World

Religions
in America
An Introduction
Fourth edition

Jacob Neusner
Editor
Contents

Preface to the Fourth Edition vii

Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
Jacob Neusner

PART ONE: IN THE BEGINNING

1. Native Americans and Their Religions 11
Sam Gill

PART TWO: CHRISTIAN FOUNDATIONS OF AMERICAN RELIGIONS

2. Protestant Christianity in the World and in America 29
Martin E. Marty
3. The Religious World of African Americans 55
Peter J. Paris
4. The Catholics in the World and in America 73
Andrew M. Greeley and Paul Murray
5. The Religious World of Latino/a-Hispanic Americans 87
Justo L. González and Carlos F. Cardoza-Orlandi
6. Orthodox Christianity in the World and in America 105
Jaroslav Pelikan and John McGuckin

PART THREE: OTHER MONOTHEISTIC TRADITIONS IN AMERICA

7. Judaism in the World and in America 123
Jacob Neusner
8. Islam in the World and in America 143
John L. Esposito
9. The Bahá’í Faith in the World and in America 159
Mike McMullen

PART FOUR: MORE RECENT ARRIVALS

10. Hinduism in India and in America 179
Gerald James Larson
11. Buddhism in the World and in America 199
Malcolm David Eckel
12. East Asian Religions in Today’s America 213
Robert S. Ellwood and Mark A. Csikszentmihalyi
vi / Contents

PART FIVE: MADE (OR RE-MADE) IN THE U.S.A.

13. World Religions Made in the U.S.A.: Apocalyptic Communities—
Seventh-day Adventists and Jehovah’s Witnesses 233
Dell deChant
14. World Religions Made in the U.S.A.: Metaphysical Communities—
Christian Science and Theosophy 251
Dell deChant
15. New Thought: A Quintessentially American Religion 271
Dell deChant
16. The Church of Scientology: A Very New American Religion 293
Dell deChant and Danny L. Jorgensen
17. Nature Religions: American Neopaganism and Witchcraft 313
Danny L. Jorgensen
18. The Latter-day Saint (Mormon) Religion in America and the World 333
Danny L. Jorgensen
19. The Unification Church 353
George D. Chryssides

PART SIX: ISSUES IN AMERICAN RELIGION

20. Religion and Women in America 375
Eleanor J. Stebner
21. Religion and Politics in America 399
Andrew M. Greeley and Fred Frohock with Esben Gerhauge
22. Religion and Society in America 413
William Scott Green
Glossary 423
Index 433
Preface to the Fourth Edition

The publication of a fourth edition of this textbook responds to the acceptance of the first
three editions and also to the passage of time. We realized that the story of what has happened
to world religions in the USA has opened a new chapter and requires amplification. We are
serving two audiences here, those interested in religion in America and those interested in
world religions compared and contrasted.
For this new edition we have commissioned three completely new chapters, which are on
the Unification Church (popularly known as the Moonies), New Thought, and Women and
Religion in America. In addition, all the existing chapters have been revised and updated to
take account of recent developments and trends.
The entire textbook has been reorganized to take account of a more logical sequence of
topics. In addition we have added timelines of important events and persons, sidebars on key
movements or controversies, sidebars with personal stories from members of various faiths,
and lists of suggested websites, books, and topics for further study. The editor thanks the
contributors both old and new for their participation in what has become a long-term project,
and also the following people at Westminster John Knox Press: editors Gavin Stephens and
Jana Riess, who supervised the changes and additions for this edition; production profession-
als Julie Tonini and Erika Lundbom; and marketing director Jennifer Cox.

Jacob Neusner
 Introduction

Jacob Neusner

This book introduces you to the world’s at least once a day. Most Christians go to
religions in the United States today. Such an church every week; nearly all Jews observe
introduction is important because to under- the Passover festival and most keep the Days
stand America,* you have to know about of Awe (New Year, Day of Atonement) and
religion. Most, though not all, Americans say other religious celebrations. Religiosity is a
they are religious, and the world’s religions fundamental trait of the American people
flourish in today’s America. Most Americans and has been from the very beginning.
would agree that “in God we trust.” But each
does so in his or her quite special way, and
that is what makes religion in America inter-
The Religions of the
esting. This book does not advocate religion, World Flourish in
or any particular religion. Its purpose is only Today’s America
to describe and explain religion as an impor- Americans are not only a religious people.
tant factor in American society. We also are a people of many religions.
Most of the religions of the world are prac-
ticed in America, and the number of people
Americans Are
who profess to be Protestant is decreasing.
a Religious People
According to a study released in 2004 by
Most Americans are religious. They believe the National Opinion Research Center at
in God. They pray. They practice a religion. the University of Chicago, about 52 percent
They explain what happens in their lives by of the American people are Protestants,
appeal to God’s will and word and work, and down from 63 percent in 1993. Another 25
they form their ideal for the American nation percent are Roman Catholics, a figure that
by reference to the teachings of religion: “one has held steady through the years. Slightly
nation, under God.” This statement, from less than two percent are Jews. “Other” reli-
the Pledge of Allegiance, describes how most gions—which the study defined as includ-
Americans view our country. Americans act ing Islam, Buddhism, Eastern Orthodoxy,
on their religious beliefs. A 2008 Pew study and Hinduism, among others—clocked in
found that nearly all Americans (92 percent) at seven percent, more than triple its 1972
profess belief in God. More than half pray share of 1.9 percent. Another growth area

*Although Canadians, Mexicans, and Latin Americans of South America also are Americans, this work concentrates
on the United States in particular, and in these pages we use “Americans” to mean residents of the United States.
2 / Introduction

is nonbelief; nearly fourteen percent of the From colonial times onward, many groups
American people profess no religion at all, that joined in the adventure of building the
double what it was thirty years ago. American nation brought with them their
One cannot understand America without religious hopes and founded in this country
making some sense of its diverse religious a particularly American expression of reli-
life. The marvel of America is its capacity to gions from all parts of the world: Africa, Asia,
give a home to nearly every religion in the Europe, and Latin America. Entire American
world, and the will of the American people states and regions took shape because of
to get along with one another, with the rich religiously motivated groups—for example,
mixture of religions that flourish here. This Utah and the intermountain West through the
book presents not only the better-known ­Latter-day Saints (“Mormons”). So our coun-
­religions of America, Christianity and Juda- try is a fundamentally religious nation, and in
ism, but also the religious world of Native our country today, nearly every living religion
Americans, African Americans, and His- is now represented in a significant way.
panic or Latin Americans, as well as the old
religions newly arrived in this country, such
as Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Is America a
Christian Country?
America Began Because of Religion: Reli-
Some people think America is basically a
gion played a fundamental role in America’s
Christian country because different forms of
development by Europeans. The eastern part
Christianity have predominated through its
of this country was settled by people from
history and have defined much of its culture
Great Britain as an act of religion. The South-
and society. The vast majority of Americans
west was founded by people from Spain and
who are religious—and that means most of
Latin America as an act of religion.
us—are Christians. But to be a true Ameri-
New England was settled by British Puri-
can, one can hold another religion or no reli-
tans from the East Anglia; Virginia and the
gion at all. The first religions of America were
Chesapeake area, by British Anglicans (Epis-
those of the Native Americans. And although
copalians); Pennsylvania and New Jersey, by
Protestant and Roman Catholic Christian-
British Quakers; and the Appalachian South,
ity laid the foundations of American society,
from West Virginia and western Pennsylva-
America had a Jewish community from nearly
nia south through Piedmont North and South
the beginning; the first synagogues date back
Carolina, by British Presbyterians from the
to the mid-seventeenth century. Today this
area around the Irish Sea, the border regions
country has become the meeting place for
of Scotland and Northern England, and the
nearly all of the living religions of the world,
Irish counties of Ulster, in particular.
with the Zoroastrian, Shinto, Muslim, Bud-
The first European settlements in Texas,
dhist, and Hindu religions well represented.
New Mexico, Arizona, and California were
Various religious groups from the Caribbean
established by Roman Catholic missionar-
and from Africa and Latin America likewise
ies and soldiers coming north from Mexico,
flourish. What you learn in this book is that
who wanted to bring Christianity to the
nearly every religion in the world is practiced
native peoples. Many of the place-names in
by some Americans.
the American Southwest were given by His-
panic pioneers, who acted in the name of
Jesus Christ and the Roman Catholic faith. America Is Different
The earliest European explorers and settlers
from Detroit to New Orleans were Roman Other countries have difficulty dealing with
Catholic missionaries and traders from Que- more than a single skin color, or with more
bec, in French Canada. than a single religion or ethnic group, and
 Introduction / 3

