Candomble and Umbanda Declared Not Religions by Brazilian Judge!

[okasha]

5. Give this judge a prize for outstanding stupidity

and exemplary ignorance.

As TM99 points out, indigenous religions are passed down orally from the elders to the next generation. There is neither a text nor a need for a text. (Only exceptions I can think of at the moment are the urbanized Meso-American civilizations.) Again with those same exceptions, hierarchy was very limited. A people followed a Medicine Chief--or a War Chief or Peace Chief--exactly as long as s/he was effective. My people have a story about a priestly caste, the Ani Kutani, who attempted to exert control over the whole society. The people rose up and killed them all when the Ani Kutani attempted to subjugate the Cherokee women.

Indigenous peoples also have liturgies and a wide-ranging variety of gods and other spirits who are honored and invoked.