Sacred time in indigenous religions is

Indigenous Religions

© Steve And Donna O’Meara/National Geographic/Getty Images

First Encounter

As it is for most visitors, your first stop in Hawai`i is crowded Waikiki, on the island of O`ahu. *

After four days of swimming, sightseeing, and viewing the sunsets, you fly to Maui for a few

days, and then on to the much less populated island of Hawai`i—called the Big Island by local

residents. From the airport in Hilo, you begin to drive upcountry, toward the little town of

Volcano. The area around Hilo, on the rainy side of the island, resembles the tropical paradise of

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fantasy: the leaves of the trees are bright lime-colored flames, and the yards of the houses are

planted with vanda orchids and fragrant white-flowered plumeria trees.

* Note: The ‘okina (glottal stop mark) is used throughout this book in the spelling of certain

Hawaiian words. It is indicated by a backward apostrophe.

As you drive inland and upward, lawns and homes yield to fields of beige grass and clusters of

dark brown rock. Banyan trees give way to small, silver-leaved `ohi`a lehua bushes, as delicate

as their red flowers. Now you are closer to the volcanoes that are still producing the island. The

land here is raw and relatively new. You check into the old lava-rock hotel near the volcanic

crater and look forward to settling in for the night. After supper you listen to ukulele music in

front of the big fireplace in the lobby and watch a man and two women perform a slow hula for

the guests.

The next morning, after a good sleep, you walk out to the rim of the crater. You are a bit startled

by the steam rising through cracks and holes in the rock. You hike down a trail that leads to a

bed of old lava, passing yellow ginger and tiny wild purple orchids on the way. The lava in the

crater at this spot is dry; it crunches underfoot. Here and there you see stones wrapped in the

broad leaves of the ti plant and wonder why they’re there.

On the way back up the trail, you fall in step with a woman who explains that she was raised on

the Big Island but now lives on another island. She is here just for a few days, to visit the

volcano area and to see old friends. She tells you about Pele, the goddess of fire, whose place of

veneration is the volcano. “When I was young I learned that Pele came from the island of Kaua`i

to Maui, where she lived in Haleakala Crater before she moved to this island. Nowadays, people

here are mostly Buddhist or Christian, but they still respect Pele. I know a man who says Pele

once appeared to him. He told me she had long hair and was surrounded by fire. Other people

have seen her on the road. Pele gets a lot of offerings—mostly ti leaves and food. But when the

lava is flowing toward Hilo, people also bring out pork and gin,” the woman says with a laugh,

“and my friends tell me that the offerings work.”

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The lava, she explains, is active now at the other end of a series of craters, closer to the ocean.

She suggests that you drive to the lava flow before dark and adds, “Be sure to have good walking

shoes, as well as a flashlight in case it gets dark before you go back to your car. And don’t take

any lava rock away with you. They say it brings bad luck, you know.”

In midafternoon, you drive down the curving black asphalt road, past old lava flows, to the

highway near the ocean. You stop and park near the cars of other lava watchers and then begin

hiking with a few people across the fresh lava, toward the ocean. About half a mile in, you

encounter yellow caution strips and overhear an officer warning one man to stop. “Farther on it’s

just too dangerous. It looks solid on top, but you can slip through the crust.” You and the others

crowd up next to the barriers and see steam rising on the right up ahead. Through the rising

steam you glimpse a bright orange band of molten lava underneath the dry crust as the lava falls

into the ocean.

Sunset comes quickly, and even more people arrive, some with blankets around their shoulders.

As darkness falls, the flowing lava becomes more visible, and the steam takes on a reddish glow.

“Look over there,” someone says. In the distance a bright stream of orange lava slides down a

hill, a slow-motion waterfall of fire. You watch at least an hour as the sky becomes completely

dark. Now the only light comes from the flowing lava and a few flashlights. It is, you think, like

being present at the time of creation: this land is being born.

