  Oswego Tea (a partially native name), horsemint, bergamot, and bee balm.  There are at 16 distinct species occurring in the wild, with more being hybridized by growers.  Thought the flowers come in a variety of different colors, they plants all have two things in common:  1.  shape of their leaves, which are lance like and 2) the shape of their flowers, which are petaled with long tube like affairs, either in clusters or in stem petals.  If the flowers look like large, over-blown asters, that is because they are distant cousins of true asters.  The genus, like so many in the New World is named for an European, Nicolás Monarda, a Spanish physician and botanist who was born in 1493, just one year after Columbus' fate full voyage that found him lost in the Caribbean.

Oswego Tea or Bergamot Monarda, one of the showiest of the monardas!

As the name suggests (and the photo from Wikipedia at the top shows) it is an important plant for bees and vice versa, as it needs insects to reproduce.  In addition, they are very important the native hummingbirds; in fact, they are almost tailor made for hummingbirds bill shape...like they go together.  Humans use them as an herb in both sweet and savory dishes, and their flavor varies from species to species, but most have a mint like flavor, which gives them their other names:  Native Mint and Wild Mints.  Late food writer/activist Paula Giese wrote a great deal about the traditional uses of at least two species of monarda amongst her people the Anishinabeg (Ojibwe) and Native food historian E. Barrie Kavasch, who is also a leading authority on Native American wild edibles, has written about their widespread use in the desert southwest.

Wasp on a wild blooming monarda

In addition to them growing in the wild, they are extremely popular garden flowers due to both their showy blooms and their usefulness in attracting helpful insects.  The prefer full sun and can be easily rooted by simply cutting off stem with leaves and placing them in a cup of water.  They are extremely beautiful in any flower garden (and some are even perennial, so they come back after winter), but they are most welcome in the home herbal garden!  The culinary used ranges from herbal teas, to seasonings for vegetables; they flavor both light soups and hearty meat stews.  Amongst the Ojibwe, it was a favored herb for cooking with fish.  All parts of the plant have medicinal use, from topical to internal.

Lemon Beebalm (Monarda citriodora)

Oswego Tea, Bergamot (M. didyma)

Wild Bergamot, Mint Leaf, Bee Balm (M. fistulosa)

Wild Oregano, Wild Mint, Mint Beebalm (M. Menthaefolia) a very important plant in the cooking of the Southwest. Photo from Plants Of The Southwest

Plains Beebalm (M. Pectinata)

Spotted Bee Balm or Horsemint (M. puntata), one of the monardas widley used in Mexico as both an herb and a medicine.

Purple Bergamot, Purple Bee Balm (M. media), I used to grow this in my herb garden before I moved, hope to again!  It's a real garden beauty.

Juniper Grilled Salmon Steaks

To my knowledge, this recipe first appeared in print in the Kimball/Anderson book The Art Of American Cooking, it has since been reprinted in several books on Native American cooking, most notably in the Beverly Cox/Martin Jacobs Spirit of the Harvest, where they label is "Gitksan Grilled Salmon," without any mention given in any subsequent publication of the Kimball/Anderson recipes originally printed in 1965.  All the same the recipe is a good one, simple and tasty.  The Juniper adds a nice flavor that helps cut the fat of fresh salmon steaks.  I'm just calling it:

JUNIPER GRILLED SALMON STEAKS

6 Salmon Steaks cut in the traditional manner with the backbone at the top

Around 6 to 8 juniper berries per steak

Salt and black pepper to taste

Lemon Wedges (optional, but tasty)

Alder, apple wood, or other favorite grilling wood chips soaked (optional)

Charcoal grill

Fish griller (optional)

Oil

1.  Press the Juniper berries into each salmon steak.  Then season each on both sides with salt and pepper.  Set aside

2.  Light charcoal and let heat to white coal stage.  Drain wood chips if you are using them.  

3.  Oil the fish griller, if using; or, if not, oil the grill itself.  Through chip onto the coals, place fish over and grill about 3 minutes on each side.  Season again with salt and pepper, if needed (extra pepper is never a bad thing).  Serve hot with lemon wedges.

If you don't like juniper, or more importantly, if you are allergic to it, whole black peppercorns or even pink peppercorns can be substituted.  Also, these can be broiled in a conventional oven at around 4 to 5 minutes per side, depending how close they are to the heat source.  The seaweed recipe Gluckastan would make a good side dish for this.

