Great Spirit

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The Great Spirit is a conception of a supreme being prevalent among Native American and First Nations cultures. Also called The Creator, or The Great Maker in English and Gitchi Manitou in Algonquian, the Great Spirit was a syncretist conception of God.

The Great Spirit is personal, close to the people, and immanent in the fabric of the material world. He ruled the Happy hunting ground, a place similar to Heaven. Chief Dan Evehema, a spiritual leader of the Hopi Nation, described the Great Spirit as follows:

"To the Hopi, the Great Spirit is all powerful. He taught us how to live, to worship, where to go and what food to carry, gave us seeds to plant and harvest. He gave us a set of sacred stone tablets into which he breathed all teachings in order to safeguard his land and life. In these stone tablets were inscribed instructions, prophecies and warnings."

The Great Spirit is generally considered equivalent in description to God of the main monotheistic religions (such as Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Sikhism). These main religions often describe a being who is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-loving when he/she chooses to be. They believe that God speaks through human intermediaries and issues spiritual laws that human beings are to follow, and an afterlife is promised. However the Great Spirit differs in that his pantheistic nature is especially emphasised; he is embodied in everything. This more closely resembles the Hindu conception of the divine. (Nothing here contains footnotes, citations, or references)