The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions

In Zia Pueblo version of the Supernatural Woman, Anazia
Pueblo, Utset wanted to make certain that the people would have
food when they came up from the lower world (previous world
and underworld). As their mother (chief), Utset was responsible
for their well-being, so she made fields north, west, south, and
east of the village and planted in it bits of her heart (power). She
made words over the seeds she had planted: “This corn is my
heart and it shall be to my people as milk from my breasts.” 24 In
a Cherokee version of how food was given to the people to
guarantee their provision and their connection to the goddess,
Selu (Corn Woman) similarly made the first food from her own
body-seed, as does Grandmother Spider in a Kiowa version.
According to Goetz and Morley’s rendering of the Popul Vuh,
the sacred myth of the Quiché Mayans, the heart is related to the
power of creation. In the beginning the makers (grandparents)
were in the water (void) hidden under green and blue feathers.
They were by nature great thinkers or sages. “In this manner the
sky existed and also the Heart of Heaven, which is the name of
God (the All Power).” 25 The grandparents, called feathered
beings (Gucumatz), meditated, and it became clear that creation
of the earth that human beings inhabit was imminent. “Thus it
was arranged in the darkness and in the night by the Heart of
Heaven who is called Huracán.” 26 The Gucumatz or Bird
Grandparents were so called because the flashes of light around
their thinking-place resembled the bright wings of the bird now
known as quetzal but known to the ancient Mayans as gucumatz.
In their appearance they resemble the Irriaku, and in their
characterization as Water Winged Beings they resemble the
Water Fowl who saved the Iroquois Sky Woman from her fall
through the void (designated as water in some versions of that
myth). They also resemble representations of Iyatiku as a bird
being, as she appears on a Fire Society altar. In a drawing an
informant made of her, Iyatiku appears as a bird woman, with the