Golden Potlatch

Golden Potlatch card showing images of Chief Seattle and his daughter Princess Angeline.

Golden Potlatch card showing images of Chief Seattle, , Siwash Indian ware sellers and Chief Seattle's daughter Princess Angeline.

Golden Potlatch Card inviting people to come to The Golden Potlatch, '97. with images of Colman Dock and King Street Station.

The Golden Potlatch (or Potlatch Days) was a festival in Seattle, Washington, USA in 1911–1914 and 1935–1941. The name derived from the potlatch, the Chinook Jargon name of a festival ceremony that had been practiced by indigenous peoples of the region; "golden" reflected Seattle's role in the Klondike Gold Rush in the late 1890s.

The first Golden Potlatch took place July 17–21, 1911. Roughly 300,000 people attended parades, concerts, automobile races up Queen Anne Hill, and a flight by an airplane piloted by Navy pilot by Lt. Eugene Ely. There was also a reenactment of the 1897 arrival of the Portland with its legendary "ton of gold". The event was conceived to keep Seattle in the public eye in the wake of the successful and prominent Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition of 1909.

The 1913 Potlatch was marred by the "Potlatch Riots": soldiers and sailors looted and burned the offices of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and the Socialist Party. The coming of World War I in 1914 marked the end of the Potlatch. The festival was revived in 1935, but was again terminated by war, this time by the U.S. entry into World War II in 1941.