Kwakwaka'wakw

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Kwakwaka'wakw
Total population
5,500
Regions with significant populations
Canada (British Columbia)
Languages
English, Kwak'wala
Religions

The Kwakwaka'wakw (also Kwakiutl) are an Indigenous nation, one of the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast. They live in British Columbia on northern Vancouver Island and the mainland, and number approximately 5,500. Kwakwaka'wakw translates into "Kwak'wala speaking tribes," describing the collective tribes within their nation. Their language, now spoken by less than 5% of the population (about 250 people), is Kwak'wala. The Kwakwaka'wakw are known for their history, culture and art. In recent years, the Kwakwaka'wakw have been active on the revitalization of their culture and language.

The Kwakwaka'wakw are made up of 17 tribes who all speak the common language of kwak'wala. Their society was highly stratified, with three main classes, determined by heredity: nobles, commoners, and slaves. Their economy was based primarily on fishing, with the men also engaging in some hunting, and the women gathering wild fruits and berries. Ornate weaving and woodwork were important crafts, and wealth, defined by slaves and material goods, was prominently displayed and traded at potlatch ceremonies. These customs were the subject of extensive study by the anthropologist Franz Boas. In contrast to European societies, wealth was not determined by how much you had, but by how much you had to give away. This act of giving away your wealth was one of the main acts in a potlatch.

Name

The name Kwakiutl was applied to a group of indigenous peoples of northern Vancouver Island, Queen Charlotte Strait, and the Johnstone Strait; they are now known as Kwakwaka'wakw, which means Kwak'wala-speaking-peoples. The term "Kwakiutl," created by anthropologist Franz Boas, was widely used into the 1980s. It comes from one of the Kwakwaka'wakw tribes, the Kwagu'ł, at Fort Rupert, with whom Boas did most of his work and whose Indian Act band government is the Kwakiutl First Nation. The term was misapplied to mean all the tribes who spoke Kwak'wala, as well as three other indigenous peoples whose language is a part of the Wakashan linguistic group, but whose language is not Kwak'wala. These peoples, incorrectly known as the Northern Kwakiutl, are the Haisla, Wuikinuxv, and Heiltsuk.

History

Wawadit'la, also known as Mungo Martin House, a Kwakwaka'wakw "big house," with totem pole. Built by Chief Mungo Martin in 1953. Located at Thunderbird Park in Victoria, British Columbia. "Rather than display his own crests on the pole, which was customary, Martin chose to include crests representing the A'wa'etlala, Kwagu'l, 'Nak'waxda'xw and 'Namgis Nations. In this way, the pole represents and honors all the Kwakwaka'wakw people."

The ancient homeland of the Kwakwaka'wakw was in Vancouver Island, smaller islands, and the adjacent coastland that is now part of British Columbia, Canada.

The Tribes

Kwakwaka'wakw were historically organized into 17 different tribes. Each tribe has its own clans, chiefs, history, and culture, but remain collectively similar to the rest of the Kwaka'wala speaking tribes. After European contact, some tribes became extinct, and others have been merged into communities or First Nations band governments.

Contact with Europeans

In the 1700s, Russian, British, and American trading ships visited the Kwakwaka'wakw territory. The first documented contact was with Captain George Vancouver in 1792. The settlement of Victoria on Vancouver Island in 1843 was the turning point in European impact on Kwakwaka'wakw life.

Diseases brought by Europeans drastically reduced the indigenous Kwakwaka'wakw population during the late nineteenth to early twentieth century. Alcohol, missionaries and the banning of potlatches in 1884 significantly changed Kwakwaka'wakw culture. When anthropologist Franz Boas began his research on the Kwakwaka'wakw people, he was met with suspicion as they had learned that white people intended to change their lifestyle. O’wax̱a̱laga̱lis, Chief of the Kwagu'ł Fort Rupert Tribes, when he met Boas on October 7, 1886 said:

We want to know whether you have come to stop our dances and feasts, as the missionaries and agents who live among our neighbors try to do. We do not want to have anyone here who will interfere with our customs. We were told that a man-of-war would come if we should continue to do as our grandfathers and great-grandfathers have done. But we do not mind such words. Is this the white man’s land? We are told it is the Queen’s land, but no! It is mine.

