Library: World Religions by Credo Reference: Native American Religions

Deities

Atsehastin and Atseestan
From Bloomsbury Dictionary of Myth
Atsehastin ('first man') and Atseestan ('first woman'), in the myths of the Navajo people of the Southwestern US, made our world. Their ancestors were the bats, birds and insects of Red World, lowest of the five superimposed layers which formed the universe.
Corn Woman
From Bloomsbury Dictionary of Myth
Corn Woman, in the myths of the Creek people of the Southeastern US, lived with mortals in the days before people knew anything about farming.
Estsanatlehi
From Bloomsbury Dictionary of Myth
Estsanatlehi as Time. Estsanatlehi ('changing woman'), in the myths of the Navajo people of the Southwestern US desert, was the goddess of time passing.
Komokwa
From Bloomsbury Dictionary of Myth
Komokwa the sea-god, in the myths of the Kwakiutl and Haida people of the Northwestern coast (Canada), lived in a vast underwater palace whose roof was supported by sealions.
Nanook
From Bloomsbury Dictionary of Myth
Nanook, in the myths of many peoples of the Northeastern US and Canada, also known to the Eskimos as Nanue, was the Great Bear.
Tawiskaron
From Bloomsbury Dictionary of Myth
Tawiskaron, in the myths of the Mohawk people of the Northeastern US woodlands, was a demon who shepherded wild beasts as ordinary people kept goats or chickens.
Tirawa
From Bloomsbury Dictionary of Myth
Tirawa, or Tirawahat ('arch of Heaven' or 'this expanse'), in the myths of the Pawnee people of the US Great Plains, created the world in the shape of a bowl floating in space.
Yanauluha
From Bloomsbury Dictionary of Myth
Yanauluha, in the myths of the Zuñi people of the Southwestern US pueblos, led human beings from the darkness of the Underworld to the surface of the Earth.

Practices & Beliefs

Ghost Dance: Topic Page
American Indian religious revivalist movement that spread through the Plains Indians and other ethnic groups in the 1890s.
Pantheism: Topic Page
Name used to denote any system of belief or speculation that includes the teaching "God is all, and all is God." Pantheism, in other words, identifies the universe with God or God with the universe.
Peyotism
From The New Encyclopedia of the American West
Peyotism has since the late nineteenth century become the foundation of a religion that is playing a large role in the modern resurgence of Indian cultural awareness. The peyote religion is a blend of Christian and native spiritual precepts.
Potlatch: Topic Page
Ceremonial feast of the natives of the NW coast of North America, entailing the public distribution of property.
Serpent Mound
From Encyclopedia of North American Indians
The largest known serpent effigy in the world, Great Serpent Mound is located in rural Ohio. The mound's form is of an undulating serpent, uncoiling and opening its mouth to swallow a large oval.
Shamanism: Topic Page
Religious practitioner in various, generally small-scale societies who is believed to be able to diagnose, cure, and sometimes cause illness because of a special relationship with, or control over, spirits.
Totem
From Chamber's Dictionary of the Unexplained
In some societies, especially those of the Native Americans, a species of animal or plant regarded as having an intimate mystical relationship with an individual, family or clan, and often venerated as a progenitor and protector.
Vision Quest
From Chamber's Dictionary of the Unexplained
A Native American ritual that is performed for the purpose of seeing visions, obtaining guidance from the spirit world or finding a guardian spirit.