Native American Spirituality

[MrRING]

Are there any good sites that explain the different styles of indigenous American religions, like for example the difference in the religions of the Iroquoi as opposed to the plains tribes like Apache, things like that.

 

[inkedmagiclady]

For starters:

Native American Nations

Compact Histories

 

[lopaka]

might also try http://www.haskell.edu/archive/links.htm

 

[inkedmagiclady]

Mr. R.I.N.G.,

Were those links any help to you? If not, did you have a specific question in mind?

 

[MrRING]

Were those links any help to you? If not, did you have a specific question in mind?

There was much general information to be had (thanks for the links), but I did have a specific question. Often times, particularly in a "new age" context (or in pop culture generally), Native American myth seems to be reduced to a generic thing of a shaman who tells tales to live by or walks between dream and reality for his people, with a great sky father who oversees all, and the same general animal spirits doing good or bad (or being a "trickster", the ever-popular new age designation).

But it would seem like to me there must be more to the religions of North American Native peoples than that. Surely they didn't all have the exact same kind of shamen class, and hopefully they didn't all worship the same generic sky god (The Great Spirit)? I think the general idea might be coming from popular Western films that concentrate on the Plains tribes and their brand of religion, which makes sense for a desert setting but seems like it would exist the same in the wooded east.

In particular, I'm interested in the Eastern Tribes and early communications with and transcriptions of their beliefs, and perhaps if many of the groups have been able to mainain much of a tie to their original religious beliefs through years of oppression and subversion by Christian missionaries. Groups like Pocahontas's people (not sure on the tribe name), the Iroqoui Nation member states, Seminols, Cherokee... since the eastern tribes were destroyed & outcast before the plains were, does anybody even have a good idea about what the eastern belief systems were?

Were any tribes a matriarchy rather than a patriarchy? Did a lage tribe have a primary female deity (earth mother?)? What were some of the ideas about an afterlife that the eastern tribes had (hopefully not the pop culture "happy hunting grounds in the sky")? I think it would be an interesting subject.

 

[inkedmagiclady]

I wish I could help you there. I am no expert, but I can tell you from personal experience, you probably won't easily find that kind of information in print. I would guess that it does exist somewhere, but Native American belief systems mostly existed without the written word. If we are lucky, someone did write down the religious beliefs, but since the motivation for missionaries was to eliminate the indigenous traditions, it isn't likely. Also, what was written, was mostly biased. (The word "savage" was used a lot.)

Yes, people do have a good idea of what the beliefs were, though much of it was lost, as the languages were also oppressed. You are correct that the beliefs differed widely, and some did have a feminine "ruling" so to speak. Many Native Americans hold these traditional beliefs to be sacred, not for public view. Hence the difficulty in finding them. A book called "Black Elk Speaks" gives a description of the Lakhota practices and ceremonies, however I got the feeling in reading it that a LOT was left out, changed, or even deliberately inserted in order to prevent sacred ceremonial secrets from falling into the wrong hands. (Just my own feeling)

You might be able to find something when looking up:

The White Buffalo Calf Woman (Lakhota Tradition)
or
The Corn Maiden (Which I have heard as Plains and West Coast, but have not studied)

Coincidentally, I was surfing the net much earlier looking for something else the same day you asked for links, and had come across this one:

Powows.com

I am posting it because it may give you a good idea of how the Native American culture is today.

I have seen a great deal of serious effort to oppose the mixing of traditions with the New Age movement. Just because there are shamans who bring their practices into the mainstream, doesn't mean everyone is ok with it. There is an unspoken overtone of "Don't ask questions, you will find out what you need to know when and if you are supposed to know."

If you do come across something, even a good book, please share it with us.

 

[Anonymous]

This has raised an interesting point:

I've always felt that there's more to NAS than meets the eye.
There are many similarities between them and the general nature based pagan religions across the globe.

IIRC the Hopi have an oral tradition that tells of their journey into the continent via the Bering Straight, and that they were the mother race of the Native Americans.

I wonder whether the timeline matches the outflux from the Dravidian/Vedic Indus Valley, where it is believed by many to have formed the basis of Celtic thought in Europe and Hinduism in India?
What if a spur of this exodus moved up through the North East and carried the basics of this nature oriented way of thought across the Bering Straight with the Hopi, where it developed into the many tribal differences?

It's all just so much supposition of course, but I'd be interested to see if anyone else has any thoughts about this.

