The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions

them; they act as town criers; they take part in the ceremonial
dance of the warriors (op’i)” (p. 286).
18. Boas writes, “The head religious officer, the so called
cacique, is called Tyi’amun’i ho:tc’am u nyo, the chief leader,
because he led the people from the place of Emergence. In tales
he is always called ho·tc’anyi ha’tcam’uy k’ayo·k’ai (chief
prayer stick holding), that is, ‘always remembering the prayer
sticks.’ (In the beginning I misheard k’ayo’ka for k’ayo’kai. The
former means ‘broken’). The cacique may belong to any clan.
The office has been extinct for a long time [at Laguna]. The last
caciques are still remembered … The cacique does no everyday
labor. He makes prayer-sticks, carries them up the hill near the
village, north, west, south, east in this order, and prays for the
people. He may not be a shaman but he must know how to pray.
He must be serious-minded and must not have a quick temper …
The people attend to the cacique’s field and the women cook for
him … In tales the cacique is the only one who is allowed to
make prayer-sticks for the katsina … In many cases he himself
appears as a town crier, giving notice to the people of his
orders” (pp. 288–289).
19. John M. Gunn, Schat Chen (Albuquerque, N. Mex.:
Albright and Anderson, 1917), p. 218.
20. Natalie Curtis, recorder and editor, The Indians’ Book:
Songs and Legends of the American Indians (New York:
Dover, 1950), p. 6.
21. Curtis, Indians’ Book, p. 4.
22. Curtis, Indians’ Book, p. 5.
23. Curtis, Indians’ Book, p. 6.
24. Matilda Coxe Stevenson, “The Sia,” Eleventh Annual
Report, 1889–90, Bureau of American Ethnology (Washington,
D.C., 1894), p. 39.
25. Sylvanus G. Morley and Delia Goetz, Popul Vuh: The
Sacred Book of the Ancient Quiche Maya, from the translation