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Hello, I am looking for someone to write an article on Native American Religions: Initial Reconsiderations. It needs to be at least 1250 words.

Hello, I am looking for someone to write an article on Native American Religions: Initial Reconsiderations. It needs to be at least 1250 words. A big part of this was the narrative of how Europeans came to the new continent and tamed the so-called “Wild West,” through their pioneering spirit and their courage in tackling the climate, the territory, and the Indians who lived there when they arrived. Books and films about cowboys and Indians cemented stereotypes of oppression, since they presented a view of Indians as primitive and savage, while the settlers were fine, upstanding Christian people. Any American child of the classical age of American cinema would see images of Indians in films dancing around a campfire, smoking a peace pipe, and conducting ceremonies in elaborate robes and feathers, to unspecified gods. This exotic and superficial view of Indian religion is contrasted with the “civilized” little white wooden churches of the monotheistic European settlers.

The other side of this story, namely the oppression and exploitation of Indian nations and their lands, was at first suppressed, since in this case as in so many historical encounters, the history books are written by the victors, while the victims are left without a voice. Very few scholars took a serious interest in Indian culture and religion, and those who did remain largely confined to academic circles. An exception to this was the work of John Neihart, who realized the historic importance of recollections that were held by Indian peoples. He noted down the life and times of an Indian called Black Elk who was directly involved in some of the most important battles in American history, including the killing of Crazy Horse and the Battle of Wounded Knee. The book was published in English in 1930 but only reached a wider audience in the 1960s and it immediately changed the perspective that ordinary Americans had on their recent history.

One of the most striking aspects of the book is the way that the names of natural objects and beings denote an entirely different world view. On the one hand, there are quite graphic and cruel descriptions of violence, committed by both white men and Indians in their bitter struggles. On the other hand, there are loving descriptions of the animals, and most especially the birds which inhabit the homelands of the Indians. Black Elk refers to humans and birds as “us two-leggeds” as if they belong to the same fundamental category.

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