CULTURE & RELIGIONS
INDIA RELIGION:
Statistics in USA
Hinduism (53%)
Sikhism (5%)
Jainism (2%)
Buddhists
Gurdwara Sahib of San Jose, the largest Gurudwara in North America.
The most widely spoken indigenous language is Southern Quechua, with about 6 to 7 million speakers, primarily in South America. In the United States, 372,000 people speak an indigenous language at home. The Native Americans did not speak one language, but had different languages for different trips and areas. Once the Europeans arrived, many Native Americans learned to speak English to be able to communicate. By the first part of the 20th century, many natives were put into schools… In America north of Mexico, where the Indian population was thinly spread, there were a number of language groups—e.g., the Eskimo-Aleut, Algonquian, Athabascan, and Siouan —each of which covered large territories and included some 20 or more closely related idioms.
We request principally our Hindu fellow to help us in investigate the India & Indian American language correspondence due to perceived similarities between both, watch the following link:
www.britannica.com/topic/American-Indian-languages
The American Indian languages do not form a single historically interrelated stock (as do the Indo-European languages), nor are there any structural features (in phonetics, grammar, or vocabulary) whereby American Indian languages can be distinguished as a whole from languages spoken elsewhere.
In the pre-Columbian era, the American Indian languages covered both continents and the islands of the West Indies. There were, however, considerable differences in the distribution of the languages and language groups and in the size of the populations that spoke these languages.
In America north of Mexico, where the Indian population was thinly spread, there were a number of language groups—e.g., the Eskimo-Aleut, Algonquian, Athabascan, and Siouan—each of which covered large territories and included some 20 or more closely related idioms. Other language groups, however, were smaller and the areas containing them correspondingly more diverse in language. In California alone, for example, more than 20 distinct language groups were represented. These, according to Edward Sapir, exhibited greater and more numerous linguistic extremes than may be found in all of Europe. America north of Mexico, taken as a whole, had about 300 distinct languages, spoken by a population estimated at about 1.5 million.
Mesoamerica (Mexico and northern Central America) had a much larger Indian population—estimated at about 20 million—which spoke at least 80 languages. Some of these languages— e.g., Aztecan of central Mexico and the Maya languages of Yucatan and Guatemala—belonged to large and complexly organized empires and probably accounted for most of the native population. Others were far more restricted in area and numbers of speakers. The area of greatest linguistic diversity appears to have been in southern Mexico and the region now occupied by the northern Central American republics.
South America had an aboriginal population of between 10 million and 20 million and the greatest diversity of languages—more than 500 languages. Most of the population was in the Andean region, where there was also a powerful Indian empire, that of the Incas. Their Quechuan languages spread beyond their original homeland in the southern Peruvian highlands and resulted in the extinction or reduction of many other Indian tongues.
European conquest and colonization ultimately led to the disappearance of many American Indian language groups and to radical changes in the groups that survived. A number of languages have become extinct: in the West Indies the aboriginal languages have almost entirely disappeared, and in America north of Mexico one-third of the aboriginal languages have become extinct. The situation is somewhat different in Mesoamerica and South America. Although there are no precise figures, a greater number of languages are still spoken, some of them by large populations.
The American Indian languages still spoken, many have only a bare handful of speakers. In America north of Mexico, more than 50 percent of the surviving languages have fewer than 1,000 speakers each. In communities as small as these, most people are bilingual, and the younger people, educated in English, often have little more than a superficial command of the native idiom. In short, even though the Indian population north of Mexico is actually increasing, most of the aboriginal languages are slowly dying out. Only a few languages are flourishing: Navaho, spoken in New Mexico and Arizona; Ojibwa, in the northern United States and southern Canada; Cherokee, in Oklahoma and North Carolina; and Dakota-Assiniboin, in the northern portions of the Midwestern United States. Bilingualism is common even in these groups.
In parts of South America and Mesoamerica there are still a number of widespread and flourishing language groups. Quechuan is one of these: it is estimated that this group of closely related dialects has several million speakers in Ecuador, Peru, and parts of Bolivia and Argentina. One of these extant languages, the dialect of Cuzco, Peru, was the principal language of the Inca Empire. The Indians of Mexico and Central America also still speak languages that date to the time of the Spanish conquest: Uto-Aztecan, a group of languages in central and parts of southern Mexico; the Maya languages, spoken in Yucatan, Guatemala, and adjacent territories; and Oto-Manguean, of central Mexico. All three of these were languages of Indian empires before 1500, and both the Maya and Aztec peoples had writing systems.
The Tupí-Guaraní languages, spoken in eastern Brazil and in Paraguay, constitute a major pre-Columbian language group that has survived into modern times.
