When asked by an anthropologist what the Indians called America before the white man came, an Indian said simply, "Ours." - Vine Deloria, Jr.

Besides the importance of land and religion, the existence of a specific religion among a distinct group of people is probably a fundamental element of human experience.

The idea that religion was conceived as originally designed for a particular people relating to a specific god falls well within the experiences of the rest of humankind and may conceivably be considered a basic factor in the existence of religion.

The very conception of a Chosen People implies a lost religious ethnicity. Most likely religions do not in fact cross national and ethnic lines without losing their power and identity. It is probably more in the nature of things to have different groups with different religions