Editing Two-spirit

[[File:2spiritflag.jpg|thumb|A common Two-Spirit [[pride flags|flag]], consisting of two black-and-white feathers over the six-stripe rainbow flag. Some alternate designs have been created, see [[:Category:Two-Spirit pride flags]].]]

'''Two-Spirit''' (also '''two spirit''' or, occasionally, '''twospirited''') is a modern, pan-Indian, umbrella term used by some Indigenous North Americans to describe Native people in their communities who fulfill a traditional [[third gender]] (or other [[gender-variant identities worldwide|gender-variant]]) ceremonial and social role in their cultures.<ref name=Estrada>{{cite journal|last1=Estrada|first1=Gabriel|title=''Two Spirits'', ''Nádleeh'', and LGBTQ2 Navajo Gaze|journal=American Indian Culture and Research Journal|date=2011|volume=35|issue=4|pages=167–190|doi=10.17953/aicr.35.4.x500172017344j30|url=https://www.scribd.com/document/318264790/Two-Spirits-Nadleeh-and-Navajo-LGBTQ2-Gaze-pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230604044523/https://www.scribd.com/document/318264790/Two-Spirits-Nadleeh-and-Navajo-LGBTQ2-Gaze-pdf|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref><ref name=NYT2 /><ref name=NCIA>{{cite journal|last1=Pruden|first1=Harlan|last2=Edmo|first2=Se-ah-dom|title=Two-Spirit People: Sex, Gender & Sexuality in Historic and Contemporary Native America|journal=National Congress of American Indians Policy Research Center |date=2016|url=http://www.ncai.org/policy-research-center/initiatives/Pruden-Edmo_TwoSpiritPeople.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230708104610/https://www.ncai.org/policy-research-center/initiatives/Pruden-Edmo_TwoSpiritPeople.pdf|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref>

The term ''two-spirit'' was created in 1990 at the Indigenous [[lesbian]] and [[gay]] international gathering in Winnipeg, and "specifically chosen to distinguish and distance Native American/First Nations people from non-Native peoples."<ref name="de Vries 2009">{{cite book|last1=de Vries|first1=Kylan Mattias|editor1-last=O'Brien|editor1-first=Jodi|title=Encyclopedia of gender and society|date=2009|publisher=SAGE|location=Los Angeles |isbn=9781412909167 |page=64 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_nyHS4WyUKEC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0|accessdate=6 March 2015|chapter=Berdache (Two-Spirit)}}</ref> The primary purpose of coining a new term was to encourage the replacement of the outdated and considered offensive, anthropological term, ''berdache.''<ref name=NativeOut101/> While this new term has not been universally accepted—it has been criticized as a term of erasure by traditional communities who already have their own terms for the people being grouped under this new term, and by those who reject what they call the "western" [[gender binary|binary]] implications, such as implying that Natives believe these individuals are "both male and female"<ref name="de Vries 2009" />—it has generally received more acceptance and use than the anthropological term it replaced.<ref name="Pember1" /><ref name=NativeOut101>{{cite web|url=http://nativeout.com/twospirit-rc/two-spirit-101/ |title= Two Spirit 101 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141210110520/http://nativeout.com/twospirit-rc/two-spirit-101/ |archive-date=2014-12-10 |work=NativeOut|quote=The Two Spirit term was adopted in 1990 at an Indigenous lesbian and gay international gathering to encourage the replacement of the term berdache, which means, 'passive partner in sodomy, boy prostitute.'|access-date=23 Sep 2015}}</ref><ref name=BMedicine>{{cite journal |last=Medicine |first=Beatrice |date=August 2002 |title=Directions in Gender Research in American Indian Societies: Two Spirits and Other Categories |url=http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1024&context=orpc |journal=Online Readings in Psychology and Culture |publisher= International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology |volume=3 |issue=1 |page=7 |issn=2307-0919 |doi=10.9707/2307-0919.1024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121208071034/http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1024&context=orpc |archive-date=2012-12-08 |accessdate=2016-06-25 |quote=At the Wenner Gren conference on gender held in Chicago, May, 1994... the gay American Indian and Alaska Native males agreed to use the term "Two Spirit" to replace the controversial "berdache" term. The stated objective was to purge the older term from anthropological literature as it was seen as demeaning and not reflective of Native categories. Unfortunately, the term "berdache" has also been incorporated in the psychology and women studies domains, so the task for the affected group to purge the term looms large and may be formidable.|doi-access=free }}</ref>

"Two Spirit" was not intended to be interchangeable with "LGBT Native American" or "Gay Indian";<ref name=NYT2/> rather, it was created in English (and then translated into Ojibwe), to serve as a pan-Indian unifier, to be used for general audiences instead of the traditional terms in Indigenous languages for what are actually quite diverse, culturally-specific ceremonial and social roles, that can vary quite widely (if and when they exist at all).<ref name=Estrada/><ref name=NYT2/><ref name="de Vries 2009" /> Opinions vary as to whether or not this objective has succeeded.<ref name="de Vries 2009" /><ref name=Pember>{{cite web|url=https://rewire.news/article/2016/10/13/two-spirit-tradition-far-ubiquitous-among-tribes/|title='Two Spirit' Tradition Far From Ubiquitous Among Tribes|publisher=Rewire (website)|first=Mary Annette |last=Pember |date=Oct 13, 2016|accessdate=October 17, 2016 |quote= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230604044112/https://rewire.news/article/2016/10/13/two-spirit-tradition-far-ubiquitous-among-tribes/|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref> The decision to adopt this new, pan-Indian term was also made to distance themselves from non-Native gays and lesbians,<ref name=Jacobs2-3,221/> as the term and identity of two-spirit "does not make sense" unless it is contextualized within a Native American or First Nations framework and traditional cultural understanding.<ref name=NCIA/><ref name=NYT1>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/08/fashion/08SPIRIT.html?_r=0|title=A Spirit of Belonging, Inside and Out|work=The New York Times|date=8 Oct 2006|accessdate=28 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409124947/https://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/08/fashion/08SPIRIT.html?_r=0|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref><ref name=Vowel-1>{{cite book|last1=Vowel|first1=Chelsea|editor1-last=|editor1-first=|title= Indigenous Writes: A Guide to First Nations, Métis & Inuit Issues in Canada|date=2016|publisher=Highwater Press|location=Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada|isbn=978-1553796800|page=|accessdate=|chapter=All My Queer Relations - Language, Culture, and Two-Spirit Identity |ref=harv}}</ref> However, the gender-nonconforming, LGBT, or third and fourth gender, ceremonial roles traditionally embodied by Native American and FNIM people, intended to be under the modern umbrella of two-spirit, can vary widely, even among the Indigenous people who accept the English-language term. No one Native American/First Nations' culture's gender or sexuality categories apply to all, or even a majority of, these cultures.<ref name="de Vries 2009" /><ref name=Pember/>

It is important to remember that a Indigenous person being nonbinary does not automatically make that person Two-Spirit, and that someone can be Two-Spirit without being nonbinary.<ref name="Truthwaite">{{Cite web |title=Cutting off all my hair: a non-binary Indigenous person isn't necessarily Two-Spirit |author=Truthwaite, Ava |work=The Varsity |date=28 March 2021 |access-date=9 April 2021 |url= https://thevarsity.ca/2021/03/28/cutting-off-all-my-hair-a-non-binary-indigenous-person-isnt-necessarily-two-spirit/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230205034857/https://thevarsity.ca/2021/03/28/cutting-off-all-my-hair-a-non-binary-indigenous-person-isnt-necessarily-two-spirit/ |archive-date=17 July 2023 }}</ref>

==Terminology==
===Origin and evolution of the term ''two-spirit''===
[[File:SF Pride 2014 - Stierch 3.jpg|thumb|260px|The two spirit contingent marches at San Francisco Pride 2014.]]

