Cis Dideen Kat/When the Plumes Rise: The Way of the Lake Babine Nation

Thomas S. Abler is an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Waterloo and the author of A Canadian Indian Bibliography, 1960-1970.

The social and cultural complexity of many of the hunters and gatherers
of interior British Columbia has been recognized in recent scholarly
contributions. The importance of a social hierarchy, coupled with the
obligations title holders had toward matrilineal kin, is emphasized in
this well-crafted study of law and social justice among the Lake Babine
Nation by anthropologist Jo-Anne Fiske. The Lake Babine Nation shares
language and many social institutions with its western neighbors, the
Witsuwit’en, and both groups are northern representatives of the
interior Athapaskan people known to history and anthropology as the
Carrier.

The Lake Babine Nation consists of two remote communities, Fort Babine
on the Babine River and Tachet on Babine Lake, and a larger settlement
(population 800) at Burns Lake. They are organized into four matrilineal
clans with hereditary clan chiefs and territories associated with
holders of specific clan titles. These clan titles are asserted in
gatherings known as “balhats,” a variant of the western Canadian
aboriginal institution known to anthropologists as the potlatch. Fiske
sees the balhats as the key to internal order and social harmony among
the Lake Babine Nation.

Fiske documents attempts by outsiders to impose foreign legal systems
on the Babine. The Hudson’s Bay Company was followed by Oblate
missionaries who in turn were followed by Indian agents and magistrates
representing the Canadian government. This last group of outsiders made
the practice of the balhats or potlatch illegal, until the prohibition
of potlatching was finally dropped from the Indian Act in 1951. Fiske
discusses the conflict between these foreign institutions and
traditional Babine ideas of social justice and gender roles. She also
considers the implications of current practices of legal pluralism as
manifested in contemporary Babine communities.

Also discussed are many current social problems faced by the
Babine—particularly Babine women—in their dealing with the
institutions and representatives of the surrounding society. The author
notes: “While negative rumours concerning aboriginal people abound,
the richness of their cultural life and the beneficial impacts of their
traditional legal system are all too often overlooked.” Fiske sees the
community “at an important crossroads” and cautiously deals with the
potential for traditional dispute settlement as the Lake Babine Nation
moves slowly toward greater self-government.