Spirituality: Aspects Of Native American Religion And Practice

The Native Americans of the Great Plains Religion was all about the Sundance and dreams they had. There were people dancing around a fire ,starting the Sundance with a lady cutting down a tree to start it off. During it they would make sacrifices with people and continually hurt themselves for their horse god. So the gods they worshipped were the horse and buffalo gods because they were the animals they saw the most ,they also had the most benefits from them too. They used pipes and other materials during the Sundance to show where they should go next on their journey and who should they become in the future of their lives like vishions . The Great plains indians were very different from other indians with their horse gods and such violence

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.

Native American traditional medicine and spiritual healing rituals go back for thousands of years, these traditions often focus on different variations of alternative medicine. This knowledge is passed on throughout generations, many of the tribes learn that by mixing natural plants such as herbs and roots they can make remedies with healing properties. It is believed that being healthy is when people reach a state of harmony not only spiritually, mentally but physically. To be able to overcome the forces that cause illness people must “operate in the context of relationship to four constructs —namely, spirituality (Creator, Mother Earth, Great Father); community (family, clan, tribe/nation); environment (daily life, nature, balance); and self (inner passions and peace, thoughts, and values)” (Portman & Garret, 2006, p.453). In this research paper I am going to show evidence of the tremendous influence that Native American medicine and spiritual healing have over modern medicine in the course of healing

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

Culture is a complex concept that incorporates society’s beliefs, values, arts, attitudes and more. People like to be able to categorize animals, objects and unfortunately people. This idea of categorizing people has been around all throughout history. Whether it be race, religion, politics, or gender, people like categorization. Ideas that stray from tradition and challenge cultural norms lead to discrimination and ignorance. For example, in the late 1800s and early 1900s women did not have the same rights as their male counterparts, and women continue to struggle to receive full equality, the wage gap. Transgender or “Two Spirited” is when a person’s personal identity and gender does not correspond with their birth sex. The movie “Two Spirits”

For Native Americans, protecting their sacred ways was and is a matter of survival, but it is also a matter of respect for the power that is involved. Across the United States, there are more than 558 federally recognized and several hundred state recognized Native American nations (Russell, 1998). Given the wide-ranging diversity of this population consisting of 2.3 million people, it is essential to understand that the term Native American spirituality encompasses the vastness of more than 500 different tribal traditions represented by these hundreds of Indian nations. Being particularly interested in the spirituality as well as the spiritual philosophies and practices of Native Americans, I have decided to approach this very

If this knowledge is not reaching western citizens through the Christianity, it will be necessary to find it somewhere else. While traditional religions almost always can offer a cosmology that connects man and nature, Native American spirituality may be very accessible to a society that is increasingly interested in environmental concerns but does not have a firm and direct qualitative relationship with the natural world.

The North American community in today’s worlds has embraced Christianity, Muslim and other popular religious beliefs. Finding the ancient religious practices in action is rare, but not impossible. The communities had their own believes concerning gods and philosophies of good and evil before they were colonized. The communities have lost most of their beliefs and practices as they took place in the earlier community to popular religions which were introduced during and after the colonialism periods (Bonvillain and Porter 23-43).

pipe bowl is made of stone or clay, because the Earth and all things Earthen are

Native Americans ways can be super spiritual. I find the Native American one of the most interesting cultural, but it happens they are the least I known about. I want to focus on is the traditions, rituals and mystics as well. Native Americans cultures and traditions are related to specific individual tribes. These are the indigenous people of North America. I will discuss the Lakota Sundance first and the healing rituals scared Native American ways.

Patricia, great post. I do think that a culture that needs some attention is the Native American culture. There are many reasons why this culture needs attention from the medical community. Some of the issues that could be covered when seeing the Native American culture are mental health, heart disease, stroke, infant mortality, HIV/AIDS, diabetes, and cancer.

spirit is injured or insulted, it can retaliate. Human beings must therefore show that they

Religion is a strong belief system is all around the world. All religions have similarities and differences. In America and Africa, there are different kinds of regions, with different religious bases. Things like religion, rules, ceremonies, prayers, gods, person in charge and rituals are different for each. I’m going compare and contrast African religions and American religions in the 1500 CE.

The Native American social identity is complex, but in most cases, it is rooted in spirituality, togetherness, and nature. Native Americans believe that one does not own land, rather the person belongs to the land. There is a universal respect for natural resources amongst Native American tribes, as they often rely on a symbiotic relationship with the natural world to survive. They also have a diverse base of traditional religious practices that are at the center of tribal life. Spirituality is an important and historic part of Native American culture. NARF works to ensure that the culture of Native American people is not encroached upon by legal

The Influence religion had on the Native Americans was huge. They let their dreams determine what would happen to them and how they would handle any situation. Like when Yellow Kidney got kidnapped and Heavy Shield Woman had dreams about Yellow Kidney that told her what really happened and what she had to do to save him. She became the Sun dance woman, where she fasted until the sun dance ceremony so she could have her husband back “Heavy Shield Women sat in the Sacred Vow lodge, her face drawn and gray with her fast” (Welch 112). They pretty much had Zodiac signs in away. When they are they go out by there self and fast until they see their “animal’ Like Fools Crow animal was a werewolf. “ For you, brother you carry that with when you go