http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/naind/html/na_032700_religiousrig.htmReligious Rights
The U.S. government has always valued religious freedom. The freedom to worship is a right that is basic to our national life and history. Ironically, however, the colonizers who first came to North America to escape religious persecution routinely violated the religious freedom of the continent's native people. This practice devastated Native American communities, whose strong religious beliefs underlay all aspects of their lives and cultures. European colonizers perceived native cultures as barbaric and godless, and therefore felt justified in condemning and destroying them.
The denial of Indian religious liberty arose from the clash of European and Native American worldviews. Christian colonizers evaluated Indian religions from the perspective of their own particular faiths. They searched for sacred texts, written histories, and church institutions in Indian societies, and were appalled when tribal religions did not display these characteristics. Because the colonizers failed to recognize the complexity, diversity, and richness of native religions, they intruded upon Indian religious rights without feeling any guilt or self-doubt.
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Nineteenth-century Americans expected the federal government to follow the colonial tradition of suppressing tribal religions, and thus to "civilize" native people. Through the Civilization Act of 1819, the government agreed to subsidize missionaries in their civilizing efforts and to support the active destruction of native religions. In 1870 President Grant's "Peace Policy" expanded this federal support by inviting Christian denominations to nominate people to serve as federal agents to the tribes. Under this policy entire Indian nations were placed under the administrative control of particular churches, many of which had had no previous contact with the tribes they were selected to oversee. President Grant's own denomination, the Methodists, received the "rights" to several agencies.
Government persecution of native religions accelerated in the late nineteenth century. U.S. forces killed Sioux Ghost Dance participants at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, in 1890, and two years later arrested Ghost Dance leaders in Oklahoma. On most reservations the federal Indian Office's Courts of Indian Offenses investigated, convicted, and punished natives who persisted in following their ancient tribal religions. The Sun Dance, for example, which had long sustained a variety of Plains groups, was deemed offensive and was banned.
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In the past five hundred years Indians have fought many battles, both to defend their right to worship and to have their religions be accepted by the Christians who live among them. Unfortunately, however, Indian religions have been actively hindered or only partially protected. Nevertheless, irrespective of this sad history of governmental insensitivity, the struggle for Indian religious freedom continues, fueled by a belief that the defense of religious liberty will ensure the preservation of all ways of life.
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