Indians 101: Outlawing the potlatch in Canada

The First Nations occupying the Pacific Coast area of British Columbia are characterized by their complex social organization which included social stratification. Social stratification, a form of social organization which is often absent in hunting and gathering societies, signifies an unequal distribution of resources. In other words, there are social classes and wealth is viewed as important.

With regard to the importance of social class and wealth in the Northwest Coast First Nations, Anthropologist Edward Malin, in his book Northwest Coast Indian Painting: House Fronts and Interior Screens, reports:

“Enormous important was placed upon the rank, privilege, status, and social position of each clan and lineage. Even individual tribal members were measured and counted in the minutest shades and degrees, particular among the ranking families of the tribes.”

In his chapter on rank and wealth in Indians of the North Pacific Coast: Studies in Selected Topics, Philip Drucker puts it this way:

“Each individual had his place in the arbitrarily calibrated social structure of his community.”

In his book Native Arts of North America, Christian Feest writes:

“Accumulation of wealth and status in the leading families is a key theme of Northwest-Coast culture.”

While Europeans are very comfortable with social inequality—in fact, most have difficulty understandings cultures which are egalitarian—they found the concept of wealth among the First Nations to be baffling and even abhorrent. In Northwest Coast cultures, sharing and giving wealth away made a person wealthy rather than simply retaining wealth. The mechanism for distributing wealth and for creating social status among the First Nations was a ceremony known as the potlatch. In his book People of the Totem: The Indians of the Pacific Northwest, Norman Bancroft-Hunt writes:

“Potlatches were social affairs of great importance at which property was distributed as a demonstration of a man’s ability to uphold a status position. The forms taken varied from tribe to tribe, but throughout the region they were essential in the establishment of what the northwest coast Indian held most dear, his social status.”

In 1871, British Columbia became the sixth province of Canada. Christian missionaries and people who worked with the First Nations quickly began advocating banning the potlatch. The potlatch was attacked by Canadian authorities as being wasteful and destructive of moral and economic initiative. The Canadian government felt that it stood in the way of development and modernization. In 1883, the Superintendent General of Indian Affairs John A. Macdonald defined the potlatch as

“...the useless and degrading custom in vogue among the Indians … at which an immense amount of personal property is squandered in gifts by one Band to another, and at which much valuable time is lost.”

Outlawing the Potlatch

In 1884, the Canadian government formally outlawed the potlatch with the passage of the Canadian Indian Act. Under this Act, any person who engaged in a potlatch was guilty of a misdemeanor and could be jailed for two to six months. The law stated:

“Every Indian or other person who engages in or assists in celebrating the Indian festival known as the ‘Potlatch’ or in the Indian dance known as the “tamanawas” is guilty of a misdemenour, and shall be liable to imprisonment.”

From a Native perspective, the Act meant that they could not celebrate the birth or naming of their children as required by traditional law, nor could they end their mourning after death.

The missionaries stressed that the potlatch was a “degrading practice” which was a barrier to the “civilizing” of the Indians. Norman Bancroft-Hunt writes:

“European concepts of property ownership and investment were diametrically opposed to the principles which underlay the potlatch, and white colonists were unable to tolerate this questioning of their attitudes. The potlatch ban incorporated in the Indian Act was fully in effect in the early 1900s when government agents were operating on the reserves and attempting to break up any distribution of goods.”

In spite of the potlatch ban, in 1886 Tsimshian chief Ligeex hosted a potlatch in British Columbia. The goods to be given away were hidden behind a partition in the house. The pile of goods was so high that the roof boards were removed to accommodate it.

In 1918, Duncan Campbell Scott, Deputy Superintendent General of Indian Affairs, sent a circular to all Indian agents in British Columbia telling them that the war in Europe had put extreme pressures on the economy and therefore no wasteful practices could be allowed. Gift-giving at potlatches is wasteful, in Scott’s view, and therefore the agents were to use their powers to convict all who participated in a potlatch.

In 1919, four potlatchers were arrested at the Kwawkewlth Agency in British Columbia. When the four and seventy-three additional community members signed an agreement to obey the law and stopped the practice of the potlatch, the Crown dropped its charges. The following year, eight Indians from Alert Bay pled guilty to participating in a potlatch. Seven were sentenced to two months in jail. The eighth, an elderly man, received a suspended sentence.

In 1921, Nimpkish (Kwakwaka’wakw)chief Daniel Cranmer sponsored a potlatch—reported to be the largest ever given up to that time—in order to repay his wife’s family as part of the marriage settlement. The local Indian agent decided to prosecute those who participated in the ceremony and was able to obtain 45 convictions. Twenty-three people, including ranking chiefs and women, were sent to prison. Twenty-two received suspended sentences in return for agreeing to hand over their potlatch regalia. As a result, 750 ceremonial objects were turned over to the government. To be charged with crimes as speaking, dancing, and giving or receiving gifts appeared to the Kwakwaka’waka to be an utter contravention of natural law.

With regard to the confiscated potlatch ceremonial items, the local Indian agent put them on display in the parish hall at Alert Bay and charged an admission. The items were then sold to collectors and museums. Some of the items were shipped to the National Museum in Ottawa and some were sold to a collector for the Museum of the American Indian in New York.

Potlatching declined as a result of this persecution. The potlatch was pushed underground after the Cranmer convictions. People continued to potlatch, but they either held them in remote villages away from government eyes or they disguised the potlatch as a Christmas or wedding exchange.

The Canadian Indian Act is summarized by Arlene Hirschfelder and Paulette Molin, in their book The Encyclopedia of Native American Religions:

“The law, which emerged out of demands from Indian field agents and missionaries in direct contact with Indians of the north Pacific coast, attempted to negate the Indian past and legislate religious practice from 1884 to 1951.”

In 1951, the Canadian Indian Act was modified and the laws against the potlatch were dropped. While the potlatch had continued in spite of the law, it now took on a new vigor.