Blackfoot Knowledge Ways: Character Typing, “Two Souled” Persons, and Mosquitoes
A Casual Conversation with Ryan Heavyhead
The other day, my friend Ryan Heavyhead and I were having a casual conversation about some questions that had occurred to me relating to Blackfoot knowledge ways ( Niitsitapisskska’takssin ). As some of his responses were surprising, I felt it would be useful to share them in a more public setting. I want to emphasize, however, that the conversation was casual, improvised, and was originally intended to be private.
I have slightly edited some of my own contributions to the discussion for clarity and brevity.
D: Darin Stevenson
R: Ryan Heavyhead
Astrology and Character Typing
D: It’s not hard for me to resist the naive urge to ask something like ‘did the Blackfoot people have Astrology?’ — I am well-enough aware of the incredibly poor ‘translation’ between Western cultural ideas and Blackfoot knowledge ways to realize that there could be nothing like that, in the same way that the specific idea of ‘war’ does not precisely exist in Blackfoot language (from a previous discussion).
But what I would like to know is if there are any ways you are aware of by which, perhaps less systematic than our expectations, Blackfoot people organize others into ‘kinds’ or ‘types’ in a way analogous to what Astrology tends to be about.
R: Not really. About the closest thing is associations of characteristics of a person based on their name and who carried their name before, or who gave them their name. In (indecipherable) it is a new name, but if it’s a name that’s been carried before there’s a possibility that you’re going to… there’s a strong possibility that you’re going to have some of the same… characteristics as those who carried it before.
I guess the other thing that comes to mind too, would be… characteristics of a person based on their… their spirit allies and their animals? You know, those people who feel spiritually allied to bears, for instance, tend to be bullies — and the kind of people who take things from others… or, for example… people who are allied with snakes tend to have many secreted affairs (gentle laughter).
There are these kinds of things. There’s nothing based on birth-timing that I’ve ever heard of that implies Blackfoot associations with character. But I worked with the Hupa of California… and it is interesting there. Because they follow, traditionally, a very strict timing for mating. They follow The Way of the Deer.
So when the acorns are being harvested — this is the only time men and women should be together. So, basically, if you are not born a Taurus, if you are not born during the transition between April and May, that time of year, you’re considered an illegitimate child to the Hupa. And in traditional Hupa culture you would be ill-treated for being an illegitimate child.
So-Called “Two-Souled” Persons and Indigenous Gender Identity
D: So in Blackfoot culture, one acquires the figurations of character from naming, and from relationships with the divine world and animals — rather than from calendrical categories based on conception or birth. Of course, in astrology, the ‘animals’ are pre-stipulated for each sign, so we have a strange correlation with the basic idea of ‘spirit animal’ there. Then with the Hupa, we have something unusually provocative: a pre-set annual mating period, which I presume goes not by the Gregorian Calendar but the moon. I suppose the conception period for the Hupa is around October/November.
This brings me to another question: I want to ask you about something I have heard as a concept which I presume may emerge from Western Culture, or may be an appropriation from a specific indigenous culture. However, it is something I am aware of from my own direct experience and understanding… of being human, so I am not simply asking about this concept. What I want to know about is if there is any history or knowledge you are aware of in Blackfoot traditions relating to so-called ‘two-souled’ people, a phrase generally used in modern discussion to refer to people with uncommon gender identities or who are attracted to people of their own gender.
R: In the Blackfoot stories, there are historical stories about men who were wives to other men. And some women who were warriors. In the language they are called Aawowaakii. One way to translate this is ‘turned around woman’. Or at least that is my sense of the word. But there’s really not a whole lot about them that I know. To return to the Hupa, however — when I worked with them, there is a breeding season for the people. Which, I wouldn’t doubt if the Blackfoot people had, I don’t know, I don’t know if there was a tradition of when you would make babies… not that I know of… but given that all of the Blackfoot phenology focuses on the mating seasons of other animals, it wouldn’t surprise me to know that there was, in tradition, a mating time.
