By Thomas J. Hoffman, Ph.D., St. Mary’s University, San Antonio, TX, dr_tomh@swbell.net

In April of 2001 a number of us gathered at a roundtable at the Western Social Science Convention in Reno, Nevada to honor Bob Thomas, who had passed on in 1991. On that panel I tried to serve up some of Bob’s primary points and cleverly phrased insights about American Indian religion which I gleaned from a course I took from him in the Fall of 1981 when he was first returning to the University of Arizona (he had been a student there, leaving 30 years earlier in 1951). I drew some parallels between him and L. Frank Baum, the author of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz. I focused primarily on the emphasis on the importance of place, or as Dorothy would have put it “there’s no place like home.”

For this presentation I’ve gone back over those notes from that course in 1981, and I’d like to go over some of the content that Bob Thomas had passed on to us, his students. Although the course was entitled “American Indian Religion” in retrospect it should have been entitled “The religion of North American Indians as observed by Bob Thomas”. But before highlighting the primary insights from that course, I have a few comments.

He was a great observer and an original social scientist. I’m able to make those evaluations based on three of the things I did in preparation for this presentation: first, I went through and outlined the notes from the course I took from him; second, I went and read an article he had assigned us to read by October 13^th, 1981 (I always do my homework, although not always by the date due); and I read a manuscript for a book¹ he was co-authoring with Robert D. Cooter (which is unpublished, but is available on-line).

The article I read must have just been published at the time he assigned it. It was entitled “The History of North American Indian Alcohol Use as a Community-Based Phenomenon.” He presented what I believe are important insights into the problem of American Indian alcohol use:

Western civilization has almost replaced the natural world as the environment for Indians. And Indian communities have responded and tried to adapt to this new and overwhelming social environment. In the process Indian groups have taken over a great many European ways, but, perhaps more important, tradition has been weakened and called into question, the relations between kin disturbed, the moral prestige of the elderly eroded and so forth. Therein, I submit, lies the difficulty. ²

He concludes with regard to this topic, in a vein that is very relevant to the topic at hand today, North American Indian Religion:

I believe that Indian drinking does not have a “psychological” cause, in the ordinary sense of the word. Rather, it is caused, given the nature of the tribe and the tribal personality, by the socially disintegrating impact of western civilization on Indian societies. Much of Indian drinking is simply a matter of lack of the necessary sacred social controls. Even in cases where Indians drink to deal with some human pain, the difficulties lie much more in the realm of community life and relationships than strictly internal to the individual.³

I will save until the end some excerpts from the book Bob was co-authoring. He has some great stories which I will save for a little later.

In his course on American Indian Religion Bob Thomas focused on four general topics: tribal societies, cultural areas, European religions and their impact, and modern Indian religious patterns. For today, I will try to summarize what he taught us regarding religion in tribal societies and American Indian religious patterns that have developed since contact. (Although he went into great detail about differences among tribes in the culture areas portion of the course, that is beyond the scope of today’s presentation). All credit for the insights in this discussion of North American Indian religion should go to Bob Thomas; all blame for any failure to communicate clearly his thought is mine alone.

There are two primary criteria to judge the bases on what a tribal religion was founded: native language and native cures. The native language contains a view of the world and the native cures are rooted in a philosophical/religious system of thought. Why would one want to study North American Indian Religions? Although Bob presented several reasons, the one he put forth that seems most compelling to me is that they express what North American Indians are all about.

Before examining religion in tribal societies, it is appropriate to examine the characteristics of a tribal society. Tribal societies are small and kin-based. Relationships are primary. These societies are sacred societies. Everything in the world is supernaturally meaningful. Tribal societies are traditional; i.e., the group has had experiences which tell them the nature of the world and how to live in it. Tribal societies are responsive to the natural world. If the environment changes, the social organization changes (in contrast, Bob said, Anglos keep recreating England everywhere.). The longer people live in a place the more they learn. Their religion stores knowledge about the environment. Also, a tribal society is closed and bounded both socially and conceptually. Summing up, tribal societies are 1. small and kin-based, 2. sacred, 3. traditional, 4. responsive to the natural world, and 5. closed and bounded.

