Great Spirit

[7] The Great Spirit has at times been conceptualized as an "anthropomorphic celestial deity,"[8] a god of creation, history and eternity,[9] who also takes a personal interest in world affairs and might regularly intervene in the lives of human beings.

[8] Numerous individuals are held to have been "speakers" for the Great Spirit; persons believed to serve as an earthly mediator responsible for facilitating communication between humans and the supernatural more generally.

[citation needed] Wakan Tanka (Wakȟáŋ Tȟáŋka) can be interpreted as the power or the sacredness that resides in everything, resembling some animistic and pantheistic beliefs.

[12] Prior to the Christianization of indigenous Americans by European settlers and missionaries, the Lakota used Wakan Tanka to refer to an organization or group of sacred entities whose ways were considered mysterious and beyond human understanding.

[11] Chief Luther Standing Bear (1868–1939) of the Lakota Nation put it thus: Manitou, akin to the Haudenosaunee concept of orenda, is perceived as the spiritual and fundamental life force by Algonquian peoples.

According to Anishinaabe tradition, Michilimackinac, later named by European settlers as Mackinac Island, in Michigan, was the home of Gitche Manitou, and some Anishinaabeg tribes would make pilgrimages there for rituals devoted to the spirit.

[18] The doctrine regarding the great spirit within this modern tradition is quite varied and generally takes on Christian ideas of a monotheistic God alongside animistic conceptions.