nations today break apart because of ethnic

and religious difference. But America holds What You Will Learn
together because of the American ideal that in This Book
anyone, of any race, creed, color, language, about Religions in Particular
religion, gender, sexual preference, or coun-
try of origin, can become a good American This book first examines religions one by
under this nation’s Constitution and Bill of one, and then religion in America in general.
Rights, its political institutions and social Part 1 starts with the first set of religions to
ideals. And while religions separate people exist in America, the diverse faith of Native
from one another, shared religious attitudes, Americans. We turn next to the Christian
such as a belief in God, unite people as well. foundations of American religion in Part
America is different because, except for 2. Protestant Christianity is addressed first,
Native Americans, it has always been a land because the founders of the earliest Ameri-
of immigrants. From the very beginning, can settlements, in Virginia and Massachu-
but especially before World War I and after setts, were Protestants. Because Protestants
World War II, people have come to this form the most complex and also the largest
country from all parts of the world. Today single component of religious life in Amer-
the great religious traditions of the world ica, Protestant Christianity is treated in a
are practiced in America, where many of chapter twice as long as those devoted to the
them have become distinctively American. other American representatives of the reli-
This book presents the world’s religions gions of the world. African Americans have
both as they flourish universally and also in formulated a distinctive religious expression
their distinctively American forms. within Protestant Christianity, and they
were among the earliest settlers, so we turn
then to African American religious life.
Why Study the Next we discuss Catholic Christian-
World’s Religions in the ity, represented in the eastern part of the
American Setting? United States nearly from the beginning,
and also the foundation religion of the
America is the right place in which to study great Southwest. Because Hispanic Ameri-
the religions of the world because nearly all cans today comprise nearly half of all
of them can be found here (and in nearby Roman Catholic Christians in the United
Canada). But America is religiously more States, we take up Hispanic religious life
interesting than most countries in another in America, both Roman Catholic and Prot-
way. Not only do we have Judaism and the estant. We round out our section on Chris-
various kinds of European Christianity, we tian foundations by addressing Orthodox
also have Christian traditions deriving from Christianity, especially as it came to Amer-
places besides Europe, for instance, from ica from Russia and Greece.
Africa, China, Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia, Part 3 explores the other major mono-
and the Pacific islands. To give one exam- theistic traditions in America. We first turn
ple, the Unification Church, which began in to Judaism, a most ancient religion that has
Korea, flourishes in America today. Distinc- produced a strikingly contemporary and dis-
tive forms of Christianity from Latin Amer- tinctively American statement of its own. We
ica, both Pentecostal and Roman Catholic, learn much about America from how Juda-
have also become part of the tapestry woven ism has evolved within this country’s open
by world religions into the fabric of Ameri- society. Next, we encounter Islam, a fast-
can society. All of these important compo- growing religion in America, and the Bahá’í
nents of religion in America are described in Faith, an offshoot of Islam that emphasizes
this book. unity and harmony of religion.
4 / Introduction

Part 4 takes up some American reli- not just particular faiths, that sheds light on
gions that have achieved importance on these aspects of American life. We therefore
the national scene in our own day—newer consider three questions that pertain to all
religions of this country, but older religions religions. The first concerns how religion
of humanity, including Buddhism, Hindu- is shaped in this country by women: What
ism, and East Asian faiths like Confucian- do we learn about religion from the ways
ism and Shinto. We pay particular attention in which women are religious? Next, we
to the ­religious traditions brought to the turn to the immediate question of politics:
United States by Japanese, Korean, and How does religion affect the political life of
Chinese ­immigrants, many of whom are this country? Our political system carefully
Christian but some of whom practice other distinguishes state from church, so that no
religious traditions of the eastern shores governing body may favor or discriminate
of Asia. against a particular religion or religion in
Part 5 introduces some religions made general. But religious people—that is, nearly
in the United States such as Mormonism, all Americans—bring to politics important
Christian Science, Jehovah’s Witnesses, religious beliefs and commitments. How
and Scientology, as well as those that did religion comes to expression in American
not begin here but have taken a remarkable political life teaches us much about reli-
foothold, like the Unification Church. This gion. Finally, we undertake the relationship
section also explores the growth of Wicca between religion and society: How does
and nature religions in America. religion shape American life?
Each chapter in Parts 1 through 5 treats
its subject in accord with a single plan: How
do we encounter this religion today? What Why This Book Differs
is the definition and history? In what ways from Other Books
does the American expression of this reli- about the World’s Religions
gion teach us about religion in America and in American Life
what being religious in America means? In
answering these questions, the authors tell In general, up to the end of World War II
you about world religions in general and people defined the three religions of the
also about world religions in America in United States as Catholicism, Protestantism,
particular. Having mastered the contents of and Judaism. The other great world reli-
these chapters, you should be able to make gions, such as Islam, Buddhism, and Hindu-
sense out of the great religions of the world ism, were not broadly represented here. In
as America knows them, and also the diverse addition, it was not widely recognized that
meanings of religious life in America. African Americans had formed a power-
ful and distinctive statement of Protestant
Christianity, and that Latin Americans had
What You Will formed in this country an equally important
learn in This Book and distinctive expression of Catholic Chris-
about Religion tianity. Also, the importance of Pentecostal
in General Christianity in Latin America was just then
emerging. So chapters on other world reli-
To make sense of our country’s complex gions, besides Christianity and Judaism, or
life—its politics, culture, society—we need on how other non-European formulations
generalizations, which brings us to the final of great religions flourished in America,
section of this book. Part 6 promotes an would not likely have been written just a
understanding of religion in general, and few decades ago.
 Introduction / 5

And, if the truth be told, half a century believe something about God, how can
ago chapters on Catholic Christianity and I imagine any other belief is valid?
on Judaism might also have been left out, 2. Inclusivist: “My religion is true for me;
since not a few people saw America as not your religion is true for you.” This posi-
only Christian, but also—and exclusively— tion is common in a tolerant society,
Protestant. According to this school of such as, in general, America. It is some-
thought, “others”—not white, not Prot- times called “relativism,” meaning that
estant, not Christian, not European, not truth is relative to the person who holds
English-speaking, or not from the north- it; if you think up and I think down, for
eastern part of Europe (Britain, excluding you it’s up and for me it’s down. Reli-
Ireland, Germany, or Scandinavia)—really gious beliefs can be true only for those
were not authentic Americans at all. That who hold them.
is what made them different and somehow
3. Pluralist: “Every religion has something
abnormal, just as in that time people thought
true to tell us.” God works in ways we do
it was “normal” to be a man and not “nor-
not always understand. We had best try
mal” to be a woman. But that narrow concep-
to make sense of each of those ways. One
tion of what it means to be an American—and
way of doing so is to realize that different
normal—is no longer taken seriously. We
religions ask different questions, so you
now accept that Americans come in all colors,
really cannot compare the statements of
shapes, and sizes, in both genders, and from
one religion with those of another.
every corner of the world. We now know that
anyone can become a real American. And 4. Empathetic Interest in Other People:
America has the power to make its own all The way taken in the pages of this book
the religions of the world. In America, there is concerns not whether religions are true
no “other.” Everyone is one of us. That is the (which in the end is for God to decide)
message of this book: we all belong. There- but how all religions are interesting and
fore, all of us bear the same tasks and respon- important. We maintain here that every
sibilities to make this a better country. religion has something to teach us about
what it means to be a human being. Here
we take a different path from the one that
How to Study leads us to questions about religious truth.
about Other Religions It is a path that carries us to a position of
empathy for our fellow Americans, in all
The future of America depends on the their rich diversity.
answer to the question, How are religions
going to relate to one another in this coun- We are trying to understand others and to
try? Shall we refight in our own country the explain ourselves in terms others can under-
world’s religious wars, Protestant against stand. That is the American way: to learn
Catholic, Christian against Jew, Muslim to live happily with difference, and not only
against Hindu, and so on? to respect but to value the other. We teach
Religions think about outsiders, that is, the lesson that religion is a powerful force
other religions, in four ways. in shaping society, making history, and
defining the life and purpose of individuals
1. Exclusivist: “My religion is not only and entire groups. That is why we want to
true, but it is the only truth.” This view understand religion—and, among the many
of religious truth is natural to many true and valuable things about religion that
believers, whether or not their religion there are to comprehend, that is what we in
officially takes such a position. If I particular want in these pages.
6 / Introduction

