Joseph Epes Brown
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195138757
- eISBN:
- 9780199871759
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195138757.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
This book offers a thematic approach to looking at Native American religious traditions. Within the great multiplicity of Native American cultures, the book observes certain common themes that ...
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This book offers a thematic approach to looking at Native American religious traditions. Within the great multiplicity of Native American cultures, the book observes certain common themes that resonate within many Native traditions. It demonstrates how themes within native traditions connect with each other, at the same time upholding the integrity of individual traditions. The book illustrates each of these themes with explorations of specific native cultures including Lakota, Navajo, Apache, Koyukon, and Ojibwe. It demonstrates how Native American values provide an alternative metaphysics that stand opposed to modern materialism. It also shows how these spiritual values provide material for a serious rethinking of modern attitudes—especially toward the environment—as well as how they may help non-native peoples develop a more sensitive response to native concerns. Throughout, the book draws on the author's extensive personal experience with Black Elk, who came to symbolize for many the greatness of the imperiled native cultures.Less
This book offers a thematic approach to looking at Native American religious traditions. Within the great multiplicity of Native American cultures, the book observes certain common themes that resonate within many Native traditions. It demonstrates how themes within native traditions connect with each other, at the same time upholding the integrity of individual traditions. The book illustrates each of these themes with explorations of specific native cultures including Lakota, Navajo, Apache, Koyukon, and Ojibwe. It demonstrates how Native American values provide an alternative metaphysics that stand opposed to modern materialism. It also shows how these spiritual values provide material for a serious rethinking of modern attitudes—especially toward the environment—as well as how they may help non-native peoples develop a more sensitive response to native concerns. Throughout, the book draws on the author's extensive personal experience with Black Elk, who came to symbolize for many the greatness of the imperiled native cultures.
Craig H. Russell
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195343274
- eISBN:
- 9780199867745
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195343274.003.0009
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western, History, American
This Epilogue sums up the conclusions of the book and puts forward some closiing thoughts. The fundamental lesson that can be learnt from the music of the California padres and their choirs and ...
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This Epilogue sums up the conclusions of the book and puts forward some closiing thoughts. The fundamental lesson that can be learnt from the music of the California padres and their choirs and orchestras, populated by highly trained and impressive Native American artists, is that humble people are capable of astoundingly sophisticated artistry, the final chapter states. There is much we can learn about artistic beauty and the human condition from California mission music.Less
This Epilogue sums up the conclusions of the book and puts forward some closiing thoughts. The fundamental lesson that can be learnt from the music of the California padres and their choirs and orchestras, populated by highly trained and impressive Native American artists, is that humble people are capable of astoundingly sophisticated artistry, the final chapter states. There is much we can learn about artistic beauty and the human condition from California mission music.
Catharine Cookson
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195129441
- eISBN:
- 9780199834105
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019512944X.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Religious free exercise conflicts occur when religiously compelled behavior (whether action or inaction) appears to violate a law that contraindicates or even criminalizes such behavior. Fearful of ...
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Religious free exercise conflicts occur when religiously compelled behavior (whether action or inaction) appears to violate a law that contraindicates or even criminalizes such behavior. Fearful of the anarchy of religious conscience, the U.S. Supreme Court opted instead for authoritarianism in this church and state matter: The state's need for civil order is conclusively presumed to be achieved by enforcing uniform obedience to generally applicable laws, and thus legislation must trump the human and constitutional right to religious freedom. Rejecting the Court's unthinking rigorism, the book more appropriately views a free exercise case as a conflict of principles or “goods”: the basic constitutional and human right to freedom of conscience and religious freedom versus the societal good furthered and protected by the legislation. The book recommends an alternative analytical free exercise process grounded within the common law tradition as well as social ethics: casuistry. Casuistical reasoning requires a careful analysis of the particulars and factual context of the case, and relies upon analogies and paradigmatic illustrations to get to the heart of the principles at issue. The book furthermore explores the panoply of theories, self‐understandings, typologies, contexts, and societal constructs at play in free exercise conflicts, and in the final chapters applies casuistry to two free exercise situations, spiritual healing methods applied to children, and ingestion of sacramental peyote in Native American Church rituals.Less
Religious free exercise conflicts occur when religiously compelled behavior (whether action or inaction) appears to violate a law that contraindicates or even criminalizes such behavior. Fearful of the anarchy of religious conscience, the U.S. Supreme Court opted instead for authoritarianism in this church and state matter: The state's need for civil order is conclusively presumed to be achieved by enforcing uniform obedience to generally applicable laws, and thus legislation must trump the human and constitutional right to religious freedom. Rejecting the Court's unthinking rigorism, the book more appropriately views a free exercise case as a conflict of principles or “goods”: the basic constitutional and human right to freedom of conscience and religious freedom versus the societal good furthered and protected by the legislation. The book recommends an alternative analytical free exercise process grounded within the common law tradition as well as social ethics: casuistry. Casuistical reasoning requires a careful analysis of the particulars and factual context of the case, and relies upon analogies and paradigmatic illustrations to get to the heart of the principles at issue. The book furthermore explores the panoply of theories, self‐understandings, typologies, contexts, and societal constructs at play in free exercise conflicts, and in the final chapters applies casuistry to two free exercise situations, spiritual healing methods applied to children, and ingestion of sacramental peyote in Native American Church rituals.