The term ''two spirit'' was adopted in English, and created in Ojibwe, in 1990 at the third annual Native American/First Nations gay and lesbian conference in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, as a replacement for ''berdache''.<ref name="de Vries 2009" /> The decision to adopt this new, pan-Indian term was deliberate, with a clear intention to distance themselves from non-Native gays and lesbians,<ref name=Jacobs2-3,221>{{harvp|Jacobs|Thomas|Lang|1997|pp=2–3, 221}}</ref> as well as from non-Native terminology like ''berdache'', "gay", "lesbian", and "trans".<ref name=Pember1/><ref name=Jacobs2-3,221/>

Cameron 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."<ref name=Cameron/> Lang explains that for Aboriginal people, their sexual orientation or gender identity is secondary to their ethnic identity. She states, "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".<ref name=Jacobs2-3,221/>

While the words ''niizh manidoowag'' (from Ojibwe) were also proposed at the same time in this discussion (to honor the language of the Peoples in whose territory the conference was being held), this term had not been previously used, in either Ojibwe or English, until this conference in 1990, nor was this term ever intended to replace the traditional terms or concepts already in use in Native ceremonial cultures.<ref name="de Vries 2009" />

While it has gained far more mainstream recognition and popularity than any of the traditional terms in Indigenous languages, the term has never met with universal acceptance.<ref name="de Vries 2009" />  The primary purpose of coining a new term was to encourage the replacement of the outdated, and offensive, anthropological term ''berdache,'' which means "passive partner in sodomy, boy prostitute."<ref name=Pember1/><ref name=NativeOut101 /><ref name=BMedicine/>

While use of the term to replace ''berdache'' proceeded, the word also began to replace tribally-specific terms and cultural teachings, leading to criticism, largely from more traditional members of Indian Country,
<blockquote>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.<ref name="de Vries 2009" /></blockquote>

Other concerns about this pan-Indian, English-language term have centered around the binary nature of ''two-spirit'', a sense not found in the traditional names for these individuals or their roles in traditional cultures,  
<blockquote>It implies that the individual is both male and female and that these aspects are intertwined within them. The term moves away from traditional Native American/First Nations cultural identities and meanings of sexuality and gender variance. It does not take into account the terms and meanings from individual nations and tribes. ...
Although ''two-spirit'' implies to some a spiritual nature, that one holds the spirit of two, both male and female, traditional Native Americans/First Nations peoples view this as a Western concept.<ref name="de Vries 2009" /></blockquote>

It is unclear who first coined the term ''two-spirit'' in English. Pember notes the involvement of non-Native Will Roscoe who, like his also non-Native mentor Harry Hay, is involved in the hippie/counterculture gay men's group, the [[Radical Faeries]],<ref name=RoscoePapers>{{Cite web|url=http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c85d8sd4/entire_text/|title=Will Roscoe papers and Gay American Indians records|website=www.oac.cdlib.org|access-date=2016-05-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230213093134/http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c85d8sd4/entire_text/|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref> a "non-Native community that emulates Native spirituality" and engages in other forms of cultural appropriation.<ref name=Morgensen>{{cite book|last1=Morgensen|first1=Scott Lauria|title=Spaces Between Us: Queer Settler Colonialism and Indigenous Decolonization|date=2009|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|location= |isbn=9781452932729 |pages=129–151}}</ref>
{{quote|Non-Native anthropologist Will Roscoe gets much of the public credit for coining the term two spirit. However, according to Kristopher Kohl Miner of the Ho-Chunk Nation, Native people such as anthropologist Dr. Wesley Thomas of the Dine or Navajo tribe also contributed to its creation. (Thomas is a professor in the School of Dine and Law Studies.)<ref name=Pember1>{{cite web|url=https://rewire.news/article/2016/10/13/two-spirit-tradition-far-ubiquitous-among-tribes/|title='Two Spirit' Tradition Far From Ubiquitous Among Tribes|publisher=Rewire (website)|first=Mary Annette |last=Pember |date=Oct 13, 2016|accessdate=Oct 17, 2016 |quote= Non-Native anthropologist Will Roscoe gets much of the public credit for coining the term two spirit. However, according to Kristopher Kohl Miner of the Ho-Chunk Nation, Native people such as anthropologist Dr. Wesley Thomas of the Dine or Navajo tribe also contributed to its creation. (Thomas is a professor in the School of Dine and Law Studies.)|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230604044112/https://rewire.news/article/2016/10/13/two-spirit-tradition-far-ubiquitous-among-tribes/|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref>}}

Even at the series of conferences where the term was gradually adopted (1990 being the third of five), concern was expressed by a number of the Native attendees that traditional Natives back in the reservation communities would never agree to this newly-coined concept, or adopt the neologism being used to describe it.<ref name=Kehoe/> 
{{quote|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.<ref name=Kehoe>{{cite web|last=Kehoe |first=Alice B.| authorlink=Alice Beck Kehoe |title=Appropriate Terms|work=SAA Bulletin|publisher=Society for American Archaeology 16(2), UC-Santa Barbara|date=2002 |issn= 0741-5672|url=https://www.saa.org/publications/saabulletin/16-2/saa14.html | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20041105120021/https://www.saa.org/publications/saabulletin/16-2/saa14.html |archivedate= 2004-11-05 |doi = |accessdate= 2019-05-01|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230305220818/https://www.saa.org/publications/saabulletin/16-2/saa14.html|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref>}}

Some who enthusiastically took up the term and used it in the media said that this new, English-language term carried on the full meaning and implications of the Indigenous-language terms used in-community for the specific traditional, ceremonial roles that the anthropologists had referred to<ref name=Criddle>{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY21Iirhp5o |title=Frameline Voices: Two Spirits |date=2007 |last=Fertig |first=Ruth |type=Documentary film | access-date = May 3, 2019| publisher = Frameline| time = :40|quote=This is a tradition that extends back tens of thousands of years.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230411220107/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY21Iirhp5o |archive-date=17 July 2023 }}</ref> - emphasizing the role of the Elders in recognizing a two-spirit person, stressing that "Two Spirit" is not interchangeable with "LGBT Native American" or "Gay Indian";<ref name=NYT2>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/08/fashion/08SPIRIT.html?_r=0|title=A Spirit of Belonging, Inside and Out|work=The New York Times|date=8 Oct 2006|accessdate=28 July 2016 |quote='The elders will tell you the difference between a gay Indian and a Two-Spirit,' [Criddle] said, underscoring the idea that simply being gay and Indian does not make someone a Two-Spirit.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409124947/https://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/08/fashion/08SPIRIT.html?_r=0|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref> and that the title differs from most western, mainstream definitions of sexuality and [[gender identity]] in that it is not a modern, self-chosen term of personal sexual or gender "identity", but is a sacred, spiritual and ceremonial role that is recognized and confirmed by the Elders of the Two Spirit's  ceremonial community.<ref name=Estrada/><ref name=NYT2/> Talking to The New York Times in 2006, Joey Criddle said,
{{quote|The elders will tell you the difference between a gay Indian and a Two-Spirit," ... underscoring the idea that simply being gay and Indian does not make someone a Two-Spirit.<ref name=NYT2/>}}

At the same time, others saw it as a capitulation to urbanization and loss of culture that, while initially intended to help people reconnect with the spiritual dimension of these roles, was not working out the way it had been intended. In 2009, writing for the ''Encyclopedia of Gender and Society'', Kylan Mattias de Vries wrote,

<blockquote>With the urbanization and assimilation of Native peoples, individuals began utilizing Western terms, concepts, and identities, such as gay, lesbian, transgender, and intersex. These terms separated Native cultural identity from sexuality and gender identity, furthering a disconnect felt by many Native American/First Nations peoples in negotiating the boundaries of life between two worlds (Native and non-Native/Western). The term ''two-spirited'' was created to reconnect one's gender or sexual identity with her or his Native identity and culture....
Some Native Americans/First Nations people that hold to more traditional religious and cultural values view ''two-spirit'' as a cultural and social term, rather than one with any religious or spiritual meaning. ...
Since historically, many "berdache/two-spirit" individuals held religious or spiritual roles, the term ''two spirit'' creates a disconnection from the past. The terms used by other tribes currently and historically do not translate directly into the English form of ''two spirit'' or the Ojibwe form of ''niizh manidoowag''.<ref name="de Vries 2009" /></blockquote>

While some have found the term a useful tool for intertribal organizing, "the concept and word ''two-spirit'' has no traditional cultural significance".<ref name="de Vries 2009" /> Not all tribes have ceremonial roles for these people, and the tribes who do usually use names in their own languages.<ref name="terms">{{cite web|url=http://nativeout.com/twospirit-rc/two-spirit-101/two-spirit-terms-in-tribal-languages/|title= Two Spirit Terms in Tribal Languages |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150102172337/http://nativeout.com/twospirit-rc/two-spirit-101/two-spirit-terms-in-tribal-languages/ |archive-date=2015-01-02|work=NativeOut}}</ref><ref name="NativeOut101" />

=== Traditional Indigenous terms ===
With over 500 surviving Native American cultures, attitudes about sex and gender can be diverse.<ref name="de Vries 2009" /> 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 two-spirits the same way, or welcome a pan-Indian term to replace the terms already in use by their cultures.<ref name=Pember/><ref name="de Vries 2009" /> 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.<ref name=Vowel-1/><ref name=Pember/> While existing terminology in many nations shows historical acknowledgement of differing sexual orientations and gender expressions, members of some these nations have also said that while variance was accepted, they never had separate or defined roles for these members of the community.<ref name=Vowel-1/><ref name=Pember/> 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.<ref name=Pember/><ref name="de Vries 2009" /><ref>Note: There is not always consensus, even among reporting elders and language workers, about all of these terms and how they are or were applied. See Vowel (2016, p.109) and Druke (2014).</ref> The following list is not comprehensive.

