Central To The Native American Peyote Religion example essay topic

Due to the wide range of habitats in North America, different native religions evolved to match the needs and lifestyles of the individual tribe. Religious traditions of aboriginal peoples around the world tend to be heavily influenced by their methods of acquiring food, whether by hunting wild animals or by agriculture. Native American spirituality is no exception. Traditional Lakota spirituality is a form of religious belief that each thing, plant and animal has a spirit. The Native American spirituality has an inseparable connection between the spirituality and the culture. One cannot exist without the other.

The arrival of Europeans marked a major change on Native society and it's spirituality. Native Americans have been fighting to keep their spiritual practices alive. Right from the beginning, Native American religious practices were misunderstood and forbidden. The United States government tried to force Christianity upon the Indians in a desperate attempt to destroy their traditions and to assimilate them into white Christian society. Many of the Native Americans were forcibly converted to Christianity. Some would agree that freedom of religion is one of America's most important laws.

When it comes to Native Americans, however, freedom of religion was almost non-existent. Native Americans have had to struggle to survive in a country that has discriminated against them and persecuted them for hundreds of years. The tribes in North America just want one thing from the United States government and that is respect: of sacred sites, the sacramental use of peyote, and the use of eagle feathers and plants for cultural practices. The United States stole from the Indians in the past and has never kept promises they made to the Native Americans. The one aspect of the Indian's lives that has kept them going has been their religion. The Native Americans will have to endlessly fight for complete freedom of religion and for respect.

Many Native families today have been devoted Christians for generations. Others, particularly in the Southwest have retained their aboriginal traditions more or less intact. The Native American Church is a continuation of the ancient Peyote Religion combined with some teachings of traditional Christianity. Native American Church practices centre around the religious use of peyote, a small cactus which when eaten gives people a feeling of hallucinations.

Indians use peyote in religious ceremonies only. Peyote induces abnormal mental states or hallucinations when chewed; giving the user a sense of direct contact with God. It is eaten or consumed as a tea in religious rituals. Like tobacco, peyote is a sacred herb to many Indian tribes and they use it for prayer -- not recreation. The use of peyote is central to the Native American peyote religion. In Peyote Religion most formal ceremonies mix drumming, singing, prayer, and stories as a means of offering thanks and as a way of sharing this blessing with the Creator.

Deeply meaningful and highly personalized inspirational revelation is often a very important part of the individual's experience. Participants in such peyote 'meetings' often grow in empathy and in friendship with the people who have shared the peyote night with them. Lifelong associations are made in this way. Church peyote users believe that peyote is a sacred and powerful plant. Peyote is seen as a medicine, a protector, and a teacher. In terms used by other religions, peyote can be called a sacrament, something which when eaten gives awareness of God.

There are many religious festivals in the Native American's tradition, which are local and special in character, symbolizing a prayer for success in hunting or warfare, or for rain and bountiful harvests. The most important public ceremony is the Sun Dance. The Sun Dance Lodge is constructed with a central sacred tree. Twenty-eight poles surround it in a circle and 28 roof-beams connect the central tree to the surrounding support poles. A buffalo-hide covering covers it all. The central tree is a ritually selected cottonwood tree that is brought to the site.

The warriors would dance in the middle of the lodge believing that by suffering at the pole they took upon themselves much of the agony of their people. The Lakota also believe that both the flesh and the paint they use represents ignorance, and that dancing in such a way as to tear the skewers loose frees them from human darkness. The warriors would blow their special eagle bone whistles for hours on end until all the demands connected with the Sun Dance had been fulfilled and they greeted the sun of the final morning. Most of the Sun dancers were attached, at breast or back, by skewers or thongs to the top of the centre pole, and they danced and pulled until they tore themselves loose or were released by the Dance leader. The Sun Dance amongst the Plains Natives is perceived as a replay of the original creation. It fulfilled many religious purposes: to give thanks to the Creator, to pray for the renewal of the people and earth, to promote health, etc.

It also gave an opportunity for people to socialize and renew friendships with other groups. It was successfully suppressed in most tribes by the Governments of the US and Canada. However, it survived elsewhere and is now being increasingly celebrated. Another old, known Lakota people's ceremony is the Ghost Dance. The American Indian Ghost Dance movements of 1870 and 1889-90 sought to restore dead animals, destroyed landscapes, and dead ancestors, so as to shift power from Whites (who would not survive the event) back to Indian peoples. According to Indian visions, the millennium would occur more quickly if many Indian people correctly performed the Ghost Dance ceremony.

The Native Americans still believe in power of the Ghost Dance. In all these spiritual and war ceremonies as well on other occasions a special pipe is used. It is considered a very special ritual and only those specifically 'chosen' may use it. The broken up weed is mixed with aromatic bark of the red willow, and pressed lightly into the bowl of the long stone pipe. The worshiper lights it gravely and takes a whiff, standing upright he holds it silently toward the Sun, his father, and toward the earth, his mother. Inhaling the smoke is symbolic.

They believe that as the pipe is shared among the people, they are filled with The Great Spirit and become one with the sky and earth. The bowl of the pipe is representative is always treated with the greatest respect. It is carefully wrapped in a cloth and kept in a special bag. Warriors of old, as well as today's pipe carriers, considered the sacred pipe their most prized possession.

It is often richly decorated. The bowl and stem are always stored separately with the stem facing east when not in use. At the end of the 19th century the Lakota people were fighting to maintain control of their way of life and their homelands. In the 20th century the Lakota were granted by the American Indian Religion Freedom Act of 1978 the right to preserve and protect their Lakota religious freedom. Prior to this the Lakota were forbidden to practice their spiritual beliefs. But even today we can see racism against Native American.

But it is a topic that does not make the nightly news on regular bases and is of little concern to most. This attitude amazes me. How can we overlook a race that has been on this continent far longer than anyone else. Native Americans are the part of our history and culture. Reference: web pipe. html web.