Traditional Native American religions

Traditional Native American religions
Name	Traditional Native American religions
Caption	Ceremonial dance at a powwow
Type	Indigenous religion
Location	North America, Central America, South America, Arctic
Followers	Varies by nation and community

Traditional Native American religions

Traditional Native American religions encompass diverse spiritual systems practiced by Indigenous peoples across North, Central, and South America, rooted in ancestral knowledge, localized cosmologies, and ceremonial life. These traditions center on relationships among humans, nonhuman beings, landscapes, and ancestors, and persist through oral transmission, ritual specialists, and community institutions despite colonization, missionary activity, and state policies.

Beliefs and Cosmology

Belief systems often include creation narratives, cosmological structures, and moral frameworks exemplified by the oral traditions of the Navajo Nation, Lakota, Haudenosaunee, Maya, and Quechua. Concepts such as animacy and personhood appear in the cosmologies of the Haida, Tlingit, Apache, Hopi, and Zuni, while dualities and balance are central in the worldviews of the Mesoamerican peoples like the Aztec and Mixtec. Ancestor veneration and lineage-based cosmologies inform rites among the Cherokee, Ojibwe, Blackfoot, Inuit, and Guarani, and shamanic or mediator roles recur among the Sami-related circumpolar groups, Yupik, Naskapi, Mapuche, and Arawak. Many traditions integrate seasonal cycles and celestial bodies, comparable across the calendars of the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Pueblo peoples, Cree, and Mayan city-states such as Tikal and Copán.

Ceremonies, Rituals, and Sacred Practices

Ceremonial life ranges from daily offerings and vision quests to multi-day ceremonies such as the Sun Dance of the Plains Indians, the Green Corn Ceremony of southeastern nations like the Seminole and Creek, and the Kachina rites of the Hopi. Sweat lodge practices appear among the Sioux, Comanche, Kiowa, and Métis, while Peyote and Native American Church-related sacramental use is prominent among the Ute, Shoshone, Pueblo, and Hispanic New Mexico communities. Healing rituals and spirit journeys feature in the practices of the Cahuilla, Navajo, Pomo, Tewa, and Wintu, and funeral rites and mourning ceremonies are observed by the Diné, Lakota, Miwok, Huron-Wendat, and Makah. Ceremonies often involve regalia, song, dance, and instruments used by communities such as the Inca descendants, Zapotec, Mixtec, and Toltec-influenced groups.

Sacred Sites, Objects, and Symbols

Sacred geographies include mountains like Mount Shasta, Pachamama-venerated Andean peaks, and riverine sites such as the Mississippi River basin locales revered by the Choctaw, Chitimacha, and Biloxi. Sacred objects and effigies such as kachina dolls, masks of the Kwakwaka'wakw, and carved totems of the Tlingit and Haida carry lineage and cosmological meaning. Symbols like the medicine wheel used by many Plains Indians, the jaguar iconography among Olmec and Maya-influenced groups, and the feathered headdress of the Sioux and Cheyenne serve ritual, political, and social functions. Archaeological complexes such as Cahokia and ceremonial plazas at Teotihuacan and Monte Albán reflect long-term sacral landscapes for the Mississippian culture, Zapotec, and Maya.

Social Roles, Spiritual Leaders, and Transmission

Spiritual authority is vested in elders, shamans, medicine people, priests, and clan leaders found among the Iroquois Confederacy, Cherokee Nation, Muscogee (Creek) Nation, Seminole Tribe of Florida, and Pueblo of Zuni. Transmission occurs through clan systems, initiation rites, apprenticeship, and oral histories preserved by storytellers in Anishinaabe, Diné hogans, and Tupi communities. Religious specialists such as the curanderos among Taíno-descended groups, the yatiri among the Aymara, and the machi among the Mapuche combine ritual, medicinal, and judicial roles akin to priest-healers in the Inca Empire and ceremonial leaders in the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. Gendered roles and cosmological gender concepts influence leadership in societies like the Iroquois Confederacy and Pueblo peoples.

Regional and Tribal Variations

Regional diversity is profound: Arctic traditions of the Inuit and Aleut emphasize marine cosmology, while Amazonian groups like the Yanomami and Kayapo center plant-spirit relations and shamanic ayahuasca practices. Great Basin religions among the Paiute and Shoshone differ from Plateau practices of the Nez Perce and Salish, just as Caribbean Indigenous spiritualities among the Taíno and Carib vary from Andean systems practiced by the Quechua and Aymara. Mesoamerican civilizations — Maya, Aztec (Mexica), Toltec — maintain ritual calendars and sacrificial systems distinct from North American societies such as the Pawnee, Seminole, Osage, and Ponca.

Historical Changes and External Influences

Colonialism, missionary activity from Spanish Empire, British Empire, French colonial empire, and Russian colonization of the Americas, as well as disease and forced removals like the Trail of Tears, reshaped practice, syncretism, and loss. Legal suppression under policies such as the Indian boarding schools era and laws enacted by the United States Congress and Canadian authorities altered transmission, while survivals and adaptations occurred through movements like the formation of the Native American Church and syncretic practices that incorporated elements from Roman Catholic Church missions and Protestant denominations. Resistance and revitalization movements include the reassertion of language and ceremony by nations engaged with institutions like the National Congress of American Indians and cultural programs sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution and various tribal colleges.

Contemporary Practice and Legal Recognition

Today, practices persist across reservations, urban Indigenous communities, and international forums, with legal recognition shaped by cases such as those before the United States Supreme Court and legislation including the American Indian Religious Freedom Act and protections involving the National Historic Preservation Act. Contemporary practitioners engage in cultural revitalization supported by tribal governments like the Navajo Nation Council and organizations such as the Native American Rights Fund, while tensions over access to sacred sites involve entities like the National Park Service and disputes around projects like pipelines near sites claimed by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. Global Indigenous networks connect with bodies such as the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and collaborate with museums including the British Museum and National Museum of the American Indian on repatriation and stewardship.

Category:Indigenous religions