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Native American religions are the spiritual practices of the
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans, also known as American Indians, First Americans, Indigenous Americans, and other terms, are the Indigenous peoples of the mainland United States ( Indigenous peoples of Hawaii, Alaska and territories of the United State ...
. Ceremonial ways can vary widely and are based on the differing histories and beliefs of individual nations, tribes and bands. Early European explorers describe individual
Native American tribes and even small bands as each having their own religious practices. Theology may be
monotheistic
Monotheism is the belief that there is only one deity, an all-supreme being that is universally referred to as God. Cross, F.L.; Livingstone, E.A., eds. (1974). "Monotheism". The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (2 ed.). Oxford: Oxford ...
,
polytheistic
Polytheism is the belief in multiple deities, which are usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own religious sects and rituals. Polytheism is a type of theism. Within theism, it contrasts with monotheism, the ...
,
henotheistic
Henotheism is the worship of a single, supreme god that does not deny the existence or possible existence of other deities. Friedrich Schelling (1775–1854) coined the word, and Friedrich Welcker (1784–1868) used it to depict primi ...
,
animistic
Animism (from Latin: ' meaning 'breath, spirit, life') is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence. Potentially, animism perceives all things—animals, plants, rocks, rivers, weather systems, hum ...
,
shamanistic
Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritu ...
,
pantheistic
Pantheism is the belief that reality, the universe and the cosmos are identical with divinity and a supreme supernatural being or entity, pointing to the universe as being an immanent creator deity still expanding and creating, which has ex ...
or any combination thereof, among others. Traditional beliefs are usually passed down in the forms of
oral histories
Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people wh ...
, stories, allegories, and principles.
Overview
Beginning in the 1600s, European
Christians
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
, both
Catholics
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
and those of various
Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
denominations, sought to convert Native American tribes from their pre-existing beliefs to Christianity. After the
United States gained independence in the late 1700s, its government continued to suppress Indigenous practices and promote
forcible conversion
Forced conversion is the adoption of a different religion or the adoption of irreligion under Coercion, duress. Someone who has been forced to convert to a different religion or irreligion may continue, covertly, to adhere to the beliefs and pract ...
. Government agencies and religious organizations often cooperated in these forcible conversion efforts. In many cases, violence was used as a tool of suppression, as in the government's violent eradication of
Ghost Dance
The Ghost Dance ( Caddo: Nanissáanah, also called the Ghost Dance of 1890) was a ceremony incorporated into numerous Native American belief systems. According to the teachings of the Northern Paiute spiritual leader Wovoka (renamed Jack Wilso ...
practitioners in 1890.
By the turn of the 20th century, the American government began to turn to less violent means of suppressing Native American religious beliefs. A series of federal laws was passed banning traditional Indigenous practices such as feasts,
Sun Dance
The Sun Dance is a ceremony practiced by some Native Americans in the United States and Indigenous peoples in Canada, primarily those of the Plains cultures. It usually involves the community gathering together to pray for healing. Individuals ...
ceremonies and the use of the
sweat lodge
A sweat lodge is a low profile hut, typically dome-shaped or oblong, and made with natural materials. The structure is the ''lodge'', and the ceremony performed within the structure may be called by some cultures a purification ceremony or simply ...
, among others. This government persecution and prosecution officially continued until 1978 with the passage of the
American Indian Religious Freedom Act
The American Indian Religious Freedom Act, Public Law No. 95–341, 92 Stat. 469 (Aug. 11, 1978) (commonly abbreviated to AIRFA), codified at , is a United States federal law, enacted by joint resolution of the Congress in 1978. Prior to the ac ...
(AIRFA), although it has been argued that the AIRFA had little real effect on the protection Native religious beliefs.
Another significant system of religious suppression was the removal of Native American children from their families into a system of government-funded and church-operated
American Indian boarding schools
American Indian boarding schools, also known more recently as American Indian residential schools, were established in the United States from the mid 17th to the early 20th centuries with a primary objective of "civilizing" or assimilating Na ...
(also known as residential schools). In these schools, Native children were taught European Christian beliefs, the values of mainstream white culture, and the English language, while simultaneously being forbidden to speak their own languages and practice their own cultural beliefs. This system of forcible conversion and suppression of Indigenous languages and cultures continued through the 1970s.
Some non-Native anthropologists estimate membership in traditional Native American religions in the 21st century to be about 9000 people. Since Native Americans practicing traditional ceremonies do not usually have public organizations or membership rolls, these "members" estimates are likely substantially lower than the actual numbers of people who participate in traditional ceremonies. Native American spiritual leaders also note that these academic estimates substantially underestimate the numbers of participants because a century of US Federal government persecution and prosecutions of traditional ceremonies caused believers to practice their religions in secrecy. Many adherents of traditional spiritual ways also attend Christian services, at least some of the time, which can also affect statistics. Since the 80 years of those prior legal persecutions ended with AIRFA, some sacred sites in the United States are now
protected area
Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...
s under law.
Major Native American religions
Alaska Native religion
Traditional
Alaskan Native
Alaska Natives (also known as Alaskan Natives, Native Alaskans, Indigenous Alaskans, Aboriginal Alaskans or First Alaskans) are the indigenous peoples of Alaska and include Iñupiat, Yupik, Aleut, Eyak, Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, and a number ...
religion involves mediation between people and spirits, souls, and other
immortal beings.
[ Merkur 1985: 4]
Inuit religion
Traditional Inuit religious practices include
animism
Animism (from Latin: ' meaning 'breath, Soul, spirit, life') is the belief that objects, places, and creatures all possess a distinct Spirituality, spiritual essence. Potentially, animism perceives all things—Animal, animals, Plant, plants, Ro ...
and
shamanism
Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a Spirit world (Spiritualism), spirit world through Altered state of consciousness, altered states of consciousness, such as tranc ...
, in which spiritual healers mediate with spirits.
Anishinaabe traditional beliefs
Anishinaabe traditional belief system of the
Anishinaabeg
The Anishinaabeg (adjectival: Anishinaabe) are a group of culturally related Indigenous peoples present in the Great Lakes region of Canada and the United States. They include the Ojibwe (including Saulteaux and Oji-Cree), Odawa, Potawatomi, ...
peoples.
Crow Way
Earth Lodge Religion
The Earth Lodge Religion was founded in northern California and southern Oregon tribes such as the
Wintun
The Wintun are members of several related Native American peoples of Northern California, including the Wintu (northern), Nomlaki (central), and Patwin (southern).Pritzker, 152[Achomawi
Achomawi (also Achumawi, Ajumawi and Ahjumawi), are the northerly nine (out of eleven) bands of the Pit River tribe of Palaihnihan Native Americans who live in what is now northeastern California in the United States. These 5 autonomous bands ...]
