Two-spirit
Two-spirit (also known as two spirit or occasionally twospirited)[a] is a contemporary pan-Indian umbrella term used by some Indigenous North Americans to describe Native people who fulfill a traditional third-gender (or other gender-variant) social role in their communities.[1][2][3]
Coined in 1990 as a primarily ceremonial term promoting community recognition, in recent years more individuals have taken to self-identifying as two-spirit. Two-spirit, as a term and concept, is neither used nor accepted universally in Native American cultures. Indigenous cultures that have traditional roles for gender-nonconforming people have names in their own Indigenous languages for these people and the roles they fill in their communities.
The initial intent in coining the term was to differentiate Indigenous concepts of gender and sexuality from those of non-Native lesbians and gays[4] and to replace the pejorative anthropological terms that were still in wide use.[5] While two-spirit has been controversial since its adoption,[6] the term has experienced more academic and social acceptance than the term berdache, which it was coined to replace.[5][7][8] The government of Canada officially uses 2SLGBTQI+[b] as an alternative to the established acronym of LGBTQI+,[9] sometimes shortened to 2SLGBT.
Early adopters stated that a two-spirit identity does not make sense outside of a Native American or First Nations cultural framework.[3][2][10] The term has sometimes been appropriated by non-Natives.[11]
The gender nonconforming or third-gender, ceremonial roles traditionally embodied by some Native American and Indigenous peoples in Canada that may be encompassed by modern two-spirit people vary widely, even among the Native individuals or cultures that use the term. Not all of these cultures have historically had roles for gender-variant people, and among those that do, no one Indigenous culture's gender or sexuality categories apply to all Native people.[12][13]
Two-spirit as a term
Etymology
The neologism two-spirit was developed over a series of five conferences, concluding in 1990 at the Third Annual Inter-tribal Native American, First Nations, Gay and Lesbian American Conference in Winnipeg.[6] Credit for developing the term is usually given to several participants in the gatherings. The term was first developed and proposed in English, and later the Ojibwe translation niizh manidoowag was constructed and proposed to honor the language of the Indigenous peoples in whose territory the conference was being held.[12]
Both the English and Ojibwe terms were coined at the 1990 conference and are not found in the historical record. Two-spirit, in English or translated into any other language, is a general term for wider audiences and is not intended to replace the traditional terms or concepts already in use in Indigenous cultures.
For early adopters, the term Two Spirit was a deliberate act to differentiate and distance themselves from non-Native gays and lesbians,[4] as well as from non-Native terminology such as gay, lesbian, and transgender, and particularly the offensive anthropological label berdache,[5][4] which had previously been the preferred term among non-Native anthropologists for Indigenous people who did not conform to European-American gender roles. However, berdache, which means "passive partner in sodomy, boy prostitute", has always been offensive to Indigenous peoples.[12] Journalist Mary Annette Pember (Red Cliff Ojibwe) and others write that motivation to coin a new term to replace the outdated and offensive anthropological term was one strong concern in the agreement to adopt the term two-spirit.[12][5][7][8]
Two-spirited woman Michelle Cameron (Carrier First Nations) writes, "The term two-spirit is thus an Aboriginal-specific term of resistance to colonization and non-transferable to other cultures. There are several underlying reasons for two spirited Aboriginals' desire to distance themselves from the mainstream queer community."[14] German anthropologist Sabine Lang writes that for Aboriginal people, sexual orientation or gender identity is secondary to their ethnic identity. "At the core of contemporary two-spirit identities is ethnicity, an awareness of being Native American as opposed to being white or being a member of any other ethnic group".[4]
While initially focused on ceremonial and social roles within the Indigenous community, as a pan-Indian, English-language umbrella term, for some it has come to have similar use as the terms queer (modern, reclaimed usage) or LGBTQ in encompassing lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Native peoples in North America.[12]
While some have found two-spirit a useful tool for intertribal organizing, "the concept and word two-spirit has no traditional cultural significance".[12] Not all tribes have ceremonial roles for these people, and the tribes that do usually use names in their own languages.[20][7]
With over 500 surviving Native American cultures, attitudes about sex and gender can be diverse.[12] Even with the modern adoption of pan-Indian terms like two-spirit, and the creation of a modern pan-Indian community around this naming, not all cultures will perceive gender-nonconforming members of their communities the same way, or welcome a pan-Indian term to replace the terms already in use by their cultures.[13][12] Additionally, not all contemporary Indigenous communities are supportive of their gender-variant and non-heterosexual people now. In these communities, those looking for two-spirit community have sometimes faced oppression and rejection.[10][13] While existing terminology in many nations shows historical acknowledgement of differing sexual orientations and gender expressions, members of some of these nations have also said that while variance was accepted, they never had separate or defined roles for these members of the community.[10][13] Among the Indigenous communities that traditionally have roles for two-spirit people, specific terms in their own languages are used for the social and spiritual roles these individuals fulfill.[13][12][21] The following list is not comprehensive.