Before the arrival of the Europeans, languages of this group were spoken by a large and widespread population. Tupí of Brazil became, after the conquest, the basis of a língua-geral, the medium of communication for Europeans and Indians throughout the Amazonian region. Guaraní similarly became a general language for much of Paraguay. Tupí was, by the early 21st century, gradually being replaced by Portuguese, but Guaraní remained an important second language of modern Paraguay, and an extensive folk literature has been created.
Linguistics: Structural linguistics in America
There were hundreds of indigenous American Indian languages that had never been previously described. Many of these were spoken by only a handful of speakers and, if they were not recorded before they became extinct, would be permanently inaccessible. Under these circumstances, such linguists as Franz Boas (died 1942) were nationalistic influences on language.
There have been periods when American Indian children were forbidden to speak a language other than English at school and when pupils were not allowed to speak Welsh in British state schools in Wales. Both these prohibitions have been abandoned. After the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s, Basque speakers…
Among the American Indians there are, surprisingly, practically no theophoric names. Instead, the Indians used names related to the totem, to animals indicated by omens or dreams, and to successful incidents in life. Those North American Indians who did not accept English names now use the English…
Muskogean languages, family of perhaps six North American Indian languages spoken or formerly spoken across much of what is now the southeastern United States.
In the 16th century Koasati (Coushatta) and Alabama were probably spoken in what is now northern Alabama, and Creek (Muskogee) and Mikasuki were spoken in Alabama and Georgia. To the west were Chickasaw in northern Mississippi and western Tennessee and Choctaw in central Mississippi.
The forced removals of the 1830s (see Trail of Tears) had pushed most of the remaining Muskogean-speakers either west of the Mississippi or into Florida, where the Seminole continue to speak a dialect of Creek in central Florida and Mikasuki (Miccosukee) in the Everglades. The extant Muskogean languages continue to be spoken, at least by adults, with Choctaw (in Oklahoma and Mississippi) having the most speakers.
American Indian languages
South American Indian languages
Mesoamerican Indian languages
North American Indian languages
Athabaskan language family
Cherokee language
Mobilian Jargon
Na-Dené languages
Macro-Algonquian languages
Hokan hypothesis
Mayan languages
Tupian languages, family of South American Indian languages with at least seven subgroups, spoken or formerly spoken in scattered areas from the Andes Mountains to the Atlantic Ocean and (with two exceptions) south of the Amazon River to southernmost Brazil and Paraguay. About one half of the 50 attested Tupian languages are extinct. The largest subgroup, Tupí-Guaraní, includes the extinct language Tupinambá, the source for borrowings of many New World flora and fauna terms into Portuguese and hence other European languages. Another language of the subgroup, Guaraní, is spoken as a first or second language by more than 90 percent of Paraguayans, who consider it a token of Paraguayan identity.
South American Indian languages: Tupian
With the exception of Emerillon and Oyampi of French Guiana and northeastern Brazil, Tupian languages were spoken south of the Amazon, from the Andes to the Atlantic Ocean and down to the Río de la Plata. There are approximately 50 attested languages related on to the south speak predominantly Tupian languages.
Tupian was used as a lingua franca between Europeans and Indians until the Portuguese became dominant in the 19th century; nonetheless, Brazilian Portuguese has been heavily influenced by Tupian. Finally, there are known to be “undiscovered” Indian groups living in the Amazon region—i.e.
Jain Center of Greater Phoenix (JCGP)
Communities of Hindus, Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Zoroastrians, and Indian Jews have established their religions in the United States.
According to 2014 Pew Research Center research, 54% consider themselves Hindu, 18% as Christian (Protestant 11%, Catholic 5%, other Christian 3%), 9% as unaffiliated, 12% as Muslims, 5% as Sikh, 2% as Jain.[6] The first religious center of an Indian religion to be established in the US was a Sikh Gurudwara in Stockton, California in 1912. Today there are many Sikh Gurudwaras, Hindu temples, Christian churches, and Buddhist and Jain temples in all 50 states.
Hindus
Some have claimed that as of 2008, the American Hindu population was around 2.2 million, but this estimation is based on the flawed assumption that percentage of Hindus among Indian Americans is the same as in India. Regardless, Hindus are the majority of Indian Americans.
Many organizations such as ISKCON, Swaminarayan Sampraday, BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha, Chinmaya Mission, and Swadhyay Pariwar are well-established in the U.S.
Hindu Americans have formed the Hindu American Foundation which represents American Hindus and aim to educate people about Hinduism. Swami Vivekananda brought Hinduism to the West at the 1893 Parliament of the World’s Religions. The Vedanta Society has been important in subsequent Parliaments.
Today, many Hindu temples, most of them built by Indian Americans, have emerged in different cities and towns in the United States.