Religion in tribal societies has certain general characteristics, and a particular approach to life and the sacred. It is traditional, sees the world as natural, and is local. The general characteristics of religion in tribal societies described by Bob Thomas are as follows: first, it involves the supernatural. The supernatural is made up of discrete beings seen as persons who are addressed with kin terms. Second, the world of religion is structured and ordered. The world is not chaotic. The Universe has parts which have fixed relationships with each other. Third, the universe is not developmental: it is fixed at creation. Fourth, the universe is predictable and unalterable. Bob pointed out that tribal religion does not include a capricious creator who will subject humans to tests like those that Job had to go through. The focus of religion in tribal societies is on harmony. Only man can foul it up. Curing is a reestablishment of harmony by reestablishing law. These are the general characteristics of religion in tribal societies.

Religion in tribal societies involves a particular approach to life and the sacred. All acts are religious acts; there is no separation between “sacred” and “secular”. Religion integrates everything Even one’s thoughts can have effects: if you think bad thoughts about someone, you can get them sick Religion is also traditional. This means that rules and experiences are seen as sacred and as law. There is no notion of consciously formulated secular law. Rather law is of the nature of the universe, sanctioned by the sacred. Tribal religions see the natural world as full of religious meaning. Further, religions of tribal groups are local religions tied to the destiny of the people. One is born into a religion, a way of life.

To sum up this section, religion in tribal societies has four general characteristics: the supernatural is made up of discrete beings addressed as kin, the world of religion is structured and ordered, the universe was fixed at creation, the universe is predictable and unalterable (and curing helps restore its order when humans foul it up). Further, in tribal religion everything is sacred, religion integrates everything. Tribal religion is traditional, natural, and local.

Several characteristics distinguish tribal religions from the so-called “world religions”. First of all, tribal religions are not focused on the individual or individual salvation, they are focused on relationships. There is not a concern with life after death, because the group lives on. (Some tribes have a stronger notion of life after death with rewards and punishments, but this is not the primary concern.) There is an earthly focus; i.e., the primary focus is on now, on relationships among the living. A second distinction is the lack of concern with dogma or belief. People don’t “believe” in certain maxims about the sacred or the world, they acknowledge what is. A third distinction is the lack of a universal “high god”. Some tribes have a notion of a high god, a “Great Mystery”, but Bob Thomas suspects that this may be a reaction to Christianity.

What made tribal religions vulnerable to Christianity upon contact and further experience with Europeans? First, European technology was impressive. Technology was seen as spiritual power. Thus, the Europeans had spiritual power which was to be respected. Second, sometimes Christianity moved in as the native religion began to get in trouble; if there was destabilization in the religion, Christianity was able to make inroads. Third, often there was not a conflict between the Indian religion and Christianity. Since tribal religion did not have a notion of the individual self, there was no need to look to others for confirmation that becoming Christian was okay or not. (Bob Thomas pointed out that there are exceptions to this lack of a notion of an individual self, especially among the Hopis and Pueblos. They have a sense of individual self. One can behave impersonally for a “good” beyond. This allowed them to trade, do business, and basically have a European approach to life.

What American Indian religious patterns have developed since contact? In his course Bob described seven different patterns which exist today. Along with each of these patterns, he mentioned different tribes as examples of each pattern. (I mention these examples at my own peril, because I cannot defend how he categorized the tribes, I can only report what he told us. Further, he did not claim that his examples were comprehensive. After all, they are just examples.)

First, among some tribes native religions have continued and remained fairly unaltered. Examples are the Navajo, Ute, Teton Sioux, Cheyenne, and Creek.

Second, some have developed what Bob called “evolved native religions.” These are religions that have evolved from older forms. Examples are Yakima, the Pomo, the Salish, and the medicine lodge among the Ojibwa.

Third, he spoke of “reformed native religions.” Native religions that became more like European religions, incorporating notions such as personal choice, individual conscience, reverence, and religious purposefulness, i.e., activities distinct from the day to day. The Iroquois are an example of a tribe that has consciously done this, and the Hopi have done this unconsciously.

Fourth, Bob referred to “new combinations”⁴ or cults. Some of these started and then faded out, like the Ghost Dance. Others arose and continue, such as the Shakers in Washington and the Peyote religion (which is a majority religion among the Crow, Kiowa, Comanche, Osage, Navajo, and Southern Ute).

Fifth, “Native Christianity” developed both in the southwest and southeast among the Papago, Pueblo tribes, five tribes, and Yaquis. Native Christianity is a Christianity which has been integrated into the philosophical and ritual system of the tribe. (Among the Pueblos there are three patterns: aboriginal Catholicism, orthodox Catholicism, and folk Catholicism).

