ase the conjurers bonds, talks with the conjurer, and with the audience. The spirits help give information about persons or events, treatment of illness, and locate things like animals for hunting or lost items (Gill, Sullivan 303).The northern plains Native American religion sometimes differed from tribe to tribe and yet was similar. The plains geographical area is approximately 1.25 million square miles, with about one third of the land in the United States. The boundaries are the Mississippi River to the east, the Rocky Mountains to the west, the central Canadian provinces to the north, and the Gulf of Mexico to the South. Since contact with whites, seven linguistic families have divided these groups with the Plains Cree being one of them (Carmody 60). Upon the introduction of the horse, some tribes became nomadic moving to where they found buffalo, deer, and other wild life to hunt or fish. When tribes met up with one another they would use sign language to trade and barter. Recently, three forms of religious beliefs have been found in the entire plains area: the sun dance, the ghost dance, and the Native American Church. Some tribes for visionary purposes used sweat lodge ceremonies, Two great resources of the plains people, buffalo and maize were associated with a female figure in reference to her fertility suggesting female beginnings. Indians would hold rituals calling upon each of the four winds to give them good gifts and keep back the bad. An example would be in the summer the heat from the south and in the winter the freezing cold from the north (Carmody 61). The Carmodys give one introspective viewpoint of native people:Human beings did not dominate nature or transform it. They reacted to it more than they altered it to fit forms in their minds. The aesthetic component of Native American spirituality can be a salutary shock. It can remind pragmatic people that, long before things are useful, they are wonderful in their simp...
