Red Indians

RELIGION
                  Native Americans did not believe in one god. Nor had they any hell or heaven. To most of them, the world was filled with powers which showed itself through all living things, the animals, the heavenly bodies, the plants and sometimes man. This power was good if handled right otherwise it was evil. So men tried to get in touch with it and to gain its favor in order to have strength to live well. Many tribes have taught their children to go out in some lonely place in early life, fasting and praying, as men of almost every religion have done. Some animal or might then appear, praising their bravery and promising help. Plains Indians sometimes cut off a finger joint in sacrifice. They said that everything in the world belonged to the great power, so there was nothing they could give it, except a part of themselves. The farming tribes held their principal ceremonies in honor of the corn. All summer long they held dances to call the rain and help the plants grow. These dances were not like most white mans dances, where women and men dance together. Often they were performed by men only. They were like dignified processions carried out with a dancing step and a beautiful costume. Such dances are still performed among the Pueblos. Indian ceremonies were conducted by priests. Many Indian officials as medicine men should really be called priests, for it was their business to remember every act of a beautiful ceremony, just as any priest does, to recite the prayers, and to teach the songs. Sometimes a person who fell ill was thought to have been disrespectful in the ceremony, and then the priests and his helpers could make a cure by performing the ceremony all over again and putting things right. Other medecine men claimed to get their power straight from a vision. Sometimes they thought this power enabled them to bring ran or take away the enemy's power in a war. Most often it helped them to cure sickness. Most primitive people have believed that magic would cure sickness, for they have not known the scientific causes of disease. Sometimes the Indians imagined that some little stone or living creature might have gotten inside the body. The medecine man, after singing and praying would suck it out. Some Indians thought that an unconscious patients soul had floated away, and the medecine would call it back. Whites can readily understand why the medecine man's singing and praying gave real confidence to a sick person. Even in the government hospitals, with all their improvements the Indians miss this religious side of curing.