May 3, 2008
May 17, 2008
June 7, 2008
Our Living Tradition: Native American Spirituality
First delivered at UUCB on April 9, 2006
This service departed from the congregation's traditional order of service. We arranged the chairs in the sanctuary into a circle, lit a hearth in the center of the circle rather than the altar chalice, used sand and feathers for Joys and Concern, beat drums during readings, an experienced storyteller told a Northwestern Native myth to the children for Children's Time, and Dianne Parker provided original music in full Plains regalia. DVDs of the full service are available. Contact ann@brevardminister.com.
Any discussion on Native American spirituality must be prefaced with many disclaimers. For one thing, it is far too broad a topic for a single sermon. Although I’m restricting my remarks this morning to indigenous cultures of North America, that still encompasses a wide range of tribal beliefs and practices. The phrase “Native American spirituality” implies a commonality that just doesn’t exist. That is not to say that some generalizations cannot be made, but we must approach them with care.
An analogy can be made to viewing Earth from space. One can describe our planet as a blue green orb with beautiful white wisps encircling the globe. It isn’t a false statement but it certainly does not capture the wonder found in diversity and detail when viewed at sea level.
Additionally
we should note the use of the word spirituality is intentional because we are
not talking about a religion in the more coherent sense of Christianity,
Hinduism or Shinto. Native American, Indian, beliefs and practices form an
integral and seamless part of their very being. There is no such thing as the
Native American religion.
This
subject takes us into the territory of North American history, anthropology,
sociology, psychology, politics, …you name it. We cannot possibly cover all
angles but do need to recognize the impact of the European Conquest of North
America. Disease, forced displacement and outright genocide forever altered
Native American religious practices and eradicated many traditional stories, the
transmission of which relied on the oral heritage of storytellers.
I
am ill-equipped to properly atone for the treatment of the Native American
population by European invaders and I could not possibly do justice to the
desecrated spirit of indigenous populations today. I hope I can at least pay
some degree of tribute to a form of spirituality that we cannot afford to let
perish from this Earth.
There
were at a minimum 2,000 different tribes in North America at the time of the
European invasion. While we can make some general comments about the cultures at
that point in history I urge anyone with any interest to dig deeper into a
particular tribe for a more robust and detailed perspective on an Indian belief
system.
A
brief comment about labels as this is a subject that is fraught. Native
American, American Indian, Indian are all used to identify the peoples already
living in the Americas prior to 1492. Today, all three terms are used by Indian
and non-Indian peoples alike. The use of any these three particular terms should
not be considered disrespectful or derogatory, we have enough epithets that fall
into that category. From this point forward I may use the word Indian from time
to time, simply because it is less of a mouthful than Native American.
I chose to speak on this topic for several reasons. As I’ve mentioned in a previous sermon I’d like to focus on the living tradition espoused by Unitarian Universalists. We include “Spiritual teachings of earth-centered traditions which celebrate the sacred circle of life and instruct us to live in harmony with the rhythms of nature.” As we shall see, this concept will be the prevailing generalization I make today. The timing of this sermon is also deliberate. Earth Day falls in April and I’d like us to be mindful of this particular aspect of our living tradition as April 22nd approaches. And last, but certainly not least, we are blessed to have Dianne Parker in our midst who has been extremely influential in the encouragement to my spiritual growth in this area.
So someone wants to convert to Native Americanism? Sorry, it’s not going to happen. Think of it this way, “You cannot convert to ‘Native American’ any more than you can convert to African-American or Korean or any other cultural identity you would need to be raised in to understand.” Many Indians are Christians in addition to their traditional tribal beliefs much like African-Americans and Koreans can also be Christian in addition to their ethnicity. American Indians are extremely respectful of spiritual needs and will not accept money for holy objects or spiritual teaching. Remember there is a difference between sacramental objects and arts and crafts. A devout Catholic may sell you a beautiful hand-carved crucifix but would never sell communion wafers or charge admission to mass. (Orrin) Anyone putting a price tag on religious items like medicine bags or charging to participate in a sweat lodge or dance is not authentically Indian and should be avoided by anyone seeking spiritual guidance in the Indian tradition.
I would also caution that not only is it impossible to convert to Native Americanism it can also be offensive to integrate aspects of Indian religious practices into another faith system to create a syncretic pagan religion. It is particularly viewed as desecration when motivated by a desire for profit. Our service today does not seek to assimilate native rituals and beliefs but to honor the spiritual perspective and access elements that may hold personal meaning to us as individuals.
The reverential and respectful means of honoring Native American spirituality is
to seek knowledge and embrace the underlying respect for communion with nature
inherent in t
he
variety of native belief systems.
Musical Interlude: “The Faces of My People” by Dianne Parker
“Above all else, Native American spirituality is a land-based spirituality. The relationship between the land and the people is one of mystical inter-dependence. (Ladkin) North America has a wide range of habitats. Religious traditions of aboriginal peoples all over the world are usually influenced by methods of acquiring food, that which gives us life. Therefore we see differences in myth and ritual between hunter-gatherer societies and agricultural societies, but in both cases there is an abiding interest in preserving the environment necessary for providing either game or fertile ground.
