Native American religions are diverse and polytheistic. They believe that spirits inhabit nature and communicate with humans. Supreme beings and lesser spirits are appealed to for help. Animism views nature as spiritually alive. Hunting and farming were religious experiences involving rituals. Contact with spirits occurs through ceremonies, rituals, visions, healers, tobacco, and peyote. Souls journey to the afterlife, though beliefs vary. Native American religions have faced pressure from European colonization but are experiencing a revival.

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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