Where was the Queen when our God gave this land to my grandfather and told him, “This will be thine?” My father owned the land and was a mighty Chief; now it is mine. And when your man-of-war comes, let him destroy our houses. Do you see yon trees? Do you see yon woods? We shall cut them down and build new houses and live as our fathers did.

We will dance when our laws command us to dance, and we will feast when our hearts desire to feast. Do we ask the white man, “Do as the Indian does?” It is a strict law that bids us dance. It is a strict law that bids us distribute our property among our friends and neighbors. It is a good law. Let the white man observe his law; we shall observe ours. And now, if you come to forbid us dance, be gone. If not, you will be welcome to us. (original 1930).

Culture

Kwakwaka'wakw canoe welcoming with masks and traditional dug out cedar canoes. On bow is dancer in Bear regalia.

The Kwakwaka'wakw are a highly stratified bilineal culture of the Pacific Northwest. The Kwakwaka'wakw as a whole make up 17 separate tribes, each with their own history, culture, and governance.

Generally, their culture was typical of Northwest Coast Indians. Their houses were made from cedar-plank. They were very large, up to 100 feet (30 m), and could hold about 50 people, usually families from the same clan. In the entrance, there was usually a totem pole decorated with crests belonging to their family and clan.

Nakoaktok warrior, from The North American Indian by Edward S. Curtis

Kwakwak'wakw canoe welcoming with ocean going canoes.

Kwakwaka'wakw transportation was like other coastal peoples. Being an ocean and coastal people, their main way of travel was by canoe. Cedar dug out canoes, made from one cedar log, would carved to be used by individuals, families, and tribes. Sizes varied from ocean-going canoes for long sea-worthy travel for trading, to smaller local canoes for inter-village travel.

The Kwakwaka'wakw were excellent hunters, fishers, and gatherers. Living in the coastal regions seafood was a staple of their diet, supplemented by berries. Salmon was a major catch during spawning season when the salmon would be swimming upriver. In addition, they sometimes went whale harpooning on trips that could last many days.

Kwakwak'wakw man in historical cedar bark clothing, fishing on the water.

The Kwakwaka'wakw shared many cultural and political alliances with numerous neighbors in the area including the Nuu-chah-nulth, Heiltsuk, Wuikinuxv and some Coast Salish.

Language

Kwak'wala is the Indigenous language spoken by the Kwakwaka'wakw. It belongs to the Wakashan language family. The ethnonym Kwakwaka'wakw literally means "speakers of Kwak'wala," effectively defining an ethnic connection by reference to a shared language. However, the Kwak'wala spoken by each of the surviving tribes with Kwak'wala speakers exhibits dialectical differences from that spoken by other tribes. There are four major dialects which are unambiguously dialects of Kwak'wala: Kwak̓wala, ’Nak̓wala, G̱uc̓ala and T̓łat̓łasik̓wala.

In addition to these dialects, there are also Kwakwaka'wakw tribes that speak Liq'wala. Liq'wala has sometimes been considered to be a dialect of Kwak'wala, and sometimes a separate language. The standard orthography for Liq'wala is quite different from the most widely-used orthography for Kwak'wala, which tends to widen the apparent differences between Liq'wala and Kwak'wala.

The Kwak'wala language is a part of the Wakashan language group. Word lists and some documentation of Kwak'wala were created from the early period of contact with Europeans in the eighteenth century, but a systematic attempt to record the language did not occur before the work of Franz Boas in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.The use of Kwak'wala declined significantly in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, mainly due to the assimilationist policies of the Canadian government, and above all the mandatory attendance of Kwakwa'wakw children at residential schools. Although Kwak'wala and Kwakwaka'wakw culture have been well-studied by linguists and anthropologists, these efforts did not reverse the trends leading to language loss. According to Guy Buchholtzer, "The anthropological discourse had too often become a long monologue, in which the Kwakwaka'wakw had nothing to say." As a result of these pressures, there are relatively few Kwak'wala speakers today, and most remaining speakers are past the age of child-rearing, which is considered crucial for language transmission. As with many other indigenous languages, there are significant barriers to language revitalization.