Harvest Ingredient 16: Salmon

Native netting salmon during the run in the 1950's at the ancient fishing ground of   Celilo Falls

There are whole cultures that have built up around the might salmon, just as they did the buffalo.  In fact, before it was destroyed by the The Dalles Dam construction in the 1950's, the falls were the site of one of the oldest, if not the oldest, continuously sites of habitation in all of North America.  Natives fished, or rather "dip netted" there right up to it's destruction by flooding.  The oldest village or camp found there dated back 15,000 years.  Local tribes and nations came there to fish, but other groups, some like the Blackfeet more traditionally associated with the buffalo, also came from as far away as Canada to the annual salmon run.  The annual salmon run used to be one of the greatest wonders of the New World.  It occurs when salmon living in the seas as adults swim up rivers to spawn and die.  Now overfishing, damming, useless diverting of waters to drought stricken areas that never should be farmed and diseases of the modern era have all but turned this wonder and gift into a sad joke.

The culture of the salmon people teaching humans all manner of useful things about their environment probably as old as any in the New World; and span all the way up through the rainforested Pacific Northwest to the interiors of Alaska.  Five types of salmon are known in the Pacific, listed below.  But the run in these areas, while the most well known are not the only tribal areas where the salmon run was/is an important event in the year's celebrations of the various "moons" that we call "months."  Tribal peoples in Siberia rely as much on the mighty fish as do the Salmon Tribes of our Northwest coast.  Before the coming of Europeans, the Atlantic Salmon was a very important food sources for eastern tribes; but their over-fishing, polluting of waters and lose of habitat has, in large part, relegated their tribal importance to a dim memory.  It does not help that tribes of the east equally lost a lot of people and have be scattered and pushed into a marginal existence as well.  

Members of the Powhatan Confederacy cooking whole fish over  smoke flame in the 16th century.  The fish are probably Atlantic Salmon.

Salmon are not only important for the people; they are a very important source of food for bears, especially Grizzly Bears, who need there fat rich flesh to help put on weight for the coming winter hibernation seasons.  Birds also rely on the salmon run, often picking up scraps left by bears; and at several population of eagles actively fish for them.  Additionally, the remnants of the flesh of their parents is also available to newly hatched salmon at the bottom of pools where they congregate.  This is why beavers are important to the salmon environment as well, many of their damming activities created safe haven ponds for baby salmon, which also trap "parental nutrients" at the bottom of the ponds.

Haida Salmon.

The Five Types Of Pacific Salmon:

Chinook or King Salmon in ocean stage (photo:  US gov.)

The Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tsawytscha) is the largest and most important of the 5 species of salmon in the Pacific northwest territories, both in terms of traditional subsistence and as the most sacred of animals, but also commercially.  Because of it's size it has also been called, and marketed as, King Salmon.  There is also a Chinook People.

Chum or Keta Salmon in spawn stage

The Chum Salmon (O. Keta) also called the Keta Salmon is one of the species of Pacific salmon that migrate in both the Pacific NW/Alaska and in Siberia.  The name "Chum" comes from Chinook Wawa, which is also called Chinook Jargon, a trade language of the 19th century based on Chinookan languages, other native tongues and English (it is currently considered a Pidgin language and is spoken both the US and Canada, classes are offered by The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde in Oregon).  The name keta is from the Evenki language(s), a tribal language of Siberia.  Although it has a very important role in as a traditional food source and for wildlife, it has largely be regarded as the least important Pacific salmon in terms of commercial fishing...which is not necessarily a bad thing.  They are the second most prolific salmon species in the northern Pacific.  Read more about this fish at Wikipedia.

Coho Salmon

The Coho Salmon (O. kirutch), this fish as a high degree of distribution in the Pacific in terms of runs.  They are also known as silver salmon or "Silvers" and are one of the only species of salmon to be caught in large numbers, and highly prized, while they are still in their "Ocean phase."  That part of it's Latin designation is actually Russian shows the degree to which this fish is extremely important in Siberia, and in olden times, probably beyond!  It is also the state fish (animal) of both Japan and China.  But they also have a large presence in on the eastern Pacific coast form Alaska all the way to northern California.  Read more about this fish here at Wikipedia.