*Blackfoot Confederacy: ''a'yai-kik-ahsi'', "Acts like a woman." There are historical accounts of individuals who engaged in homosexual relationships, or who were born as men but lived their lives as women, possibly for religious or social reasons. These individuals were viewed in a wide variety of ways, from being revered spiritual leaders, brave warriors and artisans, to targets of ridicule.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Vengeful Wife|last=Dempsey|first=Hugh|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|year=2003|isbn=978-0806137711|location=|pages=48–62}}</ref>
*Blackfoot Confederacy: ''ááwowáakii'', "A male homosexual."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Blackfoot Dictionary of Stems, Roots, and Affixes|last=Frantz|first=Donald G.|last2=Russell|first2=Norma Jean|publisher=University of Toronto Press|year=1989|isbn=0-8020-7136-8|location=|pages=5}}</ref>
*Blackfoot Confederacy: ''ninauh-oskitsi-pahpyaki'', "Manly-hearted-woman." This term has a wide variety of meanings ranging from women who performed the roles of men, dressed as men, took female partners, or who participated in activities such as war.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Vengeful Wife|last=Dempsey|first=Hugh|publisher=University of Oklahoma press|year=2003|isbn=978-0806137711|location=|pages=57–62}}</ref> 
*napêw iskwêwisêhot, "A man who dresses as a woman".<ref name="Vowel-1" />
*iskwêw ka napêwayat, "A woman who dresses as a man".<ref name="Vowel-1" />
*Cherokee: In the Cherokee language, ''asegi udanto'' refers to people who either are outside of men's and women's roles, or who have a combination of men's and women's roles.<ref name="engl_Nati">{{Cite web |title=Native American Heritage Month: Qwo-Li Driskill and Transgender Days of Remembrance |author= |work=Colorado State University |date=16 November 2017 |access-date=2 October 2020 |url= https://english.colostate.edu/news/native-american-heritage-month-qwo-li-driskill-transgender-days-remembrance/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230522163740/https://english.colostate.edu/news/native-american-heritage-month-qwo-li-driskill-transgender-days-remembrance/ |archive-date=17 July 2023 }}</ref> "Asegi" translates as "strange" and is used by some Cherokees as a term similar to "[[queer]]".<ref name="AsegiStories">{{Cite web |title=Project MUSE - Asegi Stories |author= |work=muse.jhu.edu |date= |access-date=2 October 2020 |url= https://muse.jhu.edu/book/44810 |quote=udanto |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211027054259/https://muse.jhu.edu/book/44810 |archive-date=17 July 2023 }}</ref>
*Cheyenne: hemaneh, meaning "half man, half woman".<ref name="Brayboy">{{Cite web |title=Two Spirits, One Heart, Five Genders |last=Brayboy |first=Duane |work=IndianCountryToday.com |date=September 7, 2017 |access-date=October 15, 2020 |url= https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/two-spirits-one-heart-five-genders-9UH_xnbfVEWQHWkjNn0rQQ|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230504222045/https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/two-spirits-one-heart-five-genders-9UH_xnbfVEWQHWkjNn0rQQ |archive-date=17 July 2023 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Encyclopedia of Native American Healing|year=1996|page=104|last=Lyon|first=William S.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|chapter=Sexuality and American Indians|last=Hanson|year=1980|title=The Urban Indian| page=62 |url=https://archive.org/details/ERIC_ED231587/page/n61/|work=Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) Archive|archive-url=False|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref> Sometimes cited as a word for gay men.<ref>{{cite book|title=Gay Spirit: Myth and Meaning|year=1987|page=77|last=Thompson|first=Mark|quote=Among the Cheyenne Indians, gay men were called ''hemaneh''.}}</ref> Sometimes transcribed as ''a-he-e me' ne'''<ref>{{cite book|title=The Spirit and the Flesh: Sexual Diversity in American Indian Culture|year=1988|page=278|last= Williams|first= Walter}}</ref> or ''heeman''.<ref>{{cite book|chapter=Gender Diversity in Native North America|editor=Duberman, Martin|last=Roscoe|first=Will|title=A Queer World: The Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader|year=1997|page=78}}</ref>
*Cree: ayahkwêw, "A man dressed/living/accepted as a woman"; possibly not a respectful term; others have suggested it is a third gender designation, applied to both women ''and'' men.<ref name="Vowel-1" /> 
*Cree: înahpîkasoht, "A woman dressed/living/accepted as a man"; also given as "someone who fights everyone to prove they are the toughest".<ref name="Vowel-1" />
*Cree: iskwêhkân, "One who acts/lives as a woman".<ref name="Vowel-1" />
*Cree: napêhkân, "One who acts/lives as a man".<ref name="Vowel-1" />
*Mexica: Xōchihuah, "One who possesses aspect of a woman" and Patlacheh "one who posssesses aspect of a male"<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://davidbowles.medium.com/mexican-x-part-xii-what-did-a-xochihuah-possess-3784532d8023|title=Mexican X Part XII: Xochihuah and Queer Aztecs|last=Bowles|first=David|date=2020-07-07|website=Medium|language=en|access-date=2021-10-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230607193839/https://davidbowles.medium.com/mexican-x-part-xii-what-did-a-xochihuah-possess-3784532d8023|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref> 
*Crow people: ''batée''. A word that describes both [[transgender women]] and [[gay men]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://dictionary.crowlanguage.org/#/L/bat%C3%A9e%20(%C3%A1a)|title=Crow Dictionary|last=|first=|date=|website=|publisher=Crow Language Consortium|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}}</ref> 
*Wíŋkte is the contraction of an older Lakota word, ''Winyanktehca'', meaning "wants to be like a woman".<ref name="Medicine">{{cite web | last = Medicine | first =Beatrice | authorlink = | title = Directions in Gender Research in American Indian Societies: Two Spirits and Other Categories by Beatrice Medicine | work = Online Readings in Psychology and Culture (Unit 3, Chapter 2). W. J. Lonner, D. L. Dinnel, S. A. Hayes, & D. N. Sattler (Eds.)| publisher = Center for Cross-Cultural Research, Western Washington University |date=2002 | url = http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~culture/medicine.htm | archiveurl  = https://web.archive.org/web/20030330115133/http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~culture/medicine.htm | archivedate = 2003-03-30 | doi = | accessdate = 2015-07-07 }}</ref> ''[[Winkte]]'' are a social category in historical Lakota culture, of male-bodied people who in some cases have adopted the clothing, work, and mannerisms that Lakota culture usually consider [[feminine]]. In contemporary Lakota culture, the term is most commonly associated with simply being gay. Both historically and in modern culture, usually ''winkte'' are [[homosexual]], though they may or may not consider themselves part of the more mainstream [[LGBT]] communities. Some ''winkte'' participate in the pan-Indian Two Spirit community.<ref name="Medicine" /> While historical accounts of their status vary widely, most accounts, notably those by other Lakota, see the ''winkte'' as regular members of the community, and neither marginalized for their status, nor seen as exceptional. Other writings, usually historical accounts by anthropologists, hold the ''winkte'' as sacred, occupying a liminal, third gender role in the culture and born to fulfill ceremonial roles that cannot be filled by either men or women.<ref name="Medicine" /> In contemporary Lakota communities, attitudes towards the ''winkte'' vary from accepting to homophobic.<ref name="Medicine" /><ref name="WinkteInterview">{{cite web|last1=Druke|first1=Galen |url=https://www.wpr.org/native-american-two-spirit-people-serve-unique-roles-within-their-communities
|title=Native American 'Two-Spirit People' Serve Unique Roles Within Their Communities – One 'Winkte' Talks About Role Of LGBT People In Lakota Culture|publisher=Wisconsin Public Radio|date=27 June 2014 |accessdate=1 October 2017 |ref=harv|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230415172507/http://www.wpr.org/native-american-two-spirit-people-serve-unique-roles-within-their-communities|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref>
*Navaho/Diné people: There are at least six genders in Diné language: Asdzáán (woman), Hastiin (man), Náhleeh (feminine-man), Dilbaa (masculine-woman), Nádleeh Asdzaa (lesbian), ‘Nádleeh Hastii (gay man).<ref name="Yazzie">{{Cite web |title=Why are Diné LGBTQ+ and Two Spirit people being denied access to ceremony? |last=Yazzie |first=Jolene |work=High Country News |date=7 January 2020 |access-date=2 October 2020 |url= https://www.hcn.org/issues/52.2/indigenous-affairs-why-are-dine-lgbtq-and-two-spirit-people-being-denied-access-to-ceremony|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221223144739/https://www.hcn.org/issues/52.2/indigenous-affairs-why-are-dine-lgbtq-and-two-spirit-people-being-denied-access-to-ceremony |archive-date=17 July 2023 }}</ref> Náhleeh, also given as ''[[Nádleehi]]'', Nadleh<ref name="Williams">{{Cite web |title=The 'Two-Spirit' people of indigenous North Americans |last=Williams |first=Walter L |work=firstpeople.us |date= |access-date=15 October 2020 |url= https://www.firstpeople.us/articles/the-two-spirit-people-of-indigenous-north-americans.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230530105832/https://www.firstpeople.us/articles/the-two-spirit-people-of-indigenous-north-americans.html |archive-date=17 July 2023 }}</ref>, or Nádleeh, has the meaning of "one who is transformed" or "one who changes".<ref>Franc Johnson Newcomb (1980-06). Hosteen Klah: Navaho Medicine Man and Sand Painter. University of Oklahoma Press. {{ISBN|0-8061-1008-2}}.</ref><ref>Lapahie, Harrison, Jr. Hosteen Klah (Sir Left Handed). Lapahie.com. 2001 (retrieved 19 Oct 2009)</ref><ref>Berlo, Janet C. and Ruth B. 
Phillips. Native North American Art. Oxford: Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|978-0-19-284218-3}} . pg. 34</ref> In traditional Navajo culture, ''nádleeh'' are male-bodied individuals described by those in their communities as "effeminate male", or as "half woman, half man".<ref name="Estrada" /> A 2009 documentary about the tragic murder of ''nádleeh'' Fred Martinez, entitled, ''Two Spirits'', contributed to awareness of these terms and cultures.<ref name="Estrada" /> A Navajo gender spectrum that has been described is that of four genders: feminine woman, masculine woman, feminine man, masculine man.<ref name="Estrada" />
*Ojibwe: ''ikwekaazo'', "Men who chose to function as women" / "one who endeavors to be like a woman".<ref name="Treur2011">{{cite book|last1=Treuer|first1=Anton|editor1-last=|editor1-first=|title= The Assassination of Hole in the Day|date=2011|publisher=Borealis Books|location=|isbn=|page=|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1aIrg3wiUyoC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_atb#v=onepage&q=ininiikaazo%20&f=false|accessdate=17 October 2016|chapter=Women and Gender}}</ref>
*Ojibwe: ''ininiikaazo'', "Women who functioned as men" / "one who endeavors to be like a man".<ref name="Treur2011" />
<blockquote>[In Ojibwe cultures] Sex usually determined one's gender, and therefore one's work, but the Ojibwe accepted variation. Men who chose to function as women were called ''ikwekaazo'', meaning 'one who endeavors to be like a woman'. Women who functioned as men were called ''ininiikaazo'', meaning, 'one who endeavors to be like a man'. The French called these people ''berdaches''. ''Ikwekaazo'' and ''ininiikaazo'' could take spouses of their own sex. Their mates were not considered ''ikwekaazo'' or ''ininiikaazo'', however, because their function in society was still in keeping with their sex. If widowed, the spouse of an ''ikwekaazo'' or ''ininiikaazo'' could remarry someone of the opposite sex or another ''ikwekaazo'' or ''ininiikaazo''. The ''ikwekaazowag'' worked and dressed like women. The ''ininiikaazowag'' worked and dressed like men. Both were considered to be strong spiritually, and they were always honoured, especially during ceremonies.<ref name=Treur2011/></blockquote>
* Osage: ''mixu'ga'' ("moon instructed")<ref name="McNabb">{{cite book |last=McNabb |first=Charlie | title=Nonbinary Gender Identities : History, Culture, Resources |year=2018 | page=41}}</ref>
* Quinault: ''keknatsa'nxwix'' ("part woman") and ''tawkxwa'nsix'' ("man-acting")<ref name="McNabb" />
*[[lhamana]], men who at times may also take on the social and ceremonial roles performed by women in their culture. Accounts from the 1800s note that ''lhamana'', while dressed in "female attire", were often hired for work that required "strength and endurance",<ref name=Stevenson380>Matilda Coxe Stevenson, The Zuni Indians: Their Mythology, Esoteric Fraternities, and Ceremonies, (BiblioBazaar, 2010) p.&nbsp;380</ref> while also excelling in traditional arts and crafts such as pottery and weaving.<ref name=James>James, George W. New Mexico: The Land of the Delight Makers. Boston: Page Co.,1920</ref> Notable ''lhamana'' [[We'wha]] (1849–1896), lived in both traditional female and male social and ceremonial roles at various points in their life, and was a respected community leader and cultural ambassador.<ref name=Bost139>Suzanne Bost, Mulattas and Mestizas: Representing Mixed Identities in the Americas, 1850-2000, (Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 2003, pg.139</ref><ref name=Stevenson37>Matilda Coxe Stevenson, The Zuni Indians: Their Mythology, Esoteric Fraternities, and Ceremonies, (BiblioBazaar, 2010) p.&nbsp;37 Quote:"the most intelligent person in the pueblo. Strong character made his word law among both men and women with whom he associated. Though his wrath was dreaded by men as well as women, he was loved by all children, to whom he was ever kind."</ref>

