Native American God Research Paper

The Difference in the Puritans God and the Native Americans God

Everyone wonders or questions who their God is, and their culture influences them as to who they believe their God is. This is very true with the Puritans and the Native Americans, Iroquois and Navajo. Both Puritans and Native Americans believe in very different Gods. The Puritans believe there is only one God, who they can learn of his ways from the Bible, and The Native Americans believe in spiritual beings, which exist in everything, including animals, insects, and the earth in its entirety. The Native Americans did worship, but not the same God like the Puritans. Spirits are to the Native Americans, as God is to the Puritans. The Puritans believe in the “Divine God” and …show more content…
They occupied a vase area of the nation of their times, which was surrounded by many bodies of waters. All the nature and the fact they only communicated orally plays an important role in their beliefs. They believed in the spiritual world, and all things have a spirit. The “Great Spirit,” also known as “Hawenneyu” or “Enigorio,” the good mind, is the most important of all the spirits. Also, there are inferior spirits, who receive their powers from the “Great Spirit,” for example, in “Iroquois Creation,” Cusick writes, “he gave thunder to water the earth by frequent rains, agreeable of the nature of the system; after this the Island became fruitful and vegetation afforded the animals substance.” (24) In meaning, the “Great Spirit” has given life to all nature and now lives in all things making it all spiritual. “Some of these spirits were given names, however, they were often identified with the object or force that they presided over.” (David Ruvolo, A summary of Native American Religions) In other words, most of the inferior spirits were called by whatever object they inhabited. As well did the Iroquois believe in the “Great Spirit,” they believed in the “Evil Spirit,” also known as “Enigonhahetgea,” bad mind, who is the “Great Spirit’s” brother. The “Great Spirit” defeated his brother and pushed into the earth. “After this tumult the good mind repaired to the battle ground, …show more content…
They, too, did not believe in one God, and their beliefs were even more spiritual. “They considered this land to sacred and watched by many Gods.” (Potter, A Study of Navajo and Christianity Conceptions of Death, Evil, and Sickness Using the Comparative Method) The Navajo believed in many Gods or spirits, and some having more importance than others. They also were in different forms of nature, which in their very beginning, there was only the “Nilch’i Dine’e” and the “Holy People.” Morris writes, “They were called ants, dragonflies, beetles, bats, and locusts, but they were spiritual beings, not insects or animals.” (“Navajo Creation” 27) The Navajo’s believe the spirits were in nature forms. Also, the “Holy People” consisted of “Talking God,” “Water Sprinkler,” “Calling God,” and “Fire God,” which appeared to give instructions on making “First Man” and “First Woman” of buckskins and corn. “These were the first real people, five-fingered beings.” (“Navajo Creation” 29) In other words, this is the first normal human being people, which go on to reproduce. The “Holy People” then take all “Real People” to live with them, and “They learned how to live a good life and to conduct themselves in a manner befitting their divine origins.” (“Navajo Creation” 29) The “Holy People” teach all the “Real People” of the Gods or spirits, and teach them how to act and worship them. They would have ceremonies to pray to the spirits for