The salmon societies of the Northwest Coast

The Northwest Coast is the shoreline from Alaska to northern California, with dense rainforest, salmon rivers and a sea that yields food year-round. The coast is the standard counter-example to the assumption that agriculture is a precondition for rank, inheritance, specialised craft and property. The resource was managed, not merely harvested: fish weirs, salmon streams owned by particular lineages, and forestry through controlled bark and timber harvesting. The potlatch was banned in Canada from 1885 to 1951 and similarly in the United States, precisely because authorities understood that the institution carried the social order.