The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions

and security in her bond with another woman because it was
perceived to be destined and nurtured by nonhuman entities, as
were all Indian pursuits, and was therefore acceptable and
respectable (albeit occasionally terrifying) to others in her tribe.
Spheres of influence and activity in American Indian cultures
were largely divided between the sexes: there were women—
goddesses, spirit-women, mothers, sisters, grandmothers,
aunties, shamans, healers, prophets, and daughters; and there
were men—gods, fathers, uncles, shamans, healers, diviners,
brothers, and sons. What went on in one group was often
unknown to the other.
There were points of confluence, of course, such as in matters
pertaining to mundane survival. Family-band-clan groups
interacted in living arrangements, in the procural or production
of food, weaponry, clothing, and living space, and in political
function. Men and women came together at certain times to
perform social and ceremonial rituals or to undertake massive
tasks such as hunts, harvests, or wars. They performed certain
reciprocal tasks for one another. But in terms of any real sense
of community, there were women and there were men.
Yet women who shared their lives with women did follow the
usual custom of marrying. The duration of marriage and the
bonding style of marriage differed among tribes. Many peoples
practiced serial monogamy; others acknowledged the marriage
bond but engaged in sexual activities outside of it. Women’s
adultery was not viewed with any particular alarm in most
tribes, although some tribes did severely punish a woman who
“transgressed” the marriage bonds, at least after they had some
contact with Christian religious concepts.
But overall women spent a great deal of time together, outside
the company of men. They had a whole array of women’s rituals,
only some of which were related to menstruation or
childbearing. Together they spent weeks in menstrual huts;