,
Shasta, and
Siletz
The Siletz (pronounced SIGH-lets) were the southernmost of several divisions of the Tillamook people speaking a distinct dialect; the other dialect-divisions were: ''Salmon River'' on the river of that name, ''Nestucca'' on Little and Nestucca Ri ...
, to name a few. It was also known as the "Warm House Dance" among the
Pomo
The Pomo are an Indigenous people of California. Historical Pomo territory in Northern California was large, bordered by the Pacific Coast to the west, extending inland to Clear Lake, and mainly between Cleone and Duncans Point. One small grou ...
. It predicted occurrences similar to those predicted by the Ghost Dance, such as the return of ancestors or the world's end. The Earth Lodge Religion impacted the later religious practice, the Dream Dance, belonging to the
Klamath Klamath may refer to:
Ethnic groups
*Klamath people, a Native American people of California and Oregon
**Klamath Tribes, a federally recognized group of tribes in Oregon
*Klamath language, spoken by the Klamath people
Places in the United States
* ...
and the
Modoc
Modoc may refer to:
Ethnic groups
*Modoc people, a Native American/First Nations people
** Modoc language
**Modoc Tribe of Oklahoma, a federally recognized tribe of Modoc
*Modoc War, the last armed resistance of the Modoc people in 1873
*The "Mo ...
.
[
]
Ghost Dance
The Ghost Dance movement of the late 1800s was a religious revitalization movement in the Western United States. Initially founded as a local ceremony in Nevada, by the Paiute
Paiute (; also Piute) refers to three non-contiguous groups of indigenous peoples of the Great Basin. Although their languages are related within the Numic group of Uto-Aztecan languages, these three groups do not form a single set. The term "Pai ...
prophet Wodziwob
Wodziwob (died c. 1872) was a Paiute prophet and medicine man who is believed to have led the first Ghost Dance ceremonies, in what is now Nevada, sometime around 1869.
Vision, prophecy, and dances
In 1869, when living in the Walker Lake Valle ...
, the movement did not gain widespread popularity until 1889–1890, when the Ghost Dance Religion was founded by Wovoka
Wovoka (c. 1856 - September 20, 1932), also known as Jack Wilson, was the Paiute religious leader who founded a second episode of the Ghost Dance movement. Wovoka means "cutter" or "wood cutter" in the Northern Paiute language.
Biography
Wovok ...
(Jack Wilson), who was also Northern Paiute
Northern may refer to the following:
Geography
* North, a point in direction
* Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe
* Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States
* Northern Province, Sri Lanka
* Northern Range, a r ...
. The Ghost Dance was created in a time of genocide, to save the lives of the Native Americans by enabling them to survive the current and coming catastrophes, by calling the dead to fight on their behalf, and to help them drive the colonists out of their lands.[Mooney, James. ''The Ghost Dance Religion and Wounded Knee''. New York: Dover Publications; 1896]
In December 1888, Wovoka, who was thought to be the son of the medicine man Tavibo (Numu-tibo'o), fell sick with a fever during an eclipse of the sun, which occurred on January 1, 1889. Upon his recovery, he claimed that he had visited the spirit world and the Supreme Being and predicted that the world would soon end, then be restored to a pure state in the presence of the Messiah. All Native Americans would inherit this world, including those who were already dead, in order to live eternally without suffering. In order to reach this reality, Wovoka stated that all Native Americans should live honestly, and shun the ways of whites (especially the consumption of alcohol). He called for meditation, prayer, singing, and dancing as an alternative to mourning the dead, for they would soon resurrect. Wovoka's followers saw him as a form of the messiah
In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; ,
; ,
; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of ''mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach'' ...
and he became known as the "Red Man's Christ."
Tavibo had participated in the Ghost Dance of 1870 and had a similar vision of the Great Spirit of Earth removing all white men, and then of an earthquake removing all human beings. Tavibo's vision concluded that Native Americans would return to live in a restored environment and that only believers in his revelations would be resurrected.
This religion spread to many tribes on reservations in the West, including the Shoshone
The Shoshone or Shoshoni ( or ) are a Native American tribe with four large cultural/linguistic divisions:
* Eastern Shoshone: Wyoming
* Northern Shoshone: southern Idaho
* Western Shoshone: Nevada, northern Utah
* Goshute: western Utah, easter ...
, Arapaho
The Arapaho (; french: Arapahos, ) are a Native American people historically living on the plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Lakota and Dakota.
By the 1850s, Arapaho band ...
, Cheyenne
The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. Their Cheyenne language belongs to the Algonquian language family. Today, the Cheyenne people are split into two federally recognized nations: the Southern Cheyenne, who are enroll ...
, and Sioux
The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin (; Dakota language, Dakota: Help:IPA, /otʃʰeːtʰi ʃakoːwĩ/) are groups of Native Americans in the United States, Native American tribes and First Nations in Canada, First Nations peoples in North America. The ...
(Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota). In fact, some bands of Lakota and Dakota were so desperate for hope during this period of forced relocation and genocide that, after making a pilgrimage to the Nevada Ghost Dance in 1889–1890, they became more militant in their resistance to the white colonists. Each Nation that adopted the Ghost Dance way provided their own understanding to the ceremony, which included the prediction that the white people would disappear, die, or be driven back across the sea. A Ghost Dance gathering at Wounded Knee in December 1890 was invaded by the Seventh Cavalry, who massacred unarmed Lakota and Dakota people, primarily women, children and the elderly.
The earliest Ghost Dance heavily influenced religions such as the Earth Lodge, Bole-Maru Religion, and the Dream Dance. The Caddo Nation
The Caddo people comprise the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma, a federally recognized tribe headquartered in Binger, Oklahoma. They speak the Caddo language.
The Caddo Confederacy was a network of Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands, wh ...
and several other communities still practice the Ghost Dance today, though usually in secret.
Native Shaker Religion
Also known as Tschida, the Native Shaker Religion was influenced by the Waashat Religion and founded by John Slocum
Squ-sacht-un (1838 – 11 November 1897), also known as John Slocum, was a member of the Squaxin Island Tribe, Coast Salish, and a reputed holy man and prophet who founded the Indian Shaker Church in 1881. , a Squaxin Island member. The name comes from the shaking and twitching motions used by the participants to brush off their sins. The religion combines Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
with traditional Indian teachings. This religion is still practiced today in the Indian Shaker Church
The Indian Shaker Church is a Christian denomination founded in 1881 by Squaxin shaman John Slocum and his wife Mary Slocum in Washington state. The Indian Shaker Church is a unique blend of Indigenous, Catholic, and Protestant beliefs and practi ...
