Book report for Native American Religious Traditions by Suzanne J Essay

Book report for Native American Religious Traditions by Suzanne J. Crawford - Essay Example Due to their tradition, oral tradition is a way of passing down history, laws, and religion. For an example, the Lakota people tell Ehanni stories to explain creation, or how everything and the world was created. Ohunkakan stories give guidelines on good behavior. Ehanni Wicowoyake relates the stories of Lakota history. In Native American Religious Traditions, Crawford explains how the three tribes focused on for this book use oral tradition uniquely. An example would England and Russia both have literary history, but they way it is written or presented is different. Like with the oral tradition, the Lakota, Dine, and Coast Salish have diverse ceremonial practices. The Lakota has one of the most recognized ceremonial practices of the Sun Dance. The Sun Dance has been portrayed in different movies inaccurately as a ceremony an adolescent man is forced to dance around a pole with needles embedded in his body hooked by string to the pole. Crawford explains the Sun Dance better. The needles are actually bones, the strings are leather thongs, and the pole a tree that never touches the ground specially prepared for the event. After the pole is erected dancing begins at sunrise with the dancers looking at the sun. Anyone can dance with short breaks, but no food or water. This lasts four days. The self-sacrificers prepared during this time. Then male volunteers who wanted something like a cure for a sick relative, tribal purification, and so forth would be pierced in both sides by buffalo bones tied to leather straps. The goal is to get the bone from yo ur body by dancing around the pole. It is a purification ceremony. This and other ceremonies are explained in Crawford’s book. Finally, Crawford looks honestly at a shameful part of American history; the colonization of the Native Americans. All Native Americans encountering European settlers faced the civilization process of Christianity. The Europeans felt