Seeing Twice: Shamanism, Berdache, and Homoeroticism in American Indian Culture

We are what we imagine. Our very existence consists in our imagination of ourselves . ... The greatest tragedy that can befall us is to go unimagined. —N. Scott Momaday (1966)

"Why?" ask some Indians. When Indians have to contend with genocide, ethnocide, widespread poverty, mass unemployment, infant mortality, disease, rampant alcoholism, youth suicide, and other appalling indices of oppression - why even bring it up?

Homoeroticism, the attraction of members of the same sex to one another, is best left without a name. It is unmentionable, therefore nonexistent. To those Indians who have bought into Christianity, so-called "civilization," and the Great American Dream, or to those who have simply lost touch with their heritage, homoeroticism is "diabolic and nefarious." That is to say, it is something to be suppressed. Indeed, there are those incredible nay-saying Indians who deny that homoeroticism exists or· ever existed in Indian society.

Homophobia is a Western prejudice, whether based in Christian or bourgeois petty moralizing, Marxist notions of bourgeois decadence, or nationalistic posturing about genocide induced by homosexuality.

In Indian culture, not only is homophobia an attempt to deny and suppress a part of human nature, but it is also an attempt to destroy a part of Indian heritage and culture itself.

In a spirit-based culture where the multiverse is sentient, wealth and status are not based on land ownership or riches derived from others' labor. Rather, wealth and status accrue to personal power or medicine. Medicine is the personal ability and skill emanating from a spiritual possession. A spiritual possession is being able to intercede with the spirits of animals in the hunt, with those malevolent to cure disease, or with those benevolent for planting, song-making, or vision quests.

The spirit world was made accessible through visions and dreams which were such an integral part of lndian culture and personality that dream interpretation was a highly developed art. Reports sent to Europe by the early Jesuit proselytizers who saw a parallel to Biblical dream analysis indicate that these methods passed down to Freud, influencing the development of modern psychiatry.

These visionaries with the stronger medicine and higher status were known as the shamans. Many shamans in a number of tribes throughout North and South America were "manwoman." Being a "man-woman," or bisexed, meant enveloping the spirits and power of both sexes. Amerindians saw their "man-woman" nature as the very source of their genius.

The "man-woman" was viewed by natives as a double person empowered by the ability to empathize with both sexes. Such people could "see" into more than one world. "Seeing twice" was a natural aspect of the Indian multiverse or simply human nature. This view is the opposite of the Western attitude of a hierarchical universe where the homosexual is seen as somehow deficient and pathetic. In homophobic Western culture, many of the greatest visionary thinkers, scientists, and artists - including Plato, Da Vinci, Tchaichovsky, Whitman, Proust, Eastman, Wittgenstein, T.S. Eliot, Oppenheimer, and others — were “man-woman” but were reviled or long-suffering for their personal “queerness.”

Native culture has may different versions of the origins of homoeroticism, but all reflect respect. In Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions, by John Fire, one story of the origin is recounted about the Sioux “man-woman” or winkte:

We think that if a woman has two little ones growing inside her, if she is going to have twins, sometimes instead of giving birth to two babies they have formed up in her womb into just one, into a half-man, half-woman kind of being. We call such a person winkte…To us a man is what nature, or his dreams, make him. We accept him for what he wants to be…If nature puts a burden on a man by making him different, it also gives him a power.

The shaman’s status within the tribe was further heightened because those bisexed powers were focused on directing the spirit world for tribal well-being and maintaining a balanced relationship not only within the tribe but with other tribes and the rest of nature within which all should harmonize.

As in heterosexual practice where sexuality forms a sensual continuum of expression, homoeroticism was expressed in a variety of ways from same-sex bonding and friendships to transsexuality (usually labeled “berdache”) institutionalized in marriage and in shamanism. Human sexuality, like most human behavior, is not programmed by nature through instincts as in other animals that Westerners label “lower.” Therefore, human sexual identity and practices are uniquely human because they are imagined and culturally induced, not instinctive. In native culture, when a youth in puberty went on a vision quest or a similar rite of passage, that time could also be the opportunity to choose one’s sexuality. One could choose to become a berdache if one were so disposed, if one had not done so earlier through a vision or dream.

Non-cross-dressing, same-sex bonding has not been greatly documented, though given the separation of men in hunting and war parties and women in domestic pursuits and farming, the opportunities as well as the cultural inclination existed. One such incident of male bonding was reported in 1846 among the Sioux near Fort Laramie by Francis Parkman:

Neither should Hail-Storm's friend the Rabbit, be passed by without notice. The Hail-Storm and he were inseparable; they ate, slept, and hunted together, and shared with one another almost all that they possessed. If there be anything that deserves to be called romantic in the Indian character, it is to be sought for in friendships such as this, which are common among many of the prairie tribes.

