Doug Cranmer Huxwhukw mask
Timeline of the Potlatch Conflict
The Museum Compromise
Stories of the Potlatch Collection
U'Mista Cultural Society (UCS)-Alert Bay
U'mista Cultural Centre
Chief Billy Assu recalled the efforts to recover the collection, which led to the compromise that returned the objects.
"Our people figured that the potlatch gear that was taken away to museums was still theirs by rights and that they still owned it, so it would have to be given back. Those old people kept trying to have it returned to them. A lot of people worked to get it back. I know Jimmy Sewid went to Ottawa with Guy Williams in 1963, and he went into the museum for the Kwagiulth people and demanded our stuff back. He had his wife's mother with him to be sure of what was ours. He told them he was ready to buy it back for the $1,415 they claimed to have paid for it and bring a truck around to load it in; and he told them he was ready to go to the newspapers and tell them how the museum had got hold of our stuff."
Negotiations continued until "in 1973 they informed our chiefs meeting in the Kwakiutl District Council that they were going to return the 'Potlatch Collection'. But they didn't want to give it back to the families that own it. They wanted to put it in a museum. So it was voted that the museum should be built at Cape Mudge. Well, the Nimpkish band in Alert Bay wanted the museum to be built up there. So in the end two museums were built, and each museum could show what was taken away from their own area. Village Islanders had to decide where their goods would go because they didn't live on Village Island anymore." (104-106)
Of the two, the U'Mista Cultural Center in Alert Bay has surpassed its original purpose of housing the collection. They maintain oral histories and records of potlatch traditions for research. They are working to revive their nearly extinct language, and help aboriginal communities worldwide with similar fights to recapture their culture. They continue the search for the missing pieces.
U'Mista exterior and gallery (UCS)