World Religions TH 608

1. Chapter Two
Native American
Religions

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The Spirit World
• Native American religions are diverse and
difficult to define
• Polytheistic
– Many Native American religions believe that
all of nature is alive with spirits and is
personified by them
– At the heart of nature is Mother Earth, who
provides the bounty of the earth

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The Spirit World
• Supreme Being
– Many Native American religions also believe
in a Supreme Being, who is the high deity
amongst all of the spirits
– Some Native Americans think of the High God
or Great Spirit as a personal God, while
others conceive of the High God as more
abstract
• The Great Spirit is rarely appealed to and daily
matters are addressed to the lesser spirits

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Animism
• In general, Native American have a more
reverent attitude toward nature than
European Americans
• An animist is a person who believes that
all of nature (plants, animals) are
spiritually alive
– Those spirits have the power to help or hurt
human beings

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Animism
• Because of the spiritual nature of animals,
hunting was both a necessary and a
religious experience
– The entire animal was used, and nothing was
wasted
• Like hunters, Native Americans who
farmed revered the soil and sun
– Planting and harvesting were surrounded by
rituals of respect

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Contacts with the Spirit World
• Sacrifice
– Medicine Bundles
• Made of animal hides and bones, plants, and
minerals, these bundles were sources of great
spiritual power
• Subsequent generations treated them as living
beings and passed them down through the family
to the next generation

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Contacts with the Spirit World
• Taboos
– Taboo are all actions, circumstances,
persons, objects, etc., which owing to their
dangerousness fall outside the normal
everyday categories of existence
– A taboo is a kind of religious action that
enables people to avoid doing things that
would offend the spirits of nature and the
ancestors
• Ex. menstruation

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Contacts with the Spirit World
• Taboo
– Native American religions included many
taboos about the dead
• The fear was that the dead might return to take
family or friends or to haunt people’s dreams
– Because of the taboo, the final resting place
of a body is very important
• Steps are taken to ensure that the dead stay in
their resting places

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Contacts with the Spirit World
• Ceremonies and Rituals
– Native Americans often sought to control the
forces of the spirit world through ceremony
– Ceremonies renewed the bond between
human beings and the spirit world
• One of the most common elements for Native
Americans is dance, which allows them to contact
the spirit world in preparation for special events
– Ex. Hunts, agricultural seasons, rites of passage

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Contacts with the Spirit World
• The Vision Quest
– Vision quests allowed Native Americans to
gain special power by getting in contact with
the spirit world
– A vision quest required a child at the edge of
puberty to go into the wilderness alone and
wait for a vision from the spirits
• The vision often comes in the form of an animal,
who then becomes a special guardian for the
person

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Contacts with the Spirit World
• Religious Leadership
– Native American religions are basically free of
any priesthood
• But there are still people who have a special
connection to the spiritual world
– In that way, Native American religions
encourage personal contact with the spirit
world
• Prayers, dances, and songs are performed by
every member of the tribe

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Contacts with the Spirit World
• Religious Leadership
– Native Americans used healers to address
foreign elements in the body – the believed
source of all illness
• The term “medicine man” was created by early
white settlers to describe tribal healers
– Healers received power from the spirit world,
but were not possessed by spirits in order to
heal
• They can also cause harm to enemies

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Contacts with the Spirit World
• Other Means of Contact with the
Spiritual World
– Tobacco and the sacred pipe were used in
religious ceremonies as a link to the spiritual
world
– The drug peyote is also used in some
religious ceremonies to achieve spiritual
experience
• The “Native American Church” sought to blend
Christianity and the peyote cult

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Death and Life After Death
• Like other aspects of Native American
religion, there is great variety in beliefs
about death
– Native American beliefs about death have
also been influenced by Christianity to the
point where it is difficult to distinguish its
influence
– Many scholars have noted the lack of fear by
Native Americans in facing death

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Death and Life After Death
• Traditional Native Americans believe in
two souls:
– The life, or breath, that accompanies the body
– The free soul
• The free soul wanders around during dreams or
leaves the body during sickness
• After death, the free soul goes to the land of the
dead
– The land of the dead is not well defined

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Death and Life After Death
• Some Native American cultures seek to
aid the dead in their journey to the land of
the dead
– They bury the body with food or drink
– Sometimes an animal was killed and buried
with the body to act as a guide
• The free soul does not live forever in the
land of the dead, but possibly only as long
as it is remembered by the living

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Death and Life After Death
• There is occasional discussion of
reincarnation in Native American religion
– Sometimes a newborn will resemble a dead
relative and will be believed to be a
reincarnation
– However, reincarnation is not a common
belief in Native American religion
• In what religions is reincarnation a
common belief?

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Native American Religions Today
• Native American culture has been
severely stressed by the arrival of
European settlers
– The “Ghost Dance” movement:
• Combined Native American dance, song, and
religion, as well as Christianity
• The movement’s founder believed that he had a
vision of Christ, who taught him ritual songs and
dances to destroy the white man and make the
ancestors and buffalo reappear

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Native American Religions Today
• Wounded Knee
– Many Lakotas believed that ghost shirts would
protect them from Army bullets
– In December 1890, the Army attempted to
disband a large group of Lakotas, but a shot
was fired
– The Army proceeded to massacre 350
Lakotas, including women and children

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Native American Religions Today
• Christian missionaries have had an
ongoing effect on Native American culture
– Many traditional Native American practices
are continued, even by practitioners who
consider themselves to be Christians
– A belief in the power of spirits to cause illness
persists in the community
– Christian holidays are also often melded with
Native American traditions

21. Native American Religions Today
• Mormonism has become increasingly
attractive to Native Americans, because
Mormons believe that Native Americans
are the lost tribe of Israel and that Jesus
preached to them before his crucifixion
• In recent years, there has been a revival
of interest in Native American culture
– Outsiders’ increased interest has been met
with mixed results
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