The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions

local native women seeks to identify native people who fled
white persecution under the vicious Removal Act and settled in
the north in the early nineteenth century. In the Virginia and West
Virginia hills, these refugees survived by passing as white or
black. The activists intend to petition for federal recognition of a
northern band of Eastern Cherokee based on a count and history
of these hidden Indians.
Our impressive recovery notwithstanding, as the Americas
mark the five hundredth anniversary of the landing of Columbus,
a variety of educational institutions and art and media groups are
involved in “rethinking” the Columbian revolution, exploring the
event as a not unmixed blessing. To many, portrayal of Indian
people as victims, pure and simple, is the most compelling part
of the contact story. There is a widespread belief that we, Native
American and nonnative alike, have nothing to celebrate. All too
many believe we should give forth with great trills of mourning.
But it is of utmost importance to our continuing recovery that we
recognize our astonishing survival against all odds; that we
congratulate ourselves and are congratulated by our fellow
Americans for our amazing ability to endure, recover, restore
our ancient values and life ways, and then blossom. Indeed, there
are many among us who realize the necessity of celebration of
native life this year especially. I heard the Navajo poet Luci
Tapahonso read the following during the 1991 Modern Language
Association’s annual convention:
I am, I am
In wisdom I walk
In beauty may I walk …
In beauty it is restored.
The light, the dawn.
It is morning.