When European colonists travelled to America, some assumed that the indigenous American peoples were irreligious heathens, as they didn’t seem to have special sacred places for religious worship, like temples or churches. They didn’t seem to pray or have any concept of a saviour or divine entity who controlled their lives or who required appeasement and worship. This is one of the reasons why the colonists were so keen to convert the natives to Christianity. They saw it as their duty to save the souls of heathens who were destined for hell.

However, those who spent time with the Indians and attempted to understand their culture realised that they had a very strong sense of the sacred — only they didn’t confine it to special buildings or beings. They saw the whole world as a sacred place. In the 19th century, the Christian missionary Reverend Stephen Riggs spent more than 40 years living with the Dakota (or Sioux, as they are also known). He learned their language and even produced a Dakota dictionary and grammar guide. To the Dakota, all nature, as he described it, was pervaded with a spiritual force, which they called taku wakan.

It comprehends all mystery, secret power, and divinity…All life is Wakan; so also is everything which exhibits power, whether in action, as the winds and drifting clouds; or in........

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