There are about 250 Kwak'wala speakers today, which amounts to five percent of the Kwakwaka'wakw population. Because of the small number of speakers, and the fact that very few children learn Kwak'wala as a first language, its long-term viability is in question. However, interest from many Kwakwaka'wakw in preserving their language and a number of revitalization projects are countervailing pressures which may extend the viability of the language.

Social structure

Kwagu'ł girl wearing abalone shell earings. Abalone shell earings were a sign of nobility and only worn by members of this class.

Kwakwa'wakw society was assembled into four classes, the nobility, attaining through birthright and connection in lineage to ancestors, the aristocracy who attained status through connection to wealth, resources, or spiritual powers which all would be displayed or distributed in the potlatch, the commoner, and the slaves. On the nobility class, "the noble was recognized as the literal conduit between the social and spiritual domains, birth right alone was not enough to secure rank: only individuals displaying the correct moral behavior throughout their life course could maintain ranking status."

Commonly among the tribes, there would be a tribal chief, who acted as the head chief of the entire tribe, then below him numerous clan or family chiefs. In some of the tribes, there also existed Eagle Chiefs, but this was a separate society within the main society and applied to the potlatching only. The Kwakwaka'wakw are one of the few bilineal cultures. Traditionally the rights of the family would be passed down through the paternal side, but in rare occasions, one could take the maternal side of their family also.

Potlatch

Showing of masks at Kwakwaka'wakw potlatch.

The potlatch culture of the Northwest, of which the Kwakwaka'wakw were prominent in celebrating and are the main group who continue to do so today, is famous and widely-studied. It takes the form of a ceremonial feast traditionally featuring seal meat or salmon to commemorate an important event, such as the death of a high-status person, but expanded over time to celebrate events in the life cycle of the host family, such as the birth of a child, the start of a daughter's menstrual cycle, and even the marriage of children.

Through the potlatch, hierarchical relations within and between groups were observed and reinforced through the exchange of gifts, dance performances, and other ceremonies. The host family demonstrated their wealth and prominence through giving away their possessions and thus prompting prominent participants to reciprocate when they held their own potlatches.

The potlatch was a key target in assimilation policies and agendas. Missionary William Duncan wrote in 1875 that the potlatch was “by far the most formidable of all obstacles in the way of Indians becoming Christians, or even civilized.” Thus in 1885, the Indian Act was revised to include clauses banning the potlatch and making its practice illegal. Legislation was then expanded to include guest who participated in the ceremony. However, enforcement was difficult and Duncan Campbell Scott convinced Parliament to change the offense from criminal to summary, which meant ‘the agents, as justice of the peace, could try a case, convict, and sentence.”

Arts

Totem poles in front of homes in Alert Bay in the 1900s

In the old times, the art “symbolized the essential consanguinity of all living beings beneath the mask of their particular species.”

Totem poles

Kwakiutl Totem, Montréal, Quebec

Totem poles are monumental sculptures carved from great trees, typically Western Redcedar, by a number of Northwest Coast Indians including the Kwakwaka'wakw. Totem poles may recount familiar legends, clan lineages, or notable events. Some poles are erected to celebrate cultural beliefs, but others are intended mostly as artistic presentations. Poles are also carved to illustrate stories, to commemorate historic persons, to represent shamanic powers, and to provide objects of public ridicule.

The "totems" on the poles are any animal, plant, or other object, natural or supernatural, which provides deeply symbolic meaning for the family or clan. A totem is revered and respected, but not necessarily worshipped. Totem poles were never objects of worship; the association with "idol worship" was an idea from local Christian missionaries who regarded the totem pole, along with the potlatch, as an aspect of their lifestyle that needed to be eradicated in order to fully "Christianize" the people.

