The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions

approach reveals not only the exploitation and oppression of the
tribes by whites and white government but also areas of
oppression within the tribes and the sources and nature of that
oppression. To a large extent, such an analysis can provide
strategies for ameliorating the effects of patriarchal colonialism,
enabling many of the tribes to reclaim their ancient gynarchical, *
egalitarian, and sacred traditions.
At the present time, American Indians in general are not
comfortable with feminist analysis or action within the
reservation or urban Indian enclaves. Many Indian women are
uncomfortable with feminism because they perceive it
(correctly) as white-dominated. They (not so correctly) believe
it is concerned with issues that have little bearing on their own
lives. They are also uncomfortable with it because they have
been reared in an anglophobic world that views white society
with fear and hostility. But because of their fear of and bitterness
toward whites and their consequent unwillingness to examine the
dynamics of white socialization, American Indian women often
overlook the central areas of damage done to tribal tradition by
white Christian and secular patriarchal dominance. Militant and
“progressive” American Indian men are even more likely to
quarrel with feminism; they have benefited in certain ways from
white male-centeredness, and while those benefits are of real
danger to the tribes, the individual rewards are compelling.
It is within the context of growing violence against women
and the concomitant lowering of our status among Native
Americans that I teach and write. Certainly I could not locate the
mechanisms of colonization that have led to the virulent rise of
woman-hating among American Indian men (and, to a certain
extent, among many of the women) without a secure and
determined feminism. Just as certainly, feminist theory applied
to my literary studies clarifies a number of issues for me,
including the patriarchal bias that has been systematically