Lindsay G. Robertson
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195148695
- eISBN:
- 9780199788941
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195148695.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, American History: 19th Century
This chapter presents a summary of the preceding chapters. John Marshall did not foresee that the doctrine he developed would be used to support the removal of the southeastern tribes. When given his ...
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This chapter presents a summary of the preceding chapters. John Marshall did not foresee that the doctrine he developed would be used to support the removal of the southeastern tribes. When given his first real opportunity to do so in Worcester v. Georgia, he reversed himself, a reversal the Court subsequently ignored. The discovery doctrine survived and it facilitated Indian removal. More than 180 years later, the doctrine would still be cited to support the assertion or retention of European-derived rights to indigenous lands, not only in the United States.Less
This chapter presents a summary of the preceding chapters. John Marshall did not foresee that the doctrine he developed would be used to support the removal of the southeastern tribes. When given his first real opportunity to do so in Worcester v. Georgia, he reversed himself, a reversal the Court subsequently ignored. The discovery doctrine survived and it facilitated Indian removal. More than 180 years later, the doctrine would still be cited to support the assertion or retention of European-derived rights to indigenous lands, not only in the United States.
Joanna Brooks
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195332919
- eISBN:
- 9780199851263
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195332919.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, African-American Literature
This chapter presents some concluding thoughts from the author. The first generation of African American and Native American authors set into motion processes that forever changed the course of ...
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This chapter presents some concluding thoughts from the author. The first generation of African American and Native American authors set into motion processes that forever changed the course of American literature, religion, and culture. In addition to setting powerful precedents for future authors of color, they established a defining trajectory for the development of American literature in the next century. The most revolutionary aspect of early African- and Native American literatures is their revelation of deep continuities between the past and the present. If the contemporary restoration of these forgotten texts demands a new accounting of American literary and cultural history, it also demands a new understanding of our relationship to that history.Less
This chapter presents some concluding thoughts from the author. The first generation of African American and Native American authors set into motion processes that forever changed the course of American literature, religion, and culture. In addition to setting powerful precedents for future authors of color, they established a defining trajectory for the development of American literature in the next century. The most revolutionary aspect of early African- and Native American literatures is their revelation of deep continuities between the past and the present. If the contemporary restoration of these forgotten texts demands a new accounting of American literary and cultural history, it also demands a new understanding of our relationship to that history.
Denise T. Askin
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195390971
- eISBN:
- 9780199777099
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195390971.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity, Church History
It is a well-known argument that Calvin’s influence, particularly in the New England tradition, is a foundational element of the national literary identity of the United States. A less well-traveled ...