live in, which means understanding the peo-

ple you meet. America is a huge and ­diverse
How Will You Know
country, and the secret of its national unity
Whether This Book lies in its power to teach people to respect
Has Succeeded? one another, not despite difference but
If, when you meet someone of another reli- in full regard for difference. We like one
gion, you find yourself able to understand another as we are, or, at least, we try to.
what is important to that person about And when we do not succeed, we know we
the religion he or she believes in, then the have failed our country. A good American
course in which this book has been used is a is a person who cares for the other with all
success for you. The goal of this course is to due regard for the way in which the other
help you better understand the world you is different.
 Introduction / 7

STUDY QUESTIONS

1. Do you believe that most Americans are religious persons? If yes, explain why you think
so, and give specific examples of persons “being religious” or “acting out” their religion
to support your answer. If no, explain why you think so, and give specific examples.
2. Why do you think that America has such religious diversity? Is this a positive and/or
negative feature of American society?
3. Why would Christians tend to describe America as a Christian nation? Why should
persons be careful in defining America in this way? Should we/Can we talk about “being
religious” in America and include everyone, Christian and non-Christian?
 Part One

In the Beginning
 1

Native Americans
and Their Religions

SAM GILL

When Americans are asked to say what dis- dition has its distinguishing character and
tinguishes our country from all other nations history, but we find some common traits
in the world, it isn’t long before we begin to and attributes among them. For example,
talk about Native Americans. When talking all of these traditions have a strong attach-
about Native Americans it isn’t long before ment to the specific landscape they desig-
we say something about dances, rituals, nate as their place of origin and where they
ceremonies, spirituality, and stories. Today continue to flourish.
people the world over, but especially Ameri- 2. Missionaries were often successful
cans, look to Native Americans to find inspi- in introducing various forms of Christian-
ration, a spiritual centeredness, a religious ity to Native Americans. Today Christian-
connectedness to the land and to nature. ity is their most widely practiced religion.
Native American religions frequently play a Native American Christianity has taken on
role in film, television, and literature. Native characteristics distinctive to specific Native
American religions are important to the American communities. There are fascinat-
way we think about America. Significantly, ing surprises here.
Native American dancers represented the 3. Native Americans have developed new
United States in the festivals that opened the religious forms that extend beyond specific
1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Ange- tribes, yet are distinct from European Amer-
les, as well as the 2002 Winter Games in Salt ican religions. The most common of these is
Lake City. The Vancouver Olympics in 2010 peyote religion, practiced in a variety of tra-
have designated three mascots based on First ditions and institutionalized as the Native
Nations culture and heritage. American Church.
There are four predominant categories of 4. When Native Americans of differ-
Native American religions in today’s Amer- ent cultures talk to one another they often
ica, categories that native practitioners emphasize how they and their cultures dif-
may or may not recognize. Each category fer. But when Native Americans of different
is distinguished not only by its form but cultures talk about their histories, or find
also by its history. 1. Today many Native themselves joined together to deal with the
American religions are identified with U.S. government or with Christian mission-
specific cultures. We will call them tribal aries, they talk about an identity they hold
traditions. These religious cultures have in common, whatever their tribal identities.
distinctive histories running for hundreds, This “Indian” identity is often expressed as
often thousands, of years. Each tribal tra- an alternative to the modern, technologically
12 / Sam Gill

based, capitalistic, and materialistic charac- stantly changing. Today in North America
ter of much of America. Though this identity there are still more than one hundred Native
is political, it is also religious in that it strives American tribal traditions. Most Native
to recover ancient sensitivities, particularly Americans now speak English, but many
those that connect people religiously to the also speak their native languages. Many
land, to nature, and to all living things. This Native American communities understand
Native American religiousness, called Indian that keeping alive their own native language
spirituality, is at once old and new. It is the is important to the survival of their culture.
form of Native American religion publicly
most observable in today’s America.
Oral Traditions
The following presentation of Native
American religions in today’s America will While there are many Native American lan-
explore each of these four categories more guages, none of them are written. You may
fully. Most Native Americans inhabit more have heard about a Cherokee man named
than one of these categories either serially or Sequoya who developed a way to write the
simultaneously. Cherokee language, but this is an exception
and is not even much used by Cherokees.
Native American tribal religious traditions
Tribal Traditions
are shaped by the fact that these languages
Since a time thousands of years before are not written. Just think about how impor-
Columbus, hundreds of relatively small tant scriptures, written histories, and inter-
groups of people have lived on the lands we pretive writings are to Christianity, Judaism,
now know as the Americas. Many of these Islam, and other religions in America. Native
groups continue to exist today. It is dif- American tribal traditions are composed of
ficult to know in much detail the religions stories told orally by one person to others
of these peoples before Europeans began to and of rituals passed from one generation to
write descriptions of them, and even these the next.
records are rather sketchy. There are some Though the lack of a written tradition may
clear defining traits, however, that are pres- involve some shortcomings, it also ensures
ent today as in the past. that the religious lives of Native Americans
The peoples of these cultures self- have a sense of immediacy, urgency, and
­consciously distinguish themselves from relevance. Native American traditions are
their neighbors. They speak different lan- always on the edge of extinction because
guages than other tribes around them. They what is not remembered, kept vital, or seen
have distinctive houses and styles of clothes. as important enough to pass on to the next
Every tribe or nation has rules defining mar- generation is irrevocably lost. The wisdom,
riages. Some tribes are patrilineal—that is, experience, knowledge, and achievement
they transmit lineage through the father as of a people gained throughout their history
we do when we receive our father’s family must be borne in the memories of the living
name. Many other tribes are matrilineal— members of the culture. Story and narrative
that is, a woman and her daughters and are essential vehhicles for exclusively oral
granddaughters are the lineage of the fam- culture. Every person bears some responsi-
ily. All of these many cultures tell their own bility for the history and wisdom of her or
stories, perform their own rituals, and have his culture.
ritual leaders or medicine societies. These America is obsessed with the development
various factors, and many other things, of literacy, the very emblem of civilization
make each of these cultures distinctive. So and the measure of superiority in the world.
we must always think of Native American The verbal SAT score is a primary measure
tribal traditions as many and varied and con- of our secondary educational system. Native
 Native American Religion / 13

