The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions

esult of defeat as well as of victory. The point was to gain the
attention of supernatural powers, who would then be prevailed
upon to give certain powers to the hero.
The Navajo have a ceremonial and an accompanying myth that
commemorate the gain of such a gift as the result of a battle with
some Pueblos. The hero in that tale is a woman who journeys to
the spirit world with Snake Man, where she is initiated by Snake
Man’s mother. After she has passed the tests provided for her
learning, she is given particular rites to take back to her people.
Along with this ceremonial, which is called Beautyway, is a
companion ceremonial, Mountainway. Its hero is a woman who
accompanies Bear Man into the spirit world and is also taught
and tested. Like the Beautyway hero, she returns with a chantway
or healing ceremony to give her people. In a more contemporary
version of these tales, the battle is World War II, and an even
later tale might be about Vietnam. The exact war is not
important. What is important is that from warfare comes certain
powers that benefit the people and that are gained by a hero who
encounters and transcends mortal danger.
So the hotchin is a medium for the regulation of external ritual
events, and the cacique is the medium through whom Iyatiku
guides, guards, and empowers her people and keeps them whole.
Each is responsible for maintaining the harmonious working of
the energies on which the entire existence of the people depends,
and they are necessarily men who must be careful how they use
the energies at their disposal.
III
As the power of woman is the center of the universe and is
both heart (womb) and thought (creativity), the power of the
Keres people is the corn that holds the thought of the All Power
(deity) and connects the people to that power through the heart of
Earth Woman, Iyatiku. She is the breath of life to the Keres