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Native American Spirituality
Native American Spirituality refers to the teachings, traditions, rituals and stories of the First Peoples of North America. As these teachings vary, between Peoples, generic answers sometimes can be misleading and answers should refer to the teachings of a particular People or group of Peoples whenever possible.
383 Questions
What does the cheyenne tribe wear?
Cheyenne men of the early 1800s wore tanned leather breechclouts, long at front and back, with thigh-length legging with triangular flaps each side decorated with shells, deer hooves and fringes. The inside face of these flaps was painted red or orange.
No shirts at all were worn before contact with explorers; then they adopted very long shirts of mountain sheep, deer or antelope skins, often painted yellow and heavily fringed.
Women originally wore a simple dress of two skins with removable sleeves. Later they wore two-skin or three-skin dresses typical of all Plains tribes, with animal legs hanging from the sleeves and an unusual amount of fringe. Elk teeth were sewn on in rows, so many that a single dress might weigh 10 or 12 pounds. Dresses were often painted yellow, a favourite colour of the Cheyenne. Leggings were short and decorated with fringes and yellow paint; sometimes they were sewn to the moccasins to form "boots".
After about 1820 hard-soled moccasins were made with or without ankle flaps, often with two tails of leather at the heels.
Robes of tanned deer, elk or buffalo hide were worn in cool weather.
Men wore their hair stiffened and brushed up at the front, or long and loose, or braided on one side, or with a kind of cascade falling to one side of the face. Women wore their hair in two braids doubled up and fastened behind the head or behind each ear, or loose and flowing. No headbands were worn.
A few warriors wore the Sioux-style feather warbonnet, the straight-up warbonnet (like the Blackfoot version) or a headdress of buffalo horns. Some wore the skins of animals wrapped around the head like a turban but most wore no headgear.
See links below for images:
The earliest knowledge regarding Shamanism comes from Russian anthropologists when they studied tribal nomadic herders in Siberia in the 19th century. Their detailed descriptions of the spiritual practitioners the tribesmen called Shamans, led to the term being continued by anthropologists and historians.
A wonderful book detailing the origins of this, and other primitive practises, is Dawn Behind the Dawn: A Search for the Earthly Paradise, by Geoffrey Ashe.
Who is the plains Indians' god?
The Plains Indians followed no single religion. Animist religion was an important part of a Great Plains Indians' life, as they believed that all things possessed spirits. Their worship was centered on one main god, in the Sioux language Wakan Tanka(the Great Spirit). The Great Spirit had power over everything that had ever existed, and the Plains Indians believed that by worshiping him they would become stronger. Earth was also quite important, as she was the mother of all spirits. Spirits were worshiped daily. People sometimes prayed alone, while other times there were group gatherings. The most important group ceremony was the Sun Dance, in which participants danced for four days around a sacred object, and some would inflict harm upon themselves on purpose, all while staring at the sun. They believed this self-sacrifice would encourage powerful spirits to support and defend them.
Pow wows mean to gather together. They can be celebration specific, for example a harvest gathering or they can be held because it is the most convenient time for people to get together. Sometimes it is simply the best time to have a fundraiser. For example a local college may sponsor a pow wow at the beginning of Homecoming week to earn money for scholarships for American Indian students.
American Indian beliefs are as varied as the tribes themselves. There was no "one-size fits all" religion. Each tribe, and oftimes each clan, had their own spiritual belief system as well as their own celebrations and ceremonies. As a very general rule, most honored Creator and His worlds. Those worlds included the spiritual world, the physical world and the animal world, all of which are intricately interconnected.
What were the spiritual beliefs of the maliseet Indians?
In Mi;kmaq tradition, Kisu'lk pronounced gee-soolg is the one who made everything. Sometimes Kisu'lk is referred to as Kji Niskam (Jee nis-gam), or the Great Spirit. Neither word implies gender, because it is not important whether the Great Spirit is a he or a she.
The Mi'kmaq people do not explain how the Great Spirit came into existence, only that Creator is responsible for everything being where it is today.
Every person has their own spiritual path. Many Mi'kmaq have a spirit name and a spirit guide. Once you know these things you become aware of both their role in your life as well as your role in this particular life. It brings meaning to your existence.
Your spirit name was given to you the moment your spirit came into being and follows you from life to life and is known in the spirit world.
Spirit Guides are animal spirits, the Bear (Muin) or the Moose (Tiam) or maybe a bird like the Eagle (Kitpu) or the Owl (Kokokwes). Each spirit has with it certain traits and strengths, and those of your personal guide are the best for your needs while you are here. Once you have learned to acknowledge and listen your Spirit Guide, it is much easier to stay on your path.