More than 18 million Americans are now practicing some form of Yoga. Kriya Yoga was introduced to America by Paramahansa Yogananda. A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada initiated the popular ISKCON, also known as the Hare Krishna movement, while preaching Bhakti yoga.
Sikhs
There are nearly 30 million Sikhs around the world today, and a vast majority of them live in the Indian state of Punjab. There is also a robust and flourishing diaspora, with communities large and small all over the globe. Much of the diaspora is concentrated in the Commonwealth due to migration within the British Empire, yet Sikhs continue to establish themselves in various countries throughout the world.
From the time of their arrival in the late 1800s, Sikh men and women have been making notable contributions to American society. In 2007, there were estimated to be between 250,000 and 500,000 Sikhs living in the United States, with largest populations living on the East and West Coasts, together with additional populations in Detroit, Chicago, and Austin. The United States also has a number of non-Punjabi converts to Sikhism. Sikh men are typically identifiable by their unshorn beards and turbans (head coverings), articles of their faith. Many organisations like World Sikh Organisation (WSO), Sikh Riders of America, SikhNet, Sikh Coalition, SALDEF, United Sikhs, National Sikh Campaign continue to educate people about Sikhism. There are many “Gurudwaras” Sikh temples present in all states of USA.
Jains
Adherents of Jainism first arrived in the United States in the 20th century. The most significant time of Jain immigration was in the early 1970s.
The US has since become a center of the Jain diaspora. The Federation of Jain Associations in North America is an umbrella organization of local American and Canadian Jain congregations. Unlike India and United Kingdom, the Jain community in United States doesn’t find sectarian differences,
Both Digambara and Svetambara share a common roof.
Linguistic affiliation
The United States is home to various associations that promote Indian languages and cultures. Some major organizations include Telugu Association of North America (TANA), American Telugu Association (ATA), Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America, Federation of Kerala Associations in North America, Association of Kannada Kootas of America (AKKA), North American Bengali Conference, Orissa Society of the Americas, and Maharashtra Mandal.
INDIAN AMERICAN TRIBE RELIGION:
Native American religions are the spiritual practices of the indigenous peoples of North America. Ceremonial ways can vary widely and are based on the differing histories and beliefs of individual tribes, clans, and bands. Early European explorers describe individual Native American tribes and even small bands as each having their own religious practices. Theology may be monotheistic, polytheistic, henotheistic, animistic, shamanistic, pantheistic or any combination thereof, among others. Traditional beliefs are usually passed down in the forms of oral histories, stories, allegories, and principles.
From the 1600s, European Catholic and Protestant denominations sought to convert the tribes to Christianity, including through government and Christian church cooperative efforts that forcibly removed Native American children from their families into a Christian/state government-operated system of American Indian boarding schools (aka The Residential Schools) where Native children were taught European Christian beliefs, the values of mainstream white culture, and the English language.
This forcible conversion and suppression of Indigenous languages and cultures continued through the 1970s.
As part of the US government’s suppression of traditional Indigenous religions, most ceremonial ways were banned for over 80 years by a series of US Federal laws that banned traditional sweat lodge and sun dance ceremonies, among others.This government persecution and prosecution continued until 1978 with the passage of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA).
Some non-Native anthropologists estimate membership in traditional Native American religions in the 21st century to be about 9000 people.
Since Native Americans practicing traditional ceremonies do not usually have public organizations or membership rolls, these “members” estimates are likely substantially lower than the actual numbers of people who participate in traditional ceremonies. Native American spiritual leaders also note that these academic estimates substantially underestimate the numbers of participants because a century of US Federal government persecution and prosecutions of traditional ceremonies caused believers to practice their religions in secrecy. Many adherents of traditional spiritual ways also attend Christian services, at least some of the time, which can also affect statistics. Since the 80 years of those prior legal persecutions ended with AIRFA, some sacred sites in the United States are now protected areas under law.
Major Native American religions
Earth Lodge Religion
The Earth Lodge Religion was founded in northern California and southern Oregon tribes such as the Wintun. It spread to tribes such as the Achomawi, Shasta, and Siletz, to name a few. It was also known as the “Warm House Dance” among the pomo. It predicted occurrences similar to those predicted by the Ghost Dance, such as the return of ancestors or the world’s end. The Earth Lodge Religion impacted the later religious practice, the Dream Dance, belonging to the Klamath and the Modoc.
Ghost Dance: 
1891 Sioux Ghost Dance. The Ghost Dance movement influenced many Native American communities.
The Ghost Dance movement of the late 1800s was a religious revitalization movement in the Western United States. Initially founded as a local ceremony in Nevada, by the Paiute prophet Wodziwob, the movement did not gain widespread popularity until 1889–1890, when the Ghost Dance Religion was founded by Wovoka (Jack Wilson), who was also Northern Paiute. The Ghost Dance was created in a time of genocide, to save the lives of the Native Americans by enabling them to survive the current and coming catastrophes, by calling the dead to fight on their behalf, and to help them drive the colonists out of their lands.
