Berdache, Two Spirit, and the white anthropologist
Queer People have existed on Turtle Island since time immemorial. We did not arrive on these shores during the white invasion and Queer marriage did not first occur because of the political actions of non-Natives. The battle for LGBTQIA2S rights did not begin at Stonewall. The fight for dignity and love for Queer People began when the first colonizer stepped foot on our land.
Two Spirit is an umbrella English language contemporary term that refers to non-binary gender identities that were present in some tribal nations pre-invasion. It was created at a gathering of Queer Indigenous People in 1990 in Winnipeg, Canada. “Two Spirit” was agreed upon as a term in order to give a decolonized context to Native gender identity and sexuality while also replacing the white constructed term “Berdache” that translates to “kept boy” or “male prostitute.” Berdache has primarily been used by white anthropologists who misrepresented our communities through their own white, settler privilege and hopes of furthering their careers off our backs.
Over 500 years of genocide, forced assimilation and Christianity have left many Two Spirits without a home both within in our tribal nations and the larger LGBTQ community.
Until we have tribal sovereignty and a return to the honoring of our Two Spirited ancestors we will never have LGBTQIA rights in “ameriKKKa.”
Two Spirit History & Erasure
Indigenous genders that fell outside the colonized gender binary had many names and roles dependent upon the tribal nation. The names used varied based upon the language spoken and the tribal traditions. Nádleehí, Winkté, Niizh Manidoowag, Hemaneh, Asegi are just a few of the names our ancestors were known as.
Gender and sexuality were not judged by Native People pre-colonialism. Many of those in these traditional roles were in positions of reverence. Our ability to contribute to our people was of the utmost importance, not how we identified or who we chose to love. In fact, having a Two Spirit person in ones family was considered an honor. They acted as care takers of children who lost their families, Medicine People, warriors in battle, and tribal ambassadors in dealings with the ameriKKKan government to name a few.
When the conquistadors invaded *Turtle Island they threw our Two Spirit ancestors into pits with their war dogs where they were savagely ripped apart. George Catlin, a well known painter of Indigenous People, said that the Two Spirit roles “Must be extinguished before it can be more fully recorded.” Many similar accounts were made by these mass murdering men.
As out right murder went out of fashion and assimilation policies of “Kill the Indian save the man” became more common our Two Spirited ancestors continued to be targeted. Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) agents would force Two Spirited people to conform to their eurocentric gender roles. Agents would incarcerate and force them to wear clothing they believed to be gender appropriate.
The legacy of the Indian Boarding Schools almost erased our cultural existence entirely. Children were forcefully removed from their families and placed in schools created by Richard H. Pratt, the man behind “Kill the Indian save the man” and the Carlisle Industrial Boarding School, the first of its kind. While at these schools they were forced to speak English, practice Christianity, dress in Western style clothing, and follow white constructed gender roles. Sexual and physical abuse were rampant in these schools. If children ran away they were hunted down like animals and immediately returned to school. If Native elders refused to send their children to the boarding schools they were often incarcerated. It’s estimated that 100,000 Indigenous children suffered through the boarding school era.
As a result of colonialism and assimilation policies, many tribal nations forgot their multi-gendered relatives and have now adopted heterosexist ways. My tribe, the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma once passed into our constitution the Cherokee Nation Marriage and Family Act which barred marriage between two people of the same gender. This was recently overturned, but the discrimination and lack of knowledge of our traditional ways are still a battle.
non-Native LGBTQIA people & the Legacy of Abuse
The presence of white anthropologists in our communities have been an ever pressing issue since the white man lost his way and stumbled upon our lands. We have had our ceremonies violated and recorded, and ancestors and sacred items stolen from us and placed on display in museums and universities as if we are not living, breathing people worthy of respect. No aspect of our cultural ways though has been so erroneously and disgustingly tracked by the white man than that of our Two Spirit people.
Walter L. Williams, an once respected anthropologist and a former professor of mine at the University of Southern California, studied Two Spirited people. For his book“The Spirit and the Flesh: Sexual Diversity in American Indian Culture Williams won the Gay Book of the Year Award from the American Library Association, The Ruth Benedict Award from the Society of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists, and the Award for Outstanding Scholarship from the World Congress for Sexology. Williams was also sentenced to 5 years in prison for sexually assaulting boys in Southeast Asia.
The Supreme Court Case Oliphant v. Suquamish Tribe has made Native children and women easy targets for predators such as Williams. The prosecutors claimed that Williams used his academic research for a book over sexuality in Southeast Asia as a cover to travel to Asia to assault underage boys. It stands to reason that if he used his book research over Asia to assault boys there then he must have been doing this for decades to our Native youth. Why not stay domestic and travel to tribal land where one won’t be prosecuted for their crimes?
It wasn’t until the 2016 SCOTUS case Dollar General v. Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians that we were finally awarded the ability to prosecute predators on our lands. However, that will not undue the legacy of pain left behind by people, such as Williams. We’ll never know how many of our children were harmed while he was building a career off our backs.
