Product Description
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

Product Description
Surveys the history and basic beliefs of Native American religions. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Native American Religions
Native American Religions, by Paula R. Hartz, was very enlightening.This book covered many aspects of native American religions and trsditions.There were many things that I learned while reading this book.This a great source for research and very educational.I recommend this book to anyone dfoing research on Native American religions and culture. ... Read more

Product Description
Revised for the first time in over twenty years, this brief introduction to the religions of Native Americans provides an overview of the latest research and thought in this area. In writing the book, Gill aims to introduce an academically and humanistically useful way of trying to appreciate and understand the complexity and diversity of Native American religions, as well as establish them as a significant field within religious studies. In addition, aspects of European-American history are examined in a search for sources of widespread misunderstandings about the character of Native American religions. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Perfect
Comments for my used book where dead-on, no bad surprises when it arrived. Shipped securely and arrived safely and on time. Thanks a bunch!

A Good Start
The author, Gill, does an excellent job in guiding the reader in how to study Native American religious traditions. Whether one is interested in recreational reading only or even for a more academic nature in understanding the subject. This text provides a solid foundation to begin the journey towards understanding the fascinating and complex reality of Native American beliefs. Gill introduces the concept of humanistically approaching the study of the subject through stories and examples, which is more than just entertainment to Native American culture. Gill approaches his study and interpretation in an academically non-traditional sense, contrary to the common anthropological ways. Overall, a good text for introducing anyone interested to Native American religious practices. ... Read more

Product Description
American Indian beliefs are the only religious traditions native to America. Native Americans practice some of America's most spiritually profound, historically resilient, and ethically demanding religions. Joel Martin draws his narrative from folk stories, rituals, and even landscapes to trace the development of Native American religion from ancient burial mounds, through interactions with European conquerors and missionaries, and on to modern-day lawsuits involving sacred sites. The book depicts the major cornerstones of American Indian religious history--the vast movements for pan-Indian renewal, the formation of the Native American Church, the passage of the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act of 1990, and many others. Profiles of famous and ordinary men and women--including an early Cherokee convert to Christianity, a Paiute religious leader, and an Apache activist--bring this history alive. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

My beloved country and brothers
Native American religion is a way of life. It is interesting to learn that the teaching known as Gaiwiiyo (good word), very similar to Mandarin Chinese - good spoken word!

This book is a good introduction to Native American faiths and how white men came with Christianity to conquer and convert.In 1889, President Benjamin Harrison Administration urged the destruction of Indian tribal identity by"to conform to white men/s ways, peacefullyif they will, forcibly if they must" (P.99)

Native Americans once exclaimed: "it used they have the Bible and we have the land, now we have the Bible and they have the land" Now the land mushroom into casinos and the oral history traditions were lost.How many museums devote a significant portion to the study of Native Americans?With the new technology , the Native American culture and tradition and religion can be save to share in enriching American spirituality.

Readable and concise
This is an intelligent, readable, though provoking book. Perhaps it tackles too big a subject ("Native America Spirituality!"), and I have a few issues with that alone. But as an overview, this book does a splendid job, and it would be well combined with books addressing more specific issues.

Mary Sheeran, author of "Who Have the Power: a legend of the west" ... Read more

Product Description
Death. We deny it. We fear it. Some of us welcome it. No matter what age we live in we keep the traditional feelings for our departed. We try to ease the soul into the afterworld as best we can. "Celebrations of life" provide a time for friends and loved ones to gather, share food and stories and grieve. Some who pass on are cremated to free the soul. Some are buried believing that the body will not become corrupted but will survive until the final judgment day. "Grave goods" are still commonly buried or are cremated as well with the body. While we believe we are more "advanced" than those who lived before us, we actually do the same things they did to honor and to provide for our deceased loved ones. We are not so very different after all. This book provides a brief survey of how America's first people reacted to death, how they disposed of their dead, their thoughts about the spirit world and the possibilities of being reborn. ... Read more

