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The Potlatch Ban, which was legislation forbidding the practice of the potlatch passed by the government of the Dominion of Canada, began in 1885 and lasted until 1951.〔Lutz, John. “After the Fur Trade: The Aboriginal Labouring Class of British Columbia, 1849-1890” in ''Labouring Canada: Class, Gender, and Race in Canadian Working-Class History'', ed. Brian D. Palmer & Joan Sangster. Don Mills, Ontario: Oxford University Press, 2008. P.28〕 First Nations saw the law as an instrument of intolerance and injustice. "''Second only to the taking of land without extinguishing Indian title; the outlawing of the potlatch can be seen as the extreme to which Euro-Canadian society used its dominance against its aboriginal subjects in British Columbia''.〔" Though often ignored and circumvented, the ban remained in Canadian legal codes until 1951, when Section 149 was deleted from a revision of the Indian Act. Arrests for charges under the Act were few until 1921, when a raid on the village of Memkumlis held by Chief Dan Cranmer saw the arrest and charges laid against 45 people; of these 22 were given suspended sentences and 20 men and women sent to Oakalla Prison in Burnaby.〔(''The Potlatch Collection History'', U'Mista Cultural Centre, Alert Bay, website )〕 ==History== Potlatch, which means "to give" or "a gift" in the Chinook Jargon,〔("The Potlatch: On the Suppression of the Potlatch", Story of the Masks website, U'mista Cultural Centre )〕 became adapted to refer to “the different ceremonies among () many nations of the Pacific Northwest that… () feasting, dancing and giving gifts to all in attendance”.〔Lutz, John. “After the Fur Trade: The Aboriginal Labouring Class of British Columbia, 1849-1890” in ''Labouring Canada: Class, Gender, and Race in Canadian Working-Class History'', ed. Brian D. Palmer & Joan Sangster. Don Mills, Ontario: Oxford University Press, 2008. P.26〕 It is also described somewhat more completely by ''The Story of the Masks'' website from the U'mista Cultural Centre in Alert Bay as "The potlatch refers to the ceremony where families gather and names are given, births are announced, marriages are conducted, and where families mourn the loss of a loved one. The potlatch is also the ceremony where a chief will pass on his rights and privileges to his eldest son."〔 The British Columbia Indian Office, specifically the Indian Commissioner, I. W. Powell, had found the native peoples to be rich and hardy, but also found they appeared as if they were poor.〔''To Potlatch of Not to Potlatch: An In-Depth Study of Culture-Conflict Between the B.C. Coastal Indian and the White Man''. Charles Hou. Vancouver: British Columbia Teachers' Federation, P.17〕 This finding led to further research on the subject of potlatches where it was found that to the indigenous peoples, the Potlatch was a great institution. It encouraged people to give away their earnings and possessions in exchange, the giver would receive a great deal of respect and be seen as honourable to his tribe and others.〔Bracken, Christopher. ''The Potlatch Papers: A Colonial Case History.'' Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1997. P.110〕 However, John A. Macdonald did not see this tradition as valuable or appropriate and, under the guise of unifying the Dominion of Canada, encouraged the government to lay “an iron hand on the shoulders of the () people” by restricting some of their non-essential, inappropriate rituals and leading them towards what he perceived as a ‘healthier’ European mindset.〔Douglas Cole and Ira Chaikin. ''An Iron Hand Upon the People: The Law Against the Potlatch on the Northwest Coast.'' Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1990. P.15〕 Work thus began on an amendment to the Indian Act of 1880. Some criticized the idea, such as James Benjamin McCullagh in his essay on the tribal lifestyle of the indigenous peoples of Canada, ''The Indian Potlatch''.〔McCullagh, J.B. The Indian potlatch substance of a paper read before C.M.S. annual conference at Metlakatla, B.C., 1899. Canadiana.org. Toronto: Woman’s Missionary Society of the Methodist Church, 1899. P. 9〕 In the third section of the Indian Act, signed on April 19, 1884, it was declared that: Not all non-Aboriginal people supported the ban. German-born Anthropologist Franz Boas not only opposed the ban, with the help of his First Nations assistant, he actually hosted one. Despite this, the ban was enacted, asking until repealed in 1951. First Nations affected by the ban quickly saw the law as an instrument of injustice and intolerance. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Potlatch Ban」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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