Native Americans have had a long history of resisting social and cultural assimilation into white culture. Employing various creative strategies, Native Americans attempted to cope with the changes resulting from the European colonial movement in the Americas. There are fundamental differences in worldviews and cultural and social orders between Indians and Europeans, which contributed to conservatism in Native American cultures. This article will examine two aspects of such cultural and institutional differences of Native American societies: holistic Native American beliefs versus dualistic worldviews, and harmony versus domination. These two aspects are important in explaining changes (or lack thereof) in Native American societies because they suggest that the Native American worldview is more cyclical and its components are interconnected, while Western societies have a clear demarcation between elements cultural, such as religion, kinship and morality. However, there are some limitations to the theoretical frameworks that explain conservatism in Indian cultures because these theories are oriented around the Western worldview and were developed based on Western terms; therefore, the indigenous population was not taken into account when these theories were developed. Duane Champagne in Social Change and Cultural Continuity Among Native Nations explains that there has never been a definitive worldview encompassing any Native American culture, as there is no such thing as a “native community” (2007:10) . However, there are some commonalities in the way of seeing and experiencing the world that many Native communities and their religions appear to share. One of the most important of...... middle of paper...... nature of Native American Society: Many Native American communities are not open to outsiders. There are consistent patterns or themes regarding the Native American worldview and differentiation of cultural elements and society. Native Americans maintained control of institutional and cultural orders against the assimilation effort because all aspects of Native American societies are interconnected, driven by broader cultural worldviews. Every cultural or institutional element is, in fact, superimposed on other elements, so the change in one element inevitably affects the broader cultural and social complex. While adaptation to a new environment and small changes were possible in the West, where social and cultural elements are separated from each other, Native Americans were faced with conflict and a potential, major disruption of existing social orders..