Spirit Wars: Native North American Religions in the Age of Nation Building (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Rituals are often mistakenly perceived as permanent and unchangeable, usually by those who are looking for stability in their own lives through contact with an..." (more)
Key Phrases: new tribal state, native spiritual traditions, residential school experience, Native American, North America, American Indian (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Spirit Wars is an exploration of the ways in which the destruction of spiritual practices and beliefs of native peoples in North America has led to conditions of collective suffering--a process sometimes referred to as cultural genocide. Ronald Niezen approaches this topic through wide-ranging case studies involving different colonial powers and state governments: the seventeenth-century Spanish occupation of the Southwest, the colonization of the Northeast by the French and British, nineteenth-century westward expansion and nationalism in the swelling United States and Canada, and twentieth-century struggles for native people's spiritual integrity and freedom. Each chapter deals with a specific dimension of the relationship between native peoples and non-native institutions, and together these topics yield a new understanding of the forces directed against the underpinnings of native cultures.

From the Inside Flap

"Niezen's fascinating analysis explores indigenism as a key concept of present-day international relations."--Jean-Loup amselle, author of Mestizo Logics: Anthropology of Identity in Africa and Elsewhere

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 274 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press; 1 edition (August 28, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520219872
• ISBN-13: 978-0520219878
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #944,228 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding!, August 12, 2007

By	W. Wedenoja (Springfield, MO) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

The author is an historian with an excellent knowledge of anthropology who has conducted extensive ethnographic fieldwork with native communities in Canada. In this outstanding book he gives us a brilliant and hard-hitting history of native North American (U.S. and Canada) religion or spirituality under siege, from the Spanish conquistadors to the present. The book is tightly organized and well-written. There are seven major topics. The main topic, addressed explicitly in the first and final chapters, is the right of indigenous peoples to practice and preserve their languages, religions, and cultures, which have been under constant assault. The other six topics are the evangelical colonialism of missionaries, focusing on Spanish Franciscans in the Pueblo Southwest; boarding schools; Western medicine and the suppression of native medicine; state suppression, focusing on the Ghost Dance, the Potlatch, the Peyote Religion, and sacred spaces; amateur and professional collectors of native artifacts and cultural knowledge, with a discussion of NAGPRA; and the spiritual imperialism of New Age "healers." We learn that native religions have been, of course, transformed by a long history of Western oppression, but they are alive and dynamic and have served as forms of resistance to assimilation as well as healing wounds of cultural genocide. This is probably the best book I have read on native North America. It should be highly regarded by scholars and by native peoples alike. After reading it, there is no mystery why "despondency and despair" and "hopelessness and self-destruction" are such common experiences in Indian Country. The big question is, what can we do about it?

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Review of Spirit Wars, February 12, 2009

By	M. Hildreth - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Ronald Niezen. Spirit Wars: Native North American Religions in the Age of Nation Building. (Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 2000. Pp. xviii, 256. $ 19.95.)

