The Indian Great Awakening
Linford D. Fisher wrote his book “The Indian Great Awakening: Religion and the Shaping of Native Culture in Early America” in an attempt to explore the influence of colonial Empires on newly formed societies and local communities, specifically, Native Americans. The author argues that colonists had used Christianity as the tool to keep their control in the region. Indians of Southern New England did not have much of choice but to accept terms and conditions of mighty conquerors in order to survive. The religion of Euro-American communities had erased the culture of Natives from the history forever.
The book of Fisher is about the destiny of Native American Indians who used to live in Southern New England and covers the period between the 1670s and 1820. There are eight chapters which chronologically integrate every period of the history of Natives starting at the end of the seventeenth century and mostly concentrated on changes which happened in the eighteenth century.
In the first chapter, the author is writing about previous attempts of American and European missionaries to turn Natives into Christianity. Fisher continues to develop his ideas in the second chapter where he stresses on efforts of Euro-American societies to promote religion and educate their traditions to Natives. The author describes the struggle of Indians in making the right decision which would mean social and cultural engagement of different societies for better future. In chapter three, Fisher proves the importance of Natives participation in the Christian revival as the way of survival in prevailing historical circumstances. He states that Indian’s acceptance of reality changed the level of education within the community. Natives had used religious interactions between churches to establish own traditions like, for instance, individual expression in worship.
The fourth chapter of the book is about “affiliation.” The author is talking about the process of accession of Natives to the new world. Indians had to accept rules of colonists. Furthermore, they adapted to those rules but had never converted to Christianity. Chapter five is about New Light revivalists who separated from the Euro-American church to form own congregations. In chapter six, the writer is discussing education and literacy of Native Americans in the middle of 1750s. The educated society is more encouraged to have stronger beliefs and keep their traditions. Chapter seven is about many Indians who had migrated to the West because of the land dispossession started by colonialists to create new communities. In the last eighth chapter, Fisher is concluding how Euro-American civilizations with the help of Christianity had influenced the culture of Natives and changed it forever.
Linford Fisher had never referenced any official documents or published articles of other authors to write his book. Instead, he says that "the medicine bundle seems like a broadly inclusive approach to the question of efficacious oversight in the afterlife" (7). Fisher used funerary objects and records of local community’s churches about marriages and baptism of infants to support his ideas. From those records, the writer managed to collect very valuable information which helped to develop his chapters. Therefore, the book depicts the life of Indians in the eighteenth century and how Euro-American colonists tried to design “literate, Christianized, and culturally Anglicized Indian men and women” (Fisher, 51).
There are two sides of the situation. Firstly, Natives were not educated and politically organized. This made them vulnerable to outside conquerors. Secondly, religion was the tool for Natives to become strong as the community and create “the very institutions that were supposed to help turn Indians into faithful English subjects, in the end, were used by Indians to create semi-autonomous space within which they could monitor their own spiritual lives, exercise a great deal of autonomy, and strengthen intertribal connections” (Fisher, 113). However, further land dispossession caused by the desire of colonists to enrich their wealth forced many Indians to migrate. Those who stayed went through the long process of affiliation which intended to combine colonial and local traditions with dominant influence of the first one.
Most of the Natives denied Christianity and after separatist movements in New England area churches adopted Indians heritage. Therefore, Native Americans managed to survive in severe conditions of progressive changes but lost own pride and dignity. Nevertheless, the life of next generations is more significant than the honor. The Indian Great Awakening was the possibility for Natives to remind the world of themselves.
The book of Fisher “The Indian Great Awakening: Religion and the Shaping of Native Culture in Early America” had made the significant contribution to the history of Native Americans who used to populate lands of the US for many centuries. The book will keep Indians always remembered by nations. However, The Indian Great Awakening is also crucial as it is the guideline through the revival of Christianity in the eighteenth century and its influence on the culture of Natives. From one side, the effect was positive as local communities get access to literacy and education. From another side, religion had damaged the culture and traditions of Indians.
The video on ‘Inuit throat’ clearly tells the Native American traditions and the video helps us understand the great role of Euro-Americans in outlawing the practice. Christian priests believed that the practice was ‘the devil’s voice’ or in other words they believed that the Native American had a complex system of religion and they did not distinguish between the spiritual world, the physical world and religious conventions (Anchorage Daily News, 1). Native American relied on their traditional cultures and thus the role of Euro-American was to change the traditional cultures by use of spiritual forces (Fisher, 12).
Note that Native American valued dances as they believed that dancing was a form of prayer, healing and a way of maintaining their identity. Despite the fact that Native American embraced and connected tradition and culture with nature, gods, humans and their ways of life, Europeans viewed this as a nonreligious practice (MN original, 1). However, Native American followed their spiritual leaders or Shaman who performed rituals and dances. During evangelization and Christianization, all these traditional religious practices were destroyed through evangelizing efforts (Fisher, 35).
For example, in the Apache culture, there was a rite of passage where girls were celebrating adulthood at a certain age. The girl and her family prepared for the ceremony such as finding gifts and ceremonial clothes and finding godparents who would conduct the ceremony. The role of the godparent was to dress the girl and the girl was supposed to wear the dress during celebration which would take four days (Nat Geo, 1). This example allows the reader to see how the ‘Indian Great Awakening’ changed the Apache Religious Traditions as well as their beliefs on ancestors, dances supernatural powers and more.
The ‘Indian Great Awakening’ marked the protestant reformation and Martin Luther is not only remembered for his efforts in establishing religious beliefs but also in economic development and political freedom. In 1517, Martin Luther was against the religious doctrines of Roman Catholic Church which were based on ‘indulgences’ (PBS, 1). Luther argued that the teachings were false as they taught individuals that rather than having a divine intervention with God, individuals were supposed to create conscience and values by reading the scripture. Luther was against the teachings and was interested in human dignity and human freedom. He asserted that Christians are granted the freedom to participate in God’s blessings and salvation is not attained through own effort but it is a gift (PBS, 1).
Works Cited
Fisher, Linford D. The Indian Great Awakening. New York, NY, Oxford University Press, 2012.
Anchorage Daily News. Inuit throat-singing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLMlkjnYe0U. 2013
MN original. Native American dance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPjYdfA_tLU. 2016
Nat Geo. Girls' rite of passage in Apache culture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5B3Abpv0ysM. 2007
Public Broadcasting Service (PBS). 500 years of the Reformation: http://www.pbs.org/video/religion-and-ethics-newsweekly-500th-anniversary-protestant-reformation/. 2018
