This chapter discusses Native American religions in the twentieth century and major figures and themes including: the Pueblo Dance Controversy, the Indian New Deal, John Collier and the restructuring of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Native American Church, Native American Pentecostalism, the American Indian Movement, the work of Vine Deloria Jr., the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act, issues surrounding sacred land, and the court case of Employment Division v. Smith. In recent years, the study of native religions shifted from being understood in white “Western” terms to something now studied from the native point of view. Scholarship has shifted toward privileging native understandings of sovereignty, political engagement, sexuality, space, land, time, and religious belief. Despite the fact that their religious freedoms were rarely protected, native peoples found new ways to defend against white encroachment on their sacred traditions and made their voices heard within traditionally white institutions of power.
