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>