Americans are not unaware of literacy. Some Yellow, the color of morning and evening
have even suggested reasons for resisting it. A light in winter, is associated with northern
member of the Carrier tribe in British Colum- clans. One’s clan determines the range of
bia told anthropologist Diamond Jenness, occupations and religious activities one has.
“The white man writes everything down in Because the north correlates with war and
a book so that it might not be forgotten; but destruction, a person in the Evergreen-oak
our ancestors married the animals, learned clan would be encouraged to engage in war-
their ways, and passed on the knowledge related occupations and religious activities.
from one generation to another.”1 An old One must always marry outside of one’s
Inuit (Eskimo) woman told the Danish eth- own clan.
nologist Knud Rasmussen, “Our forefathers The Zuni priesthoods stand at the pivot
talked much of the making of the world. . . . and meeting place of all these divisions. For
They did not understand how to hide words the Zuni the center represents totality and
in strokes, like you do; they only told things summation. The Zuni annual calendar is
by word of mouth, . . . they told many things divided at the solstices into two halves, each
. . . which we have heard repeated time after containing six lunar months. Around the
time, ever since we were children. Old women time of the solstices are twenty-day periods
do not fling their words about without mean- of intense religious activities, known as iti-
ing, and we believe them. There are no lies wana, marking the center or turning places
with age.”2 within the yearly cycle.
The Zuni in New Mexico tell stories of The Zuni village, known also as itiwana,
their origins. In the earliest era the ancestors bears the prestige and power of a center
of the Zuni people lived in dark, crowded place, of being at the conjunction of all
caves deep within the earth. The Sun Father places in the universe.
sent his two warrior sons to lead the people The Seneca, who live in upper New York
out. When they emerged as “sunlight peo- State, tell stories about a woman who fell
ple” the Sun Father told them to travel in from the sky into this world. A flock of
search of their home, “the middle place of birds caught this woman. The world was
the world.” During their travels the people then covered by water, so the only support
found a rain priest. Their own rain priest they could find for her was on the back of a
prayed with him, and together they made it turtle swimming in the water. One by one,
rain. A water strider, an insect that skates many animals tried to dive to the bottom of
on the surface of the water, came along and the water to get a bit of earth from which
stretched its legs out to the edges of the earth. to make the world. After many failed, one
Where its heart touched the earth marked the finally succeeded, and the Earth Maker, a
middle. The Zuni had finally found itiwana, creator, expanded this bit of soil into the
the middle place of the world. present earth, which is supported on the
Today, as in the past, the Zuni see the back of the turtle.
world as divided into sections correspond- The woman who fell from the sky gave
ing mainly with the four cardinal directions, birth to a daughter. The daughter was the
but they also consider the regions above and mother of corn as well as of twin boys who
below as important. The Zuni are matrilineal. represent the negative and positive forces
Each person is born into her or his mother’s constantly at struggle in life.
family and receives her clan, a named social We may think that no one could really
designation. Each clan is associated with believe such a fanciful story, and we might
one of these directions. For example, if your even be a little suspicious of anyone who
mother’s clan is Evergreen-oak, this is your claimed they believed it. These stories are,
clan. Evergreen-oak, green even in winter, is however, quite interesting, and they are
associated with the north and with winter. among the ways Native American people
14 / Sam Gill

express such important things as what they were well versed in the law and government
understand to be good and bad, how the policy. Each, when it was his time to speak,
world came to be, what makes life meaning- told the story of the creation of the world.
ful, and how to relate to one another. These Each showed how the particular landscape
stories tell how members of a particular in question is essential to the identity of the
Native American culture strive to under- people in his tribe.
stand the world. The Hopi tribal chairperson described
This kind of story, which we call a myth, how the Hopi people were led out of the
can be used in very serious ways. For exam- lower worlds onto this surface of the earth
ple, for decades the Navajo and Hopi peoples through an emergence hole (sipapuni) in the
have been in conflict over lands declared for canyon of the Little Colorado River. From
their joint use by a U.S. government treaty. there they migrated in clan groupings to
Though there have been many court battles their present homes atop the mesas in north-
eastern Arizona.
The Navajo tribal chairperson told
Mother Earth the story of how, before the Navajo
world was created, the Navajo ancestors
Contemporary Indians refer often to the fig-
traveled through worlds below this one.
ure “Mother Earth” (sometimes connected with
Eventually they emerged at a location
Father Sky). The frequency of this story across
somewhere in the four corners region,
native cultures is remarkable. Comparative aca-
where present-day Arizona, Utah, Col-
demic studies of the ideology, symbology, the-
orado, and New Mexico meet. The
ology, mythology, language, ritual, and history
Navajo world was then created, bound
of the hundreds of cultures that comprise native
by four mountains, one in each of the
North America show that the differences among
four cardinal directions, each identified
the cultures are so vast as to exclude almost any-
with a mountain that Navajos can see in
thing held in common that is not also common to
their land today.
all human beings (one might think of archetypes).
While expressed in a political and
Yet Native Americans have increasingly identified
legal setting, these stories are no less
Mother Earth as distinctive to Indian belief and
religiously significant today, for they
identity, particularly as opposed to Americans
continue to perform the cultural work
with European ancestry. Studies of the histori-
of defining people to themselves and to
cal record of the emergence of these references
others around them, including the fed-
indicate that the figure known by the English
eral government and the broader public.
term “Mother Earth” emerged from the discourse
Both cultures depend for their very lives
of Native Americans attempting to defend their
on the land they occupy. Each culture’s
ancestral lands against claims made by those
identity depends on its creation story and
of European heritage. Today, in broad terms,
on living in the landscape created for it.
Mother Earth has become a powerful figure that
These stories are the basis for a meaning-
is actively used to demonstrate Native American
ful life for individuals and cultures.
distinctiveness.

Art and Architecture

and efforts made by the federal government Native Americans’ homes are commonly
to resolve the situation, the peoples them- models of the universe. This makes homes
selves remain unsatisfied. Several years ago religiously important. Every architectural
the Hopi and Navajo tribal chairpersons feature, every way a house is used, reflects
met in public to discuss this conflict. Both something meaningful. The way Native
appeared dressed in business suits. Both Americans build, divide up, and use parts of
 Native American Religion / 15

their houses correlates with their way of life. attention on the creation process and the use
Many Native Americans perform ceremoni- of the objects produced. In Eskimo carving,
als in the home. Yet there is also specialized the carver picks up the raw material, a piece
religious architecture. Sweat lodges, found in of ivory or stone. Turning it about, the carver
many styles throughout North America, are tries to see the shape contained within. To
small houses in which people go to purify assert one’s will upon the material is not the
themselves, to learn religious information, goal of carving. Rather the carver serves as
and to talk about serious things. Pueblo peo- an agent to reveal or release a shape already
ple use kivas, partly underground rooms, for in the material—a seal, a bear, a whale.
performing rituals. Large Eskimo ceremonial Navajo sandpainting, so commonly
houses called qasgiq are entered through a known in the craft or fine art form, is always
tunnel and a hole in the floor. These houses a part of a ritual process in traditional
contain marionettes; for use in dramatic per- Navajo culture. Sandpainting is a ritual act
formances there are screens, behind which of curing performed as a part of healing cer-
the performer can dress or otherwise pre- emonials that often last many days. These
pare; even the entry tunnel and the skylight pictures are associated with stories about
window are used to dramatic effect. Enor- heroes or heroines who are cured of some
mous clan houses of the Pacific Northwest illness they suffer. Sandpaintings are made
have elaborately painted fronts and door- on smooth, clean sand bases on the floors
ways that represent an orifice of the body of of Navajo hogans (houses). They are often
a mythic ancestor. Just imagine that every ten feet or larger in diameter. The elaborate
time you enter your house you step through designs must be produced accurately, but
the mouth or vagina of a mythic ancestor! none of the hundreds of paintings that can
The designs on clothing, pottery, baskets, be prepared exists anywhere in permanent
and tools frequently correspond with images form. Their every detail must be remembered
from stories, features of the landscape, and by the medicine people who know these cer-
clan symbols. By wearing clothing and emonials. When the painting is finished, the
using pottery and baskets, Native Ameri- person to be treated walks on and sits in the
cans are reminded of their stories; they are middle of the painting. The medicine per-
surrounded by the patterns that they associ- son or a masked spirit being known as ye’ii
ate with what makes their life and culture begins to treat the person. The medicine per-
meaningful. For example, Navajos believe son’s or the ye’ii’s hands are moistened with
that closed circles constrict movement and an herbal medicine lotion and placed on the
thereby life. To bring harm to another, one story figures in the picture. Particles of sand
need only draw a closed circle around her or are transferred from the body parts of each
his house. Navajos insist on openings in all figure in the sandpainting to the correspond-
encircling designs. The characteristic design ing body parts of the suffering person. This
woven into Navajo wedding baskets is identifies the person with story. The paint-
always open, and the opening corresponds ing is smeared in this process. After the
with the beginning and ending coil at the ritual is performed upon the sandpainting,
center and perimeter of the basket. The the medicine person destroys and removes it
border designs in Navajo weavings always from the hogan. For Navajos, a sandpaint-
have a thread carried from the interior to ing functions less as a work of art than as
the outside signifying the opening for the a tool to make a healthy human being and
movement of life. A personified rainbow world. What a sandpainting helps create is
surrounds sandpaintings (discussed below) beauty of the highest order.
on three sides, being open on the east. For Native Americans, art and arting
It is more appropriate to think of Native have a religious aspect. By making and
American art as a verb, as “arting,” to focus ­using art, Native Americans continue the
16 / Sam Gill

