Panting Wolf Post, Sitka, Alaska
This is the original Panting Wolf Post, which was edicated at the last potlatch held on Japonski Island near Sitka on December 23, 1904. Today it is on display indoors at the Sitka National Historical Park in Sitka, Alaska.
=======================================================
Potlatches
Potlatches are among the most distinctive cultural expressions of the Native American peoples of the Northwest Pacific Coasts of the United States and Canada.
Practiced by communities as far north as the Ingalik of Central Alaska and as far south as the Makah of Washington State, they are perhaps best known among the Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Nootka, Salish, and Kwakwaka’wakw peoples.
Potlatches are extravagant feasts where goods are given away or sometimes destroyed to enhance social prestige. The basic principle underlying the potlatch is reciprocity and balance as the host clan regales the clans from the opposite moiety with songs, dances, speeches, food, and gifts. Traditionally, they take place in very specific cultural contexts such as a memorial for a deceased relative, the rebuilding of a clan house, or the dedication of a totem pole.
Today, potlatches are also held for other reasons such as marking important anniversaries, graduations, and personal accomplishments. Among the Tlingit, however, the memorial potlatch (koo.éex’) remains the principal one.
As Sergei Kan points out, they are not just about representing the social order; they also constitute key cultural values and principles of honor and mutual support. By hosting elaborate potlatches, individuals and clans maintain and gain status and recogni-tion within the community. The potlatch is thus a complex and multi-layered communication system where participants express their relationships among themselves, with their ancestors, and with their future generations.
Although there is variation across communities, memorial potlatches are structured according to a standard protocol. They generally begin with the hosts welcoming the guests, and they quickly move into the mourning period where the hosts sing mourning songs.
To alleviate their hosts’ grief, the guest clans immediately respond by singing songs, holding up their clan at.óow, and making consolation speeches. The potlatch then shifts to a more celebra-tory and joyous mood with dancing, the distribution of individual “fire dishes” of food for the ancestors,and the serving of a traditional meal.
At this time, the hosts distribute food and small gifts and recognize individual guests with gifts of fruit baskets. Throughout this period the guests and family members give small amounts of money to members of the host clan with whom they have a special relationship. The hosts gather this money and announce each gift, and they then give new clan names to newborn children and individuals being adopted.
Near the end of the potlatch, the hosts publicly recognize everyone who helped and supported them in their time of grief with a gift of money and sometimes a special gift such as a blanket. After all the money and gifts have been distributed, the guests generally perform a closing dance to thank the hosts.
At the turn of the 20th century, the Tlingit people experienced profound social changes. U.S. citizenship, social justice, and Christianity were topics of popular debate. Some clan chiefs and housemasters became convinced that the time had come for their people to abandon their old traditions and customs.
In Sitka, the territorial capital of Alaska, 80 Christian Indians, many of them Presbyterians, formed an organization called the “New Covenant League” that eventually became the Alaska Native Brotherhood and Alaska Native Sisterhood. The league was committed to ending such customs as plural marriages, inter-clan indemnity claims, uncle-nephew inheritance laws, and potlatching.
In 1902, several members approached Governor John G. Brady, a former Presbyterian missionary, and requested that he issue a proclamation that would “command all natives to changed and that if they did not they should be punished.”
Like other missionaries and government officials, Governor Brady considered the potlatch a practice that perpetuated prejudice, superstition, clan rivalry, and retarded progress.
He was committed to breaking up the offensive clan system and replacing it with the independent family unit, but he was not eager to impose legal sanctions.
Therefore, in a dramatic gesture, Brady decided to endorse one “last potlatch” at Sitka where Tlingit people from across southeast Alaska could gather and discuss their future. He appealed to the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Ethan Allen Hitchcock, to secure the necessary funds with the justification that the event would “result in a lasting good to the people them-selves and would save the United States many thou-sands of dollars in the way of criminal prosecution.”
One of the most prominent members of the New Covenant League was James Jackson (Anaaxoots), the head of the Kaagwaantaan clan. Other likely members were Augustus Bean (K’alyaan Eesh), Paddy Parker (Yaanaxnahoo), and Jacob Yarkon (Xeitxut’ch)—all high-ranking members of the Sitka Kaagwaantaan clan and part of the new vanguard of wealthy, educated Tlingit, who had been Brady’s allies and had served on the Indian Police Force.
Obligated to host a major potlatch, but not wanting to jeopardize their good relations with Brady, they endorsed his last potlatch idea and agreed to serve as hosts.
The “last potlatch” was held on December 23, 1904, and lasted four weeks. It officially began with the grand arrival at Japonski Island (just south of Sitka) of the Raven side guests in traditional dugout canoes flying American flags.
The Raven clans included the Deisheetaan of Angoon, the T’akdeintaan of Huna, and the Gaanaxteidí of Klukwan. The potlatch consisted of consecutive days of alternating feasts and dancing.
