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Native Sexual Inequalities: American Indian Cultural Conservative

Homophobia and the Problem of Tradition
Brian Joseph Gilley
Sexualities 2010 13: 47
DOI: 10.1177/1363460709346114
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Article

Abstract Two-Spirit men cite the common goal of eventually

gaining social acceptance and restoring a place of honor within
their individual tribal societies as their unifying factor. They set
out to achieve this goal by actively engaging with American
Indian cultural conservative values through ceremonial and social
practices. By altering normalized gender practices they challenge
their alienation while also solidifying their commitment to tribal
communities. By proving themselves as culturally competent
contributors to their tribal societies they publicly question
mainstream Native attitudes toward sexuality and gender in the
hope that their value to Native societies will eventually put an
end to the ubiquitous homophobia that alienates them.
Keywords American Indian, homophobia, sexuality, tradition,
two-spirit

Brian Joseph Gilley

University of Vermont, USA

Native Sexual Inequalities: American

Indian Cultural Conservative
Homophobia and the Problem
of Tradition
Scholarship on non-western constructions of multiple genders and samesex sexuality have placed tradition in opposition to Euro-American social
perspectives that prejudice against gender difference and homosexuality
(Herdt, 1993, 1997). The most basic assumption is that tradition is
good for the cause of western gay liberation while Euro-American
gender/sexuality binary thoughtstyles work against the social acceptance
of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer (GLBTQ) persons.
Clearly for scholars traditional peoples hold the most promise for
comparison and critique of homophobia in the USA, this assumption
resides in the premise of timeless gender constructions whose function is
to incorporate difference. While these assumptions have been effective for
Sexualities http://sex.sagepub.com Copyright The Author(s), 2010.
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Sexualities 13(1)

gay community challenges to discrimination and continue to provide

opportunities for the creation of non-Native homonational identities
(Morgensen, 2008) they are ineffective for analyzing discrimination
against non-western GLBTQ persons by their own communities. As
Rifkin (2006: 28) points out: the ideological structure and regulatory
force of heteronormativity cannot be grasped through versions of the
homo/hetero binary. Unfortunately, the most convenient hypothesis by
scholars and indigenous gay activists is that a lack of GLBTQ acceptance
or homophobia among non-western peoples is a form of assimilation to
dominant gender and sexuality ideologies. As scholars we have been ineffective in presenting a theoretical and methodological understanding of
local forms of Native GLBTQ social alienation that do not rely on gay
liberation discourses. Among American Indians tradition is at the core of
indigenous GLBTQ liberation movements and for the culturally conservative community members seeking to alienate them. Pre-contact
traditions of multiple genders and sexualities provides the foundation for
the contemporary American Indian GLBTQ movement known as TwoSpirit (being of both male and female spirits) while the preservation of
ceremonial and social cultures by American Indians provides the basis for
which to make arguments against the acceptance of GLBTQ Native
lifestyles. My argument breaks with accepted academic understanding of
the post-colonial transition away from community-supported roles for the
gender different which places responsibility in the blind and forced
acceptance of western sexual dimorphism and reproductive paradigms by
Native peoples (Herdt, 1993, 1997; Lang, 1998; Roscoe, 1991, 1993,
1998; Williams, 1986). I further take exception to the idea that American
Indians who are fully committed to the preservation of local community
values and social practices are homophobic in the popular usage of the
term. It makes little sense that cultural conservatives would endure the
hardships of cultural preservation only to uncritically accept a concept
(discrimination against same-sex sexuality and gender difference) with no
historical precedence. Duane Champagne cleverly and accurately prefers
to call Natives focus on the survivability of customs and sovereignty
Native American conservatism (2007: 2630).
Community history as it is embodied in tradition reveals structural
contradictions conflicting discourses and conflicting patterns of practice
that recurrently pose problems to actors (Ortner, 1989: 14). Tradition
as a mechanism to resolve, reinforce and reproduce structural contradiction is central to the anti-gay sentiments of a Two-Spirits fellow
tribes-people as well as to Two-Spirit resistance to conceptual and physical
alienation. This double duty of tradition maintains logical dispositions
that are constant in the conditions in which their generative principle
was produced while adjusting to the demands inscribed as objective
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potentialities (Bourdieu, 1990: 56). By being the regulating cultural

practices as well as the generative principle, tradition and the traditional
gives the exclusion of GLBTQ Natives a precision that non-indigenous
sex/gender ideologies (read reproductive-dimorphic) lack. For the
dominant group who approves tradition, justifications for discrimination
seem more factual when they can reference historic conditions of precontact. Conversely, the historic practice of acceptance for gender and
sexuality difference also allows GLBTQ Natives to appeal to tradition in
a way not available to culturally conservative individuals from religious or
ethnic backgrounds with gender dimorphic cultural ideologies, that is,
conservative Christians. Yet, both Native GLBTQ and non-gay cultural
conservative Natives draw on a set of cultural logics, the durable principles, producing the social practices each uses and references in the name
of tradition (Bourdieu, 1990: 56). Both groups are aware that a multitude of cultural conservative social practices, such as ceremonies, kinship,
or rites of passage, are derived from the same cultural logic. The cultural
conservative social practices, in other words, ceremonies, which each
references may be up for debate, modification and invention, but underlying ideological constructs in the form of custom cannot afford to be
invariant for continuities sake (Hobsbawm, 1983: 2). Therefore, I would
argue that anti-gay cultural conservatives, citing same-sex sexuality as
non-traditional are formalizing a set of ideas that became normalized in
discourses on colonial subjects (Hobsbawm, 1983: 35). Yet this invention of a tradition of social exclusion has yet to fully penetrate the
more durable and immanent underlying tribal and supra-tribal logics
from which community social practices emerge. Practices are perpetuated
by accessing this polythetical logic through community performances
and being present to one another (Foster, 1991: 239, Bourdieu, 1990:
86, Sturm, 2002: 245). Herein lies the essence of my ethnographic
argument, which is that Native homophobia exists within the realm of
tradition, not within the ideological realm that scaffolds the traditional (as
this term is used by tribal peoples to refer to their worldview). Thus
colonialism successfully changed the ways in which these immanent ideas
were acted out in social practices, but failed to permanently obliterate the
cultural logic that at one time produced multiple genders and sexualities.
Culturally conservative GLBTQ Natives and/or Two-Spirit people are
fully aware of this fact and attempt to access that underlying cultural logic
to reassociate the tradition of multiple genders and sexualities with tribal
community social practices.
In this article I document and explore the ways in which Two-Spirit
men use American Indian conservatism to creatively engage their social
alienation and secure a place for their social identity. My discussion serves
as an entry into the larger issue of the ways in which gay liberation
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discourse informs and shapes analysis of non-western sexuality and the

