The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions

of dreaming—that is, she en-livens them. Actually, the power of
giving physical birth is a consequence of the power of giving
nonmaterial or, you might say, “astral” birth.
The Dreamer, then, is the center of psychic/spiritual unity of
the people. She is the center, the hub of the wheel. It is by virtue
of her gift, her ability, that the people live and are a people,
connected to one another in ways more than mere language,
culture, or proximity can assure.
The life force that is passed to the Dreamer from the
nonmaterial planes is embodied in songs, dances, ritual objects,
and garments that the women make. The songs are sung by the
Dreamer or sometimes by the dancers. The drums or other
accompaniment are played by men. In many tribes the singing is
done only by men, corresponding, I think, to the Mohawk male
function of speaker or agent of the women’s decisions. In such
dream systems, among them the Iroquois, the Pomo, the Maya,
the Mohave, and many other Nations, decisions are made in
ritual ways. That is, their rituals, customs, social institutions,
foodstuffs, healing materials and methods, their “magic” or
paranormal competencies, architecture, agriculture (or
horticulture), land use, water use, food production methods,
relationships to animals, plants, mountains, clouds, rain,
lightning, thunder, earthquakes—anything and everything—come
to them through dreams or vision-based concourse with the
world of the spirit people, the divinities and deities, the
Grandmothers, and the other exotic powers.
Even among Plains people, long considered the most maleoriented
Indians, at least by the media and its precursors in
popular culture, power was and is gained, accrued, mediated,
and dispensed only through the grace and beneficence of female
influence. Thus the Kiowa take their tribal realization, their
psychic commonality, from their sacred Grandmother bundles;
the Sioux and other Sun Dance people perform their rites (which