The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions

Acknowledgments
A volume of this sort, compiled from years of study,
observation, learning, writing, talking, and thinking, owes much
to many.
First honoring must go to my mother, ’Tu’u-we’tsa, whose
interest and support of my writings and wanderings have been
essential. Her Dial-A-Dictionary service to me has been
invaluable, and her willingness to play host to the colleagues
I’ve brought to visit over the years has been unfailing. As my
chief archivist—who unlike myself doesn’t lose things I’ve
written—her significance in this undertaking has been
incalculable. Her life, her cast of mind, and her ways have
provided me with the insights and experience of strong women,
Indian women, on which these essays are based.
To my father, cowboy, merchant, trader, steadfast friend and
benefactor, and Lebanese storyteller supreme, who has spent
hours teaching me how to string magic, memory, and observation
into tales of life, honoring also goes.
Among the many women whose conversation, support,
encouragement, editorial assistance, shared ideas, and
willingness to publish, read, respond to, and promote the work
that appears in this volume, to share our discoveries, uncoveries,
recoveries, the hair-raising adventures of childrearing, career
building, and super-womanhood, I want particularly to thank my
sister in blood and enterprise Carol Lee Sanchez; my friend
Patricia Clark Smith, who as staunch and erudite dissertation
chair is responsible for long conversations, editing, and the
encouragement that led me to write my first three essays in