Harry Wolcott spent a year as teacher in the Kwakiutl
Blackfish Village in 1962. A small village of about 125
adults on Blackfish Island, six miles by two miles in
size; located about two hours by boat from Alert Bay, east
of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. The village
consisted of thirteen occupied and five vacant houses, a
two room school house, a wharf and a small harbor. Traces
of a church and other buildings that once stood in the
community are fast disappearing. Only two totem poles and
the house poles from two of the traditional "big houses"
(multiple-family dwellings) give any specific clue that
the local inhabitants are Indian.
Quoting from page 29, from "The Village and Its Children" section in Chapter 1: ".
On warmer days from April to October many of the children "go swimming." The beach is shallow in most tides and the children enjoy wading and playing in the water. Since the beach is also the garbage dump, broken glass abounds and children often cut themselves. Occasionally parents insist that children wear life jackets while playing in the water or along the water's edge. The children are not skillful swimmers and adults do not instruct them. A few children can swim in deeper water and do some diving. Children boast of swimming to distant points but usually stay close to shore. Boys are expected to be better than girls at swimming.
Older children enjoy rowing skiffs in front of the village or around to the "other side." Other activities of the older children include fishing from the floats, catching crabs, swinging on the set of backyard swings behind Reggie's grandfather's house, picking berries, riding one of the two bicycles, and, during 1962-1963, playing with the then-popular hula hoops.
The boys like to carry knifes and do some carving. During one period the school-age boys made slingshots, and the indiscriminate use made of them concerned adults. Reggie's grandfather asked the teacher on several occasions to remind the boys that according to village by- laws slingshots are not "legal" in the village. One afternoon none of the older boys showed up for school. They had seen the chief talking to the teacher at noon while they were at the beach using their slings. They assumed they were going to get into trouble, so they made a mass exit by rowing to another village. They did not return until supper time.
Some play is imitative of adults. Children imitate in play the activities they see about them and sometimes mimic adults' peculiar mannerisms. A favorite mime is acting drunk.
Boys play "lumberman" by walking along fallen logs on the
hillside above the school, but since they have little idea
of what lumbermen do they cannot elaborate on this play
activity. Their greater firsthand knowledge of fishing
has enabled them to develop a much more intricate game of
"fisherman." Boats for this game are cardboard boxes
which are pulled along the ground. In each boat is a long
rope which represents the net. Another smaller box may be
carried inside the larger box as a skiff. Combining (and
confusing slightly) their knowledge of gill-net fishing
and of purse seining, the children play the fishing game
by throwing out one end of he line and running in a
straight line or in a huge semicircle letting the "net"
pull out of the boat to make the set. The play-fisherman
then gets into the pox and pretends to sleep while the
fish come in. The net is pulled into the boat in the
hand-over-hand manner used by the men. When the net and
skiff are back in the box, the play-fisherman pulls his
boat along the road or across the soccer field to make
another set. When the boys want tangible evidence of
fish, they scoop a handful of gravel from the road to put
in the box. Like the men, their references to the catch
are by number: "I got 200 that time." A boy without a
"boat" can be an airplane representing the watchful eye of
the Fish Commission. A play-commissioner flies about and
arrests everyone as a matter of routine.
Reggie's six-year-old cousin was playing at fishing one afternoon when I was walking along the road. He wanted to continue his game but he also wanted to accompany me. He decided to do both by running alongside me and making a straight set along the road which he dragged behind him as se walked together. "I'm only going to make one set," he explained. "I don't feel much like working today."
In their play the children are not inclined to explore the island beyond the trails running through the berry vines at the back of the houses. Walking within the village is confined almost exclusively to the road and the paths between houses. To take a stroll, villagers traverse the length of the road several times.
During the long hours of winter darkness and on rainy days, indoor play activities are important. Toys do not last long but there are toys or parts of toys in every house. Playpens have rattles and plastic toys. Children enjoy crayons and coloring books; crayons disappear regularly from school. The children play card games like old maid and donkey. Older teenagers are good at cribbage, and also a favorite game among adult fishermen. One boy had a set of Monopoly. Checkers are dominoes are played as long as new sets remain intact. Radio listening is as popular among the older children as among adults, and several teen-agers collect records of popular hit tunes. Events like holidays and birthdays do not ordinarily receive special attention. I was told that possibly once in his childhood and once in his teens a child might have a birthday party, but otherwise the occasion is apt to be dismissed as casually as in this account by one boy:
My birthday is today. And I am 13 years old today. My mother said "Happy Birthday, son."
Few daily adult activities go unnoticed or unobserved by the children. Whenever the adults are busy with their tasks one can expect to find a child or group of children watching the work or playing nearby. If groups of adults are busy canning, barbecuing, or visiting, the children are literally underfoot. At times an adult becomes exasperated with so many children around as he attempts to work, and children may be told: "Go play!" Yet even the forbidden "other side" becomes tacitly within limits if an adult is their working on a net or an engine.
When children are addressed for purposes of discipline or direction, the typical village parent does not often speak loudly or harshly; rarely does an Indian adult scream and shout at his own children and I have never heard an adult speak harshly to a child not related to him. One of the most frequently heard phrases for admonishing children is "Don't fool around." The phrase is often repeated with no change in inflection. One mother used is the phrase so often in addressing her children that it had become a monologue. The admonishment seldom produced any immediate response.
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