This article examines the contemporary foundations of authority in Algonquian communities in Quebec, by analyzing the regulation of conflicts outside the context of the criminal justice system. Who settles disputes, soothes dissension and restores order? How does a person acquire such power? Based on data collected during various ethnographic studies (situated in their historical contexts), I argue that the mobilization of religions or those who preach them – and in particular, pan-Indian spirituality – play an important role in finding common ground between disputing parties. To understand this phenomenon, I hypothesize that this spirituality, even if not unanimously accepted in communities, offers an explanatory ideology on the origin of conflicts, and as such provides an effective framework for reconciliation. Religion is perhaps not always the opium of the people, but sometimes it may be a way to detoxify...