Native American Religion And Traditions

Have you ever wonder how the world was created from another culture’s perspective? Native Americans used creation myths to explained to their people how the world was developed overtime. Creation myths are a big part of the Native American culture. they have been passed down from generation to generation. In the creation myths, harmony with nature, rituals, and strong social values are shown in each myths. The purpose of having strong social value in these myths is to teach younger Native Americans valuable lesson if they ever do something bad. These myths reveals how the rituals were created and their intentions for doing it. Creation myths has harmony with nature in it to show a very close kinship between them

In Chapter 2 and Chapter 3, the book highlights some interesting parts about indigenous religions of North America and Africa. For starters, in the indigenous religions, they have some interesting beliefs about how the world was created. Many of the beliefs they hold about the origin of the creation of man, is from ancient myths of North America. The belief that North America is the motherland for all creation. However, each native religion has different t how they describe their superman being.

Native American culture originated in some parts North America. These countries are known as the United States of America and some parts of Canada. In the United States, there are 6.6 million Native Americans, which form about 2.0 percent of the population (Bureau, 2016). Europe had realized there were about 50 million people already living the “new world” and these people were called Native Americans. Native Americans were originally called Indians, but later through history they formed a new name. These people were called this because of them being native to the “new world” and the American part came after the colonist named the United States. Throughout history, Native Americans believed that using raw material in nature was the best way to provide for their people. Their culture thought no part of an animal should go to waste. They would eat the meat, use the skin for clothing, and make jewelry from the bones. Over the years a lot of their culture and customs were lost due to conforming with society. Their languages were referred to as “Indigenous Languages” because of them being extremely complicated and diverse. Some important factors that help understand the foundation of Native American culture are their rituals/practices, death ceremonies, holidays, family, and stereotypes.

Culture, as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary is stated as “The integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief and behavior that dpends upon the capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations. The customary beliefs, social forms and material traits of a racial, religious or social group. The set shared attitudes, values, goals and practices that characterizes an institution or organization. The set of values, conventions or social practices associated with a particular field, activity or societal characteristic.” Of these four definitions, I shall be focusing on the second one to discuss what makes up the culture of American Indians.The culture of the various tribes that made up the Native Americans is one of close knit families, highlyspiritual peoples and living together as one with the land they lived on. They believed in spirits, worshiping and honoring them. Some settled into single locations while others were nomadic, but all had a focus on working with the land around them. Because there are so many varying tribes that make up Native

When Europeans first set foot upon the shores of what is now the United States they brought with them a social structure which was fundamentally based around their concept and understanding of Western European Christianity. That the indigenous peoples might already have a thriving civilization, including religious beliefs and practices, that closely paralleled the beliefs and practices of European civilization, was a concept not considered by these early explorers and settlers. This European lack of cultural understanding created tensions, between Native Americans and Europeans, and later between Native Americans and Euro-Americans, that eventually erupted into open warfare and resulted in great bloodshed between cultures. For the Lakota

Upon arriving in the land that later became the United States of America, primarily Christian settlers were appalled by the apparent heathenism exhibited by the Native Americans. The fear of the unknown created the idea that the Native Americans’ lack of Christian values contributed to their savagery. In order to assimilate the Native Americans to the white Christian standard, tribal sovereignty was undermined by several federal policies in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; primarily the banning of several dances and ceremonies, the allocation of land to the male heads of house that were held in trust by the government, and the seizure and removal of the children on reservations to be placed in militaristic boarding schools.

a. Religions that no longer exist and which ideas and customs have not been preserved in writing. However, we know that these religions have existed as archeologist has found pottery and other evidence that tell us of their existence.

It’s been said the two topics never to discuss with friends are politics and religion. This is because both seem to evoke quite a few strong emotions. Karl Marx once said, “Religion is the opiate of the people.” This is a very broad yet accurate definition of what religion is for most people. It’s something that is in common household discussion yet many do not know what really makes something a religion in the first place. Religion or the belief in some supernatural God(s), is what people use to explain the unexplainable.

Religions take a large part in history. IN 1805, The British Empire believed in Christianity and followed the beliefs in The Father,Son and Holy Spirit. They also believed that everyone should follow this set of beliefs. Native Americans believes in the spirits of the indigenous people of the Americas. At the time the Red Jacket,a chief and orator born in eastern New York, was asked for the permission to convert the Native Americans in Iroquois settlements to Christianity by a Boston missionary society. Author, Daniel Drake took notice of this, and included this event in Native American history in his book “ Lives of Celebrated American Indians”.The author builds an argument, alike The Red JAcket’s that Native Americans shall have religious

Before the Indians were forced to live on reservation, they fought to keep their nation. For instances, several irate young Indians mistakenly killed some settlers on their way to a reservation. Their tribe leader Chief Joseph convinced them to head to Canada because he knew soldiers were headed their way to kill them and the rest of the tribe. Only a few were able to make it. Chief Joseph and the others surrendered. He was tired of all that the incomers had done to them, from killing of the bison to taking the land. Other tribes try to hold on by doing religious rituals. For an example, they had one called the Ghost Dance in which they saw in a vision that the land and the buffalo was restored to them again. It gave them hope, but scared the

The religion, traditions and beliefs of the American Indians were also dominated by the culture of shamanism in which a religious leader, called a Shaman or Medicine Man, acted as a medium between the visible world and the spirit world. The Shamans or Medicine Men had special powers, medicine and magic to heal the sick, control the hunt, and predict the future

A Reflection on “VOICE,R EPRESENTATION, AND DIALOGUE: THE POETICS OF NATIVE AMERICAN SPIRITUAL TRADITIONS” BY ROBIN RIDINGTON

Native American culture is recognized in the United States. It has over five hundred tribes and village, the Native American culture has been spread throughout the entire globe. The main religions and the main traditions of the Native Americans were based on the culture of Animism. Animism is a commonly shared doctrine or belief of the indigenous people and many other Indian Tribes that have been found in North America. There is an enormous amount of languages that the Native Americans speak. “There were as many as nine hundred thousand inhabitants with over three hundred languages” (“Native American Blog”). Some of the federally recognized tribes vary in population and they vary in land-base. Many of the tribes all have their own culture, their own language, and their own history. Every tribe has its own unique customs. Some of the tribes even have distinct styles of housing, dressing, and eating.

To discover the basis of elementary religion, we must further dig into the totemic beliefs people once had to get to the point where we are today. However, to understand how our society was constructed. Australian tribes were generally the ones to believe in totemic but, they were not originally the first to find totemic beliefs. One of the first people to discover totem were the North American Indians. In fact, the civilization was more advanced in Indian tribes than of Australian cults. “The technology has become more developed, the people live in houses or tents and there are even fortified villages. The social density is greater, and centralization, which is altogether absent in Australia.” (Durkheim 93). The reason why North American Indians

Indigenous religions, I think, are the most creative. The connection that the Indigenous people have with the natural world is cool, yet terrifying. When reading in the textbook “Experiencing the World Religions,” I learned that scholars did not used to focus much on religions with no text. Therefore, most Indigenous religions were not well covered because they were generally oral traditions. Oral traditions meant that the people had to speak the same language in order to communicate their beliefs and traditions. Only people of the same language could follow the traditions. Furthermore, the traditions that died off before they could be written are now completely lost. However, there are still so many indigenous religions