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Native American Religious Experience Essay

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The religious experience of the Native Americans can best be described as oppressive and very similar to the experience the slaves had. As the colonists began to invade their lands and try to convert the Natives from their own rituals, the Natives were able to adapt their religious beliefs in order to try and form a connection with the colonists. The current day lack of Native American religion could partially be due to the fact that they were so lenient with being taught and forced to practice a religion that did not mirror their actual beliefs. The overall journey of the Native Americans took them through defining religion and finding an actual word to mean religion, through being taught the traditions and religion of the Europeans, and, …show more content…

As the Natives took in this new experience they broadened their view of the world and the different types of living other than their own, but that is all that it was. They simply wanted to have a new experience in order to peacefully exist with their newfound neighbors. As the colonists dove deeper into the meaning of religion to the Natives, they were dumbfounded to realize that they could not piece together what religion was as they were familiar with simply treating each other and nature with respect and praying to the different Gods when they needed something. This teaching to the Natives of new ways to live and practice religion went on, they increasingly felt like returning to the ways they were used to living before the Europeans brought disease and religious confusion with them to their country. In order to cope and to pray for their way of life to be restored to them, the Natives took part in the Ghost Dance as a way to rid their lands of the many issues the colonists brought with them. However, the colonists believed this dance was the Natives’ way of preparation to attack them and took it as a threat (The Nineteenth Century, Unit 3, Lecture 11). The Natives realized that this problem and the turmoil that they Europeans had brought with them was not going to disappear and they surrendered and were converted to the religion they were so keen on learning from a

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