Focus On The Rainbow

Long before Europeans came to the New World, the indigenous people of North America, the various tribes of Native Americans had among their culture, berdache, as anthropologists termed it, an individual who had two spirits, one male, one female sharing the same body.

At the website IM Diversity.com, an article in part explains, The term “Two-Spirit” refers to a belief among some tribes that there are people who manifest both masculine and feminine spiritual qualities. According to Native American scholars, many tribes once revered Two-Spirits, viewing them as a third gender with a special spiritual connectedness. In these tribes, Two-Spirits filled important tribal roles as counselors, storytellers and healers.

This belief, scholars have also observed, has been eroded in many places by the imposition of Judeo-Christian views of homosexuality as sinful.

“Homophobia was taught to us as a component of Western education and religion,” Navajo anthropologist Wesley Thomas has written. “We were presented with an entirely new set of taboos, which did not correspond to our own models and which focused on sexual behavior rather than the intricate roles Two-Spirit people played. As a result of this misrepresentation, our nations no longer accepted us as they once had.”

In an article titled “The Two-Spirit Tradition“, some in the article were quoted,

As Michael Red Earth tells it: “In today’s world it is easy to become confused by titles: gay, straight, bi, winkte, or queer. For me, once I realized that my family was responding to me and interacting with me with respect and acceptance, and once I realized that this respect and acceptance was a legacy of our traditional Native past, I was empowered to present my whole self to the world and reassume the responsibilities of being a two-spirited person.”

As Joe Medicine Crow, a Crow traditionalist, told Walter Williams, “We don’t waste people the way white society does. Every person has their gift.” 

Dan Napalee wrote in an article at Native Out, The Two-Spirit movement is a contemporary development among Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender (GLBT) Native Americans whose primary focus is to reestablish their traditional roles within their respective tribes, as, historically, most Two-Spirit individuals, including not-men, not-women, gays and lesbians (and those who fell in between genders and sexualities), fulfilled a spiritual, if not sacred, purpose within specific tribes. At least 150 tribes across North America had at one point, and to some degree, cross-gender or gay and lesbian individuals fulfilling specific duties, including men fulfilling women’s roles, women fulfilling men’s roles, and importantly, Two-Spirit individuals contributing as spiritual leaders. According to Duane Champagne, “It is documented in the academic literature that many American Indian cultures honored and respected alternative sexual lifestyles and gender roles”, which the Two-Spirit movement is attempting to recover.

A documentary titled “Two Spirits“, takes a look at the tragic and senseless killing of Fred Martinez, a young Navajo who expressed himself in feminine ways. His mother and other members of his family understood who Fred was because of their traditional Navajo beliefs. They felt pride in Fred being gifted with a very deep understanding of the human experience and believing, as a nadleeh, he would live a rich and expressive life as a Two Spirit individual as the website explains in describing the background of Martinez.

“Two Spirits” was part of the San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival which was held in June.

The film besides focusing on the murder of Martinez, explores the Two Spirit culture of Native Americans, when those who were different were honored and not outcast by their society.

In reviews of the film, LA Weekly says Two Spirits is “riveting . . . a crash course on Navajo history and culture while illuminating the struggles of [Fred] Martinez, whose detailed murder and mother’s grief are devastating.”

Bestselling author and Oprah Magazine columnist Martha Beck calls the film “a gorgeous, moving, wrenching, and ultimately uplifting story; the kind of film that opens the mind and heart so wide they can never close as tightly again.”

At the website of the magazine Indian Country Today, an article was written about “Two Spirits” being part of the San Francisco festival and read in part, “Two Spirits” is grounded in the terrible reality of what happened on a night when one boy bludgeoned another with rocks, then bragged to friends that he had “bug-smashed a fag.”

Fred Martinez was one of the youngest hate‐crime victims in modern history when he was brutally murdered at the age of 16 in Cortez, Colo. Fred was nádleehi (pronounced NOD‐lay), a male-bodied person with a spiritual essence that is feminine, a special gift according to his ancient Navajo culture. This cultural tradition treats those who possess a broader understanding of gender with reverence and respect. “Two Spirits” explores the life and death of a boy who was also a girl, and the fluidity and essentially spiritual nature of gender and sexuality.

The film makes the case that in the 21st century we need to return to traditional American values – Native American values.

NativeOUT