The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions

historical, cultural, and political. In that change can be seen the
history of patriarchy on this continent and, by extension, all over
the world. As American Indian women emerge from the
patriarchally imposed ignominy of the past centuries, the falsity
of all the colonizers’ stories about Native Americans, about
spirituality, gayness, and femaleness, becomes increasingly
apparent. And as we articulate a feminine analysis of the effects
of colonization, we are more and more able to demonstrate that
the colonizers’ image of Indian women has, more than any other
factor, led to the high incidence of rape and abuse of Indian
women by Indian men. This violent behavior is tacitly approved
of by the tribes through the refusal of tribal governments across
the country and in urban Indian enclaves to address the issue and
provide care, shelter, and relief for the women victims and
competent, useful treatment for the offenders. The white and
recently Indian image of powerful Indian women as traitors is
another chapter in the patriarchal folktale that begins with Eve
causing Adam’s fall from grace into divine disgrace.
Women as Healers, Dreamers, and
Shamans
I met Essie Parrish on a field trip with my students to the
Kashia Pomo reservation at Stewart’s Point, California, in 1974.
The next year I met and heard a lecture by the Pomo dreamer and
basketmaker Mabel McCabe. The teachings of these two women
provide clear information about the ancient ritual power of
Indian women.
Mrs. McCabe spoke about the meaning of having a tradition,
about how a woman becomes a basketmaker among her people
—a process that is guided entirely by a spirit-teacher when the
woman is of the proper age. It is not transmitted to her through