TWO SPIRIT

Link to Final Project:

http://2-spirit.tumblr.com/

Two Spirit Terms by Tribe

Aleut: Male-bodied Ayagigux’ (“man transformed into a woman”)

Female-bodied Tayagigux’ (“woman transformed into a man”)

Arapaho: Male-bodied Haxu’xan (singular), Hoxuxuno (plural) (“rotten bone”)

Arikara: Male-bodied Kuxa’t

Assiniboine: Male-bodied Winton

Bannock: Male-bodied Tuva’sa (“sterile”)

Bella Coola: Male-bodied Sx’ints (“hermaphrodite”)

Blackfoot, Southern Peigan: Male-bodied Aakíí’skassi (“acts like a woman”)

Female-bodied Saahkómaapi’aakííkoan (“boy-girl”) [ *strictly a nickname given to Running Eagle* ]

Cheyenne: Male-bodied He’eman (singular), He’emane’o (plural) (he’e = “woman”)

Female-bodied Hetaneman (singular), Hatane’mane’o (plural) (hetan = “man”)

Chickasaw, Choctaw: Male-bodied Hoobuk

Chumash: Male-bodied Agi

Cocopa: Male-bodied Elha (“coward”)

Female-bodied Warrhameh

Coeur d’Alene: Female-bodied St’amia (“hermaphrodite”)

Cree: Male-bodied Aayahkwew (“neither man or woman”)

Crow: Male-bodied Bote/Bate/Bade (“not man, not woman”)

Dakota/Lakota/Nakota (Oyate): Male-bodied Winkte, a contraction of winyanktehca.  (‘wants’ or ‘wishes’ to be [like a] woman”).

Female-bodied Bloka egla wa ke (“thinks she can act like a man”) [ editor’s note: cited by Beatrice Medicine, its age unknown ]

Flathead: (Interior Salish) Male-bodied Ma’kali

Gros Ventre: Male-bodied Athuth

Hidatsa: Male-bodied: Miati (“to be impelled against one’s will to act the woman,” “woman compelled”)

Hopi: Male-bodied: Ho’va

Illinois Male-bodied: Ikoueta Female-bodied: Ickoue ne kioussa (“hunting women”)

Ingalik Male-bodied: Nok’olhanxodeleane (“woman pretenders”) Female-bodied: Chelxodeleane (“man pretenders”)

Inuit Male-bodied: Sipiniq (“infant whose sex changes at birth”)

Juaneno Male-bodied: Kwit

Karankawa Male-bodied: Monaguia

Keresan, Acoma Male-bodied: Kokwi’ma

Laguna Male-bodied: Kok’we’ma

Klamath Male-/Female-bodied: Tw!inna’ek

Kutenai Male-bodied: Kupatke’tek (“to imitate a woman”) Female-bodied: Titqattek (“pretending to be a man”)

Kumeyaay, Tipai, Kamia Female-bodied: Warharmi

Luiseno, San Juan Capistrano Male-bodied: Cuit Mountain– Male-bodied: Uluqui

Mandan Male-bodied: Mihdacka (mih-ha = “woman”)

Maricopa Male-bodied: Ilyaxai’ (“girlish”) Female-bodied: Kwiraxame

Mescalero Apache Male-bodied: Nde’isdzan (“man-woman”)

Miami Male-bodied: Waupeengwoatar (“the white face,” possibly the name of a particular person who was two-spirit)

Micmac Male-bodied: Geenumu gesallagee (“he loves men,” perhaps correctly spelt ji’nmue’sm gesalatl)

Miwok Male-bodied: Osabu (osa = “woman”)

Mohave Maled-bodied: Alyha (“coward”) Female-bodied: Hwame

Western Mono Male-bodied: Tai’up

Navajo Male-/female-/intersexed-bodied: Nadleeh or nadle (gender class/category), nadleehi (singular), nadleehe (plural) (“one in a constant state of change,” “one who changes,” “being transformed”)

