Abstract
This paper discusses the use of ceremony in Native American Indian culture, including the powwow and the Gourd Dance.

From the Paper
"Ceremony is something that American culture has largely dispensed with. Weddings are often conducted in bizarre locales such as in helium balloons or on the backs of jet skis or just by a justice of the peace instead of in an elaborate ceremony in a church that is replete with time-honored ritual. Religious rituals such as observing the Sabbath all day have been relegated to only a few of the most devout religious sects. Even rituals as common as..."

Tags:Native American Indian, culture, ceremony, ritual, powwow, Gourd Dance, communication

Abstract
Since the beginning of time religion has played an important part in people's lives. How people worship can be as varied as the lands they live in. The Native American Indians are a group that have many beliefs and rituals. This paper discusses how their religion is based on spirits and the belief of a higher power and that the ceremonies they perform can range from ones concerning harvest and giving thanks to Ghost Dances and Death rituals.

From the Paper
"The Indians believe in Spirits and the supernatural. The Hopi Indians describe Spirits as a being that "may have greater than human powers (Geertz)." They feel these powers can be evil or be able to accomplished great things. They believe kachinas are powerful because they can make it rain. A kachina is a powerful supernatural being, or one who possesses the being during a religious ceremony. The Hopi also believe that there are those who are invisible and help them with knowledge. They consider these spirits to have superhuman strength. Some such spirits which perform many feats in their tales are the Old Spider Woman and her grandsons, and the Sun god. The Hopi ask each being to help them in their lives using their own special gifts (Geertz)."

Tags:religious, beliefs, rituals, ceremonies, ancestors, supernatural, spirits

Abstract
This short three-page essay discusses general Native American death rituals, includes Walt Whitman's poem addressing this, a Native American prayer, and elements of the ideas of afterlife, heaven, God, nature and the nature of death.

Abstract
The Woodlands people lived in three main areas, the upper Great Lakes and Ohio River valley, the Lower Great Lakes, and the coastal region. This paper examines some of the traditions of these Native American groups, as well as their spiritual beliefs. It looks at their connection to the land, their reverence for all living things, and naming traditions. The paper also touches on the artifacts that accompanied their spiritual rituals.

From the Paper
"But for Native Americans, names referred more to spiritual qualities. Lakota men might receive their adult name because of a dream or from something they saw in a "vision quest," a purposeful spiritual retreat. Or they could be named for a wondrous deed or a horrid misdeed. No matter how the adult name arose, however, it meant more than Tom, Dick or Harry. The name was meant to draw a connection between the physical person receiving the name and the spiritual things inside and outside of that person."

Tags:Lenape, ancestors, mythology

From the Paper
"Myths and folk tales are the oral traditions that act as guides for the cultural, social, and religious life of the Native American community. Within Native American life, these factors are intertwined and cannot be easily separated into distinct categories. Native American religion as the backbone of culture also directs society, both individually and communally through the use and practice of sacred rituals, ceremonial dances, songs, prayers, and vision quests (Thomas et al., 1993). This belief system represents, as well as directs the Native American way of life. A life that is in tune with and at the same time, at odds with the surrounding natural environment. This dichotomy found in their relationship with the natural world is the motivator for these oral and ritual traditions, and through these myths and folk tales the , people are able to create and maintain a sense of religious, cultural, and social identity and purpose within the larger picture of existence in an ever-changing and mystifying universe (Leeming, 1990)."

Tags:anthropology, culture, mythology, ritual, symbolism

Abstract
The paper notes that throughout the history of the United States not all people have not been treated equally and that the Native-American peoples were forced from the homes and lands that they had always known and that were sacred to them. The paper highlights that today the United States devalues the Native-American peoples and their cultures. The paper discusses the Sioux tribes who made a monumental, but often forgotten, contribution to world and American history and discusses the Sioux lifestyle, culture, mode of livelihood and existence, as well as their rituals and religious beliefs, and their battles with the US.

From the Paper
"Regardless of the extreme extent to which the United States devalues the Native American peoples and their cultures, from Inuit to Hopi, each has a culture that is now recognized as an important contributor to world and American history. While just one of the tribes who made this monumental, but often forgotten, contribution, the Sioux resided in the Great Planes areas of Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and North and South Carolina. With a population of around 30,000 during the mid-1700s, the Sioux consisted of smaller tribes such as the Wahpekute, Mdewakantowan, Wahpetonwan, Sisitonwan, Ihanktonwan, and the Tetons".

Tags:animosity, genocide, physical, mistreatment, wayward, philosophy

Abstract
This paper examines the role of spirituality in the traditions of Native American peoples. There is a focus on the rituals involved in hunting and fishing, as well as the significance of the natural world for Native Americans.

Abstract
When the tidal wave of European civilization inundated the shores of the New World, more accompanied it than senseless destruction. Rather, the European deluge ushered in permanent changes in the economies and lifestyles of the Americas. This paper focuses on the disruption that the European conquerors wrought upon the Native American civilizations, which had relatively advanced religious practices.

From the Paper
"In order to properly focus this inquiry into the religious change of the immediate post-colonial period, one must take notice of the reality of the pre-Columbian Southeast. Contrary to popular assumption, these Indians were not "savages", possessed of little formal culture. Instead, thanks to agricultural innovations several centuries in the making, the tribal groupings of the region under study were able to reap the gains that only specialized divisions of labor can bring. Since a smaller proportion of the population could now supply the community with its sustenance, resources and people were freed from strict ties to the land."

Tags:conquistador, spanish

Abstract
This paper explores and details North American Indian life and culture as portrayed in Donald Hughes' book "North American Indian Ecology." This paper discusses the land issues facing the North American Indian tribes including overgrazing, erosion and assessments of appropriate land usage. The writer of this paper finds Hughes' book to be straightforward and concise in clarifying the characteristics of Indian life such as hunting, food growing and rituals.

From the Paper
"Tribes are having to mediate the disparate demands of their members and the industrial mindset of the BIA to balance forest use for economic need and preservation for cultural need. Tribes face many of the same problems as non-Native communities held hostage by the timber industry. Replanting has not always kept pace with harvesting on public or trust lands. The push to harvest old-growth timber is constrained by federal mandates to protect endangered species habitats, putting people out of work. Few local communities gain the "value-added" benefits of processing their own timber especially jobs and new businesses and when they do the environmental impact of mill sites has to be factored into any cost-benefit analysis."

Tags:ecology, land, environment, law, native, american, indian, oil, culture

Abstract
This paper gives a review and analysis of how the differences in cultural rituals--American and Native American--play themselves out in Leslie Silko's short story "The Man To Send Rain Clouds." Additionally, the paper further shows how the story's ideas evoke cultural differences.

From the Paper
"The purpose of this research is to examine how Christian and Native American religious rituals operate in the narrative of the short story 'The Man to Send Rain Clouds' by Leslie Silko. The plan of the research will be to set forth the pattern of ideas in the story and then to discuss the means by which it evokes cultural differences at work in Christian and Native American terms with a view toward identifying the significance of the origin of rituals that are carried out upon the old..."

Tags:Catholic Church, Christian, Native American, Silko, Pueblo Indians, Religious ritual