Summary
The wide variety of people who lived in America prior to Western migration possessed an equally wide variety of faith, practices, and beliefs. What these Native American faiths share are deep ties to the land and to nature.
Native-American Faith in America, Second Edition explores these basic beliefs, the impact of Western expansion, and the ways Native Americans today are working to preserve their faiths. As the centuries have passed since the first Europeans appeared on American soil, Native American ways have come into the general culture, influencing everything from fashion and music to medicine and sports. The dominant American culture continues to affect the social lives of Native Americans, both on reservations and elsewhere, while the sacred sites of some tribes have been a source of great controversy. Presently, Native Americans young and old are working to ensure that their religious beliefs do not die out as some of their languages and customs have.
New and updated coverage includes:
- Key concepts shared by most Native American religions
- Rites of passage in life
- Impacts of European conquest and Christian missionaries on native peoples
- The ways that Native Americans merge traditional beliefs with Christian faith
- Key political movements based on faith, including both Wounded Knee incidents
- Biographies of spiritual tribal leaders
- Self-determination and sovereignty
- Gaming
- Native Americans in the media
- Protecting sacred sites.
About the Author(s)
Dr. Michael T. Garrett, Eastern Band of the Cherokee Nation, is professor of counselor education and chair of the Department of Collaborative Support and Intervention at the University of West Georgia, and is a certified school counselor. As author and coauthor of more than 80 professional publications dealing with multiculturalism and social justice, group work, wellness and spirituality, school counseling, working with youth, and counseling Native Americans, Garrett has written Walking on the Wind: Cherokee Teachings for Harmony and Balance and coauthored Medicine of the Cherokee: The Way of Right Relationship, Cherokee Full Circle: A Practical Guide to Ceremonies and Traditions, and Counseling and Diversity.
Dr. J.T. Garrett is a state/county health director in North Carolina. As a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, he learned under several medicine men and women, including Doc Amoneeta Sequoyah, Cherokee Medicine Elder. He is author and coauthor of numerous articles and has written five books on Cherokee cultural ways and traditions. He has been a student and is now elder himself with more than 50 years studying Cherokee cultural heritage, language, and traditional teachings. He is retired from the U.S. Public Health Service, Indian Health Service where he had the opportunity to work with and travel to most of the 565 tribes in America.