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 Tljc Ii^diai) Potlatcli 
 
 SUBSTANCE OF A PAPER READ BEFORE C.M.S, 
 
 ANNUAL CONFERENCE, AT METLAKATLA, 
 
 B.C., 1899, 
 
 BY THE REV. J. B. McCULLAGH, 
 Editor of the Caledonia Interchange. 
 
 When this paper was read at our Annual Conference a resolution^ 
 
 was passed asking me to have it published. I now, in a way, 
 
 comply with that request by printing it in the 
 
 Interchnni^e, together with other matter 
 
 tending to throw light upon the 
 
 subject. — Eb. 
 
 THE Indian Potlatch presents a 
 most difficult problem, not only 
 to solve for the betterment of 
 the race, but even to understand. Indeed 
 no one who has not been born and reared 
 as an Indian among Indians practising it 
 can rightly comprehend what it all means. 
 Though I cannot lay claim to this privilege 
 (!), yet I have had the Potlatch under close 
 observation for sixteen years, and have 
 studied it on the spot, both in theory and 
 practice, as far as one may do so without 
 actually making one. 
 
 But while considering myself thus quali- 
 fied to speak on the subject, I cannot say 
 that I have completely exhausted it, for 
 there are ramifications connected with it 
 which, I must confess, seem to baffle all; 
 efifort at investigation. 
 
 {iit>*i,i^ 
 
I think it important, however, to lay 
 before you as much as I know concerning 
 this custom, for it seems to me that upon the 
 thorough eradication of its principles from 
 the Indian mind depends, humanly speak- 
 ing, the permanency of the results of our 
 work. This I hope to make evident as I 
 proceed. 
 
 I would first of all say what the Potlatch 
 is not. It is generally described as a cus- 
 tom, but it is not a custom in the ordinary 
 sense of the word, it is much more. We 
 cannot label it as a habit or usage, it is 
 something quite different ; it is very far 
 from being a festival, although to the out- 
 sider it may appear' as such; it is not a 
 religious rite or ceremony, even though 
 there may seem to be a strain of ancestral 
 worship in it ; it is neither an amusement 
 nor an entertainment, however much those 
 who practice it may seek to represent it in 
 that light. 
 
 Now, if it may not be classed as a cus- 
 tom, practice or habit ; if it may not be 
 regarded as a festival, religious rite or cere- 
 mony ; if it be neither an amusement nor 
 an entertainment, what is it ? I reply 
 it is a systematized form of tribal govern- 
 ment based upon the united suffrages of 
 the clans. 
 
 Ipotlatch is not merely the making of a 
 feast where a dance is given and presents 
 made to those attending. If that were all 
 it would be harmless enough, but that is 
 only the outward expression of it. The 
 Potlatch is political as far as this life and 
 this world concern the Indian, and the 
 
event seen by the public is in reality an 
 election. 
 
 The articles distributed with so much 
 display as free gifts (with the exception of 
 blankets and calico torn up into small 
 strips) are all returnable within a year or 
 two. They are not gifts, as many people 
 imagine, but vote-acknowledgments — a 
 public recognition of the rank or social 
 status of the voter (who records his vote by 
 his presence) by the Potlatcher who is a 
 candidate for some position, favor or honor 
 in his clan. 
 
 But before proceeding further it is neces- 
 sary to offer some information as to the 
 constitution of Indian society. You are 
 all aware that it consists of three classes — 
 the nobilitv, gentry, and common people. 
 These arc organized into families (or 
 houses), clan-sections, clans, tribes (com- 
 munities or villages), and confederacies. 
 
 h. family or house is a portion or branch 
 of a clan-section. It has its own crest and 
 sub-chief, subordinate to the clan totem 
 and clan-sectional chief, and of itself or in 
 combination with other kindred families 
 forms a complete clan-section. 
 
 A clan-section is a company of one or 
 more families having the same totem and 
 totemic name, ?nd forming one division of 
 a tribe. 
 
 A clan is the aggregate of kindred clan- 
 sections having the same totem and totemic 
 name. 
 
 A tribe is a community of two or more 
 different clan-sections residing in one place 
 bearing a common territorial name, and 
 
governed by the chiefs of the clan-sections 
 in council assembled. 
 
