The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions

particular talent that human beings possess to greater or lesser
degree, and medicine is a term used for the personal force
through which one possesses power. Medicine is powerful in
itself, but its power can be used only by certain persons, under
certain conditions, and for certain purposes.
Ceremonial literature is sacred; it has power. It frequently
uses language of its own: archaisms, “meaningless” words, or
special words that are not used in everyday conversation. It can
be divided into several subcategories, some of which appear in
some tribes but not in others, and others that can be found
throughout Indian America. Ceremonial literature includes songs
for many occasions: healing; initiation; planting, harvesting, and
other agricultural pursuits; hunting; blessing new houses,
journeys, and undertakings. There are also dream-related songs;
war songs; personal power songs; songs for food preparation,
purification, and vision seeking. The subjects of the major
ceremonial cycles include origin and creation, migration,
celebration of new laws, and commemoration of legendary or
mythic occurrences. Each serves to hold the society together,
create harmony, restore balance, ensure prosperity and unity, and
establish right relations within the social and natural world. At
base the ceremonials restore the psychic unity of the people,
reaffirm the terms of their existence in the universe, and validate
their sense of reality, order, and propriety. The most central of
these perform this function at levels that are far more intense
than others, and these great ceremonies, more than any single
phenomenon, distinguish one tribe from another.
Every tribe has a responsibility to the workings of the
universe; today as yesterday, human beings play an intrinsic role
in the ongoing creation. This role is largely determined by the
place where the tribe lives, and the role changes when the tribe
moves. In the Southwest, for example, the Zuñi dance Shalako
every winter at the solstice so that the sun will turn in its course