The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions

had made that fact quite plain to her. The kind of cultural
chauvinism that has been promulgated by well-intentioned but
culturally entranced feminists can lead to serious
misunderstandings such as this and in the process become a new
racism based on what becomes the feminist canon. Not that
feminists can be faulted entirely on this—they are, after all,
reflecting the research and interpretation done in a patriarchal
context, by male-biased researchers and scholars, most of whom
would avidly support the young radical feminist’s strenuous
position. It’s too bad, though, that feminists fall into the
patriarchal trap!
7. For a detailed exposition of what this dynamic consists of,
see Adrienne Rich, “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian
Existence,” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society ,
vol. 5, no. 4 (Summer 1980). Reprinted in 1982 as a pamphlet
with an updated forward, Antelope Publications, 1612 St. Paul,
Denver, CO 80206.
8. Elaine Jahner, a specialist in Lakota language and oral
literature, has suggested that the western obsession with western
plot in narrative structure led early informant George Sword to
construct narratives in the western fashion and tell them as
Lakota traditional stories. Research has shown that Sword’s
stories are not recognized as Lakota traditional stories by
Lakotas themselves; but the tribal narratives that are so
recognized are loosely structured and do not exhibit the reliance
on central theme or character that is so dear to the hearts of
western collectors. As time has gone by, the Sword stories have
become a sort of model for later Lakota storytellers who, out of
a desire to convey the tribal tales to western collectors have
changed the old structures to ones more pleasing to American
and European ears. Personal conversations with Elaine Jahner.
Education in western schools, exposure to mass media, and
the need to function in a white-dominated world have subtly but