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Evelyn Blackwood
27
oftheFemaleCross-Gender
CulturalSignificance Role
GenderEquality
32. Spier, KlamathEthnography (n. 11 above); J. A. Teit, "Field Notes on the Tahltan
and Kaska Indians: 1912-15," Anthropologica 3, no. 1 (1956): 39-171; Kroeber,Handbook(n.
27 above); Gifford(n. 12 above).
33. Kelly (n. 27 above); Spier, KlamathEthnography (n. 11 above).
34. Kelly (n. 27 above).
35. Devereux (n. 9 above), p. 514.
36. Kelly (n. 27 above); Forde (n. 24 above).
Womenon thePlains
nowned for her exploits as warriorand mediator and guide for white
traders.Running Eagle of the Blackfootlived as a warriorand marrieda
young widow. Woman Chiefbecame the head of her father'slodge when
he died and achieved the thirdhighestrank among the Crow. She took
fourwives.50Particularlysince no recordsof earliercross-genderwomen
have been found,thesefewexamples seem to constituteindividualexcep-
tions. What then was the statusof the female cross-genderrole among
Plains tribes?
Part of the difficultywith answering this question stems from the
nature of the data itself.Nineteenth-century observersrarelyrecorded
informationon Plains Indian women,"consideringthemtoo insignificant
to meritspecial treatment."5'These observersknewfewwomen and only
the more successfulmales. "Those who did become knownwere women
who had acted as go-betweensforthe whitesand Indians,"52 such as the
Kutenai cross-genderfemale. Running Eagle and Woman Chief were
also exceptional enough to be noticed by white traders.Except for the
Kutenai woman, none of the women are identifiedas berdache in
nineteenth-century reports,although all were cross-gender.Observers
seem to have been unable to recognize the female cross-genderrole.
Indeed, no nineteenth-century reports mention cross-genderfemales
among even the western tribes, although later ethnographers found
ample evidence of the role.
Ethnographershad no solid evidenceof thefemalecross-genderrole
among Plains Indians. Several factorsmay help to explain this discrep-
ancy. WhitecontactwithPlains tribescame earlierthan withthe western
tribesand was more disruptive.The last cross-genderfemales seem to
have disappeared among Plains tribesby the mid-nineteenthcentury,
while in the Southwestthis did not occur until the end of the century,
much closer to the time when ethnographersbegan to collectdata. Dis-
crepancies also arise in informants'stories. The Kutenai denied the
existence of cross-gender females among them, in contradictionwith
earlier evidence, and yetwillinglyclaimed thatsuch women lived among
the Flathead and Blackfoot.33 The Arapaho told AlfredKroeber thatthe
The DemiseoftheCross-Gender
Role
Conclusion
Department ofAnthropology
San FranciscoStateUniversity