Sixth, among some tribes there has been a pattern of “fragmentation.” Competing religious patterns exist. This has developed where the reservation system in its classic form has existed for a long period, such as the Great Lakes, Northern Plains, and the Dakotas. There has been a history of church colonialism, and you also have young folks reviving native religion. You basically end up with young folks who are ant-Christian and anti-white; and adults who think everyone has to be some brand of Christian (depending on what brand of missionary was on the reservation). So you have Christian bigots versus Native aboriginal bigots.

Seventh, you have had some tribes that have become completely acculturated, such as the East Coast Tribes.

As most of you probably know, Bob’s wife was Papago.⁵ Bob lived with her family on Papago for some years and relates stories in his book that really enflesh the notion of “Native Christianity.” For the rest of my time, I would just like to share with you, in Bob’s words, some of those stories.

I guess the aspect of San Xavier life which was the hardest for me to understand was my wife's religion, the San Xavier Papago religion. Nothing in my experience had really prepared me to come to an understanding of San Xavier religion. I was raised in the Cherokee tribe; part of the tribe were Cherokee Baptists and part were what were called Night-Hawks, Indians who worshiped in the ancient Cherokee way. Probably half the Cherokee tribe went to both the Baptist church and to the aboriginal ceremonies. I knew that some of the best Indian doctors among the Cherokees were Baptists, and I knew that many medicine men were in fact deacons in the community-based Cherokee Baptist churches. I therefore had three categories in my mind: one was Indians who worshiped in the old aboriginal pattern; secondly, Indians who were Christians, and, thirdly, those who participated in both patterns. Although I knew that many Cherokee Baptist families passed along the stories of the Cherokee creation to their children, and that many Baptist deacons were also medicine men, I had not yet formulated in my mind that religious behavior in the Cherokee tribe is best thought of as a continuum with an old aboriginal religion at one end of the continuum and a native Christianity at the other end of the continuum. Cherokees simply conceived of the Cherokee Baptist religion as Christianity. We did not conceive of Cherokee Christianity as something that had been remodeled or nativized. We simply assumed that the distinct Cherokee form of the Baptist religion was "natural," because we were, after all, Cherokees; but as legitimately Christian as white Baptists.⁶

When my wife and I had our first child, a son, we took him to a medicine man, a kinsman, for his birth ceremony. In the birth ceremony the parents and child must drink a concoction of what appears to be white clay and water. It is by this method that the medicine man puts part of his spiritual power into the child to insure that it grows up healthy. After we had finished the ceremony, the medicine man told us that he had put his power into the baby, but we had to be very careful not to drive that power out of our child. He said that "if you are angry with your child, look away. Don't let the child see anger in your eyes because that anger will drive my power out of the child". ⁷

My wife and I had all our children taken through the Papago birth ceremony which was mentioned earlier. Further, young women at puberty must go through the same ceremony again. In the old days there was public dancing for young women at this time, but that had been discontinued in Papago life, except perhaps at some of the more remote villages on the main Papago reservation to the west.

It is true, however, that some of the ceremonies around these rites of passage utilized both aboriginal ritual and Catholic ritual. For instance, before my wife took our children to the medicine man for this aboriginal ceremony, we first took the child to church to be baptized by this white man of spiritual power, the Catholic priest. ... Catholic priests, by virtue of the fact that they give the child a saint's name, do something very similar in the Papago view to the Papago medicine man: the priest puts some of his "spiritual power" into the child. By virtue of the holy water and the saint's name he gives to the child, the priest "gives" the child a guardian spirit at birth; something which in the old days Papagos had to strive for later in life by running or fasting. If one failed to get a baby baptized in the church and it became sick, Papagos would lay this to the fact that the baby had not been baptized. Papagos also think that an unbaptized baby will cause sickness to come to relatives as well. The death ceremony once again reflects the same pattern as the baptism in that some of the funeral is conducted in the Catholic mission at San Xavier and some of the funeral is conducted at the center of San Xavier folk Catholic worship, the feast house, or at home in the old time Papago style.

