Color 38 authentic scenes of traditional tribal dances and rituals: Rio Grande Pueblo Deer Dance, Zia clown dancers, Hopi Snake Dance, many others.

This premier publication of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian documents Native American dance with stunning photographs and essays by noted contributors.

Descriptions of the dances, costumes, body decorations, and musical accompaniment supplement information on the cultural background of Indian dancing

In this new edition of a classic, David Rockwell describes the captivating and awe-inspiring presence of the bear in Native American rituals. The bear played a central role in shamanic rights, initiation, healing and hunting ceremonies, and new year celebrations. Considered together, these traditions are another way of looking at the world, one in which the mysteries of the universe are revealed through animals.

Representative Native American religions and rituals are introduced to readers in a way that respects the individual traditions as more than local curiosities or exotic rituals, capturing the flavor of the living, modern traditions, even as commonalities between and among traditions are explored and explained. This general introduction offers wide-ranging coverage of the major factors—geography, history, religious behavior, and religious ideology (theology)—analyzing select traditions that can be dealt with, to varying degrees, on a contemporary basis. As current interest surrounding Native American studies continues to grow, attention has often been given to the various religious beliefs, rituals, and customs of the diverse traditions across the country. But most treatments of the subject are cursory and encyclopedic and do not provide readers with the flavor of the living, modern traditions. Here, representative Native American religions and rituals are introduced to readers in a way that respects the individual traditions as more than local curiosities or exotic rituals, even as commonalities between and among traditions are explored and explained. This general introduction offers wide-ranging coverage of the major factors—geography, history, religious behavior, and religious ideology (theology)—analyzing select traditions that can be dealt with, to varying degrees, on a contemporary basis. Covering such diverse ceremonies as the Muskogee (Creek) Busk, the Northwest Coast Potlatch, the Navajo and Apache menarche rituals, and the Anishnabe (Great Lakes area) Midewiwin seasonal gatherings, Paper takes a comparative approach, based on the study of human religion in general, and the special place of Native American religions within it. His book is informed by perspective gained through nearly fifty years of formal study and several decades of personal involvement, treating readers to a glimpse of the living religious traditions of Native American communities across the country.

First Published in 1997. The present volume contains references and descriptive annotations for 1,497 sources on North American Indian and Eskimo music. As conceived here, the subject encompasses works on dance, ritual, and other aspects of religion or culture related to music, and selected "classic" recordings have also been included. The coverage is equally broad in other respects, including writings in several different languages and spanning a chronological period from 1535 to 1995. The book is intended as a reference tool for researchers, teachers, and college students. With their needs in mind, the sources are arranged in ten sections by culture area, and the introduction includes a general history of research. Finally, there are also indices by author, tribe, and subject.