How is native American spirituality different than western conventional religious beliefs?

Answer 1

Native Americans are Animists. They are connected to Nature. Nothing is a coincidence. There are SIGNS in the way a tree branches, or an animal crosses a river. A songbird might well be a person (probably a dead person) visiting you. The Shaman is able to cross to the land of the dead and check up on how everyone's doing there, and bring the news back to the living. He dreams, and when he dreams he can metamorphosize. He could do something like open someone's laptop and read what's on it when in the shape of another creature, at night whilst he's dreaming. (More likely, steal a hunk of bread!) The truth is FELT and KNOWN and there's no point talking about it. Men sit together smoking the peace pipe which is a very big deal - what way the smoke blows. People who talk too much are kinda weird. Hunters are successful by treating the animals as if they are women they are pursuing and they communicate with the god of the species. Animals have all kinds of attributes. Eg. the Bear is considered to be like a human. The coyote is The Trickster - not as he seems. THere is absolute respect and re-payment for what is taken from Nature, and knowledge of cycles, seasons and the land, so there is sacrifice and thanks. There is no exclusive ownership of anything - things are borrowed and denote status whilst held. The SELF is therefore different. They are nomads and they are tribal. THis is all a description of how things were in the latter half of the 19th century. Things have very much changed. However, this is the sort of conceptual world they inhabited.