American Indian Culture and Research Journal

Native American religious traditions are rich in aesthetics and symbolism. Each tribal group has its own cultural pattern, language, and way of life, which generate the cosmological core of its unique belief system. The development of these elaborate traditions can only be examined properly within their own social, religious, and historical contexts. Several obstacles interfere with the objective study of American Indian religions, however. The major factor is the persistent lack of understanding between the majority of the American nation and Native Americans. Because of their long history of oppression and forced assimilation, Native Americans are protective of their sacred traditions and spiritual knowledge. Most non-Indians have as yet failed to comprehend the full impact of conquest on Native Americans, whose lives were forcibly transformed by systematic efforts to replace their cultures and religious beliefs with various forms of Christianity and Euro-American political structures. Today, however, many non-Indians are interested in learning about Native Americans in the hope of better understanding their own history, environment, and spirituality. Since the mid-1960s, in many universities Native American students have demanded courses in Native American studies that would help them comprehend the historical, political, environmental, and religious issues which confront them in the modern world. Students today face the metaphysical and epistemological questions relative to American Indians with a sense of wonder that is coupled with frustration. Both Indian and non-Indian students alike are often confounded by their own feelings about the historical injustices rendered to native populations.