User talk:Haaxw

Potlatch is a form and a process that serves to develop indigenous societies around the simple principle of the kitchen, or the hearth. The kitchen is the nerve center of the Family, and in ancient times when large extended Families and Clans occupied Longhouses, the necessity of eating enabled the head Chief to assert control and to maintain jurisdiction over the people and the territory. As a population increased and communities became more complex, the idea was to hold a community meal where all of the necessary business was done. The next step in the evolution of the ceremony observed on Contact was to repeat the process by inviting surrounding Villages to attend to eat and speak and be entertained. Everything that needed to be done to regulate the People's lives was carried out in front of the Titled witnesses, and it should be noted that the objective of Potlatch was to keep the general peace of the known world.

Potlatch is said to be a Chinook word. Chinook was a trader's language that served as Lingua Franca for the complex communities that formed on the Pacific coast during the occupation by Europeans (Euro). Potlatch came from the Northern matrix of advanced Tribes that owned Haida Gwaii, the Skeena and Nass Rivers, and the Inside Passage Archipelago, all the way down to Comox BC., with satellites among the Salish of Puget Sound and further down the coast to Oregon. The Fraser Salish were resisting the system when the Euro arrived, and together with the Euro, were able to halt the expansion of the culture outward from the Haida/Skeena capital. The affix 'Kit', or 'Kaat', can be observed in the names of the People and of their Villages, all the way from Alaska to Washington (Kitksan, Kitamaat, Kitsalano, Kitsap, etc). Potlatch is derived from the word for three in the Kitksan/Tsimsian language; Haida call all the Mainland People Kgelatl' and that sound caught on when the Inviter/Announcer shouted out the Titles and Nationalities of the Northern Aristocrats: "Kgelatl! Tsalmkgekaat Haaxw, or Delgamuukw, or Skidegate", for example, and so those from other Tribes remembered this exclaimed Title that covered most Hosts and many guests. The source of the prefixed ‘Pot’ is self-evident in a feast situation. Any connection with 'Potluck' probably grew out of the popular use of the term Potlatch so neither word has a real etymology but instead come from the combination of the phonetics with the whole cooking and eating atmosphere.

The power of Potlatch is still present. This must be recognized because history has begun to eclipse the Church-State complex that felt such a need to criminalize this culture. With the decline of Euro Religion and the failing of the Nation-State system, Potlatch offers means of bringing the planetary population into a single center of government. Haaxw is spearheading revival of the Religion and the Function.

Potlatch must be understood in the context of ecology. It is said in Skidegate that the first potlatch took place at Naiquoon, or Rose Spit on the North Beach of Graham Island, the northernmost of the Queen Charlotte island group. Jaat Kos Andl'ins, Ancestress of the Eagle Clan landed there during a strong north wind that also washed tons and tons of every kind of seafood up to the tide line. By taking credit for the bonanza She then allowed others to share the food in exchange for recognizing Her Title to the beach. Later when the People wanted to form central Villages, She chose to locate in Skidegate rather than at Masset, which is closer. By settling in the center of the Islands Jaat Kos Andl'ins was able to build a new unity among the three surviving Groups, the Southern, the Northern and the Alaskan Kaigani, and following this they all decided to be known as Haida. The ripple-, and trickle-down effect of this wealth, and the development of the Aristocracy, created the Hereditary Hierarchies that then spread to the Mainland and up the Skeena River. This unique and intelligent use of the resources was a perfect fit with the cyclical rounds of harvests, enabling Chiefs to control their People and to justify their claims of absolute ownership of Rivers, Mountains and other sites and fishing-grounds.

This description of Potlatch explains the claims of the Chiefs to be Ecologists. One can imagine a Chief inviting others to Potlatch where they are advised to respect the ancient Titles because failure to do so would cause eventual famine. The reported rivalries are logical in this setting. The highest Titles controlled the best sources of food and other products. On the death of a Chief there would be two or more claimants trying to gain control of the Title and they would 'bid' against each other for the Estate. The successful Chief would have displayed greater competence to be the Successor by distributing the most accumulated wealth to the rest of the People, not unlike modern Politicians. Witnessing guests would have heard the claims and accepted the payment of their 'hawal', as proof of the event and evidence of their obligation to respect and reciprocate the Chief's jurisdiction.

Potlatch kept peace by introducing alternatives to violence when a neighbor or neighboring Village became short of food. Potlatch allowed the display of Crests that were global to the whole coast, showing who was in one's own House or in another house, allowing everyone to keep to their own grounds. On visiting another community an Eagle would seek out the Totem or the Paintings of the Eagles in this other town.

The authority for the foregoing is personal experience. Haaxw was born in 1943 and lived throughout the Haida/Tsalmsian Empire all his life, engaging in Potlatch and noting how all of the activity formed a single cultural cosmology. Haaxw is the second named Tsalmkgekaat in Delgamuukw versus the Queen. A former Haaxw, this writer's father, raised his Totem Pole twice: once at Kispiox, and then after his first wife died and that Village turned against him, he moved it to Kitanmaax where it still stands as the last of the Totems Potlatched during the interdiction of Potlatch.

This 'Haaxw', the writer, intends to revive the whole Potlatch by means of modern technology and by teaching the true World Religion that underlies Potlatch.

The rumor that Chiefs destroyed valuable property is explained two ways: Euro impact brought widespread death among the People and when the population fell there was more of everything then the number of recipients to Potlatch. If it really happened it was an anomalous reaction to conflict with Euro presence. It has to be acknowledged as well, that Euro felt the need to ridicule those who they wanted to displace. The Ideology of Potlatch has to be adjusted for the period between 1880, when the Potlatch Law was passed, and 1951 when it was suspended.

The Residential Schools atrocities were perpetrated in concert with the Legislated Act to drive the Indian out of Potlatch and out of the children. Potlatch never stopped but became derogated by the pressure of Euro and the deviousness of the Colonial regimes. Section 35, Constitution Act 1982 certifies Potlatch again and the system must be granted support to get going again.