 A confederacy is an alliance of several 
 tribes for offensive and defensive purposes, 
 and is governed by the united suffrages of 
 the clans in public assembled. 
 
 The principal clans of the Nishga Con- 
 federacy are the Lak-Gibu (Lupians), the 
 Gdnhada('-^fl«/(fl«.yj,the Lak-Shkik (Aquil- 
 ians)y and the Gishgahas (Cannabians). 
 
 Each tribe on the Naas is composed of 
 a clan-section from each of the above- 
 named clans, so that for the transaction of 
 business (which is chiefly dynastic) in any 
 tribe on the river, it is necessary to sum- 
 mon the other tribes and thus bring to- 
 gether all the clan-sections of each clan in 
 public assembly. And this is the raison 
 d' etre of the Potlatch. 
 
 Indian affairs are, as I have said, princi- 
 pally dynastic, that is, they have to do with 
 hereditary rights and titles, successions to 
 chieftainships among the chiefs, to a higher 
 social standing among the gentry, and to 
 the " going up one " in the family circle 
 among the common people, for everyone is 
 somebody's junior, and wants to become 
 somebody's senior. 
 
 These successions often carry with them 
 substantial emoluments in the way of hunt- 
 ing and fishing rights over certain lands 
 and streams, and are not infrequently a 
 bone of serious contention, sometimes end- 
 ing in bloodshed. 
 
 Then in each clan-section there are many 
 vacant places, filled by men of renown in 
 the good old times when the Indians were 
 
numerous, but now retaining only the 
 name. To fill these vacant places and re- 
 vive the old names is the one ambition of 
 the surviving members of the clan-section 
 families, and this, like other successions, 
 can only be accomplished by obtaining the 
 united assent of the clans. 
 
 Thus there is only one topic of interest 
 in life to these people, only one object for 
 which to live and only one scope for their 
 natural activity, viz., the glorification of 
 self. In each Indian town you will find the 
 clan-sections living together on apparently 
 very good terms, but in reality holding eaci. 
 other down or staving each other off with 
 all the cunning imaginable. Jealousy of one 
 another is the characteristic feature of In- 
 dian life, and so socialistic are their ideas 
 that no individual dare improve his condi- 
 tion above the general average, while at the 
 same time each clan-section is consumed 
 with a burning desire to make a better 
 show than any other. 
 
 I^ou are all of course aware that mem- 
 bers of the same clan may not intermarry. 
 Such a thing, according to Indian ideas, 
 vv^ould be an abomination. But it may not 
 have become evident to all of you that not- 
 withstanding this law the majority of Indian 
 marriages are very close as to family affin- 
 ity. In most families I find it has been the 
 custom of the men for generations to select 
 their wives from one particular clan-section 
 of another but still the same clan, because 
 of equality in rank or from other social con- 
 siderations. And this may be one reason 
 why the Indians do not increase. 
 
Marriage never unites the man and the 
 woman ; from first to last the parties belong 
 to different clans, and maintain respectively 
 their own social positions. Children are 
 counted in on the mother's side as her elder 
 brother's family, belonging, of course, to 
 her clan. And all rights, titles and property 
 descend from uncle to nephew or niece, 
 and not from father to son. The idea of 
 a widow laying claim to her late husband's 
 property or a son to his father's, would be 
 absurd to the Indian mind. But it is very 
 hard to suppress nature, especially when it 
 is human ; for, in spite of all, the paternal 
 or filial instinct crops out at times and sets 
 up serious complications in tllis social 
 machinery. 
 
 IRo better description could be given of 
 the Indian people than that supplied by the 
 name they give themselves — Alu-gigtat. 
 Truly they are a Public-people, for they 
 have no private business, no private rights 
 and no domestic privacy. Every right is 
 holden (that is the meaning of the word 
 YUQU, which the White-man, judging from 
 outward appearance, calls Potlatch, («>., 
 giving) and every matter regulated by a 
 public manifestation of assent on the part 
 of the united clans. And this public ex- 
 pression of assent, made by the clans and 
 acknowledged by the individual is what we 
 call Potlatch. Even babies are legitima- 
 tized, so to speak, in this way, the naming 
 of children recorded, and their admission 
 to tribal privileges signalized by the same 
 means. 
 
