Spirit Wars: Native North American Religions in the Age of Nation BuildingSpirit Wars is an exploration of the ways in which the destruction of spiritual practices and beliefs of native peoples in North America has led to conditions of collective suffering--a process sometimes referred to as cultural genocide. Ronald Niezen approaches this topic through wide-ranging case studies involving different colonial powers and state governments: the seventeenth-century Spanish occupation of the Southwest, the colonization of the Northeast by the French and British, nineteenth-century westward expansion and nationalism in the swelling United States and Canada, and twentieth-century struggles for native people's spiritual integrity and freedom. Each chapter deals with a specific dimension of the relationship between native peoples and non-native institutions, and together these topics yield a new understanding of the forces directed against the underpinnings of native cultures. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 57
Page 1
... society ; but it is an attitude impossible for those whose personal religion is strong . For if we know that we have found the key and guiding principle of Life , we cannot allow our friends to flounder blindly in the darkness ...
... society ; but it is an attitude impossible for those whose personal religion is strong . For if we know that we have found the key and guiding principle of Life , we cannot allow our friends to flounder blindly in the darkness ...
Page 2
... societies , so long as spiritual practices continue to exist their outward appearances will usually be characterized by sta- bility , consensus , and sincerity . Only in moments of conflict as a result of missionary zeal , the ...
... societies , so long as spiritual practices continue to exist their outward appearances will usually be characterized by sta- bility , consensus , and sincerity . Only in moments of conflict as a result of missionary zeal , the ...
Page 4
... societies , the relationship between humans and hunted animals is mediated by spirits , while the living ani- mals themselves have knowledge of human attitudes and intentions . In the agricultural societies of the Southwest the seasonal ...
... societies , the relationship between humans and hunted animals is mediated by spirits , while the living ani- mals themselves have knowledge of human attitudes and intentions . In the agricultural societies of the Southwest the seasonal ...
Page 6
... society's ambi- tions for territory and nation building were obstructed by visibly differ- ent , virtually ungovernable groups of people with justifiable claims to sovereignty , land , and maintenance of cultural differences . In the ...
... society's ambi- tions for territory and nation building were obstructed by visibly differ- ent , virtually ungovernable groups of people with justifiable claims to sovereignty , land , and maintenance of cultural differences . In the ...
Page 7
... society . An element of intention may be involved in the acculturative process — a law or policy , for exam- ple , directed at indigenous fostering or marriage practices -- but changes can as well be incidental to the cultural encounter ...
... society . An element of intention may be involved in the acculturative process — a law or policy , for exam- ple , directed at indigenous fostering or marriage practices -- but changes can as well be incidental to the cultural encounter ...
Contents
1 | |
12 | |
Learning to Forget | 46 |
Medical Evangelism | 92 |
The Politics of Repression | 128 |
The Collectors | 161 |
Apostles of the New Age | 194 |
Medicine Wheelers and Dealers | 217 |
References Cited | 229 |
Index | 247 |
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Common terms and phrases
abuse Agency American Indian artifacts assimilation behavior belief biomedicine boarding schools Canada Carlisle ceremonies Chisasibi Choctaw Christian civilization collection colonial Cree cultural genocide Cushing domination efforts elders English established ethnocide ethnographic European evangelism experience federal Fletcher formal Frank Hamilton Cushing Ghost Dance goals Gwich'in healers human Huron ideas Indian Affairs Indian education institutions James Bay knowledge land leaders lives Manitoba Medicine Wheel medicine woman ment missionaries missions moral movement Museum nation building Native American Church native communities native North Americans native spiritual traditions Navaho nineteenth century non-native North America objects observation Ojibwa Peyote religion political Potlatch practices Pratt programs Pueblo Pueblo Revolt Québec remains repatriation reservation residential schools resistance result ritual savage seen Sioux social society Spanish strategies suicide teaching tion tribal tribe understanding village vision visionary Zuñi
Popular passages
Page 35 - It was a fearful sight to see them thus frying in the fire and the streams of blood quenching the same, and horrible was the stink and scent thereof; but the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice, and they gave the praise thereof to God...
Page 202 - Sometimes, in a summer morning, having taken my accustomed bath, I sat in my sunny doorway from sunrise till noon, rapt in a revery, amidst the pines and hickories and sumachs, in undisturbed solitude and stillness...
Page 82 - But you who are wise must know, that different Nations have different Conceptions of things; and you will therefore not take it amiss, if our Ideas of this Kind of Education happen not to be the same with yours.
Page 89 - ... and they therefore pledge themselves to compel their children, male and female, between the ages of six and sixteen years, to attend school; and it is hereby made the duty of the agent for said Indians to see that this stipulation is strictly...
Page 82 - Offer, tho' we decline accepting it; and to show our grateful Sense of it, if the Gentlemen of Virginia will send us a dozen of their Sons, we will take great Care of their Education, instruct them in all we know, and make Men of them.
Page 82 - Several of our young people were formerly brought up at the colleges of the Northern Provinces; they were instructed in all your Sciences; but, when they came back to us, they were bad runners, ignorant of every means of living in the woods, unable to bear either cold or hunger, knew neither how to build a cabin, take a deer, or kill an enemy, spoke our language imperfectly, were therefore neither fit for hunters, warriors, nor counsellors; they were totally good for nothing.