About 1875 the Crows abandoned their own Sun Dance, but they continued to carry out other traditional rites despite opposition from missionaries and the federal government. In 1941, Crow Indians from Montana sought out leaders of the Sun Dance among the Wind River Shoshonis in Wyoming and under the direction of John Truhujo, made the ceremony a part of their lives. In The Shoshoni-Crow Sun Dance, Fred W. Voget draws on forty years of fieldwork to describe the people and circumstances leading to this singular event, the nature of the ceremony, the reconciliation’s with Christianity and peyotism, the role of the Sun Dance as a catalyst for the reassertion of Crow cultural identity, and the place the Sun Dance now holds in Crow life and culture. Voget’s description includes photographs and diagrams of the Sun Dance.

Medicine man and Sun Dance chief Thomas Yellowtail is a pivotal figure in Crow tribal life. As a youth he lived in the presence of old warriors, hunters, and medicine men who knew the freedom and sacred ways of pre-reservation life. As the principal figure in the Crow-Shoshone Sun Dance religion, Yellowtail has preserved traditional values in the face of the constantly encroaching, diametrically opposed values of materialistic modern socity. Through his life story and description of the Sun Dance religion we can reexamine the premises and orientations of both cultures.

This book offers fascinating insights into the world of the pre-reservation Indians. It is a collection of classic essays that examines the universal characteristics of American Indian culture and tradition. This new edition also offers a personal view of Dr. Brown's life and research through his private correspondence from his time on the reservation and sheds insights into his relationship with old time Indian leaders including the legendary Sioux Medicine Man Black Elk.

Despite the world-wide association of music and dance with religion, this is the first full-length study of the subject from a global perspective. The work consists of 3,816 references divided among 37 chapters. It covers tribal, regional, and global religions and such subjects as shamanism, liturgical dance, healing, and the relationship of music, mathematics, and mysticism. The referenced materials display such diverse approaches as analysis of music and dance, description of context, direct experience, observation, and speculation. The references address topics from such disciplines as sociology, anthropology, history, linguistics, musicology, ethnomusicology, theology, medicine, semiotics, and computer technology. Chapter 1 consists of general references to religious music and dance. The remaining 36 chapters are organized according to major geographical areas. Most chapters begin with general reference works and bibliographies, then continue with topics specific to the region or religion. This book will be of use to anyone with an interest in music, dance, religion, or culture.

This volume offers a stimulating, multidisciplinary set of essays by noted Native and non-Native scholars that explore the problems and prospects of understanding and writing about Native American spirituality in the twenty-first century. Considerable attention is given to the appropriateness and value of different interpretive paradigms for Native religion, including both traditional religion and Native Christianity. The book also investigates the ethics of religious representation, issues of authenticity, the commodification of spirituality, and pedagogical practices. Of special interest is the role of dialogue in expressing and understanding Native American religious beliefs and practices. A final set of essays explores the power of and reactions to Native spirituality from a long-term, historical perspective.

Crow Christianity speaks in many voices, and in the pages of Crow Jesus, these voices tell a complex story of Christian faith and Native tradition combining and reshaping each other to create a new and richly varied religious identity. In this collection of narratives, fifteen members of the Apsáalooke (Crow) Nation in southeastern Montana and three non-Native missionaries to the reservation describe how Christianity has shaped their lives, their families, and their community through the years. Among the speakers are elders and young people, women and men, pastors and laypeople, devout traditionalists and skeptics of the indigenous cultural way. Taken together, the narratives reveal the startling variety and sharp contradictions that exist in Native Christian devotion among Crows today, from Pentecostal Peyotists to Sun-Dancing Catholics to tongues-speaking Baptists in the sweat lodge. Editor Mark Clatterbuck also offers a historical overview of Christianity’s arrival, growth, and ongoing influence in Crow Country, with special attention to Christianity’s relationship to traditional ceremonies and indigenous ways of seeing the world. In Crow Jesus, Clatterbuck explores contemporary Native Christianity by listening as indigenous voices narrate their own stories on their own terms. His collection tells the larger story of a tribe that has adopted Christian beliefs and practices in such a way that simple, unqualified designations of religious belonging—whether “Christian” or “Sun Dancer” or “Peyotist”—are seldom, if ever, adequate.

Though voluntary association for the public good is often thought of as a peculiarly Western, even Christian concept, this book demonstrates that there are rich traditions of philanthropy in cultures throughout the world. Essays study philanthropy in Buddhist, Islamic, Hindu, Jewish, and Native American religious traditions, as well as many other cultures.