Tribal Responses to
Colonial Subjugation:
Religious Salvation and
Ideological Syncretism
The Indian Wars:
Resistance was futile
The Reservation Period
Churches attacked both family
structure and belief systems
Pre-contact belief systems
Animatism: belief in a supernatural power not part of
supernatural beings
Animism: belief that natural objects are animated by spirits
the spirits are thought of as having identifiable personalities
and other characteristics such as gender
Everything in nature has a unique spirit or all are animated by
the same spirit or force
Both present in some societies
For Native Americans, animism dominates
We see some evidence in material remains, but most information
comes from post-Contact ethnography
Variations
Ancestral spirits
After death, spirits retain an active interest and
even membership in their family and
society. Like living people, they can have
emotions, feelings, and appetites. They must be
treated well to assure their continued good will
and help to the living.
Gods/goddesses
Powerful supernatural beings with individual
identities and recognizable attributes
Rare in Native America—Creator, Mother Earth,
but these are often ill-defined
Hero/trickster figures
Beings with some supernatural abilities such as
transformation—coyote, raven, spider are
examples
Time and Cosmology
The power of the circle
Cyclical nature of time
The sacred directions
Sacred colors
Ojibwe lodge
Medicine Wheels abound on
the Plains
Quillwork medicine wheel
Pawnee lodge
Belief system change did occur
Beliefs form a stable core, but do adapt to natural
and social environments
Example: Old vs new Lakota beliefs
Inyan Kara—rock maker
White Buffalo Calf Woman and
the spread of the calumet (pipe)
Bison herd near Wind Cave, where Iktomi tricked the people into coming from the underground
Post-Contact ideology
Contact and syncretism
Nativistic movements
The Good Message of Handsome Lake
A syncretic combination of traditional Seneca
and Quaker beliefs and practices
Purpose: to draw the Seneca back toward
“the old ways” and to “protect” them from
whites
Revitalization movements
The Ghost Dance (see Edison 1894 film)
Wovoka with Plains
delegation
Bole-maru, California
Pawnee ghost dance drum
The Christian struggle for control
Grant’s reservation policy and churches
Boarding schools and breakdown of families
Bans on many religious practices
Woodrow Crumbow--Sundance
The Native American Church
Peyote song:
Primeaux and
Mike
Peyote cactus
For a good history,
see the Religious
Movements page
on NAC
American Indian Religious
Freedom Act of 1978
Title 42 - The Public Health and Welfare
Chapter 21 - Civil Rights
SubChapter I - Generally
American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978
§ 1996. Protection and preservation of traditional religions of Native
Americans
On and after August 11, 1978, it shall be the policy of the United States to
protect and preserve for American Indians their inherent right of freedom
to believe, express, and exercise the traditional religions of the American
Indian, Eskimo, Aleut, and Native Hawaiians, including but not limited to
access to sites, use and possession of sacred objects, and the freedom to
worship through ceremonials and traditional rites.
Native American Graves
Protection and Repatriation Act
Pan-Indian Trends
Powwow
Gathering of Nations, Albuquerque
Eklutna (Alaska) Annual Powwow
Crow Fair,
Montana