The historical abundance of salmon along the west coast of North America has been significantly reduced during the last two centuries of industrial harvest. The life histories of many twentieth-century fisheries have been depressingly similar: initial coexistence with indigenous fisheries; emergence of large-scale industrial expansion followed by resource collapse; introduction of limited restrictions on fishing effort, which become increasingly severe, making it hard for fishing communities to survive and to reproduce themselves. Yet for nearly two millennia prior to the industrial extraction of salmon, indigenous peoples maintained active harvests of salmon, which are estimated to have been at or near median industrial harvests during the twentieth century. Part of the explanation for salmon stock collapses in the twentieth century resides in the different methodologies used by the indigenous and industrial fisheries. In this paper the authors argue that a reintroduction of ecologically appropriate traditional fishing gear is one path toward truly sustainable fisheries. They emphasize how these technologies are associated with particular forms of resource management that limit and disperse harvest pressure. This is accomplished by documenting the linkage between traditional fishing gear, local ecological knowledge, and contemporary conservation potentials. In developing this argument, they draw upon research conducted in collaboration with fishers and elders from the Gitxaala First Nation and in particular their concept of "syt guulm goot": "being of one heart." This concept underpins Gitxaala approaches to resources and how they should be used and shared. It is premised upon a community-based conception of resource use in which people and nonhumans share important reciprocal relationships of trust, respect, and--when things go wrong--retribution. In this article, the authors first outline the ethnographic context within which this research was conducted. The balance of the paper then describes the case study of customary fishing at K'modamowdah and the implications of traditional technology and ecological knowledge for contemporary resource management. (Contains 43 notes.)