The next morning in the lobby you see the Hawaiian woman again. “Well, did you see Pele last

night?” she asks, smiling. You smile back. For the rest of your stay you wonder about Pele,

about what else might remain of native Hawaiian religion. Isn’t hula, you ask as you think back

over what you’ve read, an expression of Hawaiian beliefs? Why do people make offerings of ti

leaves? How much of the ancient religion lives on?

Discovering Indigenous Religions

The practice of native religions takes place throughout the world. Among the Ainu of far

northern Japan, the Inuit (Eskimo) of Canada, the aboriginal peoples of Australia, the Maori of

New Zealand, and the many indigenous peoples of Africa and the Americas, religious teachings

have been passed on primarily by word of mouth rather than through written texts. In some areas,

the ancient religious ways of traditional peoples may not be easily apparent, but certain

characteristics live on in local stories and customs.

There is no agreement on how to speak of these ancient religious ways. Various terms include

traditional, aboriginal, indigenous, tribal, nonliterate, primal, native, oral, and basic. Each term

is inadequate. For example, although the word native is used frequently in the Americas, that

term in Africa—with memories of colonial offices of native affairs—can be offensive. The

words oral and nonliterate describe correctly the fact that most indigenous religions were spread

without written texts. But there have been exceptions: the Mayans and Aztecs, for example, had

writing systems, and even many native religions without writing systems have had their sacred

stories and beliefs written down by scholars at some point. The distinction between oral religions

and others is also blurred by the fact that religions that have written texts are also, to a large

degree, transmitted orally—for example, through preaching, teaching, and chanting. The term

traditional would be suitable, except that all religions but the very newest have many traditional

elements. Some terms, such as primal and basic, may be viewed as derogatory (like the older

term primitive religions). The word indigenous has the advantage of being neutral in tone;

however, it means the same thing as native, except that it comes from Greek rather than Latin.

There is no easy solution. Although indigenous comes closest to capturing these ancient

religions, we will use several of the preceding terms interchangeably throughout the text.

Indigenous religions are found in every climate, from the tropical rain forest to the arctic tundra,

and some are far older than today’s dominant religions. Because most of them developed in

isolation from each other, there are major differences in their stories of creation and origin, in

their beliefs about the afterlife, in their marriage and funeral customs, and so on. In fact, there is

as much variation among indigenous religions as there is, for example, between Buddhism and

Christianity. In North America, for instance, there are several hundred Native American nations

and more than fifty Native American language groups. The variety among indigenous religious

traditions is stunning, and each religion deserves in-depth study. But because of the limitations of

space, this book must focus on shared elements; regrettably, we can barely touch on the many

differences. (You can complement your study of basic patterns by making your own study of a

native religion, especially one practiced now or in the past by the indigenous peoples of the area

in which you live.)

Past Obstacles to the Appreciation of Indigenous Religions

Up until the early part of the twentieth century, scholars focused more on religions that had

produced written texts than on those that expressed themselves through orally transmitted stories,

histories, and rituals. This lack of attention to oral religions may have been due in part to the

relative ease of studying religions with written records. Religions with written records don’t

necessarily require travel or physically arduous research. Moreover, when scholars have

mastered reading the necessary languages, they can study, translate, and teach the original

writings either at home or to students anywhere.

There has also been a bias toward text-based religions because of a misconception that they are

complex and that oral religions are simple. Greater research into oral religions, however, has

dispelled such notions of simplicity. Consider, for example, the sandpaintings of the Navajo

people and the ceremonies of which the paintings are a part. “In these ceremonies, which are

very complicated and intricate, sandpaintings are made and prayers recited. Sand-paintings are

impermanent paintings made of dried pulverized materials that depict the Holy People [gods]

and serve as a temporary altar. Over 800 forms of sandpaintings exist, each connected to a

specific chant and ceremony.” 1

Indigenous religions have, of course, created much that is permanent, and sometimes even

monumental. We have only to think of the Mayan pyramids in Yucatán and the great city of

