Native American Research Project: Tribal Dancing and Religion

After spending the class researching on Native American Dance and Religious aspects I learned that there was a large debate of what could be considered religious in the Native American Tribes. Most of their religion consists of tribal and ceremonial dances, each one appeasing a specific need like the Rain dance or Hopi Snake Dances. As strange as it may seem most Tribes did not have a large say in what was deemed as religious and sanctioned as appropriate. The majority of these rulings were made a council known as the Bureau of Indian Affairs, most of whom were devout Christians and not Native American themselves.  But this debate would also be the first time a mass of non-Native American conservatives would rally with Tribal leaders to fight for their culture. This became a critical turning point for the states and their policies on Indian Religion. The large mass of support from non-Natives made it hard for states to argue against the tribes and so they had to change their viewpoint on tribal dances to a more rounded view, by encompassing tribal dances as a religious aspect.

Native American Rain Dance