•  Box of Treasures.

  1983 U'mista Cultural Society
  A 28 minute film narrated by Gloria Cranmer Webster and directed by Chuck Olin
  
  In the late 19th century, the Canadian Government removed ritual objects from the possession of the Kwakuitl people. In late 1980, the Umista Cultural Center opened its doors to receive and house the treasures which were seized decades earlier. The Center has become the focus for all our efforts of strengthen the culture, language, and history that were almost destroyed by missionaries, government agents and others who tried to destroy the Kwakuitl people.

  This film is about the survival of the Kwakuitl.

  Distributor: Canadian Filmmakers Distribution West 1131 Howe Street, Vancouver, BC V6L 2L7 (604) 984-3014.
  

• Indians of North America: The Kwakiutl.

  Walens, Stanley
  1992 New York: Chelsea House Publishers
  
  
  The Kwakiutl's first contact with non-Indians came in the late 18th century, when fur traders from England, Spain and the United States arrived on the Northwest Coast.
  Impressed by their skill as negotiators, these early non-Indian adventurers respected the Kwakiutl and their ways. However, the settlers and missionaries who followed them into the region in the 19th century did not. By enforcing anti-Indian laws, these newcomers sought to destroy Kwakiutl customs and dispossess the Indians of their land.

  Indians of North America presents accurate portrayals of the history and culture of North American Indian peoples in volumes written specifically for young adults.

• Cedar.

  Stewart, Hilary
  1984 Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre Ltd.
  
  From the mighty cedar of the rainforest came a wealth of raw materials vital to the early Northwest Coast Indian way of life, its art and culture. For thousands of years these people developed the tools and technologies to fell the giant cedars that grew in profusion. Every part of cedar has a use and is able to give gifts. For all these gifts, the Northwest Coast peoples held cedar and its spirit in high regard, believing deeply in its healing and spiritual powers. They addressed the cedar as Long Life Maker, Life Giver and Healing Women.

  This book explains in vivid description the tools and techniques used, as well as the superbly crafted objects and their uses.
  

• My Elders Tell Me.

  Wright (Roze), Marion
  1996 Port Hardy: Tri-Bands Education Committee.

  
  The story of three 9 year old cousins from Gwa'sala-'Nakwaxda'xw, Fort Rupert and Quatsino. My Elders Tell Me follows the three cousins over the course of a year in which they get ready for a potlatch their family is hosting.

  The book features the origin myth of Bom-to-be-the-sun and descriptions of Potlatch and the Hamat'sa society.

• The Living World: Plants and Animals of the Kwakwaka'wakw.

  Pasco, Juanita and Brian D. Compton
  1998 Alert Bay: U'mista Cultural Society
  
  Beginning in early 1995, the U'mista Cultural Society initiated a program of research to document information on the plans and animals known to and used by the Kwakwaka'wakw. Based upon the results of the research program, Dr. Brian Compton and representatives of the U'mista Cultural Centre collaborated to prepare an exhibit on Kwakwaka'wakw ethnobiology for display at the U'mista Cultural Centre and to write this ethnobiology manual.

  The pages of this manual present 101 species of plants and animals of cultural significance to the Kwakwaka'wakw. It is intended for use by Kwakwaka'wakwKwakwaka'wakw individuals pursuing cultural and linguistic studies as well as others ~ who are interested in the relationships between the Kwakwaka'wakw and their natural environment.
  

• The Totem Carvers.

  Nuytten, Phill
  1982 The Totem Carvers. Vancouver: Panorama Publications Ltd.
  
  
  This book tells a part of the story of those three people: Charlie James, Mungo Martin and Ellen Neel. The Totem Carvers will have some ongoing value to students and researchers but, primarily, was written to show that these people lived... and laughed... and, unlike many of the objects that they have left behind, they were not dusty museum pieces. To tell of these three people is to tell of Kwakiutl art -- and to tell of Kwakiutl art is to tell of the Kwakiutl people. This book tells a little of all of these things.

•  Indians of the North Pacific Coast

  McFeat, Tom (Ed.)
  1997 Toronto: McClelland and Stewart Ltd.
  
  Indians of the North Pacific Coast offers a manufactured examination of the cultures of the Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Bella Coola, Kwakiutl, Nootka, and Salish- Native American peoples running from the Canadian border of Juan de Fuca Strait to Yakutat Bay in Southeastern Asia. Tom McFeat brings together key writings from this field of study by authorities such as: Helen Codere, Philip Drucker, Kalervo Oberg and so on.

