Writing the Hamat'saLong known as the Cannibal Dance, the Hamatsa is among the most important hereditary prerogatives of the Kwakwakawakw of British Columbia. In the late nineteenth century, as anthropologists arrived to document the practice, colonial agents were pursuing its eradication and Kwakwakawakw were adapting it to endure. In the process, the dance with dramatic choreography, magnificent bird masks, and an aura of cannibalism entered a vast library of