Nisenan: (Southern Maidu) Male-bodied: Osa’pu

Ojibwa (Chippewa): Male-bodied Agokwa (“man-woman”) Female-bodied: Okitcitakwe (“warrior woman”)

Omaha, Osage, Ponca: Male-bodied: Mixu’ga (“instructed by the moon,” “moon instructed”)

Otoe, Kansa (Kaw):  Male-bodied Mixo’ge (“instructed by the moon,” “moon instructed”)

Papago (Tohono O’odham), Pima (Akimel O’odham): Male-bodied Wik’ovat (“like a girl”)

Paiute: Northern Male-bodied: Tudayapi (“dress like other sex”) Southern Male-bodied: Tuwasawuts

Patwin: Male-bodied Panaro bobum pi (“he has two [sexes]”)

Pawnee: Male-bodied: Ku’saat

Pomo: Northern Male-bodied: Das (Da = “woman”) Southern Male-bodied: T!un

Potawatomi Male-bodied: M’netokwe (“supernatural, extraordinary,” Manito plus female suffix)

Quinault Male-bodied: Keknatsa’nxwixw (“part woman”) Female-bodied: Tawkxwa’nsixw (“man-acting”)

Salinan Male-bodied: Coya

Sanpoil Male-bodied: St’a’mia (“hermaphrodite”)

Sauk (Sac), Fox Male-bodied: I-coo-coo-a (“man-woman”)

Shoshone: Male-bodied Taikwahni tainnapa’ or sometimes taikwahni

Female-bodied Taikwahni wa’ippena’

Lemhi: Male/Female-bodied: Tubasa Female-bodied: Waipu sungwe (“woman-half”)

Gosiute Male-bodied: Tuvasa

Promontory Point Male-bodied: Tubasa waip (“sterile woman”), Female-bodied: Waipu sungwe (“woman-half”)

Nevada Male-bodied: Tainna wa’ippe (“man-woman”) Female-bodied: Nuwuducka (“female hunter”)

Takelma Male-bodied: Xa’wisa

Tewa Male-/Female-bodied: Kwido

Tiwa Isleta Male-bodied: Lhunide

Tlingit Male-bodied: Gatxan (“coward”)

Tsimshian  Noots; Plural g̱a̱noots; Dialectal Variant g̱a̱noodzit 

Southern Ute: Male-bodied Tuwasawits

Winnebago: (Ho-Chunk) Male-bodied Shiange (“unmanly man”)

Wishram: Male-bodied Ik!e’laskait

Yuma (Quechan): Male-bodied: Elxa’ (“coward”)

Female-bodied Kwe’rhame

Yup’ik Chugach/Pacific (Alutiiq, Southern Alaskan): Male-bodied Aranu’tiq (“man-woman”)

St. Lawrence Island (Siberian Yup’ik, Western Alaskan): Male-bodied Anasik

Female-bodied Uktasik

Kuskokwim River (Central Alaskan): Male-bodied Aranaruaq (“woman-like”)

Female-bodied Angutnguaq (“man-like”)

Zapotec: Male-bodied Muxe

Zuni: Male-bodied: Lha’mana (“behave like a woman”)

Female-bodied: Katotse (“boy-girl”)

Citation: “Two- Spirit.” Internet Archive Wayback Machine. N.p., n.d. Web

Research Sources

2011

Fred Martinez
https://durangoherald.com/articles/24984-a-boy-remembered

2013

Two Spirit Rising
http://www.dallasvoice.com/spirits-rising-10152569.html

2014

Facebook adds two spirit as a gender option
http://newamericamedia.org/2014/03/facebooks-two-spirit-gender-id-term-a-positive-step-for-lgbt-natives.php


2017

The two-spirit artists breaking down the colonial narrative for Canada 150
http://www.dailyxtra.com/vancouver/arts-and-entertainment/the-two-spirit-artists-breaking-the-colonial-narrative-canada-150-217406

