Native American Spirit?

Question

I've figured that the closest spirit I can relate to is the Native American one. Everything I read and study, makes totally sense to me. I really want to join this spirit with others and be true about it. Where can I find these groups/churches to join? Who knows what tribe I'm coming from being so drawn to it.! I live in the Baltimore area, but originally from Germany.

Answer 1

HELLO ALL MY RELATIONS, IS A WAY THAT THE LAKOTA SAY IT AS IN THE SPIRIT OF ALL THINGS LIVING. YOUR SPIRIT IS ON A PATH THAT WAS ONCE BEFORE... OF THAT IN THE SPIRITUAL SENSE. THERE ARE MANY TRIBES IN THE WORLD. THE ONE YOU ARE SEEKING IS THAT OF WHICH YOU MUST FIND.... NOT BLOWING YOU OFF BUT AS FOR ME WE ARE ALL GRANDFATHERS CHILDREN. THE WAY I KNOW TO UNDERSTAND IT IS TO GO AND MAYBE FIND SOMEONE THAT IS DOING A (SWEAT LODGE) AND IF YOU ARE INVITED(BECAUSE IN MY WAY ALL ARE WELCOME) AND PRAY FOR GRANDFATHER TO SHOW YOU THE WAY TO YOUR SPIRIT PATH. THERE IS NO CERTAIN WAY TO KNOW NOW WHICH TRIBE YOU BELONG TO BUT DO YOUR RESEARCH IN THE SPIRITUAL SENSE. SMUDGE YOURSELF OFF AND PRAY FOR THE DIRECTION YOUR PATH SEEKS. THERE IS ALOT MORE TO SAY BUT NOT ABLE TO.THE NATIVE AMERICAN PATH IS A SPIRITUAL WAY. LOOK IN THE BOOKS ( BLACK ELK SPEAKS). AND( I BURIED MY HEART AT WOUNDED KNEE THE ACTUAL WAY OF LEARNING THE PATH IS TO DO IT AND THEN YOU WILL KNOW. IF YOU HAVE PEOPLE THAT PRACTICE THIS THEN ASK TO JOIN IN AND REMEMBER YOU ARE A GUEST, SO THE RESPECT MUST BE THERE FOR THEM. I HOPE THIS CAN HELP

Answer 2

I am understanding that you are not a "Native American", right? "Tribes", are something you are born into, or are adopted into.
That is okay. Many are drawn toward Native American Spirits, without belong to a Tribe. You will find people who will call you a 'wanna be Indian'. Ignore them. I am not sure about which 'churches' can help you, but there are a lot of books. One I like is 'In The Shadow of the Shaman', by Amber Wolfe. Many Wiccan groups follow the Native American Spirits. Correllian Wicca is one of those and they are very open to people just looking for knowledge.
Follow your Spirit Guide, ask it for help, and be willing to go where it leads you.

Answer 3

I think you should do a little more reading. Native American Spirituality isn't usually for outsiders. You might try looking into some of the Pagan traditions, before you make any commitments. They are very connected to the Mother Earth, and a similar reverence for nature. Much of their beliefs and traditions are not that much different. If you are originally from Germany you might try looking into Heathenism, Asatru (I think that is how it is spelled) You can check these out on your search engine.
Good hunting.

Answer 4

Native Americans didn't have a 'religion' until the white man made them into Christians (or tried to) ... kinda like they didn't have a word for 'ownership of the land'

Many Native Americans would describe their religious practices as a form of spirituality, rather than religion

they belong to the land ... most Americans can't comprehend what that means

Answer 5

Woa. You can try with Hopi nation (HOPITUH-SHI-nu-mu = The peaceful people). So, to be a Hopi means to be humble and peaceful, as his high spirit say (Maasau'u). They have many religious celebrations all the year long, in and out their Kivas. They live in Black Mesa - Arizona. Wishes.

Answer 6

St. Paul would have the most encouraging words for you! Without realizing it, you yearn to worship the One True God. He is the God of the Native Americans who call him the Great Spirit. You may love their spirituality and the expression of it, but it is God himself who is the object of their worship...no matter what they call him.

When St. Paul went to preach in Athens, he noticed that the greeks had tons of statues to all kinds of gods...including one dedicated to "An Unknown God". This was simply in case they had inadvertently fogotten one of the myriads of Greek gods.

Here are Paul's words from Acts 17:22-24a

22Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.
24"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth..."

Answer 7

I do think I know what your talking about...but that might be something
you really have to find yourself..

Answer 8

Wow. *Biting tongue*

Answer 9

Their spirits are demonic, so I'd advise you to be careful to what you believe and follow.

Answer 10

Now, there is a lot of garbage and misinformation on the Internet no matter what subject you're talking about, but American Indian religion and spirituality has got to have the worst signal-noise ratio of any of them. The 'information' out there about American Indian religions ranges from inaccurate school projects by seven-year- olds, to deeply biased generalizations about the 'heathens' written 300 years ago, to hucksters pretending to be Native American shamans to scam money off of people, to useful and interesting information about actual American Indian religious traditions past and present. Sorting through these sites can be a nightmare. I wish you a lot of luck with it. Before you start, let me give you a few words of experience.