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It is a well-known argument that Calvin’s influence, particularly in the New England tradition, is a foundational element of the national literary identity of the United States. A less well-traveled path, however, is the journey Calvin made into the world of the American Indian, a journey most significantly realized in the preaching and literary efforts of the Mohegan missionary, Samson Occom. Throughout his long career as a Presbyterian minister, Occom preached thousands of sermons, both formal and spontaneous, scholarly and simple. This chapter addresses Occom’s use of literary and rhetorical devices in his sermons, focusing particularly on his style, strategies, and cultural message and distinguishes the several "voices" he used in giving utterance to Calvin’s theology among the Native American and frontier populations of North America at the dawn of its national identity.Less
It is a well-known argument that Calvin’s influence, particularly in the New England tradition, is a foundational element of the national literary identity of the United States. A less well-traveled path, however, is the journey Calvin made into the world of the American Indian, a journey most significantly realized in the preaching and literary efforts of the Mohegan missionary, Samson Occom. Throughout his long career as a Presbyterian minister, Occom preached thousands of sermons, both formal and spontaneous, scholarly and simple. This chapter addresses Occom’s use of literary and rhetorical devices in his sermons, focusing particularly on his style, strategies, and cultural message and distinguishes the several "voices" he used in giving utterance to Calvin’s theology among the Native American and frontier populations of North America at the dawn of its national identity.
Roger Scully
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- February 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780199284320
- eISBN:
- 9780191603365
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199284326.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, European Union
This chapter reviews in detail existing knowledge about the subject matter of this study. Notions of pervasive socialization processes leading to attitudinal and behavioural changes for those serving ...
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This chapter reviews in detail existing knowledge about the subject matter of this study. Notions of pervasive socialization processes leading to attitudinal and behavioural changes for those serving within European institutions are shown to be widespread, appearing in much popular commentary academic literature on the EU, including that on the European Parliament. However, the discussion then goes on to demonstrate that strikingly little evidence has ever been presented to show that significant socialization effects operating among members of EU institutions lead to changes in attitudes and/or behaviour in an identifiably more pro-European direction. Virtually all empirical work in this area hitherto has produced indeterminate or null findings; furthermore, coherent theoretical foundations that might underpin the assumption of actors ‘going native’ in EU institutions have almost never been explicitly developed alongside the conduct of serious empirical research.Less
This chapter reviews in detail existing knowledge about the subject matter of this study. Notions of pervasive socialization processes leading to attitudinal and behavioural changes for those serving within European institutions are shown to be widespread, appearing in much popular commentary academic literature on the EU, including that on the European Parliament. However, the discussion then goes on to demonstrate that strikingly little evidence has ever been presented to show that significant socialization effects operating among members of EU institutions lead to changes in attitudes and/or behaviour in an identifiably more pro-European direction. Virtually all empirical work in this area hitherto has produced indeterminate or null findings; furthermore, coherent theoretical foundations that might underpin the assumption of actors ‘going native’ in EU institutions have almost never been explicitly developed alongside the conduct of serious empirical research.
Joseph Epes Brown and Emily Cousins
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195138757
- eISBN:
- 9780199871759
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195138757.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
This chapter discusses the growing interest in Native North American heritage among both Native and non-Native Americans alike. Underlying many Native Americans' renewed interest in their own ...
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This chapter discusses the growing interest in Native North American heritage among both Native and non-Native Americans alike. Underlying many Native Americans' renewed interest in their own traditions is their increasing disenchantment with a society that for centuries has been presented as the ultimate model of true civilization. Paralleling the disenchantment of Native Americans is the non-Native Americans' questioning of many of the basic premises of their own civilization. The chapter highlights some problems that can arise when non-Natives attempt to adopt Native American traditions without fully understanding them. It also argues that approaches taken to Native American religious traditions should be rigorous and scholarly in the best Western sense. But, in addition to such reification of the subject, it is also essential to understand these traditions as they are lived by human individuals.Less
This chapter discusses the growing interest in Native North American heritage among both Native and non-Native Americans alike. Underlying many Native Americans' renewed interest in their own traditions is their increasing disenchantment with a society that for centuries has been presented as the ultimate model of true civilization. Paralleling the disenchantment of Native Americans is the non-Native Americans' questioning of many of the basic premises of their own civilization. The chapter highlights some problems that can arise when non-Natives attempt to adopt Native American traditions without fully understanding them. It also argues that approaches taken to Native American religious traditions should be rigorous and scholarly in the best Western sense. But, in addition to such reification of the subject, it is also essential to understand these traditions as they are lived by human individuals.
Nicholas P. Cushner
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195307566
- eISBN:
- 9780199784936
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195307569.003.0011
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
What was the appeal to Christianity if Native Americans received spiritual security and emotional satisfaction from their own belief systems? In the light of varying degrees of success throughout the ...
