Native Americans and Christianity

Presbyterian missionary Kate McBeth and her Nez Perce Students

When European settlers started coming to the New World, they brought with them Christianity. The native peoples they encountered, however, already had their own religions. Christianity was very different from the religions of the Natives. Native religions were tied to the land; beliefs and practices were centered around the plants, animals, climate, and landscape of each specific region. This was very different from Christianity, a “portable” religion, which could be practiced by anyone, anywhere (Martin, 16).

The Native Americans had varied reactions to their exposure to Christianity; some embraced it, finding Christianity more fulfilling than their native religion. As Piumbukhou, a converted Indian, said in a  dialogue, "Our joys in the knowledge of God, and of Jesus Christ, which we are taught in the Book of God, and feel in our heart, is sweeter to our soul, than honey is unto the mouth and taste" (Eliot).

Some Indians even went so far as to become Christian missionaries. Catharine Brown was a Cherokee Indian who was raised in a Christian boarding school. She left her family, who didn't understand her passion for Christianity, so that she could stay with the missionaries she lived with there, and became a teacher and missionary, eventually converting many Native Americans including her family members (Martin, 67-68).



Enmegahbowh, the first Native American Episcopal priest.

Other Native Americans were forced to convert to Christianity, or converted for the economic and social benefits that Christianity allowed. They were sometimes even threatened with the death sentence for not accepting Christianity (Zimmerman & Molyneaux, 26).

Yet many Indians, however, rejected Christianity for their Native beliefs. In Zitkala-Sa's article "Why I Am a Pagan," published in the Atlantic Monthly in 1992, she writes about her experience with a Native Christian preacher: "I listen with respect for God's creature, though he mouths most strangely the jangling phrases of a bigoted creed" (Seelye & Littleton, 407).


Bibliography
Eliot, John. A Dialogue Between Piumbukhou and His Unconverted Relatives. 1671.

Martin, Joel W. Native American Religion. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Presbyterian Missionary Kate McBeth and Nez Perce Students. Digital image. Canton Asylum For Insane Indians. N.p., 8 July 2012. Web. 28 May 2014. <cantonasylumforinsaneindians.com>.
Enmegabowh. Digital image. For All the Saints. N.p., 12 June 2013. Web. 27 May 2014. <http://forallsaints.wordpress.com/>

Seelye, James E., and Steven A. Littleton. Voices of the American Indian Experience. Santa Barbara, California: Greenwood, 2013.

Zimmerman, Larry J., and Brian L. Molyneaux. Native North America. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2000.

Origin

Creation Stories 

Creation stories helped the Native Americans depict an origin for everything. This was the Natives' way of explaining how and why things came to be. These stories offer important information about a culture's values. There are also different creation stories for each tribe. 

Native American creation myths
http://www.crystalinks.com/creationativeam.html

For example, the Haudenosaunee Creation of the Iroquois. The Iroquois people were also known as Sky people, inhabitants of Sky World. A large tree grew through the Sky World, holding it together. Sky Women was born and later married the Ancient. She was with child. Some stories say that she gave birth to her daughter in the Sky world and then went to earth. Others say that she gave birth to her on earth. Then the world began to take shape (Johansen, 4-5).

Sky Woman
http://www.tinasdynamichomeschool.com/iroquoisconfederacy.htm

Another creation story comes from the Apache. The wold started out with four peopling working on the land. They pulled four pieces of earth off and made into four feet, to keep the earth sturdy. After Black Wind Old Man and Black Water Old Man tested the earth, it was finally strong enough. Then the four people made "hair" for the earth with grass, bushes, shrubs, and trees. They made rocky mountains for bones. Then Black Thunder whipped the earth, causing water to come pouring out, so that earth could breathe. Then the four people adjusted the moon and the sun until it was just right. Finally, "this was the way they made earth for us" (Seelye and Littleton, 10).

Out of all the very different tribes and their very different creation stories, they all describe the beginning of earth. All of the stories tie into nature, which relates back to the religion of the Native Americans. 

