Academics as Colonialists 2

Dan Cranmer’s Potlatch

• December 1922

• Village Island, Alert Bay BC

• “Kwakiutl” or Kwakwaka’wakw

After the Cranmer Potlatch

• Sgt D Angermann of RCMP investigates

• Reports to Indian Agent Halliday

• 49 convictions under Section 149 of the Indian Act

• 22 2-month jail sentences

• 4 6-month jail sentences

• 23 suspended sentences

After the Cranmer Potlatch

• ceremonial regalia confiscated

• ceremonial masks passed on to– Museum of Civilisation, Ottawa– ROM Toronto

• only returned in 1987

Banning Potlatch

• BC Missionaries and their Indian converts call for potlatch to be banned

• From 1884, section added to Indian Act, banning potlatch

• Act vague on what constitutes potlatch

• Potlatch an indictable offence, prison terms

Banning Potlatch

• 1895 Potlatch more carefully defined by Indian Act

• 1914 wearing of aboriginal costumes at ceremonies severely restricted

• 1918 Potlatch a summary offense: Indian Agent can jail you on the spot.

• Ban continues until 1951 when it is quietly dropped

Christopher Bracken

• Potlatch Papers (1997)

Christopher Bracken

• Potlatch invented by C19th Canadian Law

• Reports from missionaries, anthropologists etc., used to create fictions about BC coast First Nations– Indians smash things at Potlatches– Tales of cannibalism at Potlatches– Tales of wastefulness and carelessness

Christopher Bracken

• Banning of Potlatch tells us more about European anxieties than about First Nations culture

• Potlatch really offended European sensibilities– Indians didn’t appear to value property

“correctly”

Modern Potlatches

• Last for several days, usually scheduled for weekends

• Guest list in the hundreds

• $10,000 and up for food:– guests eat several full meals

• Gifts of baskets, regalia, coppers plus consumer goods

Franz Boas (1858-1942)

• “Father of American Anthropology”

• Trained a lot of famous anthropologists

• German-Jewish immigrant to US

Franz Boas

• Advocated field research (a new idea then)

• Culture determines people, not race/genes

• Made his academic career studying aboriginals– especially the Kwakiutl 1886-1920

Franz Boas

• Although he opposed the banning of Potlatch, his papers were used as evidence by Government of Canada to justify banning potlatch

• His anthropology made it easier to define potlatch legally

Academics as Colonialists

• Museums gaining collections of NW coast aboriginal artefacts through the banning of Potlatch

• Academics making their careers around the misinterpretation of aboriginal culture

• Academic research being used to impose coercive policy on First Nations