An Iron Hand upon the People: The Law Against the Potlatch on the Northwest Coast

In 1885 the Canadian government outlawed the potlatch, a ceremony central to the cultures of many Northwest Coast Indians. This timely and important book traces the history of the antipotlatch law, the government's attempts to enforce it, and the widespread Native opposition to the repressive legislation, shedding new light on a crucial chapter in the history of North American Native peoples.