BOOKS & SCHOLARLY ARTICLES

Two-Spirit People: Native American Gender Identity, Sexuality, and Spirituality

https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Z_ThIx97yw8C&oi=fnd&pg=PR11&dq=two+spirit+people&ots=PzSPHtMuva&sig=4RddbKNmH3cfYC_4jVjjM-fGR00#v=onepage&q=two%20spirit%20people&f=false


Intersections by Shari L. Brotman, Joseph Josy Lévy
https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=H6p4UEGUNnsC&oi=fnd&pg=PA245&dq=two+spirit+people&ots=sff7m7RuxT&sig=pSaJNcuBC3LHzkTJ2m-CGerXTyc#v=onepage&q=two%20spirit%20people&f=false


http://site.ebrary.com.libproxy.newschool.edu/lib/newschool/detail.action?docID=10602535

Project Proposal

My goal for my final is to learn more about two spirit people in a historical and modern context. This course introduced this term to me which is a shame I never knew, as someone who loves digging into their roots. After learning about "two spirit" I have many questions: What were the two spirit communities like in the past? Are there any tribes that are non-accepting of two spirit people? If so is it a symptom of colonization? How did two spirit people fare through colonization?  What kind of roles did two spirit people have? Did they vary from tribe to tribe? Why is it so difficult to find any modern pictures of two spirt people on Google? What are the roles of modern day two spirit people? Where does the  two spirit community fit into the LGBTQ community?

How Two-Spirit Fits Into LGBTQ America

Ty Defoe talks about finding an identity other than trans that was a part of his Native American heritage all along.

By ANUPA MISTRY

Photographer JOHN EDMONDS

Freedom is a modern right, but it’s not always universally applied. In the case of Ty Defoe, a performance artist, Grammy Award-winning musician, and educator, freedom in 2016 entails the right to perform, cross state lines, and legally transition. Defoe lives in New York, but grew up in northern Wisconsin immersed in the Ojibwe and Oneida traditions of his parents. Still, it took time for him to identify as two-spirit, a pan-native term used to describe gender fluidity, variance from traditional masculine or feminine physicality and performance, or, more broadly, queerness.

An instinctive search for an identity other than trans makes Defoe a unique witness to liberty’s limits. “People don't even think about native peoples even though we're on the land,” Defoe said, over the phone. “Because our culture was taken away, there’s no one to ask about what two-spirit is or how we define it.” You might say that Defoe’s identity — political, social, spiritual — is defined by a kind ofunfreedom. To be native and two-spirit in America in 2016 is to inhabit fraught territory, geographically and physically. Defoe talked about what it’s like to be transgendered in the States, and two-spirit on Turtle Island.

Did you grow up in the city or on a reservation?

TY DEFOE: I grew up in my culture, speaking the language, and going to the roundhouse every weekend with my mom. I started hoop dancing when I could walk. The hoop dance grounded me in heritage, family, and ritual, and that’s something I carry with me today: even as an artist and writer, and as a two-spirit person too. Reservations are on gorgeous, beautiful land, but they are also places of triggers and historic trauma, so hoop dancing was my saving grace in terms of passing culture on to the future. All of these stories and traditions were lost [during colonization of the Americas] but now, like lots of people of color in the U.S., we are beginning to ask about the nuances within our culture. When we can name things, we can speak truth to power.

When did you first encounter the concept of two-spirit, and why did you decide to identify as such? Coming out as two-spirit was quite challenging because in Western society, the word for me is transgender — I would be a transgender male. But that kind of implies going from one gender to the next, and I was like, “No, I think there's something else.” So I went and asked my family and elders and, of course, no one had a very specific answer. When our culture was taken away, ideas like this were called “devil-worshipping.”

