Many contemporary popular works and even some scholarly publications dealing with indigenous populations of the New World present native peoples as hapless victims of European expansionism that were incapable of dealing with the continuous encroachment of white settlers on their homelands. This particular perspective negates the agency of Native Americans, most specifically, their ability to adapt to changing circumstances and to influence the re-shaping of the world around them. There are many examples of native armed resistance to colonial expansion. However, indigenous leaders also employed a number of non-combat resistance strategies designed to foster the retention of tribal political organization and economic systems. Conversion to Christianity can be seen as one such survival strategy, which at times was largely successful. However, it also challenged the established Native American identity to some extent, changing it in many ways. Some groups, for example, transformed themselves into “praying Indians” who converted to Christianity in an attempt to establish a footing in colonial society, preserving a political and cultural unity independent from the colonists, but at the cost of giving up many aspects of traditional culture. Later conversions and new emergent syncretic religious movements became a powerful source of preserving a separate Native identity while adapting to changes in the colonial world. This presentation examines religious conversions in colonial North America as a political survival strategy and its relation to changing Native American identities throughout the XVII-XVIII centuries and seeks to demonstrate that Native Americans were not passive victims of circumstances but rather active participants in the colonial encounter. Native resistance strategies, including conversion to Christianity, were well thought out and successful, at least in the short term, and converting to a new religion often serve as a powerful tool of preserving and strengthening the collective identity in adverse circumstances.
