We Have a Religion : The 1920s Pueblo Indian Dance Controversy and American Religious Freedom

For Native Americans, religious freedom has been an elusive goal. From nineteenth-century bans on indigenous ceremonial practices to twenty-first-century legal battles over sacred lands, peyote use, and hunting practices, the U.S. government has often acted as if Indian traditions were somehow not truly religious and therefore not eligible for the constitutional protections of the First Amendment. In this book, Tisa Wenger shows that cultural notions about what constitutes "religion" are crucial to public debates over religious freedom. In the 1920s, Pueblo Indian leaders in New Mexico and a sympathetic coalition of non-Indian reformers successfully challenged government and missionary attempts to suppress Indian dances by convincing a skeptical public that these ceremonies counted as religion. This struggle for religious freedom forced the Pueblos to employ Euro-American notions of religion, a conceptual shift with complex consequences within Pueblo life. Long after the dance controversy, Wenger demonstrates, dominant concepts of religion and religious freedom have continued to marginalize indigenous traditions within the United States. Contents......Page 10 Preface......Page 14 Acknowledgments......Page 18 Introduction......Page 24 ONE: Pueblos and Catholics in Protestant America......Page 40 TWO: Cultural Modernists and Indian Religion......Page 82 THREE: Land, Sovereignty, and the Modernist Deployment of “Religion”......Page 118 FOUR: Dance Is (Not) Religion: The Struggle for Authority in Indian Affairs......Page 158 FIVE: The Implications of Religious Freedom......Page 206 SIX: Religious Freedom and the Category of Religion into the Twenty-First Century......Page 260 Notes......Page 290 Bibliography......Page 328 A......Page 348 C......Page 349 D......Page 350 I......Page 351 M......Page 352 P......Page 353 R......Page 354 T......Page 355 Z......Page 356 How do we define 'religion'? For Native Americans, religious freedom has been an elusive goal. From 19th century bans on indigenous ceremonial practices to 21st century legal battles over sacred lands, peyote use, and hunting practices, the U.S. government has often acted as if Indian traditions were somehow not truly religious and therefore not eligible for the constitutional protections of the First Amendment. In this book, Tisa Wenger shows that cultural notions about what constitutes 'religion' are crucial to public debates over religious freedom Introduction -- Pueblos And Catholics In Protestant America -- Cultural Modernists And Indian Religion -- Land, Sovereignty, And The Modernist Deployment Of Religion -- Dance Is (not) Religion : The Struggle For Authority In Indian Affairs -- The Implications Of Religious Freedom -- Religious Freedom And The Category Of Religion Into The Twenty-first Century. Tisa Wenger. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [305]-323) And Index.