07.03.19

Potlatch Appropriation Strategies: Seattle Free For All

"The 1913 started with high hopes but was marred by the "Potlatch Riots". On the first day of the Potlatch some soldiers and sailors were involved in a fistfight when an IWW Industrial Workers of the World speaker supposedly 'insulted their uniforms'.

A newspaper story the next day further inflamed the situation resulting in soldiers and sailors aided by civilians looting and burning the offices of the IWW and the Socialist Party. A rear admiral in charge of the reserve fleet expressed regret about the outbreak and said he had dispatched a patrol to round up the troublemakers.

On July 19, 1913, Mayor George Cotterill, responding to street riots the previous evening during the Potlatch Days festival, declared an emergency, and assumed direct control of the police, closed saloons, banned street speakers, and attempted to temporarily close down The Seattle Times, which he believed provoked the riots.

Despite the unrest on land, the 1913 Golden Potlatch staged three hydroplane races off Madrona Park: a 15 mile race for 16-footers, a 20 mile contest for 26 footers and a 30 mile free for all."

- from: http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Golden_Potlatch