Teotihuacán, near Mexico City. But native religions often express themselves in ways that have

less permanence: dance, masks, wood sculpture, paintings that utilize mineral and plant dyes,

tattoo, body painting, and memorized story and chant. Perhaps we have to begin to see these

transitory expressions of religious art as being equal in stature to more permanent sacred writings

and artistic creations. In speaking of African art, one scholar has called it the “indigenous

language of African belief and thought,” even saying that African art “provides a kind of

scripture of African religion.” 2 We also have to see that indigenous religions have sometimes

blended with more dominant religions. For example, elements of Mayan religion live on in the

Catholicism of Mexico and Guatemala, and elements of belief in nature gods live on in the

Buddhism of Myanmar (Burma). This blending has made the existence of indigenous religions

less obvious, but sometimes it has also made their continued existence possible.

The Modern Recovery of Indigenous Religions

We know about native religious traditions through the efforts of scholars from a number of

disciplines, particularly anthropology. One pioneer was Franz Boas (1858–1942), a professor at

Columbia University and curator at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Other notable contributors to this field include Bronislaw Malinowski (1884–1942), Raymond

Firth (1901–2002), Mary Douglas (1921–2007), and E. E. Evans-Pritchard (mentioned in

Chapter 1).

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These masked dancers in Papua New Guinea celebrate spirits of their ancestors.

© Fulvio Roiter/Corbis

The ecological movement has also made our study of indigenous religions more pressing.

Environmentalist David Suzuki argues that we must look to native peoples and religions for

insightful lessons in the relationship between human beings and nature. In his introduction to the

book Wisdom of the Elders, he writes that the earth is rapidly moving toward what he calls

“ecocrisis.” He quotes the ecologist Paul Ehrlich in saying that solutions will have to be “quasi-

religious.” Suzuki argues that “our problem is inherent in the way we perceive our relationship

with the rest of Nature and our role in the grand scheme of things. Harvard biologist E. O.

Wilson proposes that we foster biophilia, a love of life. He once told me, ‘We must rediscover

our kin, the other animals and plants with whom we share this planet.’” 3

Some of this interest derives, of course, from a sometimes romanticized view of native peoples

and their relationship with nature. We should recognize that some native peoples, such as the

Kwakiutl of the Pacific Northwest, have viewed nature as dangerously violent, and others have

seriously damaged their natural environment. Despite such cases, one finds in many indigenous

religions extraordinary sensitivity to the natural elements.

The development of photography and sound recording has helped the recovery of native

religious traditions. Photography captures native styles of life and allows them to be seen with a

certain immediacy. Ethnomusicology involves the recording of chants and the sounds of musical

instruments that might otherwise be lost. Gladys Reichard, a specialist who pioneered the study

of the ritual life of the Navajo (Diné), has written that chanters in the Navajo religion need to

memorize an “incalculable” number—that is, thousands—of songs. 4 The fact that listeners can

replay such recordings has no doubt added to the appreciation of this music.

Artists in many cultures, trying to go beyond their own limited artistic traditions, have found

inspiration in native wood sculpture, masks, drums, and textile design. Pablo Picasso (1881–

1973), for example, often spoke of the strong influence that African religious masks had on his

work. By the early 1900s, West African masks had found their way to Paris and the artists there.

A scholar describes the effect of one African work on several artists who were close friends.

“One piece... is a mask that had been given to Maurice Vlaminck in 1905. He records that

[André] Derain was ‘speechless’ and ‘stunned’ when he saw it, bought it from Vlaminck and in

turn showed it to Picasso and Matisse, who were also greatly affected by it.” 5 French artist Paul

Gauguin moved to Tahiti and the Marquesas to find and paint what he hoped was a fundamental

form of religion there, and some of his paintings allude to native Tahitian religious belief. 6

Gauguin thereby hoped to go beyond the limited views of his European background. The work of

such artists as Picasso and Gauguin helped to open eyes to the beauty produced by indigenous

religions.

In this old photo, we see women in Okinawa undergoing priestly initiation.