Literally, being two-spirit is identifying as native or indigenous, and then your spirit is all-encompassing of gender and sexual orientation at the same time. As a kid I was more interested in tending the fire and learning drum songs, which men do, than cleaning the cedar. There were stories I’d heard, like one about a woman who was a grass dancer, which is a healing dance done by males. I’d wonder, “Does that take away the power or spirit she put into that dance?” I have mobilized my transition [from female to male] to move in Western circles, so these stories feel like special moments. Asking questions about my culture helped me on my path.

Did you find any answers? Right now, [for two-spirit people] there's a period of re-identifying and trying to figure out how we keep this society alive. There are actually some two-spirit elders, who have come out, who were in the[American Indian] boarding schools. They weren't allowed to speak the language, their hair got cut, they weren’t able to express any kind of sexual identity or role other than what they looked like. Because of that interaction with Western society and homophobia, a lot of people have been kicked out of homes or run away to cities. So we’re all finding each other, especially because of the internet. There are ways for us to connect in order to survive and live. We’re all figuring it out together. 

When we can name things, we can speak truth to power.

Where does the concept of trans fit within a native context?

One thing that was really difficult was explaining the medication, like hormones, to my family. They were like, “Why do you need to take this medicine from a culture that isn't ours to change how you look on the outside to others?” That's a completely valid concern, absolutely. For me, I'm trying to do this kind of work and I need to express myself on the outside how I see myself to make it easier for me to walk in life.

Are you seeing an internal shift take place?

Times are changing, and new elders are coming and taking positions of leadership and power. Culture is evolving and I feel like it’s always been that way, so that we as an entire people can survive. It's kind of like when the Pope addresses gay marriage. There are new — I don't know want to say rules, but there are new moral ethics being discussed in lodges. But, sadly, there's a high suicide rate of indigenous people, and an even higher suicide rate with queer indigenous people. That's because of straight-up homophobia and transphobia. There's this assumption with native people that we know our traditions — you know, there’s this exotification of sweat lodges and ceremonies. But many things have been taken away from native folks and that affects this nuanced thing of being two-spirit. Also, women are constantly left out of being two-spirit, in part, because of how HIV/AIDS affected men in the ’80s. There are no pictures. Two-spirit does not mean gay man.

Where do two-spirit societies fit within America’s mainstream LGBTQ movement?

There are smaller organizations who are ‘woke’ out West — definitely not as much on the East Coast because of the timeline of history. It's very much colonized. But if you go out to Oregon or California, certain LGBTQ centers are working with two-spirit societies. There’s the Western State Center in Portland that’s putting together a toolkit to talk about two-spirit identity and what that is. There are smaller communities doing things like this, too, but the history books are written by white cisgendered men, so there’s a lot of unlearning and decolonizing of the body and mind to do.

But people have been doing it in their own way for a long time. In the ’80s, our indigenous men were passing away from HIV and AIDS and we needed to come together for healing. There was funding for that so people were able to meet and talk about community organizing. I think allies and LGBTQ centers can be huge and make more of an effort, if they're not already, about a call to action, recognizing two-spirit as part of the longer acronym, their resources, or partnering with a local two-spirit society. We don't have to reinvent wheels: things exist, and if we partnered, we could make a difference.

And is there room for two-spirit people within contemporary native activism?

The youth are really bringing it. I taught a performance class at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, with people aged 18 to 56. Everyone went by the pronoun “they” despite their gender expression — it was like we were practicing with each other about being fluid. We have to practice this, even in small ways, because if we don't foster an inclusive community, youth will go away from the culture. Because LGBTQ people are already oppressed and have been marginalized, the work ethic and standard has to be overcompensated for. Those folks are building bridges, creating communities, and making people feel uncomfortable. They're trying to say, “Hey, you know what? There wasn't a space for me before, but move over. There's a space for me in the circle.”

X

Two Spirit | Google Image Search

Two Spirit | Film

TWO SPIRITS interweaves the tragic story of a mother’s loss of her son with a revealing look at a time when the world wasn’t simply divided into male and female, and many Native American cultures held places of honor for people of integrated genders.

