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...A Forum for American Indian Issues...
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Religion 
Sun Apr 14, 2013 at 16:19:36 PM PDT
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While the Kiowa today have a reservation in Oklahoma, their own oral tradition as well as that of other tribes tells of their migrations from Montana to the Southern Plains. Kiowa religion is based on a sacred power (dwdw), a force that permeated the universe and could be found in spirits, objects, places, or natural phenomena. This spiritual power permeates the universe, including the sun, the moon, and the stars. On earth, this power permeates the mountains, rivers, streams, plants, and animals. This spiritual power is neither good nor bad, but it can help or harm depending on the user.
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Mon Mar 11, 2013 at 11:13:33 AM PDT
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During the eighteenth century, a small Protestant Christian sect known as the Moravians sent missionaries to North America in an attempt to convert American Indians to Christianity.
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Mon Jul 30, 2012 at 09:11:33 AM PDT
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Whenever cultures are under stress, from things such as illness, warfare, and rapid social change, there are often individuals who report having visions of the future. Individuals who have these visions are often known as prophets. In some instances the vision comes in the form of a spirit, god, or an angel such as Abraham or Moroni, who brings a special message to the prophet. In some cases the prophet dies, goes to another world, and then returns to life with a special message. There were a number of American Indian prophets who emerged during the nineteenth century, such as Handsome Lake, whose teachings grew into a long-lasting religious movement which attracted the attention of non-Indians. There were also many whose prophesies were not written down and were unseen by non-Indians. During the first half of the nineteenth century, there were a number of Indian prophets who had visions which had little long-lasting impact. In some instances, history has not even recorded the prophet's name.
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Mon Apr 09, 2012 at 18:58:40 PM PDT
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Any careful examination of the religious freedom of American Indians, especially as it pertains to aboriginal religious practices, since the foundation of the United States in 1776 is uncomfortable for those who would like to believe that America has championed religious freedom. American Indian religious freedom has been at best ignored, and more often it has been actively suppressed. As a Christian nation-a concept which has been consistently upheld and supported by the Supreme Court-the United States has been compelled to give Indians the gift of Christianity as a part of its program of forced assimilation. By the 1970s, however, the winds of change began to blow across the political landscape.
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Sun Mar 11, 2012 at 20:22:43 PM PDT
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French exploration into what would later become New France (and which would eventually become Canada) began in 1534 with Jacques Cartier. In 1540, King Francois I announced his intention to establish a colony in order to exploit the resources of the area, and justified this colony in religious language and with the idea of bringing new souls to their god. As with other European countries, the French did not acknowledge any validity to aboriginal religions, possible land ownership, and ability to govern themselves. Under the Discovery Doctrine-a legal doctrine stating that Christian monarchs had a right, and possibly an obligation, to rule all non-Christian nations-the French assumed that their religion and government was superior to the religions and governments of the Native Americans.
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Mon Nov 28, 2011 at 20:49:51 PM PST
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During the nineteenth century, some European and American explorers witnessed American Indian ceremonies which they found amazing. When these outside observers attempted to describe what they had seen to others, they were often met with disbelief, skepticism, and even ridicule. Four of these "amazing" ceremonies are described below.
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Mon Nov 21, 2011 at 22:09:05 PM PST
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During the nineteenth century there were a number of religious movements that developed among diverse Indian tribes. One of these, called the Ghost Dance by non-Indians, arose among the Paiute in Nevada.
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Sat Nov 19, 2011 at 09:07:46 AM PST
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Many religious traditions include the concept of the soul. In some traditions, the human soul is central to the belief system, while in others it is not. In some religious traditions, particularly the Christian tradition which the European colonists and the American government attempted to force upon the indigenous cultures of North America, humans have only one soul. However, in many American Indian religious traditions, humans are seen as having multiple souls.
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Sat Oct 29, 2011 at 12:17:14 PM PDT
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In 1762 the Delaware (Lenni Lenape) prophet Neolin, who was living in Ohio, had a vision in which he undertook a journey to meet the Master of Life. He was told:
"The land on which you are, I have made for you, not for others. Wherefore do you suffer the whites to dwell upon your lands?"
