The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions

communication with animals, plants, and nonphysical beings
(spirits, katsinas, goddesses, and gods), the compelling of the
will of another, and the stealing or storing of souls. Mythical
accounts from a number of sources illustrate the variety of forms
the uses of ritual power can take.
According to the Abanaki, First Woman, who came to live
with a spirit being named Kloskurbeh and his disciple, offered
to share her strength and comfort with them. Her offer was
accepted and she and the disciple of Kloskurbeh had many
children. All was well until a famine came. Then the children
were starving and First Woman was very sad. She went to her
husband and asked him to kill her so she could be happy again.
When he agreed, she instructed him to let two men lay hold of
her corpse after she was dead and drag her body through a
nearby field until all the flesh was worn away. Then, she said,
they should bury her bones in the middle of the field and leave
the field alone for seven months. After that time, they should
return to the field and gather the food they would find there and
eat all of it except for a portion that they should plant. The
bones, she said, would not be edible; they should burn them, and
the smoke would bring peace to them and their descendants.
As the tale is recorded in one source, the narrator continues.
Now have the first words of the first mother come to pass,
for she said she was born of the leaf of the beautiful plant
and that her power should be felt over the whole world,
and that all should love her. And now that she is gone into
this substance, take care that this, the second seed of the
first mother, be always with you, for it is her flesh. Her
bones also have been given for your good; burn them, and
the smoke will bring freshness to the mind, and since these
things came from the goodness of a woman’s heart, see that
you hold her always in memory; remember her when you
eat, remember her when the smoke of her bones rises