The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions

There is an old tradition among numerous tribes of a twosided,
complementary social structure. In the American
Southeast this tradition was worked out in terms of the red chief
and the white chief, positions held by women and by men and
corresponding to internal affairs and external affairs. They were
both spiritual and ritualistic, but the white chief or internal chief
functioned in harmony-effective ways. This chief maintained
peace and harmony among the people of the band, village, or
tribe and administered domestic affairs. The red chief, also
known as the war chief, presided over relations with other tribes
and officiated over events that took people away from the
village. Among the Pueblo of the American Southwest are two
notable traditional offices: that of the cacique (a Spanish term
for the Tiamuni Hotchin or traditional leader), who was charged
with maintaining internal harmony, and that of the hotchin or
“war captain,” whose office was concerned with mediating
between the tribe and outsiders, implementing foreign policy,
and, if necessary, calling for defensive or retaliatory forays.
This hotchin, whose title is usually translated “country chief” or
“outside chief,” was first authorized by Iyatiku when she still
lived among the people. 13 At that time there was no “inside”
chief other than the Mother herself and the clan mothers whom
she instructed in the proper ritual ways as each clan came into
being. Since Iyatiku was in residence, an inside chief or cacique
was unnecessary. The present-day caciques continue even now
to act as her representatives and gain their power directly from
her. 14
Thus the Pueblos are organized—as are most gynocratic tribes
—into a moiety system (as anthropologists dub it) that reflects
their understanding of ritual empowerment as dialogic. This
dyadic structure, which emphasizes complementarity rather than
opposition, is analogous to the external fire/internal fire
relationship of sun and earth. That is, the core/womb of the earth