Native American Religion

The history of American religion is dominated by Christianity, first brought to our society by the early European settlers when they stumbled across the ‘New World. However, residents on the already discovered continent included millions of Native Americans who had completely opposite beliefs as the newcomers. Differences in customs were irrelevant when compared to the differences in denomination between the white Europeans and the Native Americans. A lack of tolerance for the Native American spirituality paired with the settler’s desire for land turned in to massacre nearly wiping Native American civilization off the face of the earth.

Native Americans relied greatly on natural resources for societal purposes. Agriculture, as well as hunting and gathering is what made the Native Americans so successful. Their environment provided them with rich fertile soil for farming, wildlife such as bison for game and streams and rivers with plentiful fish. More importantly, the Native Americans also had a greater fundamental understanding of the land that served as a sacred power; the belief that everything in the universe was interconnected and possessed a spiritual force that could affect the lives of the people and of all living things. It was vital to have spirits on your side lending aid for success in hunting and farming as well as childbearing and success in battle. Negligence could result in offending the spirits and in return being punished by lack of food or harm to your family.

Rituals and ceremonies were used to praise and contact sacred spirits. By performing rituals, they believed that because the entire world was interconnected, they could maintain their own relationship with the sacred beings as well as ensure a properly preserved natural order. In connecting with the benevolent spirits they gained success in necessities, such as hunting and gathering.

The religion of the Native Americans was very much based upon the fact that “seeing is believing”. They lived a cyclical lifestyle, thinking that even after your physical life on earth came to a demise you would return as a spirit and remain with your people. Their landscape around them had significant meaning to them as well. They lived out their entire life at the origin of their ancestors making certain that their relatives would forever be in their presence.

Native Americans, because they lacked a written language, used anecdotes and legends through oral tradition to explain the history of their universe and any other storied relation to the earth’s creation. Because they did not have script, Western scholars refer to the Native American stories as just myths. Ronald Wright best describes a myth as:

Myth is an arrangement of the past, whether real or imagined, in patterns that resonate with a cultures deepest values and aspirations. Myths create and reinforce archetypes so taken for granted, so seemingly axiomatic, that they go unchallenged. Myths are sp fraught with meaning that we live and die by them. They are the maps by which navigate through time.
[The Earth Shall Weep Pg. 4]

Accounts pertaining to origin vary from one Native American culture to another. Some societies have in depth descriptions of how their ancestors rose from the underground and migrated to the current location. Other civilizations believe that the first women fell through a hole in the sky. Numerous tribes have stories describing a time when animals and humans were the same and had the outstanding ability to communicate. Nearly all tribes refer to themselves in their own languages as ‘the real people’ and each group’s story locates themselves decisively in a place of special power and significance.

Furthermore, the Native Americans had no concern for the myths of their neighbors. They believed that their neighbors were created to be a part of an entirely different landscape and would understand their own accounts of origin through their own past and experiences. The contemporary writer Vine Deloria Jr. further explained this as:

People believed that each tribe had its own special relationship to the superior spiritual forces which governed the universe and that the job of each set of tribal beliefs was to fulfill its own tasks without worrying about what others were doing. Tribal knowledge was therefore not fragmented and was valid within the historical and geographical scope of the people’s experience. Black Elk [a prominent Lakota spiritual leader], talking to John Neihardt, explained the methodology well: ‘This they tell, and whatever it happened so or not, I do not know; but if you think about it, you can see that it is true.’
[The Earth Shall Weep Pg. 9]

The Native American culture and religion reached its end when Christopher Columbus discovered the continent and it was invaded with egger Europeans. The Native Americans were more than tolerant to the newcomers. The two cultures even engaged in the trading of goods. The Native Americans viewed trade as a ceremonial gift exchange that allowed them to connect with the Europeans in a world of mutual understanding. The relationship and understanding between the Europeans and Native Americans was well described by Nanepashemet:

The native world view was a lot different from the European world view, because native people did not believe there was finite knowledge. Knowledge was infinite. Any person could acquire new knowledge and introduce it to his community and it would be accepted if it was useful. So the idea of the Europeans and their material culture and their beliefs was alien to people, but their cultural make-up allowed then to accept new information… They were able to accept Europeans goods, although they used many things according to their own cultural dictates, like using brass kettles for producing arrowheads and spoons for ornaments, as well as using them for cooking. And using European cloth in native tailoring. Those things… were just adapted to their own cultural needs.
[The Earth Shall Weep Pg. 38]

However, Native Americans were not immune to diseases and infections that the foreigners carried and they were overtaken by illness mistakenly exchanged in the trading process. Some Europeans used the Natives lack of resistance to their advantage and purposely infected them to takeover their land. This defeated and killed much of the Native population.

The remaining Native Americans that had not been conquered by ailment were attacked by the Europeans who were ambitious for new land to form new larger colonies. In ‘The Battle at Wounded Knee’, European soldiers attacked Native Americans and overcame the, with horses and guns. On foot, using only bows and arrows, the Native Americans were not able to put up a fair fight and were wrongfully slaughtered. Taking no mercy on even women and children, the Europeans killed nearly the total Native American population. The war was later renamed ‘The Massacre at Wounded Knee’, to better describe the horrific events.

