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The best known and most dramatic of North American Indian ceremonies, the Sun Dance ceremony and religion is an important part of both Native American and American history. Performed by the Plains Indians, including the Sioux, Dakota, Cheyenne, and others, the dance involves fixed gazing at the sun while dancing, blowing of eagle bone whistles, fasting, and sometimes, self-torture. Although outlawed by the U.S. government in 1904, it is still practiced by some Plains Indians today. This bibliography provides the first comprehensive, organized listing of sources on the Sun Dance. ... Read more

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Representative Native American religions and rituals are introduced to readers in a way that respects the individual traditions as more than local curiosities or exotic rituals, capturing the flavor of the living, modern traditions, even as commonalities between and among traditions are explored and explained. This general introduction offers wide-ranging coverage of the major factors—geography, history, religious behavior, and religious ideology (theology)—analyzing select traditions that can be dealt with, to varying degrees, on a contemporary basis.

As current interest surrounding Native American studies continues to grow, attention has often been given to the various religious beliefs, rituals, and customs of the diverse traditions across the country. But most treatments of the subject are cursory and encyclopedic and do not provide readers with the flavor of the living, modern traditions. Here, representative Native American religions and rituals are introduced to readers in a way that respects the individual traditions as more than local curiosities or exotic rituals, even as commonalities between and among traditions are explored and explained. This general introduction offers wide-ranging coverage of the major factors—geography, history, religious behavior, and religious ideology (theology)—analyzing select traditions that can be dealt with, to varying degrees, on a contemporary basis.

Covering such diverse ceremonies as the Muskogee (Creek) Busk, the Northwest Coast Potlatch, the Navajo and Apache menarche rituals, and the Anishnabe (Great Lakes area) Midewiwin seasonal gatherings, Paper takes a comparative approach, based on the study of human religion in general, and the special place of Native American religions within it. His book is informed by perspective gained through nearly fifty years of formal study and several decades of personal involvement, treating readers to a glimpse of the living religious traditions of Native American communities across the country.

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Long regarded as quaint curiosities or exotic pagan rites, the religious practices of Native Americans make up a rich, enduring legacy deserving of a place among the great spiritual traditions. The volume features a foreword written by Walter R. Echo-Hawk, a senior staff attorney with the Native American Rights Fund, whose legal experience includes cases involving religious freedom and reburial rights. This volume is available in paperback for the first time. Featuring more than 1,200 cross-referenced entries, this encyclopedia is a fascinating guide to the spiritual traditions of Native Americans in the United States and Canada, including coverage of beliefs about the afterlife, symbolism, creation myths, and vision quests; important ceremonies and dances; prominent American Indian religious figures; and events, legislation, and tribal court cases that have shaped the development of Native American religions.

Reviews:
Praise for the hardcover edition:
"...recommended."-Booklist ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Encyclopedis of Native American Religions
In a time of considerable misunderstanding, ignorance, and confusion with regard to the historica religions of Native Americans, this book supplies a much-needed resource for information and correction.I teach a course onNative American History and Culture and will use this book a requiredreading for my students.

It addresses an area of interest to them.Thebook will help the reader not only understand traditional beliefs andpractices but, also, the impact and consequences of contact with Europeansand other groups who were not Native American upon Native Americanreligions.

This book is a must-read for all serious students of NativeAmerican History and Culture. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Well worth the read........
This book is well worth the time it takes
to read and you will learn much from it.
I recommend it to all seeking knowledge. ... Read more

Product Description
The largest religion begun, organized, and directed by and for Native Americans, Peyotism includes the use of peyote in its ceremonies. As a sacred plant of divine origin, peyote use was well established in religious rituals in pre-Columbian Mexico. Toward the end of the 19th C., Peyotism spread to the Indians of Texas and the Southwest, and it spread rapidly in the United States after the subsidence of the Ghost Dance. It persists today among Native Americans in Northern Mexico, the United States, and Southern Canada. Possibly because of the controversy over peyote use, a lot has been written about the Native American Church. This bibliography provides a useful guide for scholars, students, and Native Americans who want to research Peyotism. ... Read more

