380 ACCULTURATION IN SEVEN AMERICAN INDIAN TRIBES

The absence of even weakly exercised centralized authority be-
cause of the elimination of the sadeku headman has permitted
individuals to defy social forms with relative impunity. For ex-
ample, some years ago, when the potlatch system was beginning
to buckle, one man potlatched another some horses. The re-
cipient refused to repay. Nothing was done about it. Once a
break is made in the potlatch cycle the breach is inevitably wid-
ened. Occasionally, today, some individual remembering his past
status attempts a revival of the rivalrous potlatch, but is only
laughed at.

With the passing of the aboriginal property attitudes, the
utilization of property in building social status, a new attitude
toward wealth adopted from the Whites appears to be attain-
ing dominance. Wealth is now hoarded. Thus, the two men in
the village, who at one time would undoubtedly have been nobles
by virtue of their industriousness, enterprise and shrewdness are
now hoarders of wealth. One of these men is reputed to have
14,000 dollars in the bank at Vancouver. However, this new at-
titude toward wealth has not yet achieved universal acceptance,
and these men are regarded scornfully by many as misers. The
most socially acceptable use of wealth today is its expenditure
upon luxuries such as glass windows, phonographs, radios, spring
beds, etc. The young men particularly have adopted the philos-
ophy of spend your money while you may. Yet one young man
who was most vociferous in proclaiming this philosophy donated
at a church collection fifty cents more than the village chief and
shouted, ““Now I am the biggest man in the world.” This little
incident is perhaps most revealing of present-day attitudes. They
are changing undoubtedly, but the transformation is yet far
from complete.

Although the sadeku has become individualized—a return to
the earlier Athabascan pattern—the closeness of relations with
affinals is still emphasized through the continuance of bride-
service and informal gift exchanges. At present, and probably
also in the past, bride-service and economic obligations to the
father-in-law lead to some friction. To take one case as an ex-
ample, the son of my principal informant having married the
adopted daughter of his father’s uncle, who lived in the same