== Contemporary issues ==
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 people, pan-Indianism, and cultural appropriation of Indigenous identities and ceremonial ways among 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.<ref name=Pember/><ref name=Cameron>Cameron, Michelle. (2005). Two-spirited Aboriginal people: Continuing cultural appropriation by non-Aboriginal society. ''Canadian Women Studies'', ''24'' (2/3), 123–127.</ref>
 <blockquote>These sort of simplified black-and-white depictions of Native culture and history perpetuate indiscriminate appropriation of Native peoples. Although the current new meme or legend surrounding the term two spirit is certainly laudable for helping LGBTQ people create their own more empowering terminology to describe themselves, it carries some questionable baggage.

My concern is not so much over the use of the words but over the social meme they have generated that has morphed into a cocktail of historical revisionism, wishful thinking, good intentions, and a soupçon of white, entitled appropriation.<ref name=Pember/></blockquote>
<blockquote>''Two-spirit'' does not acknowledge either the traditional acceptance or the nonacceptance of individuals in various nations and tribes. The idea of gender and sexuality variance being universally accepted among Native American/First Nations peoples has become romanticized. <br/>
Accordingly, the change from ''berdache'' to ''two-spirit'' is most accurately understood as a non-Native idealization of the social acceptance of gender variance, idealizing a romanticized acceptance of gender variance.<ref name="de Vries 2009" /></blockquote>

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 two-spirit traditions in their communities may have been severely damaged, fragmented, or even lost.<ref name=Cameron/> In these cases there have been serious challenges to remembering and reviving their older traditional ways, and to overcoming the homophobia and other learned prejudices of forced assimilation.<ref name=Cameron/>

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.<ref name=Cameron/>

<blockquote>The term two-spirited was chosen to emphasize our difference in our experiences of multiple, interlocking oppressions as queer Aboriginal people. When non-Aboriginal people decide to "take up" the term two-spirit, it detracts from its original meaning and diffuses its power as a label of resistance for Aboriginal people. Already there is so much of First Nations culture that has been exploited and appropriated in this country; must our terms of resistance also be targeted for mainstream appropriation and consumption?

Two-spirited is a reclaimed term designed by Aboriginals to define our unique cultural context, histories, and legacy. When people do not see the harm in "sharing" the term, they are missing the point and refusing to recognize that by appropriating the term they will inevitably alter its cultural context.<ref name=Cameron/></blockquote>

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]].<ref name=Pember/><ref name=Smith>Smith, Andrea. "Queer Theory and Native Studies: The Heteronormativity of Settler Colonialism". ''GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies'' 16.1–2 (2010): 41–68. Web.</ref> 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".<ref name=Pember/> Claiming a viewpoint of "postidentity" analysis, supporters of "queer of color critique" aim to examine settler colonialism and the ongoing genocide of Native peoples while "queering Native Studies".<ref name=Smith/> However, Indigenous identity is predominantly cultural, rather than a racial classification.<ref name=Russell>Russell, Steve (2002). "Apples are the Color of Blood", ''Critical Sociology'', Vol. 28, 1, 2002, p. 68 (quoting López (1994) p. 55)</ref> It is based on membership in a particular community, cultural fluency, citizenship, and Native American and First Nations people may or may not even consider themselves to be "people of color".<ref name="Russell"/>

