Native American Tradition And Religion Essay -- essays research papers

Due to the wide range of habitats in North America, different native religions evolved to match the needs and lifestyles of the individual tribe. Religious traditions of aboriginal peoples around the world tend to be heavily influenced by their methods of acquiring food, whether by hunting wild animals or by agriculture. Native American spirituality is no exception. Traditional Lakota spirituality is a form of religious belief that each thing, plant and animal has a spirit. The Native American spirituality has an inseparable connection between the spirituality and the culture. One cannot exist without the other. The arrival of Europeans marked a major change on Native society and it’s spirituality. Native Americans have been fighting to keep their spiritual practices alive. Right from the beginning, Native American religious practices were misunderstood and forbidden. The United States government tried to force Christianity upon the Indians in a desperate attempt to destroy their traditions and to assimilate them into white Christian society. Many of the Native Americans were forcibly converted to Christianity. Some would agree that freedom of religion is one of America's most important laws. When it comes to Native Americans, however, freedom of religion was almost non-existent. Native Americans have had to struggle to survive in a country that has discriminated against them and persecuted them for hundreds of years. The tribes in North America just want one thing from the United States government and that is respect: of sacred sites, the sacramental use of peyote, and the use of eagle feathers and plants for cultural practices. The United States stole from the Indians in the past and has never kept promises they made to the Native Americans. The one aspect of the Indian’s lives that has kept them going has been their religion. The Native Americans will have to endlessly fight for complete freedom of religion and for respect. Many Native families today have been devoted Christians for generations. Others, particularly in the Southwest have retained their aboriginal traditions more or less intact. The Native American Church is a continuation of the ancient Peyote Religion combined with some teachings of traditional Christianity. Native American Church practices centre around the religious use of peyote, a small cactus which when eaten gives people a fee... ...ssion. It is often richly decorated. The bowl and stem are always stored separately with the stem facing east when not in use. At the end of the 19th century the Lakota people were fighting to maintain control of their way of life and their homelands. In the 20th century the Lakota were granted by the American Indian Religion Freedom Act of 1978 the right to preserve and protect their Lakota religious freedom. Prior to this the Lakota were forbidden to practice their spiritual beliefs. But even today we can see racism against Native American. But it is a topic that does not make the nightly news on regular bases and is of little concern to most. This attitude amazes me. How can we overlook a race that has been on this continent far longer than anyone else. Native Americans are the part of our history and culture. Reference: http://home.istar.ca/~whatsup/sundance.htm http://www.digiserve.com/gaia/articles/saced_pipe.html http://tradecorridor.com/rosebud/spirit.htm http://www.religioustolerance.org/nataspir.htm http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgibin/browse-mixed?id=SchSiou&tag=public&images=images/modeng&data=/lv1/Archive/eng-parsed http://www.csp.org/nicholas/A57.html