Native American Religions

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Native American Religions
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QUESTIONS

• What relevance does Native American religion have
  for today?
• What are some elements of Native American
  religion would interest New Age religion and
  spiritual people?
• What are some common parts of Native American
  religion?

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Native American religion

• Difficult to define because they are so diverse
  (hunting-gathering societies to agricultural
  societies, small nomadic bands to towns, cities,
  and empires, in every section of America)
• Estimated that there may have been as many as
  2,000 different Native American cultures in North
  America
• Must make generalizations based on certain shared
  religious characteristics seen across Native
  American tribes

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Limitations on sources

• First people came to Americas 15,000 to 20,000
  years ago (some Natives believe their ancestors
  were created in Americas)
• 20,000 years of Native Americans in Americas
• Information only available from last 400 years
• Most sources were from Christian missionaries and
  explorers
• Difficult to understand how much Native American
  religion has been influenced by contact with
  Europeans

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polytheistic

• All nature is alive with spirits
• Spirits take the forms of animals, plants, and
  appear in visions
• Guardian spirits
• Spirits of the dead who live in the Land of the
  Dead
• Mother Earth she provides the bounty of the
  Earth
• Lightening and thunder individual deities

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Monotheistic

• The Supreme Being or High God
• Separate from the concerns of Earth
• People pray to the nature spirits or ancestors
  for matters of daily life
• The High God is appealed to only rarely and is
  seldom mentioned in religious conversation

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monistic

• Some Native Americans believe the High God is a
  divine or sacred power similar to the Tao.
• Dakota Sioux believe in Wakan Tanka or The Great
  Mysterious
• Creative force found in all beings and spirits
• Any object or being that has influence over the
  course of life is seen as a manifestation of this
  divine power

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So, is native American religion polytheistic,
monotheistic, or monistic (henotheistic)?
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animism

• An animist is someone who believes that the
  trees, rocks, rivers, plants, and animals are
  spiritually alive.
• Spirits in nature have the ability to help or
  harm.
• Animists offer some form of worship to these
  spirits.
• Native Americans are thus animists in a sense.

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Animism continued

• If the Supreme Being lives and manifests itself
  in all creation, nature should be respected and
  cared for.
• In general, a different view than white European
  settlers, who viewed nature as something to be
  exploited.
• White Europeans were willing to sacrifice the
  beauty and life of the land to build a technology
  that would make life more comfortable and
  pleasant.
• Native Americans had a reverent attitude toward
  nature and sought to live in harmony with it.

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hunting

• Important to Native Americans both a practical
  and religious experience
• Native American hunters often prayed to the
  spirit of the animal before the hunt.
• Only those animals absolutely needed were killed
• Hunters asked for forgiveness from the animal
• Every part of the animal was used
• Euro-American hunters slaughtered herds, took
  hides and tongues leaving the bulk of the animal
  to rot.

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agriculture

• Native Americans revere the soil, plants, and
  trees
• The soil is personified as Mother Earth. Plants
  are thought to have spirits.
• For many Native American people, farming is a
  religious activity.
• Hopi of the Southwest continue to farm for corn,
  even when the bulk of their food comes from
  modern sources

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Agriculture continued

• Even gathering clay to make pottery is done with
  an understanding of the life in the soil.
• The Papago women of southern Arizona speak of the
  clay they dig for pots I take only what I need.
  It is to cook for my children.
• Cutting down a tree is not done without making an
  offering to the tree first
• Trees are sacred and have feelings that must be
  respected

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Contacts with the spirit world

• Native American people tend not to see the
  universe as being under the control of an all
  powerful God
• Interested in day-to-day life among multiple
  spirits
• Native Americans seek to maintain good
  relationships with spiritual beings (forests,
  streams, and animals, among others) that share
  the world with humans.

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Sacrifice

• Most world religions practice some form of
  sacrifice to please deities
• Animals, grain, wine, beer, and human blood
  sacrifice have been offered by different
  religions
• Such sacrifices were rare among the native
  peoples of the United States and Canada
• Human sacrifice was used by natives of Central
  and South America (Maya of Guatemala, Aztecs of
  Central Mexico, Inca of Peru, and communities of
  American Southwest).

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sacrifice

• Sacrifice is used to help human obtain assistance
  from spiritual beings
• Some rituals such as the Sun Dance of the Great
  Plains Native Americans involve self-torment or
  sacrifice
• This is seen as a way of obtaining the spiritual
  power necessary for human survival
• Medicinal bundles made from animal hides, bones,
  plants, and minerals are other sources of
  spiritual power.
• Medicinal bundles are greatly valued by Native
  Americans.

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Why do you think that the great blood sacrifices
of other world religions was/is uncommon in
native American religion?
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taboos

• One way that Native Americans protect themselves
  from possible danger from the spirit world is
  through taboos.
• Taboos are actions, circumstances, persons,
  objects, etc., which owing to their dangerousness
  fall outside the normal everyday categories of
  existence.
• Taboo is a kind of religious action that enables
  people to avoid doing things that would offend
  the spirits of nature and the ancestors.