creation process begun so long ago by gods offers prayers using a pipe and pointing its
and ­ancestors. stem in each of the four directions—north,
south, east, and west. He humbles himself
before the powers of the world; he cries for
Rituals
a vision. Visions are described by visionar-
The rituals of Native American tribal tra- ies as sequences of images strong in their
ditions are rarely performed simply to cel- potential for meaning. After a vision, the
ebrate or commemorate some event or time. visionary consults with medicine men who
Native American rituals are performed to help him discover the possible meanings of
bring something about—a stage of life, a the vision. These images serve as a guide to
successful hunt, a change in season. In other be consulted throughout life. When a man
words, rituals do more than celebrate some- must make decisions at the crossroads of
thing already done. life, he will look to his vision for help. The
Girls’ puberty rites are performed through- vision thus serves as a guardian spirit or a
out the region west of the Rocky Mountains. spiritual helper available in times of need.
The Apache people call their girls’ puberty A fascinating example of the transforma-
rite the Sunrise Dance. After an Apache girl tive powers of ritual is the Hopi initiation
begins menstruation, her family may spon- of eight- to ten-year-old children, who thus
sor a Sunrise Dance involving not only the begin their formal religious lives. Much of
extended family but the whole community. Hopi religion involves the frequent appear-
After days of preparation accompanied by ance of masked dancers, known as kachinas,
social dances in the evenings, the formal representing spiritual messengers. For more
ceremonial begins. In an elaborate buckskin than half of every year dancing and perform-
dress, the initiate dances to songs that tell ing kachinas are common in Hopi villages.
the stories of creation. The girl is identified Before their initiation, children do not see
with White Shell Woman, and through her either unmasked kachinas or unoccupied
dance she reenacts the events that created the masks. When they undergo their initiation
world, when White Shell Woman had sex- rites, the children hear stories about the
ual union with the Sun. During this rite the kachinas, especially about their origins. They
pubescent girl is identified with the powers go to a nighttime kiva dance from which
that created the whole world. Contact with they have always been excluded. The kachi-
her, even being present at the ceremony, pro- nas enter the kiva where the children await.
motes health and life. Near the end of the What is important is that these kachinas do
ceremonial, baskets of fruit and candies are not wear masks. When the children see that
poured over the girl’s head. Everyone pres- what they thought were spirits are actually
ent scrambles for the goodies, made power- their uncles and fathers, they are shocked,
ful by their contact with the girl. angered, and disenchanted. They wonder if
The Apache, and similarly the Navajo, they will ever be able to trust adults again.
are exceptional in their approach to female This seems harsh treatment for children,
coming-of-age. Many cultures, in contrast, and it is. But the children learn something
consider menstrual blood a pollutant, and very important through this experience.
menstruating females are isolated from the They have until now seen the world naively,
community. believing that the world is exactly as it
Among tribes throughout the northern appears to be. This disenchantment gives
Plains and Northwest, males come of age by them the experience that there is more to the
fasting for a vision. A Lakota (Sioux) male world than meets the eye. As they begin to
wishing to complete his passage to manhood participate in their religious lives, they listen
seeks a vision through a period of ritual and to the stories with greater care. This initia-
fasting. Isolated on a hilltop, he fasts and tion by disenchantment opens the children
 Native American Religion / 17

to the world of mystery, beauty, and power tribes. Corn, in a personified form, plays a
that can only be known through devoted major role in ritual and story. The Cherokee
participation and can only be experienced tell a story of Selu, a woman who is corn,
with a sensitivity attuned to the reality that who provides food for her family by rub-
surpasses the merely physical. bing epidermal waste from her skin or by
The Sun Dance was prohibited in the defecating. When her children discover how
late nineteenth century by U.S. government she produces food, they consider it witch-
regulation. It returned in the mid-­twentieth craft and decide to kill her. Knowing of their
century, especially among tribes in the plans, Selu instructs them to plow an area of
northern Plains. The Sun Dance is an annual ground and to drag her bleeding body over
ritual involving many in the community. the upturned soil after they kill her. They do
The world is re-created and renewed in this as she asks, and where her blood touches the
new year’s rite. All the people are released soil corn plants grow. Many Native Ameri-
from grievances and social strife. Everyone can cultures tell stories of a corn woman
is rededicated to his or her role as woman, who magically provides corn to feed her
man, leader, hunter, warrior, or child. The people. When mistreated she leaves, and her
Sun Dance provides an opportunity to per- departure marks the beginning of the human
form vows made in return for favors asked cultivation of corn. In some southwestern
of spirit beings. These vows often take the tribes, at initiation a child is given an ear of
form of physical suffering. After the ritual corn, known as a corn mother, as a guide
construction of a Sun Dance lodge, dances and protector. Pollen or cornmeal strewn or
are performed by individuals attached to the sprinkled is a blessing and an act of prayer.
center pole of the lodge by leather thongs Even though the horse was introduced
and skewers, which are inserted through the to North America only with the coming of
flesh above the dancer’s pectoral muscles. the Spanish in the sixteenth century, it has
These dances are central to the Sun Dance become central to many tribal traditions. The
ceremonial. The dancer’s suffering fulfills most respected of Navajo songs are the horse
a vow made in promise for some spiritual songs, which depict its cosmic dimensions:
favor and serves to humble the dancer before
the spiritual powers. Its feet are made of mirage
The Sun Dance innovatively combines Its gait is a rainbow
features from old fertility rites of corn- Its bridle of sun strings
­growing peoples who lived along the rivers Its heart is made of red stone
in the central and eastern Plains with the Its intestines are made of water of all
hunting rituals of cultures that hunted buf-    kinds
falo and other game on the Plains. For thou- Its tail of black rain
sands of years physical survival of Native Its mane is a cloud with a little rain.3
American peoples depended on some com-
bination of successful hunting, gathering, From the circumpolar region southward
agriculture, and fishing. It is little surprise throughout much of North America, bears
that animals and plants are central to the have played a religious role for thousands
religions of tribal traditions. Not only are of years. Along the Pacific Northwest Coast,
such animals and plants used as powerful Raven is a creator and major culture hero
ritual objects, they express central religious who brings light to the world and shapes
concepts. The buffalo, whose head adorns culture. Tobacco is widely used in the ritu-
the center pole in the Sun Dance lodge, des- als of Native American tribal traditions as
ignates the source and power of life itself. a potent spiritual “medicine.” The list of
Corn, corn pollen, and cornmeal are used plants and animals with religious signifi-
ritually by agricultural Native American cance could go on and on.
18 / Sam Gill

