The Faith of Native Americans

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The Faith of Native Americans
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Review Some characteristics of Native American
Faith

• CORRESPONDANCE Nature is good our task is to
  fit into Nature
• VERY FLUID BORDERS No gap between ORDINARY
  EXTRAORDINARY no gap between HERE on earth and
  THERE in heaven (no gap between SACRED PROFANE)
• 3. No strong SEPARATION between Creator
  Creation the Divine pervades all Creation
• SPACE (Nature) is sacred, not Time
• CENTERING is a key Spatial Concept

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Review some characteristics of Native American
Faith

• 6. TIME is cyclic (like Nature)
• 7. Certain FIGURES and pass back and forth
  between the Human and the Superhuman
  (Tricksters Kachinas Shamans)
• 8. Ordinary people can pass back and forth via
  VISION QUESTS Dreams Dances
• 9. WAKAN/ WAKANTANKA is like God but is also
  more of an Impersonal Power
• 10. Wide DIVERSITY belief that each clan should
  have its own set of god(s)

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Review some characteristics of Native American
Faith

1. Native American Faith has never been STATIC
   there have been revivals (Wovoka Handsome Lake)
   and lots of MIXING (Black Elk Kateri Circles)
2. Stories the sacred is revealed via stories
3. Rituals the Sacred is revealed through stylized
   gestures, actions, dances
4. Intense sense of Another Dimension (the
   Sacred)

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1. Myth of the Tsimshian on the Creation
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2. Kwakiutl Ritual for the Dying
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3. Zuni Predictions of the Worlds End
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4. Red Jacket, We Never Argue about Religion
(1820)
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5. Ghost Dancers of the Pine Ridge Sioux
(1870s, 1920s)
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6. Christs Visit to Wovoka Paiute (1896)
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7. Indian Religious Freedom Act (1978)
Zuni Ceremony
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8. Support from an Ecumenical Group (1987)
Iroquois False Face (New York Canada)
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9. Employment Division of Oregon v. Smith
(1990), Justice A. Scalia
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10. Employment Division of Oregon v. Smith
(1990), Justice S. OConnor
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11. Employment Div. of Oregon v. Smith (1990),
Justice Blackmun, dissenting