The Unison of Two Worlds: Paula Gunn Allen's The Sacred Hoop

by Josh Buckner

Author and poet Paula Gunn Allen is of mixed Lakota and Laguna descent. She was raised in the United States, in the Western culture. Many of her works recall her Indian influences from childhood, mainly given through her mother. She has an extensive background in higher education. She was a professor of literature, American Indian studies, and women's studies at the University of California at Los Angeles. She has written many novels, poems, short stories, and criticisms. She also puts together anthologies of American Indian literature, such as Voice of the Turtle, Song of the Turtle, and Spider Woman's Granddaughter, which won her the American Book Award in 1990. Allen is a widely respected expert on not only literature, but also Indian history, myths, and belief patterns. She is considered one of the greatest Indian authors, alongside N. Scott Momaday, Gerald Vizenor, Leslie Marmon Silko, James Welch, and others. Allen's style of writing is extremely powerful for a number of reasons. She has done extensive study on the Indian culture and was influenced by Indian beliefs and customs from a young age. She has also lived her life in a non-Indian world, therefore she has the opportunity to see each culture in light of the other. This gives her work a clear picture of how the attributes of Indian, tribal culture compare to the dominant, Western culture. Paula Gunn Allen has achieved success in the individualistic ways of the popular, dominant culture of the United States while adhering to Indian ideas of communal life and relationships with all spiritual beings. Allen's strength is that she writes from neither a White perspective nor an Indian perspective. Since she is neither one completely, she does not try to use her background or personal opinions to give her work validity. Her works encompass many aspects of the American Indian. The Sacred Hoop, published in 1986, is a collection of several essays, tribal stories, and poetry. She covers many topics in this book, such as Indian literature itself, the Indian view of the universe, tribal feminism as experienced by Native Americans, and the "bicultural bind"(Allen 48) that Indian women and mixedbloods must overcome. From reading just the introduction to The Sacred Hoop, it is apparent that this is not your ordinary collection of stories and essays. She gives an overview of what the book is about, and also includes how to read the book. In order to gain anything from the book, it is necessary to recognize the differences between Indian literature and Western literature. In a sense, tribal life and industrial life are two distinct worlds. They have different ideas about the nature of reality, so the literature must not be read with the mindset of how one would read and evaluate literature from one's own culture. The symbolism in literature from two different worlds takes on entirely separate significance. Allen points out that we have no problem recognizing the importance of every minor detail in a piece of literature that has originated from our own culture, and that "the purpose of literature is clear only when the reader understands and accepts the assumptions on which the literature is based."(Allen 54) It is a mistake to attempt to incorporate ideas expressed in Indian literature into one's own life without first understanding how those ideas fit into tribal life. Analyzing Indian literature requires some groundwork, guidelines, and intensive self-reflection in order to gain an enriching awareness that the stories and poems have to offer. Within The Sacred Hoop, Allen notes that traditional Indian beliefs are fundamentally estranged from Western thought. She provides several examples of the key disagreements between the worldviews of Indians and Westerners. It is necessary to mention that each of the hundreds of Indian tribes has a unique set of ideologies, but Allen generalizes them all into the category of tribal beliefs. The Western worldview is most closely identified with the Christian religion, and for the sake of simplicity, Allen compares the general tribal view with the general Christian view. Western thought is characterized by division and stratification. Because of this, our society stresses differences and the individuality between things. One example of this is the hierarchy of spiritual beings. There is God, who is separate from angels, who are separate from saints, who are above normal men, who are above animals. There is a definite boundary between these beings, and they are given unequal degrees of importance in the world. It is common for people to feel close to God only if they are praying or attending a church sermon. Through the tribal view of the universe, unison and wholeness are stressed. Man is not isolated from the animal kingdom nor the supernatural. Anything that possesses the basic quality of existing shares that quality with every other being. It is because of this belief that Indian treat every being with the same respect they would treat another man, and ultimately with the same respect one would give himself. In essence, the tribal ideals bring everything together, as one living, changing universe that is composed of cycles within cycles, hence the sacred hoop. Humanity and nature play different roles, this is true, but the tribal system believes in establishing relationships between man and all parts of the world around him. Nature, man, and spirit are not viewed as isolated from each other, but rather as "different expressions of the same reality."(Allen 60) Western thought recognizes a spiritual plane of existence, but it is one which we cannot be a part of because of our burden of being a human. Through ceremony and sacred objects, the Indian has a relationship with the spiritual realm, while being physically on the earth. This idea of wholeness permeates throughout every aspect of the universe. The individual and the community are one and the same. Most people never learned that communism had been achieved by tribal peoples long before Marx envisioned his cooperative society, in which the individual was held responsible for the group, and the group was held responsible for the individual. If a member of a clan could do something to help the entire clan, they would essentially be helping themselves, too. Westerners like to come up with words like mind, body, and soul. The existence of these different words causes speakers of the language to assume that these are entirely different things. Tribalism would emphasize the fact that the mind, body, and soul are all within one package, and are therefore the same thing. The New Age holistic existence greatly resembles tribal beliefs. Indian thought also