"At this time in my lifetime i have come to a spiritual crossroads..... so to speak. I am of First American Religion and every time I tell someone that they automatically think I am a devil worshipper. A pastor here at a local church actually told his congregation that Native Americans fought with the devil on Mt. Siani in the Bible. And that they used their dream cachers and black majik potions with the chants and rituals to summon the devil to fight the Lord's soldiers.
To think that there are people out there who think that Native Americans are God hating devil worshippers make me sick. We love Great Spirit. And it's about time that Christians get over their hatred and arrogance toward other religions.
One of the most evil things the Christians have ever done is spread their disease upon the Native Americans whom they conquered in the age of Manifest Destiny. Manifest Destiny was the claim that god wanted the Christians to have the land and therefore it excused them of any wrongdoing. Well, if god wanted the Christians to have the land, why did god put the Indians there first? This is proof again that people create god in their own image and make that god desire their own desires. “We’re doing god’s work,” and this makes it all okay. It always bothers me when I see Native Americans following some form of Christianity. Historians tend to stay away from this topic because they don’t want to get blasted by the Christians. In many cases they were forced into the Christian cult during the reservation years (latter 1800s period) when it became a choice of following the old ways or eating. Read about the Nez Perces in Indian Territory and you will learn about this.
Also, Native Americans didn’t hold the same religious concepts as organized religion. For them it was more about gaining power. Being that they were defeated by the white Christian culture (who, for instance, had the ability to make guns), they sought to add this new power to their existing set of beliefs. It wasn’t about one over the other, or one being right and one being wrong. You would never hear an old-time Indian warrior tell a white man that you had better believe in the Indian idea of the Great Spirit or you’ll never get into the Happy Hunting Grounds. They just didn’t think like that.
But Christianity has been tainting native beliefs for hundreds of years. For example, let’s say a missionary goes to work among some eastern tribe, say the Iroquois. The new ideas that are given to them pass from tribe to tribe. These new ideas (and rituals) might be incorporated into existing beliefs. So it spreads.
Christian leaders who spoke about injustices to the Indians still wanted the Indians to be civilized (i.e., Christianized), they just wanted it done more humanely. Different path to the same result.
I still don’t understand how any Native American can choose to be a Christian, especially after what was done to them in the name of that very religion.."
♡Author unknown