ways subjects frame their social alienation. It contributes to the ongoing
conversation about the ways in which feminist and gender studies
continue to celebrate an agency located in the political and moral
autonomy of the subject despite ethnographic evidence supporting local
actors desire to maintain close personal, moral and ideological contact
with their oppressors (Mahmood, 2005: 7; Povinelli, 2006: 11). I
outline the problem of homophobia and its relationship with tradition
and place this dilemma within social and cultural practices of Two-Spirit
men living in the western USA.

Gender diversity traditions and homophobia

I began researching Two-Spirit mens experience in 1998, basing my work
in the social lives of two Two-Spirit societies: one in Denver, Colorado
and the other in Oklahoma. The Oklahoma group, known by the
pseudonym the Green Country Two-Spirit Society in my writings, and
the Two-Spirit Society of Denver are closely affiliated. Over the last 10
years I have been granted the opportunity to be a full participant in these
two organizations and have made many friends between the two
communities. These two societies were born out of the Two-Spirit social
movement in the 1990s and have as their goal providing opportunities for
social participation with other gay American Indians out of the view of
families and communities hostile to their sexual orientation. Two-Spirit,
a term used by Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (GLBTQ)
American Indians, connects a pre-contact social history among indigenous North Americans with contemporary gender and sexuality identity
politics. Two-Spirit societies are a nationwide phenomenon and found in
places as small as Browning, Montana and as large as New York City.
Societies usually reflect the local and regional Native population in terms
of tribal affiliations and urban versus rural cultural orientations. The
knowledge of tribal customs also varies with a mixture of culturally conservative traditionalists to Christian Indians who have little interest in
what they see as pagan ceremonies but maintain the unique identity of
GLBTQ and Native. The thread that holds Two-Spirit societies together
is that they provide a space where individuals can be gay and Indian at the
same time, whatever their particular version of that identity. Two-Spirit
societies are also the place where social change takes hold. By having their
own social and ceremonial gatherings, the societies provide a space where
men can powwow dance in womens regalia, switch gender roles in
ceremonial contexts or find potential partners that share similar backgrounds. Men who participate in a Two-Spirit society no longer have to
choose between the gay community and the Indian one: Two-Spirit social
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participation provides both. The two societies represented here experience

the same kinds of conflicts over race, authenticity, leadership and traditions
that occur within tribal communities. At the same time they cite the
common goal of eventually gaining social acceptance and restoring a place
of honor within their individual tribal societies as their unifying factor.
Accordingly, Two-Spirit men feel that eventually proving themselves as
culturally competent contributors to their tribal societies is the key to
challenging mainstream homophobic attitudes among their fellow tribespeople. For both anti-gay and Two-Spirit tribal peoples, being traditional involves presenting oneself as invested in the survival of tribal
customs, community maintenance and tribal values. On the individual
level a traditional person would most likely be someone who engages in
a tribally specific ceremonial culture, and the majority of their social
participations will be within their tribal community and their political
views and social values will orient toward tribal culture.
GLBTQ Natives who identify as Two-Spirit strategically draw on a
well-documented historical tradition of multiple genders and flexible
sexualities among most pre-contact American Indian communities.
Specificities of the tradition vary according to tribal culture but at its core
sexual orientation was secondary to ones role in the community. Bodily
sex was read in non-dimorphic ways outside of reproductive paradigms
and also articulated with multiple gender possibilities for individuals in the
community. Early in a childs life their relatives and community members
would observe behavior and proclivities to provide opportunities for a
young person to socialize into a gender role (Lang, 1998; Roscoe, 1991,
1993, 1998; Williams, 1986). For example, among the Lakota a malebodied child who showed interest in womens work would be socialized
into a socially gendered role named winkte. Throughout adolescence a
winkte would participate in rites of passage and education specific to their
role. They would also take on a personal comportment in manner and
dress mixing the aesthetics of male and female which would be appropriate to their gender status. As adults they would be expected to fulfill work,
social responsibilities and ceremonial practices associated with the winkte
tradition. As it is historically documented, the male-bodied winkte would
have sexual relationships and often lifetime partnerships with non-winkte
male-bodied persons.
Scholars have shown that female-bodied mixed-gender statuses existed
and functioned in much the same way as their male-bodied counterparts
however the literature on the historic female-bodied Two-Spirit is very
sparse (Lang, 1998; Roscoe, 1998). The lack of interest in female-bodied
mixed genders in colonial era documents and early anthropological
writings foreshadows an unfortunate trend in the study of contemporary Two-Spirit people where discussions of male bodies dominate.
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Female-bodied GLBTQ Natives are nearly absent from my ethnographic

