Redskin religion

[ArmsMerchant]

Okay, jackketch, you asked for it.

There is no such thing as a monolithic Native American (yeah, I dislike the phrase myself) religion--the 600 or so existing tribes at the time of the European invasion all had different religions. There was one concept which seems almost universal among indigenous peoples, that being animism--the idea that everything has a soul. In the words of a poem from Chuckchee (a tribe in Siberia) shamanism,"Everything that is, is alive." This produced a sort of unity consciousness--as in the Lakota phrase, "All our relations." That is, two-leggeds, four-leggeds, and all were related and all deserved respect. However, this unity consciousness did not seem to extend to other Indians--as far as I know, there was no generic word in any Indian language for "Indian" -- most used a word that is translated as "enemy" or "stranger". The Urantia Book wisely observed that we might have fought off the invaders if it had not been for our "lamentable tendency" to fight among ourselves.

(True unity consciousness has been described as the highest of the seven states of consciousness, embodied in the phrase "We are All One." If everyone subscribed to this notion and grokked it in fullness, there would be no more war, hunger, homelssness or poverty in the world. And no one would have to give up anything to accomplish this. Okay, we WOULD have to give up our fear, hatred, paranoia and so on.)


What's more, many of us massacred each other, took slaves, raped and pillaged when it served our purpose. Forget that "Dances With Wolves" stuff--that was the product of a neo-Rousseau-minded white guy.

To reiterate, at the time of the European invasion, there were roughly 600 tribes on this continent, each with its own language and religion. To get a quick view of how much these religions varied, spend a few hours comparing and contrasting Hopi, Zuni, and Dine (aka Navaho) religion and world views. They varied radically, even though all three lived in contiguous areas.

My tribe, the Muscogee Nation, called the great spirit the Master of Breath--which seems odd at first, but look at how yoga and many other spiritual disciplines stress the importance of breathing as a meditative tool. And the Christian tradition makes a big deal out of the "breath of life."

[Obbe]

I find this information interesting.

Originally Posted by ArmsMerchant

we are All One. This is the greatest, most fundamental of all spiritual truths. If everyone today grokked it in fullness, there would be no more wars, nor hunger, nor poverty, nor hatred.

I agree with this.

[moonmeister]

So which is weirder?

Believing Raven is God or believing Raven is not God?

Or should we go with "The Tao that can be spoken is not the True Tao"?

[jackketch]

Were there no other defining common features of their faiths, beyond this 'All Are One' thang@ A shared belief in spirit_2Fspirit possesion not only of humans (Ghost Dance@) but also of inanimate objects (manitou@)Again I''ll admit I'm a little at a loss on which descriptive terms to use....maybe ''faiths isn't really accurate, perhaps gnosis?

[ArmsMerchant]

Originally Posted by moonmeister

So which is weirder?

Believing Raven is God or believing Raven is not God?

Or should we go with "The Tao that can be spoken is not the True Tao"?

In some cultures, Raven was the trickster--corresponding roughly to Loki in Norse mythology, or Eris in Greek.

Other cultures regarded, variously, Fox, Rabbit, or Coyote as trickster.

Originally Posted by ArmsMerchant

Forget that "Dances With Wolves" stuff--that was the product of a neo-Rousseau-minded white guy.

I lolled.

And nice post. I have always been fascinated by the commonality among some traditions of people first populating the earth by emerging from caves. A sense that human beings were born from or are somehow linked with the earth. I think this is most striking with, but not limited to, the Inca, Maya, and Aztec traditions. And of course, there is a parallel with the Christian tradition as God forms man out of the ground.

[ArmsMerchant]

Originally Posted by jackketch

Were there no other defining common features of their faiths, beyond this 'All Are One' thang@ A shared belief in spirit_2Fspirit possesion not only of humans (Ghost Dance@) but also of inanimate objects (manitou@)Again I''ll admit I'm a little at a loss on which descriptive terms to use....maybe ''faiths isn't really accurate, perhaps gnosis?

If I had to narrow it down to one, I'd sat a deep and abiding respect for the earth and the other critters that inhabit it.

As I recall, the ghost dance was a rather late development, and the gnostic thing is debateable.

All shamans are gnostic by definition, but I don't know that all tribes had shamans (all tribes had medicine men, not all of whom were shamans). Numerous tribes--but not all of them--had the vision quest tradition, which is very hard-core gnosticism in action.

To reiterate--it is VERY hard to generalize about a group of, say, 600 different tribes speaking 600 different languages--most of whom hated each other.