There are two reasons to be looking for information on Native American religions. The first, and easier to address, is educational. Either because you're a student who's been assigned to or just out of intellectual and cultural curiosity, you would like to learn more about how American Indians, or a particular tribe of American Indians, view the world. If that's you, then your main problem is going to be identifying the authentic and trustworthy sources. Indians are happy to talk about their beliefs and spiritual practices, both historically and in the modern day. Unfortunately, so are plenty of ill-informed non-Indians (or people of Indian descent) who think they know a lot more than they do. And so are those unscrupulous souls willing to pretend they're something they're not in hopes of making a buck or getting a little attention. My best recommendation is to get a Native American book out of the library as well as looking on the Internet, since any quack shaman can put up a website but it's a lot harder to publish a book. I also suggest ignoring and avoiding information about American Indian spirituality presented by anyone:

1. Offering anything religious for sale. Money is never accepted by authentic holy people in exchange for Indian religious ceremonies like sweat lodges or sun dances, nor for religious items like medicine bags or smudged items. (They might sell arts and crafts, of course. Use your common sense--a devout Catholic might sell you a hand-carved crucifix to hang on your wall, for example, but he wouldn't sell communion wafers over the Internet or charge you admission to bring you to his church! Selling dreamcatchers or fetish carvings online is one thing, but don't believe information provided by anyone who is trying to charge people for smudging or blessing anything, making medicine, or letting them take part in a sweat lodge or dance. They are not authentic sources of information.)

2. Inviting you into their religion on their webpage. Authentic Indians may seek to educate strangers online, but actually adopting an outsider as part of their culture is only done face-to-face and after knowing the person for some time.

3. Claiming to be American Indian shamans , talking about tarot cards and Wiccan/pagan things, or talking about crystals and New Age things. I've got nothing against shamanism, paganism, or the New Age, but a cow is not a horse: none of these things are traditionally Native American. Shamanism is a Russian mystic tradition, Wicca is a religion based in pre-Christian European traditions, Tarot readings are an Indo-European divination method, and the New Age is a syncretic belief system invented, as its name suggests, in the modern era. None of them have anything to do with authentic Indian traditions, and anyone who thinks they do is likely to be wrong about anything else he claims about Native American religions as well. Wiccans and New Agers don't have any more knowledge about actual American Indian beliefs than you do.

4. Identifying only as 'Native American' or 'American Indian' (an authentic person would list their actual tribal affiliation). Be a little wary, too, of people trying to speak with authority who identify as "mixed-blood" or "of Indian descent" or having a "Cherokee ancestor." There are certainly some mixed-blood people who were raised in their tribe's culture, but many more were not. A person who has rediscovered his Indian heritage as an adult is a seeker, not a teacher. He is not qualified to speak authoritatively about Native American religion or culture, for he wasn't raised that way and doesn't have any more knowledge about it than anyone else learning about it second-hand--including you.

If you're trying to learn about American Indian religion because you want to become a part of it, though, you not only face that problem, but another, much deeper one as well: American Indian spirituality is not evangelistic. It is private and entirely cultural. You cannot convert to 'Native American' any more than you can convert to being black. (In fact, many Indians--myself included--are Christians in addition to our traditional tribal beliefs, just like many black people are Christian in addition to being black.) The only way to 'join' a Native American spiritual tradition is to become a member of the cultural group, and it's impossible to do that over the Internet. No one who truly believed in American Indian spirituality would ever offer to tutor total strangers in religious matters online, much less charge anyone money for such a thing. So, by definition, the people who make these offers are those who either don't really believe in Native American spirituality, or don't know very much about it. Is that really who you want to be listening to?

On our site, we have generally given people the benefit of the doubt with our links, including websites unless we are sure there is a reason not to. Regarding Native American religion and spirituality, however, we have decided to err on the side of caution instead. Anyone who is looking for a new religion or seeking spiritual truth is a needy individual and I will not contribute to their being used by irresponsible people. If you are reading this page because you are a person in need of religious and spiritual guidance, I urge you strongly to seek out some religions that are evangelistic rather than cultural (one of the many Christian churches, Buddhism, Baha'i; there are many choices) and talk to spiritual leaders there until you find one that can help you. Falling under the influence of a false 'shaman' will only hurt you spiritually.

Since I have put this page up, I have received many anguished emails saying "But my grandmother was part Cherokee... are you telling me to just forget that part of myself? How can I honor my Native ancestors if you won't share your religion with me?" The answer is simple: honor them the way they would want to be honored. Don't pay some new-age guru $250 to perform fake "Native American" rituals that would have offended your ancestors, go physically to their tribe and re-connect with their other descendants. It will be hard work convincing the people there that you are genuine but if you go with humility and patience you will eventually be accepted, and that is the ONLY way you will ever become part of the spiritual tradition you desire. There is no shortcut to that. Native spirituality belongs only to the cultural group, and anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to make some money off of you and/or to take a power trip at your expense.

You've been warned. Good luck, with whatever it is you're looking for. You're probably going to need it.