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

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
This paper responds to Starr Sered's chapter on women in healing traditions as a phenomenon of woman-centred spirituality, as well as Laura Donaldson's critique of cultural appropriation affecting Native American spiritual traditions. The paper considers the care that must be taken when studying other spiritual phenomena and also preventing ideological approaches to traditions that can be closed or community-limited.

From the Paper
"Susan Starr Sered described at length pre-capitalist societies' women-centered healing traditions as are now of interest, in addition to the Western contribution of Christian Science that can be seen as comparable. These offer challenges to allopathic understandings of illness and medicine seen as male-focused just as they have under-estimated women's particular illnesses and the need for woman-focused approaches to healing. A response that Starr Sered seems not to have considered appears in Laura E. Donaldson's article on how common Native American spirituality..."

Tags:starr sered, donaldson, appropriation

Abstract
This study is restricted to consider only those Native American cultures in North America, that are well-known and which provide certain insights into the construction of the spirit world for these particular people. This is still a relatively broad group of people. Nevertheless, there are common themes that run throughout Native American mythology in North America with regard to the spirit world.

From the Paper
"It would be ridiculous to suggest that Native American mythology, specifically regarding the belief in a spirit world, is monolithic. After all, when we are speaking of Native Americans, of whom are we speaking? Should we broaden our discussion to include all the various tribes and cultural groups throughout North and South America? Can we actually expect that beliefs in the Spirit World would remain consistent across such great geographical, climatic, and cultural divides? Of course, such an argument would be reductive and would provide very little useful information regarding the spiritual beliefs of any Native Americans. For the purpose of this study, I will restrict myself to consider only those Native American cultures in North America, and even then I will restrict myself further to those cultures that are well-known and which provide certain insights into the construction of the spirit world for these particular people."

Tags:native, american, spirit

Abstract
In this article, the writer makes a proposal for the essential content of a library exhibit that highlights the Native-American cultures of what is now known as New England. The writer discusses that the exhibit will focus on informing the local community about the influences on and contributions of Native-American cultures to the present culture.

Tags:Champagne, Berkhofer, Native American

Abstract
This paper discusses the original uniqueness of Native American Indian identities in terms of their nations, tribes, and culture as expressed through gender, language, and literature and the scientific image of the Indian.

From the Paper
"The cultural, tribal and national identities of Native American Indians are marked by uniqueness that is defined in part by language, literature and gender. The scientific image discussed by Berkhofer was developed by Euro-Americans in their representations of Indians but also figured into tribal and national identities impacting Indians at a conceptual level. While Native American Indian nations and tribes originally had distinctly different cultures that shared neither a universal language nor a known historical experience and consisted of hundreds of aboriginal..."

Tags:uniqueness, Native American, Indian, tribe, nation, gender, language, literature, culture, scientific image

Abstract
This paper discusses African and Native-American religions and the student's opinion of the textbook, "Introduction to World Religion".

From the Paper
"African and Native American religions have both similarities and differences between themselves. African religiosity acknowledges the reality of God but does not define God. If anything, it confesses that God is unknowable. God, however, is viewed as Creator of everything and the Africans believe that there is only one God, so African religions are monotheistic. There is also a belief in spiritual beings such as nature, spirits that are personifications of heavenly or earthly objects, and phenomena such as the..."

Tags:African religion, Native American Religion, Christianity

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
This paper researches and writes about the building of totem poles as a spiritual, multicultural art form. Specifically, it looks at the recent totem poles carved by Jewell Praying Wolf James from the Lummi Native American Nation. It also discusses the tradition of totem poles and how their use and meaning may have changed in Native-American culture from the late 18th century to present day.

From the Paper
"Despite the long and important tradition of totems and the celebrations relating to them (called potlashes), they have experienced great challenges and setbacks in the past centuries. In Canada, the Indian Act of 1876 made potlatching and other Native customs illegal. Many consider that the Indian Act destroyed tribal life in Canadian Native Americans, and it certainly had an impact of native culture and art; totem poles and other art was destroyed or confiscated, and people violating the laws were imprisoned or fined heavily. In both Canada and the United States, the abuse of Native Americans and their lack of rights under the American and Canadian governments resulted in mass export of their art, if it was not destroyed (Malin 167-68). "

Tags:culture, lummi

Abstract
The following paper suggests that certain sacred stories such as Black Elk Speaks, for instance, cannot be understood in isolation, as merely a tale. The writer claims that it is both a cultural artifact as well as a piece of literature. In this paper the cultural production of the text is considered as well as ones personal religious affiliation, thus the writer contends that this culture is flexible and evolves and changes over time, as stories and notions of the sacred evolve and change over time.

From the paper:

"This does not mean one can simply discount the text Black Elk Speaks simply because it is a scholarly product of ethnography as well as a Native American artifact. It is still an interview, a living piece of history. If you could imagine that somehow someone had gone to interview Jesus late in his life and had kept notes from that interview then these notes would be to the New Testament what The Sixth Grandfather is to Black Elk Speaks."

Tags:cultural, America, Christian, tradition, Mormon, prophet, Deists, spirituality, sacred, reinterpretation