American Indian Relgion

12 Pages 2988 Words

uldn?t return to their former place. While floating
around in the air, they searched for help from a god but with no avail. The
animals were there, too, and they appealed to the elk, the most finely and
most stately. The elk then jumps into the water and calls for the wind, which
then lifted up the water like a mist. The elk then provides land and food. As
for the concept of an afterlife, it seems that Native Americans were not as
concerned with the hereafter as they were with their immediate life. However,
an afterlife was a common belief that varied with the different tribes. Here is
an example, the afterlife belief of the Lakota Sioux. ?The Lakota Sioux
Indians have beliefs that are unique to their heritage. They believe in a
reincarnate religion with certain ideas about the afterlife. It is believed that a
person lives through four stages of life, or generations. These generations are
childhood, adolescence, maturity, and old age. When a person dies, one of
the four ?souls? from the generations travels along the Wan...