Great Spirit

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not cite any references or sources. (December 2006) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (November 2007)

This article requires authentication or verification by an expert. Please assist in recruiting an expert or improve this article yourself. See the talk page for details. This article has been tagged since November 2007.

The Great Spirit is a conception of a supreme being prevalent among Native American and First Nations cultures. Also called Wakan Tanka among the Sioux, The Creator, or The Great Maker in English and Gitchi Manitou in Algonquian, the Great Spirit is a syncretist conception of God.

The Great Spirit is personal, close to the people, and immanent in the fabric of the material world. He ruled the Happy hunting ground, a place similar to Heaven. Chief Dan Evehema, a spiritual leader of the Hopi Nation, described the Great Spirit as follows:

"To the Hopi, the Great Spirit is all powerful. He taught us how to live, to worship, where to go and what food to carry, gave us seeds to plant and harvest. He gave us a set of sacred stone tablets into which he breathed all teachings in order to safeguard his land and life. In these stone tablets were inscribed instructions, prophecies and warnings."

The Great Spirit is generally considered equivalent in description to God of the main monotheistic religions (such as Judaism, Christianity, Islam). These main religions often describe a being who is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-loving. They believe that God speaks through human intermediaries and issues spiritual laws that human beings are to follow, and an afterlife is promised. However the Great Spirit differs in that his panentheistic nature is especially emphasized; he is embodied in everything. This more closely resembles the Hindu conception of the divine. Regardless, the Great Spirit being the Native American conception of God has been reinforced such as how some Native American tribes even talk about the Great Spirit's son was sent down from the sun to die for the people of earth; an obvious connection with Jesus Christ. Some Native American tribes even have the six cardinal rules which are very similar to the Ten Commandments.