work for reasons of social dynamics within the Two-Spirit movement that
mirror issues of power and representation in the broader gay community
and my own position as a straight Cherokee-Chickasaw identified male
(Gilley, 2006: 18, 126). It is also not a surprise given recent documentation and criticism of heteropatriarchy among American Indians by
Native feminist scholars that the majority of research subjects represented
here (gay and non-gay) made a correlation between same-sex desire and
male bodies (Smith and Kauanui, 2008: 2423). The intent of this
articles overall analysis is not to replicate this trend, but the ethnographic
details and the micro-level analysis may be read by some as silencing
female-bodied Two-Spirit voices. The structural relationship between
individuals and cultural ideologies (and the immanent logics discussed
earlier), however, create subjectivities in heterogeneous ways depending
on community beliefs about gender and sexuality, but also about race,
blood quantum, surname, clan, religious orientation, and a multitude of
other local forms of identity. For this reason it seems that scholars and
female-bodied Two-Spirit people can use the ideas presented here to
analyze multiple intersections of gender, sexuality and indigenality.
Scholars and GLBTQ Natives believe that the separation of diverse
sexualities and genders from Native American cultural practices began at
European contact. Anthropologists such as Kroeber point out that
encounters with the Caucasian attitude led to the repression or concealment of berdache social status (1940: 209). From the moment of
contact and into the 20th century Euro-Americans actively condemned
recognizable gender diversity and same-sex relations. Some Indian
agencies went so far as to make it illegal to cross dress on reservations
(Lang, 1998; Roscoe, 1991, 1998; Williams, 1986). The goal of the
assimilation of Indians combined outlawing traditional ceremonies
and cultural behaviors, with an emphasis on Christianity, as well as the
relocation of children to off-reservation boarding schools. The pressures
placed on Indians by the American government to abandon traditions as
well as the influence of Christianity contributed to the decline of indigenous religious practices on the whole. Roles for gender diversity were
consistently interwoven into the religious practice of Native peoples.
Therefore, the change from public incorporation to the suppression of
Two-Spirit public roles is easily located in Native adaptation (Williams,
1986: 18892). The result was a decline in the ceremonial and social use
of Two-Spirit roles and responsibilities and thus a generational decline in
exposure to diverse genders and the values that incorporated their difference. Accordingly, when many Indians began to convert to Christianity
they accepted ideologies about the sinfulness of same-sex relations. Lang
adds: Because of the influence of white ideas and Christianity, gender
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variance and homosexuality have come to be seen as identical by many

Native Americans themselves, and both phenomena are consequently met
with strong disapproval (1997: 109). Therefore, the critical moment of
change from acceptance to condemnation is readily located in the
decline of many Native ceremonial and social practices that incorporated
Two-Spirit people.
Most of the men represented in this article were filled with conflict over
their sexual identity and most fully believed the common Native idea that
they were (and still are) harming their families by being gay. For GLBTQ
Natives, exposure to popular gay communities and gay political movements allowed them to think of their identity in different terms. When
they refer to their communities as homophobic they are characterizing
Native ideas about the inappropriateness of same-sex relations in liberal
political terms. At the same time they are attempting to characterize ideas
about sexuality and gender that are embedded in Native practices; ideas
that are by their nature what sex/gender theorists would characterize as
heterosexist or homophobic. Accordingly, when Two-Spirit men or I
use the word homophobic or homophobia in reference to their
communities we are referring to the discriminations against GLBTQ
people, as well as characterizing the naturalized sex/gender essentialism
embedded in Native social practices that excludes Two-Spirit men. Also,
we see GLBTQ Natives and their non-gay allies using terms and ideas
seemingly drawn from mainstream popular culture and popular gay
activism. At the same time the individuals quoted and described here are
attempting to reference attitudes and experiences for which there are no
longer indigenous categories or ideas only those adapted from EuroAmericans. To fully understand the complexity with which Two-Spirit
men use popular cultural ideas and terms, especially those of mainstream
gay culture, we must recognize that the first time these men were introduced to popular gay culture is the first time that they were exposed to
the idea that discrimination against homosexuals is considered wrong by
a section of the society. Also, gay culture gives them the vocabulary and
concepts with which to describe feelings and perspectives absent from
their own culture. On multiple occasions I have witnessed a person from
a geographically remote reservation dumbfounded by gay terminology,
gay culture and descriptions of sexual experiences when coming out into
the gay community, but within a short time that person had adopted the
American Indian camp circulating among Two-Spirit men (Gilley, 2006:
1449). More importantly, however, the talk of homophobia, discrimination, and moral judgment prevalent in popular gay social critique
provides them with the naming of the previously unnamed forms of
ideological discrimination embedded in and protected by the idea of
tradition. They may in fact believe the liberal notion that homophobia is
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something to be overcome (or cured) but they believe the solution to be

embedded within their cultural practices.
Wickberg has pointed out that left liberal sensibility created the word
homophobia in the 1970s out of a concern for inadequate personal
integrity in post-war values. He states: Racism, sexism, and homophobia are widely recognized as negative and disparaging terms, terms
that racists, sexists, and homophobes would not use for themselves
(2000: 423). The culturally conservative Natives who oppose same-sex
relations and non-heteronormative gender expression would not characterize themselves as homophobic either. Instead they would characterize
their disapproval of homosexuality and gender differences as being
traditional. That is, by not including GLBTQ Natives into categories of
tradition, cultural conservatives see themselves as preserving tribal social
values. Two-Spirit mens use of homophobia no doubt relies on
liberation politics definitions. Yet, by characterizing the exclusion of their
sexuality and gender identities as homophobia they are not necessarily
using the indispensable fixed image of the person who fears gays that
Wickberg claims liberals employ to critique psychological aberrations in
need of a cure (2000: 52, 57). Rather, they use the concept to describe
a heretofore unnamed attitude among their own people.
Homophobia at the supratribal, tribal and local level has its own internal
logic and yet it shares some aspects of American forms of judgment about
gender difference and sexual preference. Shared judgments about the
wrongness or unnaturalness of male to male anal and oral sex are often
cited by non-gay Natives as justifications for discrimination. Furthermore,
most Christian Natives share their fellow non-Native Christians view that
same-sex relations are against the teachings of the Bible. A Two-Spirit
Creek man speaks of his experiences:
R:

I was raised also Christian Indian and I know how the church thinks
about being gay, and all of that. Growing up being gay was a real struggle
for me, cause I couldnt identify with my true self and identify with my
true feelings. So it was a big struggle, because my family were mostly
Christian people, and it was hard to come out to them and let them
know. Because my mother was real strict about church.

