The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions

caused myth to be regarded as “a wholly fictitious story” as the
Oxford English Dictionary puts it or, as in the standard French
Dictionary of Littre, “that which has no real existence.”
In the culture and literature of Indian America, the meaning of
myth may be discovered, not as speculation about primitive
long-dead ancestral societies but in terms of what is real, actual,
and viable in living cultures in America. Myth abounds in all of
its forms; from the most sacred stories to the most trivial, mythic
vision informs the prose and poetry of American Indians in the
United States as well as the rest of the Americas.
An American Indian myth is a story that relies preeminently on
symbol for its articulation. It generally relates a series of events
and uses supernatural, heroic figures as the agents of both the
events and the symbols. As a story, it demands the immediate,
direct participation of the listener.
American Indian myths depend for their magic on relationship
and participation. Detached, analytical, distanced observation of
myth will not allow the listener mythopoeic vision.
Consequently, these myths cannot be understood more than
peripherally by the adding-machine mind; for when a myth is
removed from its special and necessary context, it is no longer
myth; it is a dead or dying curiosity. It is akin, in that state, to the
postcard depictions of American Indian people that abound in
the southwestern United States.
Only a participant in mythic magic can relate to the myth, can
enter into its meaning on its own terms. This is not to say that
only a devout Oglala can comprehend the Myth of White Buffalo
Woman or that only a practicing Cheyenne can comprehend the
presence of Sweet Medicine. It does mean that only those who
experientially accept the nonmaterial or nonordinary reality of
existence can hope to comprehend either figure in their own
terms; all others are, of necessity, excluded.
I have said that an American Indian myth is a particular kind