Did the Shawnee Indians believe in God?
Yes they did Answer: The Shawnee did not believe in the Christian God before contact with Europeans. They had their own pantheon of gods and goddesses with their own areas of specialization. Post contact there may have been several adoptions of deities roles and responsibilities.
The Shawnees have unique belief among the Algonquin peoples in believing that creator was a woman called "Kokumthena"(Our Grandmother). She is human like female with gray hair whose size ranges from gigantic to very small. Creation wasn't her idea but was assigned to her by "Moneto". Her job is not finished as she also gets to end the world when it is time. She is the most important figure in Shawnee religion. This belief in a female creator/destroyer may have developed after 1824, some studies indicate she may have been patterned after the Virgin Mary. The Supreme Being is Moneto. He gets to reward and punish folks who earn his favour or annoy him.
The "Great Sprit" is ruler of destinies, who is subordinate to Moneto. The "Great Spirit" lives in a home in the sky.
There is alway a "devil". For the Shawnee there is is a great white spirit who will try to change the creator's designs and shorten the years of the Shawnees, and The Great Horned Serpent who will come from the sea to destroy the Shawnees. The serpent is a common motif to the Great Lakes tribes.
A demi-god called Misignwa parallels T'sonoqua of the British Columbia tribes. He/she is a protector of the woods and animals (and an eater of children)
There are three weather controlling gods:
* Cyclone Person, a female face with braids of hair that cause tornadoes.
* The four winds
* The Thunderbirds which cause storms and lightening. They also serve as war totems
A sage ceremony is great cleansing ritual and fairly simple to perform. You can purchase sage wands at your local or online occult supply stores and are fairly inexpensive. Light the end of a wand until it begins to smoke. Then walk the area of each room of your home starting and ending at the same point (doorway, etc.) in the manner similar to a church elder censing his altar. You may also want to check out your local book store for a ritual suited to your religious preferences as to how to prepare or how to pray during the ritual to fine tune it to your needs.
What was the faith of the irquois Indians?
The spiritual world of the Iroquois included many beliefs and deities. The Great Spirit was one of the most important.
Native Americans had no concept or word for 'religion' until the Europeans got involved. What the white men saw as religion is a natural way of life for the Native American.
Only the Europeans felt the need to convert. Native Americans did not fight or kill over spiritual beliefs.
What are some Native American religions?
Spiritual beliefs were as varied as their tribes and sometimes even the clans within the tribes. Many tribes were monotheist (believing in one God), while some others believed in more than one. Most tribes celebrated the earth and all she had to give, including the animals.
What are the anasazi religious beliefs?
==== people came forth onto the earth via a sipapu or hole in the ground near the Grand Canyon. ==== After analyzing the religious symbols found on rocks or pottery and the distribution of ceremonial structures, some archeologists now think that the Anasazi may have been influenced into leaving their homeland by the pull of a new religion. One possibility is the Kachina religion with its masks and dolls that still survive today. Unlike many of the secret organizations in the modern pueblos, the Kachina societies, in which spirits of dead ancestors acted as intermediaries to the gods, were open to everyone, so some archeologists think that this spirit of equality would have had an appeal to a civilization like the Anasazi's that was entering a dark age. Anthropologists studying 20th-century pueblos have found a mix of secret societies co-existing with the more recent Kachina religion. There are hunt societies, medicine societies and societies of sacred clowns. In addition, pueblos are often divided into two factions, called the summer and winter or the squash and turquoise people. Anthropologists are fairly sure that these new organizations were not imported by the Anasazi, but sprang up sometime after their arrival.
What did mohawk indians believe in?
they belived that everything had a spirit such as living being and even rocks, plants, etc.
What is the Chickasaw religious belief?
The Chickasaw and Choctaw were once the same people before they split into two separate tribes. Traditionally they were Sun Worshipers. Today most are Christian.
It is theorized that the earliest knowledge regarding Shamanism comes from Russian anthropologists when they studied tribal nomadic herders in Siberia in the 19th century. Their detailed descriptions of the spiritual practitioners the tribesmen called Shamans, led to the term being continued by anthropologists and historians.
Knowledge has since come to light which has furthered the study of the history of Shamanism, some of which is discussed below, and in the book Dawn Behind the Dawn: A Search for the Earthly Paradise, by Geoffrey Ashe.
Answer 2:
Although Shamanism is recognized worldwide among earth-cultures, shamanism remains a great mystery for most people. Natural energies are all around us--we humans have simple gotten away--too, too far away--from listening to these energies. Tantra and other disciplines help reawaken our sleeping or dormant mind to these energies and how to join with them incooperative effort.