Product Description
Native Americans practice some of America's most spiritually profound, historically resilient, and ethically demanding religions. Joel Martin draws his narrative from folk stories, rituals, and even landscapes to trace the development of Native American religion from ancient burial mounds, through interactions with European conquerors and missionaries, and on to the modern-day rebirth of ancient rites and beliefs. The book depicts the major cornerstones of American Indian history and religion--the vast movements for pan-Indian renewal, the formation of the Native American Church in 1919, the passage of the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act of 1990, and key political actions involving sacred sites in the 1980s and '90s. Martin explores the close links between religion and Native American culture and history. Legendary chiefs like Osceola and Tecumseh led their tribes in resistance movements against the European invaders, inspired by prophets like the Shawnee Tenskwatawa and the Mohawk Coocoochee. Catharine Brown, herself a convert, founded a school for Cherokee women andconverted dozens of her people to Christianity. Their stories, along with those of dozens of other men and women--from noblewarriors to celebrated authors--are masterfully woven into this vivid, wide-ranging survey of Native American history and religion. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Had to read this for a religion class....
This book provides a rudimentary knowledge of the religion and impact religions have had on the Native American people's since the 1500s. Although the book has some well written sections, such as that on the peyote religion- the majority of the book was disorganized and poorly written. Often choppy, the book lacked structure- and even though it is a short novel- it's often wordy in some parts, and lacking details in others. I would not waste even $1 on this book, unless it is a required reading for school, like it was for me.

Did not follow the title topic
Poorly written, and did not deal with the subject topic.Rambled more about the plight of the native american in the 19th and 20th century.Expected to learn about the basis of native american religion...it was not there. ... Read more

Product Description
- Timeless stories of how to live in harmony with the Earth. - Stories are presented from a variety of tribes. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Exactly as advertised
The product I received was exactly as advertised.It was shipped as promised.I would buy from this company again!

Brilliant!
This book is enlightening. It retells old tales with beautiful photos. Animals and nature have center stage in the attempts to teach us, to show us, what is important in life. I volunteer at a Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Illinois and can speak personally of witnessing the intelligence, the playfulness, the connectedness that exists in all creatures. We should cherish the earth, the animals, the plants, they can survive without us, but we wouldn't make it without them.

Extraordinary photography!Witty narration!
All creation is connected.This is the underlying theme of "Shared Spirits" as it beautifully depicts Native American thoughts on twelve different species through extraordinary photographs and witty narration. "Considering the struggles we are now having with our own environment,perhaps it is time to listen to some old teachers - the ones who have beenhere for eons.Native People aren't the original teachers.They simplylistened to the rest of the Earth with an open heart, giving voice to bear,eagle, raven and stone, and carried the water through the desert, to us(from the Introduction of Shared Spirits)."Perhaps through workssuch as this, all creation can learn to live harmoniously together and mancan begin to realize that we have been entrusted to be caretakers of thisbeautiful planet and all of the creation it houses. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

How Many Sheep Will it Hold?
I've been looking for Seeing with a Native Eye since the first time I read it over 15 years ago. Thank you Amazon for helping me locate it. This book was done in 1976 when a lot of people began to recognize the importance of, or even existence of, a Native American "religion." It is a collection of essays by eight writers both Anglo and Native. Some concepts have stayed with me all these years. The first presented isabout how different cultures define the value of an object. The author hopes to show his adopted Navajo father the glories of the outside world. When he is shown the Empire State Building, he asks, "How many sheep does it hold?"Other favorite essays explore "If I hadn't believed it I never would have seen it" and the importance of the kachina rituals. Although it is old and the basic ideas have been published in many different forms, this is my favorite study of Native American spirituality. ... Read more

Product Description
This text provides descriptions and interpretations of religious ideas, its aim is to illustrate something of the range of religious beliefs and practices through cases that are exemplary. The first part describes the religious views of the Aztec, Maya and Inca, dating to the time before contact with Europeans. The rest of the text treats contemporary cases from the major cultural-geographic areas of Latin America. Whether the focus is on myth, architecture, ritual celebrations or shamanic practice, each essay provides a religious profile of the culture in question. ... Read more