"Drive them away; wage war against them; I love them not; they know me not; they are my enemies; they are your brothers' enemies. Send them back to the land I have made for them."
He received a prayer which was carved in symbolic language on a stick.
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Sat Aug 06, 2011 at 18:12:26 PM PDT
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When Ulysses S. Grant assumed the Presidency, he inherited a major problem with regard to the administration of the Indian reservations. The Indian Service was notoriously corrupt and his solution was to create faith-based reservations: that is, to turn the administration of the nation's Indian reservations over to Christian, primarily Protestant, missionary groups. The missionaries, working on behalf of the United States government, were to help the Indians on the road to civilization which required them to become English-speaking Christian farmers.
In 1871, the Nez Perce reservation in Idaho was first given to the Catholics, but due to Presbyterian protests it was then given to the Presbyterians. Under this administration, the Presbyterian missionaries and teachers deliberately made the Indians ashamed of their own culture, language, history, and traditions. Old ways were not only frowned upon and ridiculed, they were also prohibited.
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Wed May 04, 2011 at 16:40:20 PM PDT
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For the Indian nations of the Southeastern United States-Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole, Timucua, and others-corn (maize) was their single most important food. Therefore, corn also played an important part in their religious and ceremonial life.
One of the important ceremonies among the people of the Southeastern Woodlands was the Green Corn Ceremony or puskita (which became Busk in English) which was an expression of gratitude for a successful corn crop. The ceremony was held after the harvest and was a time for renewing life. Old fires were put out, the villages were cleaned, and worn pottery was broken. The Busk would be held when the first corn crop became edible. This ceremony celebrated both the crop and the sense of community that shaped their lives.
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Sat Mar 05, 2011 at 17:17:21 PM PST
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( - promoted by navajo)
Among the Cheyenne there are two sacred medicine bundles: The Sacred Arrows (Maahotse) and the Sacred Buffalo Hat (Esevone). The spiritual power of these bundles could be tapped ceremonially to help the tribe prosper. As long as the ceremonies were performed as taught by the culture heroes, the tribe would be protected and would prosper. Failure to respect the bundles would be followed by misfortune to the tribe.
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Fri Dec 31, 2010 at 16:46:27 PM PST
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( - promoted by navajo)
In 1921, Albert Fall, the former Senator from New Mexico, was appointed Secretary of the Interior by President Warren Harding. Since the Indian Office (now called the Bureau of Indian Affairs) is a part of the Department of Interior, this meant that Fall was now in charge of Indian affairs. He was openly hostile to Indian rights, particularly religious rights. One of Fall's first acts was to enforce the prohibition against the Plains Indian Sun Dance. Those who participated were to be jailed for 30 days in the agency prison.
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Tue Dec 07, 2010 at 22:12:05 PM PST
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( - promoted by navajo)
During the early sixteenth century there were many fantastic stories circulating among the Spanish which told of fabulously wealthy cities north of Mexico. These cities, according to the stories, had more gold than the Aztecs or the Inkas, and they were ripe for conquest by the superior Spanish warriors. In 1539, Fray Marcos de Niza, a Franciscan missionary adept in native languages, received permission from the Spanish Crown to explore what is now the American southwest and to determine if the fabled riches actually existed. Before embarking on his journey, Spanish Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza told Fray Marcos de Niza that
"you must explain to the natives of the land that there is only one god in heaven, and the emperor on earth to rule and govern it, whose subjects they must all become and whom they must serve."
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Fri Oct 15, 2010 at 08:03:24 AM PDT
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( - promoted by navajo)
One of the visitors at an 1891 Comanche Ghost Dance in Oklahoma was Frank White. He sat on the north side of the dance area and ate a lot of peyote. When the Comanche asked him who he was, he said that he was Pawnee. Following the Comanche Ghost Dance, he attended a Ghost Dance among the Wichita. There he once again ate peyote, he watched the dance, and then he joined it.
While dancing, Frank White went into a trance where he saw the stream, the tree, the Messiah, and the village of the people. He saw the people dance, and in his trance he joined them and from them he learned Ghost Dance songs in Pawnee. The English words to the first song he learned are:
The place whence you come,
Now I am longing for.
The place whence you come,
Now I am ever mindful of.