Fred Martinez was nádleehí, a male-bodied person with a feminine nature, a special gift according to his ancient Navajo culture. But the place where two discriminations meet is a dangerous place to live, and Fred became one of the youngest hate-crime victims in modern history when he was brutally murdered at sixteen. Between tradition and controversy, sex and spirit, and freedom and fear, lives the truth—the bravest choice you can make is to be yourself.

Greer Lankton

      

Greer Lankton was an iconic trans artist known for creating lifelike dolls, resourcefully crafted out of soda bottles, panty hose, coat hangers, layers of paint and glass eyes obtained from a taxidermy shop. Her dolls were usually modeled after friends, icons and after herself. Greer's dolls would sometimes undergo changes, some dolls lost or gained weight, others had sex-changes and some were chopped into torsos or heads to be mounted on walls. "Greer's dolls reflect her unique, isolated vantage point on both sexes, and her exploration of gender, outcasts and norms of beauty meshed perfectly with art world trends."

The first two images above are from Greer's final installation, "It's about Me... Not You",  at the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh. Greer passed away only a week after the opening of her installation.

Look at little Andy!

source

Felix Gonzalez-Torre

Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A.)

Untitled (Perfect Lovers)

Cuban American artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres known for his minimal and conceptual art installations. His creations are personal, political and often addressed loss caused by AIDS. The first piece above shows a pile of sour gummy bears in a corner of a room. This piece is an allegorical representation of the artist's lover Ross Laycock. Laycock died of AIDS related illness. The pile of candy weighs 175 pounds, Laycock's ideal body weight. Viewers are encouraged take a piece of candy, turning into a smaller and smaller pile of candy. This is meant to represent Laycock's dwindling weight due to AIDS. 

Food for Thought: Thinking about Warhol

Annie Leibovitz

A photographer known for producing intimate and sometimes provocative portraits. Her photographs have appeared in numerous magazines and publications. Many of Leibovitz's photographs reveal a personal side of her subjects life, much like the Andy's work during his Silver Factory era. In both cases the subject's nature slowly unravels itself once the camera is on.  Leibovitz's more personal work such as her portraits of her late friend and lover, Susan Sontag, reveal a lesbian artist. 

3 images

Felix Gonzalez-Torres. "Untitled" (Perfect Lovers). 1991. 

Clocks, paint on wall. Overall 14 x 28 x 2 3/4" (35.6 x 71.2 x 7 cm)

David Kirby on his deathbed, Ohio, 1990. Therese Frare

United Colors of Benetton, Unhate ad

Statements and Questions

10S

• The gay world is a sad and sordid world

• Homosexuality is much more harmful than abortion and adultery.

• Homosexuality is social disorder and a problem society must suppress.

• Homosexuality is a learned behavior and/or the result of a domineering mother and absent father.

• Homosexuals are unable to have stable and long lasting relationships.

• There is no such thing as a "happy homosexual." 

• Homosexuality is most prominent in large cities

• Large cities offer established homosexuals societies to join, plenty of opportunity to meet other homosexuals.

• The "straight" world in late cities are more tolerant and maybe even accepting of homosexuals than in smaller communities. 

• Professions favored by homosexuals are in the arts, such as interior decorating, fashion design, hair styling, the dance and theater. 

10Q

1. Why are many homosexuals geared towards artistic professions?

2. Why is the art field more accepting of homosexuals?

3. Why were homosexuals so heavily punished for showing public affection?

4. Why was homosexuality considered a mental illness?

5. Why was homosexuality synonymous to perverted?

5. What other things were thought to have caused homosexuality?

6. Is there a way to identify a homosexual? 

7. Why was homosexuality considered more harmful than adultery?

8. Why are cities more accepting of homosexuals? 

9. What was it like being a homosexual in a small community?

10. How do we change our preconceived notions of marriage?