In December 1888, Wovoka, who was thought to be the son of the medicine man Tavibo (Numu-tibo’o), fell sick with a fever during an eclipse of the sun, which occurred on January 1, 1889. Upon his recovery, he claimed that he had visited the spirit world and the Supreme Being and predicted that the world would soon end, then be restored to a pure state in the presence of the Messiah. All Native Americans would inherit this world, including those who were already dead, in order to live eternally without suffering. In order to reach this reality, Wovoka stated that all Native Americans should live honestly, and shun the ways of whites (especially the consumption of alcohol). He called for meditation, prayer, singing, and dancing as an alternative to mourning the dead, for they would soon resurrect.
Wovoka’s followers saw him as a form of the messiah and he became known as the “Red Man’s Christ.”
Tavibo had participated in the Ghost Dance of 1870 and had a similar vision of the Great Spirit of Earth removing all white men, and then of an earthquake removing all human beings. Tavibo’s vision concluded that Native Americans would return to live in a restored environment and that only believers in his revelations would be resurrected.
This religion spread to many tribes on reservations in the West, including the Shoshone, Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Sioux (Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota). In fact, some bands of Lakota and Dakota were so desperate for hope during this period of forced relocation and genocide that, after making a pilgrimage to the Nevada Ghost Dance in 1889–1890, they became more militant in their resistance to the white colonists. Each Nation that adopted the Ghost Dance way provided their own understanding to the ceremony, which included the prediction that the white people would disappear, die, or be driven back across the sea.
A Ghost Dance gathering at Wounded Knee in December 1890 was invaded by the Seventh Cavalry, who massacred unarmed Lakota and Dakota people, primarily women, children and the elderly.
The earliest Ghost Dance heavily influenced religions such as the Earth Lodge, Bole-Maru Religion, and the Dream Dance. The Caddo Nation and several other communities still practice the Ghost Dance today, though usually in secret.
Indian Shaker Religion
Also known as Tschida, the Indian Shaker Religion was influenced by the Waashat Religion and founded by John Slocum, a Squaxin Island member. The name comes from the shaking and twitching motions used by the participants to brush off their sins. The religion combines Christianity with traditional Indian teachings.
This religion is still practiced today in the Indian Shaker Church.
Longhouse Religion
This replica of a Six Nations (Haudenosaunee) longhouse represents where the traditional practices take place.
The Longhouse Religion is the popular name of the religious movement known as The Code of Handsome Lake or Gaihwi:io (“Good Message”), founded in 1799 by the Seneca prophet Handsome Lake (Sganyodaiyo?).This movement combines and reinterprets elements of traditional Iroquois religious beliefs with elements adopted from Christianity, primarily from the Quakers. Gaihwi:io currently has about 5,000 practicing members. Originally the Gaihwi:io was known as the “new religion” in opposition to the prevailing animistic beliefs, but has since become known as the “old religion” in opposition to Christianity.
Mexicayoal
Mexicayoal (Nahuatl word meaning “Essence of the Mexican”, “Mexicanity”; Spanish: Mexicanidad; see -yotl) is a movement reviving the indigenous religion, philosophy and traditions of ancient Mexico (Aztec religion and Aztec philosophy) amongst the Mexican people.
he movement came to light in the 1950s, led by Mexico City intellectuals, but has grown significantly on a grassroots level only in more recent times, also spreading to the Chicanos of North America.Their rituals involve the mitotiliztli. The followers, called Mexicatl (singular) and Mexicah (plural), or simply Mexica, are mostly urban and suburban people.
The Mexicayotl movement started in the 1950s with the founding of the group Nueva Mexicanidad by Antonio Velasco Piña. In the same years, Rodolfo Nieva López founded the Movimiento Confederado Restaurador de la Cultura del Anáhuac, the co-founder of which was Francisco Jimenez Sanchez who in later decades became a spiritual leader of the Mexicayoal movement, endowed with the honorific Tlacaelel. He had a deep influence in shaping the movement, founding the In Kaltonal (“House of the Sun”, also called Native Mexican Church) in the 1970s.
From the 1970s onwards Mexcayotl has grown developing in a web of local worship and community groups (called calpulli or kalpulli) and spreading to the Mexican Americans or Chicanos in the United States. It has also developed strong ties with Mexican national identity movements and Chicano nationalism. Sanchez’s Native Mexican Church (which is a confederation of calpullis) was officially recognized by the government of Mexico in 2007.
Native American Church
Peyote’s illegal status in the United States prevents non-Natives from participating in peyote ceremonies.
