If I would say to you, I am non-binary or transgender it is most likely that you would understand what I am saying about my gender identity. In my culture however, I am a two – spirited human. This is an indigenous term for a person who identifies as Transgender or Non-binary and has existed from the beginning of time.
Many Native American cultures acknowledge multiple genders. Unlike European or other cultures try to impose two genders on society, there are tribes that accept and even revere those who fall outside the genders of male and female. In my culture, we believe in five genders, namely male, female, two spirit female, two spirit male, and one without a specific gender. While each tribe that follows similar concepts has their own unique language for these identities, as indigenous culture coalesces the term that is now widely used across most Nations is Two-Spirit.
Native American children were often raised gender neutral until they reached an age in which they could choose their own gender path. Two-spirited people were revered for their ability to see the world through the eyes of both genders. Two Spirited people held specific positions, typically of great respect such as the medicine man/woman, shamans, and historians (keepers of the tribes’ stories). Female two-spirits fought in battle and hunted while male two spirits often took on traditional “female” roles. It was considered socially inappropriate to question their gender identity or refer to them by the sex assigned at birth.
How two spirited people were treated changed as colonization overtook America and Europeans, offended by the idea of genders outside the gender binary of their culture, called for the eradication of two spirited people. This concept of genocide has been played out repeatedly and continues to this day with hundreds of anti-LGBTQ and Trans bills sweeping the country.
Despite the onslaught my culture has endured over the centuries, we still accept five genders and in time I believe the gender binary will be broken and humans will be free to be the gender or lack thereof that exists within them.
Karen Shirk.
Graphic Designer.