| If you are ever invited to a potlach ceremony, you can
forget about bringing a gift for the host. Just bring a bag large
enough to carry home the gifts you are given. It has been said that it
is greater to give than to receive and for Canadian west-coast Indians,
the potlach was the ultimate expression of that. In a tradition,
which has contradictory origins, the potlach entailed an inspiring chief
holding a party in which he gave away most, if not all, of his worldly
gifts. In exchange for this largess, the chief-in-waiting received
adoration and the affection of his guests.
It is said the tradition of the potlach ceremony began with the giving
of feathers, a sacred item for most west-coast Indians. However over
time the ceremonies took on more elaborate gift-giving themes.
The word potlatch comes from Nootka, a Wakashan language spoken
nowadays by about six hundred people in western British Columbia and
Vancouver Island. The Nootka word for gift was
patshatl. Potlach was
first used in English in a
Puget Sound document from 1865, wherein the following description was found:
| "There was going to be a great potlach at the
coal-mines, where a large quantity of iktas [goods] would be
given away--tin pans, guns, blankets, canoes, and money.... It seems
that anyone who aspires to be a chief must first give a potlach to
his tribe." |
Potlach was make illegal in Canada in 1885, at the urgings of
missionaries who declared the practice as wasteful and not part of
civilized values (I can only guess that they missed that "blessed" part in
their bibles.) One missionary, William Duncan wrote in 1875 that the
potlatch was “by far the most formidable of all obstacles in the way of
Indians becoming Christians, or even civilized. In 1885, the Indian Act
was amended to include:
| “Every Indian or other person who engages in or
assists in celebrating the Indian festival known as the "Potlatch"
or the Indian dance known as the "Tamanawas" is guilty of a
misdemeanor, and shall be liable to imprisonment for a term not more
than six nor less than two months in a jail or other place of
confinement; and, any Indian or other person who encourages, either
directly or indirectly an Indian or Indians to get up such a
festival or dance, or to celebrate the same, or who shall assist in
the celebration of same is guilty of a like offence, and shall be
liable to the same punishment.” |
The banning was also seen as part of the attempt to assimilate the
Indians... but it did not work. The prohibition on potlach simply
drove the ceremony underground. The potlach was made legal again in 1951
when the prohibition was removed from the Indian Act. To this day
the ceremonies take place frequently. |
