Religious Beliefs of Settlers and Native Americans

Religious beliefs of settlers and Native Americans

The Christian and Native American beliefs share both similarities and differences but as a whole I believe they are more similar than not. The settlers as well as most of if not all the tribes believe in one highest divine being. All parties seem to believe in divine favoritism, meaning each group of people seems to believe that they are the favored group of people by the aforementioned divine spirit. Religions differ on how they perceive the earth to be before the creation of man as well as how aid was or wasn't given by forces outside of the one divine being. There is a major difference in how Christian view and Native American view their relationship with nature that could've had potential to be problematic with the sides' cohabitating.

Settlers and most of the Native American tribes seemed to believe in one most powerful divine being which was the driving force behind all creation. The Christian belief of one all powerful and omnipotent being can be shown in numerous ways as it is often depicted in their literature. One example of this is in the first book of Genesis the reading begins with "In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth. And the Earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light; and there was light." What one comes to find out when reading the origin stories of the different Native American tribes is that it is quite similar in some aspects. The Maidu tribe's origins describe the Earth Initiate, who resembles the settlers God the most out of all the Native American tribes at the time, who creates the land, the sun, the moon, the stars and human beings. The Skagit believes in a Creator who with the help of the raven, mink and coyote created and molded the world in which they live in. The Christian settlers had their God, the Maidu had their Earth Initiate, the Skagit had their Creator, all single divine beings of unfathomable power that created all.

Not all Native American tribes believed in a single higher power though as the tribes of the Arakaras and the Iroquois had different beliefs. The Arakaras seemed to believe that animals had divine power and having this divine power four animals in particular took pity on humans and helped our advancement as can be shown in the opining passage of their origins which goes "A long time ago, the Arakaras lived underground. There were four animals who took pity upon the people, and these animals agreed to take people up on top of the earth." They do not share the same creation story as it seems they believe we already existed but needed help and guidance from the more divine animals. The Iroquois belief in a "Sky World" also does not allow for a single omnipotent being in which the world was created. They view the creation of the world to be cause by and accident on a being from the Sky World falling to Earth.

As with the Christian