"Shamanism" is, indeed, a spiritual practice but it refers to the practice of a person traveling between the physical world and the spiritual one through trances, use of plants, and various other techniques. Similar to what we would call a medium. A shaman does this for a variety of reasons, i.e. to heal people, drive away evil spirits, induce weather changes, protect people, ensure a good hunt, gain insights and self knowledge, etc.
Anthropologists do not agree on the use of the word shaman, which comes from Asia and was first used for describing the practices of one particular group of indigenous Asian people. The main problem and objection to the term is that it gets used across the board as a generic term for religious practices of a variety of indigenous people in Asia, the Americas, and Africa without regard for differences of belief or practices among such a wide variety of cultures. Many of them resent the term being applied to them.
Most Native Americans prefer the term medicine man or medicine woman. Some have specialized groups who perform sacred healing ceremonies rather than one person.
The term "sacred hoop" refers to the interconnectedness of all living forms -- plants, animals, and humans. That concept is in the lyrics of the song where it says, "And we are all connected in a circle, in a hoop that never ends."
It can also refer to the cycles of life, from birth to death to becoming part of the earth again which nourishes other life forms.
Some people would include things that Western world scientists call inanimate, i.e. rocks. For many indigenous people, even inanimate things in nature also have a life force, from rocks to stars to planets. Sometimes even human made objects have a life force, an essence or identity.
Yes, the circle, or sacred hoop can also refer to the 4 directions, the 4 seasons, and to the 4 colors of the hoop -- red, black, yellow, and white.
When I heard the song, I just did not connect the hoop with the singular word "wind" in the lyrics, so "colors of the wind" did not sound right to me. But, perhaps the song lyrics are supposed to be a reference to the colors of the hoop when they say colors of the wind and I simply missed the connection.
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