© Hitoshi Maeshiro/EPA/Newscom

Of course, the religious art of native peoples needs no authentication from outsiders. And

outsiders present a problem: they tend to treat native religious objects as purely secular works of

art, while people within an indigenous religious tradition do not make such a distinction.

Indigenous religions exist generally within holistic cultures, in which every object and act may

have religious meaning. Art, music, religion, and social behavior within such cultures can be so

inseparable that it is hard to say what is distinctly religious and what is not. Although we can

find a similar attitude among very pious practitioners of the dominant world religions, for whom

every act is religious, people in modern, industrial cultures commonly see the secular and

religious realms as separate.

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All our histories, traditions, codes were passed from one generation to another by word of mouth.

Our memories must be kept clear and accurate, our observation must be keen, our self-control

absolute.

Thomas Wildcat Alford, Shawnee 7

Fortunately, the bias that once judged native religions to be “primitive” manifestations of the

religious spirit—as opposed to the literate, so-called higher religions—is disappearing. It is an

inescapable fact that the span of written religions is relatively brief—barely five thousand

years—yet scientists now hold that human beings have lived on earth for at least a million (and

possibly two or three million) years. Although we do not know how long human beings have

been manifesting religious behavior, we believe it goes back as long as human beings have been

capable of abstract thought.

Studying Indigenous Religions: Learning from Patterns

The study of indigenous religious traditions presents its own specific challenges. Happily, oral

traditions are being written down, translated, and published. Yet our understanding of these

religions depends not only on written records but also on field study by anthropologists,

ethnomusicologists, and others.

It would be ideal if we could study and experience each native religion separately; barring that,

however, one workable approach is to consider them collectively as “sacred paths” that share

common elements. Thus, in this chapter we will concentrate on finding patterns in native

religions—while keeping in mind that beyond the patterns there is enormous variety. The

patterns we identify in indigenous religions will also enrich our encounter with other religions in

later chapters. Three key patterns we will consider are the human relationship with nature, the

framing of sacred time and space, and the respect for origins, gods, and ancestors.

Human Relationships with the Natural World

Most indigenous religions have sprung from tribal cultures of small numbers, whose survival has

required a cautious and respectful relationship with nature. In the worldview of these religions,

human beings are very much a part of nature. People look to nature itself (sometimes interpreted

through traditional lore) for guidance and meaning.

Some native religions see everything in the universe as being alive, a concept known as animism

(which we discussed briefly in Chapter 1). The life force (Latin: anima) is present in everything

and is especially apparent in living things—trees, plants, birds, animals, and human beings—and

in the motion of water, the sun, the moon, clouds, and wind. But life force can also be present in

apparently static mountains, rocks, and soil. Other native religions, while more theistic, see

powerful spirits in nature, which temporarily inhabit natural objects and manifest themselves

there.

In an animistic worldview, everything can be seen as part of the same reality. There may be no

clear boundaries between the natural and supernatural and between the human and nonhuman.

Everything has both its visible ordinary reality and a deeper, invisible sacred reality. Four Oglala

Sioux shamans, when asked about what was wakan (“holy,” “mysterious”), said, “Every object

in the world has a spirit and that spirit is wakan. Thus the spirit[s] of the tree or things of that

kind, while not like the spirit of man, are also wakan.” 8 To say that nature is full of spirits can be

a way of affirming the presence of both a universal life force and an essential, underlying

sacredness.

