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Hey there, /u/Apollo_Manton. Honestly, I think some of the people in this thread are being a bit dickish, so I'm going to try to provide you with a satisfactory answer and some resources.

So I guess I would start by saying that asking for a summary of "Native American Spirituality" is similar to asking for "Asian Spirituality," in that you can have hundreds of different spiritual views existing on a single continent. Asian spiritualites include ideas from India, China, the Middle East (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all technically come from Asia), indigenous cultures in eastern Russia, Tibetans, and hundreds of others. Native American spirituality can be thought of as even more broad, because America is two continents, while Asia is really just two thirds of one continent (considering Europe is in Asia). That's first of all.

Having said all that, there are certain common themes which can be found in a great deal of indigenous cultures around the world, not only in the Americas but also in Australia, Asia, Africa, and even in Europe before the Neolithic invasions. Some of these themes include respect for the Earth; respect for humans, other animals, and plants; and taking only what is needed.

If you are interested in the subject, I have several books to recommend. The first is called Circle of Life: Traditional Teachings of Native American Elders by James David Audlin. If you don't read any other books, read that one. It is excellent, and is one of my personal favorite books, not only on this subject but in general. It's well-written, readable, informative, and enjoyable. Audlin (also known as Distant Eagle) has Lakota heritage, but is also familiar with Cherokee and several other indigenous spiritual traditions. In addition to that, he is quite familiar with several Asian religions, including Christianity (he is an ordained minister), Judaism and Islam, and he frequently draws comparisons between native spirituality and newcomer religions.

If you search for this book on Amazon, there is a newer edition called "Circle of Life: A Memoir of Traditional Native American Teachings." I recommend the older edition, because it is shorter, somewhat clearer and more accessible.

There is another book called The Wisdom of the Native Americans, by Kent Neburn. This book is much shorter, an easy read, and is almost entirely quotes from famous Indians in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries. It's worth looking through, and will give you a very good summary of the native worldview. There is an entire chapter dedicated to the difference between native spirituality and Christianity which is quite good.

Another book I recommend is The Other Side of Eden, by Hugh Brody. Brody is a Canadian anthropologist who lives for several years with different indigenous groups in Canada, including the Inuit. This book is partially about his experiences, but is also about the history of humanity and how it relates to the story of Adam and Eve in the bible. It does a great job documenting the differences - and the relationship - between Christianity and indigenous spirituality during the European invasion. I recommend it because it is good, and because it will provide you with a broad perspective on human history that few people have, even among the educated.

One more book is Conversations with God, by Neale Donald Walsch. While not directly about native spirituality, it gives an excellent overview of spirituality in general, and is worth a read if you are interested in those topics. It is far more compatible with indigenous philosophies than with the Abrahamic religions, and it provides a refreshing and reasonable approach to the concept of God.

Finally, I recommend this YouTube video, Toby Hemenway: Redesigning Civilization with Permaculture. Permaculture is a design technique that was developed in Australia in the 1970s, but was largely inspired by the success of indigenous cultures before the European invasions. In this video, Hemenway gives a general overview of the historical and agricultural differences between Native America and Europe, and it's an enjoyable lecture.

As far as your second question, which asks for a basic description of beliefs and worldview, it's not really possible to reduce it to a basic description, just like you probably wouldn't be able to give a basic description of the Bible or the Quran in a few paragraphs. The best description available for that, in my opinion, is Audlin's book, Circle of Life. Any short description anybody can give here will not do justice to the rich traditions and philosophies that made up the various spiritual ideologies of the peoples who thrived in this continent before Columbus's arrival.

And having said all of that, I will try to give the best summary I can of native spirituality.

First, comes the idea of respect. Respect is the cornerstone of functional living. If you respect others, they will respect you. This goes not only for other humans of all nations, but for non-humans of the other nations, too - the dog nations, the fish nations, the bird nations, the plant nations, and so on. The spirit, my spirit, your spirit, whoever's spirit, does not die, but changes form. Reincarnation is very much a thing. The spirits of the grandparents are in the great-grandchildren, that kind of thing. Respect for all of life is a great priority. Respect does not necessarily mean do not kill, but it does mean, be thankful for the gifts given to you by members of other nations.

Hey, I'm in the same shoes as you! My family is also from Michoacan, and I was looking for resources online concerning learning Purepecha, but there aren't many, and some that are there are pretty stale.

I was asking my family, and my sister in Mexico told me of this app called Vamos a aprender Purepucha. It's on the google play store, I don;t know about about App store. But the app is pretty neat, it teaches Purepucha differently than say Duolingo. Rather than tests or quizzes, the app has this artsy style showing around a drawn Purepecha community, and you go around engaging with it. I haven't gone so far into the app, but starting off its great. The application isn't in English, only in Spanish for translation. In my case, Spanish is my second language and as long you can read Spanish passingly it'll be fine.

