Religion and Native Americans When the Europeans first came to America in the 1700’s religion was already here. Many native Americans believed in supernatural phenomenon’s in controlling the natural world, and social world. Each tribe had its own stories and religious views. With private prayers or sacrifices of valuable items they tried to please their gods. The world was still new and not many people understood what was happening, so many Indians believed in witchcraft. Even with witchcraft many Indian religious practices resembled catholic and protestant beliefs. In the first text we read in class called “Bartolome de las Casas” that dates back all the way to 1493. Casa was considered Europe’s most eloquent apologist for Native Americans …show more content…
Cabeza was a self-centered explorer that killed many of his own crew due to negligence. His whole ship crew was reduced to eating its own horses. Cabeza described seeing the terror of his American Indians escorts at these “Christian Slavers”. Alcaraz arrested Cabeza and his 600 natives. Cabeza published The Relation of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca to get a better understanding of his sufferings and brushes from death with the Native Americans. While reading the text Cabeza says “these people love their offspring more than any in the world and treat them very mildly.” (page 45) except medicine-men who were allowed to have multiple wives. I found this interesting because in todays Christian religion, a man loves one women, and back then they still had the same …show more content…
The dead were buried and the medicine-men were cremated. They celebrated with dances and after a year they drank their cremated remains. In todays society Christians view death as a way to be delivered to heaven where they will spend eternity in the presence of god. The Natives viewed death as a time of celebration, and a new beginning as well. For weddings they had different rules, after the wedding neither the brides father nor the mother may enter the son-in-laws house after the marriage. In todays religion that would be considered absurd. When the natives had very little to start out with, they still managed to share what little they had with everybody. In todays religion Christians celebrate the goodness of food and drink as part of god’s beautiful creations. When the natives are mourning the death of a loved one they stay inside for three whole months while the neighboring houses supplies them with food. Just like in the bible The New Testament eagerly encourages hospitality and recommends fasting as a disciplined way of becoming aware of the presence of God in the
While Verrazano speaks kindly of these courteous and generous groups, he also speaks of encounters with people he deems “full of crudity and vices.” He claims that interaction with these groups was difficult. He describes their attempts to trade with this group; “they sent us what they wanted to give on a rope, continually shouting to us not to approach the land.” This description provides us some insight into the feelings of the Indians towards these new European invaders. Their actions seem to be based on fear and apprehension towards these unknown men (Voices of Freedom, 9).
When the Europeans first landed on American soil, they brought with them Catholicism and the belief in God. The Native Americans did not accept this and continued to practice their own religion. The Europeans persecuted them because of this. They killed many Native Americans by burning them to the stake (Doc. 5. The adage of the
The book “A Land So Strange” by Andrés Reséndez basically illustrates 8 years of long odyssey from what is now Tampa, Florida to Mexico City on Cabeza de Vaca’s perspective. Cabaza de Vaca along with his companions named Andres Dorante, Alonso del Castillo, and Estebanico, are survivors of failed expedition to New World from Spain during 16th century. Unlike other members from the expedition, these four members found a way to live with native Indian tribes to survive. They were slaves of Indians and treated cruelly all the time. However, after long period of time of being slaves, they decided to make escape to Spanish territory. During their fugitive period, they had chance to help injured Indians. Their knowledge of certain medicine,
For this essay we will be analyzing and reviewing the article, “How Cabeza De Vaca Lived with, Worked among, and finally left the Indians of Texas.” By Nancy P. Hickerson. This article illuminates the fact that without the help of the so called Native “savages,” Cabeza wouldn't have been able to continue on his journey of this new world and would have probably faced death without the kindness of the Indigenous peoples. “In this article I temporarily bypass the issue of the route and turn my attention to the sociocultural setting of the Relacion and Cabeza De Vaca’s activities in that setting, I shift emphasis to to the resources- social, economic, and cultural available to Cabeza De Vaca as he charted the course that eventually led him, along with three other companions, from coastal Texas towards New Spain. It was after all, while living among and interacting with the Native populations of Texas that he was able to develop and execute the successful strategy for his journey.” She
The Indigenous people of America are called Native Americans or often referred to as “Indians”. They make up about two percent of the population in the United States and some of them still live in reservations. They once lived freely in the wilderness without any sort of influence or exposure from the Europeans who later came in the year of 1492, and therefore their culture is very different from ours. The Iroquois are northeastern Native Americans who are historically important and powerful. In the following essay we will discover some differences between the religious beliefs of the Native American Iroquois and Christianity to see if culture and ways of living have an effect on the view of religion, but we will also get to know some similarities. I am going to be focusing on the Iroquois, which are the northeastern Native Americans in North America.