Today, it is hard for our modern society to believe the same way that the Native Americans did. What American culture believes concerning the origin of the universe is, for the most part, supported by early religious texts, such as the Bible, or can be proven by science. We live a linear life, rather than cyclical, as the Native Americans did, our time on earth will come to an end. According to the current most popular Christian religion, if time was cyclic Jesus Christ would have to be crucified again and again and therefore there would be no final sacrifice for the world’s sins.

In conclusion, because of the Europeans lack of tolerance for the Native Americans culture and religion, their civilization was conquered and virtually vanished from the face of the earth. Their religion and beliefs are still not accepted and are merely looked at as myths and legends that cannot be proven and therefore must not be true.

Religion Midterm

Religion is related to beliefs and rituals that involve faith in a spiritual nature and can be linked to inherited traditions, knowledge and wisdom associated with life. The idea of religion refers to ones personal practices related to faith as well as a larger, more universal system of beliefs. Religion is described as the following in the Encyclopedia of Religion:

"In summary, it may be said that almost every known culture involves the religious in the above sense of a depth dimension in cultural experiences at all levels — a push, whether ill-defined or conscious, toward some sort of ultimacy and transcendence that will provide norms and power for the rest of life. When more or less distinct patterns of behaviour are built around this depth dimension in a culture, this structure constitutes religion in its historically recognizable form. Religion is the organization of life around the depth dimensions of experience — varied in form, completeness, and clarity in accordance with the environing culture." (Religion [First Edition]. Winston King. Encyclopedia of Religion).

During the Renaissance era, religion was strictly confined to Catholic beliefs. The church held supreme power. However, the church suffered from a low level of morality within its clergy. Many were living a luxurious lifestyle and had illegitimate children; they were more concerned with secular powers rather than religious affairs. The church also limited economics by prohibiting charging interest as well as forming unions. In addition to that, the Church was paid a tithe amounting to 10% of a persons annual earnings.

In 1517, Martin Luther published his 95 Theses on the corruption of the Church, including its practice of selling indulgences. Luther claimed that the only thing indulgences granted was an increase in both greed and profit to the church and they had no holy relation. As a reaction to the promotion of indulgences received by Johann Tetzel, papal commissioner for a German church, Luther made a list of 95 discrepancies within the church and dispersed them for everyone to read as well as mailed it to the Archbishop. Although others had attacked the church prior to Luther, he started a revolution and focused all of society on the wrong of the church. Copies of his 95 Theses were soon translated into German and other languages and were spread throughout Europe. Within two weeks his opinion had reached all of Germany and two months all of Europe knew about it. This sparked the Reformation.

Another major argument concerning religion took place during the Scientific Enlightenment and Revolution between religious beliefs and scientific facts. Scientists such as Copernicus, Galileo and Kepler hypothesized about space and the development of the universe. Their emerging scientific theories conflicted with the Church and orthodox beliefs. This placed pressure and doubt on the Church.

In addition to rising theories during the Scientific Enlightenment came the encyclopedia. In this book, authored by Diderot, people could learn anything they wanted to know about anything. The encyclopedia was an entire set of books for people to access and study from. The Church, of course, did not favor these books and took possession of them, forbidding that any more be printed. From the era of the encyclopedia's creation came the term deism. A deist is one who celebrates the works of God based on reason rather than assurance, however believes that the Bible is flawed and that God does not interfere with how the universe runs. Diderot wanted people to be able to believe what they want, in order to do that they would have to be given all the information.The Church was greatly opposed to this and wanted people to believe what the preached.

This issue is still popular in our society today, religion and science still conflict. Theories such as the big bang theory contradict the Bibles truth on the creation of earth in 7 days. The same with the scientific theory of evolution debating the creation of human kind by means of Adam and Eve. Also, another major problem if the topic of stem cell research. The Catholic Church strongly disapproves of stem cell research but controversy scientists do not. Stem cells are taken from embryos and religious beliefs doesn't allow for them to be destroyed.However, they could be used to save another already existing life. What one believes to be correct is based upon their own personal views of truth and what is right. All of society doesn't believe only one theory; there are those who support the scientific theories and those who have conviction in what is told religiously in the Bible.

Currently, because of our "flat world platform", as according to Friedman, technology has progressed in a way that nearly everything can be supported with scientific proof. There is an explanation for almost everything and if has not yet been discovered, because of advances in knowledge, it at one point will be. Based upon this, eventually opinions of the Bible, supported only by faith, will be disproved and replaced with scientific fact and hard evidence. By this time, religion and faith will play a role in only a small percent of peoples lives while others believe in what can be verified by reality. There will always be a quantity of people who have faith in religious beliefs because showing the Bible to be false after it has been advocated for hundreds of years is nearly impossible. However, when there is scientific evidence proving a theory not supported by the Bible, a majority of people will favor that.

In conclusion, religion at one point played a major role in people lives at one point and was valued daily. As time and knowledge progressed religion became less of a necessity to people. The scientific Revolution brought new ideas and theories making religious beliefs less credible. The "flat world" progresses in what can be supported by hard evidence and makes even less cause for the role of religion. Eventually, this will progress and the position that religion plays in individuals lives will decrease.