I:

How was your church growing up, when it came to two-spirited or gay
native people? How were they?

R:

Well, to me, on that question right there, its like discriminating, its like
being judgmental. And to me, if youre gonna be a Christian person,
then you dont need to be judgmental. You need to hone your faith, you
need to pray. If youre gonna be a churchly person, you dont need to
be playin with fate. Just sit up there and be humble, and not judge
people. Yes, yes. Theres a lot of em, at first there was a point when I
sat in church and I heard a lot of em preach about homosexuality, and

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HIV, this is wrong, this is not right. And then there was a few pastors
that I seen growin up same age as me, but theyre preachin about it,
its like oh my God, what are you doin, we used to do this and the other,
and youre sittin up there like youre a holy righteous man and you never
do nothin wrong. Let me tell you a little dark secret, but I didnt
say anything.

Claiming homosexuality as explicitly non-traditional, same-sex relations

and gay culture-related behaviors are associated with whiteness and white
dominated geographic space, such as major cities. If an Indian man is
recognized as gay, it is thought that he learned this behavior from white
people. Logically if American Indian conservatism has as its goal to resist
assimilation and white social values, then it only makes sense that they will
resist the inclusion of what they see as distinctly external to their
community. A female Navajo elder from Oklahoma adds:
For Indian men, lets just take Indian men who have sex with men. Gay or two
spirit men. Weve already pushed em out of our community once. Indian gay
men predominantly have grown up [translation: found their identity] in the
white community, most of the time. They got their messages from the white
community; they went into the white community, cause our tribes didnt want
em. Which is totally against historical acceptance of all people in our tribe. So
in order to build their self-esteem, youve gotta have tribal commitment and
support. Heres my question, really, that I keep thinking about, is, say we build
a group of people, we work on their self-identity, we teach em culture, we teach
em the history, we teach em how to dance, we teach em how to be, we teach
em how to make regalia. We teach em to honor ceremony and to look at
health from a holistic philosophy. And then, if they try to move into the tribal
community, at least in Oklahoma, weve just shot the hell out of em. Because
the tribal communitys not gonna take em back in Oklahoma. But were gonna
build all these people who are gonna be proud of who they are as a two spirit
or gay man. Theyre gonna understand, and then theyre gonna wanna go back
to the community to participate, or to be a part, and our communitys gonna
say, what the hell are you doin here? Or theyre gonna negate em, so, you
know I really been thinkin about this a lot lately, because I see what, I see the
changes in two spirit men that I know have been in programs. And yet, I picture
them walking into an Indian church in a community, or going to the Indian
community and wanting to do something, and the tribe is not going to be
accepting of them. And so then, all that long-term work has just gone down
the hill.

Every Two-Spirit person I encountered reminded me, Homophobia is

not a traditional value. At the same time, every person who opposed
same-sex relations and a diversity of gender expression told me, Homosexuality is not a traditional value or that gay is not a part of our
traditions. In some ways both parties viewpoints can be verified by
cultural history. If we follow the logic of the Two-Spirit social and
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academic movement we hear that prehistorically an individuals role

within their community was much more important than their sexual
practices. Therefore, discriminating against people who have same-sex
relations would not be an aspect of ancient or early contact Native values.
Thus using same-sex relations as a reason to alienate community members
would not in fact be a pre-contact value in Native societies. Non-gay
Indians who advocate discriminating against GLBTQ Natives are also
correct when they say that gay was not an aspect of their early tribal
history. Gay is a modern term and has a variety of definitions, but is understood to mean same-sex relations and an associated subculture within
Euro-American culture. Therefore, if same-sex relations did not turn
Native social values on their head prehistorically and there were no gender
associated categorization of sexuality then there is no traditional equivalent to gay in tribal societies. Inevitably however the culture of the
conservatives, as Two-Spirit men point out, gradually came to socially and
physically exclude diverse sexualities and genders from cultural ideologies.

Two-Spirit exclusion from cultural conservative

society
There are individuals within certain tribal populations and local ceremonial
communities who recognize the need to incorporate all of their people into
social and religious practices. A Lakota elder and ceremonial leader told
me, We are going to lose these practices, tightening his expression, we
cant let these ways die over hate [for gay people]. The majority of nongay Indians I encountered held the opposite view. They would rather allow
social and ceremonial practices to disappear than give in to demands by
gay men who are trying to bring white ways into our ceremonies. A
Chippewa man living in Kansas reflected on his observations:
I:

The people that you work with, what kind of reactions have they experienced from family, or their tribal peoples?

R:

Well. Again, in [Kansas City] itself, I think a lot of the elders dont wanna
have anything to do with ya, if youre gay, if youre a two-spirited person.
In that were sittin right smack in the middle of the Bible Belt.

I:

Right.

R:

And they dont wanna have anything to do with two-spirited people, and
with people with illness. And theyre urban Indians, I think. And so a lot
of the people dont wanna tell their family. And theyre very secretive
about it. And its a very small group. And its hard to break that, I think.

I:

Yeah.

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R:

Because they dont wanna be rejected, and theyre afraid of what people
will say about em. And to them. And when their church they belong to
finds out they have AIDS or HIV and that theyre gay, then theyre
shunned by the church even.