Papagos usually did not get married either by aboriginal ceremony or by a church ceremony, and of course, this was a source of great consternation to the local Catholic priests. After our first child was baptized, a local priest began to urge me to be married in a Catholic ceremony. I'm not quite sure why he singled me out for this urging. I remember that about the second or third time he mentioned it to me, I reminded him that I was neither Catholic nor a Christian, and told him that perhaps he should talk to my wife. I do not know how the matter was arranged, but my wife and I were married in the Papago Catholic church at Ajo, Arizona, a few months later.⁸

Papagos consider themselves devout Catholics, and indeed the mission church at San Xavier is full for Sunday mass as well as on many other occasions. When I attended mass at San Xavier, in those days the women sat on one side, the men on the other, and the older men in the front rows of the church, I presume in order to be near that man of spiritual power, the Catholic priest. This was very different from the Mexican pattern in the area where many adult Mexican men stood outside the church talking or conducting business while the women and children attended the mass inside the church. Although Papagos are good Catholics by their own standards, and probably by the standards of most Mexicans and other Indians, their understanding of Catholicism as a belief system is at variance with orthodox Catholic belief.

For instance, when I lived at San Xavier one of the theological issues discussed by older Papagos discussed was whether Saint Francis and God were the same person. They made little difference between Saint Francis of Assisi, who they venerated in October in Magdalena, Mexico, and Saint Francis Xavier, who they venerated at San Xavier mission in December. Further, in the Papago aboriginal creation stories there were some four creators of the world. One of them, Elder Brother, also became the Papago law giver and then led the Papagos into the country which they now occupy. After the Papagos were settled and the law secure, the Elder Brother retired to a mountain, Baboquivari, which is conceived of as the center of the Papago world. Some Papagos believe that Elder Brother will emerge from his cave on the sacred mountain in times of trouble to help his people. Some Papagos at San Xavier in 1950 tended to equate Jesus and the Elder Brother. Further there were many parts of Catholic dogma in which Papagos were simply not interested, such as the concepts of redemption and salvation. Exactly how the Catholic priest, who spoke no Papago, could have educated Papagos in such matters of dogma, I have no idea. However, it was my impression in those days that most Catholic priests who administered to Indians felt that dogma was not particularly important. Much more important was participation in the sacraments of the church.

At that point it appeared to me, given my personal history and my anthropological training, that there were three religious patterns at San Xavier, one aboriginal Papago, one orthodox Catholic, and a third modeled after Mexican Folk Catholicism. It was clear that Papagos observed most sacraments and rituals prescribed by orthodoxy, but they were not very orthodox in their beliefs. The third Papago religious pattern was probably the most important in terms of time spent by Papagos in religious activity and resembled Sonoran Mexican folk Catholicism. This style of folk Catholicism, which one finds in similar form all over Latin America, has been called the "cult of the saints" by orthodox North American Catholic priests who seem to disapprove of such nativized practices. To illustrate, if one attended these Papago ceremonies on a saint's day, the usual sequence was as follows--there was a mass which everyone attended in the mission church, then a procession. On occasion, the image of the saint would be carried southwest from the mission church, some two or three hundred yards to a rock house. Half of this rock house was used for cooking and feeding people who attended the celebrations. The other half, a single, large room, was used as an area in which to place an altar and the saint's figure. A Papago lay ministry then sat and said Spanish language prayers and hymns before the saint, a large part of the night. Nearby there was a pavilion where a "chicken-scratch" dance was held at night. The music and dancing are similar to Mexican feast dances. The only significant differences that I could observe in those days was that the music didn't seem quite like Mexican music and that a great many old people danced to the music, which is not the case among Mexican Catholics.

I was certain at the time that there were indeed, three parallel religious patterns at San Xavier.

Papagos, however, did not see their religious life as divided into three parallel patterns; they simply saw it either as the Papago religion or sometimes as the Catholic religion. It took me a long time to figure out that all of what appeared to be distinct rituals and practices are tied together by the same meaning system; that is to say, by the same Papago assumptions and perceptions about the nature of the world; or however one wants to characterize this way of being and seeing. I had to learn all this the hard way. I tended to dismiss Papago religious practice simply as primarily Mexican and to despair quietly that the people with whom I had cast my lot showed such a lack of cultural integrity. It was necessary for me to have a few significant experiences to understand "the Papago religion."