You will o^ serve, therefore, that accord- 
 ing to the constitution of the tribes and the 
 distribution of clans, Potlatch, or a sys- 
 teni analogous to it, is a necessity, from an 
 Indian jioint of view, in order to preserve 
 the unity, distinctions and traditions of the 
 race ; for one clan-section may not assent 
 to an act except in concert with the other 
 sections ; if it do, the act in question i^ 
 only recognized within that section. And 
 if an individual assumes any right to '\ lich 
 he may be entitled, without a public mani- 
 fcsifition of assent on the part of the clans, 
 he finds himself in the position of a miner 
 who stakes off a claim without recording it ; 
 the next individual in the line of succession 
 rnay, on going through the usual formali- 
 ties, jump the other's claim. Sometimes 
 the rightful claimant of a privilege is too 
 poor to call the clans together for their 
 assent, in which case some one else of kin 
 who is better off asserts a counter claim, 
 sends out a runner, calls the clans, and so 
 takes the other's place. When you hear of 
 Indians killing each other, or attempting to 
 do so, it is because of some such reason as 
 this. There lies extant in this system an 
 unlimited possibility of serious trouble, but 
 it is not to be found in the mere giving of 
 a feast or dance, nor even in the distribu- 
 tion and destruction of property, nor in 
 the eating of dog or human flesh ; the evil 
 and the roots lie deeper and quite apart 
 from these things. 
 
 You will further notice that, although not 
 an idol itself, the Potlatch puts all the idols 
 of heathendom in the shade, for not only 
 
does it swallow up the sustenance of an 
 entire community but the community itself, 
 and only says " Shimoigit ! " (Hail, chief!) 
 in return. It consumes five clear months 
 out of every twelve in simply gorging, sleep- 
 ing and dancing ; the most that any of its 
 votaries can earn is all too little for it ; the 
 money that ought to be spent upon the 
 necessaries of life is squandered on this 
 idol, which is feted and glutted to its heart's 
 content, while the poor, the aged, the feeble 
 and the sick lie in poverty, filth and rags — 
 dying for want of a little nourishment. 
 
 It is a pitiable sight to behold sick folk, 
 invalids, delicate children and babies travel- 
 ling to and fro over fifty miles of waste ice 
 and snow, the thermometer perhaps below 
 zero, at the time, for the sole purpose of 
 paying and receiving homage before this 
 idol. I have seen dying persons and 
 children suffering from measles hauled 
 about the country in mid-winter on sleds, 
 camping out in the snow at night, in order 
 to be present, or that those on whose 
 tender mercies they were depend- 
 ent might be present at pot- 
 latch ; and I have seen 
 them taken back 
 from potlatch 
 in their 
 coffins. 
 
 8 
 
wmmmmmmm^ 
 
 fX WILL now give you a brief list of 
 ^ the various functions whereat the 
 presence of the clans is considered 
 necessary : 
 
 l« On the birth of a child, except the 
 parents choose to have it regarded as 
 illegitimate, so to speak, the sections of 
 both clans — the father's and the mother's 
 — must be assembled, feted and presented 
 with suitable acknowledgments of their 
 rank, etc. 
 
 ,.-. ;vv.-^-<* 
 
 2» The naming of a child is another 
 public function. If a boy his ears are 
 pierced ; and if a girl her under lip. But 
 this piercing is dying out. The ceremony 
 cannot be performed privately nor yet 
 within the family circle of one clan section, 
 but must take place at some public gather- 
 ing of importance, and the social status of 
 each person present must be recognized in 
 a suitable manner. 
 
 3. When the child has reached the age 
 of seven or eight years it must be signal- 
 ized or distinguished according to its an- 
 cestry, and introduced to the public wear- 
 ing some particularly prized headdress, an 
 heirloom if possible ; a number of blankets 
 and a quantity of print calico are then torn 
 up and distributed, the pieces varying in 
 size according to the rank of the recipient. 
 This is called " Si Halaid." 
 