Shamanism is shown to ahve it's roots in the mythos and magik of the Cro-magnon peoples of europe=--amply demonstrated in the cave paintings all over europe. Richard leakey's "Origins" and his subsequent "Origins Reconsidered" sheds new light on shamanisms' origins, functions and the new meanings this gives to old 'evidence' not before taken into consideration. Much of this work centers on comparative studies with current tribal peoples in Africa and the evidence derived from archaeological resources old and new.
For a really good understanding of what shamanism is about, see the terrific move "Phenomenon" with John Travolta.
Shamanisn started as a quest to provide deeper understandings of the natural world for us ill-equipped human beings. Their belief systems functioned in harmony with the natural world, sought a sense of security and predictability for the ill-prepared human beingsthrough intercessors who spoke with or communed with spirits of the elemental world around them.
A significant portion of shamanism is the cyclic nature ofour world--season follows season, migratory animals follow their respective trails, the heavens above turn across the night skiesand sink beneath the horizon only to reappear the next night. Wind moves in its greatest force in a circle--tornadoes; birds build circular nests; from dust to dust the cycle continues, and all its energies can be 'listened to', acted in concert with, and results shared...
The most remote and inaccessible of tiny chambers wherein many single or small groupings of effigy carvings/paintings are found present in some cases with theinability for the artist to even see his own handiwork. There are cases shown where the last possible distance one could reach into, even by only an arm or hand, was the desired location. The animal effigies carved there were 'planted' into the earth to prosper the species, a seed placed into a sacred womb, mother earth herself!
Other larger chambers were specifically chosen for their accuostic resonance--a perfect setting for large groups to partake in shamanistic ceremonies wherein the rockwall itself, covered in paintings, becomes the doorway between two worlds with the shaman operating in both at once. Healing, death, birth and 'running interference' for the hunt, the harvest, etc., against malevolent spirits are but some of the functions a shaman would perform.
There are specific geometric patternings relavant to each of three progressive stages of ssc (shamanic state of consciousness)--again, see Richard Leakey's "Origins Reconsidered" for a much more on the matter.
Answer 3
Please read Richard Leakeys "Origins Reconsidered"--his work puts a whole new look on the origins of shamanism, and brings the practice much further back than Geoffrey Ashe's work.
Answer 4:
Apparently the other responder is thinking only of when the word 'shaman' was adopted.
Ashes' work is already outdated by Leakeys' "Origins Reconsidered"--comparisons between current shamanistic cultures and the Cro-Magnon peoples' cave paintings reveal the practice to date significantly further back than 19th century nomadic herders.
To wit: How could the basic practices and principles of shamanism have become world-wide ony SINCE the 19th century? Not possible--shamanism was/is practiced by every prehistoric culture on earth, so it isn't possible for nomadic herders to have traveled the globe to spread this practice since the 19th century.
What gods did the coastal Indians worship?
The Native People of the Southwest are not one people. They have different languages, cultures, history and religion and philosophy. I understand that some schools teach about Native people by grouping them in geographic culture areas but this causes a confusion about the actual people. Just one example, the Navajo and the Hopi speak languages as different as Turkish and English. The Hopi live in villages and the Navajo live spread out in family groups. They both grow corn but the Navajo raised sheep. The Hopi have been in the area for a very long time, the Navajo are thought to have moved there about 900-1100 years ago. Their belief systems are very different.
I will discuss the Navajo a little because I know the most about them and lived there. The first thing is that the Navajo are not in the past, the traditional ceremonies are practiced today. There are a number of beings, sometimes translated as "gods". Changing Woman is one of the most important. Others are often translated as the Holy People. The are also the spiritual beings inside the four sacred mountains and two center mountains and many others. Almost any natural feature has spiritual beings inside, often they come in pairs and many times they are male and female. First Man and First Woman have important roles in the creation stories. Changing Woman's twin sons also have important roles.
The Navajo don't "worship" them. They have ceremonies and prayers that enlist the gods powers to bring and person, family, house, clan, and the world back into beauty and harmony. For the Navajo the central philsophical concept is Hózhǫ́ . Roughly, it means beauty and harmony, peace, balance, happiness and contentment, wholeness, goodness and health and dynamic symmetry. In Navajo thought all these concepts are tied together in one idea. It is also an every day word. You can say: I am Hózhǫ́" and it means "I am happy", it also means " I am in a state of beautiful balance.
