Religion of the Native American People

Native American culture is one that I have always found to be an interesting one. I took a particular interest in their religion because of how different it is from any other. After accumulating data I found that their religion was extremely influential in everything that they did. Almost no other religion effects the daily life’s as much as theirs did. The structure of their religion and the many allegories are used to form a way of life throughout the Native American people.

The structure of the Native American’s religion is a very complicated ordeal, and even just how their religion is set up can change the way that the people think and act. One of the first things that I discovered about the religion was that there was no organized Native American religion. This is an unusual concept to us nowadays because of how our lives are so dictated by rules and living by one doctrine that we can all look up to. Every tribe had different beliefs than their neighbor right next door. That being said, there is a lot of overlap between religions. For instance almost every one of them had a “Great Spirit” of some sort and had the same basic values of their neighbor tribe.  This unique structure to the religion has brought on a vast amount of religious tolerance. If there is one thing that most religions were not a, a few hundred years ago, it would be tolerant. Most Religions fight with the others because it is the will of their deity, for example the crusades. But being immersed in a setting where you are used to having people with different beliefs than you make you more tolerant of their right to have them. When the Europeans came over and tried to push Christianity on the Native Americans most of them tried to learn about it and try it out instead of rejecting the idea in disgust. On the note of Tolerance, In a good deal of the Native American religions the “Great Spirit” was a female, Or it was usually an animal. This made the people more akin to gender equality, and also a respect for animals. Another interesting thing that influenced the Native people was their view on the concept of an afterlife. Most, not all, versions of this religion believe that they would go to a sort of Spirit world when they died. Others believed that they would reincarnate as an infant or star. This is uncommon in the sense that there really is no final judgment placed upon ones soul. There is no “hell” or “reincarnating as a lesser being”. The people seems to be familiar with the thought of death, in many stories they travel to the spirit world and there is no talk of dismay or sorrow, it is simply a different world. This gives the people a very unique state of mind in that they are not doing the right thing for a shot at a blissful eternity. They are respectful, kind, and trying people because they believe that that is what they should do. It makes them a very selfless people. After observing the structure I began to look more closely into the stories that were told to the people.

Myths and legends are often told in a religion to teach a moral lesson or a way of living one’s life, and the same is true for the Native Americans. The first thing I did was pick up a book about myths called The Mythology of Native North America. I began to look at their hero myths because I find that that usually tells a lot about what a religion values. Following the story of “The Lone Man” I found that their ideal person was supposed to be benevolent, a skilled fighter, cunning, and faithful to the spirits.  This allegory was the first of many that I observed. The story of 3 men that get wishes from a Spirit named Glooscap was meant to teach the people to not have lust or greed and to always listen to the words of the spirits. Looking at the native peoples way of life we can see just that. It was not in their nature to be greedy at all. they never hunted more than they needed, and they had no concept of money or stealing. Lust was also not a problem with these people because of how they kept to the only have relations with your wife rule. This really just shows how the people take the words of their religious stories to heart. Another example is of the story of “Iktomi and the rock” where a lesson is taught not only to be generous but also that everything has a soul. This man is talking and giving things to a rock, and the rock talks back to him. There is no sense of surprise at all in the story when the rock speaks, it is complete natural that the rock should be considered a person to them. This is reflected in the people’s great reverence for nature. Leaving as little of a mark on the land as they can, and being respectful of all things. This was an extremely odd concept to myself when I learned that they believed this but I must say that most cultures could benefit from the belief that harming the land was harming a living being. Their emergence myths taught them to pray to their spirits and that the Spirits that they worshiped were not so unlike themselves. The Spirits were very humanized and not really seen as all powerful, most of the emergence myths seem to be based of of chance rather than power. This has made the people not so "god fearing" enhancing their selflessness much like their view of the afterlife did.  All these stories took part in everything that they did. During battle they taught them not to fear death with the story of the sprit world being no big deal. They smoked tobacco because of the story of smoking sending their prayers to their gods. They even learned agriculture to be important from the story of “The Corn Mother”.  At the end of my studies I couldn't help but hold a respect for them for devoting so much of their lives to their religion.

Indian Country- I used this site for its many stories, mainly the one about the porcupine. This site gave me a great incite into how the native Americans view their animals and the stories and which they teach this lesson.

indigenous people- This site was fantastic for its story about creation/end of the world. I used it to acquire a sense of how the Native Americans view their gods. i found it interesting to see the prices payed when their gods are not praised.

The Mythology of Native North America- This book was by far the most important of all my sources. It contains many stories about Native American Mythology. I used these stories to find the lessons that the children were being taught through religion. 

American Indian Myths and Legends-I used this book to cross reference the Stories from the other mythology book of the native Americans. also i found many ways that the people praised their gods here.

American Indian Trickster Tales- I used this book because of the many ways that trickster tales often times are meant to teach a person a lesson. i spent the while reading this book and found many stories about how to live ones life.

- A picture of a Native American drawing of a raven. This is a very important creature in their culture, many creation myths involve a raven creating the world.

- This picture shows Native Americans smoking a pipe. This was often done as a religious ceremony rather than a matter of pleasure. It was believed that the smoke carried prayers up to the spirits.

 - The Coyote is often a God in Native American culture and is seen here being rather human like. The animals were thought of to be equals to humans and this is shown through their uses of animal gods in their stories.