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Reveal or Conceal?
the perpetual renewal and continuity of all creation. Similarly, stories
are both the vehicle through which knowledge (ideas, actions, and ex-
perience) enters and affects the world, and the medium that records
and represents that knowledge to others as a potential for learning
(growth and transformation).
The concept of Kxa’khom or Mother Earth is, perhaps, the best
conceptual example of relations, space, and place as the primary pre-
condition of Kainai knowledge production. Kxa’khom exists in a lit-
eral, not metaphoric, sense as the Mother or generatrix of all life. This
includes the Kainai, who, as an autochthonous people, were born of
her womb. The cultural symbol of that womb is found in the dome-
shaped sweat lodges used by the Kainai for prayer and purification.
The sweat-lodge ritual use is a symbolic act of spiritual rebirth. As all
Kainai are born of the same Mother (the Earth), classificatory terms,
such as niitsistowahsin, “brother,” are not simply rhetorical. Rather,
they express the nature of this primary kinship relation. Thus, an in-
dividual becomes fixed in “space,” “place,” and the reciprocal rela-
tional order of Kainai society, governed by the principles of mutual
respect, trust, and the fulfillment of kinship roles and obligations.
Being born of Kxa’khom, the Kainai participate in the sacred sub-
stances and actions of creation. At death, the spirit leaves akáa’tsis, the
body—a temporary “robe”—protection afforded to the spirit—and
returns to Kxa’khom to contribute to and participate in the renewal
and regeneration of new life (Crow, personal communication, 1998 ;
Calf Robe, personal communication, 1999 ). Ceremonial events such
as the Sundance, understood as individual and communal acts of pu-
rification, thanksgiving, and renewal, are both symbolic of and pro-
ductive of that continuity. The notions of “relations,” “place,” and
“space” as repetitive motifs not only affect internal individual behav-
iors but manifest themselves in the social behavior of the Kainaiwa,
such as in the social and spatial organization of the community (Lit-
tle Bear in Battiste 2002 , 81 ). On an individual basis, “space” refers
to the specific area of reserve lands that extended families originally
occupied and have continued to occupy for generations (Little Bear,
in Battiste 2002 , 81 ).
As do all animate and sentient beings in the Kainai universe, Kxa’khom