The Peyote Religion legally termed and more properly known as the Native American Church has also been called the “Peyote Road” or the “Peyote Way”, is a religious tradition involving the ceremonial and sacred use of Lophophora williamsii (peyote). Use of peyote for religious purposes is
thousands of years old and some have thought it to have originated within one of the following tribes: the Carrizo, the Lipan Apache, the Mescalero Apache, the Tonkawa, the Karankawa, or the Caddo, with the Plains Cree, Carrizo, and the Lipan Apache being the three most likely sources. In Mexico the Huichol, Tepehuán, and other Native Mexicans use peyote. Since then, despite several efforts to make peyote ceremonies illegal, ceremonial peyote use has spread from the Mexico area to Oklahoma and other western parts of the United States. Notable Native American Church (NAC) members include Quannah Parker, the founder of the NAC, and Big Moon of the Kiowa tribe.
Waashat Religion
The Waashat Religion is also called the Washani Religion, Longhouse Religion, Seven Drum Religion, Sunday Dance Religion, Prophet Dance, and Dreamer Faith.
The Wanapam Indian Smohalla (c. 1815–1895) used wáashat rituals to build the religion in the Pacific Northwest. Smohalla claimed that visions came to him through dreams and that he had visited the spirit world and had been sent back to teach his people. The name waasaní spoke to what the religion was about; it meant both dancing and worship. He led a return to the original way of life before white influences and established ceremonial music and dancing.
Smohalla’s speaking was called Yuyunipitqana for “Shouting Mountain”.
The Dreamer Faith, and its elements of dancing, foreshadowed the later Ghost Dances of the plains peoples.It was a back–to–our–heritage religion.
Believers thought that white people would disappear and nature would return to the way it was before they came.To achieve this, the Natives must do the things required by the spirits, like a Weyekin. What the spirits wanted was to throw off violent ways, cast off white culture, and not buy, sell or disrespect the Earth.
They must also dance the Prophet Dance (wáashat).
The religion combined elements of Christianity with Native beliefs, but it rejected white-American culture.This made it difficult to assimilate or control the tribes by the United States.The U.S. was trying to convert the Plains tribes from hunter-gatherers to farmers, in the European-American tradition.
They wanted to remake the Natives but found a problem with those who followed the Dreamer Cult: “Their model of a man is an Indian …
They aspire to be Indian and nothing else.”
Prophets of the movement included Smohalla (of the Wanapam people), Kotiakan (of the Yakama nation) and Homli (of the Walla Walla).Their messages were carried along the Columbia River to other communities.It is unclear exactly how it started or when Christianity influenced the earlier form, but it is thought to have something to do with the arrival of non-Indians or an epidemic and a prophet with an apocalyptic vision. The Waashat Dance involves seven drummers, a salmon feast, use of eagle and swan feathers and a sacred song sung every seventh day.
Stomp Dance
Stomp dance, called sayvtketv by the Muscogee Creek, hilha by the Chickasaw and Choctaw, and gatiyo alisgisdi by the Cherokee, is a religious/social tradition celebrated by certain indigenous people of the southeastern woodlands. Those who are known to celebrate it, or who have previously celebrated it, are the Muscogee Creek, Alabama, Koasati, Coosa, Coweta, Taskigi, Yamasee, Okfuski, Yuchi, Chiaha, Kasihta, Okmulgi, Seminole, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Cherokee, Hainai, Nabedache, Nabiti, Nacogdoche, Nacono, Nadaco, Nasoni, Nechaui, Neche, Kadohadacho, Nanatsoho, Doustioni, Adai, Cahinnio, Eyeish, Ouachita, Tula, Yatasi, Natchez, Peoria, Miami, Shawnee, Ottawa, Delaware, Tuscarora, Houma, Chakchiuma, Seneca-Cayuga, as well as many others who belonged to the Mississippian Ideological
Interaction Sphere.
The stomp dance, if ceremonial, is usually held at a designated stomp dance ground, but it may be held anywhere if it is social. It may be preceded by game
of stickball, a game that was previously surrounded by much ceremonial practice. When the sun is set, men gather into arbors, the amount of which depend on the tribe.
Women and children sit around the ceremonial square beside the arbors. The chief’s speaker will call out who will lead the first song and ask all the men to say “hoo” and come up. Then all the men call the women forward, calling them “turtles,” because of the fact that they shake shells on their legs. After this, the women come forward and they all dance various dances throughout the night, such as snake dance, friendship dance, ribbon dance, etc.
The participants will “touch medicine” throughout the night, which is intended to give the participants purification and strength.
