Kinship, Family, and Social Organization

The nature of the kinship units that made up Wakashan societies varied. The Haisla were divided into matrilineal clans, in the fashion of coastal groups farther north. Among the Kwakwaka’wakw, each community or “tribe” consisted of several kin groups known as numayma, meaning “one kind.” The members of such social units were believed to descend from a common ancestor, frequently a supernatural being who had taken human form. The numayma held all the important group properties, including house sites, resource locations, ceremonial positions, songs, and names.

Wakashan nobility put great emphasis on their inheritance, keeping careful genealogies that extended back many generations. The Haisla followed the northern coast practice of tracing descent through the female line. The Heiltsuk, while not strictly matrilineal, tended to favour the mother’s side. The Kwakwaka’wakw, Nuu-chah-nulth, and Ditidaht reckoned descent bilaterally. Kin terms distinguished between generations, but not between siblings and cousins. Kinship was basic to almost all social interaction, but even a remote relationship could be used to assert kin ties.

For high-ranking families, marriage was an alliance between groups. After successfully negotiating the marriage, the groom’s family might arrive at the bride’s village in large canoes, several joined with planks to form a stage for masked dancing or other ceremonial display. The groom’s family presented gifts, while the bride’s group reciprocated with feasting and dancing, after which the bride generally went to live in the groom’s village. She brought with her important prerogatives, such as names, dances, and rights to resource territories, that would eventually pass to her children.

Expectant mothers observed a variety of restrictions in diet and behaviour to ensure good health for their babies. They gave birth in temporary huts, assisted by their mothers or other female relatives, after which they were secluded for a number of days. The birth of twins, who were associated with spirits of the salmon, required much longer periods of seclusion for both parents and offspring. Infants had their ears pierced for ornaments, and gentle pressure while in the cradleboard produced the flattened forehead considered beautiful by most Wakashans. A name would be given, the first of a number of names the child might receive throughout his or her life.

Children of high-status families received careful instructions in correct modes of behaviour and on their traditions and inherited rights. Industry was encouraged; the first game killed by a boy and the first berries gathered by a girl were occasions for feasts. No specific observances marked puberty for a boy, but a girl’s first menses required public acknowledgment. A period of seclusion and fasting ended with a feast, after which the young woman was eligible for marriage.

Marriages today characteristically occur in a church, with a Christian service. Frequently, however, this is followed by a feast or potlatch, often involving masked dancers. Traditional restrictions on eligible marital partners have largely been replaced with Euro-Canadian concepts. The close network of kin ties remains the basis for most Wakashan social life.

Social ranking characterized all Wakashan societies. Chiefs acted as heads of their kin groups, holding rights to important resource locations, ceremonial prerogatives, and names. Such positions were inherited, based on primogeniture in chiefly lines. Additional rights might be obtained through marriage. All such claims had to be validated publicly through potlatches. Management of the group’s resources allowed chiefs to enhance their status by distributing food surpluses and material goods at feasts and potlatches. Commoners, who lacked inherited claims to titles or ceremonial privileges, provided the labour necessary to accumulate stores of food. Slaves, generally consisting of war captives, performed all menial tasks. Slaves were considered chattel and could be sold, given away at potlatches, or killed in mourning for a chief.

The potlatch was at the centre of Wakashan social and economic life. A high-status marriage, the birth of an heir, the transfer of an inherited name, or the raising of a carved pole were all occasions that required a potlatch. A chief recounted his family’s history and then distributed gifts to all present to pay them as witnesses. The largest gifts went to other chiefs, whose own rank was thus recognized. Potlatches also served as occasions for masked dancers to display their ceremonial prerogatives. These could be lengthy events, lasting for days or weeks.

Declining populations in the late nineteenth century brought about changes in the potlatch, particularly among the Kwakwaka’wakw. Group amalgamation around the trading post at Fort Rupert stimulated competition between chiefs and the great abundance of goods available from the post increased the scale of the potlatch. Hundreds of Hudson’s Bay Company blankets, which became the standard unit of potlatch economics, were distributed at major events. As gestures of rivalry, chiefs also destroyed valuable items. Large canoes were hauled into the house and tossed onto the fire like beach logs, or valuable eulachon oil was poured on the fire in displays of chiefly wealth.

The decline in population also affected traditional status distinctions: more ranked positions became available than there were individuals with clear hereditary rights to fill them. In addition, new opportunities for wage labour meant that lower-ranked people could amass wealth and hold potlatches. This had the effect of allowing a wider range of individuals, both male and female, to acquire chiefly positions. Today, hereditary chiefs, although no longer holding ultimate political power, remain influential and respected in Wakashan societies. Assumption of a chiefly position still requires public validation through potlatching.