Is there any evidence of religious tolerance in Native American culture?

by UshouldB
constantandtrue

I agree with /u/soulsatzero that some elaboration on this would be helpful - during which time period, and what region, are you specifically considering this question?

For instance, in the post-contact Northwest, there is a lot of evidence of religious tolerance among Indigenous peoples, some of whom readily adopted Christian beliefs or began mixing them with their community's spiritual perspectives. A fascinating account of this is found in Susan Neylan's The Heavens are Changing, especially the chapter on Arthur Wellington Clah, a Tsimshian man who became a Christian evangelist. His dealings with the local missionaries show that while he was quite tolerant of a diversity of spiritual approaches to both Christianity and Tsimshian cosmology, the missionaries of course weren't.

If you can specify a little bit as to location and era, I am sure you'll get more responses.

On a bit of a meta note, I disagree that /r/AskAnthropology would be a more appropriate place for this kind of question. I imagine anthropologists would definitely also be able to respond to this, but historians definitely can too. We get into problematic territory pretty quickly if we divert questions about Indigenous culture to anthropologists - it's like saying Indigenous communities don't have a place in historical studies.

soulsatzero

You might want to elaborate a little. Also, /r/AskAnthropology would probably be more appropriate.