The Native American Soul

California State University Long Beach The Ethnic Experience in the United States Dr. Delgado, Dr. Henry, Dr. Johnson, Dr. Toji By James R. Walker November 2001

In this document I will assert that there are fundamental distinctions that set Native American cultures and spiritual views, with all their diversity, quite apart from European cultures and spiritual views. These distinctions have to do with basic world-view and philosophical orientations. They include religion and worship; the nature of identity; the relationship between humans and the earth; and conceptual differences regarding space and time. Set in an historical context these cultural differences were so vast that the European mind could not grasp Native American sensibilities. These gross deficits led to turmoil, subjugation and genocide of the Native population. The concepts of spirituality, identity, ones relationship to the earth, and space-time are not viewed as separate disciplines but as integral parts of the entire fabric of life. Therefore, in discussing these aspects of Native American world-view it is paramount to keep in mind that each part is intrinsically entwined with the others. For example, it is not possible to speak of religion without touching upon conceptual views of space-time and relationship with the earth. All aspects of the Native American world-view and philosophy are essentially spiritual in nature. So, let us begin with religion and worship. Animism, Animalism and Vitalism are words used by Western mentalities to approximate a common observation of American aboriginal spiritual practice. Briefly, Animism is the doctrine that inanimate objects, animals and natural phenomena are endowed with a life force or living soul. But this European definition is negligent of the nuances imbued in the native spiritual construct. Soul, in this context, is not identical to the Christian idea of soul. It is not necessarily personal property of the individual and often times has a more universal attribute that not only succeeds the individual but exceeds the individual as well. What is more, many natural phenomena and animals could be understood as a spirit itself made perceptible, perhaps, to enlighten the viewer or guide

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them through a didactic vision. European language has labeled this Animalism, that is, the concept of spirits as animals (Hultkrantz 22). Here the viewer sees the animal as an apparition or spirit in animal form. Additionally, the animal or inanimate object or phenomena could be seen as truly material within which a soul resides. Vitalism dictates that life processes contain a nonmaterial vital principle and cannot be explained entirely as physical or chemical phenomena. This view of the world around them gave the original inhabitants a respect and reverence for all things in nature that is deficient in the Christian world-view. Lame Deer asserts, All living creatures are my relativeseven a tiny bug. (22). Ruth M. Underhill explains that this meant treating everything around them with courtesy, not exploiting them and a concept of reciprocity with nature (41). Reverent environmental policy is intrinsic to their spirituality. From this perspective the environs of the earth are regarded as shrines, temples or places of worship:
There were no temples or shrines among us save those of nature. Being a natural man, the Indian would deem it sacrilege to build a house for Him who may be met face to face in the mysterious, shadowy aisles of the primeval forest, or on the sunlit bosom of virgin prairies, upon dizzy spires and pinnacles of naked rock, and yonder in the jeweled vault of the night sky! (Eastman 5)

Furthermore, the concept of soul is not seen as static, contrary to Western concepts of the same. American Natives regarded soul as a process. Here space-time and identity are involved:
Each individual comes into a being as the result of (1) having a potentiality for being, (2) transforming this potentiality through birth into an essence that is independent of the body, (3) providing continuous evidence that this essence exists, and (4) finally providing evidence that the essence independent of the corporeal existence continues to exist after death. (Powers 64)

In contrast to Western understanding, process is integral to ones identity as well. Most baffling to Native Americans is the European dogma of a static personal identity. Jamake Highwater explains, Indians find it incredible that a person must retain one identity, one name, one persona for his or her entire existence, no matter what immense changes may take place

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in that persons life (168). Moreover, the individuated egocentricity of the Western self-identity is alien to Native Americans:
For instance, most North American tribes possess what must be called a communal soul and identity, in comparison with the Western precept of the soul and identity as personal property that ensures, under certain moral regulations, the eternal perpetuation of the private ego (Highwater 169).

Many people in Western societies define themselves by their occupation and/or by their material status. Natives to this land, conversely, know the environment as that which defines them. As a source of identity, this doctrine guides the Native American in his/her relationship to nature. To perhaps propitiate and revere the earth and all things on it, many Native Americans cultures practice transformation. This is not metamorphosis, American Indians, who do not normally make a distinction between dreaming and waking, are capable of a type of projection or transference which they experience as transformation (Highwater 61). In a sense he/she becomes the sky or the hawk. By becoming a thing one begins to understand, appreciate and exercise some reservation towards its utilization. Also, in this way the individual transcends time and space and even his/her own identity. Additionally, most North American Natives believed that all beings were originally human but, a change took place that turned many primeval beings into animals and birds (Hultkrantz 21). In this light, it becomes evident that this element of their world-view is conducive to respect for the world around them. Western world-view, on the other hand, encourages exploitation of the earth and animals. Again we see how the world-view of the original inhabitants and their practice of spirituality blurs the boundaries of Western compartmentalized perceptive of religion and worship, the natural resources of the earth, identity and space-time. In Seeing with the Native Eye, Ake Hultkrantz et al sums it up, the Native American ethic with respect to the physical world is a matter of reciprocal appropriation: appropriations in which man invests himself in the landscape, and at the same time incorporates

