I cannot speak for these specific groups of people in terms of how they view themselves in the past, moving forward into the present. I also cannot speak to their use of salmon.

What I can say, though, is that in some points acknowledging specific Native groups as fierce warriors becomes problematic when that is all they're viewed as: they become stuck in time, and unless a Native person looks like the fierce warrior, "noble savage" archetype, they're not taken seriously. These archetypes have also been used throughout North American history to nativize settlers--I return to the example of Metacomet in early U.S. plays as a caricature who willingly handed land over to settlers.

Further, that kind of works together with the gill netting thing. Native people are supposed to only use traditional fishing methods because they're only supposed to use what "Indians" use: 'Real Indians only use traditional fishing techniques to catch salmon, otherwise they're not real Indians!' Various peoples I've spoken to on the West Coast of the U.S. have explained to me that what matters is that they catch the salmon themselves and they can feed their families and their elders, and perform ceremony. However, specific groups on the West coast of the U.S. may have different feelings than the Haida and Nisga'a.

I hope that answers your question. Like I said, I can't speak for specific Indigenous groups, their practices, and the way they view themselves throughout history and in the contemporary moment. If these types of questions interest you, especially regarding Indigenous groups in present-day Canada, I'd highly recommend Thomas King's The Inconvenient Indian and Audra Simpson's Mohawk Interruptus.