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potlatch

Gift-giving festival and traditional economic system practiced by Indigenous Peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America

Entitytraditional activity ceremonyQ756880

Also known as potlache · potlach

Instance of: traditional activity
, ceremony
Subclass of: meeting
, ceremony
, gift economy
Country: United States
, Canada

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0

Potlatch is the gift-giving feast practiced by Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of Canada and the United States, among whom it is traditionally the primary governmental institution, legislative body, and economic system. This includes the Heiltsuk, Haida, Nuxalk, Tlingit, Makah, Tsimshian, Nuu-chah-nulth, Kwakwaka'wakw, and Coast Salish cultures. Potlatches are also a common feature of the peoples of the Interior and of the Subarctic adjoining the Northwest Coast, although mostly without the elaborate ritual and gift-giving economy of the coastal peoples.

Overview

All data

41 statements · 10% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations

On other databases

15 identifiers linking potlatch across the web's reference databases

Data quality

statements

10%

externally sourced

Source last edited August 14, 2026. AIDb refreshes this page daily.

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AIDb. (2026). potlatch (Q756880). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/potlatch-Q756880