=== Definition and societal role in Indigenous communities ===
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.<ref name="vancouver">{{cite web |title=Inventory of Aboriginal Services, Issues and Initiatives in Vancouver: Two Spirit – LGTB |url=http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/socialplanning/initiatives/aboriginal/tools/directory/twospirit.htm |accessdate=2007-07-01 |website=vancouver.ca|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230417030107/https://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/socialplanning/initiatives/aboriginal/tools/directory/twospirit.htm |archive-date=17 July 2023 }}</ref> However, they may also take on "feminine" activities such as cooking and other domestic responsibilities.<ref>{{cite web |at=Page 72 |url=http://vancouver.ca/files/cov/aboriginal-services-inventory.pdf |title=Inventory of Aboriginal Services, Issues, and Initiatives in Vancouver |website=vancouver.ca|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230417032728/https://vancouver.ca/files/cov/aboriginal-services-inventory.pdf |archive-date=17 July 2023 }}</ref>  According to Lang, female-bodied two-spirit people usually have sexual relations or marriages with only females.<ref>Lang, (1998, pp. 289–298)</ref>

=== Two-spirit societies ===
Among the goals of two-spirit societies are group support; outreach, education, and activism; revival of their Indigenous cultural traditions, including preserving the old languages, skills and dances;<ref name=NYT1/> and otherwise working toward social change.<ref name="Lipshultz">{{cite journal |title=Berdach to Two-Spirit: The Revival of Native American Traditions |last=Lipshultz |first=Hanna |journal=Discoveries |year=2007 |issue=8 |publisher=John S. Knight Institute for Writing in the Disciplines |location=Ithaca |url=https://www.arts.cornell.edu/knight_institute/publicationsprizes/discoveries/discoveriesspring2007/Lipshultz.pdf |pages=31–32 |accessdate=2016-07-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230421034231/http://www.arts.cornell.edu/knight_institute/publicationsprizes/discoveries/discoveriesspring2007/Lipshultz.pdf |archive-date=17 July 2023 }}</ref>

Some two-spirit societies (past and present) include: 2Spirits of Toronto in Toronto, Ontario; the Wabanaki Two Spirit Alliance in Nova Scotia; the Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirits (est. 1998) in San Francisco, California;<ref>{{cite web|url=http://inthefray.org/2004/12/rainbow-and-red-2/|title=Rainbow and red: Queer American Indians from New York to San Francisco are showing both their spirits. |last=Alpert |first=Emily |date=December 5, 2004 |website=In the Fray |publisher=In the Fray, Inc. |location=New Hyde Park |accessdate=2016-04-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230417011906/https://inthefray.org/2004/12/rainbow-and-red-2/ |archive-date=17 July 2023 }}</ref> Central Oklahoma Two Spirit Natives in Oklahoma City; the East Coast Two Spirit Society and the NorthEast Two-Spirit Society in New York City; Idaho Two-Spirit Society; the Indiana Two-Spirit Society in Bloomington, Indiana; Minnesota Two Spirits; the Montana Two-Spirit Society in Browning, Montana; the Northwest Two-Spirit Society in Seattle, Washington; the Ohio Valley Two Spirit Society of Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and Southern Illinois;<ref>{{cite web |url=https://ohiovalleytwospiritsociety.blogspot.com/ |title=Welcome! |last=Thomas |first=Wesley K. |website=Ohio Valley Two-Spirit Society (OVTSS) |date=June 26, 2006 |accessdate=2016-07-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230602054156/https://ohiovalleytwospiritsociety.blogspot.com/ |archive-date=17 July 2023 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bloomingtonalternative.com/articles/2009/08/09/10075 |title=Out in Bloomington: Boy Scouts raise debate |date=August 9, 2009 |last=Harrell |first=Helen |last2=Fischer |first2=Carol |website=The Bloomington Alternative |accessdate=2016-07-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230213093408/http://www.bloomingtonalternative.com/articles/2009/08/09/10075 |archive-date=17 July 2023 }}</ref> the Portland Two Spirit Society (est. May 2012) in Portland, Oregon;<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pqmonthly.com/portland-two-spirit-society-finding-family-and-a-connection-to-history-in-shared-identities/7648 |title=Portland Two Spirit Society: Finding family and a connection to history in shared identities |date=September 19, 2012 |last=Rook |first=Erin |website=PQ |publisher=Brilliant Media |accessdate=2016-07-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230417032721/https://www.pqmonthly.com/portland-two-spirit-society-finding-family-and-a-connection-to-history-in-shared-identities/7648 |archive-date=17 July 2023 }}</ref> the Regina Two-Spirited Society in Regina, Saskatchewan; the Texas Two Spirit Society in Dallas; the Tulsa Two-Spirit Society in Tulsa, Oklahoma; the Two-Spirit Society of Denver in Denver, Colorado; and the Wichita Two-Spirit Society in Wichita, Kansas.<ref name="Lipshultz"/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/12/18/two-spirit-leaders-call-washington-include-native-women-re-authorization-vawa-146397 |title= Two-Spirit Leaders Call on Washington to Include Native Women in Re-Authorization of VAWA |author=<!-- staff writer --> |date=December 18, 2012 |website=Indian Country Today Media Network |accessdate=2016-07-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230411220109/http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/12/18/two-spirit-leaders-call-washington-include-native-women-re-authorization-vawa-146397 |archive-date=17 July 2023 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.glapn.org/6200twospirit.html |title=Two-Spirit gathering at Portland State University, Wednesday, May 26, 2010 |author=<!-- no byline --> |year=2010 |website=Gay & Lesbian Archives of the Pacific Northwest |accessdate=2016-07-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230605201723/https://www.glapn.org/6200twospirit.html |archive-date=17 July 2023 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.santafemc.org/programs/new-mexico-gay-straight-alliance-network/new-mexico-gsa-resources/#native |title=New Mexico GSA: Resources § Native / First Nations |author=<!-- no byline --> |website=Santa Fe Mountain Center |publisher=New Mexico Gay–Straight Alliance Network |accessdate=2016-07-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230411220109/http://www.santafemc.org/programs/new-mexico-gay-straight-alliance-network/new-mexico-gsa-resources/ |archive-date=17 July 2023 }}</ref>

== Historical and anthropological accounts ==
[[File:Catlin - Dance to the berdache.jpg|thumb|Drawing by George Catlin (1796–1872) while on the Great Plains among the Sac and Fox Nation. Depicting a group of male warriors dancing around a male-bodied person in a woman's dress, non-Native artist George Catlin titled the painting ''Dance to the Berdache''.]]

<blockquote>Unfortunately, depending on an oral tradition to impart our ways to future generations opened the floodgates for early non-Native explorers, missionaries, and anthropologists to write books describing Native peoples and therefore bolstering their own role as experts. These writings were and still are entrenched in the perspective of the authors who were and are mostly white men.<ref name=Pember2>{{cite web|url=https://rewire.news/article/2016/10/13/two-spirit-tradition-far-ubiquitous-among-tribes/|title='Two Spirit' Tradition Far From Ubiquitous Among Tribes|publisher=Rewire (website)|first=Mary Annette |last=Pember |date=Oct 13, 2016|accessdate=October 17, 2016 |quote= Unfortunately, depending on an oral tradition to impart our ways to future generations opened the floodgates for early non-Native explorers, missionaries, and anthropologists to write books describing Native peoples and therefore bolstering their own role as experts. These writings were and still are entrenched in the perspective of the authors who were and are mostly white men.|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230604044112/https://rewire.news/article/2016/10/13/two-spirit-tradition-far-ubiquitous-among-tribes/|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref></blockquote>

According to German anthropologist Sabine Lang, cross-dressing of two-spirit people was not always an indicator of gender identity. Lang believes "the mere fact that a male wears women's clothing does not say something about his role behavior, his gender status, or even his choice of partner".<ref>{{cite book |last=Lang |first=Sabine |title=Men as women, women as men: changing gender in Native American cultures  |location=Austin |publisher=University of Texas Press |year=1998 |isbn=9780292747012 |ref=harv}} Page 62</ref>

Historically, the presence of male-bodied two-spirits "was a fundamental institution among most tribal peoples", according to Brian Gilley<ref>{{cite book |last=Gilley |first=Brian Joseph |year=2006 |title=Becoming Two-Spirit: Gay Identity and Social Acceptance in Indian Country |isbn=0-8032-7126-3}} Page 8</ref> and, according to non-Native anthropologist Will Roscoe, both male- and female-bodied two-spirits have been documented "in over 130 North American tribes, in every region of the continent".<ref>{{cite book |last=Roscoe |first=Will |year=1991 |title=The Zuni Man-Woman |url=https://archive.org/details/zunimanwoman00rosc_0 |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/zunimanwoman00rosc_0/page/5 5] |isbn=0-8263-1253-5|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211106075837/https://archive.org/details/zunimanwoman00rosc_0 |archive-date=17 July 2023 }}.</ref> However, Ojibwe journalist Mary Annette Pember argues that this depiction threatens to homogenize diverse Indigenous cultures, painting over them with an overly broad brush, potentially causing the disappearance of "distinct cultural and language differences that Native peoples hold crucial to their identity".<ref name=Pember/>