Indigiqueer
Another contemporary term in use, as an alternative to two-spirit, and which does not rely on binary conceptions of gender, is Indigiqueer. Originally spelled Indigequeer, the term was coined by TJ Cuthand, and popularized by author Joshua Whitehead.[19] Cuthand first used Indigiqueer for the title of the 2004 Vancouver Queer Film Festival's Indigenous/two-spirit Program, and has written that he came up with this alternative term, "because some LGBTQ Indigenous people don't feel as comfortable with the two-spirit title because it implies some dual gender stuff, which some people just don't feel describes their identity."[39][19][40]
Cultural issues and protocols
Definition and societal role in Indigenous communities
Though "two-spirit" has gained far more mainstream recognition and popularity than the traditional terms in Indigenous languages, acceptance of the term is not universal. While use of "two-spirit" to replace the offensive berdache proceeded, particularly in academic practice, the word has sometimes replaced culturally-specific terms and their attendant Indigenous knowledge, leading to criticism about its potential to dilute or erase culture.[6] Writing for Encyclopedia of Gender and Society: Volume 2 (2009), an academic textbook, Kylan Mattias de Vries says: "Nations and tribes used various words to describe various genders, sexes and sexualities. Many had separate words for the Western constructs of gays, lesbians, bisexuals, intersex individuals, cross-dressers, transgenders, gender-variant individuals, or 'changing ones', third genders (men who live as women), and fourth genders (women who live as men). Even these categories are limiting, because they are based on Western language and ideas rooted in a dichotomous relationship between gender, sex, and sexuality. This language barrier limits our understanding of the traditional roles within Native American/First Nations cultures."[12]
Male-bodied two-spirit people, regardless of gender identification, can go to war and have access to male activities such as male-only sweat lodge ceremonies.[41] However, they may also take on "feminine" activities such as cooking and other domestic responsibilities.[42] According to Lang, female-bodied two-spirit people usually have sexual relations or marriages with only females.[43]
For First Nations people whose lives have been impacted by the residential schools, and other Indigenous communities who have experienced severe cultural damage from colonization, the specific traditions in their communities that might now be seen as two-spirit may have been severely damaged, fragmented, or even lost.[14] While not all communities had these ways, in those that did, for some there may be challenges in reviving older traditions, and to overcoming learned homophobia or other prejudices that may have been introduced with colonization.[14]
Given title and role
Traditional Native American cultures that have ceremonial roles for gender-variant members of their communities may require that these people be recognized and assigned this role by tribal elders.[2] In these cultures, a traditional third-gender ceremonial or social role is a given title that cannot be self-selected. For these communities, two-spirit differs from the mainstream Western use of sexual and gender identity labels because it is a sacred, spiritual and ceremonial role that is recognized and confirmed only by tribal elders of that two-spirit person's Indigenous ceremonial community.[2] In these tribes, two-spirit people have specific duties, and the two-spirit title is not granted unless the person is fulfilling these ceremonial roles.[1]
Talking to The New York Times in 2006, Joey Criddle, who self-identifies as Jicarilla Apache, says that two-spirit titles are not interchangeable with "LGBT Native American" or "gay Indian": "The elders will tell you the difference between a gay Indian and a Two-Spirit." He underscores that simply being gay and Native does not make someone a two-spirit, which requires participation in tribal ceremony.[2]
Appropriation
