ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the tensions between understandings of cultural property and cultural exchange as they have emerged on the Northwest Coast of Canada and the USA at a moment of media-focused attention and the resulting renegotiation of relations between a First Nation in British Columbia and a metropolitan art museum. On January 26, 2014, the Seattle Art Museum (SAM) and the Denver Art Museum (DAM) announced a friendly wager on the outcome of Super Bowl 2014 between the Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks. The chapter presents a case study that details how one mask can be family treasure, First Nations cultural property, and museum masterpiece; it can manifest chiefly power and has the potential to amplify city pride in the skill of its sports team. The Nuxalk Nation uphold their sovereign cultural rights and will maintain the mask's social and political roles by dancing its descendant version in future potlatches.