Among many peoples, particular objects—a specific rock, tree, or river—are thought of as being

animated by an individual spirit that lives within. And in some native traditions, we find deities

that care about and influence a whole category of reality, such as the earth, water, or air. Among

the Yoruba of Africa, storms are the work of the deity Shangó, a legendary king with great

powers who climbed to heaven (see Chapter 11). The Igbo (Ibo) pray to Ala, an earth-mother

deity, for fertility of the earth. Women also pray to her for children, and men pray to her to

increase their crops. In the Ashanti religion, Ta Yao is the god of metal. The work of blacksmiths

and mechanics is under his charge. 9

Deeper Insights: Australian Aboriginal Religion

Aboriginal people came to Australia from Asia, probably via a land bridge, about forty thousand

to sixty thousand years ago. From the north of the continent they spread throughout Australia,

eventually evolving into many groups and languages. At the time of the first European contact,

there were several hundred Aboriginal languages. Now there are fewer than a hundred, and some

of these are close to extinction. Although Christianity is currently the majority religion of

Australian Aboriginal people, indigenous religions are still alive and are becoming increasingly

significant.

No single Aboriginal religion exists, but there are many similarities among them. Perhaps the

best known is belief in the Dreamtime—an early creative period when legendary gods and

ancestors created the mountains, rivers, and other features of the earth. Another is belief in the

Rainbow Serpent, a divine figure of power that appears in the rainbow and in water and that

shaped the rivers and mountains. (The Rainbow Serpent has many indigenous names.) The early

creative figures have a prominent place in Aboriginal art and music, which tell their stories.

Because the Aboriginal peoples were nomadic, they did not create great temples. And because of

the generally warm climate, the peoples did not need intricate clothing. But the Australian

Aboriginal peoples told complex stories of their origins that linked elements of nature with the

gods. As the people experienced everyday life, they recalled their stories of the gods and

ancestors. Dreams also made it possible to be in contact with the gods and ancestors.

Aboriginal art presents many figures from the Dreamtime—particularly the Rainbow Serpent,

the lizard, and the kangaroo. These are presented along with dots, geometric figures, circles, and

swirls in strong, stylized forms. In the last fifty years, Aboriginal carving, painting, and music

have grown in popularity both within and outside the Aboriginal communities. They appear in

public places and are now also influencing other religions in Australia.

Aboriginal artist Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula is joined by another artist as he paints in Australia’s

Central Desert.

© Frans Lanting/National Geographic Stock

In a world that is animated by spirits, human beings must treat all things with care. If a spirit is

injured or insulted, it can retaliate. Human beings must therefore show that they respect nature,

especially the animals and plants that they kill to eat. Human beings must understand the

existence and ways of the spirit world so that they can avoid harm and incur blessings. (We will

revisit this spirit world later, when we discuss trance states and the spiritual specialist, the

shaman.)

Native American religions are noted for their reverential attitude toward the natural world;

human beings and animals are often pictured as coming into existence together, and the sun,

moon, trees, and animals are all considered kin. Hehaka Sapa, or Black Elk, an Oglala Sioux,

although he had become a Christian, explained the sense of relationship to nature that he had

experienced when he was growing up among his people in South Dakota. In his autobiography,

which he dictated in 1930, he points out that his community, which traditionally lived in tipis

(circular tents made of animal skins and poles), arranges itself in a circle—as does all nature,

which is constantly making circles, just like the sun, the moon, and the whirlwind.

Native American religions often express the kinship bond between human beings and animals in

ritual. (To a lesser extent, some other religions do this, as well.) Åke Hultkrantz, a Swedish

scholar, clarifies with an example the meaning of many dances that imitate animals. “Plains

Indian dances in which men imitate the movements of buffaloes... are not, as earlier research

took for granted, magic rituals to multiply the animals. They are rather acts of supplication in

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which Indians, by imitating the wild, express their desires and expectations. Such a ritual tells us

the Indian’s veneration for the active powers of the universe: it is a prayer.” 10

Birds make their nests in circles, for theirs is the same religion as ours.