A non-cross-dressing account of female-bonding is recounted by William Jones in 1901 from the Fox Tribe:

It is said that once on a time long ago there were two young women who were friends together. It is told that there were also two youths who tried to woo the two maidens, but they were not able even so much as to talk with one another. After a while the youths began to suspect something wrong with them. . . . So it is said that once during the summer, the two maidens started away to peel off bark. The youth followed after . ... When they drew nigh, behold, the maidens were then in the act of taking off their clothes. The first to disrobe flung herself down on the ground and lay there . ... And to their amazement the girls began to lie with each other!

Since the phenomenon of berdache/ shaman was institutionalized and made recognizable to European observers through cross-dressing, it has been widely documented throughout Indian culture and in all historical epochs. Generally the berdache were men or women who at puberty adopted the gender role of the opposite sex, including its dress, speech patterns, and occupations as well as sexual behavior, and who married a member of the same sex. In addition, because the berdache or "man-woman" was considered to possess extraordinary personal power due to its bisexed nature, the berdache was a shaman and a special personage in tribal life.

The following account written in 1826 by Thomas McKenney, spiced with the usual white misconceptions about women's roles, from his travels among the. Chippeway describes the berdache:

This singular being, either from a dream, or from an impression derived from some other source, considers that he is bound to impose upon himself, as the only means of appeasing his manito, all the exterior of a woman; and undergo all the drudgery which men exact from squaws. So completely do they succeed, and even to the voice, as to make it impossible to distinguish them from the women. They contract their walk; turn in their toes, perform all the menial offices of the lodge; wear, of course, petticoats, and breast coverings, and even go through the ceremony of marriage!

Bardajes or "man-woman" persons were documented at the time of the first European explorers among the Aztec, Maya, and Inca. In Peru, bardajes existed among the Inca when the Europeans arrived, and archaeological evidence in native artifacts has been ungrounded to corroborate preColumbian homoeroticism . The Mohica civilization (200 BC-500 AD) and the Chimu civilization (450-1000 AD) were direct antecedents to the Inca civilization. Mohica pottery unearthed from burial sites depicts a wide variety of sexual practices. Much of this pottery, of the highest caliber of technical and aesthetic execution, depicts male sodomy and fellatio, and is in the form of drinking vessels with stirrup spouts which were objects of daily use as well as submerged in burial sites. Women were the potters and n ot only were they highly expert in executing some of these amazing vessels but they possessed quite a sense of humor, as illustrated by the facial expressions and positions they depicted on the pots. In some pots the penis or vulva was used as the spout.

If the Mohica homoerotic artifacts had not been buried, the Spanish would have destroyed them as they did most of the gold artifacts and the culture of all the great civilizations. The Aztec religion reflected that of the preceeding Toltec civilization. Two of the most powerful Aztec gods, Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca, cavorted in homoerotic escapades. Since tolerance or even approval of homoeroticism reflected the religious, social, and sexual practices of these great civilizations, their art reflected this same reality.

In 1535 the Spanish royal supervisor of gold smelting in South America lamented: "Look to what degree they boast of such a guilt…They carry as a jewel made of gold relief, a man mounted upon another in that diabolic and nefarious act of Sodom.” Then the royal smelter, lacking appreciation for this highly wrought gold “jewel,” stated that he “broke it with a hammer and smashed it under [his] own hand.”

In Florida in 1564 Le Moyne made a drawing (from which DeBry in 1591 made an engraving) called “Employment of the Hermaphrodites,” which is obviously a very European rendering of these berdache among the Miami Indians who were not hermaphrodites. Le Moyne's notes to this drawing illustrate European prejudices just as much as Indian customs:

Hermaphrodites, partaking of the nature of each sex, are quite common in these parts . ... When a chief goes out to war, hermaphrodites carry the provisions. When any Indian is dead of wounds or disease, two hermaphrodites take a couple of stout poles, fasten cross-pieces on them and attach to these a mat woven of reeds . .. and in this manner carry the deceased to the place of burial. Persons having contagious diseases are also carried to places appointed for the purpose, on the shoulders of the hermaphrodites, who supply them with food, and take care of them, until they get quite well again.

Another important aspect of the native cultures that respected homoeroticism was the role and treatment of women in these societies. The common Euroamerican criticism that Indian women were drudges and "beasts of burden" hardly recognizes the fact that without a real "beast of burden" in pre-Columbian America, humans were the means of transport. Men lugged home carcasses from the hunt as women did domestic burdens. In a hunting-gathering-farming economy, the logical division of labor was for men to travel on the hunt which was quite arduous and dangerous particularly before the advent of the gun and the horse. It was logical for the women to gather since they had to stay close to their babies. Consequently, Indian women domesticated a great number of our present-day foods, including the amazing feat of hybridizing corn from the thumb-sized wild variety into today's familiar ear.

