The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions

lands. One of the women, identified as Vera, said: “You know,
for such a long long time our men struggled and struggled, and
things got worse. Then the grandmothers and mothers decided
that now we must intervene! Among our people we have a
tradition that the women make the decisions. Later we can go
back to taking care of our children.” Another woman, Judalon,
continued: “The government corrupted our leaders and it took
the women to realize it.” The third woman, Dinah, added,
“They’ve turned our men around the way they want them, so that
they have lost their direction and no longer know where they
should be going.”
The interviewer asked the women why they sound like they
want to “step back” to taking care of the children when German
women are struggling to do more than housework and
childrearing. German women “want to be able to participate in
public decisions,” the interviewer said. Judalon explained that
Native American women have always participated in public
decisions.
For example, in my mother’s tribe, the Mohawks, the
women made all the decisions. In the Longhouse the clan
mothers would gather and sit on one side. The chiefs would
sit on the other side. On the other two sides, the rest of the
people would sit and the current problem would be
discussed. The clan mothers would decide what should
happen, but the men would speak for them. The men never
made decisions. It was that way in the tribe and also in a
clan’s household. The women were responsible and made
the decisions.
Everything has changed since we’ve had contact with the
Europeans. First, our leaders were brainwashed. They
became vain and thought that they alone could decide things
… Today many Indian men behave like European men.