 

[hedgewizard1]

A good point of departure is "Man's Rise to Civilization" by Peter Farb. He illustrates some of the ineresting aspects of NA cultures.
A number of tribes were matrilineal, with inheritance following the mother. After all, the father could be in question but the identity of the mother is certainly know. Some of the Eastern cultures were patriarchal on the surface, but the women had final say in things. Very complex cultures.
As for the Hopi legends, there's some debate about some of the things attributed to the Hopi in recent years. However, we do know that modern man was roaming all over this part of the globe 12-13,000 years ago. There's Monte Verde in Patagonia, as well as some interesting finds here in Florida. Some of the springs here are dead, without any oxygen, and researchers have pulled up skulls with intact brains some 12,000 years old.

 

[Anonymous]

The Cherokee Indians were matriarchal and the women held the property in as much as property was owned. The man moved to her house and became part of her family. He had no say in the rearing of his own children. They were monotheistic. THe women assigned the chores and told everyone what to do. My daughter and I went to a traditional cherokee indian village this past fall it was very educational.

 

[Anonymous]

Wow.....

One of the things that really blows me away about the legends of some of the Northeastern tribes, are the comparisons with Norse legends.

One of the "trickster" characters from their legends is known as "Lox" and sometimes even as "Loki."
Under the name "Malsum" he is even the brother of the main "god", whose name escapes me at the moment. I think it may have been Kidgee Mainidu, or something similar, it's hard to remember as the names of the Amerindian "gods" were often spelled phonetically, and as such, were often spelled all ker-razy!

There are supposedly many correspondances with specific Norse legends and Algonquian legends, which isn't too surprising when you consider the fact that both groups had contact with Inuit tribes as well

Trace [Native Son] Mann

 

[inkedmagiclady]

There is also the "Heyoka" from the Lakota tradition.

 

[ramonmercado]

Dancing with a predatory wolf.

Las Vegas police have arrested a former actor who is accused of sexually assaulting young indigenous girls, according to police records.

Nathan Lee Chasing His Horse, who goes by the name of Nathan Chasing Horse, is suspected of being the leader of a cult known as The Circle.
Police have identified at least six alleged victims dating to the early 2000s. No lawyer has so far been allocated to him who could comment on his behalf.

The Associated Press reports that his home, which he is said to share with five wives, was raided on Tuesday following a months-long police investigation that began after they received a tip-off in October.

Chasing Horse had gained a reputation among indigenous tribes across the US and Canada as a medicine man who performed healing ceremonies and spiritual gatherings.

He is suspected of using his position as a healer to commit the abuse, which according to police documents is thought to have happened in multiple states - including Montana, South Dakota and Nevada - where Nathan Chasing Horse has lived for about a decade.

Some of his alleged victims are reported to have been as young as 13. One of his wives was allegedly offered to him as a "gift" when she was 15, while another became a wife after turning 16.

According to police, Chasing Horse was banished in 2015 from a reservation in Montana amid allegations of human trafficking.

During his time as an actor, he was best known for his role as the young Sioux tribe member Smiles a Lot in the Oscar-winning 1990 Kevin Costner film Dances With Wolves.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64478798

 

[ramonmercado]

More on the Chasing Horse Cult.

Nathan Chasing Horse trained his wives to use firearms – telling them to “shoot it out” with police officers if they ever tried to “break their family apart”, according to records.

If that failed, the Dancing With Wolves actor said they should take “suicide pills”, the papers, obtained by the Associated Press (AP), said.

The alleged abuse, which authorities say spanned two decades, led to the arrest of Chasing Horse on Tuesday after a months-long investigation by Las Vegas police.

He was held as he left the home he shares with his five wives in north Las Vegas.

Swat officers were seen outside the two-storey home as detectives searched inside. ...

At least two women told police Chasing Horse showed his wives a stash of “small white pills”, which he called “suicide pills”, at some point in 2019 or 2020. The women were instructed to “take a pill to kill themselves in the event he dies or law enforcement tries to break their family apart”, the warrant said. ...


https://www.breakingnews.ie/world/d...med-cult-against-police-officers-1427325.html

 

[Lb8535]

Don't you think this belongs in the "Frauds and Cons" thread, rather than in Native American Spirituality," which it is unrelated to?

 

[ramonmercado]

Don't you think this belongs in the "Frauds and Cons" thread, rather than in Native American Spirituality," which it is unrelated to?

It is related actually:

Chasing Horse had gained a reputation among indigenous tribes across the US and Canada as a medicine man who performed healing ceremonies and spiritual gatherings.

Conmen who use Christian/Hindu/Islamic religions as cover to prey on their victims are coveted in Threads in the Religions & Cults Forum.