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Indians 101: Treatment of death among Southwestern cultures
The Southwest Culture Area is a culturally diverse area. Geographically it covers all of Arizona and New Mexico and includes parts of Colorado, Nevada, Utah, and Texas as well as parts of the Mexican...
View ArticleReligion 102: Questions about the soul
One of the common features of most—but not all—religious traditions throughout the world is the belief that human beings are more than just physical bodies. Humans are felt to have a non-physical...
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Indians 101: Ceremonies of the Great Basin Indian nations
The Great Basin Culture Area includes the high desert regions between the Sierra Nevada and the Rocky Mountains. It is bounded on the north by the Columbia Plateau and on the south by the Colorado...
View ArticleIndians 101: The Mandan Okipa ceremony
While the common stereotype of Northern Plains Indians brings up an image of nomadic horse-mounted buffalo hunters who lived in tipis, there were, in fact, several agricultural tribes living in...
View ArticleIndians 101: The Sun Dance among the Crow and Hidatsa
For many, if not most, of the Northern Plains tribes, the Sun Dance was the central ceremony and often served as a unifying force to bring together the various hunting bands. Usually held when the...
View ArticleReligion 101: Animism
Animism is a religious view that sees souls in all things. These souls provide animism—life—in all things. For animists, all things are alive and have souls. It is not just animate beings such as...
View ArticleIndians 101: Pueblo astronomy
The Pueblos are the village agriculturalists of New Mexico and Northern Arizona. Pueblo people have been farmers for thousands of years and much of their life revolves around the challenges and...
View ArticleIndians 201: Echawamahu, a Yavapai messiah
When cultures are under stress, particularly when that stress is coming from forced change outside of the control of the people in the culture, a messiah or prophet may emerge who will provide a...
View ArticleIndians 101: The Sun Dance among the Algonquian-speaking Plains tribes
For many, if not most, of the Northern Plains tribes, the Sun Dance was the central ceremony and often served as a unifying force to bring together the various hunting bands. Usually held when the...
View ArticleIndians 201: Eschiti, Comanche medicineman
The Comanche held a Sun Dance in Oklahoma in 1874. This was not a traditional ceremony but was one they had borrowed from the Cheyenne. The Sun Dance coincided with the emergence of a new medicine man,...
View ArticleApache spirituality
Welcome to the Street Prophets Coffee Hour cleverly hidden at the intersection of religion and politics. This is an open thread where we can share our thoughts and comments about the day. Most of the...
View ArticleIndians 201: A very short overview of Kiowa religion
While the Kiowa today have a reservation in Oklahoma, their own oral tradition as well as that of other tribes tells of their migrations from present-day Montana to the Southern Plains. Like many...
View ArticleReligion 102: Rites of passage
Religions reflect and reinforce the social organization of the cultures in which they is found. This is seen in the ceremonies which are associated with the economic activities of the society. Thus, in...
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Indians 101: Kwakiutl spiritual beings
The area along the Pacific Coast north of California and between the Cascade Mountains and the ocean, is the home to many Indian nations who traditionally based their economy on the use of seacoast and...
View ArticleIndians 301: Sacred places in California
Throughout North America there are two basic kinds of sacred American Indian sites: (1) those which are sacred because of human acts of consecration, dedication, and ritual practice, and (2) those...
View ArticleIndians 101: The Sun Dance among the Siouan-speaking Plains Indian tribes
For many, if not most, of the Northern Plains tribes, the Sun Dance was the central ceremony and often served as a unifying force to bring together the various hunting bands. Usually held when the...
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Indians 101: A short introduction to sacred places
Many religious traditions throughout the world have places which are felt to be sacred. American Indian religious traditions have places which are sacred because they are a part of their mythological...
View ArticleIndians 201: Nakaidoklini, Apache spiritual leader
President Ulysses Grant established the San Carlos Indian Reservation in Arizona by Presidential Executive Order in 1872. The newly created reservation was a division of the White Mountain Apache...
View ArticleIndians 101: The Coast Salish vision quest
The area along the Pacific Coast north of California and between the Cascade Mountains and the ocean, is the home to many Indian nations who traditionally based their economy on the use of seacoast and...
View ArticleIndians 101: A brief introduction to tribal religious traditions
There are nearly 7,000 religions in the world and most of these do not have a specific name as they are an integral part of an ethnic or tribal group. These religions are generally designated as...
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