Native American Religion Analysis

Native americans understand their religion and engage their religion by following all specific rules put down by their grandfathers and exercising the same respects that was exercised by past generations. By this I mean that when reading “It’s where you put your eyes” the sand paintings done by the navajo people are always destroyed after the ritual is over. This is because they are not supposed to be used as art but they have very strong healing powers each designed specifically for each person. The paintings that are released to the regular people are not true paintings for healing. These have all been modified to lose its healing powers. This is a strong example of understanding and engaging their religion because the native americans could …show more content…
There is no difference it is all one conjoined place where one person's actions can have a direct consequence to another action. Another example is the “Kachina Cult Initiation” where children deemed old enough to understand are shown that the Kachina dancers they have been told are spirits from the mountains since birth are really just relatives or village elders dancing. This is to show the children that these spirits bring all things needed to live. They strike the children with hard plants to make them not tell the children of what they have learned so the tradition can go on. Also when learning about Talayesva and his journey with his father and grandfather was a great show of how they truly engaged their religion. Towards the end of the reading the described a trip to gather salt and all the small steps and offerings at each spot really connected them to each of the Hopi gods. Everything from having to have intercourse with a rock so the Salt woman can bless their trip to not looking back for fear of seeing an evil spirit that can foretell a relative dying at home. They brought gifts for the spirits at all locations and always pointed the offering