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Sacred-texts home
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Prayer to the Mystery: Edward Curtis 1907 [Public Domain Image] Oglala Sioux man, Picket Pin, wearing breechcloth, holding pipe with mouthpiece pointing skyward, buffalo skull at his feet.

Native American Religions


Native American religion, mythology and folklore are covered extensively at this site:

Aztecs
Californian
Inuit
Maya
Plains
Northeastern
   Iroquois
Northwestern
Southeastern
   Cherokee
Southwestern
   Navajo
   Zuñi
   Hopi
South American
   Inca

A long-standing problem with this section (and several others at this site relating to traditional peoples' spiritual beliefs) has been the lack of authoritative information. We are in the process of expanding this section by scanning public domain ethnographic accounts on specific Native American religious and spiritual practices. We are fortunate that there is a wealth of such material available, which makes it so much more puzzling why more of it is not on the Internet yet.

The study of Native Americans by anthroplogists has had its share of bad science and ethical problems. However, the texts we are in the process of scanning were written by 19th and 20th Century ethnographers who were known for their careful and respectful approach to the people they studied. These were scholars who lived for years with the people they studied, and obtained permission to transcribe their oral sacred literature.


General

These texts cover a wide range of Native Americans or don't fit into one of the categories above.

  Tales of the North American Indians by Stith Thompson [1929]
The classic cross-cultural Native American folklore study.

  The Soul of the Indian by Charles Eastman [1911] 100,801 bytes

  Indian Why Stories by Frank Linderman [1915] 163,221 bytes

  Old Indian Legends by Zitkala-Sa [1901] 105,552 bytes