Plateau Indians and the Quest for Spiritual Power, 1700-1850
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Published: June 1, 2003
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 195
ISBN-13: 9780803215214
Subjects: American history: c 1500 to c 1800; American history: c 1800 to c 1900; Cultural studies; Indigenous peoples; Missions; History; History - General History; Sociology; Western & Pacific Coast states; Native American; Christianity - History - General; Ethnic Studies - Native American Studies; History / Native American; Columbia Plateau; Indians of North America; Religion
Description: "For the Native peoples of the Columbian Plateau, the arrival of whites was understood primarily as a spiritual event, calling for religious explanations. Between 1700 and 1806, Native peoples of the Columbian Plateau experienced the presence of whites indirectly through the arrival of horses, some trade goods by long-distance exchange, and epidemic diseases that decimated their population and shook their faith in their religious beliefs. Many responded by participating in the Prophet Dance movement to restored their frayed links to the spirit world." "When whites arrived in the early nineteenth century, the Native peoples of the Columbian Plateau were more concerned about learning about white people's religious beliefs and spiritual power than with acquiring their trade goods: trading posts were seen as windows into another world rather than sources of goods. The whites' strange appearance and seeming immunity to disease and the unique qualities of their goods and technologies suggested great spiritual power to the Native peoples. But disillusionment awaited: Catholic and Protestant missionaries came to teach the Native peoples about Christianity, yet these white spiritual practices failed to protect them from a new round of epidemic disease. By 1850, with their world devastatingly altered, most Plateau Indians had rejected Christianity."--BOOK JACKET.