Native Americans and the Hope of Resurrection of the Soul

Native Americans and the Hope of Resurrection of the Soul

Native American funerary ritual and practice throughout the northern sub-continent plainly indicates a strong and vivid belief in the resurrection of the soul after death. Among many tribes the practice prevailed of interring with the deceased such objects as he might be supposed to require in the other world. These included weapons of war and of the chase for men, and household implements and feminine finery in the case of women.

Among primitive peoples the belief is prevalent that inanimate objects possess doubles, or, as spiritualists would say, 'astral bodies,' or souls, and some Indian tribes supposed that unless such objects were broken or mutilated—that is to say, 'killed'—their doubles would not accompany the spirit of the deceased on its journey.

Mounds State Park Serpent : Causeway to the Afterlife

Mounds State Park Serpent : Causeway to the Afterlife

Stone Serpent crosses the White River at Mounds State Park, in Anderson, Indiana. The Dakota Sioux were the Hopewell mound builders. Was this serpent constructed for the dead spirits to cross into the afterlife?

Most of the Native American tribes appear to have believed that the soul had to undertake a long journey before it reached its destination. The belief of the Chinooks in this respect is perhaps a typical one. They imagine that after death the spirit of the deceased drinks at a large hole in the ground, after which it shrinks and passes on to the country of the ghosts, where it is fed with spirit food and drink. After this act of communion with the spirit-world it may not return. The Algonquins and Dakotas believe that departed spirits must cross a stream bridged by an enormous snake.

A natural spring, high in iron oxides is located at the foot of the bluff , adjacent to the stone serpent.