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Native American Religions: Teaching and Learning on Stolen Land is an introduction to the religious life of Native American people in North America. Weaving together historical, ethnographic, theoretical, and legal materials, the book focuses on how religion is politicized in North America in the Native American context. Noting that no Native language actually has a word translatable to "religion," as the sacred and the secular are not separate spheres in Native traditions, and that religion is a colonial construct, the book adopts theories and methods from Native American and Indigenous studies to understand Native American and Indigenous religious traditions.
Written with the student in mind, this cutting-edge volume brings together 17 Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars of various career stages to offer a theoretical framework through which to think about the role of religion in US-Native relations alongside real world case studies. This book introduces students to the histories of Native American peoples, including discussion of Indigenous intellectual traditions, Indigenous sovereignty movements, and practices such as cultural appropriation and land acknowledgement to make the case that Native American religions are a political phenomenon. With student-friendly pedagogy throughout, including discussion questions and "further resources" lists, it's a must-read for all students and teachers of Native American Religions, Religion in America, or Indigenous Studies.
List of contents
Introduction
Unit 1: Religion 1. Religion, Indigenous Intellectuals, and Other Enlightenments in the Western Hemisphere, c.1600-1800 2. Scenes of Incorporation and Expulsion: Indigenous Religion, Creativity, and Theory in an Extended Pueblo World 3. If
Mama Pacha Could Talk: Andean Ethics in a Time of Pandemic 4. Traditions, Exchanges, and Visions in the Ghost Dance of 1870
Unit 2: Relations 5. The Appropriation of Native North American Religious Traditions 6. Indigeneity and Identity: Mixedness, Kinship, and Good Relations 7. Sacred Relations: Kinship, Gender, and Intimacy 8. Toward Enacting Good Relations: Teaching Native Religions Through Relationship
Unit 3: Resistance 9. Supreme Court Errors in
Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association (1988) 10. Sites of Spiritual Significance: How Christianity Continues to Colonize Indigenous Peoples in Canada 11. Ceremony as Sovereignty: Indigenous Stewardship at Standing Rock 12. Learning from Mauna Kea, Teaching Institutional Accountability
Unit 4: Reprise 13. Healing Past, Present, and Future: Peyote, Assimilation, and the Native American Church 14. "That I Would Serve in a Good Way": Boarding Schools, Tribal Colleges, and Dis/Connection 15. Thinking through the Land: On the Nature of Land as a Framework 16. (Re)Storying Land: Indigenous Religious Traditions, Landback, and the Village of Tazlina
About the author
Dana Lloyd is Assistant Professor of Global Interdisciplinary Studies at Villanova University, USA.