The Kaagwaantaan clan hosts honored their guests with great quantities of food. According to the Daily Alaskan (Dec. 29, 1904),“Every morning and afternoon there is a great feast and only one article is served …. At the feasts the man or woman who can eat the most is regarded as the special hero of the occasion and he receives an extra allowance of the good things it is within the power of the hosts to bestow.”
The Kaagwaantaan clan hosts affirmed their social status by dedicating five monumental wooden carvings. They dedicated the Multiplying Wolf screen and two house posts carved by Silver Jim (Kichxook) and installed them in James Jackson’s Wolf house. They installed two other Wolf posts carved by Rudolf Walton in Augustus Bean’s Eagle house. The Panting Wolf house post was raised up by pulleys and attached to the front of Jacob Yarkon’s World house.
They publicly validated all these objects with proper Tlingit protocol. For example, the Daily Alaskan (Jan. 13, 1905) reported that Chilkoot Jack received $270 in cash, 100 blankets, 10 large boxes of provi-sions, and 7 coal oil cans filled with candlefish oil.
Governor Brady had hoped that his “last potlatch” would help end clan factionalism and further his assimilationist agenda. Ironically, it seems to have had the opposite effect.
The Daily Alaskan (Dec. 29, 1904) observed that “one of the results of the potlatch has been to create enthusiasm among those Indians who still profess faith in the beliefs, superstitions, traditions and customs of the natives, as opposed to those who have forsaken them for the Christian faith.”
Many of the traditionalists used the potlatch to educate the younger generation: “the old Indians who never took kindly to the white man’s religion are happy, and they are using the opportunity to impress upon the younger members of the tribe what they regard as the necessity of maintaining their old customs and traditions.”
Although they were sympathetic to some of Brady’s goals, it is clear that the Kaagwaantaan clan leaders did not support the end of potlatching.
According to anthropologist Sergei Kan, unpublished records in Sitka’s Presbyterian archives indicate, for instance, that James Jackson continued to practice “the old customs” after 1904.
Indeed, the Tlingit people never fully abandoned potlatching. Many communities continued the practice in secret or masked it by combining it with American holidays and social events. These covert strategies seem to have placated Governor Brady since potlatching was never outlawed, as it was in Canada. Today memorial potlatching is enjoying a strong resurgence, and the CCTHITA maintains a calendar of these events.
Panting Wolf Post, Sitka, Alaska
This is the original Panting Wolf Post, which was edicated at the last potlatch held on Japonski Island near Sitka on December 23, 1904. Today it is on display indoors at the Sitka National Historical Park in Sitka, Alaska.
=======================================================
Potlatches
Potlatches are among the most distinctive cultural expressions of the Native American peoples of the Northwest Pacific Coasts of the United States and Canada.
Practiced by communities as far north as the Ingalik of Central Alaska and as far south as the Makah of Washington State, they are perhaps best known among the Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Nootka, Salish, and Kwakwaka’wakw peoples.
Potlatches are extravagant feasts where goods are given away or sometimes destroyed to enhance social prestige. The basic principle underlying the potlatch is reciprocity and balance as the host clan regales the clans from the opposite moiety with songs, dances, speeches, food, and gifts. Traditionally, they take place in very specific cultural contexts such as a memorial for a deceased relative, the rebuilding of a clan house, or the dedication of a totem pole.
Today, potlatches are also held for other reasons such as marking important anniversaries, graduations, and personal accomplishments. Among the Tlingit, however, the memorial potlatch (koo.éex’) remains the principal one.
As Sergei Kan points out, they are not just about representing the social order; they also constitute key cultural values and principles of honor and mutual support. By hosting elaborate potlatches, individuals and clans maintain and gain status and recogni-tion within the community. The potlatch is thus a complex and multi-layered communication system where participants express their relationships among themselves, with their ancestors, and with their future generations.
Although there is variation across communities, memorial potlatches are structured according to a standard protocol. They generally begin with the hosts welcoming the guests, and they quickly move into the mourning period where the hosts sing mourning songs.
To alleviate their hosts’ grief, the guest clans immediately respond by singing songs, holding up their clan at.óow, and making consolation speeches. The potlatch then shifts to a more celebra-tory and joyous mood with dancing, the distribution of individual “fire dishes” of food for the ancestors,and the serving of a traditional meal.
At this time, the hosts distribute food and small gifts and recognize individual guests with gifts of fruit baskets. Throughout this period the guests and family members give small amounts of money to members of the host clan with whom they have a special relationship. The hosts gather this money and announce each gift, and they then give new clan names to newborn children and individuals being adopted.
Near the end of the potlatch, the hosts publicly recognize everyone who helped and supported them in their time of grief with a gift of money and sometimes a special gift such as a blanket. After all the money and gifts have been distributed, the guests generally perform a closing dance to thank the hosts.
