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 Medicine Wheels abound on the Plains Quillwork medicine wheel Ojibwe lodge 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)see Edison 1894 film Bole-maru, California Pawnee ghost dance drum Wovoka with Plains delegation

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 cactus For a good history, see the Religious Movements page on NACReligious Movements page on NAC Peyote song: Primeaux and Mike

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 § 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 Eklutna (Alaska) Annual Powwow Crow Fair, Montana Gathering of Nations, Albuquerque