history of religion in America

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The Native Americans were organized into hundreds of different tribes and kingdoms, many of which were completely unrelated to each other. There was no single overreaching religion. What a Sioux believed would have been very different from an Inuit, which in turn would have been completely different than an Aztec. So there was no single big religion.

For example, Inuit had gods related to their game animals (they are primarily hunters). They also believed in souls which persist after death, even in their game animals.

The Siouxan peoples (farmers who supplemented with hunting) instead believed in a single unified spirit inherent in everything, even inanimate objects like rocks. The best way of thinking of it is similar to The Force in Star Wars. The name varies a smidge by language, but its usually something similar to "Wakonda". I believe the technical word for this kind of belief system is Pantheism.

The Aztecs had a proper polytheistic pantheon.

That being said, Pantheisim was fairly widespread, just not universal. Instead of "Wakonda", the Algonquins called it "Kitchie Manitou", and the Aztecs "Teotl". All three equated the name with something like "Great Mystery".

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