Don Pedro Fages was third in command of the 1769–70 Spanish Portolá expedition, the first European land exploration of what is now the U.S. state of California. At least three diaries were kept during the expedition, but Fages wrote his account later, in 1775. Fages gave more descriptive details about the native Californians than any of the others, and he alone reported the presence of homosexuality in the native culture. The English translation reads:

<blockquote>I have submitted substantial evidence that those Indian men who, both here and farther inland, are observed in the dress, clothing and character of women&nbsp;– there being two or three such in each village&nbsp;– pass as sodomites by profession.&nbsp;... They are called ''joyas'', and are held in great esteem.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fages |first1=P. |last2=Priestley |first2=H. I. |author3=Museo Nacional de Arqueología, Historia y Etnografía (Mexico) |year=1937 |page=33 |title=A historical, political, and natural description of California  |url=http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015027939639 |location=Berkeley, Calif |publisher=University of California Press |accessdate=|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230607161327/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015027939639 |archive-date=17 July 2023 }}</ref></blockquote>

Although gender-variant people have been both respected and feared in a number of tribes, they are not beyond being reproached or, by traditional law, even killed for bad deeds. In the Mojave tribe, for instance, they frequently become medicine persons and, like all who deal with the supernatural, are at risk of suspicion of witchcraft, notably in cases of failed harvest or of death. There have been instances of murder in these cases (such as in the case of the gender-nonconforming female named Sahaykwisā).<ref>{{harvp|Lang|1998|pp=164, 288}}</ref> Another instance in the late 1840s was of a Crow ''badé'' who was caught, possibly raiding horses, by the Lakota and was killed.<ref>Walker, James: ''Lakota Society'', edited by Raymond J. DeMallie, p. 147. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1982.</ref>

Lang and Jacobs write that historically among the Apache, the Lipan Apache people, Chiricahua, Mescalero, and southern Dilzhe'e have alternative gender identities.<ref>{{harvp|Lang|1998|pp=291–293}}</ref><ref>{{harvp|Jacobs|Thomas|Lang|1997|pp=236–251}}</ref> One tribe in particular, the Eyak, has a single report from 1938 that they did not have an alternative gender and they held such individuals in low esteem, although whether this sentiment is the result of acculturation or not is unknown.<ref>{{harvp|Lang|1998|pp=202–203}}</ref>

Among the Iroquois, there is a single report from Bacqueville de la Potherie in his book published in 1722, ''Histoire de l'Amérique septentrionale'', that indicates that an alternative gender identity exists among them.<ref>{{harvp|Roscoe|1998|pp=250–251}}, citing {{cite book |title=Histoire de l'Amérique septentrionale |issue=n.43 |volume=vol. 3 |p=41}}</ref>

Many, if not all, Indigenous cultures have been affected by European [[homophobia]] and [[misogyny]].<ref>{{harvp|Jacobs|Thomas|Lang|1997|pp=206}}; {{harvp|Roscoe|1998|p=114}}; {{harvp|Lang|1998|pp=119, 311–313, 322}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Trexler |first=R. |title=Sex and conquest: Gendered violence, political order, and the European conquest of the Americas |pp=155–167 |location=Ithaca, NY |publisher=Cornell University Press |year=1995 |ref=harv}}<br>{{cite book |last=Swidler |first=Arlene |title=Homosexuality and World Religions |url=https://archive.org/details/homosexualitywor00swid |url-access=registration |pp=17–19 |location=Valley Forge, PA |publisher=Trinity Press International|year=1993|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230524182434/https://archive.org/details/homosexualitywor00swid |archive-date=17 July 2023 }}</ref> Some sources have reported that the Aztecs and Incas had laws against such individuals,<ref>{{harvp|Lang|1998|p=324}}<br>{{cite book |last=Spencer |first=Colin |title=Homosexuality in History |p=142 |location=London |publisher=Harcourt Brace & Company |year=1995}}</ref> though there are some authors who feel that this was exaggerated or the result of acculturation, because all of the documents indicating this are post-conquest and any that existed before had been destroyed by the Spanish Empire.<ref>{{harvp|Trexler|1995|pp=155-167}}<br>{{cite book |last=Greenberg |first=David |title=The Construction of Homosexuality |url=https://archive.org/details/constructionofho00greerich |url-access=registration |pp=165–168 |location=Chicago |publisher=University of Chicago Press|year=1988|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230620001124/https://archive.org/details/constructionofho00greerich |archive-date=17 July 2023 }}</ref> The belief that these laws existed, at least for the Aztecs, comes from the Florentine Codex, and that evidence exists that indigenous peoples authored many codices, but the Spaniards destroyed most of them in their attempt to eradicate ancient beliefs.<ref>Fitch, Nancy. [http://www.historians.org/tl/LessonPlans/ca/Fitch/conquestbib.htm 0General Discussion of the Primary Sources Used in This Project"]. ''The Conquest of Mexico Annotated Bibliography''. Accessed: June 14, 2008. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230417032729/https://www.historians.org/tl/LessonPlans/ca/Fitch/conquestbib.htm Archived] on 17 July 2023</ref>

Some contemporary Zapotec peoples in Mexico embody the traditional third gender role known as ''muxe''.  They consider themselves to be "''muxe'' in men's bodies," who do the work that their culture usually associates with women. When asked by [[transgender]] researchers in 2004 if they ever considered surgical transition, "none of the respondents found the idea interesting, but rather strange" as their essence as ''muxe'' is not dependent on what type of body they are in.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://origin-www.goethe.de/mmo/priv/4038800-STANDARD.pdf|title=Muxe: el tercer sexo|last=Bennholdt-Thomsen |first=Veronika|work=|year=2008|agency=Goethe Institut|language=Spanish|access-date=March 13, 2016|via=|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404062747/https://origin-www.goethe.de/mmo/priv/4038800-STANDARD.pdf|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref>

===''Berdache''===
Before the late twentieth-century, non-Native (i.e. non-Native American) anthropologists used the term ''berdache'' ({{nowrap|{{IPAc-en|b|ər|ˈ|d|æ|ʃ|}}}}), in a very broad manner, to identify an indigenous individual fulfilling one of many mixed gender roles in their tribe. Often in their writings they applied this term to any male who they perceived to be [[homosexual]], [[bisexual]], or  [[effeminate]] by Western social standards, leading to a wide variety of diverse individuals being categorized under this imprecise term. At times they incorrectly implied that these individuals were [[intersex]] by calling them "hermaphrodites".<ref name="AnthroGeneralizations">{{cite web|url=http://www.phenomenologycenter.org/course/berdache.htm |title=How to become a Berdache: Toward a unified analysis of gender diversity|last=Roscoe|first=Will |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090226235121/http://www.phenomenologycenter.org/course/berdache.htm |archive-date=February 26, 2009 |quote=This pattern can be traced from the earliest accounts of the Spaniards to present-day ethnographies. What has been written about berdaches reflects more the influence of existing Western discourses on gender, sexuality and the Other than what observers actually witnessed.}}</ref> The term ''berdache'' has always been repugnant to Indigenous people. De Vries writes, "Berdache is a derogatory term created by Europeans and perpetuated by anthropologists and others to define Native American/First Nations people who varied from Western norms that perceive gender, sex, and sexuality as binaries and inseparable."<ref name="de Vries 2009" /> The term has now fallen out of favor with anthropologists as well. It derives from the French ''{{lang|fr|bardache}}'' (English equivalent: "[[wikt:bardash|bardash]]") meaning "passive homosexual", "catamite"<ref name=bardash>{{cite web|url=http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/bardash|title=Definition of "bardash" – Collins English Dictionary|accessdate=7 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230417030105/https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/bardash|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref> or even "under-age boy prostitute".<ref name=NativeOut101/>  ''Bardache'', in turn, derived from the Persian {{big|{{lang|fa|برده}}}} ''barda'' meaning "captive", "prisoner of war", "slave".<ref>{{cite book |last=Steingass |first=Francis Joseph  |url=http://dsalsrv02.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.0:1:8571.steingass  |title=A Comprehensive Persian-English dictionary, including the Arabic words and phrases to be met with in Persian literature |location=London |publisher=Routledge & K. Paul |date=1892 |page=173|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220401065352/http://dsalsrv02.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.0:1:8571.steingass |archive-date=17 July 2023 }}</ref><ref name="Two Spirit People" /><ref>{{cite book |last=Roscoe |first=Will |title=Changing ones: Third and fourth genders in native North America |location=New York |publisher=St. Martin's Press |date=1998|ref=harv}} Page 7.</ref><ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/vulnerable |chapter="vulnerable" |title=The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language |edition=Fourth  |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company |date=2004}}</ref> Spanish explorers who encountered these individuals among the Chumash people called them ''"{{lang|es|joyas}}"'', the Spanish for "jewels".<ref>{{cite book |author1=Kent Flannery |authorlink1=Kent V. Flannery |author2=Joyce Marcus |authorlink2=Joyce Marcus |title=The Creation of Inequality |date=15 May 2012 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-06469-0 |pages=70–71}}</ref>

Use of ''berdache'' has now been replaced in most mainstream and anthropological literature by ''two spirit'', with mixed results. However, the term ''two spirit'' itself, in English or any other language, was not in use before 1990.<ref name="de Vries 2009" />

== Media representation ==

In the 1970 film Little Big Man, the Cheyenne character Little Horse, portrayed by Robert Little Star, is a gay man who wears clothing more commonly worn by women in the culture. He invites the protagonist, Jack Crabb (Dustin Hoffman) to come live with him. In a departure from most portrayals in Westerns of the era, Crabb is touched and flattered by the offer.

