The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions

other Indian women writers.
This Wilderness in My Blood: Carol
Lee Sanchez
One of the most problematic of Indian women writing today,
Carol Lee Sanchez (Laguna/Sioux) writes intellectually abstract,
direct, and often jarring poetry. She combines images, ideas, and
insights from a variety of sources without regard to western
categories. Her tone, posture, and point of view combine a wry
sense of humor with a directness of statement that is often very
disconcerting, and her work exhibits a marked disdain for
conventional lyric rhythm. Students of mine have remarked that
Sanchez is the most alien of Indian women writers and the most
Indian. On the surface, this observation might seem extreme, but
a closer examination of Sanchez’s work reveals its deep
connections to Laguna thought-styles and world-view.
Certainly Sanchez’s poetry has received the least notice of
those writers who have steadily produced work over a number
of years. While she has published three books, Conversations
from the Nightmare, Message Bringer Woman, and just recently
Excerpts from a Mountain Climber’s Handbook , she has
published very seldom in journals and magazines. Of the Indian
anthologies, her work has appeared only in The Remembered
Earth. My students believed that this lack of public recognition
is directly related to the fact that she does not use western forms
in her work. Indian poets are expected to write certain kinds of
poetry. Those who don’t are not widely published or read.
Sanchez, who is also an artist of considerable ability, was
raised first on the Laguna Reservation in the village of Paguate
where she ran freely through the village, a welcome guest in
whatever home she decided to visit. Later her family moved