Today, totem poles are recognized as an amazing artistic form, and carvers are again respected as playing a valuable role not only in the Kwakwaka'wakw culture but in other societies.

Music

Kwakwaka'wakw music is an ancient art form, stretching back thousands of years. The music is used primarily for ceremony and ritual, and is based around percussive instrumentation, especially, log, box, and hide drums, as well as rattles and whistles. The four-day Klasila festival is an important cultural display of song and dance, occuring just before the advent of the tsetseka, or winter.

Mythology

Kwakwaka'wakw house pole representing a female Dzunukwa, 19th century

As the Kwakwaka'wakw are made up of all the Kwak'wala speaking tribes, a variety of beliefs, stories, and practices exist. Some origin stories belong to only one specific tribe. However, many practices, rituals, and ceremonies are occurrences through all of Kwakwaka'wakw culture, and in some cases, neighboring indigenous cultures also.

Creation story

The Kwakwaka’wakw creation story is that the ancestor of a ‘na’mima—the extended family unit having specific responsibilities within each tribe—appeared at a specific location by coming down from the sky, out of the sea, or from underground. Generally in the form of an animal, it would take off its animal mask and become a person. The Thunderbird or his brother Kolus, the Gull, the Killer Whale (Orca), a sea monster, a grizzly bear, and a chief ghost would appear in this role. In a few cases, two such beings arrived, and both would become ancestors. There are a few ‘na’mima that do not have the traditional origin, but are said to have come as human beings from distant places. These ancestors are called “fathers” or “grandfathers,” and the myth is called the “myth at the end of world.”

Flood

Like all Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, most of the Kwakwaka'wakw tribes have stories about their people surviving a great flood. Some have stories of their people attaching their ocean-going canoes to tall mountains. With others, their history talks of their ancestors transforming into their natural form and disappearing while the waters rose and then subsided. For these stories involving supernatural powers, these figures tend to be the founding Kwakwaka'wakw clans.

Spiritual beings

Kwakwaka'wakw spirits, like those of other Northwest Coast peoples, can be divided into four separate spirit realms, including sky spirits, sea spirits, earth spirits, and otherworldly spirits. All four realms interact with one another, and human beings attempt to contact them at sacred ceremonies wherein dancers go into trances while wearing masks and other regalia associated with the spirit world. Examples of these spiritual beings include:

Tseiqami

Tseiqami is Thunderbird, lord of the winter dance season, a massive supernatural bird whose wing beats cause the thunder, and the flash of whose eyes causes lightning. Tseiqami hunts whales for its dinner out at sea, and sometimes used to help heroic ancestors build houses by placing giant cedar beams into place for them. Thunderbird also has a younger brother named Kolus.

Qaniqilak

Thunderbird's adversary is Qaniqilak, spirit of the summer season, who is often identified as the sea god, Kumugwe the "Undersea Chief." Many Kwakwaka'wakw families have been blessed by riches and supernatural treasures bestowed by this god of the tides.

Sisiutl

Kwakwaka'wakw Cedar sisiutl mask.

Sisiutl is a giant three-headed sea serpent whose glance can turn an adversary into stone. Cross beams of clan houses sometimes are carved with his appearance. Blessed ancestors have sometimes received sisiutl's help when he transforms himself into an invincible war canoe, and sometimes into a magic belt with which to gird oneself against all dangers.

Dzunukwa

Dzunukwa (Tsonokwa) is a type of cannibal giant (called sasquatch by other Northwest Coast tribes) and comes in both male and female forms. In most legends, the female form is the most common; she eats children and imitates the voice of the child's grandmother to attract them. Children frequently outwit her, though, sometimes killing her and taking her treasures without being eaten.

