The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions

of women in native life across the continent. Often the evidence
is offered by Indian men from different tribes and different
regions. While their reports might be contemporary or historical,
they reinforce the central thesis of The Sacred Hoop. It seems
that gynocracy is a well-advanced social system among all the
tribes, and while it falls ever more into disrepute and ignominy
as progressive modernism makes its ugly inroads into native life,
it simultaneously takes on new life, appearing in new guise and
revealing its uncommon tenacity. Wilma Mankiller, principal
chief of the Cherokee, is a case in point, one—albeit the best
known—of many. The appearance of this decade’s wealth of
literature, art, and scholarship by Native American women is
another welcome sign of our coming spring.
A further development in Indian country that raises my heart
from the ground is the recent concerted effort of Indian judges,
lawyers, and social workers to address honestly the issues of
child welfare. The Indian Child Welfare Act provides for
approval of adopting parents of native children by that child’s
tribe of origin. This legislation aims to prevent unnecessary
diminishment of Indian populations and to help adopted
youngsters—who will always remain something of outsiders to
white culture as long as they look, think, or act like Indians—to
find a place where they will be secure and recognized as part of
a group much like themselves. In those cases that have come to
public attention, the courts, the adopting parents, and the tribe
have usually agreed on a course that will bring the child into
frequent contact with on-reservation relatives, even when the
adopting family has been non-Indian or from a different tribal
community.
The other serious child welfare issue that many Indian
community leaders and those in helping professions are
determined to address is child abuse. Once a people who would
never countenance terrorization, abuse, or neglect of the