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. 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 identical in description to God of the main Monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam). Both descriptions give a being who is all-powerful, knowing, loving and mysterious when he chooses to be. Both speak through human intermidiaries and have their own laws for which man is to follow. An afterlife is promised by both. Interpreted in this way, is could be concluded that he is the same God of the major monotheistic religions.

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