I:

Are these native churches, or are they?

R:

Theyre just churches. Christian. Supposed to be Christian Churches.

I:

Yeah.

R:

I think they have one native church that I know of. And their elders are
very set in their ways also. And so our two-spirit group cant come out.
We tried to come out to the elders a couple years ago, and the elders
were very much against it, and were very mean-spirited.

Attitudes of exclusion for the openly gay and gender different were the
normal experience for most Two-Spirit men. The men felt as if they were
given a choice; in order to participate in their tribal social practices they
must either keep their sexual desires and gender expression a secret or be
publicly out and be excluded. I collected countless stories about, and
witnessed first hand, what happened to those who decided to be openly
gay and gender different. Two-Spirit mens accounts involved the public
denial of the right to participate in a ceremony or event, such as being
asked to leave or being disqualified from a competition dance at a
powwow. Other hostilities included antagonistic comments directed at
Two-Spirit men, anti-gay jokes made by event emcees, intense staring,
whispering and laughing. Open hostility acted to reinforce inequalities of
sexuality, but fear was the greatest disciplinarian of Two-Spirit sexual
identity. To avoid being publicly rebuked most men took their denial from
social participation as a given and chose not to openly challenge Native
opposition to same-sex relations. They were fully aware that most of their
tribes-people and other Indians viewed their sexuality and their tribal
identity as incompatible.
An Osage Two-Spirit man:
I was so uncomfortable in that role. They made me feel guilty about it [my
sexuality] and they made me feel ashamed . . . I gave it [Native social practices]
up and blocked it out and then once I got into the mainstream gay society I
forgot my traditions. I didnt want to be Indian because when you are two
spirited or gay your whole thing is to fit in. You want to fit in so bad you do
anything to fit in but then you put on being Indian [straight]. I got off the
path, oh yeah.

The flow of anti-GLBTQ attitudes among culturally conservative

communities weighed heavily on the Two-Spirit man. What Two-Spirit
men would classify as heterosexism among their communities is partly
derived from western influences but also has drawn inspiration from
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deeply held values about the roles of men and women within specific tribal
and ceremonial contexts. Most conservative communities, ceremonial
traditionalist or Christian, have highly regimented and stylized roles for
men and women. In many cases Indian Christian churches gender practices embody a syncretism of ancient practices and Christian teachings. For
example, the Seminole Baptists practice gender segregation during church
services, which is also present in men and womens different roles in the
ancient Seminole practice of Stomp Dance (Schultz, 1999: 839). Among
Native cultures with strict ceremonial and social sex segregation western
derived sex/gender essentialism was easily adopted. Contemporary
communities who practice essentialized forms of gender segregation do
not recognize roles falling outside the boundaries of male and female
bodies. Inevitably someone reading this article will be able to cite an
exception from their family, tribe, or someone they know, but after
almost a decade of research and participation I have only seen one instance
of a Two-Spirit person participating in a designated mixed gender role
within their own tribal social practices. A male to female transgender
Lakota states:
I:

Whats your experience with being openly transgender?

R:

Youre not fitting in . . . in the straight society

I:

So do you consider Native society, straight society?

R:

Well, like powwows, is pretty much straight because participating in

powwows there is a lot of negativity about gay people.

I:

If someone at the powwow knew another man was gay . . .

R:

They would still have that stigma.

The gender essentialism and preference for representations of heterosexuality generate a hostility that does not require any direct action by
cultural conservatives. That is, Two-Spirit men are brought into line with
their fellow tribes-peoples expectations without the use of direct denial.
Two-Spirit men know from being raised around the expectations of their
families and tribal societies that they must hide their sexual orientation
and gender difference by participating as heterosexual men or remove
themselves from social practices altogether. Two-Spirit men are raised to
know that certain positions within the social organization are important,
such as war dance leader, sweat lodge pourer, head singer, head man
dancer, ceremonial chief, chief of the tribe, council member, preacher,
liturgical minister and hundreds of other roles depending on the tribe.
They also know that none of these roles are available to men who do not
meet the discursive requirements set out by a social structure that emphasizes sex/gender essentialism and heterosexuality. Therefore, they are
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socialized within their families and local cultures to know that these
opportunities lie outside of the realm of possibility for a man who desires
other men. What is more devastating to the men discussed here is that the
fulfillment of these roles has been emphasized as a cultural obligation
throughout their lives. Among culturally conservative Indians not meeting
ones obligations is an embarrassment to yourself and your family. According to a Denver group member certain people have gone to great lengths
to avoid being shamed out by a gay relative:
I:

What happens in your tribe when someone is found out?

R:

They say If you want to engage in gay activity take it out of this
community. Theres homophobia alive and well on many native reservation communities. To this day, I have friends who have been taken to
the edge of the reserve and said, once they come out, dont come back.
You have no family here, you have no community. And theyve been
taken to the other community.

I:

So their families just said theyre no longer relatives?

R:

The families, the friends, they say you are no longer welcome here: If
you wanna engage in that kind of activity, there are places . . . the big
cities. Thats where you go do it. Here, we do not condone that type of
activity. We will not tolerate that kind of activity.