.[
]
Longhouse Religion
The Longhouse Religion is the popular name of the religious movement known as The Code of Handsome Lake or Gaihwi:io ("Good Message"), founded in 1799 by the Seneca
Seneca may refer to:
People and language
* Seneca (name), a list of people with either the given name or surname
* Seneca people, one of the six Iroquois tribes of North America
** Seneca language, the language of the Seneca people
Places Extrat ...
prophet Handsome Lake
Handsome Lake (Cayuga language: Sganyadái:yo, Seneca language: Sganyodaiyo) (Θkanyatararí•yau• in Tuscarora) (1735 – 10 August 1815) was a Seneca religious leader of the Iroquois people. He was a half-brother to Cornplanter, a Seneca w ...
(Sganyodaiyoʔ). This movement combines and reinterprets elements of traditional Iroquois religious beliefs with elements adopted from Christianity, primarily from the Quakers
Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belief in each human's abil ...
. Gaihwi:io currently has about 5,000 practicing members. Originally the Gaihwi:io was known as the "new religion" in opposition to the prevailing animistic beliefs, but has since become known as the "old religion" in opposition to Christianity.
Mexicayotl
Mexicayotl (Nahuatl
Nahuatl (; ), Aztec, or Mexicano is a language or, by some definitions, a group of languages of the Uto-Aztecan language family. Varieties of Nahuatl are spoken by about Nahua peoples, most of whom live mainly in Central Mexico and have smaller ...
word meaning "Essence of the Mexican
Mexican may refer to:
Mexico and its culture
*Being related to, from, or connected to the country of Mexico, in North America
** People
*** Mexicans, inhabitants of the country Mexico and their descendants
*** Mexica, ancient indigenous people ...
", "Mexicanity"; Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries
**Spanish cuisine
Other places
* Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...
: ''Mexicanidad''; see '' -yotl'') is a movement reviving the indigenous religion
Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...
, philosophy
Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
and traditions
A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays or ...
of ancient Mexico
''Ancient Mexico'' was an exhibition by William Bullock of casts of Aztec artefacts and both copies and originals of Aztec codices, held in 1824 in the Egyptian Hall in Piccadilly, London. Objects exhibited included the " calendar stone" (desc ...
(Aztec religion
The Aztec religion is a monistic pantheism in which the Nahua concept of was construed as the supreme god , as well as a diverse pantheon of lesser gods and manifestations of nature. The popular religion tended to embrace the mythological and ...
and Aztec philosophy
Aztec philosophy was a school of philosophy that developed out of Aztec culture. The Aztecs had a well-developed school of philosophy, perhaps the most developed in the Americas and in many ways comparable to Ancient Greek philosophy, even amassi ...
) amongst the Mexican people
Mexicans ( es, mexicanos) are the citizens of the United Mexican States.
The most spoken language by Mexicans is Spanish language, Spanish, but some may also speak languages from 68 different Languages of Mexico, Indigenous linguistic groups ...
.[Yolotl González Torres. ''The Revival of Mexican Religions: The Impact of Nativism''. ''Numen - International Review for the History of Religions''. Vol. 43, No. 1 (Jan., 1996; published by: BRILL), pp. 1-31]
The movement came to light in the 1950s, led by Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...
intellectuals, but has grown significantly on a grassroots
A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or economic movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from the local level to effect change at t ...
level only in more recent times, also spreading to the Chicanos
Chicano or Chicana is a chosen identity for many Mexican Americans in the United States. The label ''Chicano'' is sometimes used interchangeably with ''Mexican American'', although the terms have different meanings. While Mexican-American ident ...
of North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
.[Susanna E. Rostas]
''Mexicanidad: The Resurgence of the Indian in Popular Mexican Nationalism''
University of Cambridge, 1997. Their rituals involve the mitotiliztli.[Jennie Marie Luna. ''Danza Azteca: Indigenous Identity, Spirituality, Activism and Performance''. San Jose State University, Department of Mexican American Studies. 2011] The followers, called ''Mexicatl'' (singular) and ''Mexicah'' (plural), or simply ''Mexica
The Mexica (Nahuatl: , ;''Nahuatl Dictionary.'' (1990). Wired Humanities Project. University of Oregon. Retrieved August 29, 2012, frolink/ref> singular ) were a Nahuatl-speaking indigenous people of the Valley of Mexico who were the rulers of ...
'', are mostly urban and suburban people.
The Mexicayotl movement started in the 1950s with the founding of the group ''Nueva Mexicanidad'' by Antonio Velasco Piña
Antonio Velasco Piña (8 September 1935 – 27 December 2020) was a Mexican novelist, spiritual writer and essayist.
He was the founder of ''La Nueva Mexicanidad'', a group advocating the ''Mexicanism'' or ''Mexicanista'' (Mexicayotl) movement p ...
. In the same years, Rodolfo Nieva López founded the ''Movimiento Confederado Restaurador de la Cultura del Anáhuac'', the co-founder of which was Francisco Jimenez Sanchez
Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name ''Franciscus''.
Nicknames
In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed "Paco (name), Paco". Francis of Assisi, San Francisco de Asís was known as '' ...
who in later decades became a spiritual leader of the Mexicayotl movement, endowed with the honorific
An honorific is a title that conveys esteem, courtesy, or respect for position or rank when used in addressing or referring to a person. Sometimes, the term "honorific" is used in a more specific sense to refer to an honorary academic title. It ...
''Tlacaelel
Tlacaelel I (1397 – 1487) ( nci, Tlācaēllel , "Man of Strong Emotions," from "tlācatl," person and "ēllelli," strong emotion) was the principal architect of the Aztec Triple Alliance and hence the Mexica (Aztec) empire. He was the son ...
''. He had a deep influence in shaping the movement, founding the In Kaltonal
IN, In or in may refer to:
Places
* India (country code IN)
* Indiana, United States (postal code IN)
* Ingolstadt, Germany (license plate code IN)
* In, Russia, a town in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast
Businesses and organizations
* Independ ...
("House of the Sun", also called Native Mexican Church) in the 1970s.
