The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions

carry mainly popular literature, with a few selections from the
next more powerful category. It would be well to mention, in this
connection, that the use of really sacred materials by ordinary
mortals and publishers is generally forbidden. Also, these works
do not make good classroom materials for a variety of reasons:
they are arcane; they are usually taboo; they tend to confuse non-
Indian students; they may cause resentment among Indian
students; and they create questions and digressions that are
usually beyond the competence of the teacher or of the academic
setting. Frequently they lead to ridicule, disrespect, and
belittlement; non-Indian students are not inclined by training or
culture to view the sacred as that which has power beyond that
of economics, history, or politics.
Underlying all their complexity, traditional American Indian
literatures possess a unity and harmony of symbol, structure, and
articulation that is peculiar to the American Indian world. This
harmony is based on the perceived harmony of the universe and
on thousands of years of refinement. This essential sense of unity
among all things flows like a clear stream through the songs and
stories of the peoples of the western hemisphere. This sense is
embodied in the words of an old man:
There are birds of many colors—red, blue, green, yellow—
yet it is all one bird. There are horses of many colors—
brown, black, yellow, white—yet it is all one horse. So
cattle, so all living things—animals, flowers, trees. So
men: in this land where once were only Indians are now
men of every color—white, black, yellow, red—yet all one
people. That this should come to pass was in the heart of
the Great Mystery. It is right thus. And everywhere there
shall be peace. 24
So Hiamove said, more than fifty years ago. It remains for
scholars of American Indian literature to look at this literature