I wanted to finish this blog with a few final thoughts about my experience within the two-spirit community and with information on what you can do as a reader to support this group.
Jaxin Enemy-Hunter and Travis Goldtooth at 2010
Two-Sprit Gathering in Montana
I have had a unique experience as mixed raced (White and Cree Native America) queer man. Although I do relate with my Cree roots being that my grandfather was raised on the res. and shared the culture of our family with us extensively before his death, I have always passed as a white male. This has always been an internal tension for me. One dealing with the privilege I have over others in my family because of my skin color, two having to constantly prove how "native" I am, and three dealing with the intersectionality of my race, gender identity, and sexuality. I have been afforded some really great opportunities because of my privilege such as being coded as just white and getting to have honest conversations with other white identified folks about privilege, prejudice, and Native American culture. There have also been many frustrations, when folks find out that I am native it also followed with the question how much as if I can cut off a chunk of my body and would no longer have my native culture. I have also had to deal with the struggle from both with white community and my Cree community of not fitting into the gender binary they are comfortable with.
These identity intersections make me who I am and over time I have learned there is nothing wrong with them. I am proud to be a White, Cree, Gay, Able bodied, Student Activist, Man. It is important that as a society we learn to embrace every piece of every person's identity.
We'wha, Chrystos, Fred Martinez
The faces of the Two-Spirt people across history
This leads me to my call for action for you. I hope that this blog allows you to open your eyes to the Two Spirit community and gives you the tools and confidence necessary to facilitate conversations with others about this marginalized group. More than that though, I hope this can open everyone's eyes to the need for acceptance of all identities. In our society you truly can not judge a book by its cover. We all have different experiences and a vast number of identities that should all be honored. Lowering one does not help any other.
I hope after reading this blog you are inspired to learn more about other identities beyond just Native Americans and Two Spirit folks to gain a better understanding of the intersectionalities that make this world what it is. If we can learn anything from the experiences of We'wha, Fred Martinez, Chrystos, myself and the thousands of others who identify as Two Spirit is that we all must learn to coexist with one and another if wish for equity for anyone.
The existence of Two Spirit people challenges the rigid binary view of the world of the North American colonizers and missionaries. The Two Spirits’ mere existence threatened the colonizers' core beliefs; the backlash was violent. Artwork housed at the New York City public library, depict Two Spirit people being attacked by colonizers’ dogs. Word of this brutal treatment spread quickly from nation to nation. The missionary churches' views on sexuality created many new taboos. Many traditions, including that of the Two-spirited were eradicated or at least driven underground from many tribes of North America. Many nations decided to take actions to protect their honored and valued Two Spirit people. Some nations hid them by asking them to replace their dress, a mixture of men and women's clothing, with the attire of their biological sex. After years of colonization, some of those very same nations denied ever having a tradition that celebrated and honored their Two Spirit people. The first step colonizers took toward making an occupied land fit their views was to make the native peoples feel ashamed of their own heritage.
Since the time of colonization many Native Americans have forgotten the "old" traditions around Two-Spirit people. Many were forced to convert to a Western religion, which did not accept traditional spirituality and community structures. However, there are groups of elders and activists that have quietly kept the Two Spirit tradition alive. In some nations that have revived this tradition, or brought it once again into the light, Two Spirit people are again fulfilling some of the roles and regaining the honor and respect of their communities. Two Spirit people are a part of the fabric of this land, and we stand here today as a testament of our collective strength and fortitude.
The truth is, some of today's Two-spirited people have been shamed, beaten, killed, isolated and driven from their homes. As a result of the impact of colonization, most Two-spirited people, their families, and the knowledge keepers in their communities today, hold little or no knowledge of the many rich and diverse traditions which recognized, valued and benefited from the special gift these individuals had been given. In consequence, Two-spirited people are not able to take their rightful place in their communities. This is a loss to all Native people.
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).
Native American Elders say of people who were gifted among all beings because they carried two spirits, that of male and female. It is told that women engaged in tribal warfare and married other women, as there were men who married other men. These individuals were looked upon as a third and fourth gender in many cases and in almost all cultures they were honored and revered. Two-spirit people were often the visionaries, the healers, the medicine people, the nannies of orphans, the care givers (Roscoe 1988). They were respected as fundamental components of our ancient culture and societies. This is the heart of Two-Spirited People of the 1st Nations (2 Spirit Nation of Ontario)
In Native American culture, before the Europeans came to the America's, "two-spirit" referred to an ancient teaching. This type of cross-gender identity has been documented in over 155 tribes across Native North America
Before beginning our discussion on two-spirit people and their roles, it is necessary to take a moment to discuss the terminology used here. Native and Native American are used to refer to the peoples who inhabited North America before European contact. Certain quotations also use the term First Nation's to refer to the same. These terms are in common usage among First Nation's people in Canada to refer to themselves.
