The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions

Saint Plumero Bigfoot. A total innocent whose lust knows no
bounds, Bigfoot responds to death and danger with whatever
sexual activity occurs to him. Like the Winnebago Trickster
Wenebejo, Bigfoot is graced with an oversized penis (which
matches his oversized feet) named “president jackson.” As with
Trickster, Bigfoot suffers most of his grief because of his penis,
and again like Trickster, Bigfoot and his penis are immortal. The
night after his murder he is still alive, though not in the flesh, and
spends the night tumbling joyously with Rosina, the bear-shaman
Cedarfair’s wife, in her dreams.
Because Bearheart is written in the trickster-clown mode,
much of the novel is offensive, however one looks at it. Vizenor
leaves no icon unbroken in his mad pursuit of primordial
balance. Like the sacred clowns of the Pueblos, he suggests that
nothing is sacred, and with them he walks us backward through a
futuristic scenario into the ancient past of the earth. Cedarfair
and the stranger become bears, and with a “haa ha haa” they
enter the fourth world, leaving us to contemplate ourselves in
their absence.
Paula Gunn Allen: Generation,
Regeneration, and Continuance
And they will take you by the hands and lead you
forward into the dark that will seem as bright as day.
They will take you to the heart of midnight, the heart of
the sun. They will charm your heart away.
—Paula Gunn Allen,
The Woman Who Owned the Shadows
My own novel, The Woman Who Owned the Shadows (1983),
looks specifically to women’s traditions for its ritual