In these societies, women's voices were heard as a form of moral persuasion, and women held positions of authority within tribal life. Indian women were not marriage slaves like Euroamerican women who could not own property, control their ow n lives or those of their children, or even divorce. In tribal life everyone was coequal and had meaningful functions and worth within the interdependent whole, and everyone strove to be in harmony with each other. Even when roles were rigidly prescribed, the option of envisioning and adopting other roles was open to men and women . Thus, many women of these cultures were accorded the status of "woman chief," "beloved women," or "peace chief." A modern example of this is the recent election of Wilma Mankiller as chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. Her election reflects the old Iroquois tradition of the prominent role accorded females as "beloved women."

The female berdache/shaman also existed in Indian America, although less widely documented, and there were several famous female crossdressing berdache. For example, Kauxuma Mupika, a Kutenai female berdache or manly-hearted woman, dressed as a male, took several wives; and was a famous scout, courier, prophet, warrior, and peace mediator. She took her wife with her while scouting for whites in the Oregon territory, and they created a sensation among the whites wherever they went, until the Kutenai berdache was murdered in a war party ambush in 1837. The "Crow Woman Chief," a biography of whom was published under that title by Edwin Denig in 1856, was a non-cross-dressing lesbian who pursued masculine habits and occupations, organized her own war parties, and took four wives. Denig reports:

Old men began to believe she bore a charmed life, which with her daring feats, elevated her to a point of honor and respect . ... When council was held and all the chiefs and warriors assembled, she took her place among the former, ranking third person in the band of 160 lodges. On stated occasions, when ... daring acts were performed, she took precedence of many a brave man whose career had not been so fortunate.

With the view of turning her hides to some accounts by dressing them and fitting them for trading purposes; she took to herself a wife. Ranking as a warrior and hunter, she could not be brought to think of female work. She therefore went through the usual formula of Indian marriage.

As the Euroamerican power and culture destroyed and replaced Indian societies and cultures, the cultural expresssion of homoeroticism suffered and disappeared, though homoeroticism itself is a constant in human history. Indeed, the Europeans made a sustained effort to eradicate any native homoeroticism, even if legitimized in Indian marriage.

The arrogant and racist presumption that European "religion and culture were superior, along with land greed, were the primary causes of Euroamerican genocide against the Indians which killed an estimated 12 to 20 million Indians in North America alone. Since homoeroticism was such an integral part of lndian culture, the suppression and destruction of one aspect of lndian culture included all other aspects.

Most Eastern tribes and many throughout Indian America have been so decimated or totally acculturated that when that universal and natural homoerotic impulse does emerge in today's Indian, the tribal and cultural means of its expression are suppressed by European-induced prejudice and homophobia. Today, instead of being considered extraordinary, spiritual, and part oflndian tradition, the Indian man-woman is considered a freak, less than human, or not even Indian - a homosexual.

The following account of Elmer Gage, a present-day Mohave "homosexual," illustrates the cultural changes among the Mohave from the time of the Mohave "hwame," who had 'hwame" initiation rituals, same-sex marriage ceremonials, shamanistic responsibilities, and luck in love:

In his small town, Elmer is almost universally known as a homosexual. The white townspeople consider him something of a village idiot. The Indian boys tease each other about sleeping with him, yet their teasing is somehow not ridicule of him. Among the Indians he is accepted with equanimity, and their laughter is as much at themselves as at him. His fellow tribesmen treat him as if he were an unattractive woman. They often talk about making love to him (in a crowd which includes him), yet it is understood that they don't really mean it. Men being men, however, more than a few of them actually do share his bed when they're sure none of the others will catch them at it.

Such furtive, illicit multiple sex is the result of stripping homoeroticism of respect, tolerance, and meaningful social expression. Homoeroticism is forced underground, resulting in frustrated, unhappy lives, exploitation, discrimination, promiscuity, and disease. Homophobia is the most intimate and worst kind of terrorism - psychic murder - when one cannot unto his or herself be true; and when, as in the West, the full force of the law of government is turned against the man-woman, that is state terrorism.

 But even ultimate terrorism cannot outwit the archetypal Indian trickster figure Coyote (who has been known to do some cunning cross-dressing and homoerotic pranks) or suppress homoerotic nature. Indian visionaries (artists, poets, dreamers, shamans) continue with their visions - even when Coyote leaves the reservation and disguises himself in leather drag, he fears no evil and to himself is true.

The struggle to reclaim our culture, heritage, history, - indeed, our freedom - must include the whole of our experience. To forget this is to forget what it means to be Indian: that Indians, including "men-women," share that sympathetic solidarity of life and circle of kinship, as the tribe of the human family which provides a place and stature for everyone. We are all related.