The multiple axes of sexuality, gender and cultural conservatism were

most evident in Two-Spirit mens desire to spare their family embarrassment. Two-Spirit men often choose not to take leadership or significant
roles in their communitys political, ceremonial and social activities for fear
of being outed and damaging their and their familys reputation. Some
Two-Spirit men felt that people within their tribal or ceremonial
communities suspected that they were gay but assumed that people would
leave them alone and tolerate their presence if they did not draw attention to themselves. The men characterized this as an unspoken agreement
as long as you do not seek a place of prominence in the community
people will leave you alone. For example, a young Two-Spirit man from
an Oklahoma Woodlands tribe chose not to pursue the revered role of
drum keeper within his tribes war dance society. The role of drum
keeper had been held by several of his uncles before him. By not taking
up this role he disrupted the cycle of interfamily transfer of the drum. This
young man participates as a member of the war dance society, but does
so as one of the generations of inducted members and does not seek a
position in the organization equivalent to his familys stature. I asked him
why he chose not to take on the role as drum keeper, and he replied that
if he became drum keeper and was outed in the tribal community his
family would be shamed. He felt it was a chance not worth taking. I
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collected many similar stories, where men chose, when they could, to meld
into the social background for fear of being outed and shaming their
families. The conflict between ones sexuality and obligation to family was
particularly difficult for Two-Spirit men. Choosing to reduce ones participation for fear of hostility and shame meant that a person was not
meeting their obligations to family and community. Involvement in a
culturally conservative community usually involved taking on responsibilities and roles with the goal of cultural survival. To not take on those
roles jeopardized cultural transmission but also ones family status.
A heterofocused structure also alienates Two-Spirit men from social
practices they are taught to be integral to their identity. For example, a
Lakota boy will be told that the humblecha (vision quest) is an integral
part of being a man. But according to many of the Lakota men I spoke
with, the vision quest no longer includes the possibility of winkte (the
Lakota mixed gender status) visions or the realization of a winkte identity
as a result of the ceremony. Some men have chosen not to participate in
the humblecha out of fear of having a winkte vision and reporting it to
the medicine person that interprets ones visions. This example will no
doubt be challenged by those who claim that there are winkte sympathetic
medicine men. Even so, if there are medicine people sympathetic to
winktes, the roles for the winkte only reside in microsociological ceremonial communities not within broader Lakota society. The fear was real
enough for the men I interviewed for them not to fulfill their religious
obligation. One Lakota man who went on a humblecha as a teenager and
had a winkte vision said that he drank alcohol excessively to avoid the obligations set out in his vision. Being drunk, he said, was the only way to
fight the urge to fulfill his calling. When I asked why he did not return to
his community he replied that it would be too much of a fight to be a
real winkte there. It has changed; what a winkte means. What would I do?
Theres no ceremonies for me. Its just too dangerous for me, for my
family; who dont even want me there anyway.

Sexuality, the logic of American Indian conservatism,

and openings
The logic in which historic acceptance was embedded has remained largely
intact among traditional cultural conservatives. We can also argue that the
logic that guides contemporary cultural conservative values is one that was
once used to express gender and sexuality outside of dimorphic and reproductive paradigms. The outward manifestation of this logic in the form of
social practices may have changed through time, but the persistence of
fundamental values can be seen in contemporary social and ceremonial
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customs. Opportunities for Two-Spirit mens resistance to the inequalities

they face reside in the fundamental social and religious values of which
gender diversity was once a part. This logic provides openings for the reintroduction of same-sex sexuality and gender diversity, but only so long
as diverse practices make use of cultural logics intelligible to cultural conservatives. What I have called cultural compromise elsewhere (Gilley, 2006)
is the idea that specific cultural logics mediate power relationships and
those cultural logics provide openings in otherwise seemingly impenetrable power regimes. These compromises are a form of agency that seeks
to alter singular alienating factors not to overthrow cultural systems. If we
accept the idea that American Indian conservatism is based within cultural
logics that have been preserved and expressed in social practices through
time, then it contains the cultural logic that once incorporated Two-Spirit
people. Therefore in order to again find their place within American Indian
social participations Two-Spirit men must appeal to those cultural logics in
their social practices and presentation of their identity. If we accept the idea,
as Two-Spirit men formulate it, that contemporary cultural conservative
values represent a continuous stream of cultural ideas from pre-contact
times, then we can accept the idea that Two-Spirit mens modifications
of contemporary cultural conservative social practices will render their
sexuality intelligible by their communities.
The Denver and Oklahoma societies have a responsibility to replicate
the spiritual emphasis of the communities from which they were excluded
as a means to ensure the mental and physical health of Two-Spirit men.
While it was difficult for the societies to replicate the ceremonies of every
members tribal community they did their best to use accessible forms of
spirituality from broad ceremonial categories, such as variations on the
Plains pipe religions or Southeast tribal stomp dance traditions. Many of
the men who guided others in these ceremonial practices had learned
them through early-life participation in their tribal community. The only
difference between what is practiced among Two-Spirit communities
and the tribal context is the transcendence of heterosexism and gender
regulations surrounding ceremonial roles. It is important to note, as
mentioned earlier, any gender crossing behavior is explicitly read as gay
by Two-Spirit mens communities. While I make an analytical distinction
between sexual desire and gender, most non-gay Indians do not. For
this reason to challenge gender conformity is also seen as challenging
discrimination against same-sex desire.
The cultural logics replicated by Two-Spirit men are embedded in the
social practices of the culturally conservative communities in which they
seek participation. The social practices that use these cultural logics are
the ones where community identity is expressed, reinforced and reproduced through time (Foster, 1991). Two-Spirit men seek access to
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contexts of expression, reinforcement and reproduction of their

