Great Spirit information

The Great Spirit is an omnipresent supreme life force generally conceptualized as a supreme being or god. The Great Spirit is a central component in many, but not all, indigenous cultures in Canada and the United States, and interpretations of it vary between cultures.

In the Lakota tradition, the Great Spirit is known as Wakan Tanka.^[1]^[2] According to Lakota activist Russell Means, a more semantically accurate translation of Wakan Tanka is the Great Mystery.^[3]

In the Haudenosaunee tradition, the Great Spirit is known as "the Creator". Haudenosaunee men's lacrosse team captain Lyle Thompson, characterized it as "the Creator that lives in all of us. It’s in the sun. It’s in the moon. It’s in the stars and the water. It’s in the earth."^[4]

In the Algonquian tradition, the Great Spirit is known as Gitche Manitou.^[5]

Due to perceived similarities between the Great Spirit and the Christian deity, European colonial missionaries drew comparison between the two deities as a Christianization conversion technique.^[6]

^ Ostler, Jeffry. The Plains Sioux and U.S. Colonialism from Lewis and Clark to Wounded Knee. Cambridge University Press, July 5, 2004. ISBN 0521605903, pg 26.
^ Marks, M., & Fauteck, L. (2007). Great mysteries: Native North American religions and participatory visions. ReVision, 29(3).
^ Means, Robert. Where White Men Fear to Tread: The Autobiography of Russell Means. Macmillan, 1995. ISBN 0312147619 pg 241.
^ McDonald, Thomasi (2023, November 16) | Duke Today.Recapturing the Indigenous roots of lacrosse
^ Thomas, Robert Murray. Manitou and God: North-American Indian Religions and Christian Culture. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007. ISBN 0313347794 pg 35.
^ References: Schoolcraft, Henry R. The Myth of Hiawatha and other oral Legends, Mythologic and Allegoric of the North American Indians. J.B. Lippincott & Co. 1856. Brehm, Victoria. Star Songs and Water Spirits, a Great Lakes Reader. Ladyslipper Press. 2011.

[Ostler-1] Ostler, Jeffry. The Plains Sioux and U.S. Colonialism from Lewis and Clark to Wounded Knee. Cambridge University Press, July 5, 2004. ISBN 0521605903, pg 26.

[2] Marks, M., & Fauteck, L. (2007). Great mysteries: Native North American religions and participatory visions. ReVision, 29(3).

[Means-3] Means, Robert. Where White Men Fear to Tread: The Autobiography of Russell Means. Macmillan, 1995. ISBN 0312147619 pg 241.

[4] McDonald, Thomasi (2023, November 16) | Duke Today.Recapturing the Indigenous roots of lacrosse

[Thomas-5] Thomas, Robert Murray. Manitou and God: North-American Indian Religions and Christian Culture. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007. ISBN 0313347794 pg 35.

[6] References: Schoolcraft, Henry R. The Myth of Hiawatha and other oral Legends, Mythologic and Allegoric of the North American Indians. J.B. Lippincott & Co. 1856. Brehm, Victoria. Star Songs and Water Spirits, a Great Lakes Reader. Ladyslipper Press. 2011.

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Appeal to the Great Spirit, 1908 statue by Cyrus Dallin, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Basic concepts Afterlife Animism Augury Communitas Comparative religion Divination Divine language Evolutionary origin of religion Fetishism Great Spirit Henotheism Initiation Laying on of hands Liminality Magic (supernatural) Mana Monotheism Nympholepsy Oracle Pilgrimage Polytheism Rite of passage Ritual Sacred language Sacred–profane dichotomy Sacred site Shamanism Soul dualism Superstition Theories about religion Totem Transtheism Veneration of the dead
Case studies Magic Coral Gardens and Their Magic Treatise on the Apparitions of Spirits and on Vampires or Revenants Neo-Paganism Ritual Angakkuq Babaylan Bobohizan Bomoh Bora Dukun Miko Jhākri Pawang Slametan Wu Revitalization movements Cargo cult Ghost Dance Handsome Lake
Related articles The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life Purity and Danger Myth and ritual Archaeology of religion and ritual Poles in mythology Lived religion Elite religion
Major theorists Augustin Calmet Akbar S. Ahmed Talal Asad Joseph Campbell Mary Douglas Émile Durkheim Mircea Eliade Arnold van Gennep René Girard E. E. Evans-Pritchard James Frazer Fustel de Coulanges Clifford Geertz Robin Horton Claude Lévi-Strauss Robert Marett Steven Ozment Roy Rappaport Saba Mahmood Marshall Sahlins Melford Spiro Stanley Tambiah Victor Turner Edward Burnett Tylor Daniel Martin Varisco Anthony F. C. Wallace
Journals Anthropological Perspectives on Religion Folklore The Hibbert Journal The Journal of Religion Oceania
Religions Ethnic and folk religions Afro-American religion Alaska Native religion Anito Atua Böö mörgöl Chinese folk religion Hanitu Hausa Kejawèn Native American religion Noaidi Shindo Shamanism in Siberia Shinto Tengrism Traditional African religions Buddhism Mahayana Nichiren Pure Land Shingon Theravada Tiantai Tibetan Vajrayana Zen Christianity Adventism Anglicanism Armenian Apostolic Church Baptists Calvinism Catholic Church Coptic Orthodoxy Eastern Orthodoxy Ethiopian Orthodoxy Greek Orthodoxy Lutheranism Methodism Nestorianism Oriental Orthodoxy Pentecostalism Protestantism Quakers Russian Orthodoxy Hinduism Hindu denominations Shaivism Shaktism Smartism Vaishnavism Ayyavazhi Islam Ahmadiyya Ibadi Mahdavia Non-denominational Quranists Shia Sufism Sunni Yazdânism Judaism Conservative Haredi Hasidic Haymanot Karaite Orthodox Reform Jainism Digambara Śvetāmbara Sikhism
Social and cultural anthropology
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