Category talk:Native American topics

message: Hello...I want to create an article on Cherokees living outside their tribal homelands. A large number of Native Americans claim to be Cherokee, though a few large-sized tribes/nations and hundreds of tribal groups exist. There's a title called "Cherokee American" sometimes used as a self-title, instead of terms like "part-cherokee", "generokee" and "Pretendian" , are condescending to those of mixed White/Amerindian ancestry. It will take time to find all the information on the history of Cherokees, whether are tribal members or evidently of Cherokee descent, live across the United States. I think the article is a brilliant idea to expand knowledge of Native American history and culture. + 207.200.116.14 21:36, 28 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Hello there anon contributor. Talk pages for categories (such as this one) are generally not closely monitored by other editors, so may I suggest that you make mention of your proposal at talk:Cherokee instead, where it has a better chance of being responded to. You might also like to make mention of it at the WikiProject which looks after a number of Native American-related articles - WikiProject Indigenous peoples of North America for some further discussion/advice. Regards, --cjllw | TALK 01:31, 29 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  article proposal 

message: I'm proposing this change of name for :Category:Native American religion to :Category:Native American spirituality as I'm uncomfortable with teh term "religion" (fr. Latin religio - "rules"), which to me resonates of organized religion rather than general spiritual beliefs and mythologies and rituals; I noticed it being added to Potlatch which is of course is also in :Category:First Nations culture and :Category:Native American culture (or should be)...which begs the further question - can religion/spirituality and culture be so neatly divided?  I don't think they can be, and it's a presumptive definition that maintains that they can.  Someone had placed the religion category also on Totem pole, but as totem poles are not religious in any usual sense of the term I removed it; that they are connected to the spirituality of the peoples involved is without question; but so is the art, so is the music, so is the politics.  Saying "Native American religion" also makes it sounds like there's ONE "religion" and also is reminiscent of the name of the Native American Church; the notion of "religion" is largely a Western concept, and doesn't clearly apply, for example, to Taoism or Confucianism or a variety of other large-scale "faiths"/creeds, likewise to many tribal practices/beliefs worldwide.  "Spirituality" has that New Age touchy-feely sound to it, but at least it's a bit more accurate.  Also all these categories sometimes get applied on cross-border topics i.e. involving non-Native American First Nations; t hat one country uses the one term and the otehr sues the other term is probably best solved by "indigenous" although the cumbersome "North American indigenous peoples' culture" and similar constructs are the result.  The spirituality/relgion issue is the more important, and more easily resolvable, of the two issues presented here, however.  Thoughts?Skookum1 (talk) 02:35, 17 December 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: "Native American religion" -> "Native American spirituality"