Conception of Earth

Most Native Americans believe that the earth was the middle layer of a multilayered world. There is a watery underworld and a sky realm. There is also a pathway connecting the different levels. This pathway is said to be a tree that humans and spirits can pass travel by (Jordan).



Bibliography
Johansen, Bruce E.  The Native Peoples of North America: A History. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2007.

Seelye, James E., and Steven A. Littleton. Voices of the American Indian Experience. Santa

Barbara, California: Greenwood, 2013.

Jordan, Keith. “Religion and Cosmology in the Ancient Americas,” accessed May 16, 2014, http://online.infobaselearning.com/HistoryDatabaseSearch.aspx

Native American Creation Myths. Digital image. <http://www.crystalinks.com/creationativeam.html>
Sky Woman. Digital image.  <http://www.tinasdynamichomeschool.com/iroquoisconfederacy.htm>

Practices

Rituals

Native Americans believed that ceremonies and daily rituals were apart of their very own being. They embraced ceremonies and rituals as a way to conquer the difficulties of daily life. However, practices differed from tribe to tribe. Most tribes' religions were based on animism. Animism was a belief that the universe and all natural objects have souls or spirits.

For example, the North American Plains Tribes, was focused on establishing a divine connection to achieve spiritual guidance. In these tribes, there is a complex idea that there are several controlling powers. The Sun is said to be the highest rank. The ideal is for all men to establish a direct relation with a divine element or power. After going through the correct steps, the power the man is looking for should appear in a human or animal form. Say the man found his connection with a hawk, then he would carry feathers around with him for spiritual guidance wherever and whenever needed. These sacred objects needed to be cared for, according to spiritual instructions (Jordan).

Some tribes also participate in self-torture. One specific example from the Plains tribes is known as the sun dance. This ceremony is done to pray for the renewal of the people and the earth, give thanks, or other religious purposes. The sun dance reinforced values for the Native Americans, such as bravery, generosity, and honesty (Hirschfelder and Molin, 289).

The Sun Dance painted by George Catlin
http://www.warpaths2peacepipes.com/native-american-symbols/sun-symbol.htm

The Ghost Dance was a Native American practice that rose in response to the actions of white men. Beginning in 1889 with the Lakotas, the Ghost Dance was a dance in which people danced around a pole or tree, hoping to reunite themselves with their deceased ancestors and “reverse a dreadful history” of European abuse (Martin, 99). This dance was performed for five days at a time (Hirschfelder and Molin, 100).

Ghost Dance
http://www.legendsofamerica.com/na-ghostdance.html

There were also shamans, or ritual practitioners who can travel to spirit worlds above and below the earth. Some may have used hallucinogens or smoked tobacco. They smoked the tobacco through pipes that would said to be able to suck spirits. With this ability to go to different spirt worlds, the shaman contacted and controlled nature spirits and spirits of the dead. They made these connections in order to cure illnesses, predict the further, and get good hunting results (Jordan). Shaman are thought to be able to associate themselves with guardian spirits. They usually connected with the guardian spirits by animal form who helped them perform magic. The shaman are also said to receive dreams or visions that give them an experience of sacred knowledge. Since shaman are very powerful beings, they are sometimes viewed as witches. The role of a shaman also varies from tribe to tribe (Hirschfelder and Molin, 265). 

Female shaman from Clayoquot region
http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/ethnobotany/Mind_and_Spirit/shamans.shtml

Bibliography
Jordan, Keith. “Religion and Cosmology in the Ancient Americas,” accessed May 16, 2014, http://online.infobaselearning.com/HistoryDatabaseSearch.aspx
Hirschfelder and Molin. Encyclopedia of Native American Religions. New York: Facts on File Books, 2000.
Martin, Joel W. Native American Religion. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Catlin, George. Digital image. The Sun Dance. <http://www.warpaths2peacepipes.com/native-american-symbols/sun-symbol.htm>
Ghost dance. Digital image. <http://www.legendsofamerica.com/na-ghostdance.html>
Curtis, Edward. Digital image. Female shaman. <http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/ethnobotany/Mind_and_Spirit/shamans.shtml>