Slavery was integral and pervasive in many coastal Native societies according to UVic anthropoligist Leland Donald's Aboriginal Slavery on the Northwest Coast of North America (University of California Press $56), an explanation of how and why coastal tribes maintained one of the densest non-agricultural populations in history. "I haven't written a bestseller," says Donald. He adds, "Slavery was as important to Northwest Coast culture as it was to antebellum southern U.S. culture. In both areas what best and most typically represents these cultures are the lives, actions and values of their elites, and in both regions the elites built their lives on slavery." 0520206169

[BCBW 1997]