Product Description
It is now over half a millennium since the first sustained contact between the peoples or Europe and North America, yet Native Americans and especially their religious traditions still fascinate those who are not Native. In Weaving Ourselves into the Land, Thomas Parkhill argues that this fascination draws much more on a stereotype of the "Indian' than on the lives and history of actual Native Americans. This stereotype, whether used approvingly or disparagingly, has informed the work of authors writing about Native American religious for audiences with both general and professional interests. The figure of Charles Godrey Leland plays an important part in Parkhill's investigation. Leland's 1884 collection of "legends" about the Micmac, Maliseet, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscot culture hero Kluskap becomes the touchstone for reflection on the larger study of Native American religions. The author argues that most scholars of these religions, including himself, continue to be--like Leland over a hundred years ago--bewitched by the stereotype of the "Indian." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Critical, Reflexive scholarship
Parkhill offers a fascinating study of how religious culture is appropriated and used by those outside the group.He traces a popularly disseminated "Indian" story and shows how it was altered over time by reporters, anthropologists, and even by some Indians themselves.Some changed it so it would be "suitable for children" and some added pieces they thought were appropriate, and others had connections with other cultures they wanted highlighted.

Through all this the "Indian" stereotype looms large.Parkhill shows its usefulness to those "Place-less" whites who are searching for a way to religiously reconnect themselves to the land (what he calls "geopiety.")Or conversely, those who want to justify the dominance of aboriginal peoples.Dominant culture's passion for primitivism is given a helpful context and critique.

This book is fairly short but punchy and reads like a mystery novel in many ways.It would be a good introduction to "Indian" studies.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

An interesting juxtaposition of two traditions
The Sacred Vision is a personal venture into Native American Religion by the author.It is useful for anyone inquiring to where spirituality may lead them; specifically into Native American culture from an outsider'sperspective.And it is also a useful gauge of the culture as of the1980's, in the pre-casino era. ... Read more

Product Description
WORLD RELIGIONS, ANCIENT SACRED TEXTS, ABORIGINAL RELIGIONS, NATIVE AMERICAN RELIGIONS: The purpose of this series of texts is very simple.We have striven to compile the best of the better known and the least known of the ancient sacred texts from every religion throughout the world and throughout time. It is our hope that this series of volumes makes it possible for a lay reader to truly access some of the most important world literature in religion without having to have a library of 5,000 books in their possession. In these volumes, you will find everything you need to know to have a well-rounded and deep understanding of the many different faiths and belief systems in our world.(For more info- www.outofbodytravel.org) ... Read more

Product Description
The power of religion to preserve individual and group identity is perhaps nowhere more evident than among Native American peoples.In Becoming and Remaining a People, Howard Harrod shows how the oral traditions and ritual practices of Northern Plains Indians developed, how they were transformed at critical points in their history, and how they provided them with crucial means of establishing and maintaining their respective identities.This book offers a bold new interpretation of anthropological studies, demonstrating how religious traditions and ritual processes became sources of group and individual identity for many people.Harrod reconstructs the long religious development of two village peoples, the Mandans and the Hidatsas, describing how their oral traditions enabled them to reinterpret their experiences as circumstances changed.He then shows how these and other groups on the Northern Plains remained distinct peoples in the face of increased interactions with Euro-Americans, other Indians,.and the new religion of Christianity.Harrod proposes that other interpretations of culture change may fail to come to terms with the role that religion plays in motivating both cultural conservatism and social change.For Northern Plains peoples, religion was at the heart of social identity and thus resisted change, but religion was also the source of creative reinterpretation, which produced culture change.Viewed from within the group, such change often seemed natural and was understood as an elaboration of traditions having roots in a deeper shared past. In addition to demonstrating religious continuity and change among the Mandans and the Hidatsas, he also describes instances of religious and social transformation among the peoples who became the Crows and the Cheyennes. Becoming and Remaining a People adopts a challenging analytical approach that draws on the author's creative interpretations of rituals and oral traditions.By enabling us to understand the relation of religion both to the construction of social identity and to the interpretation of social change, it reveals the richness, depth, and cultural complexity of both past Native American people and their contemporary successors. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Thoughtful Book
Howard Harrod's Becoming and Remaining a People: Native American Religions on the Northern Plains argues that the changing of rituals and other aspects of religious practice played a pivotal role in the transformation of the formerly agricultural culture of the Northern Plains into a buffalo culture.