Here is what must be remembered to this enters the shaman’s body, there is a notice-
point: Native American tribal traditions, able convulsion. The shaman spits the object
though different from one another, are none- in the fire or in a bowl of water to destroy
theless similar in some respects. These tradi- it. In some cultures the Shaman actually dis-
tions are directed toward the creation of a plays for all to see the object that has been
meaningful life for the people within a spe- removed.
cific landscape that has been sanctioned by a Another form of illness treated by sha-
tradition based on primordial events recorded mans is conceived as the loss of the life form,
in stories. Native American tribal traditions sometimes called the soul. The Salish people
foster a closeness to and respectful interde- of the Pacific Northwest engage troupes
pendence with the natural world. of shamans who ritually paddle canoes in
search of the lost life form; that is, they dra-
matize this journey by sitting in a canoe in
Shamanism
the healing lodge. They recover the life form
Health and healing are common concerns of in dramatized ritual battles and then paddle
tribal traditions. Some of these traditions, back to return it to the sufferer.
such as the Navajo, use health and heal- Ecstatic techniques are used in North
ing to address almost all concerns. Some America to find lost objects or relatives, to
traditions, especially those in the Arctic learn of the future, to ensure success in hunt-
and down the Pacific Northwest Coast into ing, and to conduct the deceased to the land
California, practice shamanism. Caution is of the dead. Shamanism always involves the
needed when using the term shaman. Many use of ecstatic techniques by an individual
have used it to name any religious or spiri- to call upon forces in the spiritual world to
tual specialist. The term comes from tribal intervene in human affairs.
cultures in Siberia and refers to individuals An individual is often called by a pow-
who use ecstatic techniques—that is, it des- erful vision or dream to enter a shamanic
ignates those who know how to enter into career. A persistent theme in these dreams,
a trance. Through trances shamans enter as well as in the initiatory rituals, is the aspir-
the spiritual world to seek help in resolving ing shaman being stripped to a skeleton and
human problems, most often illness. reconstituted as a shaman. This theme sug-
The Pomo, a California tribe, is one gests that a shaman gains power through a
group that continues to use shamans. These death and rebirth experience. Still, shamans
individuals, often women for the Pomo, require extensive training beyond these ini-
sing and shake long rattle staffs in prepara- tiatory experiences.
tion for entering a trance. Kneeling beside Perhaps because Native American tribal
the sick person, the shaman then breathes traditions are shaped by an essential con-
rapidly while blowing incessantly on a bird- nection with a specific landscape and by an
bone whistle. Eventually the shaman’s body authority structure based on telling stories of
begins to quiver and convulse, showing that primordial events, it may appear that these
she or he has entered into trance. traditions do not change, that they do not
After entering a trance the shaman exam- have histories. But extensive changes often
ines the body of the sufferer by passing a take place in these tribal traditions. Native
quivering hand over it. This locates the ill- Americans are not helpless recipients of
ness, believed to be a malevolent object— changes brought on by others. Because many
a bone, a worm, an arrow, an insect—that of their traditions bear the responsibility for
has intruded into the body. These objects the ongoing creation of the world, Native
are often thought to be “shot” by witches. Americans often creatively manage their
The shaman sucks out this evil object. As it own histories. There is no greater evidence
 Native American Religion / 19

of this than the fact that so many tribal tra- ings in most pueblo villages. The church in
ditions not only have survived but continue the village of Acoma, which sits high atop a
to thrive in the face of half a millennium of mesa, required the forced labor of hundreds
almost constant onslaught by powerful visi- of pueblo people to hand-carry the build-
tors from other lands. ing materials to the mesa top, including
many enormous roof support beams from
trees cut as far away as a hundred miles.
Native American Pueblo peoples were forced, sometimes on
Christianity punishment of beatings or even death, to be
When Columbus met Native Americans, all baptized and to practice Christianity pub-
their religions were tribal traditions. One licly. Mission­aries discouraged the practice
of his first observations of these new peo- of the tribal traditions and even destroyed
ples was that he believed they could be eas- pueblo ceremonial paraphernalia such as
ily Christianized. Missionaries soon began altars, costumes, and masks. Little wonder
their work in this new land. Today not a this treatment did not endear Christians and
single tribal tradition has escaped the influ- Christianity to pueblo peoples.
ence of Christianity. Many Native American Although the people were forced to
communities today are primarily Christian. practice Christianity, the tribal traditions
Many other communities have extensively of these pueblos survived and persisted by
incorporated Christian elements into tribal going underground. These practices became
traditions. Others, particularly those forced so secret that almost nothing is known about
to become Christian, secretly continued their the religions of several pueblos still appar-
own tribal traditions while publicly practic- ently quite vital today. This public practice
ing Christianity. The discussion of several of Christianity complemented by the secret
cultures will exemplify these several types of and private practice of tribal traditions is
Native American Christianity. sometimes called “compartmentalization.”
As the centuries have passed, missionar-
ies have become far less oppressive of Native
The Pueblo Peoples American tribal traditions. Although the
of the Southwest compartments remain, with less pressure
Though it is often thought that American the pueblo antagonism toward Christian-
history moved across the continent from ity has diminished. Christianity has earned
east to west and that American religious his- a meaningful place in the lives of many
tory began with the founding of Jamestown pueblo people today, complementing their
in 1607, one of the first meetings between tribal traditions.
Native Americans and Europeans was at
Zuni in present-day New Mexico. The con-
The Yaqui
quest of Mexico led to explorations north
into the American Southwest. The first Among the most creative interactions between
Franciscan missionaries attempted to estab- tribal traditions and Christianity are those of
lish themselves among the pueblo peoples the Yaqui, who currently live in several Arizona
by 1580. Santa Fe was a provincial capital communities. The Yaqui lived in ­present-day
city in 1610, a decade before the Mayflower Sonora at the time of the conquest of Mexico.
sailed. Franciscan missionaries accompa- For a long time they effectively resisted Span-
nied Spanish explorers, and by the early ish influence. Finally, in 1617, they invited
seventeenth century, mission churches had Christian missionaries (who were Spanish)
been built in pueblos throughout the South- to live among them. Almost overnight the
west. These churches are the largest build- Yaqui willingly transformed their culture and
20 / Sam Gill

religion, taking on many Christian forms. In

Native American
1767, after more than a century, under pres-
Christian Communities
sure from the Mexican government, which
was demanding economic and social change Throughout America today there are Native
and rejecting everything Spanish, the Yaqui American communities that are primar-
asked the missionaries to leave. In the cen- ily Christian, peoples who have little or no
tury that followed, however, even without practice of tribal traditions. These Christian
the presence of missionaries, they continued communities often have distinctive tribal des-
to practice and develop traditions that had ignations. Others are identified generically as
distinctive Christian forms. Indian, without tribal designation, especially
The Mexican government finally conquered in the large Native American communities in
the Yaqui in fierce military engagements and many cities. Although Americans of Euro-
dispersed the culture. Some formed commu- pean ancestry introduced Christianity to
nities in southern Arizona. By the beginning Native Americans, Native American clergy
of the twentieth century they began once and leaders have increasingly taken over the
again to practice their traditions. Central leadership of churches in these communities.
among these is the elaborate ritual process Many young Native Americans have trained
that unfolds during the forty days of Lent. for Indian ministry in institutions such as
Elements of the Christian Passion can be rec- Cook Christian Training School in Phoenix.
ognized in this ritual, but they are interpreted Native American Christian communities
as representing the universal struggle between are frequently fundamentalist in their theol-
good and evil. The evil forces are portrayed ogy, conservative in their practice, and often
by soldiers dressed in black known as Pilates revivalistic and evangelical.
and by groups of masked figures known as As Native Americans became Christian,
Chapayekas. Holy Week, the climax of this they gained a certain freedom from being the
ritual season, includes the capture of the objects not only of missionization, but also
church by the evil forces, the crucifixion of of academic scrutiny. As Christians they no
Jesus (represented as an icon), and the return longer seemed unknown or exotic. As a result
to the church of the good. The final struggle very little is known about most of these com-
between good and evil occurs on Easter Sat- munities. What are these religions? How are
urday. An effigy figure of Judas is placed in they related to tribal traditions? A scholar
the center of the plaza that extends in front named Thomas McElwain did a study that
of the Yaqui church. Midmorning the Pilates gives us some hints. He studied Christian
and Chapayekas march into the plaza in two hymns that had been translated from ­English
long lines, prepared to assault the church into Seneca for the 1834 publication of a Sen-
and return to power. At the signal of the eca Christian hymnal. He simply translated
ringing church bell, the evil forces rush the the Seneca back to English, examining espe-
church, which is defended by children and old cially the words in Seneca used for God. He
women armed with flower petals and green found that the hymns express the religious
leaves representing the transformed blood of ideas of Seneca tribal traditions much more
Christ. These prove to be stronger weapons, than those of Christian theology.4
and evil is repelled. The masked figures leave Many Native American Christian com-
their swords, daggers, and masks at the foot munities have responded innovatively to the
of the Judas effigy and rush to the church to pressures of Christianization, being able at
rededicate themselves to Christ and the good. once to continue older tribal traditions or
Judas is torched, and as he, along with all ideas in new forms (and forms that have little
the masks and swords, explodes into fire, the compatibility with their own), to incorporate
whole Yaqui village erupts into fiesta. some aspects of the invading traditions, and
 Native American Religion / 21

