Religion
The Cheyenne Medicine Bundles
Medicine bundles are important to many of the Northern Plains tribes. The concept of “medicine” refers to spiritual power, which is not limited to healing. […]
Religion
Kootenai Origins and Spirituality
The Kootenai (also spelled Kutenai), whose aboriginal homelands straddled the Rocky Mountains and included parts of Western Montana, Idaho, British Columbia, and Alberta, have a […]
Spiritual and Medicinal Plants Used by the Chumash Indians
In 1542, the Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez de Cabrillo sailed along the coast of California. While he really didn’t discover anything, he did encounter the […]
Blackfoot Sacred Places
By the time fur traders from the Hudson’s Bay Company first made contact with the Blackfoot tribes in 1735, their territory included much of the […]
Wodziwob’s Ghost Dance
During the nineteenth century there were a number of religious movements that developed among diverse Indian tribes. One of these, called the Ghost Dance by […]
Nakaidoklini, Apache Spiritual Leader
President Ulysses Grant established the San Carlos Indian Reservation in Arizona by Presidential Executive Order in 1872. The newly created reservation was a division of […]
Eschiti, Comanche Medicineman
The Comanche held a Sun Dance in Oklahoma in 1874. This was not a traditional ceremony, but was one they had borrowed from the Cheyenne. The Sun […]
Suppressing Indian Religions in 1915
In 1915, the United States was firmly convinced that American Indians could assimilate only if they became Christians. To aid in the “civilization” (i.e. Christianization) […]
Mormons and Indians
When Europeans began arriving in the Americas they brought with them the firm belief that all knowledge, including the history of the world, was contained […]
Traditional Native Concepts of Death
Many religious traditions, but not all, put forth an explanation about what happens after death. There are many religious traditions which claim there is an […]