But with the Hupa, because men and women, like the deer, lived separate for most of the year… so men had men’s houses and women had women’s houses. And only at the Acorn Camp did husbands and wives camp together, in little wigwams, together. But normally, at the village, there were men’s houses and women’s houses. And being gay there was… like 100%. (Calm laughter). And even still today, you go to visit the Hupa, and they are very effeminate men, and vice-versa for the women. Being gay is the norm.
D: That’s a surprising result to my question about the whole ‘two souled’ concept, which I do not know the origins of. I have, however, had some very intimate and profound experience of with people I know, around this basic theme — in the sense of having dreams in which, for example, they have a masculine and feminine aspect… and are switching back and forth between them in the dream. Whether or not the language is invented, there seems to be something useful to the underlying implication, but I certainly never expected to discover that there was a tribe, or possibly a number of tribes in which it was the standard for people to be bisexual, or homosexual, except perhaps for mating time. And the Wiki page on the Hupa definitely has nothing to say about this.
I am aware that in indigenous cultures there is most often a rather explicit distinction between the men and women; that is, unlike our modern cultures where there is a sort of falsified insistence on some kind of evaluative equivalence, on ‘equality’, indigenous cultures seem to sustain an awareness of diversity and complimentarity. This appears to us to be a situation where male privilege is sustained, we have modern critiques, and so on, and yet our own actual cultures are catastrophically unsuccessful in nearly every domain of these concerns. It seems to me, then, that in Blackfoot society, for example, there is a rather natural sense of the ‘ordinary’ interests and roles of the men and the women, with each being valued deeply, without having to be necessarily equivalent. Is there a greater tolerance of transitional or nonordinary gender identities and relationships?
R: Not really. I mean, Blackfoot culture is more masculine-oriented in some ways. There is, for example… it’s very insulting, in the past, for men to be told to ‘go wear a dress’, for instance? It means they are not really men, you know? And, one time, I remember, they were teasing Frank, at an all-night smoke ceremony — the late Frank Weaselhead — and the women’s society were giving gifts, and they gave him… a dress. And, well, he didn’t go to another all-night smoke ceremony for years. And he was really offended (wry laughter). (Note: I suspect that Ryan is implying something here that is a lot more complex than it appears in superficial language ).
But when you talk about actual gay people — there’s no issue with it here. People are totally accepted as who they are, you know, doing their thing. Nobody cares. But there is a little bit of what you might call male chauvenism that is prevalent. I mean, I know from gay men that I know here that they are often hurt by this, they feel this from the community… but, for the most part — you know, there’s nothing like ‘gay bashing’ that happens here, but I think the men at least, are hurt by the social-criticism that they are somehow not real men because they are gay.
Perhaps part of this is due to the fact that they are categorized in Blackfoot tradition as women. In fact, the term, Aawowak’ii categorizes them as women. So this is interesting. Whether you are a gay man or a gay woman, the language categorizes you as a woman. The ending ‘akii’ — is categorically indicative of women.
( Note: there is a subtext here where, in many indigenous societies, all woman and children are considered female. ‘Men’ are thus ‘differentiated’ into a new role, the role of masculine life, identity and obligation. In this sense ‘female’ is the ‘default state of being’ and ‘males’ must be actively distinguished from this state by ceremony, transmission, and action on the part of the one making the crossing into male identity. )
Mosquitoes, Not Killing, Offering the Self, The Sharp Noses
D: We both share a deep reverence and respect for living creatures of every kind, and, although I used to have a ‘terminate with prejudice’ response to household mosquitoes, we spoke about this one day at length. I was already feeling that my actions and perspective were wrong when you told me the story of a Blackfoot hero, and his encounter with the Mosquito people. Since then, as you know, I have been netting and releasing mosquitoes.