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the landscape into his own most fundamental experience (Brown 80). Essentially, appropriation is realized through acts, which are moral and kind. It must have appalled the natives to witness the Europeans unselfconsciously rape the land and exterminate its denizens. The ideology of reciprocal appropriation has been handed down from generation to generation since time immemorial. Now let us turn our attention to the concept of time. Time, as understood by the indigenous people, is circular or cyclic. This is antithetical to the European linear concept of time. Although concepts of past and future are well understood, time is seen as an, enduring present, which looks like an extended now (Highwater 95). This integrates well with the process of transformation, as discussed above. One would need to transcend space-time in order to participate in this act. In addition, the circle implies that one will eventually return to the place once visited. Therefore, the Natives knew that it behooves them, and all things living and not, to leave the surroundings more or less as they found it. Tacit in this idea is the principle of conservation, a relatively new component to Western awareness. The cyclical concept ensures that death and birth are not differentiated. Death could be viewed as a beginning and birth as an ending. This view is wonderfully optimistic and conducive to abating fear of death. Regrettably, the beginning of European contact signaled the death of a once flourishing body of nations. The differences in world-view and culture between Europeans and the indigenous people of America began a history rife with debate and conflict, which led to the decimation of the original Americans. In 1550 CE Bartolome de Las Casas, after living with New World Natives forty-five years, returned to Spain as an advocate for the natives. In a debate his antagonist, Jean Gines de Sepulveda, persuaded Charles V that the Natives were, uncivilized, incapable of learning, unable to govern themselves, beastly and inhumane barbarians (Gill 7). Of course, Sepulveda

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described Europeans as being, Christian, civilized, learned, and advanced in the arts and production of material goods (Gill 7). By dehumanizing the original inhabitants, this discourse planted the seed, which germinated into the ideology that enabled Europeans to justify subjugation and even murder. Euro-centrism manifested in the doctrine of Manifest Destiny. Anything retarding the advance of the superior European world-view and territorial expansion was received as a threat and dealt with accordingly. Millions of the original inhabitants were killed. Their culture was all but wiped out. The Europeans simply could not comprehend the world-view; the mind; the soul, if you will, of the native. Today, the legacy of European attitudes manifests in, high unemployment, alcoholism, lack of job and educational skills. But the major factor is the interface of powerless peoples with superimposed legal systems (Medicine 126). In an attempt to ameliorate these problems congress passed the Indian Religious Freedom Act in 1978. This has had a positive effect in many communities, for previously heavy alcohol users have utilized old beliefs as support systems in sobriety (Medicine 126). The immensity of dissimilarity between Europeans and Native Americans was such that they could not understand the means, let alone the message, by which experience becomes transformed into expression. There was no common platform of understanding to facilitate a meaningful dialogue regarding religion, identity, the environment and space and time. This need not be the case today, however. If Americas policy is to conduct a meaningful dialogue with the Native Americans regarding life-sustaining social structure, and to ensure tribal sovereignty, it must speak not only of past Native American experiences, but of their contemporary condition as well. We must initiate a new and healthy future that can provide the Indian people with as sense of place, purpose, and hope.

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Works Cited Brown, Joseph Epes; Comstock, W. Richard; Gill, Sam D.; Hultkrantz, Ake; Momaday, N. Scott; Sekaquaptewa, Emory and Toelken, Barre; edited by Capps, Walter Holden. Seeing with the Native Eye. New York, Hagerstown, San Francisco, and London: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1976. Deer, Lame. The Weeping Sky. New York, London: Sheed & Ward, 1973. Eastman, Charles Alexander. The Soul of the Indian. Lincoln, London: University of Nebraska Press, 1911. Gill, Sam D. Native American Religions. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1982 Highwater, Jamake. The Primal Mind. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1944. Hultkrantz, Ake. Native Religions of North America. San Francisco: Harper Collins, Publishers, 1987. Powers, William K. Beyond the Vision. Norman, London: University of Oklahoma Press, 1987. Underhill, Ruth Murray. Red Mans Religion. Chicago, London: The University of Chicago Press, 1965. Medicine, Beatrice. North American Indigenous Women and Cultural Domination. American Indian Culture and Research Journal. (1993): p. 126-129.

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