When he woke from the trance he told the people what he had seen. In this way, Frank White became a prophet and the people felt that he had the same power as Sitting Bull, the Arapaho Ghost Dance leader.
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Mon Oct 04, 2010 at 08:55:08 AM PDT
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( - promoted by navajo)
An important part of daily life among many traditional American Indian people was-and for many still is-the maintenance of harmony and balance. Living a good life, one free from sickness and conflict, requires that one strive to maintain social and spiritual harmony and balance. In traditional Native American cultures, harmony and balance exist on four different levels: internal, social, natural, and spiritual.
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Fri Sep 24, 2010 at 21:11:32 PM PDT
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( - promoted by navajo)
Dreams and visions are an important part of Native American spiritual life. Traditionally dreams were an essential conduit for communication with the supernatural world. Dreams served as a validation of one's spiritual condition. Therefore, from an early age, American Indian children learned to remember their dreams. These dreams could then be interpreted by the tribal elders. The manitous revealed in the dreams would guide the dreamer to wisdom. While these manitous are often called Guardian Spirits, they are more accurately described as Tutelary Spirits.
According to Anishinabe or Ojibwa spiritual teachings, human beings have two souls, one of which travels at night and lives the dreams. With two souls, human beings can communicate with both the spirits and the souls of non-human persons. From an Anishinabe perspective, it is the soul that dreams the dreams, not the body or the mind. During the dream, the soul may travel all over the world.
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Sat Jul 31, 2010 at 16:23:49 PM PDT
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( - promoted by navajo)
In 1799, a new religious movement was born among the Seneca Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy. The new religious movement, considered to be a traditional Iroquois religion today, began with a series of visions received by Handsome Lake. Among this vision was the prophecy that the world would end in 2010.
Handsome Lake was born into the Seneca Wolf clan in 1735. (The Seneca are one of the six nations of the Iroquois Confederacy.) As a young man, Handsome Lake followed the traditional Iroquois role for men and was a warrior. In 1765 he was a part of a group of 100 Seneca warriors, under the leadership of Giengwahtoh (Old Smoke). The war party journeyed to the southeast where they raided the Cherokee and the Choctaw.
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Wed Jul 07, 2010 at 20:36:19 PM PDT
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( - promoted by oke)
The Southern Plains American Indian Culture Area lies south of the Arkansas River valley. It includes Oklahoma, Arkansas, portions of Texas, the eastern foothills of New Mexico, and portions of Louisiana. This is the area which was the homeland for Indian nations such as the Comanche, the Kiowa, and the Lipan Apache.
As with tribes in other areas, dreams are an important part of the spirituality of the Southern Plains. For the Comanche, visions can provide the individual with power (puha) when they are sought under certain stringent conditions. On the other hand, visions might also come unsought. Visions were traditionally sought for mourning, for going to war, for curing disease, and for success in hunting.
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Sun Jun 27, 2010 at 14:41:11 PM PDT
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( - promoted by navajo)
When cultures are undergoing rapid change, the people are often unsure, and sometimes afraid, of the future. At these times, people are more likely to turn to religion as a well of prediction about the future. Divination, often in the form of prophecy, is an important part of many religious traditions. In ancient Babylon divination was based on looking at the skies, in many African cultures it involves an examination of the entrails of a sacrificed ox, and in many Christian cultures it many involve an interpretation of Biblical passages.
During the first part of the nineteenth century, the Cherokee in the southeast were undergoing a great deal of change. In order to deal with pressure from the American government, they were adopting an American-style government; they were converting to Christianity; and they were changing from an egalitarian agricultural economy to a slave-based plantation economy. During this time of stress, a number of Cherokee prophets emerged who utilized the traditional Native vision or dream as their source of knowledge about the future.
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| In Memoriam |
In honor of my mother, THE FLORA SOMBRERO LIND NAVAJO ENDOWMENT FUND has been set up to accept your donations.
This scholarship endowment has been established at the American Indian College Fund to honor Flora Sombrero Lind, as an enrolled member of the Navajo Nation who was born at Inscription House, Arizona of the Many Goats clan circa 1925. This scholarship endowment is funded by Flora's family and friends who want to see Navajo students pursue higher education and carry on their great Navajo heritage.
Please leave a comment here if you donate.
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