[[File:SF Pride 2014 - Stierch 2.jpg|thumbnail|The two spirit pride trolley at San Francisco Pride 2014.]]

The 2009 documentary film<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1296906/|title=Two Spirits (2009)|date=21 June 2009|work=IMDb|accessdate=7 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230428203247/https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1296906/|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref> ''Two Spirits'', directed by Lydia Nibley, tells the story of the hate-murder of 16-year-old Navajo Fred Martinez. In the film, Nibley "affirms Martinez' Navajo sense of being a two spirit 'effeminate male', or ''nádleeh''".<ref name=Estrada/>{{rp|168}} Martinez' mother defined ''nádleeh'' as "half woman, half man".<ref name=Estrada/>{{rp|169}}

The film ''Two Spirits'', shown on Independent Lens in 2011, and winner of the annual Audience Award for that year, is about two-spirit people, particularly Fred Martinez, who was murdered at age 16 for identifying as a two-spirit.<ref>{{cite web|last=Nibley |first=Lydia |url=https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/films/two-spirits/ |title=Two Spirits &#124; Native American Gender Diversity &#124; Independent Lens |publisher=PBS |date=2011-06-14 |accessdate=2017-01-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230604205341/http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/films/two-spirits/ |archive-date=17 July 2023 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Preview (0:02:01) |url=https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/videos/the-bravest-choice-is-to-be-yourself/ |title=The Bravest Choice Is To Be Yourself &#124; Video &#124; Independent Lens |publisher=PBS |date=2011-06-14 |accessdate=2017-01-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230411220109/https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/videos/the-bravest-choice-is-to-be-yourself/ |archive-date=17 July 2023 }}</ref>

In 2017 two-spirited Métis filmmaker Marjorie Beaucage released a ''Coming In Stories: Two Spirit in Saskatchewan'' as way to raise awareness about the experiences of two-spirited individuals living in Saskatchewan, Canada.<ref name="Petrow">{{cite news |last1=Petrow |first1=Erin |title=A Q and A session with OUTSaskatoon two spirit elder Marjorie Beaucage |url=https://thestarphoenix.com/news/local-news/a-q-and-a-session-with-outsaskatoon-two-spirit-elder-marjorie-beaucage |accessdate=12 August 2018 |work=Saskatoon StarPhoenix |date=14 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230629134730/https://thestarphoenix.com/news/local-news/a-q-and-a-session-with-outsaskatoon-two-spirit-elder-marjorie-beaucage |archive-date=17 July 2023 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Storytelling as medicine: Coming In documentary follows two-spirited people living in Sask. |url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/storytelling-as-medicine-coming-in-documentary-follows-two-spirited-people-living-in-sask-1.3982532 |accessdate=12 August 2018 |work=CBC News |date=14 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230415222033/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/storytelling-as-medicine-coming-in-documentary-follows-two-spirited-people-living-in-sask-1.3982532 |archive-date=17 July 2023 }}</ref>

In the 2018 indie film, ''The Miseducation of Cameron Post'', a Lakota character – Adam Red Eagle, played by Forrest Goodluck – is sent to a [[conversion therapy|conversion camp]] for identifying as ''[[winkte]]'' and two-spirit.<ref>{{Citation|last=Nicholson|first=Amy|title=Forrest Goodluck: the Native American actor ripping up the rulebook|date=2018-11-13|url=https://www.nativeknot.com/news/Native-American-News/Forrest-Goodluck-the-Native-American-actor-ripping-up-the-rulebo.html|work=nativeknot.com|language=en|access-date=2018-11-18|archive-date=2023-04-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230411220110/https://www.nativeknot.com/news/Native-American-News/Forrest-Goodluck-the-Native-American-actor-ripping-up-the-rulebo.html|url-status=dead}} on 17 July 2023</ref>

In the 2019, second season of ''American Gods'', Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs (Mohawk) plays a young Cherokee woman, Sam Black Crow, who self-identifies as "two-spirited". Her character, raised by a white mother and estranged from her Native father, speaks of looking to older ancestors to try to find her own beliefs, much like the other humans in the series. In an interview she says, "I identify as queer, and not two-spirited, because I’m Mohawk and we don’t have that" and that Neil Gaiman (author of the novels on which the series is based) advocated strongly for her to be cast in the role.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://collider.com/american-gods-season-2-devery-jacbos-interview/|title='American Gods' Season 2: Devery Jacobs on Bringing Sam Black Crow to Life|last=Radish|first=Christina|date=2019-03-24|website=Collider|language=en-US|access-date=2019-03-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230213095737/http://collider.com/american-gods-season-2-devery-jacbos-interview/|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref>

== 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.legacyprojectchicago.org/2012_INDUCTEES.html|title=2012 INDUCTEES|author=Victor Salvo // The Legacy Project|accessdate=7 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230404020610/https://legacyprojectchicago.org/2012_INDUCTEES.html|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref>

