Due to the wide range of habitats in North America, different native religions have evolved to suit the needs and lifestyles of the individual tribe. The religious traditions of Aboriginal peoples around the world tend to be heavily influenced by their methods of acquiring food, whether through hunting wild animals or farming. Native American spirituality is no exception. Traditional Lakota spirituality is a form of religious belief that everything, plant and animal, has a spirit. Native American spirituality has an inseparable connection between spirituality and culture. One cannot exist without the other. The arrival of the Europeans marked a great change in the native society and its spirituality. Native Americans struggled to keep their spiritual practices alive. From the beginning, Native American religious practices were misunderstood and prohibited. The United States government tried to impose Christianity on the Indians in a desperate attempt to destroy their traditions and assimilate them into white Christian society. Many Native Americans were forcibly converted to Christianity. Some agree that freedom of religion is one of America's most important laws. When it came to Native Americans, however, freedom of religion was almost non-existent. Native Americans had to fight to survive in a country that discriminated against and persecuted them for hundreds of years. The tribes of North America want only one thing from the US government and that is respect: of sacred sites, the sacramental use of peyote, and the use of eagle feathers and plants for cultural practices. The United States stole from the Indians in the past and never kept the promises it made to the Native Americans. The only aspect of Indian life that kept them going was their religion. Native Americans will have to fight endlessly for complete freedom of religion and respect. Many Native families today have been devout Christians for generations. Others, especially in the south-west, have kept their Aboriginal traditions more or less intact. The Native American Church is a continuation of the ancient Peyote religion combined with some teachings of traditional Christianity. The practices of the Native American Church center on the religious use of peyote, a small cactus that, when eaten, gives people a reward... middle of paper... ssion. It is often richly decorated. The bowl and stem are always stored separately with the stem facing east when not in use. In the late 19th century, the Lakota people fought to maintain control of their way of life and their homelands. In the 20th century the Lakota were granted by the American Indian Religion Freedom Act of 1978 the right to preserve and protect their Lakota religious freedom. Prior to this, the Lakota were prohibited from practicing their spiritual beliefs. But even today we can see racism against Native Americans. But it is a topic that does not appear regularly on the evening news and which is of little interest to most citizens. This attitude amazes me. How can we overlook a race that has been on this continent much longer than anyone else? Native Americans are part of our history and culture. Reference: http://home.istar.ca/~whatsup/sundance.htm http://www.digiserve.com/gaia/articles/saced_pipe.html http://tradecorridor.com/rosebud/spirit.htm http: //www.religioustolerance.org/nataspir.htm http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgibin/browse-mixed?id=SchSiou&tag=public&images=images/modeng&data= /lv1/Archive/eng-parsedhttp:// www.csp.org/nicholas/A57.html