NOOTKA

Indians of the Northwest Pacific Coast of North America, located on the southwest coast of Vancouver Island and on Cape Flattery, the northwest tip of the state of Washington. The groups on the southeast end of the island were the Nitinat, those on Cape Flattery, the Makah. The Nootka were culturally related to the Kwakiutl (q.v.). In the central and southern Nootka regions, local groups were socially and politically independent; in northern areas they usually formed larger tribes with common winter villages. There were also several confederacies of tribes, dating to prehistoric times, that shared summer villages near the coast and the fishing and hunting grounds. The Nootka moved seasonally to areas of economic importance, returning to their principal homesites during the winter when subsistence activity slowed. The Nootka were specialized whale hunters, employing special equipment such as large dugout canoes and harpoons with long lines and sealskin floats. The whale harpooner was a person of high rank, and families passed down the magical and practical secrets that made for successful hunting. There was also a whale ritualist who, by appropriate ceremonial procedures, caused whales that had died of natural causes to drift ashore. Many features of this whaling complex suggest ancient ties with Eskimo and Aleut cultures. The most important Nootkan ceremony was the shamans' dance, a reenactment of the kidnapping of an ancestor by supernatural beings who gave him supernatural gifts and released him. The ceremony served to define each individual's place in the social order. The public performance ended with a potlatch (q.v.), a ceremonial distribution of property.