From the 1970s onwards Mexcayotl has grown developing in a web of local worship and community groups (called ''calpulli In precolumbian Aztec society, a calpulli (from Classical Nahuatl '' calpōlli'', , meaning "large house") was the designation of an organizational unit below the level of the altepetl "city-state". In Spanish sources, they are termed ''parcialida ...
'' or ''kalpulli'') and spreading to the Mexican Americans
Mexican Americans ( es, mexicano-estadounidenses, , or ) are Americans of full or partial Mexican heritage. In 2019, Mexican Americans comprised 11.3% of the US population and 61.5% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% of Mexica ...
or Chicanos
Chicano or Chicana is a chosen identity for many Mexican Americans in the United States. The label ''Chicano'' is sometimes used interchangeably with ''Mexican American'', although the terms have different meanings. While Mexican-American ident ...
in the United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. It has also developed strong ties with Mexican national identity movements and Chicano nationalism
Chicano nationalism is the pro-indigenist ethnic nationalist ideology of Chicanos. While there were nationalistic aspects of the Chicano Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, the movement tended to emphasize civil rights and political and social inclu ...
. Sanchez's Native Mexican Church (which is a confederation of calpullis) was officially recognized by the government of Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
in 2007.
Native American Church
The Peyote Religion (legally termed and more properly known as the Native American Church
The Native American Church (NAC), also known as Peyotism and Peyote Religion, is a Native American religion that teaches a combination of traditional Native American beliefs and Christianity, with sacramental use of the entheogen peyote. The re ...
), also sometimes called the "Peyote Road" or the "Peyote Way", is a religious tradition involving the ceremonial and sacred use of ''Lophophora williamsii
The peyote (; ''Lophophora williamsii'' ) is a small, spineless cactus which contains psychoactive alkaloids, particularly mescaline. ''Peyote'' is a Spanish word derived from the Nahuatl (), meaning "caterpillar cocoon", from a root , "to gl ...
'' (peyote
The peyote (; ''Lophophora williamsii'' ) is a small, spineless cactus which contains psychoactive alkaloids, particularly mescaline. ''Peyote'' is a Spanish word derived from the Nahuatl (), meaning "caterpillar cocoon", from a root , "to gl ...
). Use of peyote for religious purposes is thousands of years old and some have thought it to have originated within one of the following tribes: the Carrizo, the Lipan Apache
Lipan Apache are a band of Apache, a Southern Athabaskan Indigenous people, who have lived in the Southwest and Southern Plains for centuries. At the time of European and African contact, they lived in New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and ...
, the Mescalero Apache
Mescalero or Mescalero Apache ( apm, Naa'dahéńdé) is an Apache tribe of Southern Athabaskan–speaking Native Americans. The tribe is federally recognized as the Mescalero Apache Tribe of the Mescalero Apache Reservation, located in south-cen ...
, the Tonkawa
The Tonkawa are a Native American tribe indigenous to present-day Oklahoma. Their Tonkawa language, now extinct, is a linguistic isolate.
Today, Tonkawa people are enrolled in the federally recognized Tonkawa Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma.
...
, the Karankawa
The Karankawa were an Indigenous people concentrated in southern Texas along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, largely in the lower Colorado River and Brazos River valleys."Karankawa." In ''Cassell's Peoples, Nations and Cultures,'' edited by John ...
, or the Caddo
The Caddo people comprise the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma, a federally recognized tribe headquartered in Binger, Oklahoma. They speak the Caddo language.
The Caddo Confederacy was a network of Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands, wh ...
, with the Plains Cree, Carrizo, and the Lipan Apache being the three most likely sources. In Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
the Huichol
The Huichol or Wixárika are an indigenous people of Mexico and the United States living in the Sierra Madre Occidental range in the states of Nayarit, Jalisco, Zacatecas, and Durango, as well as in the United States in the states of California, ...
, Tepehuán
The Tepehuán are an indigenous people of Mexico. They live in Northwestern, Western, and some parts of North-Central Mexico. The indigenous Tepehuán language has three branches: Northern Tepehuan, Southeastern Tepehuan, Southwestern Tepehua ...
, and other Native Mexicans
Indigenous peoples of Mexico ( es, gente indígena de México, pueblos indígenas de México), Native Mexicans ( es, nativos mexicanos) or Mexican Native Americans ( es, pueblos originarios de México, lit=Original peoples of Mexico), are those ...
use peyote. Since then, despite several efforts to make peyote ceremonies illegal, ceremonial peyote use has spread from the Mexico area to Oklahoma and other western parts of the United States. Notable Native American Church
The Native American Church (NAC), also known as Peyotism and Peyote Religion, is a Native American religion that teaches a combination of traditional Native American beliefs and Christianity, with sacramental use of the entheogen peyote. The re ...
(NAC) members include Quannah Parker, the founder of the NAC, and Big Moon of the Kiowa
Kiowa () people are a Native American tribe and an indigenous people of the Great Plains of the United States. They migrated southward from western Montana into the Rocky Mountains in Colorado in the 17th and 18th centuries,Pritzker 326 and eve ...
tribe.
Waashat Religion
The Waashat Religion is also called the Washani Religion, Longhouse Religion, Seven Drum Religion, Sunday Dance Religion, Prophet Dance, and Dreamer Faith. The Wanapam Indian Smohalla
Smohalla (Dreamer) (circa 1815 - 1895) was a ''Wanapum'' dreamer-prophet associated with the Dreamers movement among Native American people in the Pacific Northwest’s Columbia Plateau region.
Biography
Born between 1815 and 1820 in the Wallula ...
(c. 1815–1895) used wáashat rituals to build the religion in the Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...
. Smohalla claimed that visions came to him through dreams and that he had visited the spirit world and had been sent back to teach his people. The name waasaní spoke to what the religion was about; it meant both dancing and worship.[ He led a return to the original way of life before white influences and established ceremonial music and dancing. Smohalla's speaking was called Yuyunipitqana for "Shouting Mountain".][
The Dreamer Faith, and its elements of dancing, foreshadowed the later Ghost Dances of the plains peoples.] It was a back–to–our–heritage religion.[ Believers thought that white people would disappear and nature would return to the way it was before they came.][ To achieve this, the Natives must do the things required by the spirits, like a ]Weyekin
Weyekin or wyakin is a Nez Perce word for a type of spiritual being.
According to Lucullus Virgil McWhorter, everything in the world - animals, trees, rocks, etc. - possesses a consciousness. These spirits are thought to offer a link to the invi ...
