Native American Religion

12 Pages 3006 Words

Through out history, historians have had the ability to pass on the knowledge of the past because of written documents and other forms of evidence that acknowledge the existence of past civilizations and cultures. When there are no written documents, whether lost or never created, it can be more difficult for historians to explain past civilizations. The Native Americans were a group that kept no written records. The information that we know today was passed down from generation to generation through oral traditions. Despite the information we
have, there is much more that researchers don’t know about because a considerable amount of information has either been lost or has been
impossible to obtain. But from what we already know, historians can
conclude there are common characteristics that seem to be shared by all of
the Native Americans. I will also include the creation myth of the Osage
Indians and the afterlife beliefs of the Lakota Sioux. Although there are many
points of contrast, the beliefs of Native Americans are distinguished by some
common characteristics (p.54 Nigosian). Some of these characteristics are
that they all seem to believe in the existence of a high god or vital force along
with lesser gods and spirits and that certain individuals possess sacred power
and therefore can act as intermediaries between the tribe and the deities. In
the ceremonies associated with ritual and initiation, they engaged in certain
traditional rites that were designed to perpetuate the smooth operation of the
natural order, including human society, and they all believed that by repeating
stories or by storytelling they kept the world alive (p.54 Nigosian). Therefore,
the Native Americans viewed life evolving around a holy force that holds all
things together, which leads to the basic goal of staying in “harmony with all
natural and supernatural powers (p.62 Nigosian).” This leads me ...