In Spirit Wars, Ronald Niezen offers a fresh perspective on the state-sponsored destructive factors that disturbed native North American religions. By combining the tools of ethnohistory and ethnography, Niezen portrays the dynamic qualities of indigenous North American religions, as opposed to the static pictures presented by previous scholars (xiv). Niezen cites three life experiences that helped bring vitality to the project: a series of interviews with public service members in northern Quebec, work as a delegate to the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations, and documenting how a large Cree community coped with the addition of a hydroelectric megaproject. With these experiences in mind, Niezen formulates his thesis on the premise that understanding native religions extends far beyond a brief investigation of ritual practices. He suggests that one must "consider the relationships between indigenous traditions and non-native institutions and belief systems," mainly that of evangelical efforts, formal education, biomedicine, legislation, and social research (4-5). Consequently, Niezen provides an alternative answer to the question: How was native North American religious thought and practice affected by the New World establishment during the age of nation building? Although Niezen does a masterful job of creating a narrative that describes negative western policies, at times, he fails to make the connections between the policies and their effects.
Spirit Wars is comprised of eight chapters, with the middle six chapters covering the bulk of Niezen's arguments and explanations. Each of the middle six chapters is followed by a brief essay that provides "contemporary perspectives on the historical material and a range of case explorations informed by personal experience and recent scholarly research" (xvii). Following a brief introduction, Niezen launches into a discussion of the Pueblo Revolt, catastrophic epidemics, and evangelistic efforts by the Puritans. In this chapter, Niezen lays the foundation for forthcoming arguments. He identifies a number of destructive factors that assist in the disassembling of Indian identity. In chapter three, Niezen describes how well intentioned philanthropic groups decided that the best way to assimilate the natives was to wed evangelism with education (46). Proponents of this practice included the infamous Richard Pratt. After experiencing moderate "success" civilizing adult Indians, Pratt developed a residential educational institution that would "Americanize" Indian children. His methodology entailed stripping Indians of their native identity and building them back up on American ideals (56-68). Pratt's educational model serves as a paradigm for understanding a broader move towards education as a means of assimilating Indians in the nineteenth century in the United States and Canada.
In chapter four, Niezen discusses how medical practices were a point of contact between early settlers and natives. This exchange of information quickly gave way to insidious charges against indigenous healing practices and brought about attempts by Christians to implement conventional European medical practices (92-95). Over a period of time, western medical techniques pushed traditional native practices to the margins of societal acceptance, thereby increasing the estrangement of natives to their ancestral forbearers and creating incongruities between one's belief and one's practice. In chapter five, state legislation becomes the culprit in suppressing native identity by trespassing on first amendment rights of religious freedom and by treading upon the sacredness of native rituals.
In the final two chapters, Niezen focuses on the more recent exploitation of Native Americans by academia and New Age spirituality. Western expansion and investigative scholarship led to the exploration of Indian geographical holdings as well as culturally sacred rituals and practices. These `academic endeavors' were motivated by the belief that the cultural uniqueness would soon disappear as Indians assimilated to American society or became extinct (162). The collection of information, religious artifacts, and human remains ransacked the sacredness of native spirituality and left it on display for all to see. Although practitioners of New Age spirituality may have sincere commitments to experiencing native religious rituals, their efforts are met with distrust and cynicism from the preservationists. The Universalists, who see native spirituality as an opportunity for all to achieve harmony, are in opposition with the traditionalists, who maintain a strict observance of exclusion. Niezen assesses that Native Americans disdain New Age spirituality because profound spiritual practices are reduced to simplified exercises available in printed form and marketed for profit.
Niezen does a number of things well in Spirit Wars. First, he does not reduce native religious destruction to strictly Christian hegemonic explanations; in fact, he includes other contributing factors such as education, medicine, and academic exploration. Second, he organizes the material in way that is easy to follow and access. Third, his ideas are well developed and exemplify a depth of knowledge and familiarity with the material. For example, he uses Frank Cushing as a model of how anthropologists inserted themselves in the middle of sacred rituals (165-169). Lastly, the scope of Niezen's inquiry spans across several centuries and yields a more contextualized understanding of the numerous legislative injustices enacted upon native North Americans.
Despite the many positive aspects, Niezen's chapter on "The Politics of Repression" leaves something to be desired. Niezen fails to make connections between the suppressive laws mandated by the state and their effects on the natives. Niezen certainly provides numerous pieces of legislation that was oppressive, yet he seldom discusses their adverse effects. In some cases, he does state that the laws resulted in distrust and resentment (136), but he does not elaborate on how the collective identity or beliefs were affected or how they contributed to native suffering. Despite this deficiency, there was much to enjoy about this book; I particularly liked the diversity of native groups that were represented in the text. Spirit Wars is a significant contribution to the academic community because it assesses and addresses the complexity associated with the destruction native North America religion in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This book would be valuable to anyone who is interested in native North America religious thought and development.