communitys identity not only because it is where identity is shaped, but
also because it is where cultural logics can be modified to allow the reassociaton of sexuality and gender difference. At the present moment their
access to cultural reproduction among their communities is limited or
impossible. Therefore they have taken to generating their own social
contexts within which to modify the pieces of cultural logic that
alienate them.
Social practices give us a particular insight into the strategic use of
culturally conservative logic by Two-Spirit men. For example, one of the
most common Two-Spirit ceremonial practices is the sweat lodge. The
Denver group, because of its majority Plains tribes membership,
frequently had sweats and mostly used the Lakota ceremonial form.
Denver society members who led sweats had undergone training to do so
and were given permission by elders to conduct the ceremony. They were
orthodox in their adherence to the rules and structure of the ceremony
except for roles surrounding gender. Participants were allowed to take on
roles in the Two-Spirit sweat that the gender structure would otherwise
prevent at a non-Two-Spirit ceremony. Any knowledgeable non-TwoSpirit outsider witnessing the ceremony would recognize every aspect of
the sweat with the only difference being that the individuals conducting
and participating are open about their sexuality and gender difference.
One might ask why it is important for someone to feel comfortable about
expressing their sexuality in a sweat lodge. Most Two-Spirit men would
reply with a philosophical notion that they need to be able to be true to
themselves for the ceremony to really do its work. But there are also
numerous practical aspects of tribal community ceremonies where heterosexism is embedded in the practice. For example, consider the act of prayer
during a sweat lodge or other ceremony. Often during sweats individuals
are allowed to pray aloud and ask for the support of others in the lodge.
In this context someone might wish to pray for a sick partner. Most of the
men would feel unwelcome praying for their same-sex partner in a nonTwo-Spirit setting. If they did pray for their partner they would feel
obligated to hide the nature of their relationship to that person. This
small difference is rendered large when we consider that tribal communities heterosexual orientation has the potential to discourage social
participation for an entire section of their community.
Not only do Two-Spirit social practices provide opportunities for the
men to practice their religion on their own terms, but the practices also
allow them to establish a connection between their sexuality and cultural
conservative social practices. Two-Spirit men are relying on a non-gay
Native reading of gender diversity as specifically gay or associated with
same-sex relations. That is, they are fully aware that non-gay Natives
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interpret any act of gender mixing or switching as explicitly associated with

gay sex; in this case sex between two men. Therefore, it is assumed that
non-gay Indians will explain a mans mixing or switching gender in their
self-presentation, clothing-aesthetics-mannerisms, as being associated
with their sexuality. Having their sexuality conflated with their gender and
with their Native identity is not preferred, but Two-Spirit men effectively
exploit the sexuality-gender essentialism of non-gay Indians to their
benefit. Two-Spirit people take advantage of this otherwise alienating
assumption by mixing gender roles within culturally conservative practices; subtextually associating their sexual desire with traditional
cultural customs.

Supportive cultural conservatives and the powwow

The performance of ceremonies is designed to help reinforce the idea of
Two-Spiritedness and create community solidarity. Ceremonies and other
social practices are also performed for the benefit of potential onlookers
who have the power to legitimize Two-Spirit identity within tribal
communities. The link between culturally conservative Native identity and
Two-Spirit gender and sexuality is successfully made within public social
contexts such as powwows. The powwow is a multi-tribal social event that
is ubiquitous among Native peoples throughout the USA and Canada.
The main focus of the powwow is the different forms of dancing that take
place, which are divided into categories. Each of these dance categories
has specific regalia and dance styles associated with them and dancers are
judged on their adherence to these powwow community styles. Since
their inception in the late 1800s, powwows have become the primary
social activity for many cultural conservatives and are considered a
traditional pursuit. Needless to say, Two-Spirit men are fully aware of
the importance of the powwow to their families, communities and in the
maintenance of Native social networks. Two-Spirit men adapt to the
heterosexism embedded within their communities powwows by holding
Two-Spirit powwows (Gilley, 2004, 2005). Two-Spirit powwows often
occur away from the watchful eyes of non-gay Indians and are not
widely known outside of the Two-Spirit community. As in Two-Spirit
ceremonies, the men follow every rule and tradition associated with
powwow practice.
Two-Spirit men do not conflate bodily sex to ones role within the
powwow. Instead, men who feel called to dress in womens regalia do
so without much fanfare; yet we must not think of this gender switching
as a form of drag performance. The men who choose to participate in the
powwow in womens regalia do so with the reverence and seriousness that
they approach any social practice. The men put a great deal of time and
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energy into making their regalia and practicing womens dance steps. The
goal is to accurately represent womens role in the powwow. Not all TwoSpirit men are called to switch roles in the powwow, but everyone participates to some degree in the re-gendering of the powwow: men will
dance with each other in couples dances, a same-sex couple will give
away items as a family in symbolic honoring exchanges and a male-bodied
veteran in womens regalia will carry in the American flag in the Grand
Entry. Two-Spirit men will tell you that these acts are not designed to
create hostility between them and heterofocused Natives, rather they view
these acts as making a compromise between their identity and the practices that they hold dear. The goal of these acts is not to overthrow Native
cultural values, but rather to make room for Two-Spirit identity; to
diminish the discrimination against their sexuality through the reassociation of gender diversity with specific cultural forms intelligible by
non-gay cultural conservatives.
One of the most important aspects of reassociating sexual and gender
diversity with traditional practices is the performance of culturally conservative practices in the presence of non-gay traditionalists. By inviting
open-minded non-gay traditionalists to Two-Spirit events the men
attempt to build supportive networks outside of the Two-Spirit
community. The men hope that non-gay supporters would expedite their
access to tribal and local community social practices and activities. The
support of important cultural conservatives could ensure ones unquestioned access to important social events. Besides making social
contacts, actively constructing supportive networks among cultural
conservatives is crucial for two additional reasons: first, the presence of
traditionalists at Two-Spirit events allows men to reorient their sexuality
with culturally conservative social practices in the presence of non-gay
traditional Natives, and second, Two-Spirit men believe that if cultural
conservatives witness Two-Spirit mens commitment to traditional practices they will be more likely to support Two-Spirit inclusion into social
practices and positions of cultural authority.
Over the course of my fieldwork I observed that the overwhelming
majority of non-gay Native supporters of Two-Spirit people were
traditional minded cultural conservatives. Non-gay Native supporters
were usually friends of Two-Spirit men and family members. Non-gay
supporters would show their encouragement by participating in TwoSpirit powwows, conducting ceremonies for Two-Spirit people, and
teaching society members traditional practices. The presence of high status
non-gay Indians helped legitimate Two-Spirit social practices, but also as
one Kiowa told me, them being here lets us know we are doing things
right and that shows them that we are who we say we are; those people
will help us return to our place in the tribe.
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Most of the men who are called to dress as women at the Two-Spirit
powwow dress in womens traditional cloth or buckskin. This category
of dress is considered the most traditional, and is thought of as the
essential expression of Native cultural conservative femininity. This
category requires items that must be made by the dancer, made for the
dancer by family or friends or purchased from an artisan. Some key
elements are buckskin or wool broadcloth dress, beaded belt, beaded
moccasins, an eagle or hawk feather fan, and a shawl. All of these items
are judged for their adherence to the traditions of the category and their
quality. It is assumed that Two-Spirit men will not prove their adherence
to conservative cultural forms by showing up in shabby regalia to borrow
one Osages words. Therefore, Two-Spirit men put themselves under an
enormous amount of pressure to ensure the intelligibility of their
performances, and that these performances are considered on a par with
non-Two-Spirit community contexts. A Two-Spirit powwow, dance
regalia or ceremony must be exemplary in its execution and presentation
for it to do its work; for non-gay Indians to make the proper associations.
Over the course of 10 years of fieldwork I have seen the participation
of Two-Spirit supporters increase dramatically, especially at Two-Spirit
powwows. The Oklahoma group holds a powwow every year in early
summer. I was at the first powwow in 1998 where fewer than 10 people
dressed in regalia and there were no non-gay cultural conservatives
present. At this same powwow in 2007 there were over 40 people dressed
in regalia, a third of which were men dressed in female regalia. At the
2007 powwow at least half of all participants were non-gay cultural
conservatives there to support Two-Spirit people. One Lakota man who
lives as a woman and dressed in female regalia accounts for this difference:
We have shown the people we are truly traditional and that we can
contribute to the community. A Cherokee gay man added, We have also
seen who is truly traditional among our communities. Traditionalists
support us because they know our role was part of the past.
The statement that I most often heard from non-gay traditionalist
supporters was that they were pleasantly surprised by Two-Spirit mens
traditionalism. One Kiowa woman told me, Before I came here [TwoSpirit powwow] I was worried that they were going to be doing things
wrong, ya know being more gay than Indian. But these are traditional
people. I feel good about supporting them. For Two-Spirit men statements such as this prove that they are doing things right. But the impacts
of their efforts are more important outside of the Two-Spirit community.
Inevitably Two-Spirit men desire to participate as Two-Spirit people
within their tribal and local Native communities. This has occurred with
mixed results. Cultural conservatives who have witnessed Two-Spirits
adherence to traditionalism are more willing to invite them to their
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camps at powwows and ceremonies. They are more willing to associate

