The Golden Potlatch was a city-wide festival first held in July of 1911. It was organized by civic boosters who were hoping to capitalize on the success of the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition of 1909. The event continued for each of the next three summers before being suspended during wartime, and then was started up again as the Potlatch Festival from 1934 to 1941.

The name "Golden Potlatch" appropriates a Chinook Jargon word describing a Native ceremony celebration and gift giving. It also reflects the importance of the Klondike Gold Rush to Seattle's growth. Many organizers and participants in the Golden Potlatch dressed in stereotyped imitations of traditional Native attire, as part of a created Potlatch myth. The appropriation of Indigenous culture in order to market products or events was one common example of discrimination and marginalization faced by Native peoples in the United States.