Spiritual elements found in many, but not all native religions are:
A common concept of dual divinity: There is a creator responsible for the composition of the world and a mythical individual, either a hero or a trickster, who brought culture, proper behavior and instructed the people in the means of providing sustenance to the tribe. Additionally there are spirits controlling the weather, interacting with humans and living in the underworld.
As illustrated in our children’s story this morning, frequently we find a mythical age in which the distinctions between animal and human are blurred. Characters with animal names and attributes behave as people.
Creation stories vary but emergence themes are quite prevalent. The universe is viewed as multi-layered and humans climbed from an underworld emerging from a hole to populate the Earth. This evokes the image of the child struggling to emerge from the birth canal. The diver is also a common creation myth. This is a story in which an animal dives into the primordial waters and brings up earth to form the land. The animal varies depending upon relevance to the tribe, but a flooded earth is remarkably consistent as an element in Indian mythology.
Indian religions do not typically have revelatory prophets like those found in the western monotheistic traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. However, some native prophets include Handsome Lake in the Iroquois Confederacy, Sweet Medicine of the Cheyenne and White Buffalo Woman of the Lakota and Dakota tribes.
Immanence of spirituality and consciousness are common themes among traditional tribal beliefs. Natural things are alive and have a spirit, Winona La Duke articulates this belief when she says, “Therefore, when we harvest wild rice on our reservation we always offer tobacco to the earth because when you take something you must always give thanks to its spirit for giving itself to you.” (Ladkin) That’s a radical shift in thinking. Rice isn’t something you are entitled to take but something that gives itself to you.
Although everything possesses a spirit, certain landscapes or geological formations embody a special quality of sacredness. This is not accomplished by consecrating a temple or a cathedral, it is an element of the land itself. These places are precious to the tribe and are where people go to fast, pray or seek vision. European thought enables us to raze a church and build it up again on another street corner. We exhume bodies and transfer them to another cemetery. This is utterly alien to Native American spirituality. The place itself is what contains the sacred element.
I’d like to return to a particular element in this list because I think it provides us with quite a contrary view of nature than the one derived from the Biblical view of creation. The Indian creation myths posit humans in a very different place with respect to nature. People are not given dominion over other creatures and nature. Rather, the animal, plant and mineral co-inhabitants of our planet are our companions and guides. There is a mutual respectfulness required when interacting with trees, birds and plants, and also natural forces such as the wind and the rain. (Ladkin) Such beliefs prohibit the despoiling of the environment and generate a compelling spiritual angst when witnessing the mistreatment of any aspect of existence. Some of you may have heard of an Indian admonition to consider repercussions seven generations in the future when approaching decisions regarding the environment.
Indian creation myths are also remarkable in their contrast to Biblical creation because these myths inform us that creation is an ongoing process. We are taking part in it all the time. It isn’t something that happened 6,000 years ago or millions of years ago. We are now, at this very moment, engaged in the Creation Story.
The relationship between human beings, the land and all of Creation is the basis of Native American spirituality. Weatenatenamy, Chief of the Cayuse nation encapsulates this feeling with these words:
“I wonder if the ground has anything to say. I wonder if the ground is listening to what is said….the earth says, God has placed me here. The Earth says that God tells me to take care of the Indians on the earth; the Earth says to the Indians that stop on the Earth, feed them right. God named the roots that he should feed the Indians on; the water speaks the same way…the grass says the same thing…The Earth and water and grass say God has given our names and we are told those names; neither the Indians nor the Whites have a right to change those names, the Earth says, God has placed me here to produce all that grows upon me, the trees, fruit, etc. The same way the Earth says, it was from her man was made. God, on placing them on the Earth, desired them to take good care of the earth do each other no harm. God said.” (Ladkin)
Spirituality is an attitude of appreciation for the aspect of our existence that does not fit neatly into the physical and psychological realms. Native American spirituality can tune us in to reverence for the interconnected web of all existence and inspire us to a new way of being in the world. A way of being that, in language from a prominent UU theologian, is not the raw power of “power over…” but an enabling power of “power with….” (Beach, p. 195)
Copyright © 2006
Ann Fuller, April 2006
Resources
Beach, George
Kimmich, ed. The Essential James Luther Adams: Selected Essays and
Addresses. Skinner House Books. Boston. 1998.
Bierhorst, John. The
Mythology of North America. Oxford University Press. Oxford. 2002.
Cameron, Anne. Daughters
of Copper Woman. Press Gang Publishers. Vancouver. 1981.
Heyrman, Christine
Leigh. Department of History, University of Delaware. Native American
Religion in Early America. http://www.nhc.rtp.nc.us:8080/tserve/eighteen/ekeyinfo/natrel.htm.
Ladkin, Donna, ed. Native
American Spirituality. http://www.greenspirit.org/uk/Resources/NatAmerSpirit.htm.
Orrin. Seeking
Native American Spirituality and Traditional Religion: Read This First!
http://ww.native-languages.org.religion.htm.
Wilson, James. The
Earth Shall Weep: A History of Native America. Grove Press. New York. 1998.
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