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Native American Healing introduces readers to the healing modalities and rituals arising from the traditions of the Lakota Sioux, grounded in concepts of harmony and oneness with the Earth. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Song Keeper and Healer
Howard has done an excellent job of putting words to the ineffable experience of being a healer.In a world full of suspicion and the history of forced assimilation, Howard has generously shared his experiences of integrating two worlds, brought the best of both together to shed light on the great mysteries of his culture, language, song, and traditions. Howard has taught much by opening his heart and being willing to share from the place of joy and happiness that comes only from within the self.

Bad Hand's Good Voice
"God gave you a brain, you figure it out!" This was Bill Eagle Feather's response to many a question.He was the Sundance chief of the Rosebud Sioux. Howard Bad Hand never says it in his book, Native American Healing, but that rough response was always in the back of my mind reading this book. Through his own voice, and the voices of his wise elder relatives like Kills Enemy & Jimmy Dubray, these healers & medicine men imply a world miles away from the materialistic money-grubbing white man's world. It is left to the reader to figure out the truly deep meaning embedded in this beautifully readable book. Near the end of the book, his uncle Jim Dubray takes Bad Hand to the Sacred Tree during a Sundance. The absolute rock-bottom simplicity of Uncle Jim's wisdom, as he passes it on to Bad Hand, brought tears to my eyes. If you want to learn something about the Indian way, and begin to comprehend the chasm between it and the American "way of life", read this book. ... Read more

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A fascinating and important volume which brings together new perspectives on the objections to, and appropriation of Native American Spirituality. Native Americans and Canadians are largely romanticised or sidelined figures in modern society. Their spirituality has been appropriated on a relatively large scale by Europeans and non-Native Americans, with little concern for the diversity of Native American opinions. Suzanne Owen offers an insight into appropriation that will bring a new understanding and perspective to these debates.This important volume collects together these key debates from the last few years and sets them in context, analyses Native American objections to appropriations of their spirituality and examines 'New Age' practices based on Native American spirituality."The Appropriation of Native American Spirituality" includes the findings of fieldwork among the Mi'Kmaq of Newfoundland on the sharing of ceremonies between Native Americans and First Nations, which highlights an aspect of the debate that has been under-researched in both anthropology and religious studies: that Native American discourses about the breaking of 'protocols', rules on the participation and performance of ceremonies, is at the heart of objections to the appropriation of Native American spirituality.This groundbreaking new series offers original reflections on theory and method in the study of religions, and demonstrates new approaches to the way religious traditions are studied and presented.Studies published under its auspices look to clarify the role and place of Religious Studies in the academy, but not in a purely theoretical manner. Each study will demonstrate its theoretical aspects by applying them to the actual study of religions, often in the form of frontier research. ... Read more

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"Circle of Life" presents, in written form, traditional oral Native American sacred teachings involving spirituality, ceremonies, visions, healings, everyday life, and the warrior's way from the Iroquois, Lakota and other traditions. The author, has been receiving these teachings orally from elders since he was a youth. The wisdom includes Native American views on cosmology, ethics, epistemology, metaphysics, sociology, psychology, healing, dream interpretation and vision quests. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Discussions from Native Elders of many tribes
I love the discussions and enlightenment of this book.The author talked to many elders and includes their teachings and wisdom.I really loved this book.

NATIVE AMERICAN VEIWS ON RELIGION
VERY UPLIFTING WILL MAKE THE RELIOUES PEOPLE OPEN THERE EYES AN RELIEAZE THERE'S ISN'T THE ONLY WAY TO SEE WHAT LIFE IS SUPPOSE TO BE .THE NATIVE AMEC.'S WHERE WAY A HEAD OF OUR TRADLIONS WAY OF LOOKING AT THE GREAT SPRIT. A BOOK FOR EVERYONE TO READ. THANK YOU FOR THE FAST SEV. AND GREAT QUAITLY AMAZON.COM IS A GREAT WEBSITE.ROBERT F. SCHRAMM

Excellent Service
The book came in perfect shape, like it said, and in a timely manner.
Would definitely use this seller again.