coincidentally to diffuse the pressures of con- and the Native American response often
quest and the intrusion of academic studies. took the religious form of crisis move-
ments. These movements, led by a visionary
or prophet, helped strengthen threatened
New Religious Movements cultures. They commonly required Native
For Native Americans, religion is essential clothing, language, hunting, and cultivation,
to life and cultural identity. In performing while consciously rejecting American cloth-
rituals and telling stories, Native Americans ing, English language, schooled education,
discover and create the meaning of life in the Christianity and missionaries, the use of
world. Religion provides some of the tools alcohol, metal tools, and firearms. Finding
needed to go through the cycle of life, to hunt themselves living in strange territories, with
and grow food, and to deal with life’s crises. no way to continue practicing the ways of
Throughout American history Native life that distinguish them, Native Americans
Americans have suffered wars, epidemic have followed visions of those who saw the
diseases, and forced displacements. They cataclysmic end of this world and the return
changed their way of life when horses, sheep, of a former world, a world before European
and new weapons were available from Amer- influences.
icans. A never-ending progression of tech- By the beginning of the nineteenth cen-
nologies, from electric appliances to pickup tury, Seneca culture was facing a major
trucks, has introduced irreversible change to crisis. Seneca people had been drawn away
Native American cultures. The way Native from Seneca ways through Christianiza-
Americans govern themselves has changed tion, education in schools, employment for
too. When they were forced as nations to wages, and the use of alcohol. A Seneca man
negotiate with U.S. federal and state govern- named Handsome Lake typified the people
ments, Native Americans were compelled to at the time. He was an alcoholic and no lon-
develop new political and legal organizations, ger knew how to be Seneca in a traditional
tribal councils, and governments that have sense. He fell ill, and many thought he had
little resemblance to former tribally distinct died. As he lay motionless in his bed he had
methods of governance. Literacy, schooled a vision in which he received good news
education, missionization, and the ceaseless about the future. He brought new life to the
treatment of Native Americans as objects of Seneca by introducing a new religion based
academic study, often motivated by the belief on his vision. Though there were difficult
that these cultures were soon to become times ahead for Handsome Lake and for
extinct, have forced many changes. Often out- the Seneca, this religious movement, born
siders invented images of Native Americans of crisis, eventually became established and
that served as standards by which the lives of continues to serve the Seneca people.
actual individuals have been measured. These During the nineteenth century many
images, whether negative (the bloody savage) Native American cultures were pushed to
or positive (the noble savage) were always the limits of their abilities to survive. The
inventions. Notably, Native Americans have transcontinental railroad was completed.
often consumed and reproduced these dis- The great herds of buffalo were destroyed.
courses, shaping Native American cultures to Native Americans were confined to reserva-
correspond with what others expect of them. tion lands on which they could not hunt or
farm. Many Native American cultures began
to face the possibility of extinction.
Crisis Movements Throughout the northwestern United
Sometimes the cumulative pressure of these States during the last half of the nineteenth
intruding forces reached crisis proportions, century, many crisis movements arose.
22 / Sam Gill

Among the most widespread was the Ghost a­ ltar carved from tip to tip with a design of
Dance movement of 1890. A Paiute man the peyote road. This road represents the life
named Wovoka had a vision that foretold lived according to the direction of the pey­
the cataclysmic end of the world as it had ote spirit. A large peyote button, represent-
become, followed by a return of the world ing Chief Peyote or the peyote spirit, rests
that existed before the Europeans came. on the center of the altar. A water drum pro-
Those Native Americans who practiced the vides the rhythmic accompaniment for the
rituals of the movement and lived according singing. A beaded staff, feather fans with
to its tenets believed they would survive the beaded handles, and gourd rattles are other
cataclysm, that the dead humans and ani- ritual implements used in the meetings.
mals would return, and that the land would The meetings begin at sundown and end
be renewed. The Ghost Dance ritual was at dawn. Meetings are called for specific pur-
a circular dance in which dancers fell into poses: the illness of a member of the commu-
trances and often saw visions of the dead nity, the celebration of a special event, even
journeying back to the world of the living. the preparation of a student for school exam-
The Ghost Dance movement ended in inations. A leader, known as the road chief,
the tragic massacre by U.S. troops of hun- begins by stating the purpose of the meeting
dreds, including many women and children, and inviting everyone to direct prayers to this
at Wounded Knee at the end of December need. Throughout the night peyote songs are
1890. sung—often in a Plains language, regard-
less of what tribe is singing the songs—to
the accompaniment of rattle and drum. The
The Native American Church beaded staff is passed around the meeting, and
Peyote, a small hallucinogenic cactus, has the person holding it becomes the singer. The
long been used in ritual in Native Ameri- drum, fan, and rattle are also passed. Periodi-
can cultures in Mexico, especially in the cally peyote is passed and eaten by the mem-
area where the cactus grows. Late in the bers. While members may experience visions,
nineteenth century, a new religion with dis- particularly increased intensity of colors and
tinct ritual forms involving the ingestion of other sensations, the primary purpose is to
the cactus began to spread northward into increase concentration and the sense of com-
Texas and through the Plains. Early in the munity. It should be noted that peyote is not
twentieth century, in an effort to use this eaten to induce intense individual hallucino-
hallucinogen legally, the religion was for- genic experiences. Native American Church
mally constituted as the Native American communities are often very conservative. The
Church. Comparing the use of peyote to Native American Church is effective in the
the Christian sacrament of the Eucharist, treatment of drug and alcohol abuse.
Native Americans, though not at the time The Native American Church is distinct
considered U.S. citizens, mounted a legal from tribal traditions in that it is practiced
defense based on protection under the law by Native Americans from many tribes. It
of the free practice of religion. Though the can incorporate elements of Christianity; for
legal battles continue, the Native American example, the peyote spirit may be identified as
Church has thrived and by mid-twentieth Jesus. Passages from the Christian Bible may
century was widely practiced not only by be incorporated in the ritual. Unlike Native
Plains tribes, but also by many others. American Christianity, however, peyote reli-
Native American Church meetings are gion was not introduced by Europeans. Like
all-night singing and prayer meetings. They tribal traditions, the Native American Church
may be held in any form of lodge, although is distinctly Native American. The Native
the Plains tipi is the most popular. Built on American Church need not threaten individ-
the floor of the lodge is a crescent-shaped ual cultural identities. Indeed, there are often
 Native American Religion / 23

