Suggestion

[Le Weaponnier]

 I was talknig to a friend of mine the other night. Je had a really odd idea that I thought I'd share.
He suggested copyrighting the various ceremonies.
Then, granting the rights to perform them, for free to legitimate organizations. And by refusing to grant the rights to the so called New Age Shamans, you effectively deny them they ability to continue.

 We were both into a bottle at the time, so it made a lot of sense. I'm not sure now if it would work, but I thought I'd share the idea incase it either was feasible or if it would lead to a similar idea that could work.

 Anyway, I saidI'd pass the idea on.

[yellowthunder_bolt]

Hey are you still in that bottle???  One can't copyright what does not belong to one. It belongs to Those for which it was handed down from many years.They belong to the Tribes and are sacred.

Still a little woozy Hey? Gotta love ya!!!!

[educatedindian]

The problems with that are too long to list. Like Bolt pointed out, no one here at NAFPS owns these ceremonies. They belong to the entire people of their respective heritages.

Other problems:
Copyright law doesn't recognize collective ownership. It does recognize corporate ownership, meaning a tribe would have to set one up...and a legal entity like that could be taken over.

If it went to an individual, who could be trusted? What would stop a fraud from tricking or coercing that person?

Do we really want US or Canadian laws giving direct control over a ceremony or practice? Then the courts could step in and they'd have even moe power over Natives.

Can you even copyright a ceremony or practice? Could the courts stop doctors from performing circumcisions if a group of Orthodox Jews decided they wanted control over it, for example?

And if we could copyright it, the frauds have more money and lawyers than we do. They'd run to copyright other ceremonies first before we could.

[Le Weaponnier]

Ahhh, well it was just a thought. I agree that a few days later it makes less sense, but I wanted to explore the idea at least.
 At least no one flamed me.