A Companion to American Religious History
A Companion to American Religious History

Author: Benjamin E. Park

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2021-02-09

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 1119583667

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A collection of original essays exploring the history of the various American religious traditions and the meaning of their many expressions The Blackwell Companion to American Religious History explores the key events, significant themes, and important movements in various religious traditions throughout the nation’s history from pre-colonization to the present day. Original essays written by leading scholars and new voices in the field discuss how religion in America has transformed over the years, explore its many expressions and meanings, and consider religion’s central role in American life. Emphasizing the integration of religion into broader cultural and historical themes, this wide-ranging volume explores the operation of religion in eras of historical change, the diversity of religious experiences, and religion’s intersections with American cultural, political, social, racial, gender, and intellectual history. Each chronologically-organized chapter focuses on a specific period or event, such as the interactions between Moravian and Indigenous communities, the origins of African-American religious institutions, Mormon settlement in Utah, social reform movements during the twentieth century, the growth of ethnic religious communities, and the rise of the Religious Right. An innovative historical genealogy of American religious traditions, the Companion: Highlights broader historical themes using clear and compelling narrative Helps teachers expose their students to the significance and variety of America’s religious past Explains new and revisionist interpretations of American religious history Surveys current and emerging historiographical trends Traces historical themes to contemporary issues surrounding civil rights and social justice movements, modern capitalism, and debates over religious liberties Making the lessons of American religious history relevant to a broad range of readers, The Blackwell Companion to American Religious History is the perfect book for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in American history courses, and a valuable resource for graduate students and scholars wanting to keep pace with current historiographical trends and recent developments in the field.

Defend the Sacred
Defend the Sacred

Author: Michael D. McNally

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2020-04-14

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 0691190909

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"In 2016, thousands of people travelled to North Dakota to camp out near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation to protest the construction of an oil pipeline that is projected to cross underneath the Missouri River a half mile upstream from the Reservation. The Standing Rock Sioux consider the pipeline a threat to the region's clean water and to the Sioux's sacred sites (such as its ancient burial grounds). The encamped protests garnered front-page headlines and international attention, and the resolve of the protesters was made clear in a red banner that flew above the camp: "Defend the Sacred". What does it mean when Native communities and their allies make such claims? What is the history of such claim-making, and why has this rhetorical and legal strategy - based on appeals to religious freedom - failed to gain much traction in American courts? As Michael McNally recounts in this book, Native Americans have repeatedly been inspired to assert claims to sacred places, practices, objects, knowledge, and ancestral remains by appealing to the discourse of religious freedom. But such claims based on alleged violations of the First Amendment "free exercise of religion" clause of the US Constitution have met with little success in US courts, largely because Native American communal traditions have been difficult to capture by the modern Western category of "religion." In light of this poor track record Native communities have gone beyond religious freedom-based legal strategies in articulating their sacred claims: in (e.g.) the technocratic language of "cultural resource" under American environmental and historic preservation law; in terms of the limited sovereignty accorded to Native tribes under federal Indian law; and (increasingly) in the political language of "indigenous rights" according to international human rights law (especially in light of the 2007 U.N. Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples). And yet the language of religious freedom, which resonates powerfully in the US, continues to be deployed, propelling some remarkably useful legislative and administrative accommodations such as the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Reparation Act. As McNally's book shows, native communities draw on the continued rhetorical power of religious freedom language to attain legislative and regulatory victories beyond the First Amendment"--

Handbook of American Indian Religious Freedom
Handbook of American Indian Religious Freedom

Author: Christopher Vecsey

Publisher: Crossroad Publishing

Published: 1991

Total Pages: 186

ISBN-13: 9780824510671

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"American Indian communities regard their religious freedoms to be endangered. Despite the First Amendment and an act of Congress that purports to protect Indian religious rights, Native Americans find the practice of their religious traditions to be hindered, often by governmental interference. This book, a collective effort by scholars, lawyers, and American Indian spokespersons has three goals: to identify the specific areas in which Indian religious practices are undermined by federal, state, and local policies as well as by private enterprises; to help non-Indians understand the conceptual bases for American Indian religious beliefs and practices; to suggest practical ways in which to protect the free exercise of Indian religions in the face of other conflicting claims and values. Specifically, Indians find their religious practice endangered in the following ways: the degradation of geographical areas deemed sacred sites; the maltreatment of Indian burials, particularly bodily remains; the prohibition against capture, kill, and use of endangered or protected series; the regulations regarding the collection, transport, and use of peyote; the alienation and display of religious artifacts; the prevention of Indian rituals and behavior (the wearing of braided hair, participation in sweats or pipe ceremonies), particularly in authoritarian institutions. This book is both a manifesto decrying policies that endanger American Indian religious traditions and a manual showing ways in which these traditions might be protected and promoted"--Back cover.

