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."