In addition, the term two-spirit refers to the concepts of gender variant people in Native America traditions. Early explorers of North America refered to this concept as berdache.
Two-spirit is preferred as it emerged from Native American people whereas berdache was imposed upon Native American's by the colonial explorers.
Most tribes were acknowledge of two-spirit people, and many still have a name in their traditional language for them. For example, The Din éh (Navaho) refer to them as nàdleehé or one who is 'transformed'. Some tribes had different names for two-spirited men and women. Many non-natives have misinterpreted two-spirit as referring to people with homosexual tendencies, when in fact, the ceremonies and practices were based on different genders being manifested, and not on sexual preferences or practices.
Two the left is an image of We'wha (1849-1896) one of the famous Two Spirit folks. She was biological born in a male body but identified as a woman. She is known for being invited to Washington D.C to represent the Zuni people as their cultural ambassador. The entire trip she was coded as a woman even by President Grover Cleveland. When she was found out to be a Two Spirit person she was asked to leave Washington was sent back to her tribe.
Many tribes had rituals for children to go through if they were recognized as acting different from their birth gender. These rituals ensured the child was truly two-spirit. If parents noticed that a son was disinterested in boyish play or manly work, they would set up a ceremony to determine which way the boy would be brought up. They would make an enclosure of brush, and place in the center both a man's bow and a woman's basket. The boy was told to go inside the circle of brush and to bring something out, and as he entered the brush would be set on fire.
These rituals determined if the person was two-spirited and taught young boys to do women's work in addition to that reserved for men. Similar rituals applied to woman. Children of both genders would also spend time with healers, often two-spirit people themselves. Above all, their childhood was marked by acceptance and understanding by the whole tribe. Multi-gendered adult people were usually presumed to be people of power. Because they have both maleness and femaleness totally entwined in one body, they were known to be able to 'see' with the eyes of both biological men and biological women. They were often called upon to be healers, mediators, interpreters of dreams, or expected to become singers or others whose lives were devoted to the welfare of the group. If they did extraordinary things in any aspect of life, it was assumed that they had the license and power to do so, and therefore, they were not questioned.
George Catlin first documented a two-spirit in his painting, Dance to the Berdache (1832-1839), in which a tribe is shown celebrating an individual wearing both male and female dress.
In everyday life the two-spirit male typically would wear women's clothes and do women's work. He might take a husband from among the men of the tribe, or might have affairs with several, depending on the role of the gender the two-spirit man in his tribe. Two-spirit individuals were expected to behave within the two-spirit gender norms of his or her tribe.
Besides their spiritual abilities, their capacity for work also figured into the high status of two-spirit people. Even though a two-spirit male would have taken on the gender identity of a woman, he would still have the endurance and strength of a man. Thus his productivity was greater than that of most women, and for that reason he would have been valued as a marriage partner. Other characteristics that Natives associate with two-spirit people which help explain their desirability as partners were their highly developed ability to relate to and teach children, a generous nature, and exceptional intellectual and artistic skills.
In Native American culture, the idea of a gender binary in which people would fall into the category of male or female is a foreign thought. Like in many cultures Native American tribes all across the Americas embraced multiple gender identities some having up to six. These people who did fall into the male or female category are today known as Two Spirit peoples.
This blog aims to educate folks about these people and the oppression they have faced since European colonization. Once Two Spirit people were the most highly respected in Native American communities. Today those who identify as Two Spirit are more likely to have diabetes, depression, alcoholism, and harm themselves. This blog will explore what it means to be a two spirit person and what their role traditionally is in Native American communities. We will also look at a case study comparing and contrasting the treatment of Two Spirit people prior to colonization and after. Finally, we will explore what it means to have multiple marginalized identities in modern America. The extra stress and oppression that is put on these folks for being people of color and queer identified.
It is important for us to understand the truth about the history of Native American peoples and Queer folks if we want to work to fight for a more equitable society. My hope is to educate people about the harm that can be done by just forcing people to fall into a category they do not fit in our deciding someone is wrong because they are different. When the colonists came to the Americas and did this to these people they destroyed a vital piece of this culture. A piece that we could all learn a lot from when it comes to acceptance and love for one's community.
Above is a video of Chrystos a leader, poet, and activist in the Two Spirit Community speaks very strong words to the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force Creating Change Conference about what it means to be Two Spirit and the oppressed history of Queer Native Americas.
