The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions

and are so painted at death so that the guardian at the gate of the
spirit world, Naiya Iyatiku (Mother Corn Woman), will
recognize that the newly arrived person is a woman. It is also the
name of a particular Irriaku, Corn Mother (sacred corn-ear
bundle), and Yellow Woman stories in their original form detail
rituals in which the Irriaku figures prominently.
Yellow Woman stories are about all sorts of things—
abduction, meeting with happy powerful spirits, birth of twins,
getting power from the spirit worlds and returning it to the
people, refusing to marry, weaving, grinding corn, getting water,
outsmarting witches, eluding or escaping from malintentioned
spirits, and more. Yellow Woman’s sisters are often in the
stories (Blue, White, and Red Corn) as is Grandmother Spider
and her helper Spider Boy, the Sun God or one of his aspects,
Yellow Woman’s twin sons, witches, magicians, gamblers, and
mothers-in-law.
Many Yellow Woman tales highlight her alienation from the
people: she lives with her grandmother at the edge of the village,
for example, or she is in some way atypical, maybe a woman
who refuses to marry, one who is known for some particular
special talent, or one who is very quick-witted and resourceful.
In many ways Kochinnenako is a role model, though she
possesses some behaviors that are not likely to occur in many of
the women who hear her stories. She is, one might say, the Spirit
of Woman.
The stories do not necessarily imply that difference is
punishable; on the contrary, it is often her very difference that
makes her special adventures possible, and these adventures
often have happy outcomes for Kochinnenako and for her people.
This is significant among a people who value conformity and
propriety above almost anything. It suggests that the behavior of
women, at least at certain times or under certain circumstances,
must be improper or nonconformist for the greater good of the