 4, When the child is ten or twelve 
 years of age it is again brought forth for 
 public recognition. A feast is made on a 
 small sc .le, and a dance given, and again 
 
property is distributed. The child is pre- 
 sented arrayed in tribal regalia, and pub- 
 licly assumes the charge of some family 
 emblem in the shape of a toy of the 
 monkey-on-the-stick order, which is called 
 a " Naknog," This function is therefore 
 known as " Naknogs." 
 
 5. Girls on attaining the age of puberty 
 are set apart to fast four days. The first 
 food they are allowed to taste after this 
 fast is at a feast where all the clan sections 
 of the village are represented. After the 
 feast the attendance of the clans is duly 
 acknowledged by a distribution of gifts. 
 This formality is termed " Ginetqu," i,e., an 
 arising^ after which the girl is considered 
 marriageable. 
 
 0» Most Indians are distinguished by 
 tattoo markings on their bodies, the im- 
 printing of which is a great event. These 
 markings generally represent some bird, 
 animal or reptile connected with the totem 
 of a clan or crest of the family, and on the 
 occasion of the tattooing it is usual to take 
 up some further articles of ancestral regalia 
 and another " naknog," besides the assump- 
 tion of a large amount of self-importance, 
 while a distribution of property is made on 
 a larger scale than hitherto. Only adults 
 are permitted to go through this ceremony, 
 as it leads to a position of some dignity in 
 the public estimation. The custom is 
 called " DUM YE," i.e., a starting- out. A 
 year afterwards a feast is given when the 
 marks are publicly shown and declared 
 " gwalgwa," i.e., dried or healed. 
 
 
 lO 
 
 I i 
 
* 
 
 K 
 
 7# In a few years' time the person, if 
 sufficiently well off to do so, goes through 
 a similar ceremony called " O'sk," probably 
 meaning Motion omvard^ at which what 
 the white man would call " a big potlatch " 
 is made. The right to wear some import- 
 ant crest is established on this occasion 
 with a further addition of regalia and, per- 
 haps, more tattoo markings. 
 
 8 After an Indian has performed " O'sk" 
 he may have to work hard for several years 
 in order to be able to take the next step, 
 which is called " Oiag," U., an arriving, 
 meaning, I suppose, an arriving at the posi- 
 tion of full membership in the clan. It is 
 much the same as Dumye and O'sk, but on 
 a larger scale, as to the acknowledgments 
 made to those assembled. Further clanship 
 privileges and dignity are conferred or 
 assumed, and the individual emerges a duly 
 enfranchised member of the Confederacy. 
 
 As such he is now free to take special 
 degrees of honor such as Mitla, Lu'lim, 
 Ulala and Unana. 
 
 The Mitla is a very simple dance affair, 
 containing nothing objectionable from a 
 moral point of view. 
 
 The Lu'lim is a dog-eating degree, when 
 the candidate, having made himself suffici- 
 ently mad in the woods — naked and fast- 
 ing for several days, joins the ceremonial 
 dance and tears a dog to pieces with his 
 teeth before the assembled company, after 
 which he distributes as much property as 
 he is able. 
 
 II 
 
 Z 
 
 ti4,i3 
 
The Ulala is a cannibal degree, that is 
 to say, the eating of human flesh is its 
 leading feature. It is not so bad as it used 
 to be when slaves were killed, I am told, 
 and dead bodies exhumed for the purpose. 
 The modern method is to get together as 
 much property as possible, fix the date for 
 the dance, then disappear into the woods 
 for a few days cloaked in a bearskin with 
 a bellows- whistle under each arm, and then 
 when the dance is on turn up in a fine 
 frenzy and start in biting those present. 
 On some the biter only leaves the marks 
 of his teeth, from others he will draw blood, 
 while perhaps from others, if he can afford 
 it, he will tear a piece of flesh away. After 
 this beastly fit of voluntary insanity (the 
 highest ambition of the young men !) he 
 will distribute h[s property among those 
 he has bitten according to the nature of 
 the bite inflicted. It is now two years 
 since the last Ulala dance was held on this 
 reservation. Let us hope it may never be 
 revived. 
 