The increasing visibility of the two-spirit concept in mainstream culture has been seen as both empowering and as having some undesirable consequences, such as the spread of misinformation about the cultures of Indigenous peoples, pan-Indianism replacing culturally-specific teachings and traditions, and cultural appropriation of Indigenous identities and ceremonial ways by non-Natives who do not understand that Indigenous communities see two-spirit as a specifically Native American and First Nations cultural identity, not one to be taken up by non-Natives.[13][14]
When Indigenous people from communities that are less-accepting of two-spirits have sought community among non-Native LGBT communities, however, the tendency for non-Natives to tokenize and appropriate has at times led to rifts rather than unity, with two-spirits feeling like they are just another tacked on initial rather than fully included. Cameron writes:[14]
In academia, there has since 2010 or earlier been a move to "queer the analytics of settler colonialism" and create a "twospirit" critique as part of the general field of queer studies.[13] However, much of this academic analysis and publishing is not based in traditional Indigenous knowledge, but in the more mainstream, non-Native perspectives of the broader LGBT communities, so most of the same cultural misunderstandings tend to be found as in the outdated writing of the non-Native anthropologists and "explorers".[13][44]
Academic use of umbrella terms
Writing in March 1998 to advise colleagues and peers in the anthropology profession on the accurate and respectful use of language for Native American subjects in anthropological research and archeological projects, Alice Beck Kehoe, a non-Native Professor Emeritus at Marquette University who attended the Annual Inter-tribal Native American, First Nations, Gay and Lesbian American Conferences, recounts her observations of the discussions that resulted in the term two-spirit at the 1990 conference: "At the conferences that produced the book, Two-Spirited People, I heard several First Nations people describe themselves as very much unitary, neither 'male' nor 'female', much less a pair in one body. Nor did they report an assumption of duality within one body as a common concept within reservation communities; rather, people confided dismay at the Western proclivity for dichotomies. Outside Indo-European-speaking societies, 'gender' would not be relevant to the social personae glosses 'men' and 'women', and 'third gender' likely would be meaningless. The unsavory word 'berdache' certainly ought to be ditched (Jacobs et al. 1997:3-5), but the urban American neologism 'two-spirit' can be misleading." She cautions that modern identity umbrella terms such as two-spirit can't be relied upon for accurate and respectful historical scholarship because they are too general and are produced out of modern contexts that their subjects do not come from. Additionally, she recommends against folding Native and two-spirit gender and sexual identities under the "Indo-European tag 'third gender.'" In academia "one catchword obfuscates the diversity created in human societies and the fluidity conceptualized in many American Indian cultures." She concludes that the best course of action for anthropological professionals when generating language around historical Native artifacts, remains, or societies is to consult with Native professionals "or look into dictionaries, for the people's own words for the social personae 'man,' 'woman,' and whatever additional personae may be recognized."[6]
Tributes
In 2012, a marker dedicated to two spirit people was included in the Legacy Walk, an outdoor public display in Chicago, Illinois, that celebrates LGBT history and people.[89]
"Self-identified" here is meant as a contrast to the way a traditional two spirit must be recognized as such by the elders of their Indigenous community when the term is used as a synonym for a traditional ceremonial role (for which there will be an already-existing term in that culture's Indigenous language).[1][2] Inclusion in this list is thus not an indication of whether the person is recognized or not.