Often, the participants will eat traditional foods at the gathering. Such foods as hominy, cornbread, pashofa, lye/grape dumplings, salt meat, fry bread, wild onions/ramps, and three sisters vegetables are usually eaten at stomp dances. Community is very important in tribes, as it preserves teachings and practices
that could be lost without it. Stomp dance is just one of those ways tribes commune together.
Ceremonies – Sun Dance
The sun dance is a religious ceremony practiced by a number of Native American and First Nations Peoples, primarily those of the Plains Nations. Each tribe that has some type of sun dance ceremony that has their own distinct practices and ceremonial protocols. In many cases, the ceremony is held in private and is not open to the public. Most details of the ceremony are kept from public knowledge out of great respect for, and the desire for protection of, the traditional ways.
Many of the ceremonies have features in common, such as specific dances and songs passed down through many generations, the use of traditional drums, the sacred pipe, praying, fasting and, in some cases, the piercing of the skin.
In Canada, the Plains Cree call this ceremony the Thirst Dance; the Saulteaux (Plains Ojibwe) call it the Rain Dance; and the Blackfoot (Siksika, Kainai, and Piikani)
call it the Medicine Dance. It is also practiced by the Canadian Dakota and Nakoda, and the Dene.
Religious leaders
Leaders in Native religions include Popé, who led the Pueblo revolt in 1675, Quautlatas, who inspired the Tepehuan Revolt against the Spanish in 1616, Neolin,
Tenskwatawa, Kenekuk, Smohalla, John Slocum, Wovoka, Black Elk and many others.
From time to time important religious leaders organized revivals. In Indiana in 1805, Tenskwatawa (called the Shawnee Prophet by Americans) led a religious revival following a smallpox epidemic and a series of witch-hunts. His beliefs were based on the earlier teachings of the Lenape prophets, Scattamek and Neolin, who predicted a coming apocalypse that would destroy the European-American settlers.Tenskwatawa urged the tribes to reject the ways of the Americans: to give up firearms, liquor, American style clothing, to pay traders only half the value of their debts, and to refrain from ceding any more lands to the United States.
The revival led to warfare led by his brother Tecumseh against the white settlers.
Traditions 
The Green Corn Ceremony is a celebration of many types, representing new beginnings. Also referred to as the Great Peace Ceremony, it is a celebration of thanksgiving to Hsaketumese (The Breath Maker) for the first fruits of the harvest, and a New Year festival as well.
The Busk is the celebration of the New Year, so at this time all offenses are forgiven except for rape and murder, which are executable or banishable offenses.
In modern tribal towns and Stomp Dance societies only the ceremonial fire, the cook fires and certain other ceremonial objects will be replaced.
Everyone usually begins gathering by the weekend prior to the ceremony, working, praying, dancing and fasting off and on until the big day.
The whole festival tends to last seven-eight days, including the historical preparation involved (without the preparation, it lasts about four days
The Crow Deity
In the Crow language the Creator has many names, such as Akbaatatdia (One Who Has Made Everything/Maker of All Things Above), Iichíkbaalee (First Doer/Maker), and Isáahkawuattee (Old Man Coyote). All names refer to a singular, omnipotent god who the Crow believe to have created the universe.
This universe is believed to be made up of three worlds, the first is the physical world, thought to be the smallest of all the worlds, the second is the spirit world, and the third is where God alone lives.
Crow creation stories
One of many Crow creation stories for the physical world recalls that Old Man Coyote (OMC) was alone in a large ocean when he saw two male ducks floating upon its surface. In conversation with the ducks the subject turns to what lies beneath the sea. Old Man Coyote encourages one of the ducks to dive, which he does, and after a nervous wait the duck finally surfaces with a root in its beak. Another dangerous dive brings up mud. With this soil Old Man Coyote builds first an island, and then all the lands of the Earth. However the Earth is empty, so Old Man Coyote uses the root to populate the planet with plants and trees.
Despite this success the Earth was still not right, it was too flat, so OMC shaped the land to create the rivers, mountains and all geographical features.
Again something was missing, Old Man Coyote and the ducks wanted friends, so he molded Man out of the clay. But Old Man Coyote wanted Man to be happy so he created Women too so that they may be contented together and multiply. He then made female ducks so that ducks may be happy too. The story then develops where Old Man Coyote encounters another Coyote, and they decide to travel together, getting themselves into various situations that eventually creates all animals of the Earth.
In the beginning it is believed that Crows were close to God, praying constantly to show their devotion, however as time progressed Crows forgot to pray and brought misfortune upon themselves. Crows believe that they must rekindle that bond through prayer if they are to be prosperous, many seeking a personal relationship with God to be individually successful.
