The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions

impeach or disempower a Matron, though her violation of
certain laws could result in her ineligibility for the Matron’s
council. For example, a woman who married and took her
husband’s name could not hold the title Matron.
American ideas of social justice came into sharp focus
through the commentaries of Iroquois observers who traveled in
France in the colonial period. These observers expressed horror
at the great gap between the lifestyles of the wealthy and the
poor, remarking to the French philosopher Montaigne, who
would heavily influence the radical communities of Europe,
England, and America, that “they had noticed that in Europe
there seemed to be two moities, consisting of the rich ‘full
gorged’ with wealth, and the poor, starving ‘and bare with need
and povertie.’ The Indian tourists not only marveled at the
division, but marveled that the poor endured ‘such an injustice,
and that they took not the others by the throte, or set fire on their
house.’” 8 It must be noted that the urban poor eventually did just
that in the French Revolution. The writings of Montaigne and of
those he influenced provided the theoretical framework and the
vision that propelled the struggle for liberty, justice, and equality
on the Continent and later throughout the British empire.
The feminist idea of power as it ideally accrues to women
stems from tribal sources. The central importance of the clan
Matrons in the formulation and determination of domestic and
foreign policy as well as in their primary role in the ritual and
ceremonial life of their respective Nations was the single most
important attribute of the Iroquois, as of the Cherokee and
Muskogee, who traditionally inhabited the southern Atlantic
region. The latter peoples were removed to what is now
Oklahoma during the Jackson administration, but prior to the
American Revolution they had regular and frequent
communication with and impact on both the British colonizers
and later the American people, including the African peoples