Native American
Religion
RESOURCES AT THE SOSU LIBRARY
Native American Collection
The Native American Collection arrangement
 The Reference area, beginning on the north wall, holds non-circulating
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materials and includes many primary sources.
The Juvenile area, on the west side, has books and stories of interest to
children and teachers.
The General circulating area, starting on the north wall, includes
materials related to the study of Native Americans, and literature by
American Indian authors.
Government Documents about Native Americans are next to the
reference area and arranged in SuDoc classification.
Archives--Older more valuable items, including microforms that would be
difficult to replace, are in a locked case on the south wall. Please see Library
Staff to use these materials.
Periodicals about Native Americans, which includes journals, magazines
and newspapers, are shelved on the other side of the juvenile books.
Videos related to Native Americans are in the bookshelves on the south
side of the collection.
How our books are arranged
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000-099
GENERALITIES, Bibliographies
100-199
PHILOSOPHY, PSYCHOLOGY
200-299
RELIGION
300-399
SOCIAL SCIENCES, EDUCATION, MYTHOLOGY, LAW
400-499
LANGUAGE
500-599
NATURAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS
600-699
TECHNOLOGY (Applied Sciences), Medicine
700-799
THE ARTS—Painting, basket weaving, pottery
800-899
LITERATURE
900-999
HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY
Where do you go to find out about
the religious practices of Native
Americans in the past?
1.WRITINGS OF THOSE WHO OBSERVED
THE NATIVE AMERICANS
2. DIGGING UP ARTIFACTS FROM THE
PAST--ARCHEOLOGY
Writings of past observers of the religious
practices of Native Americans
 Writings of Native Americans themselves
 Diaries, reports, studies of European missionaries,
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explorers
Writings and reports of government Anthropologists
and ethnologists
More recent encyclopedias and dictionaries
Books on Native Mythology
Books on Native Medicine
Online databases
Accounts of Native American
Life by Native Americans
Black Elk Speaks
 Black Elk was a holy man
of the Oglala Sioux. This
book was the result of an
interview with Black Elk by
John G. Neihardt in 1930.
 Black Elk (L) and Elk of the
Oglala Lakota
photographed in London in
1887
Diaries and Journals of Early
Europeans among the Indians
 Many of the works on Native American culture were
written long ago, by
explorers and scientists
going out to observe
Native Americans
culture first hand
The Jesuit Relations 1610-1791
 The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents:
travels and explorations of the Jesuit
missionaries in New France, 1610-1791 . New
York: Pagent Book Company, 1959. New York, A. &
C. Boni, 1925. The original French, Latin, and Italian
texts, with English translations and notes; illustrated
by portraits, maps and facsimiles.
 Contains descriptions of Native
American life and culture
The Jesuit Relations
 The labors of the Jesuits among the tribes to which they were sent
are best told in their own words. Each year the head of the Jesuit
order in New France received from each of the missions under his
jurisdiction a report of the year’s activities, and such information
concerning the native people as had been gathered by the
industrious fathers.
 These were gathered together into the RELATION for that year and
forwarded to the mother house in Paris, together with sundry other
documents relating to Jesuit activities in New France—special
reports, letters, from members of the Society visiting various
missions, etc.
 In Paris the RELATIONS were promptly published by a French
printer. The 73 volumes, covering the years 1601-1791, comprise the
basic sources for the history of that period and the ethnography of
the area, which included such key tribes as the Iroquois, the
Montagnais, the Huron, the Ottawa, the Ojibwa, and , in the later
period, the Illinois, the Arkansas, and the Natchez.
Who are Jesuits?
 The Society of Jesus is a Christian male religious
order of the Roman Catholic Church. The members
are called Jesuits. With the discovery and
colonization of New France during the 17th century,
the Society of Jesus and the Jesuits played an active
role in Canada.
New France, in Blue
Paul Le Juene
 Le Juene was the head of
Jesuit missions at Quebec
during the early years of
exploration. His
RELATIONS are
compilations from reports
from outlying stations, and
include his own researches.
The contain the fullest and
earliest accounts of the
Northern tribes. In his own
investigations Le Juene,
used Indian converts to
interpret and explain
Indian life
Journals of Lewis and Clark
 Lewis and Clark traveled to the Pacific coast in 1805-
1806 and on their way encountered many Native
tribes.
