The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions

American novelists’ use of ritual traditions; the Night Chant,
from which Momaday draws heavily, does indeed exist and is
practiced in Navajo country. The vision quest or “crying for
pity” ritual from which James Welch draws for the structure and
significance of both of his novels is currently practiced in much
the same way it was practiced centuries ago.
Postmodern and experimental fiction writers often appear to
disregard classic Western literary conventions, but they
implicitly recognize them all the same. Native Americans reared
in the oral tribal tradition, however, are not ignoring or
“experimenting” with accepted conventions when they do not
follow western structural conventions. Indeed, when they write
within the conventions of the (Western) tradition from which
James Joyce departs, they are being as experimental as he was
when he wrote Finnegans Wake.
American Indian novelists who write more or less
chronological narratives centered on Indian themes and adapt
ritual narrative structures to the western convention of conflict
resolution based on the unities of location, time, and action are
very daring indeed. Those who follow western theme and plot
conventions find themselves restricted to stories that center on
loss of identity, loss of cultural self-determination, genocide or
deicide, and culture clash. Perhaps as a result of following
western literary imperatives, most writers of Indian novels
create mixed-blood or half-breed protagonists, treating the theme
of cultural conflict by incorporating it into the psychological and
social being of the characters.
But at least since the publication of Cogewea, the Half-Blood
by Okanogan/Coleville writer Mourning Dove (Humishuma) in
1927, this acquiescence to western publishing tastes is offset by
a counterdevice. The protagonists are also participants in a
ritual tradition, symbolizing the essential unity of a human
being’s psyche in spite of conflict. This development implies