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What was the appeal to Christianity if Native Americans received spiritual security and emotional satisfaction from their own belief systems? In the light of varying degrees of success throughout the Americas, did the Native American hear the same thing when Europeans spoke of God, creation, heaven or hell? The methods used to attract the Native American, coercion, the Devil, and the conflicts between Agricultural vs. Hunter-Gatherer societies, are part of the explanation of why Native America for the most part accepted the new religion.Less
What was the appeal to Christianity if Native Americans received spiritual security and emotional satisfaction from their own belief systems? In the light of varying degrees of success throughout the Americas, did the Native American hear the same thing when Europeans spoke of God, creation, heaven or hell? The methods used to attract the Native American, coercion, the Devil, and the conflicts between Agricultural vs. Hunter-Gatherer societies, are part of the explanation of why Native America for the most part accepted the new religion.
Nicholas P. Cushner
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195307566
- eISBN:
- 9780199784936
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195307569.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
The purpose of this book is to explain how Christianity replaced Native American belief systems in 16th-century America. The use of the confessionario was important in Christian evangelization but ...
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The purpose of this book is to explain how Christianity replaced Native American belief systems in 16th-century America. The use of the confessionario was important in Christian evangelization but coercion, the Devil, and Agriculturalist vs. Hunter-Gatherer societies were major elements in the replacement.Less
The purpose of this book is to explain how Christianity replaced Native American belief systems in 16th-century America. The use of the confessionario was important in Christian evangelization but coercion, the Devil, and Agriculturalist vs. Hunter-Gatherer societies were major elements in the replacement.
Nicholas P. Cushner
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195307566
- eISBN:
- 9780199784936
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195307569.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
Renaissance Europeans were “certain” that they had reached the pinnacle of human endeavor. Religion, culture, art, society, and behavior were elements that differed from Europe to America. The ...
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Renaissance Europeans were “certain” that they had reached the pinnacle of human endeavor. Religion, culture, art, society, and behavior were elements that differed from Europe to America. The motivations of European missionaries involved the attempt to instill those elements into Native American societies. Spanish missionaries were aided by the Union of Church and State.Less
Renaissance Europeans were “certain” that they had reached the pinnacle of human endeavor. Religion, culture, art, society, and behavior were elements that differed from Europe to America. The motivations of European missionaries involved the attempt to instill those elements into Native American societies. Spanish missionaries were aided by the Union of Church and State.
Andrei A. Znamenski
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195172317
- eISBN:
- 9780199785759
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195172317.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter examines how Native Americana, perceived as a source of profound ecological and spiritual wisdom, has contributed to the formation of the neo-shamanism community in the West. The ...
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This chapter examines how Native Americana, perceived as a source of profound ecological and spiritual wisdom, has contributed to the formation of the neo-shamanism community in the West. The controversy that sprang up from the use of Native American symbolism by American and European spiritual practitioners is discussed, along with attempts by members of the neo-shamanism community in the West to move away from the Native American dreamlands and toward their own European indigenous spirituality. The manner in which Carl Jung handled non-Western spirituality offers guidelines which many current spiritual seekers interested in the retrieval of pre-Christian European traditions find useful. Jung implied that Europeans concerned about their roots should look into their own indigenous spirituality and mythology; the alien tradition can be helpful to situate one's spiritual experiences, but the materials should be indigenous.Less
This chapter examines how Native Americana, perceived as a source of profound ecological and spiritual wisdom, has contributed to the formation of the neo-shamanism community in the West. The controversy that sprang up from the use of Native American symbolism by American and European spiritual practitioners is discussed, along with attempts by members of the neo-shamanism community in the West to move away from the Native American dreamlands and toward their own European indigenous spirituality. The manner in which Carl Jung handled non-Western spirituality offers guidelines which many current spiritual seekers interested in the retrieval of pre-Christian European traditions find useful. Jung implied that Europeans concerned about their roots should look into their own indigenous spirituality and mythology; the alien tradition can be helpful to situate one's spiritual experiences, but the materials should be indigenous.
Paul Giles
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691136134
- eISBN:
- 9781400836512
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691136134.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This book charts how the cartographies of American literature as an institutional category have varied radically across different times and places. Arguing that American literature was consolidated ...
