They often carried values such as sharing with one another and distributing wealth to those in need. The village looked after its own people when it was operating correctly. During the potlatch ceremony, they displayed their wealth and generosity by giving away possessions, sometimes even destroying them, in order to gain prestige. In the late 1800s, the Canadian government issued an anti-potlatch proclamation (1883 proclamation, with formalizing into law in 1885). The rationale was that the potlatch was keeping First Nations’ from being “civilized” and assimilated into Colonial thinking and societal practices. We view this as a severe failure of government, working in concert with other influential individuals and groups (including facets of the church), and an abuse of power. Sweeping these failures under the rug doesn’t help anyone.

As with the failures of Canada’s Indian Act of 1876, the systematic legalization of discrimination—formation of an apartheid—and erosion of personal and cultural rights is unjust. The fruit of this enactment eventually harmed, severely, many children within the Residential School system.