IntroductionThe Blanket Around HerMaybe it is her birthwhich she holds close to herselfor her deathwhich is just as inseparableand the white windthat encircles her is a partjust asthe blue skyhanging in turquoise from her neckoh womanremember who you arewomanit is the whole earth-Jot HarjoLaguna novelist Leslie Silko begins Ceremony with one word-"Sunrise." The word is simple, yet it encompasses an entire body of culture and thought which revolves around the concepts of birth, regeneration, cyclicity and the union of masculine and feminine elements. Many American Indian world views speak of balanced "opposite" forces which combine as a dynamic whole to form the universe. One may extend the metaphor of ”sunrise” further in reference to the contemporary “rebirth” of American Indian cultures, perhaps best illustrated in the growing body of literature by American Indian writers. Kenneth Lincoln makes such an analogy in his comprehensive analysis of American Indian literature, Native American Renaissance. Interestingly, Lincoln correlates the dynamics of this movement to gender as he writes, ”Native Americans are writing prolifically, particularly the women, who correlate feminist, nativist, and artistic commitments in a compelling rebirth.”