Covers spiritual realities, insights on human relationships, and the meanings behind various sacred ceremonies and rituals
Circle Of Life: Traditional Teachings Of Native American Elders is for any who would understand Native sacred teachings, bringing James David Audlin (Distant Eagle)'s lifetime study of oral traditions and ceremonies to general-interest audiences. From songs and ceremonies to visions, healings, and Native methods of worship, Circle Of Life covers spiritual realities, insights on human relationships, and the meanings behind various sacred ceremonies and rituals.
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Customer Reviews (2)

Conflict of Spirit
Author Alfred Cave presents a lengthy treatise arguing the premise that an American Indian concept of a 'Great Spirit' evolved among divergent groups post contact with European missionaries.I enjoyed reading this history even though it presumes (speaking for my grandfathers,) that before we were ever known, that we had no traditions of our own upon which to deduce the white man's religious traditions contain similarities which we could name for ourselves in our own languages.After all, the barrier of languages existed well before these spiritual leaders endeavored to stir a pan-Indian yearning in our souls.

Consequently, this work stands as a sociological analysis because it is based on anecdotes of those who encountered the authentic characters.Although there exist contradictory reports of the origins of the Shawnee Prophet La-lay-weth'ka (Tensquatawa), and his brother Tecumseh the great war chief, this volume favors that version of legend which has their family being one of many siblings abandoned by their mother after the death of their father.When she gives birth to triplets, Tecumseh, Tensquatawa, and a third brother who dies, a toddler, she returns to live with her father's people, leaving the Shawnee prophet and his brother to be raised by older siblings.

It seemed remarkable to me that two chapters, a full 80 pages of the book are focused on the story of these two brothers, and the events that shaped them.Most of it is devoted to historical recounting, so it stands out amidst an otherwise sociological attempt at explaining the psychology of the peoples in conflict.The following historical citation profiles how murder was racially condoned when it involved killing an Indian (even one invited to a treaty negotiation):

"British general Thomas Gage complained that 'all the people of the Frontiers from Pennsylvania to Virginia inclusive, openly avow, that they will never find a Man guilty of Murther[sic], for killing an Indian'Gage described the frontiersmen as a 'People...near as wild as the country they go in' and 'by far more vicious and wicked' than the Indians they sought to dispossess.""In the same vein, Gov. John Penn of Pennsylvania had complained a year earlier that 'no jury in any of our frontier counties will ever condemn a man for killing an Indian.They do not consider it in the light of murder, but as a meritorious act'."

Although I don't necessarily accept the premise of this author and other ethnographers, being that nativistic religious expression is overly syncretic, (ie. borrowing from external religious sources without comprehension) it becomes quite clear in these pages how the Eastern American Indian prophets by processes, accomplished an attitude among their followers which demonized the old world spiritism of their ancestors.In contrast, those whose efforts were perhaps more successful, owing that they brought less destruction upon their own people, would include Kenekuk the Kickapoo prophet, and Handsome Lake the Seneca prophet.Readers can learn more of what these chiefs strove to achieve, in their own words, from the following sources,

Spiritual Leaders (American Indian Lives)
Kenekuk, the Kickapoo Prophet
The Code of Handsome Lake, the Seneca Prophet (Forgotten Books)

I also concur with the previous reviewer that the bibliographical references in Prophets of the Great Spirit are indeed substantial.Readers should prepare themselves to patiently digest countless descriptions of the social attitudes and outbursts of missionaries, Indians and colonists.Complaints and characterizations without dialog get kind of heavy at times. I had to put it down several times and restart with a refreshed mind.

