Native American religions

Navajo men dressed as Tó Neinilii, Tobadzischini, Nayenezgani, 1904 (top), the Medicine Wheel in Bighorn National Forest, Wyoming (middle), and the Maya El Castillo Temple in Yucatán, between the 8th and 12th centuries (bottom)

Native American religions, Native American faith or American Indian religions are the indigenous spiritual practices of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. Ceremonial ways can vary widely and are based on the differing histories and beliefs of individual nations, tribes and bands. Early European explorers describe individual Native American tribes and even small bands as each having their own religious practices. Theology may be monotheistic, polytheistic, henotheistic, animistic, shamanistic, pantheistic or any combination thereof, among others. Traditional beliefs are usually passed down in the oral tradition forms of myths, oral histories, stories, allegories, and principles. Nowadays, as scholars note, many American Natives are having a renewed interest in their own traditions.