Most tribes also believed that the journey might be long, so afterlife rituals were performed to ensure that the spirits would not continue to roam the earth.

Other tribes, particularly in the Southwest, have retained their aboriginal traditions, mostly intact.Дeath Ceremonies вЂ“ Native Americans celebrated death, knowing that it was an end to life on Earth, but, believing it to be the start of life in the Spirit World. Some Native Americans have been devout Christians for generations, and their practices today combine their traditional customs with Christian elements. Though some traditions were lost along the way, many others survived despite the ban, and various tribes continue to follow many spiritual traditions. Cavalry, was sent into the Lakota SiouxвЂ™s Pine Ridge and Rosebud Reservations to stop the dance and arrest the participants, approximately 150 Native American men, women, and children were killed. These attempts to suppress the traditions of Native Americans eventually led to the Massacre at Wounded Knee on December 29, 1890, when the government attempted to stop the practice of the вЂњ Ghost Dance,вЂќ a far-reaching movement that prophesied a peaceful end to white American expansion and preached goals of clean living, an honest life, and cross-cultural cooperation by Native Americans. вЂњвЂ¦there is no good reason why an Indian should be permitted to indulge in practices which are alike repugnant to common decency and morality and the preservation of good order on the reservations demands that some active measures should be taken to discourage and, if possible, put a stop to the demoralizing influence of heathenish rites.вЂќ

Teller ordered an end to all вЂњheathenish dances and ceremoniesвЂќ on reservations due to their вЂњgreat hindrance to civilization.вЂќ This was further supported the following year by Hiram Price, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, when his 1883 report stated: Federal Government began to work towards banning Native American Religious Rights, which impacted their ceremonies. This also changed their spiritual traditions and when, in 1882, the U.S. These early missionaries then determined to convert the Native Americans to Christianity.ДЄs more and more Europeans flooded North America, US and Canadian governments instituted policies to force Natives onto reservations and to encourage them to become assimilated into the majority culture. Some of the first Europeans that the Indians would meet were often missionaries who looked upon Native American Spirituality practices as worthless superstition inspired by the Christian devil. The arrival of European settlers marked a major change in Native American culture.

Man of the house rain dance