Severing the ties that bind

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,…