Black Elk, Oglala Sioux 11

In many Native American religious traditions, there is little distinction between the human and

animal worlds; rather, there is a sense of kinship. To exploit nature mindlessly is even thought to

be as sacrilegious as harming one’s own mother. As Smohalla of the Nez Perce people said,

“You ask me to plow the ground. Shall I take a knife and tear my mother’s breast? Then when I

die she will not take me to her bosom to rest.” 12

Native religions also frequently embrace an ethic of restraint and conservation concerning

nature’s resources. One is expected to take only what one needs and to use all the parts of an

animal or plant. In traditional Hawai`i, for example, fishing in certain areas would be temporarily

forbidden (kapu, or taboo) in order to allow the fish population to be replenished. Of course, the

ideal is never universally maintained, and even native peoples have sometimes been unaware of

the destructive effects of their actions. Consider, for example, the devastation of the beaver by

native peoples in North America who sold the pelts to European traders, or the cutting of most

sandalwood trees by native Hawaiians for sale in China. Given examples like these, it is clear

that native peoples who did not live in harmony with nature could not long survive.

It is difficult, perhaps, for urban human beings today to experience fully the intimate connection

with the rest of nature that has been a common aspect of native religions. The predominant

contemporary view sees human beings as fundamentally different from other animals. Perhaps

this tendency is a result of our modern culture, which emphasizes the skills of writing and

reading. We also have little connection with the origins of our food, and we live and work

indoors. Electric light diminishes our awareness of day and night and obstructs the light of the

moon and stars. Except for insects, rodents, and the most common birds, we seldom see wildlife

firsthand. Traffic noise drowns out the sounds of wind, rain, and birdsong.

In contrast, consider the sense of kinship with animals found, for example, among the Haida

people of the Pacific Northwest: “the Haida refer to whales and ravens as their ‘brothers’ and

‘sisters’ and to fish and trees as the finned and tree people.” 13

Another example of contrast is apparent in the way the BaMbuti, forest dwellers of central

Africa, perceive their forest. Outsiders might find the darkness and thick foliage frightening. But,

as one anthropologist has written, for the people who live within it and love it, the forest “is their

world.... They know how to distinguish the innocent-looking itaba vine from the many others it

resembles so closely, and they know how to follow it until it leads them to a cache of nutritious,

sweet-tasting roots. They know the tiny sounds that tell where the bees have hidden their honey;

they recognize the kind of weather that brings a multitude of different kinds of mushrooms

springing to the surface.... They know the secret language that is denied all outsiders and without

which life in the forest is an impossibility.” 14

Sacred Time and Sacred Space

Our everyday lives go on in ordinary time, which we see as moving forward into the future.

Sacred time, however, is “the time of eternity.” Among the Koyukon people of the Arctic it is

called “distant time,” and it is the holy ancient past in which the gods lived and worked. 15

Among Australian Aborigines it is often called Dreamtime, and it is the subject of much of their

highly esteemed art.

Sacred time is cyclical, returning to its origins for renewal. By recalling and ritually reliving the

deeds of the gods and ancestors, we enter into the sacred time in which they live. Indigenous

religions even tend to structure daily lives in ways that conform to mythic events in sacred time;

this creates a sense of holiness in everyday life.

A woman sits quietly in Ireland’s Drombeg Stone Circle, where particular stones are aligned

with the setting sun on the winter solstice.

© Thomas Hilgers

Like ordinary time, ordinary space exists in the everyday. Sacred space, however, is the doorway

through which the “other world” of gods and ancestors can contact us and we can contact them.

Sacred space is associated with the center of the entire universe, where power and holiness are

strongest and where we can go to renew our own strength.

In native religions, sacred space may encompass a great mountain, a volcano, a valley, a lake, a

forest, a single large tree, or some other striking natural site. For Black Elk and his people, after

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the Lakota had moved west, it was Harney Peak in South Dakota. In Australian Aboriginal

religion, Uluru (Ayers Rock) has served as this sacred center. In Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro and

other high mountains have been considered sacred spaces.

Sacred space can also be constructed, often in a symbolic shape such as a circle or square, and

defined by a special building or by a boundary made of rope or rocks, such as Stonehenge in

England. It can even be an open area among trees or buildings, such as the great open space

between the temples of Teotihuacán, near Mexico City.

