potlatch

thumb|right|The Kwakwaka'wakw continue the practice of potlatch. Illustrated here is ''Wawadit'la'' in Thunderbird Park, Victoria, B.C., a big house built by Chief [[Mungo Martin in 1953. Wealthy, prominent hosts would have a Big House specifically for potlatching and for housing guests.]]

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 (see Athabaskan potlatch).