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Lewis
Clark
George Catlin
 George Catlin (July 26, 1796 –
December 23, 1872) was an
American painter, author and
traveler who specialized in
portraits of Native Americans
in the Old West.
Catlin, George. Sketching up the Missouri
River in 1832
 “Contents quoted from George Catlin's writings,
notes and sketches in the Gilcrease Institute
Library."
North American Indians
 Catlin, George. North American Indians New
York : Viking, 1989. NA 978.00497 C28N
From 1831 to 1837, George Catlin traveled
extensively among the native peoples of North
America....Studying their habits,
customs, and modes of life, he made
copious notes and numerous sketches
of ceremonies, buffalo hunts,
symbols, and totems.
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 Catlin's unprecedented fieldwork culminated in
more than five hundred oil paintings and his nowlegendary journals. This one-volume edition of
Catlin's journals, edited by Peter Matthiessen and
illustrated with more than fifty reproductions of
Catlin's incomparable paintings, brings the Native
Americans of the nineteenth century vividly to life.
Catlin, George. Episodes from Life among
the Indians, and Last rambles.
 University of Oklahoma Press, 1959
George Catlin ; with 152 scenes and ports. by the
artist ; edited by Marvin C. Ross.
History of the Indian Tribes of the United
States 1857
 This book was written by
Henry R. Schoolcraft, an
American geographer,
geologist, and ethnologist,
noted for his early studies
of Native American cultures.
 This book was published by
order of the United States
Congress. It contains the history, religion and culture
of Indian Tribes of North America.
Mary and I: Forty years with the Sioux
 By Stephen Return Riggs (March 23, 1812 –
August 24, 1883) who was a Christian missionary
and linguist who lived and worked among the
Dakota people from 1837 to 1877.
Early Western Travels
 Early western travels, 1748-1846; a series of
annotated reprints of some of the best and
rarest contemporary volumes of travel,
descriptive of the aborigines and social and
economic conditions in the middle and far
West, during the period of early American
settlement. 32 volumes. Originally published in
1904, reprinted in 1966
Bancroft's Works 1884
 This is a 39 volume set of the works of Hubert Howe
Bancroft, a successful San Francisco businessman, who
turned historian, and produced histories of Central
America, Mexico, California, Nevada, Colorado,
Wyoming, Utah, Northwest Coast, Oregon, Washington,
Idaho, Montana, British Columbia, and Alaska.
 He employed as many as 50 researchers at a time to do
the research for his works. He published all of them in
the period between 1884 and 1890. He sold the entire set
as a collection called Bancroft's Works. (information on
Bancroft found in American National Biography,
Volume 2 p99-100
Bancroft's Works 1884
 The only one of the 39 volumes
that will be useful for this class
is Volume 1, which is called
Native Races: the Wild Tribes,
published in 1883.
 He divides the tribes into
 Hyperboreans Alaska
Bancroft's Works 1884
 He divides the tribes into
 Hyperboreans (Alaska, Eskimos)
 Columbians (British Columbia,
Washington, Oregon)
 California
 New Mexicans (Apache, Pueblos,
Comanche, Navajos)
 He discusses the culture of each tribal group
The North American Indian 1908
 This 20-volume set describes
the culture, mythology,
customs of the Indian tribes
in the first decade of the
twentieth century.
The North American Indian 1908
 It was written by Edward S.
Curtis, and contains a forward
by Theodore Roosevelt.
Field research was done under
the patronage of J.P. Morgan.
There are photographs of
Indians, their homes, pottery,
clothes, etc. It is arranged by
tribe.
George Curtis
 Edward Curtis spent thirty
years wandering around the
West taking pictures of the
Native peoples. Many of his
pictures are reproduced in
the following volume.
Barrett, Carole A, and Markowitz, Harvey J., eds.
Edward Sheriff Curtis: Visions of a Vanishing
Race
New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1976
Origins of Native Americans
Where did the Native American come from?
 Origins of the Native Americans relate to their
religion
 There have been many people who have developed
theories of Native American Origins
The first Americans : race, evolution, and
the origin of Native Americans
 The first Americans : race, evolution, and the
origin of Native Americans by Powell, Joseph
F.