tribal variations in the ritual practice. The culture (whose primary access to other cul-
Native American Church links Native Ameri- tures is through print) and tribal cultures
cans together, forging a common identity out (which remain exclusively oral). No single
of their shared history of oppression. book has been more important to the rise of
Native American spirituality than Black Elk
Speaks, recorded and developed by the non-
Native American
Indian author John Neihardt. The extent of
Spirituality
Neihardt’s contribution has given rise to con-
Early in the nineteenth century, faced with siderable controversy (see sidebar), yet many
the displacement from ancestral lands by the Native Americans see this book as equivalent
American westward expansion, a Shaw-
nee man named Tecumseh and his brother
Black Elk
Tenskwatawa fought for Native American
survival. They believed that cooperation The Lakota man called Black Elk became a Chris-
among the various native cultures would tian after a traditional childhood that included
provide more effective resistance than the visionary experiences. John Neihardt, a poet,
separate efforts of many tribes. Military traveled the northern plains looking for material
and political strength was the foremost to enrich his epic poem “A Cycle of the West.” In
concern, but there was also a vision of a 1930 he met Black Elk and they talked. Based on
common Indian religion. This perspective those conversations, yet heavily shaped by his
marks a shift from trying to accommodate own view of Native Americans as tragic figures
the European American presence to the willingly sacrificing themselves to the progress
acknowledgment that Native Americans, of U.S. expansion, Neihardt wrote Black Elk Speaks
despite significant cultural differences, (1932). While scholars have shown that much of
held more in common among themselves this work is Neihardt’s construction and the book
than they did with those who were threat- conveniently omits mention of Black Elk’s life and
ening their existence. work as a Christian, many Native Americans have
Especially since the middle of the embraced it as a sacred narrative. The late Vine
twentieth cen­tury leaders have described Deloria Jr. referred to it as the Native American
what distinguishes all Native American holy book. Hundreds of college classes through-
peoples. These distinctive traits are reli- out the United States use this book to teach tradi-
gious in character, but the term spiritu- tional Native American religions.
ality will be used here to emphasize that
the view is self-consciously anti-Western.
The term religion denotes Christianity to to a holy book. Black Elk Speaks is comple-
many Native Americans; the term spiritual- mented by The Sacred Pipe, in which Black
ity avoids this connection while suggesting Elk tells Joseph Epes Brown about the seven
an attitude of respect and reverence toward rites of the Oglala Sioux. Many other Native
every aspect of life. Americans have participated in the develop-
Notably, the rise of Native American ment of Native American spirituality. Vine
spirituality has been associated with the print Deloria Jr., schooled in Christian theology
medium. Those who have shaped it are those and the law, has written books widely read
who have written, or at least whose words by Native Americans and other Americans
have been written and published. There is alike. The fiction of Leslie Silko, N. Scott
perhaps some irony in this, but it has also Momaday, and Sherman Alexie has shown
made Native American spirituality the most that one of the spiritual centers of Native
known and accessible of all forms of Native American traditions is storytelling.
American religions. The movement has served Those Native Americans most influential
to mediate between mainstream American in developing Native American spirituality
24 / Sam Gill

have retained close contact with their spe- Americans, but that it also holds the prom-
cific tribal traditions. In describing their ise for saving the whole of America from a
own tribally based spirituality, they have course of destruction.
seen themes, images, and concerns common Native American spirituality encourages
among all Native American peoples. the continuity and revitalization of the sto-
Native American spirituality encourages ries and rituals of tribal traditions. It has
the continuity of tribal traditions, but more virtually no distinctive mythology apart
so the embracing of a common Indian iden- from tribal traditions, though in its place is
tity. Native American spirituality exists in an an extensive body of anecdotes, stories, and
arena of intense awareness of the crises and literature about Native American oppres-
difficulties Native Americans face. Native sion and mistreatment by European Ameri-
Americans share a history of oppression and cans, and about the apparently foolish and
a pride and confidence in their heritage that destructive ways of these oppressors. Native
has given them the strength to survive. American spirituality has embraced pipe cer-
Understandably, the tenets of Native emonies and sweat lodge rites. The dancing,
American spirituality are expressed largely singing, drumming, and ceremony of pow-
in opposition to majority American culture. wows have become the principal form of
Native American spirituality condemns the expression for many Native Americans.
very things its proponents identify as distinc- Native American spirituality is widely
tive of most Americans: capitalism and the popular among non-Native American peo-
accompanying materialism, rational thought ples. This popularity is at once a backlash
and literacy, political and economic policies against what are considered negative aspects
that encourage the exploitation of the land of our American heritage and a sign of
and peoples, and Christianity. Native Amer- respect for Native American religions.
ican spirituality builds upon its ancient roots Though it may seem that Native Ameri-
in the American soil and a spiritual way of cans are largely gone, a people of movies
life that reveres the land as a mother, often and books, it must be remembered that
formalized as Mother Earth, and respects today millions of people identify themselves
as kin all plants and animals, indeed, all of as Native Americans. Further, as we have
nature. This perspective strongly holds that learned in this chapter, Native Americans
­Native American spirituality not only is have rich and diverse cultures, including
superior to the religion and culture of most many forms of religious practice.

Notes
1. Diamond Jenness, “The Carrier Indians 4. Thomas McElwain, “ ‘The Rainbow
of Bulkley River,” Bureau of American Will Carry Me’: The Language of Sen-
Ethnology Bulletin, no. 133 (Washington, eca Christianity as Reflected in Hymns,”
D.C., 1943): 540. in Religion in Native North America, ed.
2. Knud Rasmussen, The People of the Polar Christopher Vecsey (Moscow: University
North: A Record (London: Kegan Paul, of Idaho Press, 1990): 83–103. See also
Trench, Trubner & Co., 1908), 99–100. James Treat, Native and Christian: Indig-
3. Adapted from Pliney E. Goddard, Navajo enous Voices on Religious Identity (New
Texts, Anthropology Papers, vol. 34 (New York: Routledge, 1996).
York: American Museum of Natural His-
tory, 1933), 164.
 Native American Religion / 25

STUDY QUESTIONS

1. Discuss the stereotypes often associated with Native American religious traditions. How has
reading this chapter changed your understanding of Native American religious traditions?
2. What are the four predominant categories of Native American religions in today’s Amer-
ica? How do they function? What do you see as the important characteristics distin-
guishing these categories? How are they similar?
3. Native American languages are not written languages, at least not in their original forms.
What do you see as the implications, positive and negative, of an oral tradition versus a
written tradition? What would you gain from your religious tradition if your language
were only oral? What would you lose from your religious tradition?
4. What is a story? Why is “story” important for any religious tradition? The Native Amer-
ican tradition? Describe or create a religious story from your religious tradition that
functions like a story in the Native American religious tradition.
5. Explain how Native American art can be described as having a religious function. Give
examples of Native American art and describe its role in the religious lives of its people.
6. Religious ritual plays a significant role in the lives of Native Americans. Define ritual.
How would you distinguish ritual from habit? Describe at least two rituals from Native
American religious traditions and discuss their functions.

ESSAY TOPICS
The Role and Function of the Shaman in Native American Religious Traditions
Native American Art: Exploring a Religious Tradition through Images
Native American Religious Traditions and Christianity: Conflict and Compromise

WORD EXPLORATION
The following words play significant roles in any discussion of Native American religious
traditions and are worth careful reflection and discussion.

Tribe Native American Peyote

Oral Tradition Medicine Person Shaman
Sacred Rite of Passage Ritual Crisis Movement

FOR FURTHER READING

Beck, Peggy V., and Anno L. Waiters. The Sacred: Ways of Knowledge, Sources of Life.
Tsaile, Ariz.: Navajo Community College Press, 1977.
Capps, Walter H., ed. Seeing with a Native Eye. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1976.
Gill, Sam. Native American Religions: An Introduction. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth Pub-
lishing Co., 1982; rev. ed., 2004.
Silko, Leslie. Ceremony [a novel]. New York: Viking, 1977.
Talayesva, Don C. Sun Chief. The Autobiography of a Hopi Indian. New Haven, Conn.:
Yale University Press, 1942.
26 / Sam Gill

Web Sites
[Link]
Index of Native American resources on the Internet

[Link]
The Native American Anthology: Internet Resources

[Link]
The Internet Sacred Texts Archive