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This book charts how the cartographies of American literature as an institutional category have varied radically across different times and places. Arguing that American literature was consolidated as a distinctively nationalist entity only in the wake of the American Civil War, the book identifies this formation as extending until the beginning of the Reagan presidency in 1981. It contrasts this with the more amorphous boundaries of American culture in the eighteenth century, and with ways in which conditions of globalization at the turn of the twenty-first century have reconfigured the parameters of the subject. In light of these fluctuating conceptions of space, the book suggests new ways of understanding the shifting territory of American literary history. It considers why European medievalism and the prehistory of Native Americans were crucial to classic nineteenth-century authors such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Herman Melville. It discusses how twentieth-century technological innovations, such as air travel, affected representations of the national domain in the texts of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein. It also analyzes how regional projections of the South and the Pacific Northwest helped to shape the work of writers such as William Gilmore Simms, José Martí, Elizabeth Bishop, and William Gibson.Less
This book charts how the cartographies of American literature as an institutional category have varied radically across different times and places. Arguing that American literature was consolidated as a distinctively nationalist entity only in the wake of the American Civil War, the book identifies this formation as extending until the beginning of the Reagan presidency in 1981. It contrasts this with the more amorphous boundaries of American culture in the eighteenth century, and with ways in which conditions of globalization at the turn of the twenty-first century have reconfigured the parameters of the subject. In light of these fluctuating conceptions of space, the book suggests new ways of understanding the shifting territory of American literary history. It considers why European medievalism and the prehistory of Native Americans were crucial to classic nineteenth-century authors such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Herman Melville. It discusses how twentieth-century technological innovations, such as air travel, affected representations of the national domain in the texts of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein. It also analyzes how regional projections of the South and the Pacific Northwest helped to shape the work of writers such as William Gilmore Simms, José Martí, Elizabeth Bishop, and William Gibson.
Michael Pasquier
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195372335
- eISBN:
- 9780199777273
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195372335.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History
French émigré priests fled the religious turmoil of the French Revolution after 1789 and found themselves leading a new wave of Roman Catholic missionaries in the United States. This book explores ...
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French émigré priests fled the religious turmoil of the French Revolution after 1789 and found themselves leading a new wave of Roman Catholic missionaries in the United States. This book explores the diverse ways that French missionary priests guided the development of the early American church in Maryland, Kentucky, Louisiana, and other pockets of Catholic settlement throughout much of the trans-Appalachian West. This relatively small group of priests introduced Gallican, ultramontane, and missionary principles to a nascent institutional church in the United States. At the same time, they struggled to reconcile their romantic expectations of missionary life with their actual experiences as servants of a foreign church scattered across a frontier region with limited access to friends and family members still in France. As they became more accustomed to the lifeways of the American South and the West, French missionaries expressed anxiety about apparent discrepancies between how they were taught to practice the priesthood in French seminaries and what the Holy See expected them to achieve as representatives of a universal missionary church. As churchmen bridging the formal ecclesiastical standards of the church with the informal experiences of missionaries in American culture, this book evaluates the private lives of priests—the minimally scripted thoughts, emotions, and actions of strange men trying to make a home among strangers in a strange land—and treats the priesthood as a multicultural, transnational institution that does not fit neatly into national, progressive narratives of American Catholicism.Less
French émigré priests fled the religious turmoil of the French Revolution after 1789 and found themselves leading a new wave of Roman Catholic missionaries in the United States. This book explores the diverse ways that French missionary priests guided the development of the early American church in Maryland, Kentucky, Louisiana, and other pockets of Catholic settlement throughout much of the trans-Appalachian West. This relatively small group of priests introduced Gallican, ultramontane, and missionary principles to a nascent institutional church in the United States. At the same time, they struggled to reconcile their romantic expectations of missionary life with their actual experiences as servants of a foreign church scattered across a frontier region with limited access to friends and family members still in France. As they became more accustomed to the lifeways of the American South and the West, French missionaries expressed anxiety about apparent discrepancies between how they were taught to practice the priesthood in French seminaries and what the Holy See expected them to achieve as representatives of a universal missionary church. As churchmen bridging the formal ecclesiastical standards of the church with the informal experiences of missionaries in American culture, this book evaluates the private lives of priests—the minimally scripted thoughts, emotions, and actions of strange men trying to make a home among strangers in a strange land—and treats the priesthood as a multicultural, transnational institution that does not fit neatly into national, progressive narratives of American Catholicism.
