Views of the Absolute in World Religions
Center for Media and Independent Learning - University of California Extension
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Native American Spirituality
Course Guide written by Mike Fedel
NATIVE AMERICAN TRADITIONS
First and foremost, I need to explain what this chapter is not. It is not an introduction to sweat lodges, dream catchers, and the Ghost Dance. It is also not a recap of the abysmal treatment of Native Americans during the 19th and 20th centuries. (This subject is worth learning about. Two good places to start are the books Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown and A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn. But this is not a course in American history or cultural anthropology and therefore this is not our purpose.)That said, I should try to outline what this chapter is about. The focus of this course is how different traditions talk about the Absolute and our relationship with it. I will continue on that same path here. In addition, I will make some additional comments on the material you read in Smith, Novak and Brown.
WHAT IS THE NATIVE AMERICAN SPIRITUAL TRADITION?
Learning about Native American religions confronts us with a situation similar to that of learning about Hinduism: the label is somewhat abstract and artificial. Just as Hinduism was a name applied to hundreds of diverse religious systems found in India by researchers, the term Native American religion is a blanket term which applies to dozens, if not hundreds, of different ways to thinking about the world and our place in it and about the Absolute.However, again, this course runs into the very real limitations of time and space. Rather than select one particular tradition and attempt to learn about it in depth, I have chosen to be consistent with our approach to other traditions and look for similarities from which we can get a general sense of what the individual traditions are about.
In his first chapter, Brown introduces us to one way of classifying the world we are studying: the culture map which distinguishes five broad regions (see p.5). Within these, we are introduced to different tribes with different ways of looking at the world. From all of this, though, some broad general themes can be identified and that is where we begin.
Brown and Smith both highlight the importance of oral tradition and a very different sense of time and space. I will not elaborate on those here. Two features which we will discuss below are the attitude of respect and humility before God's creation and the pervasiveness of Spirit in every aspect of daily life. I will then make some observations about the view of the Absolute as it is found in Native American (NA) traditions.
RESPECT
When reading about NA traditions, one feature which is immediately evident is how the principle of respect permeates everything. There is respect for elders, respect for the spirits, respect for animals, and respect for the earth itself. In relation to elders, they are respected for their knowledge and for the very fact of their survival. Spirits are to be taken seriously and no offense is to be given them. Spirit guides are sought and spirits are appeased in times of sickness and trouble. Animals are thanked for being available to be hunted and captured or killed and for providing for the needs of their hunters. The earth itself is seen as something to be taken care of, to be thanked for its abundance, and to be repaired when it is violated (as in rituals done around plowing and digging).Recognizing this deep-rooted sense of respect makes it easier to understand the objections many NAs feel toward certain intrusions into their traditions. Some researchers have gathered and subsequently disseminated information about NA spiritual traditions in disrespectful and intrusive ways. Even today, there is controversy about the way sweat lodges and drumming are used outside of their traditional roles (see Ward Churchill's Indians 'R Us for a critical analysis of the problem of "borrowing" from NA traditions).
Another example is the controversy about the selling of sand paintings. I have been told that some Indians see this as a serious violation of the purpose of the paintings. Sand paintings are to be made for medicinal purposes and are to be destroyed when they have served that purpose. Others, however, have no objection whatsoever since these particular sand paintings were made to be sold, not to be used in ceremony. These debates can be found in other traditions as well. You might remember a very recent episode in which Muslims objected to McDonald's making paper bags with verses from the Qu'ran on them.
Respect for the earth is one of the themes in NA traditions that has attracted much interest in the last few decades. As we see ecological crisis closing in around us, it is very helpful to be aware of a tradition which respects the earth. There is much that can be learned from a basic position of respect for the earth which can inform other traditions.
And that sense of respect makes the ecological awareness that much more potent. Some arguments have been raised that the NA approach is simple pragmatism. The argument is that it comes form a realization that we cannot hunt and kill everything, therefore we should be careful. However, this does not seem likely--it seems to be an after-the-fact analysis. Within the framework in which these traditions grew up, the abstract notions of "sustained ecology" and "interdependence" had not been articulated. The respect more likely came from a sense of thanksgiving and humbleness before the power which provided the trees for fuel and the animals for food and fur.
Respect is also fostered in other religious traditions, with varying levels of success. But in the writings of NA's (collected, for instance, in the book Native American Testimony and others), the depth of this sense of respect comes through. Through and through the book, passages begin with "my grandfather told me..." or "my mother's mother told us..." The word of elders was taken as the most valid source of truth, because their experience was respected. In addition, there are references to respecting the animals and the natural environment from which they took their sustenance.
DAY TO DAY LIFE
We should understand well that all things are the works of the Great Spirit. We should know that He is within all things: the trees, the greases, the rivers, the mountains and all the four-legged animals, and the winged peoples; and even more important, we should understand that Hsi is also above all these things and peoples. - spoken by Black Elk, in Joseph Epes Brown, The Sacred Pipe (Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma, 1953) pp. xx, 59 and quoted in Joseph Epes Brown, The Spiritual Legacy of the American Indian, 39.The above quote is indicative of the pervasiveness of the sacred in American Indian religion. It successfully maintains the balance between the transcendent and immanent God, which is always a question in the study of religions. God is the creator of all things, yet God is within them too.
This position can be misinterpreted as simple animism or pantheism: God is the spirit which animates reality and is nothing more. This is why the last sentence is so important. Black Elk reminds us that we must deal seriously with the paradox that the Great Spirit is both transcendent and immanent.
The Great Spirit is in everything therefore no aspect of life is without its spiritual dimension. This is reflected by the extent to which the sacred and the day-to-day have been successfully integrated. In fact, even this wording is misleading: integration suggests that two separate things have been somehow related to each other to produce some third thing which borrows from them both. The more true view is to understand that these two have never been separated. Every aspect of life is somehow imbued with the power of the Great Spirit. This can be compared with the same sense of the presence of Allah in Islam.