Two-Spirit People: Sex, Gender & Sexuality in Historic and ...

[Pages:47]Two-Spirit People:

Sex, Gender & Sexuality in Historic and Contemporary Native America

Harlan Pruden (Nehiyawe/First Nations Cree) Managing Editor,

Se-ah-dom Edmo (Shoshone-Bannock, Nez Perce, Yakama) Program Coordinator, Lewis & Clark Graduate School

Concept of Two-Spirit

? The term/identity of two-spirit does not make sense unless it is contextualized within a Native American frame

? Two-Spirit within a traditional setting was a gender analysis and not a sexual orientation

? Today, most people associate the term with LGBT Natives; however, the work of the two-spirit organizations is more akin with the traditional understanding

Two-Spirit

? Upto Contact - Our Own Words ? 1492 to 1990 - berdache ? 1990 to Present - Two-Spirit

Roles of the Two-Spirit

? Mediators ? Social Workers ? Name Giving ? Love Potions / Match Maker ? Sun Dance ? Holy people, told the future and brought good luck ? Boy's & Girl's Puberty Ceremony ? Peace-Makers for the Tribe ? Joined war parties ? Doctors/medicine people

Some Two-Spirit Names

Nation Acoma

Term Male-assigned: Kokwi'ma

"Loose" translation

Aleut

Male-assigned: Ayagigux' Female-assigned: Tayagigux'

"man transformed into a woman" "woman transformed into a man"

Arapaho

Arikara Assiniboine

Male-assigned: Haxu'xan (singular), Hoxuxuno (plural)

Male-assigned: Kuxa't Male-assigned: Winktan

"rotten bone"

Blackfoot

Male-assigned: Aak??'skassi

"acts like a woman"

(Southern Peigan) Female-assigned: Saahk?maapi'aak??koan "boy-girl"

Cherokee Cheyenne Chickasaw, Choctaw

Male-assigned: nudale asgaya Female-assigned: nudale agehya All term: asegi Male-assigned: He'eman (singular), He'emane'o (plural) (hee = "woman") Female-assigned: Hetaneman (singular), Hatane'mane'o (plural) (hetan = "man") Male-assigned: Hatukiklanna Female-assigned: hatukholba

different man different woman Both male and female assigned

Nation Chumash

Term Male-assigned: Agi

"Loose" translation

Cocopa

Male-assigned: Elha ("coward") Female-assigned: Warrhameh

Cree

Crow Dakota (Santee Sioux) Flathead (Interior Salish) Gros Ventre Hidatsa Hopi Illinois

Male-assigned: nap?w iskw?wis?hot Female-assigned: iskw?w ka nap?wayat Male-assigned: ayahkw?w Female-assigned: ?nahp?kasoht Male-assigned: Iskw?hk?n Female-assigned: nap?hk?n Male-assigned: Bote/Bate/Bade

Male-assigned: Winkta

Male-assigned: Ma'kali

Male-assigned: Athuth

Male-assigned: Miati

Male-assigned: Ho'va Male-assigned: Ikoueta Female-assigned: Ickoue ne kioussa

a man who dresses as a woman a woman dressed as a man a man dressed/living/accepted as a woman a woman dressed/living/accepted as a man literally `fake woman' ? not negative literally `fake man' ? not negative "not man, not woman"

"to be impelled against one's will to act the woman," "woman compelled"

"hunting women"

Ingalik

Male-assigned: Nok'olhanxodeleane Female-assigned: Chelxodeleane

"woman pretenders" "man pretenders"

Nation Inuit Juaneno Karankawa Klamath

Kutenai

Laguna

Lakota (Teton Sioux)

Term

Female-assigned: Sipiniq Male-assigned: Kwit Male-assigned: Monaguia Male-/Female-assigned: Tw!inna'ek Male-assigned: Kupatke'tek Female-assigned: Titqattek Male-assigned: Kok'we'ma

Male-assigned: Winkte Female-assigned: Bloka egla wa ke

"Loose" translation "infant whose sex changes at birth"

"to imitate a woman" "pretending to be a man"

"['wants' or 'wishes'] to be [like] [a] woman." A contraction of winyanktehca "thinks she can act like a man"

Luiseno

San Juan Capistrano Male-assigned: Cuit

Mountain

Male-assigned: Uluqui

Mandan Maricopa

Male-assigned: Mihdacka

Male-assigned: Ilyaxai' Female-assigned: Kwiraxame

mih-ha = "woman" "girlish"

Nation Mescalero Apache

Term Male-assigned: Nde'isdzan

Micmac

Male-assigned: Geenumu gesallagee

Miwok Mohave Western Mono

Navajo

Nisenan (Southern Maidu) Ojibwa (Chippewa)

Male-assigned: Osabu Male-assigned: Alyha Female-assigned: Hwame Male-assigned: Tai'up Male-/female-/intersexed-assigned: Nadleeh or nadle (gender class/category), nadleehi (singular), nadleehe (plural)

Male-assigned: Osa'pu

Male-assigned: Agokwa Female-assigned: Okitcitakwe

Omaha, Osage, Ponca Male-assigned: Mixu'ga

Otoe, Kansa (Kaw)

Male-assigned: Mixo'ge

Papago (Tohono O'odham), Pima (Akimel O'odham)

Male-assigned: Wik'ovat

"Loose" translation "man-woman" "he loves men," perhaps correctly spelt ji'nmue'sm gesalatl osa = "woman" "coward"

"one in a constant state of change," "one who changes," "being transformed"

"man-woman" "warrior woman" "instructed by the moon," "moon instructed" "instructed by the moon," "moon instructed"

"like a girl"

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