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Author Pettipas, Katherine, author.

Title Severing the ties that bind : government repression of indigenous religious ceremonies on the prairies / Katherine Pettipas
Published Winnipeg, Manitoba : University of Manitoba Press, [1994]
©1994

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Description 1 online resource (xiv, 304 pages, 10 unnumbered pages of plates) : illustrations, maps, portraits
Series Manitoba studies in native history, 0826-9416 ; 7
Manitoba studies in native history ; 7. 0826-9416
Contents Foreword / A. Blair Stonechild -- Piapot's Story -- 1. Imperial Policy and Local "Customs" -- 2. The Ties that Bind: The Plains Cree -- 3. From Independence to Wardship: 1870 to 1895 -- 4. The Indian Act and Indigenous Ceremonies: 1884 to 1895 -- 5. Regulating Sun Dances and Giveaways: 1896 to 1914 -- 6. Responses to Religious Suppression: 1896 to 1914 -- 7. Other Forms of "Objectionable Customs": 1914 to 1940 -- 8. Persistence, Reason, and Compromise: 1914 to 1940 -- 9. A Matter of Religious Freedom: 1940 to 1951
Summary Religious ceremonies were an inseparable part of Aboriginal traditional life, reinforcing social, economic and political values. However, missionaries and government officials with ethnocentric attitudes of cultural superiority decreed that Native dances and ceremonies were immoral or un-Christian and an impediment to the integration of the Native population into Canadian society. Beginning in 1885, the Department of Indian Affairs implemented a series of amendments to the Canadian Indian Act designed to eliminate traditional forms of religious expression and customs, such as the Sun Dance, the Midewiwin, the Sweat Lodge and giveaway ceremonies. However, the amendments were only partially effective. Aboriginal resistance to the laws took many forms; community leaders challenged the legitimacy of the terms and the manner in which the regulations were implemented, and they altered their ceremonies - the times and locations, the practices - in an attempt both to avoid detection and to placate the agents who enforced the law. Katherine Pettipas views the amendments as part of official support for the destruction of indigenous cultural systems. She presents a critical analysis of the administrative policies and considers the effects of government suppression of traditional religious activities on the whole spectrum of Aboriginal life, focusing on the experiences of the Plains Cree from the mid-1800s to 1951, when regulations pertaining to religious practices were removed from the Act. She shows how the destructive effects of the legislation are still felt in Aboriginal communities today, and offers insight to current issues of Aboriginal spirituality, including access to and use of religious objects held in museum repositories, protection of sacred lands and sites, and the right to indigenous religious practices in prison
Notes Originally presented as the author's thesis (Ph. D.), University of Manitoba, 1989
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 279-295) and index
Notes Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL
Print version record
digitized 2010 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL
Subject Cree Indians -- Rites and ceremonies
Cree Indians -- Government relations
Indians of North America -- Prairie Provinces -- Rites and ceremonies
Indians of North America -- Canada -- Government relations.
HISTORY -- Canada -- General.
Cree Indians -- Government relations
Cree Indians -- Rites and ceremonies
Indians of North America -- Government relations
Indians of North America -- Rites and ceremonies
Zeremonie
Indiens d'Amérique -- États-Unis.
Cree (Indiens) -- Relations avec l'État.
Cree (Indiens) -- Rites et cérémonies.
Geschichte 1800-1951.
Canada
Prairie Provinces
Cree.
Form Electronic book
LC no. 95157590
ISBN 0887551513
9780887551512
0887556388
9780887556388
9780887553646
0887553648