Respect for Origins, Gods, and Ancestors

Origins Most indigenous religions have cosmic tales of their origins that are regularly recited or

enacted through ritual and dance. Some tell how the world originated from a supernatural realm.

According to other emergence stories, the earth rose out of previous earths or from earlier, more

chaotic material forms. Often the land and creatures emerged from watery depths. In a Hopi

creation story, the earth, before it took shape, was mist.

Deeper Insights: Religion of The Pueblo Peoples

One of the great sights of the world is the group of multistoried buildings hidden high up in the

cliffs at Mesa Verde, Colorado. Inhabited for more than seven hundred years, the now-empty

buildings give an unparalleled view into the life of the Ancestral Pueblo peoples (also called

Hisatsinom and Anasazi). Visitors can walk down from the top of the cliff, via narrow stone

paths and stairs, to visit some of the houses and to experience the plazas that were once used for

ceremonial dance. Visitors can then climb down a wooden ladder to enter a kiva, a dark and

womb-like ritual chamber beneath the surface. There they can see the sipapu, the hole in the

floor that is a symbol of the emergence of human beings into this world. The kiva and sipapu

show how thoroughly oriented to the earth the religion practiced here was.

Similar cliff dwellings may be seen at Canyon de Chelly in Arizona and at Bandelier National

Monument in New Mexico. In New Mexico one may also visit the great spiritual center of Chaco

Canyon, once a flourishing city. Tens of thousands of pilgrims would come here regularly, and

as many as forty thousand would be present at the time of the twice-yearly solstices. This site is

sacred to the Pueblo peoples even today.

The religious life of the Ancestral Pueblo peoples is not fully known, but some evidence comes

from traces of ancient roads and from archeology, petroglyphs, and paintings. Some of their

buildings were oriented to coincide with the solstices and equinoxes. The presence of kivas

suggests that ceremony took place there, and in some of the kivas the remains of wall paintings

have been found. Remaining petroglyphs show elements from nature, including stars and the

moon, and in the period from about 1200 to 1250 CE there was a profuse growth of the cult and

imagery of kachinas—benevolent guardian spirits who are believed to appear among the people

on ceremonial occasions (and whom we will discuss in a moment). *

* Note: This text uses the time designations BCE (“before the Common Era”) and CE (“of the

Common Era”) in place of the Christianity-centered abbreviations BC (“before Christ”) and AD

(anno Domini, “in the year of the Lord”).

The kiva at Chaco is an important ancestral site for the Pueblo peoples.

© Thomas Hilgers

When the large settlements, such as the one at Mesa Verde, were abandoned, their people moved

to villages—primarily in modern-day northeastern Arizona and northwestern New Mexico—but

they took with them their religious beliefs, images, and ritual, especially the cult of the kachinas.

The traditional style of multistoried buildings continued, as well, suggesting to the Spanish

colonizers the name by which the peoples are still commonly known: pueblo (Spanish:

“village”).

The Pueblo peoples share many features of their architecture, governance, and religious practice,

but there are also great differences among them in all these areas. Each of the more than two

dozen pueblos governs itself independently, and multiple languages are spoken: Keresan,

Zunian, three Tanoan dialects (Tiwa, Tewa, and Towa), and Hopi. The independence of each

pueblo may have actually been to its advantage, helping each unique culture to survive. Despite

the pressures to change, the Pueblo peoples have kept their identities intact—particularly through

fidelity to their religious beliefs and practices.

Each pueblo has its own religious traditions. Here we will touch on just a few. The stories of

human origins differ among the peoples and clans, but many tell of human emergence from a

lower world, of assistance from supernatural beings in learning to live, of help from animals, and

of wanderings before final settlement. Among the seven Keresan-speaking pueblos, for example,

the story of origin tells of how people moved upward through four different-colored worlds.

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Standing in an eagle’s nest on top of a tree, with the help of a woodpecker and a badger, they

made a hole large enough to climb up into this world.

