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The World's Columbian Exposition

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In 1893, The World's Columbian Exposition was held in Chicago to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World and to show how America has grown and progressed since then. In conjunction with the world fair, was the Parliament of the World Religions, an event displaying non-Christian religions and where they were able to speak on behalf of their own religion. However, even though the world fair was hosted on a total of 690 acres of land, not a single one of those acres were dedicated to Native American Religion besides a teepee set up at the entrance and the noble savage. In the text of the world fair the “Classification of the World's Columbian Exposition", Native Americans weren’t even recognized as having …show more content…

One case in which their triumph over Euro-American’s definitions of them were shown, was in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. Buffalo Bill performed from 1883-1913 and even traveled overseas to England. They brought 97 Native Americans from various tribes across the nation with them, including Sitting Bull the Lakota Sioux chief, who was arguably one of the most influential leaders on the great plains and an instrumental leader in the defeat of George Custer and his army at the Battle of Little Bighorn. Although the Native Americans in the show were enacting the stereotypes Euro-Americans have given them, underneath the surface they were able to come together as a Pan-Indian community and share their ideas and beliefs. One movement in particular that exemplifies Native Americans coming together and progressing as a culture and religion is in the Ghost Dance. The Ghost Dance was a response to the homogenization of Native Americans by Euro-Americans as an attempt to revitalize their culture and show how they can progress. The dance originated among the Paiute Indians by a shaman of the name Jack Wilson, or Wovoka. The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) eventually …show more content…

“The Great Awakening” occured in the spring and summer of 1735 associated with a revivalist preacher and Congregationalist Protestant of the name Jonathan Edwards. Though their is great debate around the exact effect and correlation the so named “Great Awakening” had on the cause of the American Revolution, many did and still believe today that it was “The Great Awakening” that got people ready for the revolution and without it, the American Revolution would have never occured. By giving “The Great Awakening” and John Edwards preaching so much power it causes one religion, Protestanism, to become compatable as a part of the American identity. By associated Protestantism with an American identity it reveals the founders hypocrisy when they stated in the Bill of Rights that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” when it seems indeed a single religion is being promoted as the American religion. However, this could also simply be because of the confusion in definitions and what peoples views on church and state’s relationship is and or should be on its promotion of a religion. This issue was brought up on page 89 of the reader, when in 1818 in Connecticut, Baptists argued that the state should support all churches equally while Thomas Jefferson argued that

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