.[ What the spirits wanted was to throw off violent ways, cast off white culture, and not buy, sell or disrespect the Earth.][ They must also dance the Prophet Dance (wáashat).][
The religion combined elements of Christianity with Native beliefs, but it rejected white-American culture.][ This made it difficult to assimilate or control the tribes by the United States.][ The U.S. was trying to convert the ]Plains tribes
Plains Indians or Indigenous peoples of the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies are the Native American tribes and First Nation band governments who have historically lived on the Interior Plains (the Great Plains and Canadian Prairies) of N ...
from hunter-gatherers to farmers, in the European-American tradition.[ They wanted to remake the Natives but found a problem with those who followed the Dreamer Cult: "Their model of a man is an Indian; They aspire to be Indian and nothing else." (]T. B. Odeneal
The Oregon Superintendent of Indian Affairs was an official position of the U.S. state of Oregon, and previously of the Oregon Territory, that existed from 1848–1873.
Background
The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) was created in 1824 to regulate ...
)[
Prophets of the movement included Smohalla (of the Wanapam people), Kotiakan (of the Yakama nation) and Homli (of the Walla Walla).][ Their messages were carried along the Columbia River to other communities.][ It is unclear exactly how it started or when ]Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
influenced the earlier form, but it is thought to have something to do with the arrival of non-Indians or an epidemic and a prophet with an apocalyptic vision. The Waashat Dance involves seven drummers, a salmon feast, use of eagle and swan feathers and a sacred song sung every seventh day.[Waldman 230]
Cruzo'ob Maya
Cruzo'ob is the name with which a group of insurgent Yucatec Maya was designated during the Caste War
Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultura ...
that took place in the Yucatán peninsula from 1847 to 1901. The term is made up of the word cross in the Spanish language and by the pluralizer o'ob from the Mayan language. The Caste War started by a social movement in 1847, three years later, it took a religious turn with the appearance of the Maya Cross (Talking Cross). According to the legend, the cult of the Cross is attributed to the soldier José María Barrera, Manuel Nahuat and Juan de la Cruz Puc. Barrera deserted the ranks of the Yucatecan government to join the rebellious Maya. In 1850 according to the White Yucatecos, in the vicinity of a cenote, Barrera formed three crosses in a tree, with the help of Manuel Nahuat, a Maya with ventriloquism skills, they managed to convince his companions of the discovery of a "holy cross". In the Maya legend version, the Cross appeared close to a cenote and inspire the Maya to continue fighting . In October 15,1850 appears the proclamation of Juan de la Cruz Puc, who was a Maya leader and interpreter of the cross. The Holy Maya Cross is the supreme symbol of the rebellious Yucatec Maya and Juan is seen as a prophet. The sermons and prophecies of Juan de la Cruz Puc are collected in the A'almaj T'aan, which is considered the Bible among the cruzo'ob faith . The rebellious Maya believed that through the cross, God communicated with them. In this way the town of Noh Cah Santa Cruz Balam Nah Kampocolché Cah was established and the cult of the Holy Cross (Talking Cross), the place became the capital of the Maya state known as Chan Santa Cruz (Little Holy Cross) .
On March 23, 1851, the community was attacked by the Yucatecan army under the orders of Colonel Novelo, during the siege Manuel Nahuat died, and the colonel took the three crosses. José María Barrera survived the attack, again established the cult of the Cross, which, from then on, communicated with the Maya only in writing. Barrera died at the end of 1852, but the cult was preserved and the followers of the Cross became known as cruzo'ob. The rebels were organized in a military theocracy similar to pre-Hispanic models. The superior leader was the Tata Chikiuc, the political-religious leader was the Nohoch Tata and the caretaker of the cross was the Tata Polin. In contrast, the whites were known as dzulob (dzul in singular). The Cruzo'ob faith began as a syncretic religion between Christianity and Maya spirituality. The faith is practiced mainly in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo and to a lesser extent in northern Belize.
Stomp Dance
Stomp dance, called ''sayvtketv'' by the Muscogee Creek
The Muscogee, also known as the Mvskoke, Muscogee Creek, and the Muscogee Creek Confederacy ( in the Muscogee language), are a group of related indigenous (Native American) peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands[Chickasaw
The Chickasaw ( ) are an indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands. Their traditional territory was in the Southeastern United States of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee as well in southwestern Kentucky. Their language is classified as ...]
and Choctaw
The Choctaw (in the Choctaw language, Chahta) are a Native American people originally based in the Southeastern Woodlands, in what is now Alabama and Mississippi. Their Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choctaw people are ...
, and ''gatiyo alisgisdi'' by the Cherokee
The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...
, is a religious/social tradition celebrated by certain indigenous people of the southeastern woodlands
Indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands, Southeastern cultures, or Southeast Indians are an ethnographic classification for Native Americans who have traditionally inhabited the area now part of the Southeastern United States and the nor ...
. Those who are known to celebrate it, or who have previously celebrated it, are the Muscogee Creek
The Muscogee, also known as the Mvskoke, Muscogee Creek, and the Muscogee Creek Confederacy ( in the Muscogee language), are a group of related indigenous (Native American) peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands[Alabama
(We dare defend our rights)
, anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama"
, image_map = Alabama in United States.svg
, seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery
, LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville
, LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...]
, Koasati
The Coushatta ( cku, Koasati, Kowassaati or Kowassa:ti) are a Muskogean-speaking Native American people now living primarily in the U.S. states of Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas.
When first encountered by Europeans, they lived in the territor ...
, Coosa, Coweta
Coweta is a city in Wagoner County, Oklahoma, United States, a suburb of Tulsa. As of 2010, its population was 9,943. Part of the Muscogee (Creek), Creek Nation in Indian Territory before Oklahoma became a U.S. state, the town was first settled i ...
, Taskigi, Yamasee
The Yamasees (also spelled Yamassees or Yemassees) were a multiethnic confederation of Native Americans who lived in the coastal region of present-day northern coastal Georgia near the Savannah River and later in northeastern Florida. The Yamas ...
, Okfuski, Yuchi
The Yuchi people, also spelled Euchee and Uchee, are a Native American tribe based in Oklahoma.
In the 16th century, Yuchi people lived in the eastern Tennessee River valley in Tennessee. In the late 17th century, they moved south to Alabama, G ...
, Chiaha
Chiaha was a Native American chiefdom located in the lower French Broad River valley in modern East Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. They lived in raised structures within boundaries of several stable villages. These overlooked the ...
