The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions

helpless, many native families have borrowed one of the most
horrifying aspects of Anglo-European culture, the abuse of
children. Partly as a consequence of enforced poverty and
despair, partly because millions of Indian people were educated
in boarding schools—run by churches and the U.S. government
under the auspices of the Bureau of Indian Affairs—wherein
serious sexual and other kinds of physical abuse, neglect,
terrorization, starvation, and humiliation were the order of the
day, men and women of this century have treated their children
as they themselves were treated. The horror has continued into
the present, often spanning several generations, causing intense
personal suffering and deepening the devastation of tribal life.
But we are taking charge of this greatest shame, as the people
return to the older ways of gentleness, honor, respect, dignity,
and the primary importance of relationship.
What is happening in Indian country as we begin our new life,
which dates from late summer 1987 when the Grandmothers
returned, is more than recovery, more than restoration; it is
nothing less than the affirmation of tribal values, tribal thought,
and tribal understandings. Everywhere voices are being raised
on behalf of peace, freedom, and dignity; the increasing respect
for the rights of our nonhuman relatives, plants and animals
alike; the new dedication to restoring the entire planet; and the
new findings of the advanced sciences, which resemble more
and more the old understandings of the nature of life and the
universe; all these bear witness to something sacred happening.
Worldwide interest in and attention to the wisdom of the “First
Peoples” grows apace, while the walls of tyranny come down
and the Goddess of Democracy rules briefly in Tiananmen
Square. In a North American harbor, the Lady of Liberty is
restored to her pristine condition, and reports of sightings of the
Virgin, her Son, Spirits, and Extraterrestrials fill news reports
and convention halls.