The potlatch was one of the most widespread, dramatic, and important ceremonies of the Northwest Coast and served as a variety of religious and social purposes. Individual guests and entire tribes, from both neighboring and distant areas, attended these extraordinary ceremonies. Officially, the potlatch was performed to honor the dead, but a central part of the event involved the host giving gifts to her guests. A potlatch took enormous preparation, and people sometimes spent years acquiring the wealth necessary for the event….
Despite the attention given to status, potlatches also served a ritual function. Many Northwest Coast Indians believed that once a spirit passed from the living it could only be happy, or taste life again, through human memory.
>> Among the Cowichan of Vancouver Island the potlatch in honor of the dead assumes a form in which the deceased is represented as actually presiding over the celebration.
By remembering the dead and honoring them in living ceremonies such as the potlatch, the people believed the dead could receive what they most needed. The potlatch host anticipated her own need for human remembrance after death, and the gifts from the potlatches functioned to perpetuate the host’s own memory by serving as reminders of her and her generosity.
Christopher Cardozo and Darren Quintenez on page 166 of in Sacred Legacy: Edward S. Curtis and the North American Indian. Simon & Schuster. 2000.
washing dishes: a father’s glimpses 