The Land Looks After Us: A History of Native American Religion

by Joel W. Martin

Native Americans practice some of America's most spiritually profound, historically resilient, and ethically demanding religions. Joel Martin draws his narrative from folk stories, rituals, and even landscapes to trace the development of Native American religion from ancient burial mounds, through interactions with European conquerors and missionaries, and on to the modern-day rebirth of ancient rites and beliefs. The book depicts the major cornerstones of American Indian history and religion--the vast movements for pan-Indian renewal, the formation of the Native American Church in 1919, the passage of the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act of 1990, and key political actions involving sacred sites in the 1980s and '90s. Martin explores the close links between religion and Native American culture and history. Legendary chiefs like Osceola and Tecumseh led their tribes in resistance movements against the European invaders, inspired by prophets like the Shawnee Tenskwatawa
and the Mohawk Coocoochee. Catharine Brown, herself a convert, founded a school for Cherokee women and converted dozens of her people to Christianity. Their stories, along with those of dozens of other men and women--from noblewarriors to celebrated authors--are masterfully woven into this vivid, wide-ranging survey of Native American history and religion.

Genres: Religion, Native American, History, Nonfiction, Anthropology, Research, Indigenous

184 pages, Paperback

First published February 8, 2001

About the author

Librarian Note:
There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Martin's overview of Native American religion is sufficient for exposing the ongoing dismemberment of Native American culture (and religion) and it adequately reveals the stakes of that dismemberment: to erase or suppress Native American religion is to stamp out the soul of all of Native American life. The entire book rests on the obliteration of the distinction between sacred and profane in Indigenous culture, which is perhaps a useful move in examining non-Native practice as well.

Martin gives in-depth, vibrant examples to illustrate the condition of Native American struggle for the protection of the free exercise of religion which they are due, but is perhaps a bit clunky in the layout of the work. He flits from one example to the next throughout the entire book, but gives little of the actual histories of the many many nations that he mentions. To his credit, an in-depth history is impossible in less than 150 pages, and it's a valiant effort to start the conversation.

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t have a ton to say on this book, but I noticed that a few of the negative reviews here focus on the lack of depth, especially when it comes to detailed expositions of Native American belief systems. I think these reviews are missing the point a bit - this book is a *history* of Native American religion, not a systematic theology. As a short introduction to the beliefs of an incredibly diverse collection of societies and the practices that go along with them (and, lest we forget, vice versa), I thought this was pretty decent. For more, well, we should probably look for a book that’s more than 140 pages long.

[Gus · Rating 4 out of 5]

I re-read this book and it was just as good as the first time. I took a Native American religion course in college and this book was our introduction. People complained that the author addressed too many topics in one book, but I think it is a great representation of how Indigenous people are not a monolith, and there are multiple historic religions and practices that should be highlighted in one text. It is comprehensive and does not dilute the destructive history of Christianity, conversion, and genocide. I recommend this book especially in a time of book bans and the falsifying of history which further erases indigenous peoples.

[Thom Coté · Rating 2 out of 5]

An informative survey but doesn't go into enough depth on any particular topic to be very interesting. Somehow the whole book reads like a college essay. Since he refers to Native Americans as "they" I'm assuming Martin is not Native American; the fact that it's an outside-looking-in perspective is offputting.

[WAYNE DIAMOND · Rating 3 out of 5]

While this book does give us some insight into the Native Americans religion. It almost seems the Native American religion comparatively speaking to its indoctrination with Christianity. The foundation of the origin and details in Native American beliefs and practices is not as strong and lacking.

[Iris]

Read for class

[Sourdough Bread · Rating 3 out of 5]

6/10

While this can be a useful starting point for learning about the religion of Indigenous people in the United States it really does omit a lot of important basic history even for a book less than 200 pages. While it does mention Tecumseh's brother and Black Elk among other important movements and historical figures (sometimes without enough depth), it barely mentions the California missions in one sentence on a completely unrelated topic. How can you miss an cultural region of Indigenous people who were subjected to forced conversion to a religion they didn't want to join and were made literal slaves for generations to "save their savage souls"? You can not miss with important history like that even in a short book. There's probably more major native religion history I'm missing here but this book really could have looked into US areas beyond the east coast and plains natives. Also the book was weirdly anti internet for some reason.

[Sarah Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked the Native American creation myths, but wish there were more about their belief systems. It focuses too much on incorporating specific examples from tribes rather than giving an overview of their their beliefs. Flips back and forth between examples too often; makes for a cumbersome read.