, Kasihta Cusseta, also known as Kasihta, was a Peace Town of the Lower Towns, a division of the Muscogee Confederacy. It was located in what the Spanish called Apalachicola Province on the Chattahoochee River, then in what is now the state of Georgia near t ...
, Okmulgi, Seminole
The Seminole are a Native American people who developed in Florida in the 18th century. Today, they live in Oklahoma and Florida, and comprise three federally recognized tribes: the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, the Seminole Tribe of Florida, an ...
, Chickasaw
The Chickasaw ( ) are an indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands. Their traditional territory was in the Southeastern United States of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee as well in southwestern Kentucky. Their language is classified as ...
, Choctaw
The Choctaw (in the Choctaw language, Chahta) are a Native American people originally based in the Southeastern Woodlands, in what is now Alabama and Mississippi. Their Choctaw language is a Western Muskogean language. Today, Choctaw people are ...
, Cherokee
The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...
, Hainai The Hainai (Caddo: Háynay) were a Native American tribe that lived in what is now east Texas.
The Hainai (also sometimes called Aynais, Aynay, Ainai, Ioni, Huawni and Ayonai) were the leading group in the Hasinai confederacy. They were a part of ...
, Nabedache The Nabedache were a Native American tribe from eastern Texas.Sturtevant, 617 Their name, Nabáydácu, means "blackberry place" in the Caddo language.Sturtevant, 629 An alternate theory says their original name was Wawadishe from the Caddo word, , ...
, Nabiti The Nabiti are a Native American tribe from eastern Texas.Sturtevant, 617 Their name means "Cedar Place" in the Caddo language.Sturtevant, 629
History
The Nadaco were part of the Hasinai branch of the Caddo Confederacy,Sturtevant, 616 although ear ...
, Nacogdoche
The Nacogdoche (Caddo: Nakúʔkidáawtsiʔ) are a Native American tribe from eastern Texas.Sturtevant, 617
History
The Nacogdoche were part of the Hasinai branch of the Caddo Confederacy and closely allied with the Lower Nasoni. They historicall ...
, Nacono The Nacono were a Native American tribe from eastern Texas. Today they are part of the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma, a federally recognized tribe in Oklahoma.
History
The Nacono were part of the Hasinai branch of the Caddo Confederacy.Sturtevant 616 ...
, Nadaco
The Nadaco, also commonly known as the Anadarko, are a Native American tribe from eastern Texas. Their name, Nadá-kuh, means "bumblebee place."Sturtevant, 630
History
The Nadaco were part of the trive branch of the Caddo Confederacy and occupie ...
, Nasoni
The Nasoni are a Native American tribe from eastern Texas and southwestern Arkansas.
History
The Nasoni were divided into two bands. The Upper Nasoni, who lived along the Red River in the southwestern corner of Arkansas.[Nechaui
The Nechaui were a Native American tribe from eastern Texas. Their name is thought to be derived from Nachawi, the Caddo language word for Osage orange.] , Neche, Kadohadacho The Kadohadacho ( Caddo: Kadawdáachuh) are a Native American tribe within the Caddo Confederacy. Today they are enrolled in the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma.
History
The Kadohadacho traditionally lived at the borders of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, an ...
, Nanatsoho
The Nanatsoho were a Native American tribe that lived at the border of Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.Sturtevant, 617
History
The Nanatsoho were part of the Kadohadacho branch of the Caddo Confederacy. During the late 17th and early 18th centuri ...
, Doustioni
The Doustioni or Dotchetonne were a tribe of Indigenous peoples of the Americas, American Indians somewhere in the region around the Gulf of Mexico; they are known only from records of the expedition of the Sieur de la Salle, which identify them as ...
, Adai, Cahinnio The Cahinnio were a Native Americans in the United States, Native American tribe that lived in Arkansas.Sturtevant, 617
The Cahinnio were part of the Caddo Confederacy, possibly affiliated with Kadohadacho. In 1687 French explorer René-Robert Cave ...
, Eyeish
The Eyeish were a Native American tribe from present-day eastern Texas.
History
The Eyeish were part of the Caddo Confederacy,Sturtevant, 616 although their relationship to other Caddo tribes was ambiguous, and they were often hostile to the Hasi ...
, Ouachita, Tula
Tula may refer to:
Geography
Antarctica
*Tula Mountains
*Tula Point
India
*Tulā, a solar month in the traditional Indian calendar
Iran
* Tula, Iran, a village in Hormozgan Province
Italy
* Tula, Sardinia, municipality (''comune'') in the pr ...
, Yatasi The Yatasi (Caddo: Yáttasih) are Native American peoples from northwestern Louisiana that are part of the Natchitoches Confederacy of the Caddo Nation. Today they are enrolled in the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma.
History
Prior to European contact, the ...
, Natchez Natchez may refer to:
Places
* Natchez, Alabama, United States
* Natchez, Indiana, United States
* Natchez, Louisiana, United States
* Natchez, Mississippi, a city in southwestern Mississippi, United States
* Grand Village of the Natchez, a site o ...
, Peoria, Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
, Shawnee
The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...
, Ottawa
Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...
, Delaware
Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...
, Tuscarora Tuscarora may refer to the following:
First nations and Native American people and culture
* Tuscarora people
**''Federal Power Commission v. Tuscarora Indian Nation'' (1960)
* Tuscarora language, an Iroquoian language of the Tuscarora people
* ...
, Houma, Chakchiuma
The Chakchiuma were a Native American tribe of the upper Yazoo River region of what is today the state of Mississippi. The identification of the Chakchiuma by the French of the late 17th century as "a Chicacha nation" indicates that they were rel ...
, Seneca-Cayuga, as well as many others who belonged to the Mississippian Ideological Interaction Sphere
The Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (formerly the Southern Cult), aka S.E.C.C., is the name given to the regional stylistic similarity of artifacts, iconography, ceremonies, and mythology of the Mississippian culture. It coincided with their ado ...
.
The stomp dance, if ceremonial, is usually held at a designated stomp dance ground, but it may be held anywhere if it is social. It may be preceded by game of stickball
Stickball is a street game similar to baseball, usually formed as a pick-up game played in large cities in the Northeastern United States, especially New York City and Philadelphia. The equipment consists of a broom handle and a rubber ball, ...
, a game that was previously surrounded by much ceremonial practice. When the sun is set, men gather into arbors, the amount of which depend on the tribe. Women and children sit around the ceremonial square beside the arbors. The chief's speaker will call out who will lead the first song and ask all the men to say "hoo" and come up. Then all the men call the women forward, calling them "turtles," because they shake shells on their legs. After this, the women come forward and they all dance various dances throughout the night, such as snake dance, friendship dance, ribbon dance, etc. The participants will "touch medicine" throughout the night, which is intended to give the participants purification and strength.