Prophets of the Great Spirit

Prophets of the Great Spirit:
Native American Revitalization Movements in Eastern North America (2006)
By Alfred A. Cave


This well-written and well-researched book (by which the bibliography alone underscores the extensive research done by the author) seeks to explain, clarify, and describe the general archetypal patterns of responses that surrounded Amerindian prophets who called "for the regeneration of the Native American way of life" and warned of the wrath of the Great Spirit.Making use of a combination of historical data, co-joined with stories detailing the various Amerindian prophets, Alfred A. Cave masterfully describes the rise of revitalization movements from the 1740s to the middle 1830s.He separates truth from legend, as he weaves a comprehensive and readable sequence of events that surrounds the prophets, their visions, and their personal spiritual experiences.The gist of the book explains the personal as well as tribal identity problems facing the prophets as they similarly declare the return to some form of communal life and the purging of "practices offensive to the Great Spirit".Cave explains, it is only through the "institution of new rituals", designed to win the favor of the Great Spirit; the "establishment of a new, separatists sacred community; and finally, the development of a pan-Indian coalitions", that natives can "preserve Indian lands from further white encroachments."

Dr. Cave begins with the Delaware prophet, Neolin, who was not the first to preacher to proclaim a return to early native practices and beliefs systems, sans European influences; but rather, posited as a prophet who represents a more symbolic overview of the early prophetic movements.Nonetheless, Neolin learned in a dream that the Creator was "displeased with his Indian children and that the sufferings that plagued them were the result their transgressions.Later, as word spread and even Pontiac recounted Neolin's "journey to heaven", the prophet's message identified numerous transgressions against the Master of Life.These included not only addiction to alcohol, the practice of polygamy and of witchcraft, promiscuity; but also, the idea that Indians depended on whites and could not live without them.Finally, to Neolin, the natives suffered because they had allowed whites upon their lands.

In chapter 2, Cave describes another prophet, Lalawethika, who emerges from the disparaging depths of Native American lost lifeways. The thirty-year-old Shawnee, known as the Rattle, was considered early in his life as a, "scorned as a braggart, drunkard, womanizer, ad coward, fell into a stupor so profound that his family, believing him dead, began preparing his body for burial." Amazingly, Lalawethika did not die, but awoke with a vision of the afterlife he described which encompassed elements of burning and hellish Christian imagery as the price for Indian past transgressions by those who did not follow his vision cultural renaissance and revitalization. By 1808 Lalwethika became known by his new name, Tenskwatawa, which meant "open door" or "he who opened the sky for men to go up to the Great Spirit." According to Cave, Tenskwatawa "inspired the political movement and military alliance usually identified with his brother the celebrated war chief Tecumseh."

Cave clearly details in the third and one of the most prolific chapters of the book entitled: Tenskwatawa, Tecumseh, and the Pan-Indian Movement, Tecumseh's role in the revitalization movements.Cave elucidates Tenskwatawain's role, posited as the true prophet and the inspiration behind Tecumseh's 1811 organization of the league of Indian tribes.Threaded throughout the text, the author expands on the diverse and intricate tribal leadership roles that at times thwarted collective tribal cooperation.For example, after Tenskwatawa and Tecumseh moved to Wapakoneta and "challenged the leadership ofthe accomodationist chief Black Hoof and sought to convert the Shawnees there to the native gospel.They were unsuccessful," and as Cave explains, "As members of the Kispoko band, the brothers lacked political stature, as leadership had been traditionally entrusted to the Mekoches."Thus exemplifying the political difficulties faced by many the prophets identified in the book.

