Potlatch ban

Many people wearing masks
Example of masks of Kwakwaka'wakw potlatch that were seized under Potlatch ban

The potlatch ban was legislation forbidding the practice of the potlatch passed by the Government of Canada, begun in 1885 and lasting until 1951.[1]

Some first Nations saw the law as an instrument of intolerance and injustice.[2] "Second only to the taking of land without extinguishing Indian title; the outlawing of the potlatch can be seen as the extreme to which Euro-Canadian society used its dominance against its aboriginal subjects in British Columbia."[2] Other first Nation groups supported the bans.[3]

Though often ignored and circumvented, the ban remained in Canadian legal codes until 1951, when Section 149 was deleted from a revision of the Indian Act. Arrests for charges under the Act were few until 1921, when a raid on the village of Memkumlis held by Chief Dan Cranmer saw the arrest and charges laid against 45 people; of these 22 were given suspended sentences (three were remanded on appeal) and 20 men and women sent to Oakalla Prison in Burnaby. The sentences were two months for first offenders and three months for second offenders.[4]

  1. ^ Lutz 1992, p. 28
  2. ^ a b Cole & Chaikin 1990, p. 1
  3. ^ Bracken, Christopher (December 8, 1997). The Potlach papers: A colonial case history (1st ed.). University of Chicago Press. p. 78.
  4. ^ Griffin 2016