And this experience, of relating with them as beings deserving of respect and empathy, has had an extremely profound effect on me, emotionally and spiritually. Moderns, especially those who dwell in citiies, may find such perspectives bizarre or even insane, however, a quick comparison of their activities with their assertions gives the lie to this position in a simple, direct way. In any case, I would like to know if you remember the name of the hero in that story… and was the society called the Sharp Noses?
R: Yeah it’s the Sharp Noses. Ksisohksisiiksi. The mosquitoes. I don’t really think I ever knew the hero’s name. The origin of the society, however, goes something like this:
It was a rainy day, and he was out in the timber, this guy. And when it dried up, the mosquitoes were coming out in swarms, and they were getting under his clothes and he was being overwhelmed. He was really suffering and could not escape them.
And so at that point he lay down and just exposed himself and told the mosquito people to take him. And he was ready to die. He was saying, ‘Ok, you guys are killing me, so you must really need me as food. Take me completely then.’ He was offering his life. And at that point, he heard these voices talking to the mosquitoes, telling them, ‘You know, your friend is nearly dead.”
And when he looked up, he saw there were four special mosquitoes that had yellow and blue-striped face painting. And they were ordering the other mosquitoes, making movements to drive them off, saying, ‘You know, this guy has given himself completely, and you have taken enough of his life, he’s almost dead.” These four warded off the others.
And they ultimately transferred, to him, songs and knowledge ways about what they were doing. And this was the birth of the Sharp Noses society.
And they had the four yellow mosquiotes who were the leaders of the red mosquitoes. And they wore eagle claws as bracelets, and it was a society of young persons.
And there were times, under some circumstances, where they would attack somebody, and be poking them with their eagle claws — somebody that is not following the traditions — they might attack him — be poking them with their claws — and these four yellow mosquitoes would intervene, and let them know that hey, that’s enough.
A lot of origins come from human beings becoming ready to give themselves up. You know, in the vision quest, in the fasting, the human beings are giving something up, making an offering without taking anything in return. Sometimes they receive something powerful in this process.
There is no more Sharp Noses society. They were one of several societies that, when smallpox hit, went under. They disappeared and were lost because our people were decimated. We lost many societies. In fact some of the societies that exist today, like the Horn Society, which is crucially important, are amalgamations of the vestiges of lost societies.
But the source is always there. The mosquitoes are always there. That’s the thing with Blackfoot traditions: the source is always there; new things can come, and things that were lost can be retrieved and revitalized.
D: Now, it is my own direct experience, even of modern Western religions and their heroes, that the whole idea has little to do with worship or veneration, and is, instead, an invitation to become the hero, to embody their quests and virtues in ways appropriate to one’s own life and time. So that, for example, even with the Jesus texts, what is obvious to anyone reading them is not that Christ is demanding worship, or adherence to some code — rather the invitation is to become the Hero, personally, in one’s own life and path, one’s concerns, awareness and adventures. In this way, the spirit of the divine ‘gets a heartbeat’ so that, in each generation, new human persons arise who are willing to take on this grace, to become it, to exemplify and give it life. A pulse across the generations. I suspect that this is akin to your own view, but would appreciate hearing your reply.
R: Yes, of course. I know exactly what you are saying, and I agree. Even with the old Jesus story — isn’t that obviously the point? It’s kind of like the Blackfoot story about Scarface, the guy who wanders all over the place seeking the lodge of the Sun, only to, eventually, realize that there wasn’t any other place. At all. (Laughter). He’s having this huge adventure to find the lodge of the Sun and the Moon, but he’s in it the whole time. He’s always been there. This is the lodge of the Sun and the Moon. You know?
Because I didn’t grow up with the church or anyhing, but everyone I grew up with did, there was this weird thing between me and… well, everybody. And, just to mess with people sometimes, but in a way that I thought was actually also true, I would tell them, like “Hey, I am the son of God.” (laughter) And they’d say (laughter) you know, “No you’re not.” (laughter). And I would say “Yeah, I am. I know you’ve been waiting for the Second Coming… well, here I am. (laughter) And you don’t believe it.” (laughter).