Faced with discord, both brothers, Tenskwatawa and Tecumseh were further frustrated by their inability to achieve consensus among other tribal nations, they built the Prophets village near Greenville and hoped it would become the seedbed of Tenskwatawa's influence as word of his miracles and teachings reached other tribal nations.However, as Cave notes, at Prophetstown, the two brothers' vision of a new world order free of European influences could not be achieved overnight since "they were still dependent on whites for certain vital trade goods, for the repair of guns and metal implements, and, for a time, even food.They did not call for a total rejection of post contact innovations."Nevertheless, given that Prophetown's numbers estimated at three-thousand, the community could not provide enough food for the followers.Additionally, in terms of political agenda, other chiefs from various nations refused to accept claims that that Prophetstown represented a "capital city of an all-encompassing Indian confederation committed to the preservation of existing boundaries." Finally, after Tecumseh's death Thames, and the failed pan-Indian coalition, Tenskwatawa wanted to move his community to the River Raisin Michigan area.However, Governor Cass of Michigan and superiors in Washington thwarted his efforts.Finally, Tenskwatawa returned to live with the Shawnees in Kansas after spending more than a decade in Canada and died in poverty in 1836.

Other messages from other prophets included a new separatist and sacred communal community that supported renewed pan-Indian alliances that worked to stop white expansion into Indian lands.In similar vein, the Creek "Red Stick" prophets also posited this motif and preached for the unification of all Indian peoples with new nativist traditions.In the chapter, Red Sticks, Cave sorts through the numerous accounts of natives identified as Upper and Lower Creek Indians but also those similar language families do not necessarily make for cooperation and unification.For example, the complexities of the term "Creek Nation" since it "would have no meaning to Native inhabitant of the Southwest in the seventeenth century." Cave adds that the Creeks were a diverse group of peoples with a majority of those who were rooted in the Muskogean language families.Yet, some Creek militants "incorporated some of the dances and songs taught by Seekaboo," a Shawnee holy man, "who remained with them after Tecumseh's departure, but their words and actions did not always reflect either the prophet's teachings or Tecumseh's political advice.The Muskogee world had their own prophets, and their own prophets had their own agenda and their own timetable." Cave further acknowledges the difficulty and challenges associated with identifying individuals and that helped shaped native societies.Therein lays the difficulty in detailing the larger patterns of many Native societies, who, striving to find a return on their cultural losses, posited each their own tribal views thus thwarting efforts for total devotion to prophetic teachings and a complete return to native rituals and lifeways.

In the Seneca Prophet chapter, Cave describes similar Native American responses against European cultural influences.For example, a Seneca prophet named, Handsome Lake described several beliefs systems, similar in nature to other prophets that also include the rejection of Euro-American values, a need to preserve ritual practices, to stop witchcraft, to not use love charms or "the secret poisons in little pouches," and finally to prohibit the use of herbs to induce abortions.Tragically enough however, the infighting among Iroquois left no real single ruler of the nations, but instead fueled quarrelling and discontent among leaders of differing factions.Later Handsome Lake called for neutrality and opposed the call for armed resistance as encouraged by the Shawnee's prophet.Yet these cries for unification were challenged by Iroquois religious traditionalists, progressive secularists, and a few Christian converts, and among other rival leaders, like Red Jacket who too claimed he was the choice for leader of all Iroquois or all would suffer if they did not comply with the Creator's wishes.

In the last chapter Cave describes a final prophet, Kenenkuk, whose Gospel resembled Christianity but still maintained a "nativist answer to the question of why his people suffered defeat and were afflicted by poverty and disease: Native Americans had offended the great Spirit by embracing the vices of the white man." Like his predecessors, Kenenkuk was against alcohol, witchcraft and greed, and his religious teachings included similar themes of "sobriety, hard work, and peaceful co-existence with whites."

In conclusion, the fundamental contributions of Dr. Cave's research in this book describes in detail the historical applications of the origins and developments of the prophet movements and the syncretic religious practices and beliefs that were formedfrom the various prophets.Finally, the book reveals the archetypal tragic struggle between Native Americans and whites, between various tribes as leadership roles, and tribal milieus of the many tribal nations--all of which diminished as each prophet struggled to explain his message to his peoples. The only reactions left by the remnants of once powerful and numerous tribal nations whose numbers dwindled due to white encroachment, bio-invasions, and alcoholism, was that of relying upon and piecing together lost beliefs systems in an attempt to return to earlier lifeways, pitted against the backdrop of complex tribal relationships and leadership, and white influences and controls.