Religious Freedom and Indian Rights
Religious Freedom and Indian Rights

Author: Carolyn Nestor Long

Publisher: Landmark Law Cases and American Society

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 344

ISBN-13:

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"The Supreme Court's controversial decision in Oregon v. Smith sharply departed from previous expansive readings of the First Amendment's religious freedom clause and ignited a firestorm of protest from legal scholars, religious groups, legislators, and Native Americans. A major event in Native American history, the case attracted widespread support for the Indian cause from a diverse array of religious groups eager to protect their own religious freedom and led to an intense tug-of-war between the Court and Congress. Carolyn Long provides the first book-length analysis of Smith and shows shy it continues to resonate so deeply in the American psyche."--Back cover.

The People Are Dancing Again
The People Are Dancing Again

Author: Charles Wilkinson

Publisher: University of Washington Press

Published: 2012-02-01

Total Pages: 576

ISBN-13: 0295802014

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The history of the Siletz is in many ways the history of all Indian tribes in America: a story of heartache, perseverance, survival, and revival. It began in a resource-rich homeland thousands of years ago and today finds a vibrant, modern community with a deeply held commitment to tradition. The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians�twenty-seven tribes speaking at least ten languages�were brought together on the Oregon Coast through treaties with the federal government in 1853�55. For decades after, the Siletz people lost many traditional customs, saw their languages almost wiped out, and experienced poverty, killing diseases, and humiliation. Again and again, the federal government took great chunks of the magnificent, timber-rich tribal homeland, a reservation of 1.1 million acres reaching a full 100 miles north to south on the Oregon Coast. By 1956, the tribe had been �terminated� under the Western Oregon Indian Termination Act, selling off the remaining land, cutting off federal health and education benefits, and denying tribal status. Poverty worsened, and the sense of cultural loss deepened. The Siletz people refused to give in. In 1977, after years of work and appeals to Congress, they became the second tribe in the nation to have its federal status, its treaty rights, and its sovereignty restored. Hand-in-glove with this federal recognition of the tribe has come a recovery of some land--several hundred acres near Siletz and 9,000 acres of forest--and a profound cultural revival. This remarkable account, written by one of the nation�s most respected experts in tribal law and history, is rich in Indian voices and grounded in extensive research that includes oral tradition and personal interviews. It is a book that not only provides a deep and beautifully written account of the history of the Siletz, but reaches beyond region and tribe to tell a story that will inform the way all of us think about the past. Watch the book trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEtAIGxp6pc

Many Nations under Many Gods
Many Nations under Many Gods

Author: Todd Allin Morman

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 2018-11-22

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 0806162465

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The lands the United States claims sovereignty over by right of the Doctrine of Discovery are home to more than five hundred Indian nations, each with its own distinct culture, religion, language, and history. Yet these Indians, and federal Indian law, rarely factor into the decisions of the country’s governing class—as recent battles over national monuments on tribal sites have made painfully clear. A much-needed intervention, Many Nations under Many Gods brings to light the invisible histories of several Indian nations, as well as their struggles to protect the integrity of sacred and cultural sites located on federal public lands. Todd Allin Morman focuses on the history of Indian peoples engaging in consultation, a process mandated by the National Environmental Policy Act and the Indian Religious Freedom Act whenever a federal agency’s proposed action will affect land of significance to indigenous peoples. To understand this process and its various outcomes first requires familiarity with the history and culture that make these sites significant to particular Indian nations. Morman provides this necessary context for various and changing indigenous perspectives in the legal process. He also examines consultation itself in a series of case studies, including Hopi efforts to preserve the sacred San Francisco Peaks in the Coconino National Forest from further encroachment by a ski resort, the Washoes’ effort near Lake Tahoe to protect Cave Rock from an influx of rock climbers, the Forest Service’s plan for the Blackfeet site Badger-Two Medicine, and religious freedom cases involving the Makahs, the Quechans, the Western Apaches, and the Standing Rock Sioux. These cases illuminate the strengths and dangers inherent in the consultation process. They also illustrate the need, for Natives and non-Natives alike, to learn the history of North America in order understand the value of protecting the many cultural and sacred sites of its many indigenous peoples. Many Nations under Many Gods reveals—and works to meet—the urgency of this undertaking.

America’s Religious Wars
America’s Religious Wars

Author: Kathleen M. Sands

Publisher: Yale University Press

Published: 2019-06-04

Total Pages: 347

ISBN-13: 0300245378

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How American conflicts about religion have always symbolized our foundational political values When Americans fight about “religion,” we are also fighting about our conflicting identities, interests, and commitments. Religion-talk has been a ready vehicle for these conflicts because it is built on enduring contradictions within our core political values. The Constitution treats religion as something to be confined behind a wall, but in public communications, the Framers treated religion as the foundation of the American republic. Ever since, Americans have translated disagreements on many other issues into an endless debate about the role of religion in our public life. Built around a set of compelling narratives—George Washington’s battle with Quaker pacifists; the fight of Mormons and Catholics for equality with Protestants; Teddy Roosevelt’s concept of land versus the Lakota’s concept; the creation-evolution controversy; and the struggle over sexuality—this book shows how religion, throughout American history, has symbolized, but never resolved, our deepest political questions.