 The Unana is a crockery-breaking honor 
 The candidate having been artistically 
 painted, kilted and feathered, is armed with 
 a club, works himself up into a towering 
 rage, and then proceeds on his mission of 
 destruction, stepping like a high-mettled 
 charger. Entering into each house he 
 goes foaming around breaking basins, 
 plates, lamps, or anything he sees, and 
 having completed his tour makes a grand 
 display of recompensing the owners. Men 
 who have gone through these degrees are 
 not to be lightly esteemed, they are 
 
 
 i 
 
 < 
 
 12 
 
^ 
 
 ■i 
 
 generally very proud and puffed up with 
 the glory they have acquired. 
 
 9, Another legal formality of import- 
 ance is the Llin. If from any cause an In- 
 dian has not been able to go through the 
 various formalities already enumerated he 
 is not considered a member of Indian so- 
 ciety proper, and as he cannot go back to 
 childhood and take them seriatim, he is 
 allowed to present himself in toto by means 
 of this provisionary statute called Llin, 
 which consists in obtaining the united 
 assent of the clans in the usual way. Many 
 Indians have renounced Christianity and 
 civilization by this means. If a man puts 
 away his wife, or a woman leaves her hus- 
 band, the divorce is completed by either 
 or both parties going through the Llin, 
 after which they are at liberty to marry 
 whom they please. And here I might 
 observe that if our civil law recognizes the 
 validity of Indian marriages contracted 
 according to Indian custom I do not see 
 how it can ignore the validity of this cus- 
 tom. I mention this as against, not in 
 favor of such recognition. Even an Indian 
 who has been married according to English 
 law may put away his wife, go back to the 
 heathen community, perform the Llin, take 
 another wife and go about freely without 
 any fear of our law interfering with his 
 liberty. This is one reason why the civil- 
 ized Indians wish to see the Potlatch 
 abolished. 
 
 10, And now we come to what is gen- 
 erally known as tfie Potlatch, but which is 
 
 13 
 
no more potlatch than any one of those 
 functions I have already mentioned. The 
 Nishga term is Yuqu, i.e., a holding, and 
 the ceremony is performed in connection 
 with the death of a chiefor other individual 
 of rank for the purpose of continuing his 
 name and position in the clan by his heir. 
 It differs in no way from O'sk or Oiag — 
 a feast and distribution of property, after 
 which the defunct chiefs nephew is acknow- 
 ledged as chief It is also considered 
 necessary for a chief to present himself 
 every four or five years in this manner in 
 order to continue the holding of his chief- 
 tainship by a renewal of the public expres- 
 sion of assent: 
 
 The building or rebuilding of a house is 
 also considered a necessary occasion for 
 making a potlatch, because it entails the 
 holding of a public position. There is 
 no such thing as giving a potlatch, as a 
 white m<.n gives a dinner or a ball just be- 
 cause he wishes to be sociable. A potlatch 
 must be for a purpose, and if there be no 
 leqal reason (according to Indian law) for 
 giving it, it cannot be given. Only as a 
 candidate for some public position can an 
 Indian appear before the electorate of the 
 Confederacy by making a potlatch. 
 
 II There is another formality connected 
 with the Yuqu called Hooks. A chief 
 usually gives a Hooks a year before his 
 potlatch comes off, but as far as I can see 
 it has no special significance except, per- 
 haps, that of putting the electorate in a 
 good humor. There is generally a good 
 deal of folly indulged in at a Hooks. 
 
 H 
 
There is also liable to be considerable 
 wanton (from our point of view) destruc- 
 tion of property if the friends of the chief 
 giving the Hooks take it into their heads 
 to do him honor. This they do by making 
 him presents of articles of clothing, etc., 
 but instead of putting them in his hand 
 they put them in the fire, where they are 
 quickly consumed. The chief then 
 and there makes return presents 
 also putting them in the fire, 
 amid rounds of applause. 
 To the Indian mind 
 this is all com- 
 me ilfaut. 
 
 ♦JI^AVING thus touched upon the 
 uj various ins and outs of the 
 Potlatch system let us consider 
 its influence upon the Indians. 
 
