Native American Ritual

Photos of the exterior of the recently opened Smithsonian American Indian Museum.
What a difficult task it is to recount for you everything I have learned about Native American ritual!   Practically all Native Americans today consider themselves Christians, especially those in North America.  Whenever Christianity enters a culture the indigenous understandings of the world and God become woven into the faith and practices of the church.  In the UCC, our predecessor denominations were concerned about the treatment of native Americans and organized missions on Indian lands.  Great stories are told of the Congregational missionaries living in North Carolina with the Cherokee people at a time when the government forced them to march to an Oklahoma reservation.  The Congregationalists accompanied the Cherokee along what has become known as "the trail of tears" because so many died along the way.   

In the late 1800's, Congress passed a law that Indians were not allowed to practice native rituals and in many places their religious objects and drums were confiscated and destroyed.  The population of Native Americans, South, Central and North has been estimated at 300 Million at the time of the discovery and conquest of the late 15th Century.  Diseases for which the Indian population had no resistance is responsible for a 70% loss of life among their population.  This is one of the significant untold stories of world history.  An estimated 210 million Indians died from a variety of illnesses contracted through contact with European settlers between 1500 and 1800.  A number of written accounts detail European settlers stumbling upon entire abandoned, uninhabited native American cities.  Similar accounts come from South America, where Indians tell the story of not being able to keep up with burial practices due to the large number of losses to diseases and people succumbed to their illness rather quickly.

A number of factors make recovery of indigenous religious beliefs and practices difficult.  I have just spent three days immersed in the history, ritual and beliefs of Indian culture and have only scratched the surface of what that reality must have been like for them.  Much of what I learned though can be beneficial for those of us who respect their approaches to spirituality.  It will take several blogs to begin to lay out its implications. This is especially important as we stretch ourselves to understand where God is still speaking in the life of the church.  Hymnals, pews, organs and steeples have been symbols of "church" for a relatively brief time in Christian history and we don't know yet what the future holds as we seek renewal in our time. 

For this first blog concerning Native American ritual I want to set out a few essentials;

1.  The essential foundation for Indian spirituality is "respect".  Paying attention to what you eat, how you interact with nature, and who you treat others is central to everything that they do.  Life is divided into three realms, the middle world in which we live, the lower world of the spirits of the earth, and the upper world from which comes wisdom and guidance from God and our ancestors.  All of these realms must be treated to with respect.

2.  Transcendence is very important in Indian ritual.  Drumming is a technique whereby the leader sets the tone for the ritual.  Rituals are performed to explore these realms and to ask questions, to  receive power, to restore ones soul, and to find healing.  Singing, dancing and drumming are consistent features.  This is also prominent in African Christian worship and Trinity has a couple of Ghanaian drums from Rev. Ledo's time with us. 

3.  Sometimes when we here stories about animals bringing messages and teaching lessons we may think that this is similar to Western society where we understand and write in metaphors.  But, for the Indian, these are not metaphors, this is real.  The essence of a bear can teach us much about ourselves because all nature is one.  The transcendence of worship lifts you to a place where you experience these things in new ways. 

We were given a song sheet with ritual songs.  Indian songs remind me of the Psalms, the songs found in the Bible that ancient Israelites used to sing on special occasions.  Indians are encouraged to write their own song of their life.  This form of self-expression can be very healing.  There are songs for every occasion in life.  An example;

Behold, the time has come.
The time has come to unite as one.
Behold the time has come.
To encircle the Earth with our love.

The circle is also important in Indian ritual because it symbolizes that we are all the same and each of us has a place on the earth.

In the next blog, I plan to discuss some of the specific rituals that we participated in.  I also had an opportunity to visit the new American Indian Museum which is part of the Smithsonian Museum.  I would recommend a trip to see it when you're in the DC area.