At the turn of the 20th century, the Tlingit people experienced profound social changes. U.S. citizenship, social justice, and Christianity were topics of popular debate. Some clan chiefs and housemasters became convinced that the time had come for their people to abandon their old traditions and customs.
In Sitka, the territorial capital of Alaska, 80 Christian Indians, many of them Presbyterians, formed an organization called the “New Covenant League” that eventually became the Alaska Native Brotherhood and Alaska Native Sisterhood. The league was committed to ending such customs as plural marriages, inter-clan indemnity claims, uncle-nephew inheritance laws, and potlatching.
In 1902, several members approached Governor John G. Brady, a former Presbyterian missionary, and requested that he issue a proclamation that would “command all natives to changed and that if they did not they should be punished.”
Like other missionaries and government officials, Governor Brady considered the potlatch a practice that perpetuated prejudice, superstition, clan rivalry, and retarded progress.
He was committed to breaking up the offensive clan system and replacing it with the independent family unit, but he was not eager to impose legal sanctions.
Therefore, in a dramatic gesture, Brady decided to endorse one “last potlatch” at Sitka where Tlingit people from across southeast Alaska could gather and discuss their future. He appealed to the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Ethan Allen Hitchcock, to secure the necessary funds with the justification that the event would “result in a lasting good to the people them-selves and would save the United States many thou-sands of dollars in the way of criminal prosecution.”
One of the most prominent members of the New Covenant League was James Jackson (Anaaxoots), the head of the Kaagwaantaan clan. Other likely members were Augustus Bean (K’alyaan Eesh), Paddy Parker (Yaanaxnahoo), and Jacob Yarkon (Xeitxut’ch)—all high-ranking members of the Sitka Kaagwaantaan clan and part of the new vanguard of wealthy, educated Tlingit, who had been Brady’s allies and had served on the Indian Police Force.
Obligated to host a major potlatch, but not wanting to jeopardize their good relations with Brady, they endorsed his last potlatch idea and agreed to serve as hosts.
The “last potlatch” was held on December 23, 1904, and lasted four weeks. It officially began with the grand arrival at Japonski Island (just south of Sitka) of the Raven side guests in traditional dugout canoes flying American flags.
The Raven clans included the Deisheetaan of Angoon, the T’akdeintaan of Huna, and the Gaanaxteidí of Klukwan. The potlatch consisted of consecutive days of alternating feasts and dancing.
The Kaagwaantaan clan hosts honored their guests with great quantities of food. According to the Daily Alaskan (Dec. 29, 1904),“Every morning and afternoon there is a great feast and only one article is served …. At the feasts the man or woman who can eat the most is regarded as the special hero of the occasion and he receives an extra allowance of the good things it is within the power of the hosts to bestow.”
The Kaagwaantaan clan hosts affirmed their social status by dedicating five monumental wooden carvings. They dedicated the Multiplying Wolf screen and two house posts carved by Silver Jim (Kichxook) and installed them in James Jackson’s Wolf house. They installed two other Wolf posts carved by Rudolf Walton in Augustus Bean’s Eagle house. The Panting Wolf house post was raised up by pulleys and attached to the front of Jacob Yarkon’s World house.
They publicly validated all these objects with proper Tlingit protocol. For example, the Daily Alaskan (Jan. 13, 1905) reported that Chilkoot Jack received $270 in cash, 100 blankets, 10 large boxes of provi-sions, and 7 coal oil cans filled with candlefish oil.
Governor Brady had hoped that his “last potlatch” would help end clan factionalism and further his assimilationist agenda. Ironically, it seems to have had the opposite effect.
The Daily Alaskan (Dec. 29, 1904) observed that “one of the results of the potlatch has been to create enthusiasm among those Indians who still profess faith in the beliefs, superstitions, traditions and customs of the natives, as opposed to those who have forsaken them for the Christian faith.”
Many of the traditionalists used the potlatch to educate the younger generation: “the old Indians who never took kindly to the white man’s religion are happy, and they are using the opportunity to impress upon the younger members of the tribe what they regard as the necessity of maintaining their old customs and traditions.”
Although they were sympathetic to some of Brady’s goals, it is clear that the Kaagwaantaan clan leaders did not support the end of potlatching.
According to anthropologist Sergei Kan, unpublished records in Sitka’s Presbyterian archives indicate, for instance, that James Jackson continued to practice “the old customs” after 1904.
Indeed, the Tlingit people never fully abandoned potlatching. Many communities continued the practice in secret or masked it by combining it with American holidays and social events. These covert strategies seem to have placated Governor Brady since potlatching was never outlawed, as it was in Canada. Today memorial potlatching is enjoying a strong resurgence, and the CCTHITA maintains a calendar of these events.