with Two-Spirit men in public. At the same time I witnessed a Lakota man
dance at a powwow in Oklahoma in womens regalia and be publicly
shunned. None of the traditionalists that knew her came to her defense.
Public slights such as this inevitably demarcate boundaries on the
intelligibility of Two-Spirit gender expression and associated sexualities.

Sexuality, inequality and power

By presenting Two-Spirit social practices in accordance with regulations
surrounding traditional behavior, Two-Spirit men demonstrate their
perfection of conservative ideals. Two-Spirit men believe that social acceptance is only achievable by showing cultural conservatives that they are
committed to traditionalist values. Demonstrating their proficiency in
traditional culture acts to remind non-gay cultural conservatives that there
was little difference between them as Natives. More importantly it acts to
illustrate that Two-Spirit men could alter the gender and sexuality regulations of traditional culture without changing the foundational meaning
of social practices. Therefore, Two-Spirit men feel it necessary to demonstrate that a male-bodied person could dress in female regalia at a powwow
and adhere to the requirements of that role. A Two-Spirit mans adherence to standards of dress and performance are immediately noticeable to
any knowledgeable cultural conservative. The components of a dance
outfit, displaying the appropriate personal comportment of dance styles,
and the display of an overall respect for the tradition of the powwow act
to illustrate the reverence that Two-Spirit men feel for these cultural
forms. They are relying on the intelligibility of these cultural forms to
make a positive association between their sexuality and gender identity
with Native identity.
Two-Spirit men are counting on the intelligibility they create to secure
their eventual acceptance in their communities. Their expectation that
Two-Spirit practices will eventually produce acceptance comes from their
understanding of cultural conservative logic. They know that cultural
conservatives wish to preserve traditional social practices. Therefore, TwoSpirit men assume that if they are able to sufficiently associate their
sexuality and gender with traditionalism then they will be incorporated
into community-based preservation efforts; that a role for them will be
revitalized. In every way they are counting on the idea that Natives will
eventually recognize Two-Spirit perfection of shared symbols, attitudes
and values.
Two-Spirit mens goals are not to create disjuncture within contemporary Native social practices. Two-Spirit acts of resistance are meant to
appeal to the continuity within Native cultural logic and reassociate their
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desire with contemporary social practices. This process includes challenging heteronormative ideologies, but has as its priority the maintenance of
cultural conservative practices. They are fully aware that the cultural logic
that once included a discursive space for their sexual preference and
gender expression remains intact.

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Biographical Note
Brian Joseph Gilley is an associate professor of anthropology and the director of
the program in US Ethnic Studies at the University of Vermont. He is the
author of Becoming Two-Spirit from the University of Nebraska Press and
co-editor of Critical Interventions in Queer Indigenous Studies from the
University of Arizona Press. Address: Dept Anthropology, University of
Vermont, 72 University Place, Burlington, VT 05405. [email: bgilley@uvm.edu]

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