The Northwest Coast Culture

1. The Northwest Coast Culture

2. 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.

3. They built huge, durable houses called plank houses. The totem poles were colorful and rough and showed the ancestors of the family or clan

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

5. They excelled as crafts workers and artists

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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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