The first such experience was a story told me by a friend. It seems that my friend and his wife were visiting friends who lived and worked on a cotton farm near Tucson. In the next apartment there was a Papago couple with a child who was very sick with dysentery. My friend could hear the child crying all night through the thin walls of the building, so he and his wife got up early, just before sunrise, in order to be on hand to take the couple and their sick child to the Indian hospital, if need be. When my friend walked out the door, the young Papago couple, the woman with the baby in her arms, were already walking toward the middle of the cotton field. When the couple got to the middle of the field they faced east, and just before the sun came up the young Papago man held a rosary at arms length up in the air so that the first rays of the rising sun reflected off the cross. He then placed the cross on the child's forehead to help cure it of dysentery. My wife explained to me that the young Papago man was capturing the sun's power to help cure his child.

Shortly thereafter I was attending mass with my wife, and I noticed sniffing sounds coming from the women's section of the church. When I asked my wife about the sniffings, she said that Papagos do not kiss the cross, they breathe the cross' spiritual power. She told me that Mexicans kiss the cross because Mexicans are by nature people who kiss--they kiss their children, they kiss their god-parents, they kiss the bishop's ring--but that Papagos do not kiss. Therefore, when Papagos bring the cross up to their faces they breathe in its power.

I was taken aback by all the above, but more was to come.

When my wife's aunt and her husband, the medicine man, lived with us, he and I became great friends and sometimes I drove him to houses when he would cure or perform other duties. One of the things that people would have him do at San Xavier would be to purify the saints' image at household shrines. Further, when my friend would diagnose, he would usually say that a person had deer sickness or Gila monster sickness, or some such cause which appeared to me to be purely aboriginal in content. One time, however, he told me that the patient had been neglecting his saint and therefore the saint was causing his illness. My friend advised the patient to have a feast and dance for his saint.

In the next house cluster down the road lived more of my wife's kinsmen, one of whom was her cousin, Bastian. Bastian was a great guitarist but very bashful. ... Several times, Bastian asked me to take him across the river in my car where the rest of the band was assembled in order to get their instruments purified by a medicine man before they played music for the nightly dance at the celebration of a saint's day.

Further, a chicken scratch band, as they came to be called, led the religious processions at San Xavier, playing their music as they walked. At times, a band would go into the church to play for one of the saints. For Mexicans, the dance on a feast day is the secular part of the celebration. This is not the case among Papagos. Papagos play music at the evening dance for the saint. They dance for the saint. It is a sacred and essential part of a feast day. Even old people feel obligated to dance early in the evening.

At one feast that I attended, the Holy Cross feast, we carried a green cross some two feet high on a litter, green colored to represent the greening of the world and the change in seasons. By Holy Cross Day on May 1 gardens were beginning to mature and people were looking forward to eating fresh garden produce very shortly. It was an earth greening festival, a first-fruits feast and the beginning of summer to the Papagos. When we took this cross to the feast house, the rock house, one of the parts of the ritual was to pass it around so that each person could bring the green cross up near their face and breathe in of its supernatural power.

After enough of these kinds of experiences, it began to hit me that this was all one religion, that its main concern and object was the handling of, the acquisition of, and the conservation of supernatural spiritual power. Thus Papago Indians have a beautiful mission church where they go to be led in ceremony by Catholic priests, men of great power trained in the powerful rituals of Catholicism; a place where they can eat of the blood and body of the greatest saint of them all, Jesus; a place where their babies are given spirit guardians by these same men of power; a place which houses the images of those great spiritual guardians, the Catholic saints. One of these figures has such power that one can put one's hand on his head and receive into the hand spiritual power from this holy object, then one can place the hand on the part of the body that needs healing and so be healed. One can participate in Mexican Catholic folk ritual and thus acquire, as a people, the protection of these great spirit guardians, the Catholic saints. One can even receive individual power by breathing the representative of the earth, the green cross, at Holy Cross Day. And of course Papagos can continue to acquire power as individuals and as a people in the ways that they were taught by the Elder Brother, the law giver.

So I came to understand, finally, my wife's religion, the Papago religion; a whole religion, a religion of one piece; not three parallel religious patterns as I first thought when I first observed the forms of Papago worship. The Papago Indians are a very old, complicated and deep people and I consider it one of my greatest intellectual accomplishments that I have come to understand at least the broad outline of their religious faith.

1 Robert D. Cooter and Robert K. Thomas, The People and the Strangers: Narratives and A Theory of American Indian Life. Unpublished Manuscript. < http://works.bepress.com/robert_cooter/53/> (July 14, 2005).