Two Spirited Aboriginal gender and sexuality
Prior to colonization, Aboriginal cultures across the Americas understood that there was a gender spectrum, and Aboriginal societies featured at least three and sometimes four genders: men, women, men-women, and women-men. Men-women and women-men often entered into relationships with same-sex partners, which is why “two-spirit” has now become the accepted term for Aboriginal gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered people.
Two-spirit roles were one of the most widely shared features of Aboriginal societies in the Americas, according to scholar Will Roscoe. In his book
Changing Ones: Third and Fourth Genders in Native North America, Roscoe writes that “[Two-spirits] have been documented in every region of the continent, among speakers of every major language group, and in every kind of culture, from the hunters of the Arctic to the foragers of native California, to the Pueblo farmers of the Southwest and the nomadic warrior-hunters of the Great Plains.”
Two-spirit people often held honoured and influential positions, and various two-spirits are still recognized today as some of the most important figures in their nations’ histories. We’wha, a Zuni man-woman, was an accomplished potter and weaver and a recognized expert in Zuni religion. Born in 1849, s/he visited Washington in 1886 to work with anthropologists at the Smithsonian Institution. Osh-Tisch was a Crow two-spirit who joined an 1879 battle against the Sioux and Cheyenne, earning the name Finds-Them-And-Kills-Them. An accomplished craftsperson, Osh-Tisch also made tipis and leather goods, decorating them with intricate quill- and beadwork. Navajo two-spirit Hastiin Klah was an expert weaver and powerful medicine person whose family recognized that s/he was a two-spirit when s/he was a small child. S/he conducted complex Navajo ceremonies and also co-founded the Wheelwright Museum of the Native American in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Kuilix (Red Shirt), a Kalispel/Flathead woman-man from western Montana, was a renowned warrior most famous for chasing enemy Crow with an axe during an 1846 battle.
More:
http://dragonflycanada.ca/gender-and-sexuality-in-aboriginal-america/
Oh Cliffy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I get a BIG KICK out of native histories!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
usually WITH no written history to back them up.................................
native RADICALS to often CAN AND DO ROUTINELY say whatever crap comes conveniently to mind!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Secure in the knowledge that there is no alternate version of history to refute radical bulls+t!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Radicals feel free to add, edit, alter or DELETE the oral history!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Cliffy- your assertions about "hereditary chiefs" definitely fall into that BULLSH+T category!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And your assertions about native transgender looks to be on shaky ground!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
One guy in a dress does not add up to wide spread tribal acceptance of transgenders!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NO doubt your oral histories do not bother asking how many tribal members mocked the goof in a dress!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Here is an article illustrating the uncivil war that LIE-beral promotion of their grossly racist policy is spawning. With some comments of my own in brackets):
First Nations leaders say Lakehead University’s choice for interim dean of law school is ‘an insult’
Nishnawbe Aski Nation’s deputy grand chief says Justice George Patrick Smith sentenced Indigenous leaders to prison in 2008 during the community’s fight to protect their traditional territory.
(One kind of has to pity the poor natives- caught as they are between the grandiose but empty and vacuous promises of our LIE-beral overlords and the economic reality of everyday life! Foolish natives think there is substantial support for LIE-beral efforts to buy native votes with insane and costly promises that LIE-berals will never fully honour!)
Smith’s appointment comes just weeks after Angelique EagleWoman, the first female Indigenous dean of a Canadian law school, resigned from her position at Lakehead.
THUNDER BAY, Ont.—First Nations leaders are calling on a northern Ontario university to rescind the appointment of a provincial judge as interim dean of the institution’s law school, saying he sentenced several Indigenous leaders to prison for protecting their lands.
The Nishnawbe Aski Nation’s deputy grand chief calls Justice George Patrick Smith’s appointment at Lakehead University “an insult.”
(It was LIE-beral Jean Chretien as Indian Affairs Minister under PM Pierre Trudeau who encouraged natives to dream big with regard to native land claims! Too bad it as the usual LIE-beral bait and switch- all sizzle and NO steak!)
Deputy Grand Chief Derek Fox says Smith sentenced Chief Donny Morris and five members of the Kitchenumaykoosib Inninuwug Council to prison in 2008 during the community’s fight to protect their traditional territory from mining activity.
Smith’s appointment comes just weeks after Angelique EagleWoman, the first female Indigenous dean of a Canadian law school, resigned. NAN says EagleWoman cited issues of systemic racism within the university for her departure.
(Shall we ask if those issues of systemic racism involve whites unwilling to kow-tow before “native wisdom and instinctive ways of knowing”? Natives have insisted that white history- written by actual witnesses to historic events is less accurate than the native oral history as recited by persons offering testimony about events that occurred long before they were born! Natives scorn the white complaint that such hear-say evidence can be changed at a moments notice by native bigots for reasons of personal profit or spite- leaving NO record and NO witnesses and NO way to challenge deliberate native LIES!)
(Natives see it as “White privilege” that white law makers constantly refer to written records for guidance on legal matters rather than trust the “testimony” of natives who expect to profit nicely if a verdict goes their way! Such native values are behind the move to “decolonize” our college and university records and replace written observations made by whites- with modern native wishful thinking and all this native propaganda is courtesy of encouragement and sponsorship by shameless vote buying LIE-berals !)
A Lakehead spokesperson said in an email that the university would not be commenting immediately on the issue and planned to reach out to Indigenous leaders to discuss the situation.
(Lost in all this LIE-beral propaganda and native arrogance is any question of the competence of the new appointee! None of these propaganda meisters give a rats ass if the guy knows the law- the ONLY IMPORTANT QUESTION for these native and LIE-beral BIGOTS is this: “can the guy be bullied into supporting their racist CRAP”? And since the guy has previously jailed native loud mouths it seems unlikely he will tolerate much overt politically motivated bigotry!)
Morris said he questions how Smith can be an expert in Indigenous law when “he doesn’t understand where we came from.”
“When we look inside our hearts and minds we believe that this is our land,” he said Friday in a release.
(Yes- but Indigenous Law centres on the treaties that were signed and the rights that were negotiated! And of course Chretien has led the LIE-beral charge to throw out all the old rules- and to allow bullying native racists to re-write everything they can- to their advantage- according to what natives figure it is convenient to believe at the time!)
(Natives who question Smith`s legal expertise are using “native speak” meaning they object because the guy wants to be logical and reasonable and will not let natives put words in his mouth!)
“It is an insult for Justice Smith to be appointed to lead an academic institution that prides itself on advancing Indigenous interests, and I call on Lakehead University to immediately rescind this decision,” he said.
(Gosh- I thought Lakehead U- which is a creation of white people anyway- was created to ensure that young people- including native kids- got a good education- including an ability to analyse a situation with logic? When did Lakehead or any other institution of higher learning become a dedicated propaganda centre responsible for promoting racist native views? I guess we can thank LIE-berals for turning our schools into Soviet Pravda style story telling machines! And considering that only 25 percent of natives actually graduate from high school maybe we should be asking if the native whiners have the intellectual ability to comprehend what it is that people like Smith might be teaching?)