parallels the Qabalistic universe, which begins as nothing, from which something is created, then returns to nothing. The tribal assumptions of reality consist of both ancient knowledge and even new discoveries by physicists. When Westerners envision the universe, they will usually picture a large, finite space in which celestial bodies exist that follow predictable patterns of movement and growth. The Indian universe is constantly changing and adapting. Randomness is accepted as perfectly natural. Recent studies in physics have shown that subatomic particles, when attempting to fixate it into position for observation, do not stay in the same place. They are said to be in many places at one time. This discovery alone allows for a changing, semi-random universe, or even several universes that coincide into one universe that we comprehend as "the" universe. It almost seems as if some new scientific discoveries reaffirm what ancient and "uncivilized" peoples have known for centuries. A major topic of Allen's The Sacred Hoop is tribal feminism. Today, most of the world is dominated by patriarchy. Although there is no written document to prove it, most Indian scholars and historians agree that tribal life is centered around the woman, and that women were given the power to make and override important decisions. In tribal tradition, women are stereotyped as having great power "socially, physically, and metaphysically."(Allen 48) Indians believed that women were wise leaders by nature. Since Indians lived a communal life, it is more likely that a woman would make a decision based on the well being others, not just herself. Women are seen as naturally more compassionate than males, therefore more qualified to represent many people. In our male-dominated society and government, there exists corruption, scandals, and greed. Capitalism (largely promoted by males of European descent) teaches us to look out for ourselves first, and to trust no one. The dominant culture tends to see females as the weaker sex, dependant on the help of males, and confused by over-sensitivity and uncontrollable emotions. Allen credits this stereotype to White aristocratic women of the past. Although this does not hold true for the majority of women, females in our society grow up learning these stereotypes and mimicking these false images that appear in the media. Women raised in a White culture most likely view menstruation as a weakness. Most women feel gross or dont feel like going out when they are on their period. Many women are even embarrassed to buy products from the store that would signal that they are on their period. Indians commonly believe that the menstrual cycle implies fertility, and at the peak of the cycle, the period, it is believed that women hold even greater powers that can overwhelm any male power. Tribal life can be seen as intrinsically feminine. Many historians will argue that the United States government knew that the backbone of the tribal ways was the woman, and every attempt was made to put men in power of the tribes. They hoped that the tribal customs would fall apart, and Indians would join the "American" way of life. In history, Indian women were not allowed to attend meetings on Indian-government relations. The women were not the ones that signed treaties with the government. The U.S. government changed the role of the Indian woman from a tribal leader, creator, and farmer to seamstress and caretaker of children. Modern feminism does not come close to tribal feminism. The thought of a society dominated by women seems alien, even impossible. Feminist movements that strive for equality among sexes are labeled as radical, in our society. Many strongly feminist women turn to Native American feminist movements "to escape the patriarchal biases and to become empowered, as well as individuated."(Donaldson 3) All too often, lost people will turn to Indian traditions because of one particular aspect, without understanding how it fits into the whole tribal way of life. This could be a threat to the reemergence of old Indian ways integrating with our society. Being a fiction writer and poet, Allen projects much of her own personal experiences into her pieces. A popular topic among many Indian writers, including Allen, is the ongoing struggle of having both Indian and White blood, or being a mixedblood. Mixedbloods learn the values of both Indian and White cultures, and this creates opposition within one's own beliefs. These two cultures can be said to live in two different worlds, and a mixedblooded Indian is forced to sort out these opposing beliefs and views. This predicament often isolates the individual from both cultures, leaving them without purpose or direction. A double agent cannot claim allegiance to any one nation, and cannot be identified with both nations at the same time. The Sacred Hoop is a collection of essays, poems, short stories, and songs. Coming from a Western background, we assume that we know what these are. The pieces contained in this book are not poetry as we're used to reading. The fiction stories represent the subtle truths of reality. The Sacred Hoop is the perfect book for readers who are new to Indian literature. When reading works authored by Indians, we cannot conceive the meaning in our own terms. Allen realizes this, and first explains the terms we must remember when evaluating any work written by an Indian author. Many words mean different things than we are used to, and certain objects and beings take on a particular significance that we have not grown up learning. We can start to learn of the notions that Indian literature is based on by recognizing the tribal view of the world and universe. The Western culture is dominated by isolation and duality. Tribal life unites all aspects of existence, even non-experiential reality. Indians prize relationships, and believe that everything that exists has a role that is equally as important as any other role. Allen emphasizes the importance of feminism in our lives. She defines that tribal view of feminism, a life that centered around female characteristics, not just females as leaders. The tribal, communal way of life is a feminine preference, and contrasting it to the way of life in male-dominated societies proves this. There are few Indians that are fully blooded Indian. Most Indians in our nation have mixed heritage. This creates a problem for the mixed Indian because not only are they not accepted in White society, they may have learned different views that counter each other, thus creating disorder in thoughts and beliefs. The Sacred Hoop not only introduces readers to a strong selection of Indian literature, but it also explains the difference between the tribal world and industrial world.