James Robert Allison III
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780300206692
- eISBN:
- 9780300216219
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300206692.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Native American Studies
This book shows how American Indians fulfilled the promise of Indian self-determination by reclaiming control over reservation resources. During America’s 1970s quest for energy independence, tribes ...
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This book shows how American Indians fulfilled the promise of Indian self-determination by reclaiming control over reservation resources. During America’s 1970s quest for energy independence, tribes possessing valuable minerals resisted massive mining projects threatening their indigenous communities. They also launched a national campaign to improve their tribal governments’ capacity to manage reservation land. Working with federal agencies tasked with increasing domestic energy production, these groups created the Council of Energy Resource Tribes to educate tribal leaders and broker deals that could provide energy to the nation and revenue for the tribes. Unfortunately, an antiquated legal structure hindered tribal efforts at development. Progressive-Era laws embedded with notions of Indian inferiority – namely, the 1938 Indian Mineral Leasing Act – denied tribes the right to control reservation mining, placing this authority instead with unprepared federal agents. By the early 1980s, however, increasingly sophisticated tribes demanded the legal authority to match their newfound capacity. Working with industry representatives, federal officials, and members of Congress, energy tribes thus constructed a new legal regime – anchored by the 1982 Indian Mineral Development Act – that recognized tribal, not federal, control over reservation development. But importantly, these efforts to restructure federal law also reshaped Indian Country. As tribes altered their governments to better manage resources, intense internal debates erupted over whether these new forms of governance were culturally “authentic.” In the end, efforts to increase tribal capacity and secure legal authority over reservation resources produced both expanded sovereignty and deeply divided communities.Less
This book shows how American Indians fulfilled the promise of Indian self-determination by reclaiming control over reservation resources. During America’s 1970s quest for energy independence, tribes possessing valuable minerals resisted massive mining projects threatening their indigenous communities. They also launched a national campaign to improve their tribal governments’ capacity to manage reservation land. Working with federal agencies tasked with increasing domestic energy production, these groups created the Council of Energy Resource Tribes to educate tribal leaders and broker deals that could provide energy to the nation and revenue for the tribes. Unfortunately, an antiquated legal structure hindered tribal efforts at development. Progressive-Era laws embedded with notions of Indian inferiority – namely, the 1938 Indian Mineral Leasing Act – denied tribes the right to control reservation mining, placing this authority instead with unprepared federal agents. By the early 1980s, however, increasingly sophisticated tribes demanded the legal authority to match their newfound capacity. Working with industry representatives, federal officials, and members of Congress, energy tribes thus constructed a new legal regime – anchored by the 1982 Indian Mineral Development Act – that recognized tribal, not federal, control over reservation development. But importantly, these efforts to restructure federal law also reshaped Indian Country. As tribes altered their governments to better manage resources, intense internal debates erupted over whether these new forms of governance were culturally “authentic.” In the end, efforts to increase tribal capacity and secure legal authority over reservation resources produced both expanded sovereignty and deeply divided communities.
Joseph Epes Brown and Emily Cousins
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195138757
- eISBN:
- 9780199871759
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195138757.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
This chapter focuses on Native American concepts of time and process. Western culture often perceives time as a linear progression that advances from past to present to future in a straight line. In ...
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This chapter focuses on Native American concepts of time and process. Western culture often perceives time as a linear progression that advances from past to present to future in a straight line. In contrast, many Native American cultures observe that the rhythm of the world is circular, as is the life of all beings and forms. In these cultures, time tends to be experienced as cyclical and rhythmic, rather than linear and progress oriented. Most Native American languages, for instance, do not have past and future tenses; they reflect instead a perennial reality of the present. These differing perceptions of time have contributed to the misunderstandings that characterize so many interactions between Native and non-Native Americans.Less
This chapter focuses on Native American concepts of time and process. Western culture often perceives time as a linear progression that advances from past to present to future in a straight line. In contrast, many Native American cultures observe that the rhythm of the world is circular, as is the life of all beings and forms. In these cultures, time tends to be experienced as cyclical and rhythmic, rather than linear and progress oriented. Most Native American languages, for instance, do not have past and future tenses; they reflect instead a perennial reality of the present. These differing perceptions of time have contributed to the misunderstandings that characterize so many interactions between Native and non-Native Americans.
