As I was looking on the internet and other sections of the literature book I noticed that the Cherokee are monotheistic. Makes you wonder if Europeans had contact with the Native Americans prior to the founding of select religions such as Buddhism. Now to my knowledge there is no documentation of these encounters.
When the Europeans encountered the Native Americans did the religions that the colonists bring with them effect the Native Americans' religions. For example did the Cherokee take the idea of monotheism from Christianity or Catholicism.
http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/nchist-twoworlds/1839
ReplyDeleteThis site might help you understand the Cherokee and the attempts to convert them by Christian missionaries. There are some sites on the Internet that equate the Cherokee religious beliefs with Christianity. There is no doubt that their beliefs became more Christian-like as they interacted with Europeans. The even translated the Bible into Cherokee. But they still believed in the spirits in nature, even thought they had one Great Spirit (like the Great Manito of the Delaware). Thank you for your question and research, Tim.
I don't think they originally got monotheism from the Europeans... Didn't one of the videos say they migrated to the Americas in the late Ice Ages? So was Christianity as we know it even around at that time? I don't know...
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