The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions

constitutes his declaration of his ritual intention and his ritual
relationship to Kochinnenako.
Agency is Kochinnenako’s ritual role here; it is through her
ritual agency that the orderly, harmonious transfer of primacy
between the Summer and Winter people is accomplished. This
transfer takes place at the time of the year that Winter goes north
and Summer comes to the pueblo from the south, the time when
the sun moves north along the line it makes with the edge of the
sun’s house as ascertained by the hocheni calendar keeper who
determines the proper solar and astronomical times for various
ceremonies. Thus, in the proper time, Kochinnenako empowers
Summer to enter the village. Kochinnenako’s careful observance
of the ritual requirements together with the proper conduct of her
sisters, her mother, the priests (symbolized by the title
Hutchamun Kiuk, whom Gunn identifies as the ruler and Yellow
Woman’s father, though he could as properly—more properly,
actually—be called her mother), the animals and birds, the
weather, and the people at last brings summer to the village,
ending the winter and the famine that accompanies winter’s end.
A feminist who is conscious of tribal thought and practice
will know that the real story of Sh-ah-cock and Miochin
underscores the central role that woman plays in the orderly life
of the people. Reading Gunn’s version, she will be aware of the
vast gulf between the Lagunas and John Gunn in their
understanding of the role of women in a traditional gynecentric
society such as that of the western Keres. Knowing that the
central role of woman is harmonizing spiritual relationships
between the people and the rest of the universe by empowering
ritual activities, she will be able to read the story for its western
colonial content, aware that Gunn’s version reveals more about
American consciousness when it meets tribal thought than it
reveals about the tribe. When the story is analyzed within the
context to which it rightly belongs, its feminist content becomes