Quote:
Originally Posted by daveyboy
My band (Cree) doesn't have potlatches as they're mostly a NW Coast thing, especially with the Tling'it and The Kwak'itl. They may be legal now but the tradition and practice was completely decimated for almost a century by the colonialists and the church. Sure they're not illegal anymore but so much of the knowledge and lore of the potlatch was stolen, even to speak about it was forbidden. A deadly sin? probably not, but they were outlawed and like so much in our culture that knowledge and practice was decimated and is only know finally starting to make a resurgance.
Oh and just for the record, I wear very nice clothes on the train and I don't drink.
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Well, it wasn't me who made that last comment...
And yes, I am familar with some of the history involving the outlawing of such traditions.
I also once met a nice Native man (about 60) who was taking advantage of his oppurtunity to learn in an anthropology class. Those are always options, and while you can never completely recreate the past you can learn as much as you can from it. There is a wide variety of literature you can utilize.