Introduction
Native American religion is an enormous subject covering religious beliefs, ceremonies, rituals, and practices of the indigenous people of America. The basis of American religion is based on beliefs that spirits are present both animate and non-living objects. The Native American religion and beliefs are centered on the natural world and environment. The paper discusses three main body topics, the common Native American beliefs, describes the Native American Religion, describes the religious ceremonies mostly conducted include and concludes by summarizing the important sections of the paper.
The common Native American belief relies on the fact that living is close to the souls and spirits of the dead. Medicine man also known as Shaman mediated the congregation or a person when communicating with the spirit world. The medicine man also acted as healers. The creator of both animate and inanimate things is generally denoted as the Great Spirit. Native American and Indian religion is intertwined with a lot of similarities (Turner, 2016) . The Native American religion is highly localized about different tribes making it challenging to define the doctrine fully.
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To describe this Native American Religion; beliefs, religious practices, ritual and ceremonies of different groups is crucial. Animism religion believes that a natural object in the universe also has souls and spirits. This religious belief calls for respect of natural objects such as mountains, trees, animals, and rocks. Another belief is Shamanism where Shaman, a religious leader enters into a supernatural realism to obtain solutions to problems such as sickness (Russel & Smith, 2016) . Also, spiritual healing and herbalism is a religious belief where traditional medicine men use herbs to cure diseases and spiritual healing to treat body, mind, and spirit.
The religious ceremonies mostly conducted include; Sweat Lodge, Potlatch Ceremony, Kiva, and Prayer Stick. Swear Lodge also known as purification ritual was held during the marriage, the right of passage, and healing. Potlatch ceremony is an affluent ceremonial feast to celebrate a vital event practiced both in Northwest India and North America. Kiva is a sacred underground building used in religious rituals and spiritual ceremonies used by Pueblo Native American (Turner, 2016) . Finally, Prayer Stick is a ceremony used to make petitions and offerings to the spirit world which is closely associated with ritual and religious ceremonies in Southwest Native American tribes.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Native American Religion is a broad subject with many localized communities having different religious practice. In most of these religions, the Great Spirit acts as the supreme being. The overall Native American religion had an overall respect for natural resources and considered them sacred. Religious ceremonies such as sweat Lodge, Potlatch, and Prayer Stick were commonly used. Native American religion is broad and to clearly understand it is essential to establish its relation with Native Indian Religion.
Reference
Russell, K. A., & Smith, R. A. (2016). Issue Brief: Native Americans and Minority Religion.
Turner, B. S. (Ed.). (2016). The new Blackwell companion to the sociology of religion . John Wiley & Sons.
