Significance of The Circle

"The Gathering of Nations Dance Circle"


The foundational significance of the circle in Native American culture can be evidenced in Native concepts of time. Unlike their European-oriented counterparts, who respect a linear, or sequential, approach to the time continuum; Native Americans conceive time in a circular context. Non-Natives perceive the past, present, and future as being part of one long and continuous path punctuated, and marked, by important events or ideas that characterize the era. The past is remote and somewhat alien; the present is ephemeral; and the future is distant and unknown. In effect, the perspective has the capability to separate people from the past experiences, ancestors, traditions, and occurrences that greatly influences both the present and the future. Not all Native Americans share a collective consciousness about all issues, and their supportive belief systems may differ, certain aspects of their symbols are profound and overarching in their cultural applications. Hill observes that the Native way of thinking can be seen in such things as “the use of the circle as a symbol of unity, in the use of animal totems to represent the sharing of power between the people and the animal world, and in a different attitude about the land – one that sees the earth as alive and sacred, to be shared by all. [1] Developing an understanding of these shared values is central to gaining any insight into the inner workings and hidden mechanisms that ground the perspectives



[1] Richard Hill, Pathways of Tradition: Indian Insights into Indian Worlds. An exhibition at the George
Gustav Heye Center of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, New York City.