Great Spirit 
The Great Spirit is a conception of universal spiritual force, Supreme Being or God, and is known as Wakan Tanka among the Sioux, Gitche Manitou in Algonquian, and in many Native American (excluding Alaskan Natives) and Aboriginal Canadian (specifically First Nations people).[need quotation to verify] According to Lakota activist Russell Means, a more semantically accurate translation of Wakan Tanka is the Great Mystery.
Due to perceived similarities between the Great Spirit and the Christian concept of God, colonial European missionaries frequently used such existing beliefs as a means of introducing indigenous Americans to Christianity and encouraging conversion.
Conceptualization
The Great Spirit has at times been conceptualized as an “anthropomorphic celestial deity, a God of creation, history and eternity, who also takes a personal interest in world affairs and might regularly intervene in the lives of human beings.
Numerous individuals are held to have been “speakers” for the Great Spirit; persons believed to serve as an earthly mediator responsible for facilitating communication between humans and the Spirit, or the supernatural more generally. Such a speaker is generally considered to have an obligation to preserve the spiritual traditions of their respective lineage. The Great Spirit, by way of spiritual leaders, is looked to for guidance by individuals as well as communities at large. While belief in an entity or entities known as the Great Spirit exists across numerous indigenous American peoples, individual tribes often demonstrate varying degrees of cultural divergence, which in turn correlates with several distinct beliefs regarding humankind’s relationship with the Spirit.
As such, a variety of stories, parables, fables, and messages exhibiting different, sometimes contradictory themes and plot elements have been attributed to the same figure by otherwise disparate cultures.
Wakan Tanka
Wak?á? T?á?ka can be interpreted as the power or the sacredness that resides in everything, resembling some animistic and pantheistic beliefs. This term describes every creature and object as wak?á? (“Holy”) or having aspects that are wak?á?. The element Tanka or T?á?ka corresponds to “Great” or “large”.
Prior to the Christianization of indigenous Americans by European settlers and missionaries, the Lakota used Wak?á? T?á?ka to refer to an organization or group of sacred entities whose ways were considered mysterious and beyond human understanding. It was the elaboration on these beliefs that prompted scholarly debate suggesting that the term “Great Mystery” could be a more accurate translation of such a concept than “Great Spirit”. Activist Russell Means also promoted the translation “Great Mystery” and the view that Lakota spirituality is not originally monotheistic.
Chief Luther Standing Bear (1868-1939) of the Lakota Nation put it thus:
From Wakan Tanka, the Great Spirit, there came a great unifying life force that flowed in and through all things – the flowers of the plains, blowing winds, rocks, trees, birds, animals – and was the same force that had been breathed into the first man. Thus all things were kindred, and were brought together by the same Great Mystery.
Manitou, akin to the Iroquois orenda, is perceived as the spiritual and fundamental life force by Algonquian peoples. It is believed by practitioners to be omnipresent; manifesting in all things, including organisms, the environment, and events both human-induced and otherwise. Manifestations of Manitou are also believed to be dualistic, and such contrasting instances are known as aashaa monetoo (“good spirit”) and otshee monetoo (“bad spirit”) respectively. According to legend, when the world was created, the Great Spirit, Aasha Monetoo, gave the land to the indigenous peoples, the Shawnee in particular.
Gitche Manitou
The Anishinaabe culture, descended from the Algonquian-speaking Abenaki and Cree, inherited the Great Spirit tradition of their predecessors. Gitche manitou (also transliterated as Gichi-manidoo) is an Anishinaabe language word typically interpreted as Great Spirit, the Creator of all things and the Giver of Life, and is sometimes translated as the “Great Mystery”. Historically, Anishinaabe people believed in a variety of spirits, whose images were placed near doorways for protection.
According to Anishinaabe tradition, Michilimackinac, later named by European settlers as Mackinac Island, in Michigan, was the home of Gitche Manitou, and some Anishinaabeg tribes would make pilgrimages there for rituals devoted to the spirit.
Other Anishinaabe names for such a figure, incorporated through the process of syncretism, are Gizhe-manidoo (“venerable Manidoo”), Wenizhishid-manidoo (“Fair Manidoo”) and Gichi-ojichaag (“Great Spirit”). While Gichi-manidoo and Gichi-ojichaag both mean “Great Spirit”, Gichi-manidoo carried the idea of the greater spiritual connectivity while Gichi-ojichaag carried the idea of individual soul’s connection to the Gichi-manidoo. Consequently, Christian missionaries often used the term Gichi-ojichaag to refer to the Christian idea of a Holy Spirit.
Medicine man 
This is about the Native American and First Nation healers. For other uses, see Medicine Man (disambiguation).
An Ojibwe midew (ceremonial leader) in a mide-wiigiwaam (medicine lodge)
A medicine man or medicine woman is a traditional healer and spiritual leader who serves a community of indigenous people of the Americas.
