A serious misconception about native North American religions is that, before contact with European civilization, they existed in a changeless “Golden Age” and that what happened later can be described only as degeneration. This view owes much to the misgivings of many 19th-century Europeans over the deep changes wrought on their own societies by the Industrial Revolution. Change, borrowing, and innovation are characteristic of any living religion, but indigenous communities relied on strands of oral communication to maintain both continuity and the memory of change, and Euro-American observers were ill-equipped to notice and record these sources.

At the same time, the changes that visited Native Americans in the wake of the arrival of the Europeans were massive, unprecedented, and mostly destructive. Whole languages—and with them ceremonies, narratives, and oral libraries of accumulated knowledge about human and natural history and humour—were lost. Even the most earnest and energetic efforts to rejuvenate traditional ways can seem pale and pathetic to those who remember earlier days. Yet some elders reject this pessimism. Instead, they note that there was a community where a snake dance was once performed, but the ceremony became extinct. Anthropologists expressed alarm, but an elder insisted that people should not be disturbed. “If it was lost it was because we didn’t need it any more,” he said. “If we really need it back again, the snakes will teach it to us again. It was they who taught it to us in the first place.”

Sometimes, however, disruption is so catastrophic that individuals and communities must respond with fresh, powerful visions that transplant the germ of past wisdom into entirely new seedbeds. When it succeeds, such inspiration can meld tradition and innovation in surprisingly effective ways. Two such examples are the Native American Church, sometimes known as the peyote church, and the Ghost Dance movement. The Native American church emerged in the mid-19th century when an ancient ritual of central Mexico moved into the United States and blended with Christian influences. It spread, in part, through the medium of government-run Native American schools, and it is the only native religious tradition that has become truly portable, spreading from coast to coast. The Ghost Dance was one of two movements influenced by Christian traditions that announced the imminent return of the dead and the restoration of Native Americans’ traditional way of life. Although the Ghost Dance tradition suffered a terrible tragedy at the massacre at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, in 1890, it was for a time a powerful expression of both hope and despair as the Euro-American conquest of the continent neared completion. It also continued in modified form until the 1950s and underwent occasional revivals in the later 20th century.

A third response to religious disintegration involves the creation of American Indian Christian congregations. In some instances conversion to Christianity was enforced, with dire penalties for refusal. In other cases it appears to have been accepted voluntarily, out of sincere devotion to the missionaries and their message. In yet other cases it was probably accepted for a more practical mix of reasons. Often conversion meant an increased chance for physical survival, regardless of how sincere the conversion was. Once physical survival and a degree of stability had been established, many congregations of Native American Christians recast their faith and practice to include traditional views and values. Kinship obligations, sharing of resources, and a general emphasis on community in preference to individualistic approaches to salvation have been some of these Native Christian adaptations. In some cases traditional language and symbolism have been incorporated into Christian worship as well.

Issues and concerns

American Indian traditionalists believe that the values, knowledge, narrative traditions, and ritual worlds they were taught, however compromised by historical loss and the demands of modern life, are vital to the survival of their human and other-than-human communities. While it is undeniable that much has already been irrevocably lost, all but the most pessimistic find much to work toward and to fight for in the present. Key issues for the survival of these traditions include access to and control of sacred sites, preservation of Native American languages, return of sacred artifacts, and maintenance of the integrity of religious knowledge and values.

One of the more important concerns of the adherents of the traditional religions is control of sacred sites. Many locations used for ceremonial purposes or considered to be the home of powerful entities have been disrupted and contaminated by recreational activities and economic exploitation. This has been especially problematic when it occurs on public lands, as in the cases of Devils Tower in Wyoming, Mount Shasta in California, and Mount Graham in Arizona. In the case of Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association (1988), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the disturbance of the practice of religion need not be weighed against economic benefit in determining how public lands are to be used.

Apart from the Native American church and Native Christian congregations, most American Indian traditionalists believe that ceremonial work and traditional knowledge are authentic and potent only when conducted in their native languages. Yet most of these languages are eroding rapidly and among persons under age 40 are nearly extinct. In oral societies it is vital that each generation identify and train individuals to memorize this knowledge and so carry it forward. Wide swaths of this knowledge can disappear with startling speed when there are no young people fluent enough to preserve it. Some communities are trying urgently to arrest this trend; for others it is already too late.

Along with having lost many traditional languages, Native Americans have also suffered the loss of sacred artifacts that have been taken, sometimes illegally, and held in museums. In some cases great harm is thought to have resulted from these displays—harm to the museums and their visitors as well as to the native people who are the proper caretakers of these artifacts. It is important to understand that for indigenous traditionalists there are items, such as certain masks, that are alive, extremely powerful, and dangerous when not treated with proper ceremonial care. They are certainly not, as observers of the culture might assume, merely inanimate objects imbued with symbolic significance. The physical remains of deceased Native Americans fall into a different but related category of powerful “objects” not to be removed from their proper places and studied or displayed.

The irresponsible use of traditional religious knowledge is also a problem. Religious knowledge has been distorted or represented inaccurately, and, even when it has been accurately represented, its use has sometimes been unsanctioned. Scholars and New Age enthusiasts alike are accused of both these kinds of abuse. In Native American communities the exchange of knowledge, like any other exchange, is meant to be reciprocated. A growing number of anthropologists know this and do their best to honour it, but many still do not. The record is far worse for promoters of New Age imitations of indigenous practice, regardless of whether they have American Indian blood.

The conditions of modern economic life have further eroded traditional values and practices. By the early 21st century, most citizens of Western countries such as Canada and the United States found that spare time, even time for weekly religious observance, had become scarce. Indigenous traditional knowledge, however, is best learned slowly. There are many young adults in Native American communities who strongly wish to participate in traditional religious life, but the pressures of job and school make it impossible to devote enough time to learning and practicing the requisite language, natural history, traditional narratives, and ceremonial procedures.

These needs are best met in communities with strong resolve, where internal divisions have been softened and where elders and young people work together. Today many Native American youth show strong interest in traditional knowledge. Some are learning to use new technology and other skills to develop innovative means for learning and maintaining that knowledge. The results will differ from the traditions known and loved by today’s elders when they were young, but native North American religious life continues as a viable and ongoing tradition of religious thought and practice.