 The Settlement of the Americas: A New
Perspective
Bancroft's Works
 Volume 5 is Called Native Races: Primitive History
 Contains many different views or theories as to the
origins of Native Americans
The Book of Mormon
 The Book of Mormon
 This is an account of the religious and some secular
history of the ancient peoples that lived in the
Americas, including a visit of Jesus Christ to the
ancient American peoples. This book claims that the
ancient inhabitants of America came here by boat
from the Middle East and developed great
civilizations in America before being destroyed. This
book also claims that the some of the ancient people
living in the Americas are the ancestors of the
American Indians.
More Recent Works on Native
Americans
ENCYCLOPEDIAS AND DICTIONARIES
American Indian Religious Traditions:
An Encyclopedia 2005
 NA R 299.703 C85A
This work was created to "compile
a set of articles that would help to
define the academic study of
American Indian religious tradition
as it is undertaken at the beginning
of the twenty-first century. It is a
work in which Native Americans
present their religious traditions.
 Articles on Native religious leaders,
Ceremony and Ritual of various tribes,
Law and native religion, Native American Church
Encyclopedia of Native American
Religions. Facts on File, (2000)
 This encyclopedia fills a gap in materials on Native
American religions. This encyclopedia contains an
alphabetical list of Indian religious
terms, places, people, ceremonies,
customs, and artifacts supreme
court cases, major acts of
Congress that have an impact on
Native American religion.
The Gale Encyclopedia of Native
American Tribes (1998).
 NA R 970.103 R25e6
Covering almost 400 North American tribes, each
essay contains information on both the historical and
contemporary issues for the tribe.
 All entries begin with an introduction about the
tribal roots, historic and current location, population
data, and language family. This is followed by
segments covering the history, religious beliefs,
language, buildings, means of subsistence, clothing,
healing practices, customs, oral literature, and
current tribal issues.
Native Peoples A to Z (2009)
 A Reference guide to native peoples of the Western
Hemisphere, including Central and South America
 Contains histories of each tribe,
including tribal culture
 There are also articles on Native
art, culture, basket weaving in
general
The Golden Age of American Anthropology
 NA 572.9701 M46G
 by Margaret Mead
New York : G. Braziller, 1960.
 Profiles the main people involved in
the anthropological study of Native
Americans from the Spanish conquest
of Mexico to the mid twentieth century
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Margaret Mead
The Mound builders: Ancient Peoples of
Eastern North America
Native American Mythology
Native American Myth0logy
 Much of Native American mythology is closely tied to
the religions of Native Americans
 So resources on Mythology are
included
American Indian Myths and Legends
This anthology published in 1984 contains myths and tales
about:
 The creation of humans
 the creation of the world
 tales of the sun, moon and stars
 tales of monsters and heroes
 tales of love
 trickster tales
 tales of animals.
 Tales of ghosts and spirits
 Tales of the end of the world
Mythology of the American Nations
 This is an illustrated encyclopedia of the gods,
heroes, spirits, sacred places, rituals and ancient
beliefs of the North American Indian, Inuit, Aztec,
Inca, and Maya Nations.
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Coyote and Opossum appear in the stories of a
number of tribes.
Symbols of Native America 1999.
 Symbols in Native American culture have deep
spiritual meaning, and this book discusses the
meaning behind the symbols used in Native culture.
 The Ancient Americans: A Reference Guide
to the Art, Culture, and History of PreColumbian North and South America
Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2001.
NA R 970.01 SCH6A
This book was translated from the Spanish version
written by Dr. Juan Schobinger, Professor of
Archaeology and Prehistory at the University of Cuyo
in Mendoza, Argentina.
Native American Medicine
Encyclopedia of Native American Healing
 NA R 615.8820899703 L99EN
 New York : W.W. Norton,
1998, c1996.
Encyclopedia of Native American
Shamanism
 This encyclopedia is a companion to Encyclopedia of
Native American Healing
American Indian Medicine
 By Virgil J. Vogel NA 615.89097 V86A
 Norman, University of Oklahoma Press [1970]
Books
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http://libguides.se.edu/nativereligion
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Databases
 Academic Search Complete
 Bibliography of Native North Americans
 JSTOR
To access this information:
 Go to
 http://libguides.se.edu/nativereligion