Religious symbolism is complex. Among the Zía, for example, four is a sacred number. It

symbolizes the four seasons, four directions, and four stages of life (infancy, youth, adulthood,

and old age). It is used in many designs found in Zía art. (The state flag of New Mexico, which

shows a crosslike symbol made of four lines in each of the four directions, is based on a Zía

design.)

Figure 2.1 The Pueblo peoples and other Native American tribes of the American Southwest.

Some of the Pueblo peoples, influenced by Christianity, are monotheists, but many retain a belief

in the traditional deities, and they sense no disharmony. The Great Spirit, they believe, can take

many forms. Among the Hopis, for example, more than thirty gods are recognized. Perhaps the

most important are Tawa, the sun god, prayed to each morning; Mu-yao, the moon god,

imagined as an old man; Sotuqnangu, god of the sky, who sends clouds and lightning; and

Kokyang Wuuti, called Spider Woman in English, who is thought of as a loving grandmother.

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Among all the Pueblo peoples there is a belief in guardian spirits, who play a role something like

angels and patron saints. These are the kachinas. They are not gods but rather the spirits of

ancestors, birds, animals, plants, and other beings. They are believed to have once lived among

the people and then to have retreated to their own world; but they return yearly. Human beings

represent them when dressed in specific masks and costumes.

One of the most complex systems of belief in guardian spirits is found among the Hopis, whose

traditional religion has been least affected by other cultures. From February through the summer,

dancers represent the spirits, and more than two hundred different masked figures appear in the

dances. In the Hopi language they are called katsinam (singular: katsina). Bird and animal spirits

are based on many birds and animals, including the deer, badger, sheep, cow, horse,

hummingbird, and eagle; and nature spirits express the rain cloud, rainbow, moon, and fertile

earth. Some figures show human characteristics, such as warriors, corn-grinding maidens,

guards, clowns, and children. There is also a wide variety of ogrelike figures. Each has a name,

special costume, and specific mask. The Zuñi recognize similar guardian spirits, whom they call

koko.

The Hopi and the Zuñi are also well known for their painted representations of these spirits,

called tithu (singular: tihu). (Outsiders know the figurines as “kachina dolls.”) They are re-

creations in miniature of the masked kachina figures that dance in the villages. The tithu were

originally created to be given as gifts from the masked dancers to girls in the villages—a form of

religious teaching through images. But they have become collectors’ items, cherished by

outsiders.

Visitors who have the privilege of observing Pueblo ceremonies come away with a renewed

appreciation for the variety of religious paths and a sense of amazement at the persistence

through the centuries of such beautiful, ancient ways.

Stories of the origin of a tribe may be connected with its story of the earth’s creation. Among the

Ácoma Pueblo, there is a story of two sisters who lived entirely underground. Eventually they

climbed up the roots of a tree and into the sunlight through a hole in the ground, to become the

first human beings on earth. One became mother of the Pueblo. 16

Gods Native religions frequently speak of a High God who is superior to all other deities and is

considered to be wise, ancient, and benevolent. The Inuit speak of a Great Spirit living in the sky

who is female and to whom all human spirits eventually return. In a few African religions, too,

the High God is female, neuter, or androgynous; and in some religions there are two

complementary High Gods, characterized as male/female, brother/sister, or bad/good. The

BaKuta of central Africa speak of the twins Nzambi-above and Nzambi-below, although in their

myths the lower twin disappears and Nzambi-above becomes the High God. 17

In some African religions, stories of the High God, who is almost always the creator of the

world, offer some explanation for the ills of the world or the distance between human beings and

the divine. Many African religions tell how the High God created the world and then left it—

sometimes out of dismay at human beings or simply for lack of interest. “Many people of central

and southern Africa say that God (Mulungu) lived on earth at first, but men began to kill his

servants and set fire to the bush, and so God retired to heaven on one of those giant spiders’ webs

that seem to hang from the sky in morning mists. In Burundi, however, it is said that having

made good children God created a cripple, and its parents were so angry that they tried to kill

God and he went away.” 18