K'e is also important. It means the proper interrelationships between family and clan and living things. This includes called the Holy People. Ceremonies include prayer, song, ritual movement, oral and mythic history, dance, herbs, sandpaintings and many other elements. The leader is like a preist. He must do the ceremony exactly as he learned it or it won't work or he even could get sick. He is called a hataałii, which translates as chanter or singer. The ceremonies last form one to nine days and most take place at least in part inside a hogan. There are about 60 ceremonial "chantways. Most hataałii have spent many years to learn tow or three. The Navajo traditional religion and philosophy is still actively practiced today on the Navajo nation which has 300,000 members.
What gods did the Yurok Indians worship?
The religion of the Yurok people was based on individual effort through ritual cleanliness and rituals including the entire tribe. In accordance to Es Curtis, author of The North American Indian, “Yurok religious practices are founded on the belief that ages ago the earth was inhabited by a race of prenaturals in human form.” The Yurok’s practice the annual World Renewal Ceremonies. The purpose of the rituals was to renew the world or “firm the earth”, as the tribe described it. This ritual included recitation of magical formulas, by repeating the words of an ancient spirit race and other acts. Most of these rituals were considered to have connection with medicine. Medicine included not only that which was administered to cure sickness, but anything; root, herb, stick, or bark that is used in formula form. This power was restricted to women, giving them prestige and a source of wealth.
What does a dream catcher symbolize?
The hoop of the traditional Dreamcatcher represents the circle of life.
Decorated with bits and pieces of everyday life and hung in the sleeping area the dreamcatcher has the power to catch one's dreams and filter out the bad one's only allowing the good dreams to pass through. These good dreams slide down the soft feather making no sound and often without the dreamer knowing they are there. The bad dreams do not know this way and are forever caught in the web.
What happens in the shamanism religion after you die?
1.) There is no such thing as a 'shamanism religion'. Shamanism is a type of tribal faith system. Similar terms in the context of categorisation are monotheism, polytheism, and animism. It is a kind of religion, not a specific religion.
2.) Stop reading books published by Llewellyn Publications. They will rot your mind.
Where are the 7 cities of gold?
The Seven "Cibola" or cities of gold were supposedly the following:
El Dorado: Made famous by the eye whiteness accounts of Juan Rodriguez Troxell and other early Spanish explorers.
Quiviria: Described to Conquistador Francisco Vazquez De Coronado by the pueblos Turk as being "On the other side of the great plains"
Trapalanda: (Also called Elelin) Somewhere in Patagonia according to legend
Antillia: supposedly an island in the Atlantic west of Portugal
Manoa: Some South American natives told European explorers that their gold jewelry came from a place called Manoa.
Paititi: Somewhere in the Amazon Rain forest along with Manoa.
La Canelia: Located in what Christopher Columbus called "The Valley Of Cinnamon"
None of these locations have ever been found by modern explorers and/or confirmed to exist.
What did the shoshone Indians look like?
Facially, Teton Sioux women in the 1800s looked almostthe same as they do today (the difference being eyebrows - see below). They generally wore their hair in two braids which hung down the front of the shoulders, with the hair parting painted red for women who had reached puberty. They generally have round faces and high cheekbones, very black, straight hair and skin like polished copper.
Before traders brought blankets, trade cloth and ready-made dresses, they wore long dresses of elk or deerskins, often with an added yoke section at the top which was decorated with beadwork or dyed porcupine quills. Moccasins and short beaded leggings completed the outfit. Long "hair pipe" necklaces were favoured by Sioux women - these were originally of bone. They also wore earrings and chokers of dentalium shells.
All 19th century Sioux men and women, like most native Americans, removed all facial hair including the eyebrows, at first using freshwater clam shells and later metal tweezers obtained in trade. This is one feature of native culture that is no longer seen in North America - and an obvious error in all Hollywood movies depicting Plains Indians (next time you see "Dances With Wolves", count the eyebrows).
The links below take you to images of Teton Sioux women taken in the 19th century - note that not one has any eyebrows.
What are the Kiowa's religion?
Kiowa religion was very similar to that of the Crows of Montana. They venerated the Sun (pAe), mother Earth, the Pleiades, Coyote, the Whirlwind and various minor spirits such as buffalo, bear and golden eagle. There does not appear to be an overall main god, just as among the Crows.
Sendeh or Sainday was a culture hero or trickster figure in many Kiowa tales and myths. Special powers were credited to a sacred effigy called the taime (pronounced tie-may), as well as medicine bundles with curative or protective powers, or special power as war medicines.
The taime was protected by a series of priests/medicine men and kept secure in a special tipi; it was brought out for display at certain ceremonies, guarded by 10 medicine-bundle owners. It took a central part in the Kiowa version of the Sun Dance ceremony and was referred to as "Our Grandfather".
