"There was definitely a dark time for our people. And that's only in the 20s, the 1920s. They weren't allowed to practice their customs... Potlatch isn't just Indian dancing and singing... Potlatch is a way of life. So when they took that away from our people, it was breaking down a whole system. And it was a very difficult time for our people because they lived in fear.""They used to sneak around to practice our culture, that is why some of our people never forgot our ways. For years nothing happened here in Alert Bay because people were terrified because they might get put in jail.""People were arrested for handing out gifts, for making speeches, and for dancing... or anything to do, helping, in the potlatch. Part of the agreement by the Namgis and some other tribes, was to give up their masks and other things they used at a potlatch so that their members wouldn't be sent to jail.""When they were brought to Okalla Prison in 1922, was humiliating and degrading for our people. Granny talks about the only reason she wasn't sent to jail was because my mum was six months old, but her older sister went to jail. And when she got down there, they stripped them and hosed them down, like there was something wrong with them. They didn't treat our people very good."