 Hmong those who practise, its influence 
 is baneful in the last degree ; it puffs up 
 while exhausting, and its victims while 
 being destroyed think they are being 
 established ; it presents an outward altru- 
 istic appearance, but is essentially egotis- 
 tic ; those who practise it think they are 
 the pick of benevolence, whereas in reality 
 they are most selfish ; it is fatal to all idea 
 of thrift and comfort in family life— to be 
 thrifty is to be bad, to be economical is 
 criminal ; it is destructive of individual 
 
 15 
 
liberty, and, consequently, of the develop- 
 ment of the race ; it is inimical to all social 
 progress and education ; although not a 
 religious system it is intensely repugnant 
 to religion, and the civilization of the In- 
 dian is an abomination to it ; it produces 
 such a strange condition of society that if 
 we can get in five years' work among the 
 people in twenty years we may claim to 
 do well ; it places our best actions in a 
 false light — while we think we are showing 
 kindness and charity to the poor and 
 needy we are in reality paying homage to 
 exalted personages ; our greetings, saluta- 
 tions and smiles very often appear in the 
 same light ; our efforts for the salvation of 
 souls are nothing less than a hunt for men 
 of title with which to adorn our missions, 
 while everything containing the element 
 of a free gift— and much of our work is of 
 that nature — is liable to appear in the light 
 of a " bid " for favor. 
 
 To a people socially organized on pot- 
 latch principles it would seem that every- 
 thing should be presented upside down 
 from our point of view in order to appear 
 right side up to them — refuse a thing, and 
 it at once becomes an object of desire, offer 
 it freely and it is worthless, or you have 
 an ulterior motive in offering it. 
 
 As to the Nishgas themselves, divest their 
 minds of this way of thinking and you have 
 really the nicest and best-natured people 
 imaginable. 
 
 1 must now say a few words about the 
 effect of the potlatch system upon those 
 
 i6 
 
 1 
 
 4 
 
 i> 
 
1 
 
 Indians who have come out on the side ot 
 religion and civilization. 
 
 If, after an Indian leaves the Confederacy 
 to join a mission, the potlatch would let 
 him alone all would be well. But it does 
 no such thing. If the man be a chief the 
 potlatch immediately usurps his chieftain- 
 ship, promotes another chief in his place, 
 takes away his name and title, and ignores 
 him. This is very hard for some men to 
 bear, not so much because of the humilia- 
 tion as because of the injustice. 
 
 If when a Christian Indian dies the pot- 
 latch would leave the matter alone much 
 heart- burning would be avoided. But it 
 does no such thing. If the deceased has 
 been a person of any social position some 
 heathen clansman is sure to make a pot- 
 latch for the corpse in order to take that 
 position, thus raising trouble among the 
 Christian relatives. 
 
 If the potlatch would leave their young 
 men alone the Christian Indians would not 
 be very much opposed to it. But it will 
 not leave them alone; it inveigles them 
 into heathenism, helps them to go through 
 with the Halaid or Llin, and ties them up 
 to debts from which they may not be able 
 to get free for years. 
 
 The civilized Indian occupies a strange 
 position. As far as his affairs are con- 
 cerned the white men — missionaries. Gov- 
 ernment officials and others, think of him 
 and act towards him as being one with 
 them in their laws and in the rights eman- 
 ating from those laws(c.f. the Indian Act), 
 
 17 
 
but with the Indian himself it is different. 
 He can only conceive of himself in his new 
 estate according as he finds himself sup- 
 ported for or against what he considers to 
 be his rights and wrongs. If, when he is 
 made to writhe under a sense of injustice, 
 and complains to us only to be snubbed, 
 or to have his grievance made light of 
 from our failure to comprehend them, is it 
 to be wondered at that he feels we have 
 no interest in his welfare? The civilized 
 Indian finds himself in a majority of two 
 to one on the Naas, and yet he cannot get 
 a hearing. He has appealed vainly to the 
 authorities to be relieved from the tyranny 
 of the potlatch, but he has not been under- 
 stood, and it has not been thought advis- 
 able to give him relief, hence it is that the 
 potlatch in a modernized, though no less 
 injurious form, is now becoming as it were 
 a necessity among the civilized Nishgas. 
 
