"Consider how textbooks treat Native religions as a unitary whole. The American Way describes Native..."

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Consider how textbooks treat Native religions as a unitary whole. The American Way describes Native American religion in these words: ‘These Native Americans [in the Southeast] believed that nature was filled with spirits. Each form of life, such as plants and animals, had a spirit. Earth and air held spirits too. People were never alone. They shared their lives with the spirits of nature.’

Way is trying to show respect for Native American religion, but it doesn’t work. Stated flatly like t...