Often, the participants will eat traditional foods at the gathering. Such foods as hominy
Hominy (Spanish: maíz molido; literally meaning "milled corn") is a food produced from dried maize (corn) kernels that have been treated with an alkali, in a process called nixtamalization ( is the Nahuatl word for "hominy"). "Lye hominy" is a ...
, cornbread
Cornbread is a quick bread made with cornmeal, associated with the cuisine of the Southern United States, with origins in Native American cuisine. It is an example of batter bread. Dumplings and pancakes made with finely ground cornmeal are st ...
, pashofa
Pashofa, or pishofa, is a Chickasaw and Choctaw Indian soupy dish made from cracked white corn, also known as pearl hominy. The dish is one of the most important to the Chickasaw people and has been served at ceremonial and social events for cen ...
, lye/grape dumplings, salt meat
Salt-cured meat or salted meat is meat or fish preserved or cured with salt. Salting, either with dry salt or brine, was a common method of preserving meat until the middle of the 20th century, becoming less popular after the advent of refr ...
, fry bread
Frybread (also spelled fry bread) is a flat dough bread, fried or deep-fried in oil, shortening, or lard. Made with simple ingredients, generally wheat flour, sugar, salt, and fat, frybread can be eaten alone or with various toppings such a ...
, wild onions/ramps, and three sisters vegetables are usually eaten at stomp dances. Community is very important in tribes, as it preserves teachings and practices that could be lost without it. Stomp dance is just one of those ways tribes commune together.
Ceremonies
Green Corn Ceremony
The Green Corn Ceremony is an annual ceremony practiced among various Native American peoples associated with the beginning of the yearly corn
Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. Th ...
harvest.
Sun Dance
The sun dance is a religious ceremony practiced by a number of Native American and First Nations
First Nations or first peoples may refer to:
* Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area.
Indigenous groups
*First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including:
**First Natio ...
peoples, primarily those of the Plains Nations. Each tribe that has some type of sun dance ceremony that has their own distinct practices and ceremonial protocols. In many cases, the ceremony is held in private and is not open to the public. Most details of the ceremony are kept from public knowledge out of great respect for, and the desire for protection of, the traditional ways. Many of the ceremonies have features in common, such as specific dances and songs passed down through many generations, the use of traditional drums, the sacred pipe, praying, fasting and, in some cases, the piercing of the skin.
In Canada, the Plains Cree call this ceremony the Thirst Dance; the Saulteaux (Plains Ojibwe
The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains.
According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...
) call it the Rain Dance; and the Blackfoot (''Siksika'', ''Kainai'', and ''Piikani'') call it the Medicine Dance. It is also practiced by the Canadian Dakota
Dakota may refer to:
* Dakota people, a sub-tribe of the Sioux
** Dakota language, their language
Dakota may also refer to:
Places United States
* Dakota, Georgia, an unincorporated community
* Dakota, Illinois, a town
* Dakota, Minnesota, a ...
and Nakoda, and the Dene
The Dene people () are an Aboriginal peoples in Canada, indigenous group of First Nations in Canada, First Nations who inhabit the northern Boreal forest of Canada, boreal and Arctic regions of Canada. The Dene speak Northern Athabaskan languag ...
.
Religious leaders
Leaders in Native religions include Popé
Popé or Po'pay (; c. 1630 – c. 1692) was a Tewa religious leader from Ohkay Owingeh (renamed San Juan Pueblo by the Spanish during the colonial period), who led the Pueblo Revolt in 1680 against Spanish colonial rule. In the first successful r ...
, who led the Pueblo revolt in 1675, Quautlatas Quautlatas (Northern Tepehuán pronunciation: /quäutlˈätäs/) was a Tepehuán religious leader who inspired the bloody Tepehuán Revolt against the Spanish in Mexico in 1616. Quautlatas was known as "The Tepehuán Prophet".
The Tepehuán and t ...
, who inspired the Tepehuan Revolt against the Spanish in 1616, Neolin
Neolin (meaning ''the enlightened'' in Algonquian) was a prophet of the Lenni Lenape (also known as ''Delaware'') from the village of Muskingum in Ohio. His dates of birth and death are unknown.
Inspired by a religious vision in 1761, Neolin p ...
, Tenskwatawa
Tenskwatawa (also called Tenskatawa, Tenskwatawah, Tensquatawa or Lalawethika) (January 1775 – November 1836) was a Native American religious and political leader of the Shawnee tribe, known as the Prophet or the Shawnee Prophet. He was a ...
, Kenekuk, Smohalla
Smohalla (Dreamer) (circa 1815 - 1895) was a ''Wanapum'' dreamer-prophet associated with the Dreamers movement among Native American people in the Pacific Northwest’s Columbia Plateau region.
Biography
Born between 1815 and 1820 in the Wallula ...
, John Slocum
Squ-sacht-un (1838 – 11 November 1897), also known as John Slocum, was a member of the Squaxin Island Tribe, Coast Salish, and a reputed holy man and prophet who founded the Indian Shaker Church in 1881. , Wovoka
Wovoka (c. 1856 - September 20, 1932), also known as Jack Wilson, was the Paiute religious leader who founded a second episode of the Ghost Dance movement. Wovoka means "cutter" or "wood cutter" in the Northern Paiute language.
Biography
Wovok ...
, Black Elk
Heȟáka Sápa, commonly known as Black Elk (December 1, 1863 – August 19, 1950), was a ''wičháša wakȟáŋ'' ("medicine man, holy man") and ''heyoka'' of the Oglala Lakota people. He was a second cousin of the war leader Crazy Horse and f ...
and many others.
From time to time important religious leaders organized revivals. In Indiana in 1805, Tenskwatawa
Tenskwatawa (also called Tenskatawa, Tenskwatawah, Tensquatawa or Lalawethika) (January 1775 – November 1836) was a Native American religious and political leader of the Shawnee tribe, known as the Prophet or the Shawnee Prophet. He was a ...
(called the Shawnee Prophet by Americans) led a religious revival following a smallpox epidemic and a series of witch-hunts. His beliefs were based on the earlier teachings of the Lenape
The Lenape (, , or Lenape , del, Lënapeyok) also called the Leni Lenape, Lenni Lenape and Delaware people, are an indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands, who live in the United States and Canada. Their historical territory includ ...
prophets, Scattamek and Neolin
Neolin (meaning ''the enlightened'' in Algonquian) was a prophet of the Lenni Lenape (also known as ''Delaware'') from the village of Muskingum in Ohio. His dates of birth and death are unknown.