Joseph Epes Brown and Emily Cousins
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195138757
- eISBN:
- 9780199871759
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195138757.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
This chapter focuses on Native American interactions with the land. Many tribes believe in the sustaining power of the land. According to most Native American traditions, the land is alive. Every ...
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This chapter focuses on Native American interactions with the land. Many tribes believe in the sustaining power of the land. According to most Native American traditions, the land is alive. Every particular form of the land is experienced as the locus of qualitatively different spirit beings; their presence sanctifies and gives meaning to the land in all its details and contours. These spirits also give meaning to the lives of people who cannot conceive of themselves apart from the land. Apache stores of place, Navajo relationship with the land, conflict over sacred lands, and sacred architecture are discussed.Less
This chapter focuses on Native American interactions with the land. Many tribes believe in the sustaining power of the land. According to most Native American traditions, the land is alive. Every particular form of the land is experienced as the locus of qualitatively different spirit beings; their presence sanctifies and gives meaning to the land in all its details and contours. These spirits also give meaning to the lives of people who cannot conceive of themselves apart from the land. Apache stores of place, Navajo relationship with the land, conflict over sacred lands, and sacred architecture are discussed.
Joseph Epes Brown and Emily Cousins
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195138757
- eISBN:
- 9780199871759
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195138757.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
This chapter focuses on Native American language and song. It looks at the progressive compromising of tribal languages by the Western world. It discusses the value of oral traditions, the special ...
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This chapter focuses on Native American language and song. It looks at the progressive compromising of tribal languages by the Western world. It discusses the value of oral traditions, the special role of elders in society as keepers of oral tradition, and the art of storytelling.Less
This chapter focuses on Native American language and song. It looks at the progressive compromising of tribal languages by the Western world. It discusses the value of oral traditions, the special role of elders in society as keepers of oral tradition, and the art of storytelling.
Joseph Epes Brown and Emily Cousins
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195138757
- eISBN:
- 9780199871759
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195138757.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
This chapter focuses on the traditional arts of Native Americans. It looks into the spiritual perspectives and fundamental assumptions of traditional arts that are often misunderstood in Western ...
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This chapter focuses on the traditional arts of Native Americans. It looks into the spiritual perspectives and fundamental assumptions of traditional arts that are often misunderstood in Western society. The chapter also discusses Eskimo Shamanic art, Lakota animal images, and Navajo weaving.Less
This chapter focuses on the traditional arts of Native Americans. It looks into the spiritual perspectives and fundamental assumptions of traditional arts that are often misunderstood in Western society. The chapter also discusses Eskimo Shamanic art, Lakota animal images, and Navajo weaving.
Joseph Epes Brown and Emily Cousins
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195138757
- eISBN:
- 9780199871759
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195138757.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
This chapter focuses on Native Americans' belief about nature. It shows that Native Americans do not dichotomize human and animal, natural and supernatural. Typical Western distinctions between ...
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This chapter focuses on Native Americans' belief about nature. It shows that Native Americans do not dichotomize human and animal, natural and supernatural. Typical Western distinctions between animism and animatism are not necessarily present in the Native American experience, since all forms and aspects of creation are experienced as living and animate. Even “inanimate”rocks are thought to be mysteriously possessed with life. But this experience of the sacred does not exclude a unitary, all-inclusive concept that refers to both a Supreme Being and to all gods, spirits, or powers of creation. The roots of relatedness, Lakota metaphysics, animal beings as teachers, and the cyclical relationships that Native American traditions sustain with nature are discussed.Less
This chapter focuses on Native Americans' belief about nature. It shows that Native Americans do not dichotomize human and animal, natural and supernatural. Typical Western distinctions between animism and animatism are not necessarily present in the Native American experience, since all forms and aspects of creation are experienced as living and animate. Even “inanimate”rocks are thought to be mysteriously possessed with life. But this experience of the sacred does not exclude a unitary, all-inclusive concept that refers to both a Supreme Being and to all gods, spirits, or powers of creation. The roots of relatedness, Lakota metaphysics, animal beings as teachers, and the cyclical relationships that Native American traditions sustain with nature are discussed.
