From Jack the Ripper to the Manson Family and the Unabomber serial killers have taunted police.

The Hamatsa and the Mystery of the Severed Feet



In all likelihood the RCMP, aided by Seattle and Vancouver detectives, are conducting massive investigations into a serial killer cult responsible for at least 16 homicides in British Columbia and Washington. These homicides relate to 19 severed feet found across the Puget Sound-Georgia Straight area between August 20, 2007 and May 6, 2018. As per protocol, police are not acknowledging this investigation for fear suspects will take precautions. This diktat of denial manifests in absurd pronouncements by the BC Coroners Service relayed in equally absurd, obviously planted, reportage.

Slaves could be killed en masse during wealth destruction rituals at potlatch festivals The investigation is complicated by political correctness. Perpetrators may be aboriginal extremists engaged in Hamatsa revitalization. The Kwakwaka’wakw are Kwakiutl-speaking people from northeast Vancouver Island and the adjacent mainland. Sustained contact with Europeans dates to 1820 but by then the Kwakwaka’wakw had acquired European tools through intra-aboriginal trade. Circa 1820 over 15,000 Kwakwaka’wakw populated dozens of winter villages. Every spring these villages broke into small bands trekking to designated fishing, hunting and foraging spots. In autumn they regrouped into cedar-plank longhouses. Winter villages had 100 to 500 inhabitants.



All west coast aboriginal nations practised slavery. Slaves were captured on raids or acquired through trade. Slaves were usually women and children; their adult male counter-parts having been dispatched. One Kwakwaka’wakw tribe, the Laich-kwil-tach, supplied most of the Kwakwaka’wakw’s slaves. These “Vikings of Vancouver Island” conducted ferocious raids on southern peoples. The Laich-kwil-tach’s base of operations midway down Vancouver Island’s east coast (Campbell River/Quadra Island) constituted the Kwakwaka’wakw’s southern frontier. A third of Kwakwaka’wakw villagers were slaves over whom owners exercised absolute dominion. Slaves could be killed en masse during wealth destruction rituals at potlatch festivals.

Hamatsa devoured slaves killed in their honour at potlatches Kwakwaka’wakw society divided into three or four classes. Slaves occupied the bottom of the totem pole. Confusion exists regarding “warrior” and “commoner” classes but all agree the “Hamatsa” formed a chieftain caste. Most sources translate “Hamatsa” into “cannibal” while some translate it into “eaters” or “the biters.” Each Kwakwaka’wakw village was ruled by several men (and occasionally a woman) who practiced forms of cannibalism. One had to be born Hamatsa, or marry in; but even born Hamatsa underwent multi-year initiations culminating in raucous ceremonies whereat audience members suffered severe bites from the initiate. Hamatsa devoured slaves killed in their honour at potlatches. Hamatsa tore apart people and dogs with their teeth. Villagers bore multiple bite marks. Such customs persisted late into the 1800s. One Hamatsa quirk: unlike other cannibal cultures which considered feet a delicacy, the Hamatsa believed feet to be lethally toxic. Ritualised procedures removed the corpse’s feet. At the heart of Kwakwaka’wakw society beat annual week-long national confabs – potlatches. These consisted of speeches, marriages, ritual dances, gift-givings and wealth destructions aimed at reinforcing Hamatsa dominance within each village and Laich-kwil-tach pre-eminence over other Kwakwaka’wakw tribes. In 1884 the Federal Government banned potlatches for being immoral, reckless and wasteful. Discussion of suppressing potlatches swirled but scant action followed. Our first foot-in-shoe appears at this juncture.

Cultural revitalization received official imprimatur in 1990 with the launch of the First People’s Culture Council In 1887 Vancouver constables discovered a human leg lodged in a boot. This unsolved mystery is commemorated by Leg-in-Boot Square. The symbolic synthesis of Western shoe and annihilated occupant presents a palpable portend. Over the next decade potlaches secretly continued with minimal interference while colonization proceeded apace. Talk of stamping out potlatches intensified during the World War One era, correlating with our second foot-in-shoe. On July 30, 1914 the Vancouver Sun reported a human leg encased in a boot had been found on the mainland coast northeast of Vancouver Island. Ninety-three years passed before the next foot-in-shoe discovery (August 20, 2007). This foot belonged to a local man reported missing in 2004. Authorities withheld his name. Due to disease etc Kwakwaka’wakw numbers collapsed to 1,000 by 1920, then rebounded to 5,000. A dozen reserve-possessing Kwakwaka’wakw bands are recognised by Ottawa. Eight belong to the Kwakiutl District Council, the largest and most prosperous among them hail from the Campbell River/Quadra Island area. 60% of Kwakwaka’wakw live off-reserve, mostly in Vancouver and Victoria. Kwakwaka’wakw cultural renaissance supremo, Chief Beau Dick, grew up in downtown Vancouver. Cultural revitalization received official imprimatur in 1990 with the launch of the First People’s Culture Council, a BC crown corporation which has spent $45 million reviving native language and custom. The Council cooperates with 20 likeminded philanthropic and governmental entities.





Official cultural revitalisation does not go far enough for many Kwakwaka’wakw Official cultural revitalisation does not go far enough for many Kwakwaka’wakw. Band government statements read like sovereigntist declarations. All bands aggressively promote cultural revitalisation and receive lavish funding to do so, much of it channelled to aboriginal artists. Brian Junger benefitted from this aboriginal art bonanza. Born in BC’s interior in 1970 to a Swiss father and native mother Junger moved to Vancouver when he started high school and later studied at Vancouver’s Emily Carr art college. His “Prototypes of New Understanding” period (1998-2005) involved reassembling Nike running shoes into the shapes of Pacific Coast aboriginal masks to protest Western consumerism. The Nike shoe had become a stock icon of a diabolized West. As Junger’s “Prototype” pieces enjoyed peak notoriety the first several disappearances occurred. All victims wore athletic shoes. Half wore Nikes. Between foot discoveries 6 and 7 one detects a volte face by detectives. A July 2008 Toronto Star article (Two Mystery feet from the same person) quotes an RCMP spokesperson saying: “these could be homicide victims.” The article discusses the unusual number of missing men in Vancouver; including 4 reported already that year. These were not Skid Road types. Two families offered rewards for information regarding their suddenly vanishing sons. Weeks later CTV ran: “Missing foot mystery deepens with latest find” to detail the first foot-in-shoe discovery on Washington’s beaches. The article stresses intense police interest and mentions another recent nearby find of a corpse without feet. Then the reportage shifts. Subsequent articles toe the BC Coroners Service’s (BCCS) “no foul play suspected” line. Experts tell us feet naturally disarticulate during decomposition and that running shoes make for marvelous little life jackets. Coverage climaxes in hysterical pieces appearing in the Guardian, National Post, New York Times, Toronto Star and Vox between December 2017 and May 2018; responding to foot discoveries 18 and 19. The New York Times quotes a BC coroner likening the belief in a serial killer to a belief in space aliens.



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