Harrod agrees that the white person's contact with the Native American's had a substantial impact on Native society. He is contending that an exclusive emphasis on contact with the whites can obscure the actions of the Native. Native Americans were not passive spectators to the influx of Europeans; in fact, the Natives actively responded to their changing circumstances ritually as well as politically. This means, that their religious system underwent change that in turn impacted the social structures of Northern Plain culture.

This active change on the part of the Northern Indians is a point of incredible importance. Harrod notes that many of the religious innovations were not seen as a break with tradition. Instead, they were perceived as a development of already existing religious and cultural practices and, thus, continuous with the Northern Plain Native American's social existence. Specifically, these changes could be legitimized by the peoples' visions and dreams. Harrod argues, moreover, that these changes are a testimony to the sheer capability of the Native Americans. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Most of Everything You Ever Wanted to Know...
This book offers an excellent compendium of information about the "calumet", sacred pipe, or "peace pipe", however you call it. It covers the history of this sacred object from antiquity until the past century, with excellent maps, drawings and color photographs. It will satisfy the needs of all, from the casual reader to the serious scholar. The only topic not covered is the techniques of making a pipe from the Catlinite or other pipestone.
It has an extensive bibliography for further research and a very inclusive index.
For what it's worth, I find this book an excellent purchase and it will remain on my reference shelf for some time to come.

...this is what we've been saying all along...
The book seems to be assembled from what may have originally been a number of different "papers" on the subject.As a result, there is a lot of repetition, but that and the typos here and there and the mislabeledillustrations are a minor issue.The importance of this book is itsvalidation of what Native America has said all along...the "pipe"has been with us for a long while, and it is almost as universal in NativeNorth America as is the ceremonial/spiritual use of tobacco.The authorsays he hopes his research on the pipe will make "leaders" in theU.S. and Canada reconsider their positions on the use of the pipe in NativeAmerican spirituality, as those positions relate to its use (or repressionof its use) in various contexts.As a reader, and pipe carrier, I too hopethat it has the effect of allowing the use of the pipe in prisons, schools,etc. to increase.Recently I read that Canada is allowing Native citizensto take an oath in the court room using the pipe.Maybe this book has insome way, had an influence on this change for the better.

The authorprimarily focuses on pipes with detachable stems, that are/have been usedin ceremonial contexts.He suggests that archaeological evidence indicatesthat the use of the pipe may be older than the institutional religion thatby and large tried to stamp out its use.His discussion of Nativecosmology was also of interest. ... Read more

Product Description
Folklorist Gary R. Varner takes a lengthy look at various myths, legends and beliefs of Native Americans in this book. Included are stories and archaeological finds from various lands that suggest cultural contacts between explorers from China, Japan, the Mediterranean and Europe with Native Americans in pre-Columbian times. Native American folklore and myths are examined including the universal legends of the flood and stories of the mysterious god-men such as Quetzalcoatl, Votan and Chinigchinix, who brought the arts, technology and civilization to indigenous cultures. Mysteries of Native American Myth and Religion is a fact-filled, yet fascinating story of the original inhabitants of North and South America. Varner has written several books on folklore and mythology and is a member of the American Folklore Society and the Foundation for Mythological Studies. ... Read more

Product Description
This is a geographical survey of native American religions which examines them by culture areas rather than by topics. It is one of a series of studies of Native American life. ... Read more