Inspired by a religious vision in 1761, Neolin p ...
, who predicted a coming apocalypse that would destroy the European-American settlers. Tenskwatawa urged the tribes to reject the ways of the Americans: to give up firearms, liquor, American style clothing, to pay traders only half the value of their debts, and to refrain from ceding any more lands to the United States. The revival led to warfare led by his brother Tecumseh
Tecumseh ( ; October 5, 1813) was a Shawnee chief and warrior who promoted resistance to the expansion of the United States onto Native American lands. A persuasive orator, Tecumseh traveled widely, forming a Native American confederacy and ...
against the white settlers.[Rachel Buff, "Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa: Myth, Historiography and Popular Memory." ''Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques'' (1995): 277-299.] Juan de la Cruz Puc became seen as a prophet between the Yucatec Maya during the Caste War . Juan's sermons and prophecies were preserved in the A'almaj T'aan (Cruzo'ob Bible) and are still relevant between the Yucatec Maya people .
Congressional legislation
American Indian Religious Freedom Act
The American Indian Religious Freedom Act is a United States Federal Law and a joint resolution of Congress that provides protection for tribal culture and traditional religious rights such as access to sacred sites, freedom to worship through traditional ceremony, and use and possession of sacred objects for Native Americans, Inuit
Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...
, Aleut
The Aleuts ( ; russian: Алеуты, Aleuty) are the indigenous people of the Aleutian Islands, which are located between the North Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea. Both the Aleut people and the islands are politically divided between the U ...
, and Native Hawaiians
Native Hawaiians (also known as Indigenous Hawaiians, Kānaka Maoli, Aboriginal Hawaiians, First Hawaiians, or simply Hawaiians) ( haw, kānaka, , , and ), are the indigenous ethnic group of Polynesian people of the Hawaiian Islands.
Hawaii ...
. It was passed on August 11, 1978.
Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act
The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), Pub.L. 101–601, 104 Stat. 3048, is a United States federal law passed on 16 November 1990 requiring federal agencies and institutions that receive federal funding to return Native American cultural items and human remains to their respective peoples. Cultural items include funerary objects, sacred objects, and objects of cultural patrimony.
Religious Freedom Restoration Act
The Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (also known as RFRA), is a 1993 United States federal law
The law of the United States comprises many levels of codified and uncodified forms of law, of which the most important is the nation's Constitution, which prescribes the foundation of the federal government of the United States, as well as va ...
aimed at preventing laws that substantially burden a person's free exercise of religion
Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...
. It was held unconstitutional as applied to the states in the ''City of Boerne v. Flores
''City of Boerne v. Flores'', 521 U.S. 507 (1997), was a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States concerning the scope of Congress's power of enforcement under Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment. The case also had a signific ...
'' decision in 1997, which ruled that the RFRA is not a proper exercise of Congress's enforcement power. However, it continues to be applied to the federal government - for instance, in ''Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficente Uniao do Vegetal Gonzales may refer to:
Places
* Gonzales, California, U.S.
* Gonzales, Louisiana, U.S.
* Gonzales, Texas, U.S.
* Gonzales County, Texas
Other uses
* Battle of Gonzales, 1835
* Gonzales (horse) (1977 – after 1996), an American-bred Thoroughbred ...
'' - because Congress has broad authority to carve out exemptions from federal laws and regulations that it itself has authorized. In response to ''City of Boerne v. Flores'', some individual states passed State Religious Freedom Restoration Acts
State Religious Freedom Restoration Acts are state laws based on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), a federal law that was passed almost unanimously by the U.S. Congress in 1993 and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. The laws ma ...
that apply to state governments and local municipalities.
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Curr ...
during its 61st session at UN Headquarters
The United Nations is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, United States, and the complex has served as the official headquarters of the United Nations since its completion in 1951. It is in the Turtle Bay, Manhattan, Turtle Bay neig ...
in New York City on 13 September 2007. Article 31, in particular, emphasizes that Indigenous Peoples have the right to their cultural heritage, including ceremonial knowledge, as protected intellectual property
Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...
.
Sacred sites
The Native Sacred sites could be described as "specific, discrete, narrowly delineated location on Federal land that is identified by an Indian tribe, or Indian individual determined to be an appropriately authoritative representative of an Indian religion, as sacred by virtue of its established religious significance to, or ceremonial use by, an Indian religion".
See also
* Mythologies of the indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas comprise numerous different cultures. Each has its own mythologies. Some are quite distinct, but certain themes are shared across the cultural boundaries.
Northern America
There is no single mythology of ...
* Bahá'í Faith and Native Americans
* Falls Creek Baptist Conference Center Falls Creek Baptist Conference Center, also known simply as Falls Creek, is a conference center and youth camp along Falls Creek in the Arbuckle Mountains of Oklahoma. It is the state's oldest church camp and is also the largest youth encampment in ...
* Religious rights
Freedom of religion or religious liberty is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance. It also includes the freedom ...
Notes
References
* Brown, Brian Edward. "Religion, Law, and the Land: Native Americans and the Judicial Interpretations of Sacred Land." Greenwood Press, 1999. .
* Buff, Rachel. "Tecumseh and Tenskwatawa: Myth, Historiography and Popular Memory." ''Historical Reflections/Réflexions Historiques'' (1995): 277–299.
* Carpenter, Kristen A., A Property Rights Approach to Sacred Sites: Asserting a Place for Indians as Nonowners, 52 UCLA Law Review 1061 (2005).
* Carpenter, Kristen A., Individual Religious Freedoms in American Indian Tribal Constitutional Law, "The Indian Civil Rights Act at Forty." UCLA American Indian Studies Publications, 2012, .
* Getches, David H., Wilkinson, Charles F., Williams, Robert A. Jr. "Cases and Materials on Federal Indian Law- Fifth Edition." Thomas West Company: the United States, 1998. .
*
* Stewart, Omer C. Peyote Religion: A History. University of Oklahoma Press: Norman and London, 1987. .
* Waldman, Carl. (2009). Atlas of the North American Indian. Checkmark Books. New York. .
* Utter, Jack. American Indians: Answers to Today's Questions. 2nd edition. University of Oklahoma Press, 2001. .
External links
Guide to Research in Native American Religions
– University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Universit ...
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Religion in North America