Kwakiutl Indians free essay sample

The Northwest Coastal Indians, Kwakiutl, lived in what is now Alaska along the Pacific Ocean down the coast to Northern California. The environment was very diverse and often extreme which included a rugged strip of land with small islands, deep inlets, inland rivers and lakes, deep fjords, and wide and narrow beaches. Mountains rise to the shore in many places. Spruce, cedar, and fir forests dominated the area supplying endless amounts of wood. All the people lived near the water and relied heavily on the water for survival.Temperatures were moderate, which allowed the people to fish all year. There was access to the Pacific Ocean for fishing and collecting food like clams and shellfish. Salmon was the most important food. The Kwakiutl tribe was very intelligent people who were able to develop a strong and dependent society by creating multiple uses of the dense woods, coastal rivers, and the ocean. Their adaptive strategy used in the northwest pacific surrounding was so unique and complex that the tribe could function systematically on their own. From the abundant supply of food from the waters around them, agriculture was not necessary to them in this area, even though the dense wild life had plenty of vegetation to offer from the nuts and berries to hunting animals for their hide. However, they did not hunt to stock up on food but more for the warm useful hides of the animals to have more clothing through the year. However, they were able to create other useful clothing out of cedar bark. There was many things made from the cedar bark such as woven baskets, shirts, everyday skirts for the women, the cedar tree was a big part of this culture.The items that they held prize possession to were items that were hand crafted and designed by the people. These extraordinary art crafts are highly decorative and in this present day pieces of the Kwakiutl culture have been left behind and put in museums to be looked at by people. The Kwakiutl were a fascinating tribe they had enormous amounts of information about their surrounding envi ronment. They were very sophisticated in the caste system with who does what and the tools made by the people to have create the artifacts they did is showing high amounts of intelligence from the people.In order for the people to carve or design art pieces they need tools. The tools that were used to do the carvings to make a totem pole, canoe, or home they needed sharp items to be able to carve the wood. They used bones from caught killed animals and other sea mammals. The bones or stone was filed down to have the sharp edge to carve the wood, scrape the hide, or crafting the canoes. This technique was very similar to others using bones for the tools needed to make their sacred belongings. They were able to use this technique because of the surplus they had with shellfish, and other shelled seafood. It’s proven they ate tremendous amounts of shellfish because of the mounds of shells they left behind. They also ate huge amounts of salmon, and because they ate so much they would have a revivication ceremony to give respect to the salmon for its life. The salmon was respected by the northwest peoples as the plains Indians respected the buffalo for its hide. These people were very independent and had structured religious beliefs that caused for a sacrifice to the gods for the abundant supply of goods given to them.The Kwakiutl tribe had many beliefs that animals represent certain gods and these were the animals or birds that were carved in to the totem poles or, canoes. These tribes give a lot of insight on how our organic environment can be better used and treated. The Kwakiutl tribe put their surroundings to the best use by having homes, clothes, transportation, and food. By them being so structured they were able to live to give back to their people. Men mostly did the activities out side of the house. They did the hunting, trapping, fishing, and building of things.While the men were doing their activities, the women did theirs and it was different from the men. The women mostly stayed in the houses. Their activities were to take care of the children, make clothing and cook meals. The chief of the tribe still had control of the tribe. When a baby was born in the tribe, they had baby-naming ceremonies. Instead of living in single-family homes, they lived in houses like a community. In British Columbia, were the Kwakiutl tribes are at, their culture is known by their artistic totem poles and masks for rituals.Before contact with the settlers, they had an organized society of different class and they performed a potlatch ceremony. The people in the tribe traded goods with the explorers. They traded furs with them and then they started to become assimilated to the western culture lifestyle. The people started working in the fishing industry. With all the changes from the Europeans, disease brought many deaths to people of the tribe. Their population dropped dramatically but it has been increasing over the years and they are still working the fishing industry. Copper was a valuable item in trade with the Europeans and valuable to the people.Copper was something that showed wealth of a person. The decoration of the resident’s home signified the status of them. They were totem poles and cedar poles with decorative carvings. A popular art in the Kwakiutl tribe was making jewelry. Shells from the hunts and beaches were brought back to make jewelry out of it. Almost everybody wore ear rings and nose rings that were made out of shell. For some women to show that they are married, they wore a plug made out of shell, bone, or wood in their lower lip. Many of the women wore necklaces. They also wore bracelets and anklets made from fur.The tribe had a matriarchal society, through the female line. On the Pacific coast of the United States and Canada, there were about thirty different groups. In each of the groups, the rank of the people depended on their family ancestry and was governed by a chief. The social status of the people showed who held rights and also allowed them to sing certain songs, wear masks, and display personal wealth. The totem poles were another way to show family ancestry, social status, and an important event that happened in a chiefs’ or a noble’s life. The crest figures on top of each other had different meanings.Certain