Cabeza may have taken the viewpoint of peaceful conversion rather than that of most other Spanish explores, who would use terror and violence for conversion, due to his experience with certain natives after the capsize of his boat. In reaction to their sight "The Indians, understanding our full plight, sat down and lamented for half an hour so loudly they could have been heard a long way off" (Covey 57). Cabeza then says in reaction to the natives' actions "It was amazing to see these wild, untaught savages howling like brutes in compassion for us" (Covey 57-58). The mindset of peaceful interaction between the Indians and Europeans in Cabeza's crew might have been confirmed after this encounter. Also after the wreck of the ship, Cabeza was brought to the natives' village and was given a place to sleep and was fed in the morning. This gesture
However, he then goes on to say how deeply moved they were, which is somewhat ironic. It's almost as if Cabeza de Vaca and his followers know that the Indians aren't truly unworthy creatures but they use what everybody already agrees upon to manipulate their supposed worthiness and justify their claims. He also goes on to explain the warrior-like tendencies of the Indians and how fierce and relentless they are. He describes them by saying, "whoever has to fight Indians must take great care not to let them think he is disheartened or that he covets what they own. In war they must be treated very harshly, for should they notice either fear or greed, as a people they know how to bide their time waiting for revenge and take courage from their enemies' fears. After using up all their arrows, they part, each going his own way, without attempting pursuit, although one side might have more men than the other. Such is their custom." (68) They have these customs that are very unnatural and are not normative behavior. Cabeza de Vaca refers to the customs of the Charruco Indians with great
“And this was the freedom, the good treatment, and the Christianity the Indians received” (De Las Casas, 32). This was the religion the Indians were exposed to that caused the cruel and unusual treatment towards them. This treatment was revealed to many who disowned it showing it through documents and accounts of the Indians’ tough life caused by the
The Native American religion was very different from the Christian religion of the Europeans. The Native American’s didn’t pray to a god, they prayed to something in nature such as the sky or the sun. “O our Mother the Earth, O our Father the Sky” (Tewa Indian). The colonists thought that it was barbaric that the Native American’s didn’t believe in a God. The colonists thought that there was only one correct way to be religious and that the way that the Native American’s practiced religion was ‘the wrong way’.
Religion played a very important role in both Native American and Puritan society, though their idea’s differed greatly. The puritans were very religious people, and it mattered more of what God thought of them more than anything and what everyone else thought didn’t matter as much. While the Puritans were the very religious ones, the Native Americans cared more about viewing people for who they were as people than their religious beliefs. Although the Native Americans had their own religious beliefs, the Puritans also thought that the Native Americans needed to “prove themselves worthy”, of their religious beliefs. The Puritans did not believe that the Native Americans had any kind of regulation on their own lives. It was very
Europeans and Native Americans both retained religious beliefs. Though, Native Americans articulated their beliefs in a less structured way. Europeans were monotheistic. They attended churches led by and educated clergy. And, unlike Native Americans, interpreted written scriptures. In
Cabeza de Vaca was known for his discovery of America. He documented his trek in America, as a lost traveler, exposed to unfamiliar territory, multiple hardships, and the native Indian tribes. His journal entry over his reencounters with the Christians is only a small record over his adventures on the whole Narvaez Expedition of 1528. The document was published in Spain, 1542, at a time when dispute over the mistreatment of natives in America in their colonization became a subject to resolve. His journal entry discusses his brief experience in an Indian tribe, the news he receives of nearby Spanish men penetrating the tribal communities, and the realization that the “Christians” were not a character he thought they were. Cabeza de Vaca sympathized the indigenous tribes and believed that they should not face the cruelty the Spanish settlers set in order to
As a new and mysterious world awaits to be discovered, daring conquistadors leave their home country of Spain in a journey of exploration. Two men by the name of Narvaez and Cabeza de Vaca set sail to thwart the untrustworthy Cortez who, behind the backs of Narvaez and Cabeza de Vaca, sailed to the New World with half of Narvaez’s crew in search of treasures. However, the journey would prove to be treacherous as the conquistadors would have to encounter hostile Native Americans and strange terrain they have never seen before. Throughout the expedition, future encounters between the Native Americans and conquistadors were heavily influenced by the personalities of the individuals and past experiences the Native Americans faced.
Native Americans lost their culture once the Spanish made them a part of the mission system. Before European arrival, they were predominantly pagan and had multiple gods or spirits which they worshipped as part of their rituals for successful harvest or hunt. Through the mission system, they underwent baptism through Catholicism and learned to worship only one supreme being and
Religion was a fervently discussed topic; people were looked down upon and often killed for the wrong religious affiliation. It makes sense that these first colonists and the many that came after would deem the Native American religions as an inferior, crude religion that was inherently “wrong” by their own religious standards.