Individual cultures have their own names, in their respective Indigenous languages, for the spiritual healers and ceremonial leaders in their particular cultures.
Recognition of Native American sacred sites in the United States
Protest at Glen Cove sacred burial site
The Recognition of Native American sacred sites in the United States could be described as “specific, discrete, narrowly delineated location on Federal land that is identified by an Indian tribe, or Indian individual determined to be an appropriately authoritative representative of an Indian religion, as sacred by virtue of its established religious significance to, or ceremonial use by, an Indian religion”. The sacred places are believed to “have their own ‘spiritual properties and significance’». Ultimately, Indigenous peoples who practice their religion at a particular site, they hold a special and sacred attachment to that land sacred land.
Among multiple issues regarding the human rights of Indigenous Peoples is the protection of these sacred sites. During colonization, Europeans claimed governance over the lands of numerous native tribes. After decolonization, Indigenous groups still fought federal governments to regain ownership of their ancestral lands, including the sacred sites and places. This conflict between the Indigenous groups has risen in the United States in recent years and the rights to the protection of sacred sites has been discussed through United States constitutional law and legislature.
The Religion Clauses of the First Amendment assert that the United States Congress has to separate church and state. The struggle to gain legal rights over the Glen Cove burial grounds in California is among many disputes between Indigenous groups and the federal government over sacred lands.
Tengrism 
Tengrism (also known as Tengriism, Tengerism, or Tengrianism) is an ancient religion originating in Central Asia and the Eurasian steppes, based on animism and shamanism and generally centered around the titular sky god Tengri. The term also describes several modern Turko-Mongolic native religious movements and teachings.
It was the prevailing religion of the Turks, Mongols, Bulgars, Xiongnu, Huns, and, possibly the Magyars, and the state religion of several medieval states:
Göktürk Khaganate, Western Turkic Khaganate, Eastern Turkic Khaganate, Old Great Bulgaria, Danube Bulgaria, Volga Bulgaria, and Eastern Tourkia (Khazaria).
In Irk Bitig, a ninth century manuscript on divination, Tengri is mentioned as Türük Tängrisi (God of Turks). According to many academics,
Tengrism was a predominantly polytheistic religion based on shamanistic concept of Animism, and during the imperial period, especially by the 12th–13th centuries, Tengrism was mostly monotheistic.
Peak of Khan Tengri at sunset.
The forms of the name Tengri (Old Turkic: Tä?ri?) among the ancient and modern Turks and Mongols are Tengeri, Tangara, Tangri, Tanri, Tangre, Tegri, Tingir, Tenkri, Teri, Ter, and Ture. The name Tengri (“the Sky”) is derived from Old Turkic: Tenk? (“daybreak”) or Tan (“dawn”). Meanwhile, Stefan Georg proposed that the Turkic Tengri ultimately originates as a loanword from Proto-Yeniseian *t??gVr- “high”.Mongolia is sometimes poetically called the “Land of Eternal Blue Sky” (Munkh Khukh Tengriin Oron) by its inhabitants. According to some scholars, the name of the important deity Dangun (also Tangol) (God of the Mountains) of the Korean folk religion is related to the Siberian Tengri (“Heaven”),while the bear is a symbol of the Big Dipper (Ursa Major).
Tengrism has been advocated in intellectual circles of the Turkic nations of Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan with Kazakhstan) and Russia (Tatarstan, Bashkortostan) since the dissolution of the Soviet Union during the 1990s. Still practiced, it is undergoing an organized revival in Buryatia, Sakha (Yakutia), Khakassia, Tuva and other Turkic nations in Siberia. Altaian Burkhanism and Chuvash Vattisen Yaly are movements similar to Tengrism.
Tengri can either refer to the sky deity or refer also to other deities (compare this with the concept of Kami).
Tengrism is centered on the worship of the tngri (gods), Tengri (Heaven, God of Heaven) being one of them. In the Mongolian folk religion, Genghis Khan is considered one of the embodiments, if not the main embodiment, of Tengris will.
Traditional knowledge
Traditional knowledge, indigenous knowledge and local knowledge generally refer to knowledge systems embedded in the cultural traditions of regional, indigenous, or local communities. Traditional knowledge includes types of knowledge about traditional technologies of subsistence (e.g. tools and techniques for hunting or agriculture), midwifery, ethnobotany and ecological knowledge, traditional medicine, celestial navigation, craft skills, ethno astronomy, climate, and others. These kinds of knowledge, crucial for subsistence and survival, are generally based on accumulations of empirical observation and on interaction with the environment.
In many cases, traditional knowledge has been orally passed oral tradition for generations from person to person. Some forms of traditional knowledge find expression in culture, stories, legends, folklore, rituals, songs, and laws. Other forms of traditional knowledge are expressed through other means.