animals that are on the totem poles show a story of the people in the clan. The animals carved on the totem poles were mostly of bears, birds, or animals from the ocean and forest. The kinship of the Kwakiutl people was based on a bilinear structure and it had some characteristics of a patrilineal culture. They had a large extended family and an interconnected family. The people in the tribe could trace their genealogy back to their ancestral roots. The head chief would assign people their roles in his family. In each clan, there are several sub-chiefs.They gained their title through their families’ lineage and organizing the property of the land. The concept of the property of the land was an important part of their daily life. Property for hunting and fishing were inherited through the family. The society was divided into four classes which are: the nobles, aristocrats, commoners, and slaves. The language family that the Kwakiutl language or Kwak’ala speak comes from the Wakashan language in the Northwest Coast. The term Kwakwaka’wakw is used for the ethnic group and Kwak’wala is used for the language. The mainland in British Columbia was occupied by them.Around the time of contact with the Europeans, many tribes or families were formed. Each of them came together under one chief. With the coming of the Europeans, things changed dramatically for the Kwakiutl people. They brought guns and diseases with them. Conflicts with the Europeans and the people in the tribes started rising. Children were started to be sent out of the villages to boarding schools. With the assimilation of the western culture, the natives were beginning to lose their culture because they were not able to practice it. It was hard for the people to revive their language because it had been lost for a long time.A potlatch is a gift-giving festival and primary economic system. The potlatch culture of the Northwest is famous and widely studied and remains alive in Kwakiutl, as does the lavish artwork for which their people and their neighbors are so renowned. The phenomenon of the potlatch, and the vibrant societies and cultures associated with it, can be found in Chiefly Feasts: The Enduring Kwakiutl Potlatch, which details the incredible artwork and legendary material that go with the other aspects of the potlatch, and gives a glimpse into the high politics and great wealth and power of the Kwakiutl chiefs.The potlatch was also seen as a key target in assimilation policies and agendas. Missionary William Duncan wrote in 1875 that the potlatch was â€Å"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 it illegal to practice.The official legislation read, â€Å"Every Indian or other person who engages in or assists in celebrating the Indian festival known as the Potlatch or the Indian dance known as the Tamanawas is guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be liable to imprisonment for a term not more than six nor less than two months in a jail or other place of confinement; and, any Indian or other person who encourages, either directly or indirectly an Indian or Indians to get up such a festival or dance, or to celebrate the same, or who shall assist in the celebration of same is guilty of a like offence, and shall be liable to the same punishment. (Jonaitis). â€Å"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. † O’wax? a? laga? lis Chief of the Kwagul â€Å"Fort Rupert Tribes†, to Franz Boas, October 7, 1886 (Hunt). Potlatches now occur frequently and increasingly more over the years as families reclaim their birthright. The Kwakiutl believed in many spirits and mythological beings. It was believed that every living thing had a spirit and had to be respected. Winalagalis is a war god of the Kwakiutl native people of British Columbia. He travels the world, making war. Winalagilis comes from North (underworld) to winter with the Kwakiutl. Winalagalis is the bringer and ruler of Tseka (Winter Ceremonial), and imbues red cedar bark with supernatural power. Winalagalis is associated with a magical war canoe (alternately described as made of copper, a sisiutl, invisible, able to travel underground, ; permanently fused with Winalagalis). He is also described as thin, tall, and black, with bat-like eyes. Winalagalis ceremonies include the Tuxwid and Hawinalal warrior invincibility dances, and the mamaka (disease thrower) dance. In the Hawinalal, dancer’s don sisiutl girdles are pierced through back ; thigh skin with skewers, and suspended from the rafters of the plank house to demonstrate invincibility ; immunity from pain.He is announced by whistles ; bull-roarers (the voice of Winalagalis). Of particular importance in Kwakwakawakw culture is the secret society called Hamatsa (Hunt). During the winter, there is a four-day, complex dance that serves to initiate new members of Hamatsa. The Hamatsa dancer represents the spirit of Baxbaxwalanuksiwe (Man-Eater at the North End of the World); who can transform into various man-eating birds and has mouths all over his body. Hamatsa initiates are possessed by Baxwbakwalanuksiwe. On the first day of the Hamatsa ceremonies the initiate is lured out of the woods and brought into the Big House to be tamed.When the initiate returns, he enacts his cannibalistic possession symbolically. Gwaxwgwakwalanuksiwe is the most prestigious role in the Supernatural Man-Eater Birds ceremony; he is a man-eating raven. Galuxwadzuwus (Crooked-Beak of Heaven) and Huxhukw (supernatural Crane-Like Bird who cracks skulls of men to suck out their brains) are other participants. Tseiqami is a man who comes from the cedar tree and 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 helped heroic ancestors build houses by placing giant cedar beams for them. Thunderbirds adversary is Qaniqilak, spirit of the summer season, who is often identified as the sea god, Kumugwe. Kumugwe or Komokwa is the name of Undersea Chief. 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 sisiutls help when he transforms himself into an invincible war canoe, and sometimes into a magic belt with which to gird one against all dangers. 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 commonly told; she eats children and cries hu-hu! to attract them, she imitates the childs grandmothers voice. Children frequently outwit her, sometimes killing her and taking her treasures without being eaten.