Greg Robinson

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Book Description
Thomas E. Mail's collection is a treasure trove of information on Plains Indians. The books detail all aspects of Plains Indian life -- ceremonial and spiritual practices, honor codes, warrior training, family and community customs, arts and crafts, and more. Each book contains 35 black and white illustrations. ... Read more

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The Hopi Snake dance was first described in 1884 and through many articles over the last 100 years has become one of the best known of all aboriginal American Indian ceremonies. Yet, despite its notoriety, it was, and continues to be, little understood by those who are not Hopi Indians. Visitors to the Hopi’s remote reservation in the Arizona desert watch in amazement as members of the Hopi Snake Society, males of all ages, dance with living rattlesnakes clenched between their teeth.

The ceremony ensures plenty of spring water and abundant rain for the maturing crops, and dramatizes the legend of the Snake Clan as the Snake Priests wash the snakes ritually, and carry them in their teeth during the public dance.

This revised edition of the classic Bureau of American Ethnology reports from 1894-98 includes a new preface from the publisher, and additional period photographs of the ceremony. ... Read more

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An A-Z spanning the history of Native Americans from the earliest legends to the present day. ... Read more

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This study considers the Cherokee Booger Dance as a purely religious phenomenon by reinterpreting anthropologist Frank G. Speck's observations of a performance held by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians through the lens of Mircea Eliade's theory of religion. ... Read more

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This book analyzes the lives and the continuing ritual traditions of the Mayas who live in the United States. Focusing on a predominantly Maya town in rural Florida, it shows how members of this ancient Central American civilization use their religious tradition to maintain their ethnic identity in an unfamiliar environment. Bringing together studies of Mesoamerican fiesta or cargo systems, religious ritual and migration studies, this interdisciplinary work describes the religious traditions of indigenous Guatemala, the crisis migration of the 1980s, and the Mayas' daily life in the United States, including Maya women's reflections on their new challenges.
The book is unique in its focus on the transfer of the fiesta cycle to the diaspora and its analysis of the behind-the-scenes aspects of ritual. The rise of leadership, contested interpretations of ethnic identity, choices about symbolic representation, and maintenance of ties to villages of origin all take place in the context of organizing public ritual events. Through these strategies, the Maya people not only cope materially and spiritually with the chaotic experience of uprootedness, but find ways to strengthen their unique identity. Bibliography. Index. ... Read more

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In this excellent survey of Native American worldviews, philosopher of religion Jerry H. Gill emphasizes the value and broad contours of Native American belief systems. He presents an integrated view to serve as an introduction to ways of life and perspectives on the world far different from those of the dominant Euro-American culture.

Drawing on the scholarship of anthropologists and specialists in American Indian Studies, Gill brings together much original research in broad, accessible chapters. He explores Native American origin stories, the special connotations given to spatial concepts such as the cardinal directions and the circle, the influence of the seasons and the cycle of life on different cultures, and clan and kinship systems. Separate chapters are devoted to key ceremonies and customs as well as to concepts of health, harmony, virtues, wisdom, and beauty.

The final chapter considers the dire effects on native peoples of the European invasion of North America. Gill discusses the reservation system, attempts at assimilation and resistance, the recent renaissance of American Indian cultures, and prospects for the future. A valuable appendix provides a representative sampling of Native American writings on beliefs and origin stories. ... Read more

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Shamanism is part of the spiritual life of nearly all Native North Americans. This bibliography gives the reader access to a wealth of information on shamanism from the Bering Strait to the Mexican border and from Maine to Florida. It includes articles and books focusing on the spiritual connections of Native Americans to the world through shamans. The books covered compare practices from tribe to tribe, make distinctions between witchcraft or sorcery and shamanism, and discuss the artifacts and tools of the trade. Many are well illustrated, including collections from the nineteenth century. ... Read more

