The Northwest Coast Culture

Northwest Coast

The native people like the Haida and Tlingit tribes were so blessed with natural food resources that they reached the limits of

complexity attainable in a fishing-hunting-gathering economy.

They built huge, durable houses called plank houses. The totem poles were colorful and

rough and showed the ancestors of the family or clan

They made large dugout canoes that could carry sixty people or more

They excelled as crafts workers and artists

They staged elaborate musical dramas and ceremonies. They had play acting, dancing and singing. They liked to show off.

They engaged in intricate economic activities, including give-away feasts called potlatches. A family would throw a grand party where everyone was invited and give many possessions away, the more given, the higher respect and prestige

They developed a complicated system of social stratification. Where many Native Cultures were

communal, Northwest cultures liked having private property. Below are high class men and

commoner children

They had very specific gender roles. Men did the hunting and all the carving and women were the gatherers and did all the weaving

and basket making