Pink Salmon

The Pink Salmon (O. gorbushcha) is the smallest (and by salmon standards they are small!) and the most abundant of the five salmon tribes of the Pacific. As with the Coho, the last part of it's "Latin name" is Russian, again showing it's importance in what is now called "Asian Russia;" it's a very important Siberian fish during the annual run and is used by all manner of tribal peoples there to a great degree, both fresh and stored for future use.  The fish also run in parts of Japan and even Korea, and have been introduced into Iran, of all places.  On the eastern Pacific board in both the US and in Canada, the fish is listed as "imperiled," which just goes to show what a sorry shape the Pacific salmon run is here now, these fish are not supposed to be any thing close to endangered.  Of course, one of the main reason for this is overfishing, as these fish are highly prized for the canning industry and for their roe; but their sustainability have also been put in jeopardy due damming and other environmental issues that need not be so severe.  Also it's range doesn't extend much south of what is now the Washington State line.  Read more about it at Wikipedia.  

Sockeye Salmon in ocean phase

The third most abundant of the northern Pacific "five," the Sockeye (O. nerka) fish also has some sub-species that have branched off from the ocean going one by having large land-locked populations in various large freshwater locations; these collective landlocked sockeyes are known simply as kokanee or silver trout.  The term "sock-eye" itself is an English corruption of the fish's native name "suk-kegh," which translates from Halkomelem as "red fish."  This is the salmon that was often marketed as "Red Salmon." Red more about it at Wikipedia

The Mighty Atlantic Salmon

The Atlantic salmon (Salmo solar) is probably the most well known salmon to most people, due to it's extensive aquaculture. The first part of it's Latin name is actually where the world "salmon" originates from. The natural range of this fish ranges from Virginia in the US, all the way up and around northern Europe.  It has been a traditional and important food source in Scandinavia for centuries.  One of the world's most famous salmon recipes is Grav Lax from Norway.  It's decline along the eastern US seaboard coincided with the mass killing off of the North American beaver there; proof that the fry of this fish need beaver ponds to survive.  Efforts are also underway to reintroduce this fish to it's native river in the eastern US and Atlantic coast of Canada.  Actually they have been underway for some years now, with very slow, but noticeable, progress.  The fish has so many sub-names, there is no use attempting to name them all here, you can find those, and so much more at Wikipedia.

The Cherry or Masu Salmon in ocean phase

There is one last species of salmon from the north Pacific worth mentioning since it of great importance to native of Siberia, especially the Kamchatka peninsula, and that is the so-called "Cherry" or Masu Salmon (O. masou).  This is a small fish by comparison to most of the other Pacific salmon species and is caught some as an ocean game fish.  It is also collected at fry stage and captive raised in places like Japan, where it is sold both fresh and flash frozen.  In Siberia, this fish usually winds up in the soup pot with tons of fresh herbs and vegetables for bright fish stews.  They have always been an important fish food for the Ainu peopleThis fish's range is so far south in the western Pacific that it occurs in Formosan waters (that's Taiwan).  It, like the Sockeye, has sub-species of landlocked populations, with one in Formosa (the one in Korea (North) is critically endangered).  It does not occur naturally in eastern Pacific waters.

It is worth mentioning that Steelhead or Rainbow trout also belong to the Oncorhynchus family.  

Also worth mentioning that a member of the greater salmon salmon family also includes the Hucho taimen or the Siberian Salmon, which is also in serious decline in it's native river regions, to the point that it is listed as "vulnerable."

Traditional northwest coast style Salmon Bake with alder wood (photo from Foodbizonline, click here for their instructions on how to do this!).

Tsimshian Salmon Dance 2009 (photo from Southeast Alaska Tribal Cultures...

Here Are A List Of Resources About The Current Salmon Plight (by no means exhaustive, please contact this sight to add to list!!)

The Salmon People Film

PBS Newshour: Salmon Tribes Without Salmon  

Save Our Wild Salmon: Sierra Club

The Problem With Hatcheries

Ground Truth Trekking 2007: Salmon

Saving The Columbia Salmon Tribal Efforts

Treaty Violation Issue

Some Contrarion Stuff From The U Of Oregon 1999

WSJ Alaska Chinook Missing

Parasitic Trouble In Siberian Salmon

Ainu Fishing Right From Native American Law Perspective

Good News From Formosa

Salmon Conservation Article: Wikipedia

Confernece On Atlantic Salmon Recovery

And Finally US Government (NOAA) Recovery Plans For Endangered Marine Life