Native American Religion

Islam was founded to unite the tribes of Arabia, or atleast that was the result. I had an idea: what are the chances of at any point in early colonial type history, of some eccentric young Native American founding a monotheistic religion, as a way to unite the tribes and all that?

If that were to happen, what would the implications be?
 
The Arabs were a relatively cohesive ethnic group (with different dialects and sub-groups, yes, but still seeing themselves as "Arab"). The Native Americans, on the other hand, were emphatically not.
 
The Arabs were a relatively cohesive ethnic group (with different dialects and sub-groups, yes, but still seeing themselves as "Arab"). The Native Americans, on the other hand, were emphatically not.

It might not unite them into one big homogenous nation, but perhaps make them all a bit more peaceful, and also encourage unity between the common ethnic groups and the like.
 
It might not unite them into one big homogenous nation, but perhaps make them all a bit more peaceful, and also encourage unity between the common ethnic groups and the like.
Neither of which Islam seemed to have accomplished... I wouldn't call the Arabs peaceful while establishing a massive, cosmopolitan caliphate. And I wouldn't call them united (tribal divisions persisting to this day, not to mention countless religious divisions).
 
There were various religious revivals by native americans which did create widespread resistance against Europeans (Tecumseh's brother was a prophet), but they never created a large powerful religion. Most simply died out. Perhaps if there had been a marked succes of one, thsat held off the Europeans for a while that might work.
 
It might not unite them into one big homogenous nation, but perhaps make them all a bit more peaceful, and also encourage unity between the common ethnic groups and the like.

But how is this to be done when the Native Americans have such a plethora of languages and cultures? If tribe X doesn't even speak the language of tribe Y, just a few hundred miles away, it's not going to be easy to spread the Word to them. Contrast this to Islam where the message was intelligible to all the Arab tribes creating an initial critical mass of converts. It's going to be hard for any one tribe to do that in the Americas.
 
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There were various religious revivals by native americans which did create widespread resistance against Europeans (Tecumseh's brother was a prophet), but they never created a large powerful religion. Most simply died out. Perhaps if there had been a marked succes of one, thsat held off the Europeans for a while that might work.

The AH idea then is that a Native American religion succeeds in uniting various tribes and whatnot against the Europeans or something.
 

Keenir

Banned
Islam was founded to unite the tribes of Arabia, or atleast that was the result. I had an idea: what are the chances of at any point in early colonial type history, of some eccentric young Native American founding a monotheistic religion, as a way to unite the tribes and all that?

If that were to happen, what would the implications be?

you mean like the Chavin de Huantar civilization tried to do?

there were regular pilgrimages to and from there for centuries!
 
But how is this to be done when the Native Americans have such a plethora of languages and cultures? If tribe X doesn't even speak the language of tribe Y, just a few hundred miles away, it's not going to be easy to spread the Word to them. Contrast this to Islam where the message was intelligible to all the Arab tribes creating an initial critical mass of converts. It's going to be hard for any one tribe to do that in the Americas.
There were quite a few lingua francas across North America, Chinook Jargon, Plains Sign Language, and there were quite a few instances where numerous tribes did end up following one religious leader. They were then defeated and the religion fell apart.
 
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