== Self-identified two spirits ==
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) a traditional two spirit must be recognized as such by the Elders of their Indigenous community.<ref name=Estrada/><ref name=NYT2/> Inclusion in this list is not an indication of whether or not that is the case.
* [[Susan Allen]] (Lakota), Minnesota State Representative<ref name=Allen>{{cite web |last=Weber |first=Stephanie |url=http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2016/12/21/susan_allen_minnesota_state_representative_is_lesbian_and_two_spirit_and.html |title=Minnesota Rep. Susan Allen Is Two-Spirit, a Lesbian, and She Won't Be Assimilated |website=Slate (magazine) |date=December 21, 2016 |access-date=November 29, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230415212515/https://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2016/12/21/susan_allen_minnesota_state_representative_is_lesbian_and_two_spirit_and.html |archive-date=17 July 2023 }}</ref>
* [[Alec Butler]] (Métis), Canadian playwright and filmmaker<ref>{{cite web |first=Gloria |last=Kim
 |url=http://www.macleans.ca/article.jsp?content=20050912_112043_112043&source=srch |title=Why be just one sex? |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100613195234/http://www.macleans.ca/article.jsp?content=20050912_112043_112043&source=srch |archive-date=2010-06-13 |website=Maclean's |date=September 8, 2005}}</ref>
* [[Chrystos]] (Menominee), writer and activist<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sorrel |first1=Lorraine |title=Review: Not Vanishing |journal=off our backs |date=March 31, 1989 |volume=19 |issue= 3}}</ref>
* [[Raven Davis]] (Ojibwe), artist, activist, and traditional cultural worker<ref name=RavenDavis>{{cite web |last1=Lewis-Peart |first1=David |url=http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/03/20/raven-davis-racism-self-care_n_9481120.html |title=Raven Davis On Racism And Self-Care |publisher=The Huffington Post Canada |date=20 March 2016 |accessdate=1 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230417011906/https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/03/20/raven-davis-racism-self-care_n_9481120.html |archive-date=17 July 2023 }}</ref> 
* [[Qwo-Li Driskill]] (Cherokee), poet, scholar, and activist<ref name="poet_Qwo-">{{Cite web |title=Qwo-Li Driskill |author= |work=Poetry Foundation |date= |access-date=2 October 2020 |url= https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/qwo-li-driskill|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221226010032/https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/qwo-li-driskill|archive-date=17 July 2023}}</ref>
* [[Mary Gauthier]], musician<ref name="Miller-CQ">{{Cite web |title=Non-Binary Country Artists You Need to Hear |last1=Miller |first1=Sydney |work=Country Queer |date= |access-date=18 November 2020 |url= https://countryqueer.com/stories/list/non-binary-country-artists-you-need-to-hear/ |quote=Mary Gauthier describes herself as a two-spirited (an Indigenous term referring to someone who has both a masculine and feminine spirit) lesbian. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230530083433/https://countryqueer.com/stories/list/non-binary-country-artists-you-need-to-hear/ |archive-date=17 July 2023 }}</ref>
* [[G.R. Gritt]] (Anishinaabe-Métis), musician<ref>{{Cite web |title=Spotlight on: G.R. Gritt |author= |work=Ontario Performing Arts Presenting Network |date=1 February 2020 |access-date=2 October 2020 |url= https://ontariopresents.ca/blog/spotlight-gr-gritt|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221205135325/https://ontariopresents.ca/blog/spotlight-gr-gritt |archive-date=17 July 2023 }}</ref>
* [[Bretten Hannam]] (Mi'kmaq/Ojibwe), filmmaker<ref>Jordan Parker, [https://www.halifaxtoday.ca/local-news/two-spirit-filmmaker-puts-queer-representation-first-in-films-2-photos-946347 "Two-Spirit filmmaker puts queer representation first in films"]. ''Halifax Today'', June 12, 2018. [https://web.archive.org/web/20230213094751/https://www.halifaxtoday.ca/local-news/two-spirit-filmmaker-puts-queer-representation-first-in-films-2-photos-946347 Archived] on 17 July 2023</ref>
* [[Richard LaFortune]] (Yupik), activist, author and artist<ref name="Two Spirit People">{{Cite book |title=Two Spirit People: Native American Gender Identity, Sexuality, and Spirituality |last1=Jacobs |first1=Sue-Ellen |last2=Thomas |first2=Wesley |last3=Lang |first3=Sabine |date=1997 |publisher=University of Illinois Press |isbn=9780252066450 |oclc=421792266 |ref=harv |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/uneasycareersint0000unse |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308084458/https://archive.org/details/uneasycareersint0000unse |archive-date=17 July 2023 }}</ref>
* [[James Makokis]] (Cree), physician<ref name="Boudjikanian">Raffy Boudjikanian, ''[https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/longform/a-cree-doctors-caring-approach-for-transgender-patients A Cree doctor's caring approach for transgender patients]'', CBC News [https://web.archive.org/web/20230606121656/https://newsinteractives.cbc.ca/longform/a-cree-doctors-caring-approach-for-transgender-patients/ Archived] on 17 July 2023</ref>
* [[Kent Monkman]] (Cree), visual and performing artist<ref>{{Cite web |title=Super Queeroes! |author= |work=CBC |date= |access-date=22 October 2021 |url= https://www.cbc.ca/artsprojects/superqueeroes/kent-monkman |quote=Half-Cree, two-spirit artist Kent Monkman, who is a member of the Fisher River band in northern Manitoba, often channels his subversive view of history through the trickster lens of his campy, gender-bending alter ego Miss Chief Eagle Testickle. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230312053200/http://www.cbc.ca/artsprojects/superqueeroes/kent-monkman |archive-date=17 July 2023 }}</ref>
* [[Rebecca Nagle]] (Cherokee), activist and writer<ref>{{cite web |title=Extraordinary Women Making History: Five Fast Facts About Rebecca Nagle, The Indigenous Activist Upsetting Rape Culture |url=http://www.theextraordinarynegroes.com/theblog/extraordinary-women-making-history-five-fast-facts-about-rebecca-nagle-the-indigenous-activist-upsetting-rape-culture |website=The Extraordinary Negroes |accessdate=8 February 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230417032728/http://www.theextraordinarynegroes.com/theblog/extraordinary-women-making-history-five-fast-facts-about-rebecca-nagle-the-indigenous-activist-upsetting-rape-culture |archive-date=17 July 2023 }}</ref>
* [[Geo Neptune]] (Passamaquoddy), performance artist, educator, and basket maker.<ref name="Neptune-Lang">{{Cite web |title=Geo Neptune, Maine’s First Two-Spirit Elected Official, Is Ready to Decolonize Education |last=Lang |first=Nico |work=them. |date=6 October 2020 |access-date=25 October 2020 |url= https://www.them.us/story/geo-neptune-two-spirit-elected-official-interview|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230412050504/https://www.them.us/story/geo-neptune-two-spirit-elected-official-interview |archive-date=17 July 2023 }}</ref>
* [[Harlan Pruden]] (Cree), scholar and activist<ref>{{Cite web |title=Going Far From Home to Feel at Home |last=Walker |first=Dalton |work=New York Times |date=17 July 2007 |access-date=22 October 2021 |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/17/nyregion/17spirit.html?_r=1&oref=slogin|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230417030107/https://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/17/nyregion/17spirit.html?_r=1&oref=slogin |archive-date=17 July 2023 }}</ref>
* [[Smokii Sumac]] (Ktunaxa), poet and activist<ref>{{cite web |title=Smokii Sumac on Being Seen in Poetry, Why Endings Matter, and a New Spin on Love Letters |url=http://open-book.ca/News/Smokii-Sumac-on-Being-Seen-in-Poetry-Why-Endings-Matter-and-a-New-Spin-on-Love-Letters |website=Open Book |accessdate=1 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230417032722/https://open-book.ca/News/Smokii-Sumac-on-Being-Seen-in-Poetry-Why-Endings-Matter-and-a-New-Spin-on-Love-Letters |archive-date=17 July 2023 }}</ref>
* [[Ilona Verley]] (Nlaka'pamux), drag queen known for competing on the first season of ''Canada's Drag Race''<ref name="Allaire-Ilona">{{Cite web |title=Indigenous Queen Ilona Verley On Bringing Two-Spirit Representation to Canada's Drag Race |last=Allaire |first=Christian |work=Vogue |date=31 August 2020 |access-date=25 October 2020 |url= https://www.vogue.com/article/ilona-verley-canadas-drag-race-indigenous-queen|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230201161522/https://www.vogue.com/article/ilona-verley-canadas-drag-race-indigenous-queen |archive-date=17 July 2023 }}</ref>
* [[Storme Webber]] (Alutiiq and Choctaw), interdisciplinary artist<ref name=StormeWebber>{{Cite web|url=https://fryemuseum.org/exhibition/6645/|title=Storme Webber: Casino: A Palimpsest|last=|first=|date=2019|website=Frye Art Museum|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191109220102/https://fryemuseum.org/exhibition/6645|archive-date=2019-11-09|access-date=2019-11-09|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* [[Massey Whiteknife]] (Cree), businessman, producer and entertainer<ref>{{Cite web |title=Aboriginal music awards host two-spirited performer |author= |work=CBC |date=11 September 2014 |access-date=22 October 2021 |url= https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/aboriginal-music-awards-host-two-spirited-performer-1.2763666|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230411224414/http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/aboriginal-music-awards-host-two-spirited-performer-1.2763666 |archive-date=17 July 2023 }}</ref>

== See also ==
*[[Gender-variant identities worldwide]]
*[[Bigender]]
*[[Third gender]]
*[[Ethnicity and culture]]
*[[Gender variance in spirituality]]

{{clear}}
== References ==
{{reflist}}

===Archival resources===
* [http://hdl.handle.net/10407/1740614355 Bruce McKinney Papers, 1908–2000] in the Kenneth Spencer Research Library (University of Kansas Libraries).
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20121105154626/http://www.glenbow.org/collections/search/findingAids/archhtm/schaeffer.cfm Claude E. Schaeffer fonds] at the Glenbow Museum.
* [http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/RMM07320.html Robert Lynch Papers, 1963–1989], at the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections of Cornell University Library
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20181130150536/https://main.lib.umanitoba.ca/two-spirited-collection Two-Spirited Collection] at the [http://archives.uwinnipeg.ca/ University of Winnipeg Archives]

== External links ==
* ''[http://apihtawikosisan.com/2012/03/language-culture-and-two-spirit-identity/ Language, culture, and Two-Spirit identity]'' – âpihtawikosisân – Cree and other Indigenous perspectives 
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20140810174638/https://www.wpr.org/native-american-two-spirit-people-serve-unique-roles-within-their-communities Native American 'Two-Spirit People' Serve Unique Roles Within Their Communities] - One 'Winkte' Talks About Role Of LGBT People In Lakota Culture
* ''[https://twospiritjournal.com/ Two Spirit Journal]''
*''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4BQbRnKdIY San Francisco Two-Spirit Powwow]'' – 2017 video by award-winning photographer Matika Wilbur
* [https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/two-spirits ''Two Spirits''] – 2009 documentary about ''nádleehí'' Fred Martinez, tragically murdered at age 16
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20171001165048/https://ticketing.frameline.org/festival/film/detail.aspx?id=801&FID=38  ''Two-Spirits: Belonging''] – 2005 short film by Rope Wolf
* {{cite web|title=Two-Spirit People: Sex, Gender & Sexuality in Historic and Contemporary Native America|url=http://www.ncai.org/policy-research-center/initiatives/Pruden-Edmo_TwoSpiritPeople.pdf|first1=Harlan|last1=Pruden|first2=Se-ah-dom|last2=Edmo|publisher=Northeast Two-Spirit Society|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230708104610/https://www.ncai.org/policy-research-center/initiatives/Pruden-Edmo_TwoSpiritPeople.pdf|archive-date=17 July 2023}}


[[Category:Gender-variant identities worldwide]]