Native elders remember well the last of the old days. They are living links to the past and their stories have the vitality and immediacy--as well as the authenticity--of those who have lived in the traditional way and experienced the transition to the new. In the short space of two generations, elders have gone from traveling the coast in canoes to flying in float planes. Four representative groups of the Northwest Coast are the focus of this book: the Makah, Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka), Southern Kwakiutl, and Nuxalk (Bella Coola). These people speak closely related languages and have strong cultural ties. In these pages they speak both of tradition and of an embattled present together with dreams of the future. In many ways this book is a native chronicle about being native. First-person accounts drawn from archival tapes and manuscripts plus scores of direct interviews enliven every facet of life described here: ceremonials and gathering; artwork and potlatch; trade and conflict; the environment, prehistory, and archaeological discoveries; the arrival of Whites and the fur trade, followed by settlement, and the consequence of change, including loss of lands. Woven throughout are reminiscences of the past, assessments of the present, and hopes and fears of the future. Stunning photographs, including rare historic photographs and contemporary pictures specifically taken for this book, and drawings present telling images of native people and show their links with the land and their adherence to tradition in the midst of change.

Easy to use and easy to read, Understanding Northwest Coast Art is an essential source for understanding and visually identifying the underlying themes and subjects of Northwest Coast Native art. The first section of this book features an alphabetical list of words relating to Northwest Coast art, with definitions, descriptions and explanations and synopses of the major myths associated with them. As an aid to identification and understanding, many of the crests, beings and symbols are illustrated in the 60 black-and-white reproductions of contemporary works of art. The second section offers descriptions of the art styles and types of decorated objects created by the various Northwest Coast cultural groups.

The 50th anniversary edition of this classic work on the art of Northwest Coast Indians now offers color illustrations for a new generation of readers along with reflections from contemporary Northwest Coast artists about the impact of this book. The masterworks of Northwest Coast Native artists are admired today as among the great achievements of the world’s artists. The painted and carved wooden screens, chests and boxes, rattles, crest hats, and other artworks display the complex and sophisticated northern Northwest Coast style of art that is the visual language used to illustrate inherited crests and tell family stories. In the 1950s Bill Holm, a graduate student of Dr. Erna Gunther, former Director of the Burke Museum, began a systematic study of northern Northwest Coast art. In 1965, after studying hundreds of bentwood boxes and chests, he published Northwest Coast Indian Art: An Analysis of Form. This book is a foundational reference on northern Northwest Coast Native art. Through his careful studies, Bill Holm described this visual language using new terminology that has become part of the established vocabulary that allows us to talk about works like these and understand changes in style both through time and between individual artists’ styles. Holm examines how these pieces, although varied in origin, material, size, and purpose, are related to a surprising degree in the organization and form of their two-dimensional surface decoration. The author presents an incisive analysis of the use of color, line, and texture; the organization of space; and such typical forms as ovoids, eyelids, U forms, and hands and feet. The evidence upon which he bases his conclusions constitutes a repository of valuable information for all succeeding researchers in the field. Replaces ISBN 9780295951027

From the SAA Press Current Perspectives Series, this concise overview of the archeology of the Northwest Coast of North America challenges stereotypes about complex hunter-gatherers. Madonna Moss argues that these ancient societies were first and foremost fishers and food producers and merit study outside socio-evolutionary frameworks. Moss approaches the archaeological record on its own terms, recognizing that changes through time often reflect sampling and visibility of the record itself. The book synthesizes current research and is accessible to students and professionals alike.

In the dense rainforest of the west coast of Vancouver Island, the Somass River (c̓uumaʕas) brings sockeye salmon (miʕaat) into the Nuu-chah-nulth community of Tseshaht. C̓uumaʕas and miʕaat are central to the sacred food practices that have been a crucial part of the Indigenous community’s efforts to enact food sovereignty, decolonize their diet, and preserve their ancestral knowledge. In A Drum in One Hand, a Sockeye in the Other, Charlotte Coté shares contemporary Nuu-chah-nulth practices of traditional food revitalization in the context of broader efforts to re-Indigenize contemporary diets on the Northwest Coast. Coté offers evocative stories of her Tseshaht community’s and her own work to revitalize relationships to haʔum (traditional food) as a way to nurture health and wellness. As Indigenous peoples continue to face food insecurity due to ongoing inequality, environmental degradation, and the Westernization of traditional diets, Coté foregrounds healing and cultural sustenance via everyday enactments of food sovereignty: berry picking, salmon fishing, and building a community garden on reclaimed residential school grounds. This book is for everyone concerned about the major role food plays in physical, emotional, and spiritual wellness.

Following the removal of the gray whale from the Endangered Species list in 1994, the Makah tribe of northwest Washington State announced that they would revive their whale hunts; their relatives, the Nuu-chah-nulth Nation of British Columbia, shortly followed suit. Neither tribe had exercised their right to whale - in the case of the Makah, a right affirmed in their 1855 treaty with the federal government - since the gray whale had been hunted nearly to extinction by commercial whalers in the 1920s. The Makah whale hunt of 1999 was an event of international significance, connected to the worldwide struggle for aboriginal sovereignty and to the broader discourses of environmental sustainability, treaty rights, human rights, and animal rights. It was met with enthusiastic support and vehement opposition. As a member of the Nuu-chah-nulth Nation, Charlotte Cote offers a valuable perspective on the issues surrounding indigenous whaling, past and present. Whaling served important social, economic, and ritual functions that have been at the core of Makah and Nuu-chahnulth societies throughout their histories. Even as Native societies faced disease epidemics and federal policies that undermined their cultures, they remained connected to their traditions. The revival of whaling has implications for the physical, mental, and spiritual health of these Native communities today, Cote asserts. Whaling, she says, “defines who we are as a people.” Her analysis includes major Native studies and contemporary Native rights issues, and addresses environmentalism, animal rights activism, anti-treaty conservatism, and the public’s expectations about what it means to be “Indian.” These thoughtful critiques are intertwined with the author’s personal reflections, family stories, and information from indigenous, anthropological, and historical sources to provide a bridge between cultures. A Capell Family Book