Native American Spiritual Traditions and Religious Freedom

The hundreds of Native nations of North America have distinct spiritual traditions, though many share themes of relationship with land, animals and spirit beings, and of balance and reciprocity. The Lakota, for example, practice the Sun Dance and the sweat lodge and speak of Wakan Tanka, the Great Mystery. Pueblo peoples of the Southwest honor katsinam (kachinas), spirit beings represented in ceremonial dances. Many traditions teach that humans have obligations to the natural world.

From the late 19th century, US and Canadian governments banned many ceremonies and forced Native children into boarding schools designed to erase languages and religions. Native activists fought for change, and the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978 declared a policy of protecting traditional religions, though it initially lacked enforcement. Later laws addressed the return of sacred objects and ancestral remains (NAGPRA, 1990) and the ceremonial use of peyote. Disputes over sacred sites on federal land continue.