Bakwas

Bakwas is king of the ghosts. He is a small green spirit whose face looks emaciated like a skeleton, but has a long curving nose. He haunts the forests and tries to bring the living over to the world of the dead. In some myths Bakwas is the husband of Dzunukwa.

U'melth

U'melth is the Raven, who brought the Kwakwaka'wakw people the moon, fire, salmon, the sun, and the tides.

Pugwis

'Pugwis' is a sort of aquatic creature with fish-like face and large incisors.

Ceremony

Kwakwaka'wakw spirituality is transmitted at ceremonies, mostly during the winter season. These ceremonies are often referred to as potlatches. They are mostly designed for the transference, justification, and reaffirmation of family and spiritual status inherited from primeval ancestors who contacted the spirit world and were given privileges from beings of a supernatural nature. These beings prefer honor, power, and magic through the gift of Tlugwe, which are supernatural treasures, often taking the physical form of masks and regalia, but also comprising stories, songs, recitations, dances, and other intangible performances.

Hamatsa

Hamatsa Cannibal Birds: Hohokw & Raven by Edward S. Curtis

Of particular importance in Kwakwaka'wakw culture is the secret society called Hamatsa. During the winter, there is a four-day, complex dance that serves to initiate new members into the society. It is often called a "cannibal" ritual, and some debate has arisen as to whether the Kwakwaka'wakw practice ritual cannibalism, or whether their "cannibalism" is purely symbolicg.

The dance is based on the story of some brothers who got lost on a hunting trip and found a strange house with red smoke emanating from its roof. When they visited the house they found its owner gone. One of the house posts was a living woman with her legs rooted into the floor, and she warned them about the owner of the house, who was named Baxbaxwalanuksiwe, a man-eating giant with four terrible man-eating birds for his companions. The brothers are able to destroy the man-eating giant and gain mystical power and supernatural treasures from him.

Prior to the ceremony, the Hamatsa initiate, almost always a young man, is abducted by members of the Hamatsa society and kept in the forest in a secret location where he is instructed in the mysteries of the society. At the winter dance festival the initiate is brought in wearing spruce bows, gnashing his teeth, and even biting members of the audience who include members of many clans and even neighboring tribes. Many dances ensue, as the tale of Baxbaxwalanuksiwe is recounted, and all of the giant man-eating birds dance around the fire. Gwaxwgwakwalanuksiwe' is the most prestigious role in the Supernatural Man-Eater Birds ceremony; he is a man-eating raven Supernatural bird. Galuxwadzuwus ("Crooked-Beak of Heaven") and Huxhukw (supernatural Crane-Like Bird who cracks skulls of men to suck out their brains) are other participants.

Finally the society members succeed in taming the new "cannibal" initiate. In the process of the ceremonies what seems to be human flesh is eaten by the initiates. All persons who were bitten during the proceedings are gifted with expensive presents, and many gifts are given to all of the witnesses who are required to recall through their gifts the honors bestowed on the new initiate and recognize his station within the spiritual community of the clan and tribe.

Contemporary Kwakwaka'wakw

Restoring their ties to their land, culture, and rights, the Kwakwaka'wakw have undertook much in bringing back their customs, beliefs, and language. Potlatch occur more frequently as families reconnect to their birthright and commit to the restoring of the ways of their ancestors. Language programs, classes, and social events utilize the community to restore the language.

A number of revitalization efforts have recently attempted to reverse language loss for Kwak'wala. A proposal to build a Kwakwaka'wakw First Nations Centre for Language Culture has gained wide support. A review of revitalization efforts in the 1990s shows that the potential to fully revitalize Kwak'wala still remains, but serious hurdles also exist.

Notable Kwakwaka'wakw

Kwanusila totem pole in Chicago

George Hunt

George Hunt was Tlingit by birth, but through marriage and adoption he became an expert on the traditions of the Kwakwaka'wakw. He carved a totem pole, Kwanusila, that was on display in a Chicago park for many decades until it had to be replaced; the carver of the replacement was his descendant Tony Hunt. George Hunt's descendants include a dynasty of traditional Northwest Coast artists including Henry Hunt, Richard Hunt, Stanley Hunt, Tony Hunt, and Calvin Hunt.

