A Potlatch is a Northwest Coast Indian ceremony. Washington, British Columbia, possibly Oregon and up to Alaska. A lot of it happened in the Puget Sound area. It's Salish in origin.

They're tricky, not a simple gift exchange at all. The British and later the Americans who colonized the area banned the Potlatch because it could be very destructive.

If someone does a Potlatch, they give gifts to people in their community. They can give away so much that they are beggared for the rest of the year. It could mean the destruction of property (canoes, for example) and the death of slaves as well. But the NEXT YEAR, everyone who had received a gift had to give a gift back of greater value. So the original giver was back where they started PLUS more stuff. It was an important ceremony, resulting in a lot of transfer of wealth and resources, and I've explained it in the scantest of terms.

SRS
(whose father lived at Potlatch Beach on the Tulalip Res for a while)