Native American Spirituality - Wakan Tanka

[r0ckyreed]

Hello everyone! 

I would like to make a thread dedicating to understanding and diving deeper into Native American Philosophy and Spirituality.  Native Americans have been victimized, demonized, oppressed, and have had their cultural identities stripped away by the white men over the years, which is very unfortunate.

After reading this really awesome article here: https://www.powwows.com/native-american-religion-and-spirituality-common-threads-unique-beliefs-and-too-many-misconceptions/

I have found that certain Native American philosophies resemble those similar to nondual teachings.  For instance, the term Mitakuye Oyasin, means everything and all beings are related and one.  Also certain Native American traditions view life, God, and reality as animalistic, polytheistic, monotheistic, and even pantheistic.  

Wakan Tanka is a conception of God that translates to mean "The Great Spirit" or "The Great Mystery" and is considered the sacred life energy, spirit, or unknowable force that is within all things.

In addition, Native Americans valued being in harmony with Nature and viewed the sun as very spiritual and would honor nature and each other through Sun Dance rituals that were outlawed until the American Indian Religious Freedom Act of 1978.

The video below has insights and describes the Sun Dance rituals and Vision Quests and how they were used for Enlightenment and Spiritual Traditions to connect with Love.

 

This is what I leave you all with thus far!  There is so much wisdom that is overlooked from Native American ways of life.  I plan on adding more to this as I learn and grow more knowledge of Native American Spirituality and way of life.

Feel free to contribute your own findings of Native Spirituality.  My goal is to bring back Native traditions and philosophies to the mainstream, de-stigmatize Native Spirituality, and gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of Native American way of life because this population is still largely marginalized and oppressed even today.

“Only when the last tree has been cut down, the last fish been caught, and the last stream poisoned, will we realize we cannot eat money.” -- Cree Indian Prophecy

Edited May 26, 2021 by r0ckyreed