As for learning history, there's a lot of books..... in Spanish. Yeah I know, but on the bright side, now we're exercising two languages at once. I don't know what in history you want, be culture or political history, but there's a hefty about online too. There's this book about the former Purepucha capital Tzintzuntzán. And there this giving some summations on Purepecha history. I'm also beginning this too, so I don't have much to show now, but there's a lot more we haven't found yet. Keep on.

On the issue of the genocide in particular, since you request that, I recommend American Holocaust: The Conquest of the New World by David E. Stannard. I found it very interesting. It is very much source and historical account aware and documented. He covers quite a bit of the religious motivations and justifications involved, which is upsetting to many people and provokes a several denialist response, so be forewarned. The truth is very different from the so-called (re-) education I received as a youth in state run schools, promoting stories that I later found were myths. I mention this only because your post suggests you have had a similar awakening. I don't find this topic to be easy or comfortable reading, and I commend your interest in pursuing the truth.

I have a rather large library myself at my home so I can list hundreds of titles that I have found interesting, so any list I give will be necessarily truncated. It's helpful that you specify the specific area you are interested in. I feel you might also find Peter Nabokov's Native American Testimony of interest, since it contains nothing but first person accounts, one after another, and gives a lot of insight into our perspectives and the way we view things.

There is also the exceptionally well produced 500 Nations documentary which was hosted by Kevin Costner, and the excellent companion book by Alvin Josephy. The film documentary you can purchase on amazon, or watch on youtube, it's several hours long in multiple parts, and exceptional. The book fills in the details and contains a much more accurate history than we have been used to seeing presented.

Thank you for your interest in digging deeper.

I've posted this before, and I wonder to what extent Chicagoans know this. Chicago is an anglo version of our original placename Zhgaagong, meaning 'the place of the skunk' or 'place of the wild onion' in Anishinaabemowin (Ojibway). We still call it that.

Yes, you could look into the Illini, the Potawatomi (part of the 3 Fires Alliance along with the Odawa and Ojibway), the Miami, the Hocak*, and others. A lot of Algonquian speaking people in that area (though Hocak are Siouan speaking peoples)... Zhgaagong was a large trading centre before white encroachment.

Atlas of Great Lakes Indian History is a favorite of mine, I love it because it's highly visual and gives meaning to a lot of the places you most likely frequent today.

Edit: Another one this is a great text to introduce you to the subject of Native American history, and it's written in columns alongside world history. It was one of the intro texts in my indigenous studies courses. It's an accessible read that may introduce you to subjects about indigenous Nations you'd be more interested in.

Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock: Treaty Rights and Indian Law at the End of the Nineteenth Century is an important case personally brought to the Supreme Court in 1903 by a great man from my nation to determine whether an unratified treaty was valid. Result was the Supreme Court clarified that treaties with indian nations are considered meaningless in the eyes of the US government and have no legal standing since indians are imbecilic "wards of the state" and we aren't real nations. This case hasn't been overturned.

American Indian Sovereignty and the U.S. Supreme Court : The Masking of Justice covers the Supreme Court's schizophrenic views on Indians, which bear absolutely no similarity to their rulings on non-Indians, are inconsistent, and make no sense other than the general rule is still "Indians lose".

Johnson v. M'Intosh is a critical early case that established that the legal justification for the taking of our lands was the "Doctrine of Discovery", invented by the Catholic Church, which purports that the first christian to set eyes upon land owned by non-christians seizes it permanently for his nation because non-christians are incapable of owning property and are fit only to be slaves or farm animals since Indian claims on land are comparable to a fish claiming to own the ocean (an actual example they use). Still hasn't been overturned and is still being cited as the ruling authority for 21st century cases.

not precolumbian but this book is really good NA history book. The Great Father

Join us at http://www.lakotadictionary.org and order this book and get started. It’s great fun! Btw, the dialogue in Dances with Wolves is mostly incomprehensible to native speakers.

I watched a forum with a high-ranking Canadian federal bureaucrat. She was asked to answer this same question. Her response was pretty funny. She said something along the lines of, "I grew up Native, then I became a First People, and then Indigenous." But to her it didn't matter, and then she said she looked forward to finding out what the new term for her will be in ten years.

I'm going off a vague memory here, so I might be off-base. I think her general point was that she was person first. She was happy to talk about these issues, but she didn't put much stock in labels.

Gregory Younging wrote a good book about writing about Indigenous Peoples. I haven't mastered it, but I have found it very helpful and it has changed my perspective a lot.

This was one of my favorites growing up ---> https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004HFS54C/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1