The Tilikums of Elttaes were a fraternal civic organization composed primarily of influential white Seattle area businessmen, who used Native American imagery to promote tourism and the economic development of the city. The appropriation of culture in order to market products or events is a common example of discrimination and marginalization faced by Indigenous peoples in the United States. In July 1911 the Tilikums ("Friends" in Chinook Jargon; "Elttaes" is "Seattle" spelled backward) organized the first Golden Potlatch celebration, an annual city-wide festival held in July 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 the Chinook Jargon word potlatch, which refers to a ceremony integral to the governing structure, culture, and spiritual traditions of various First Nations living on the Northwest Coast in the U.S. and Canada. Putting the word "Golden" before potlatch also reflects the importance of the Klondike gold rush to Seattle’s growth. "Sourdoughs" was a nickname for people who had spent time in Alaska or Canada during the Yukon Gold Rush, and this population was widely celebrated in Seattle.
In this image, about 100 women, men, and children pose aboard the "Portland," during the Golden Potlatch. Most individuals appear to be white adults wearing typical western-style clothing and hats, although some are dressed in stereotyped imitations of traditional Native attire, as part of a created potlatch myth. A few even appear to be wearing redface. It is unclear if the six individuals in the front center row, who are wearing what appear to be Northwest Coast-style ceremonial dance blankets and holding talking sticks, are actually of Indigenous ethnicity or cultural heritage. The man in the front row, third from the left, is wearing a tall hat of a style worn by high-status Haida and Tlingit people who are thought to have used the rings or cylinders topping the crown to indicate the number of potlatches they had given. The donor of the photograph, William Forndran, is the man identified with the number "62," located near the top of the print, fourth from the right and straddling the railing, to the right of the young boy.
Other possible identifications, handwritten on catalog card: 1-Cormack; 67-John Wilson; 31-Jake Cina [?]; 28-Arthur Winters
Handwritten on image: Copyright 1912, Nowell & Rognon, Seattle. Sourdoughs aboard Gold Ship "Portland," Seattle, July 17 - 1912. Handwritten on print: Wm Forndran Photographer's number: 9693
Caption information source: Alaska State Library – Historical Collections, Case and Draper Photograph Collection, 1898-1920, ASL-P39-0784, retrieved from https://alaska.libraryhost.com/repositories/2/resources/108 Caption information source: Portland Art Museum, Museum Purchase: Indian Collection Subscription Fund, Rasmussen Collection of Northwest Coast Indian Art, 48.3.596A,B, retrieved from http://portlandartmuseum.us/mwebcgi/mweb.exe?request=record;id=10234;type=101# Caption information source: "What is a Speaker's Staff?" retrieved from https://spiritsofthewestcoast.com/blogs/news/what-is-a-speakers-staff
Physical Description: 1 photographic print mounted on masonite : colorized ; 31 x 24 in.
Additional Information: Digital copy of this item available thanks to funding from a 2016 Institute for Museum and Library Services grant. Metadata updated as part of a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services administered by the Library Services and Technology Act, through the Washington State Library, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State.