  The selections are as engaging as they are informative They touch on subjects such as Kwakuitl potlatch, concepts of deviance and normality, ceremonials, rank and class, and other questions on social organization.
  

• Smoky-Top: The Art and Times of Willie Seaweed.

  Holm, Bill
  1983 Seattle: University of Washington Press.
  
  
  Willie Seaweed was and will be one of the major figures in Northwest Coast Indian art. He was the chief of Blunden Harbor. His carvings were prolific and he produced almost every kind of ceremonial object. From 1884-1951, a period that almost exactly coincides with his carving career, all potlatching activity was forbidden by law in Canada. Since his art, as well as his activities as a chief, singer, dancer, attendant and speaker in ceremonies were all a big part of the potlatch, almost every one of his creative acts was illegal.

  Over twenty-five years ago, Bill Holm found that the work of Willie Seaweed stood out for its imagination, .. craftsmanship, and for the intellectual quality of its design. Although, like other Indian artist, he rarely signed his work. Over 120 examples of his work have been located. This book is to present, in the context of his place and time, the work of one of the greatest native artist of the coast whose work and worth are recognized by his own as well as by -- many others.
  

• Down from the Shimmering Sky: Masks of the Northwest Coast.

  Macnair, Peter L., Robert Joseph & Bruce Grenville
  1998 Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre Ltd.
  
  Peter Macnair surveys the four dimensions of the cosmos as perceived by the Native peoples of the Northwest Coast and displayed in their masks: the Sky World, the Mortal World, The Undersea World and the Spirit World.

  Bobby Joseph's essay is a intimate and insightful look into the meaning and potency of masks from the viewpoint of a Native person.

• Kwakiutl Art

  Audrey Hawthorn
  1979 Kwakiutl Art. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre Ltd.,
  
  Over the years Kwakiutl Indians of B.C. have developed an art, that is characterized by variety, skill, and power. In 1927, the beginnings of what is now a superb collection of Kwakiutl art were assembled at the University of British Columbia.

  Audrey Hawthorn has played a key role in helping the collection grow. In this book she introduces the craft and technology of the Kwakiutl art, discusses in detail the wellsprings of its central images, and carefully reviews the significance of such important cultural features such as the big house and the totem pole.
  

• Kwakwaka'wakw Settlements, 1775-1920: A Geographical Analysis and Gazetteer.

  Galois, Robert with contributions by Jay Powell & Gloria Cranmer Webster
  1994. Vancouver: UBC Press University of British Columbia
  
  This book provides a geographic overview of the changing demography and settlement patterns of the Kwakwaka'wakw between 1775 and 1920 and is a reference guide to the location and use of Kwakwaka'wakw settlement sights. Robert Galois has utilized a vast quantity of unpublished archival data to show that much changed in the 150 years after contact and he examines some of the consequences of the interaction of Native and non- Native peoples.
  For ten of the Kwakwaka'wakw tribes, origin myths (in Kwak'wala and English translation), collected by Gloria Cranmer Webster and Jay Powell, accompany the settlement data.

• Smoke From Their Fires: The Life of a K wakiutl Chief

  Ford, Clellan S.
  1941 Yale University Press, Inc.
  
  Reprinted by arrangement with Yale University Press. Reissued 1996 with changes by Waveland Press, Inc. Prospect Heights
  Charley Nowell is a remarkable man. From birth he is groomed to take his place as a Kwakiutl chief, although he frequently tests his family's patience and the limits of their control by setting off on his own adventures.
  We owe the richness of this narrative to Charley's self-reflective nature. He speaks of his childhood and later years, of a way of life that is now largely extinct. His is an authentic voice which conveys the emotions and customs that were an integral part of Kwakiutl Society.
  Charley's interesting, cosmopolitan life is preserved here in his own words. This classic
  work provides a richly detailed, invaluable record of K wakiutl culture through the eyes and experiences of one of its most colorful members - Charley Nowell, an exuberant and wry participant in many worlds, but always an unabashed K wakiutl. (From the forward, 1996 edition of Smoke From Their Fires)

• The Social Organization and Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl lndians

Cole, Douglas & Ira Chaikin
1990 Douglas & McIntyre Ltd.

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 anti-potlatch 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 native peoples in Canada over the past two centuries.