Transcript Academics as Colonialists 2

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