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In The Book of Ceremonies, Gabriel Horn offers a tapestry of stories, poems, prayers, and love songs describing the sacred Native American way of life and what its religion and ritual can offer spiritual seekers from all backgrounds. The six parts of the book cover preparation for ceremonies greeting the day; acknowledgment and gratitude; marriage and divorce; birth and death; dreams and visions; and seasons and healing. Highlights include a Zuni creation account, an Aztec love song, and an Omaha prayer presenting a new infant. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

A beautiful book to be treasured and shared.
The Book Of Ceremonies is an intensely sensitive, reverent collection of Native American sacred songs, poems, stories, observations, and ceremonies.It's prayerful tone is beautifully underlined by the delicate, perfect black and white art work by the author's son, Carises Horn.Drawing from a variety of sources, The Book Of Ceremonies unifies and presents thoughts onPreparing, Greeting and Gratitude, Love, Marriage and Divorce, Birth and Death, Dreams and Visions, and Seasons and Healing.An additional list of recommended reading includes Native Heart: An American Indian Odyssey by Gabriel Horn, and other selected books by Kent Nerburn, Jason Gardner, and Loree Boyd.The Book Of Ceremonies is a beautiful book to be treasured and shared.

Nancy Lorraine, Reviewer

Sacred and Mysterious Connections
The essays and poems in this collection, which would make a good gift book, are meaningful, and the American Indian tone is meditative and enriching. Even the cover, in dark colors and smooth to the hand, encourages contemplation.

Kinship with all beings
The primal wisdom that emanates from these ancient teachings lifts up the spiritual practice of reverence-one that is often lacking in modern times. Horn demonstrates a kind of radical amazement, a deep feeling tinged with both awe and wonder as he sees the sacred in all things. These ceremonies touch the heart because they arise out of a felt sense of participation in the universe, a kinship with all beings and with matter.

Ceremonial Richness
Anyone wanting ceremonial richness in their own lives will cherish this book and will feel emboldened to start where they are right now-even in the middle of a city, far from the kind of natural surroundings available to the ancients. "It is the spirit of the ceremony that is most important," reassures a grandmother. This is treasure to own and consult, a treasure to give.-SA

Excellent
This book is a beautiful collection of stories and references to ceremonies, a good addition to any library of books on native ways or shamanism.It is not a "cookbook" of rituals or ceremonies, but a book that honors the beliefs and energies behind the ceremonies as important. ... Read more

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Anetso, a centuries-old Cherokee ball game still played today, is a vigorous, sometimes violent activity that rewards speed, strength, and agility. At the same time, it is the focus of several linked ritual activities. Is it a sport? Is it a religious ritual? Could it possibly be both? Why has it lasted so long, surviving through centuries of upheaval and change?

Based on his work in the field and in the archives, Michael J. Zogry argues that members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Nation continue to perform selected aspects of their cultural identity by engaging in anetso, itself the hub of an extended ceremonial complex, or cycle. A precursor to lacrosse, anetso appears in all manner of Cherokee cultural narratives and has figured prominently in the written accounts of non-Cherokee observers for almost three hundred years. The anetso ceremonial complex incorporates a variety of activities which, taken together, complicate standard scholarly distinctions such as game versus ritual, public display versus private performance, and tradition versus innovation.

Zogry's examination provides a striking opportunity for rethinking the understanding of ritual and performance as well as their relationship to cultural identity. It also offers a sharp reappraisal of scholarly discourse on the Cherokee religious system, with particular focus on the Eastern Band of Cherokee Nation.
Anetso, a centuries-old Cherokee ball game still played today, is a vigorous, sometimes violent activity that rewards speed, strength, and agility. At the same time, it is the focus of several linked ritual activities. Is it a sport? Is it a religious ritual? Could it possibly be both? Why has it lasted so long, surviving through centuries of upheaval and change?



... Read more