Mungo Martin

Chief Mungo Martin or Nakapenkim (meaning a potlatch chief "ten times over"), was a noted expert in the Northwest Coast style of artwork, a singer, and a songwriter. Martin was responsible for the restoration and repair of many carvings and sculptures, totem poles, masks, and various other ceremonial objects. Martin also gained fame for holding the first public potlatch since the governmental potlatch ban of 1889. For this, he was awarded with a medal by the Canadian Council. He also acted as a tutor to his son-in-law Henry Hunt and grandson Tony Hunt, thus combining his skill with the Hunt family of carvers.

Popular culture

In the Land of the Head Hunters (also called In the Land of the War Canoes) is a 1914 silent documentary film, written and directed by Edward S. Curtis, showing the lives of the Kwakwaka'wakw peoples of British Columbia. In 1999 the film was deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Bancroft-Hunt, Norman. People of the Totem: The Indians of the Pacific Northwest. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1988. ISBN 0806121459
• Jonaitis, Aldona (ed.). Chiefly Feasts: The Enduring Kwakiutl Potlatch. Vancouver, BC: Douglas & McIntyre, 1996. ISBN 1550544802
• McDowell, Jim. Hamatsa: The Enigma of Cannibalism on the Pacific Northwest Coast.
• Boas, Franz. Contributions to the Ethnology of the Kwakiutl, Columbia University Contributions to Anthropology, vol. 3, New York: Columbia University Press, 1925.
• Fisher, Robin. Contact and Conflict: Indian-European Relations in British Columbia, 1774-1890, Vancouver, BC: University of British Columbia Press, 1992. ISBN 0774804009
• Goldman, Irving. The Mouth of Heaven: an Introduction to Kwakiutl Religious Thought. New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons, 1975.
• Masco, Joseph. “It is a Strict Law that Bids Us Dance”: Cosmologies, Colonialism, Death, and Ritual Authority in the Kwakwaka’wakw Potlatch, 1849 to 1922, San Diego: University of California.
• Reid, Martine, and Daisy Sewid-Smith. Paddling to Where I Stand, Vancouver: UBC Press, 2004.
• Spradley, James. Guests Never Leave Hungry. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1969.
• Walens, Stanley. “Review of the Mouth of Heaven by Irving Goldman,” American Anthropologist, 1981.
• Schultz, Jeffrey D. Encyclopedia of minorities in American politics. Greenwood Press, 2000. ISBN 1573561487
• Hawthorn, Audrey. Kwakiutl Art. University of Washington Press, 1988. ISBN 0295966408
• Wallas, Chief James. Kwakiutl Legends. Hancock House Publishing, 1989. ISBN 0888392303
• Boas, Franz. Contributions to the Ethnology of the Kwakiutl. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1977 (original 1925). ISBN 0404505538
• Jonaitis, Aldona. From the Land of the Totem Poles. University of Washington Press, 1991. ISBN 0295970227
• Rohner, Ronald, and Evelyn Bettauer. The Kwakiutl Indians of British Columbia. Waveland Press, 1986. ISBN 0881332259
• Boas, Franz. Kwakiutl Tales, New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1910. Retrieved December 17, 2008.
• Martha Padfield. Cannibal Dances in the Kwakiutl World. Canadian Journal for Traditional Music, 1991. Retrieved December 8, 2008.
• Waldman, Carl. Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes. New York, NY: Checkmark Books, 2006. ISBN 978-0816062744
• Boas, Franz. The Kwakiutl of British Columbia, a Documentary by Franz Boas. Bill Holm Center, 2007 (original 1930).

External links

• U'mista Cultural Society - Alert Bay
• Kwakiutl Language (Kwak'wala, Kwakwaka'wakw)
• Kwakiutl Indian Culture and History
• Kwakiutl Masks
• Online Exhibits Thunderbird Park

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