Hello, Wolfenheart.
Thank you very much for accepting my remarks as an answer to your
question. I have reposted the material below, with a few additional
links.
"For political reasons, numbers are just not available for the U.S.,
but according to the Canadian census - and Canada has more Indians
than the U.S. by far - there were over a million Canadians with North
American Indian ancestry. Only about 10,000 of them were recorded as
following a traditional spiritual path. That is about 1 percent... In
the United States, there is an organized form of Native religion
called the Native American Church. This is a Native American religious
group whose beliefs blend fundamentalist Christian elements with
pan-Indian moral principles centered around the use of peyote as a
sacrament. The Native American Church had several founders including
John Wilson and Quanah Parker. It was incorporated by James Mooney, a
white anthropologist, in 1922. Its membership grew from 22,000 members
to about 250,000 today."
Voices of the Wintercount
www.wintercount.org/remark.doc
This is an interesting page, with many links (near the bottom of the
page) that you may want to investigate:
Religious Movements Homepage, University of Virginia
http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/naspirit.html
"Natives today follow many spiritual traditions: Many Native families
today have been devout Christians for generations. Others,
particularly in the Southwest have retained their aboriginal
traditions more or less intact. Most follow a personal faith that
combines traditional and Christian elements. {an Indianism is a recent
and growing movement which encourages a return to traditional beliefs,
and seeks to create a common Native religion. The Native American
Church is a continuation of the ancient Peyote Religion which had used
a cactus with psychedelic properties called peyote for about 10,000
years. Incorporated in 1918, its original aim was to promote Christian
beliefs and values, and to use the peyote sacrament. Although use of
peyote is restricted to religious ritual which is protected by the US
Constitution, and it is not harmful or habit forming, and has a
multi-millennia tradition, there has been considerable opposition from
Christian groups, from governments, and from within some tribes."
Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
http://www.religioustolerance.org/nataspir.htm
"Native American Church, Native American religious group whose beliefs
blend fundamentalist Christian elements with pan–Native American moral
principles. The movement began among the Kiowa about 1890 and, led by
John Wilson (Big Moon), soon spread to other tribes. The sacramental
food of the group was peyote, a hallucinogenic cactus, and the members
came to be known as peyotists. In 1918, peyotists from a number of
tribes incorporated their movement as the Native American Church. In
1940 the church was declared illegal by the Navajo Tribal Council,
which saw it as a threat to Navajo culture and to Christianized
Navajos. The church flourished underground, however, until 1967, when
the tribe reversed its decision. By 1996, the church had 250,000
members in the United States, Mexico, and Canada."
InfoPlease
http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/society/A0834977.html
"Fourteen percent of U.S. adults have no religion, according to the
latest American Religious Identification Survey 2001, released by the
Graduate Center of the City University of New York... The survey of
more than 50,000 randomly selected adult respondents, considered the
nation's most comprehensive on religion, follows up a 1990 survey...
Native Americans are most likely to give their religion as Baptists
(20%) or no religion (19%)."
Freethought Today
http://www.ffrf.org/fttoday/dec01/noreligion.html
"American Religious Identification Survey... Turning from the newest
Americans to the oldest, the present survey is the first to
systematically inquire into the religious preferences of a nationally
representative sample of Native Americans. Although under 2 % of the
total sample, their religious profile is very similar to white,
non-Hispanic Americans: 20% self-identified as Baptist, 17% as
Catholic and 17% indicated no religious preference. Only 3% indicated
their primary religious identification as an 'Indian' or tribal
religion."
Graduate Center, City University of New York
http://www.gc.cuny.edu/studies/religion_ethnicity.htm
Search terms used:
"native american religion(s)"
"native americans" + "religion(s)"
"native american spirituality"
"american indian religion(s)"
"american indians" + "religion(s)"
"american indian spirituality"
"american" + "tribal religion(s)"
"native americans" + "religion" + "survey"
I hope the information linked above will be helpful. This was
certainly a fascinating subject to research.
Best regards,
pinkfreud |
