The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions

sacrifice, which means “to make sacred.” What is made sacred
is empowered. Thus, in the old way, sacrificing meant
empowering, which is exactly what it still means to American
Indians who adhere to traditional practice. Blood was and is
used in sacrifice because it possesses the power to make
something else powerful or, conversely, to weaken or kill it.
Pre-contact American Indian women valued their role as
vitalizers because they understood that bearing, like bleeding,
was a transformative ritual act. Through their own bodies they
could bring vital beings into the world—a miraculous power
unrivaled by mere shamanic displays. They were mothers, and
that word implied the highest degree of status in ritual cultures.
The status of mother was so high, in fact, that in some cultures
Mother or its analogue, Matron, was the highest office to which
a man or woman could aspire.
The old ones were empowered by their certain knowledge
that the power to make life is the source and model for all ritual
magic and that no other power can gainsay it. Nor is that power
really biological at base; it is the power of ritual magic, the
power of Thought, of Mind, that gives rise to biological
organisms as it gives rise to social organizations, material
culture, and transformations of all kinds—including hunting,
war, healing, spirit communication, rain-making, and all the rest.
At Laguna, all entities, human or supernatural, who are
functioning in a ritual manner at a high level are called Mother.
The story “Arrow Youth, the Witches and the K’a·’ts’ina” is
filled with addresses of this sort. 31
The cacique is addressed as mother by the war captain as
well as by Arrow Youth. The Turkey-Buzzard Spirit is greeted
as mother by the shaman who goes to consult him. When the
cacique goes to consult with the k’apina shamans, he greets them
saying, “How are things, mothers of everyone, chiefs of
everyone.” After he has made his ritual offering of corn pollen to