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TABOO INTERACTING WITH MENSTRUATING WOMEN

• Women participate in child production and thus
  have special powers
• Menstruating women are seen as especially
  powerful
• Interacting with or even being looked at by a
  menstruating women could ruin a hunters
  abilities for life even weapons could be
  rendered useless wild game could be driven away
• Menstruating women were often kept separate

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TABOO AVOIDANCE OF THE DEAD

• Native Americans feared that the spirit of the
  dead would remain for a time and attempt to take
  family and friends with it.
• Native Americans avoid the dead except in cases
  of extreme emergency.
• Among the Navaho and other tribes of Arizona and
  New Mexico, dead bodies, their clothing and
  belongings are greatly feared. They are reluctant
  to touch the bodies of victims of automobile and
  other accidents.
• Care of the dead is often left to non-native
  people

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CONCERN ABOUT FINAL RESTING PLACE

• Steps taken to keep bodies away from contact with
  the human world
• Sometimes, names of dead are not spoken for many
  years after their deaths
• Dead buried by special members of tribe not
  immediate family
• These people were ritually unclean for a time and
  unable to partake of tribal meals

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CONTROVERSY NATIVE AMERICANS AND THE SCIENTIFIC
COMMUNITY REGARDING THE DEAD

• Archaeologists and scientists often study human
  remains to learn about the diets and health of
  prehistoric people
• Native Americans are troubled by what they see as
  a disrespect for the dead
• They have fought for the return and reburial of
  the remains discovered by archaeologists

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CEREMONIES AND RITUALS

• Native Americans sought to control the forces of
  the spiritual world with ceremonies
• The purpose of ceremonies, rituals, songs, and
  dances is not necessarily to worship
• They are a means of renewing the partnership
  between humans and the spirit world
• Ceremonies and rituals include dancing, singing,
  fasting, ordeals, bathing, and observing taboos.

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DANCE A POPULAR RITUAL

• The entire community participates
• Used to prepare for a hunt, agricultural season,
  or for celebration they were also used in the
  preparation for war
• Used as a rite of passage
• Dance is accompanied by the beating of drums,
  singing of songs, shaking of rattles, and playing
  of flutes

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DANCE CONTACT WITH THE SPIRIT WORLD

• Rhythms can be simple or complex
• Several people banging on a log to complex
  rhythms played on animal skin drums
• Verses could be simple and repetitive or tell
  detailed stories of creation or heroes of the
  past
• Hours of song and steady rhythm are hypnotic
• Long hours of dancing in this atmosphere prepares
  the participants to interact with the spirits

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RITUALS FOR HUNTING

• Animals were important to Native Americans for
  food and raw materials (hides for warmth, bones
  for tools and weapons)
• Rituals prepared hunters for their work
• Hunting could be unpredictable one season their
  would be an abundance of game and the weapons
  could be very accurate another season game could
  be scarce and weapons ineffective
• Spirits of animals and the hunters and weapons
  themselves had to be properly prepared

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PUEBLO HUNTING RITUAL

• Pueblo ritual of the southwest
• Men dressed as deer and crawled around to the
  beat of a drum and the singing of songs
• Hunters acted as if they were killing them and
  the animal actors as if they were dying
• Sympathetic or imitative magic persons
  imitating the game animals in the ceremony were
  symbolically called forth and killed in the
  belief that this would occur during the real hunt

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THE VISION QUEST

• To gain special power in life, Native Americans
  often seek visions that put them in contact with
  the spirit world
• Visions sought by young people at the time of
  puberty
• One day they go alone into the wilderness to live
  alone until a vision is received
• The young person lives without food, limited
  water, and with hardly any possessions
• Done to appear poor and humble before the spirits

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VISION QUEST CONTINUED

• Sometimes, the young person is painted to
  resemble a famous person from the tribe
• When the vision comes, the spirits often appear
  in the guise of animals in a dreamlike or
  trancelike state
• The animal may become the persons special
  guardian the person may change his/her name to
  include the animals name
• A bond is formed with that animal that lasts for
  life

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VISION QUEST CONTINUED

• Spirits may appear as a man or a woman
• If no vision occurs after a few days, then the
  young person may cut his/her flesh or even cut
  off a finger as a sign of sincerity.
• When the vision comes, the young person returns
  to the community as a full member of the group,
  having moved through this rite of passage.

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VISIONS THEN AND NOW

• Visions are sought by Native Americans at other
  times in life ex. On the eve of a major battle
• Visions sought in connection with hunting such as
  the great buffalo hunts in the 19th century
• Today, they are sought before making major life
  decisions such as marriage, running for political
  office, or moving from the reservation for
  employment or education

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SUN DANCE

• Practiced Native Americans of the Great Plains
• Dance takes place during the summer, on the
  solstice when the sun is near its peak lasts
  usually three days and nights.
• Dancers seek a vision
• Gather in a lodge especially built for the
  purpose
• Sacred pole in the center of the lodge cut from a
  tree chosen for this sacred purpose
• People may be hung from the pole by hooks through
  pectoral muscles in order to contact the spirits
• Contact with the spirit world for too long can be
  dangerous, so they fight to free themselves from
  the hooks quickly.

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SMOKING

• Natives smoked strong tobacco (Nicotina rustica
  plant) from long, decorative pipes (works of art,
  valued possessions that could be traded)
• Most people cannot take more than six puffs from
  the pipe without feeling almost intoxicated
• (not like mass-produced tobacco grown today)
• Native Americans (men mostly) did it occasionally
  to enhance bonding between tribal leaders,
  agreements among tribal members
• Not smoked as a habit

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PEYOTE

• Spineless cactus that grows in American Southwest
  and Mexico
• Natives of Central America and Southwest ate it
  to have visions
• Peyote has 9 narcotic alkaloids including
  mescaline (which is used to make acid)
• Most states have drug regulations banning
  mescaline
• Federal courts have upheld the state laws
• Native Americans continue to appeal to federal
  courts including the Supreme Court as they feel
  that their religious freedoms under the Bill of
  Rights are being abridged.
• Why is this a significant issue?