Sometimes when people don't understand something, they feel threatened by it. This is how the Europeans who came to share the west coast of British Columbia with the Kwakwaka'wakw felt about the potlatch.

The Europeans came to see North America as a land full of possibilities and the Kwakwaka'wakw as "savages" who needed to be taught how to be civilized.

At the time, they didn't realize the that Kwakwaka'wakw had their own society that wasn't less civilized, it was just different. The Europeans wanted to "help" everyone to be like them.

The problem was that they found that these people didn't want to change. They would do some of the things that they were shown, but they would always stick to their own ideas and ways of doing things.

The Indian Agent from the government, W.M. Halliday saw what an important part of life the potlatch was to the Kwakwaka'wakw, and decided that it would be easier to change them if they could no longer hold potlatches.

Because of this, he asked the government to make potlatches against the law - which they did. When the Kwakwaka'wakw still didn't do what they were told, the government threatened to put the people in jail unless they surrendered their masks, coppers and other ceremonial items.

These items were recently returned to the Kwakwaka'wakw and now are housed in the U'mista Cultural Centre. Potlatch, of course, is no longer illegal.