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| Native American religions of the United States | |
|---|---|
| Name | Native American religions of the United States |
| Type | Ethnic religion |
| Governance | Tribal, clan, ceremonial societies |
| Area | United States |
| Founder | Indigenous peoples |
| Founded date | Precontact |
Native American religions of the United States are the diverse spiritual systems practiced by the Indigenous peoples of what is now the United States, encompassing cosmologies, ritual forms, and institutional structures rooted in specific tribal nations. These traditions include the ceremonial life of nations such as the Navajo Nation, Lakota people, Cherokee Nation, Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, and Hopi Tribe, and have been shaped by histories involving contact with Spanish colonization of the Americas, British colonization of the Americas, and the United States federal system. Many practices persist alongside or interact with Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, and secular institutions such as the National Park Service and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Scholars distinguish among tribal cosmologies—for example, the cosmology of the Sioux (including the Oglala Lakota), the creation narratives of the Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee), and the ceremonial cycles of the Zuni Pueblo—while legal frameworks identify “Native American religions” in statutes like the American Indian Religious Freedom Act and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Ethnographers working with the Smithsonian Institution, American Anthropological Association, and the National Congress of American Indians document practices ranging from the Sun Dance of Plains peoples to the Kachina rites of the Hopi, and the medicinal plant use recorded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and museums such as the Field Museum. Definitions balance tribal sovereignty claims asserted by entities like the Inter-Tribal Council of Arizona with federal recognition procedures administered by the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Federal Acknowledgment.
Precontact religious life included institutions such as clan systems among the Pueblo peoples, mound ceremonialism in the Mississippian culture (e.g., Cahokia), and shamanic healing among the Yurok and Haida; these systems faced transformation during periods including the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Trail of Tears, and Indian Removal Act. Missionization by Spanish missions in California, Jesuit missions in New France, and Presbyterian Church in the United States efforts altered practices among the Trempealeau and Choctaw. The Dawes Act and boarding schools such as Carlisle Indian Industrial School disrupted ceremonial continuity, while legal cases like Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association and legislation such as the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act affected access to sacred objects and sites. Revival movements during the Pan-Indian Movement and organizations like the American Indian Movement influenced intertribal exchanges of ritual forms.
Belief systems vary from animistic frameworks among the Shoshone and Yup'ik to complex pantheons among the Navajo, with key elements including kinship-based cosmology among the Iroquois Confederacy, song cycles of the Hopi, and vision quest traditions of the Cheyenne and Blackfeet Nation. Practices include healing ceremonies performed by medicine people recognized within tribes such as the Seminole Tribe of Florida and the Osage Nation, use of peyote in Native American Church ceremonies involving members from the Plains Indians and Pueblo peoples, and storytelling traditions upheld by figures like the Diné storyteller communities. Religious specialists such as shamans, medicine men, and ceremonial leaders feature in tribal governance structures of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, Muscogee (Creek) Nation, and Tlingit.
Major ceremonies include the Powwow gatherings that bring together groups like the Pueblo Revival Movement, the Sun Dance prominent among Lakota and Crow participants, and potlatch ceremonies practiced by the Kwakwaka'wakw and Tlingit. Sacred sites range from the ancestral pueblos of Chaco Culture National Historical Park to the Black Hills (Paha Sapa) central to the Lakota people, and from Moundville to Devils Tower National Monument, which figures in disputes litigated in United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians. Management of sites often involves the National Park Service, tribal historic preservation officers within the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, and federal mechanisms under the National Historic Preservation Act.
Legal and policy interactions include litigation and legislation such as Employment Division v. Smith (related to peyote), the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (1978), amendments to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) affecting museums like the National Museum of the American Indian, and tribal- federal negotiations conducted by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Department of the Interior. Treaties such as the Fort Laramie Treaty and the Treaty of New Echota historically affected land-based religious practices; subsequent court decisions like United States v. Washington and administrative policies under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act influence contemporary religious exercise. Advocacy by organizations such as the National Congress of American Indians and litigation by entities including the Native American Rights Fund shape access to ceremonial freedom.
Contemporary trends include revitalization efforts led by tribal colleges such as Haskell Indian Nations University and Sitting Bull College, language revival in communities like the Cherokee Nation and Hawaiian language revitalization movements informing pan-Indigenous strategies, and intertribal collaborations through conferences hosted by the First Americans Museum and the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of the American Indian. New generations negotiate traditional rites alongside participation in institutions such as the United States Armed Forces and affiliation with denominations like the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and Roman Catholic Church, while movements for repatriation and cultural property protections engage entities like the Council for Museum Anthropology and tribal historic preservation programs. Scholars from universities including the University of Arizona, University of California, Berkeley, and Harvard University continue ethnographic and legal research that informs tribal policy-making and cultural continuity.