 I do not mean to say the Government 
 has made no attempt to help in this mat- 
 ter ; it has done so, but in the most deplor- 
 able manner possible. It has passed a law 
 (49 V., c. 43, s. 114) prohibiting the pot- 
 latch on pain of six months' imprisonment, 
 but this law has never been enforced, and 
 this has had a very demoralizing effect 
 upon the Indians both Christian and 
 heathen. This is where my personal pro- 
 test comes in. 
 
 As to the law in question forbidding In- 
 dians to tear up blankets and distribute 
 property, it should never have been passed ; 
 first, because there is really no moral harm 
 in tearing up a blanket ; secondly, because 
 
 18 
 
 k 
 
J^ 
 
 tearing up blankets and giving away pre- 
 sents are not the disturbing factor of the 
 potlatch ; and thirdly, because tearing up 
 blankets and distributing property are not 
 in themselves an obstacle to Christianity 
 and civilization. The fact is the law should 
 not have been aimed altogether at the 
 heathen Indians ; it should have been 
 partly in favor of and partly in restraint of 
 the civilized community on whose petition 
 the legislation was made. 
 
 A chief wishing to become Christian and 
 civilized should have his rights assured to 
 him by law — the Potlatch should not be 
 allowed to deprive him of his rights. 
 
 The Christian dead should be made 
 sacred against all Potlatch interference. 
 
 An Indian having once left the Confed- 
 eracy and taken up his position on the side 
 of law, order and civilization, should not be 
 allowed to publicly renounce and so bring 
 into contempt his profession of Christianity 
 and civilization by means of the Potlatch. 
 No Indian married according to Eng- 
 lish law should be allowed to put away his 
 wife and marry another woman according 
 to Potlatch authority. The woman should 
 be restrained in like manner. 
 
 These are the lines upon which the law 
 against Potlatching should have been 
 framed, and on which it might, with great 
 advantage to the cause of education and 
 civilization, be amended. 
 
 It is the duty of everyone who has the 
 welfare of the Indian at heart to protest 
 against the present unsatisfactory state of 
 affairs. If the existing law is to be retained. 
 
 19 
 
enforce it ; if not, take it off the statute 
 book. But if it may not be repealed, let it 
 be amended ; and if it be amended, let it 
 be so amended that it shall touch the core 
 of the evil and ensure relief wiiere relief is 
 wanted, and restraint where restraint is 
 required. 
 
 ^1 
 
 I 
 
 49 Vict., c. 43, s. 114. 
 
 1. " Every Indian or person who engages in or assists in celebrat- 
 ing the Indian festival Icnown as the ' Potlatch,' or the Indian dance 
 known as the 'Tamanawas,' is guilty of a misdemeanor, and liable 
 to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months and not less 
 than two months. 
 
 2. " Every Indian or person w'.io encouiages, either directly or 
 indirectly, an Indian to get up such a festiival or dance, or to cele- 
 brate the same, or who assists in the celebration of the^ same, is 
 guilty of a like offence, and shall be liable to the same punishment." 
 47 v., c. 27, s. 3. 
 
 58-59 Vict., c. 35, s. 6. 
 
 " Section one hundred and fourteen of The Itidian Act is hereby 
 repealed and the following substituted therefor : — 
 
 " Every Indian or other person who engages in, or assists in cele- 
 brating, or encourages, either directly or indirectly, another to cele- 
 brate, anv Indian lestiva'., dance or other ceremony of which the 
 giving away or paying or giving back of money, good-* or articles of 
 any sort forms a part, or is a feature, whether such gift of money, 
 goods or articles takes place before, at, or after the celebration of 
 the same, and every Indian or other person who engages or assists 
 in any celebration or dance of which the wounding or mutilation of 
 the dead or living body of any human being or animal forms a part 
 or is a feature, is guilty of an indictable ofifencc and is liable to im- 
 prisonment for a term not exceeding six months and not less than 
 twc months; but nothing in this section shall be construed to pre- 
 vent the holding of any agricultural show or exhibition or the giving 
 of prizes for exhibits thereat." 
 
 Published by the Woman's Missionary Socibtv of 
 
 the Methodist Church, Wesley Buildings, 
 
 Toronto, Ont. Ten cents each ; 
 
 one dollar per dozen. 
 
 20 
 
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