The Modern Two Spirit World

After years of assimilation from Western European culture, the Two Spirit people who were once seen as shining light in the Native American community are now arguably one of the most marginalized groups in all of the Americas.

Below is the trailer for a heart wrenching documentary that tells the story of what it means to be a modern Two Spirit person through the case study of Fred Martinez a Two Spirit person brutally murdered in Cortez, Colorado.

Fred was murdered June 16th 2001 and was not found for 5 days. His mother was not contacted by the police in June 25th after days of calling the department and filing a missing persons case. Fred's attack  was not ruled a hate crime because at the time in Colorado an attack on a person based on gender identity or gender expression was not considered a hate crime.

Fred's story is too real for far too many folks within the Native American community. The lack of acceptance he experienced as a gay Two Spirited individual is something this community is dealing with everyday.

Since the colonization of the Americas native peoples have not only had their land and water stolen from them but also their culture. The case of Two Spirit people is an example of this. In 2006 it was recorded that Two Spirited youths have fair higher risk of suicide than any other group in the Americas. This group is continuing to be neglected. There is little to no research or literature that exists about GLBTQIA identified Native folks and their heightened risk, almost every case (including Fred's) is linked to the native and person of color status totally neglecting their gender identity or sexual orientation in the case. As Western European Christian ideology was forced on Native culture Two Spirit people slowly began to loose their status.

As a queer identified mixed race man (being White and Cree American Indian) I can speak first hand to this lack of support from both within the native community and outside. The love for Two Spirit folks is something that has been stolen from our culture. Often times folks who identify this way are seen as going against tradition or bringing the wrong type of attention to the community. The hardest part about this is the fact that our history is so deeply rooted in an appreciation for Two Spirited folks and this is something that is evident when speaking to elders. It is the younger generations of Native folks who have been indoctrinated to believe the gender identity that are furthering this oppression within the community.

The stories of folks like Fred cannot go untold. It is important that all people no matter how the identify know about the history of acceptance towards Two Spirited folks and work to bring that back. We can no longer think that gender identity falls into two categories and that is how it has always been because that is not the case and that thought process is what has made Two Spirit folks one of the most oppressed communities in all of the Americas with the highest suicide rates, high rates of alcoholism, drug use, diabetes, and one of the highest rates of depression (all of these are already high in Native American communities but are unfortunately even higher in among these folks).