In the little part of the world where I grew up--North San Francisco Bay Area--there was once not so long ago, maybe 150 years or so ago, some Native Americans with religions of their own, just as good--or maybe even better--than Christianity and cultures that suited the land. Groups of Coastal Miwok, Suisunes, other Patwins, and Karkins.
Between the Franciscan missions, the Spanish/Mexican governors, the Gold Rush, statehood and its politics, smallpox, and good old greed for land, you'd never have a clue. The few from these small Native American groups who didn't die were shipped off or ran far from the new and European civilization. Nobody was left to ask about their indigenous religion or their indigenous culture.
I couldn't have poached it, no matter how much I tried.
The only Native American from my little part of the world I ever met was a bronze statue of the Suisune Chief Solano, Sem-Yato.
A photograph of the statue, sculpted by William Gordon Huff, may be viewed on CaliSphere:
http://content.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/hb3f59n88k/?layout=metadata&brand=calisphere
Solano County Seal from:
http://www.abag.ca.gov/bayarea/grass/solano/seal.gif
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