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Native American Religious Traditions

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To start, Native American spirituality followers don’t take their practices as a religion like other religions, but their beliefs play an important role of themselves. Native American beliefs are deeply rooted in their culture. They believe everything surrounding them is holy, from the largest mountain, to the smallest organism. Also, Native Americans believe that a lesson can be found in all things and everything has a purpose. To sum up the main focus of their Spirituality, it is all about honor, true love, and respect. (EarthLink) In other words, not only do they love, honor, and respect their “Creator” and Holy Earth, but also every living thing particularly. Spiritual practices of Native Americans include the use of entheogens, any substance, …show more content…

These symbols were used for numerous reasons. Many animals are drawn on other objects as a symbol. These animals include the Deer, Fox, Gila Monster, Raccoon, Snake, Turtle, Wolf & Horse. (Alchin) There are many Amerindian traditions that were passed down from generation to generation and are still performed until today. Types of these traditions include rituals, customs, art, and clothing. Starting off with rituals, there are two distinct cultural ritual traditions: the Northern Hunting tradition and the Southern Agrarian tradition. In the Northern Hunting tradition, they undergo rituals like Animal worship, shamanism, ritual healing, and interspecies communication.(Nelson) On the other hand, in the Southern Agrarian tradition, they perform rituals that …show more content…

The structure starts with the most powerful person in the tribe: the chief or leader. The chief controls everything everywhere in the tribe. Of course, the chiefs are the noble ones. (Ducksters) Next in the pyramid are the hunters and craftsmen. These occupations take care of food stability and the carrying on with their famous art respectively. Last but not least were the normal men and women. The men mostly did more excruciating jobs. While the women were normal mothers in families, but not all of them because Native Americans believed in gender equality and that there was no difference. And last but not least: the rules and punishments. First of all, the crime rate is really low. Also, there are no types of jails in all the tribes. (Kay) But usually in exceptional matters like murder, the family or the clan usually handled the unfinished business with the murderer. (Ducksters)Often the person guilty of the crime was deported from the tribe and tried to make it on his/her own. (Kay) In general, the tribes were extremely peaceful and crimes were especially

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