Making traditional spaces: Cultural compromise at two-spirit gatherings in Oklahoma

American Indian Culture and Research Journal

Volumn 28, Issue 2, 2004, Pages 81-95

  Gilley, Brian Joseph ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 27144509767     PISSN: 01616463     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.17953/aicr.28.2.r2xx0u480767226w     Document Type: Article

References (19)

1. I have disguised the true names of this society and its members at the request of participants.
2. The information in this article is based on five years of ethnographic field research among several societies in the United States. During this time I attended five annual gatherings of the Green Country Society and numerous other society events. The information discussed here is based on interviews, casual conversations, and participant observation.
3. For a complete account of the origins of the term, see Will Roscoe, Changing Ones (New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 1998) and Wesley Thomas and Sue-Ellen Jacobs, "⋯ And We are Still Here": From Berdache to Two-Spirit People," American Indian Culture and Research Journal 23, no. 2 (1993): 91-107.
4. Will Roscoe, Changing Ones, and Sabine Lang, Men as Women, Women as Men (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998) present extensive documentation that the majority of Native peoples in Native North America recognized some aspect of gender variation.
5. Roscoe, Changing Ones, 98;
6. Walter Williams, The Spirit and the Flesh (Boston: Beacon Press, 1987), 3.
7. The lack of tolerance for Natives within the gay community is well documented. See Sue-Ellen Jacobs, Wesley Thomas, and Sabine Lang, eds. Two-Spirit People: Native American Gender Identity, Sexuality, and Spirituality (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997).
8. The Green Country Society is a largely male organization. Because its events do not attract many female participants, I did not collect a significant amount of data on women. Therefore, I often will use the phrase men in preference to people in this article. Note that the content of this discussion represents only a small portion of the larger community and culture.
9. Irene S. Vernon, Killing Us Quietly (University of Nebraska Press, 2001), 27-28.
10. For a broad account of the history of two-spirit gatherings, see Roscoe, Changing Ones, 97-102.
11. Vivian M. Patraka, "Spectacles of Suffering: Performing Presence, Absence and Historical Memory at U.S. Holocaust Museums," in Performance and Cultural Politics, ed. Elin Diamond (New York: Routledge, 1996).
12. The majority of the research and writing on contemporary gender diversity in Native America uses the very few remaining instances of community acceptance for the gender-different or intact mixed-gender traditions to generalize for the whole of Native society. See Williams, The Spirit and the Flesh; Thomas and Jacobs, "⋯ And We are Still Here." However, I have found that most two-spirit men assume that their own tribe, their families, and Native society in general do not condone their sexuality and gender difference. For further information on two-spirit identity and homophobia in Native communities, see Brian Joseph Gilley, "Becoming Two-Spirit: Difference and Desire in Indian Country" (PhD diss., University of Oklahoma, 2002).
13. Kim Michasiw, "Camp, Masculinity, Masquerade," differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies 6, nos. 2-3 (1994): 146-70.
14. Gay society usually has city or regional titles for professional female impersonators. Gay bars and organizations will often sponsor a competition and include their name in the title. These competitions follow the format of beauty pageants, award prize money, and require public appearances from the winner for one year. Individuals are judged on their ability to parody women, their talents, and their commitment to the social and political causes of gays and lesbians. Among female impersonators, these titles command a significant amount of respect and are highly competitive. Drag and other titles are not unlike powwow princess titles; they are not based on the same criteria as popular beauty pageants but rather emphasize one's commitment to Native ideals.
15. The majority of the two-spirit men with whom I spoke had participated for many years in the "gay scene," primarily a bar-based culture. Most of the men were fully out in a gay social context while remaining highly secretive at work and around family, friends, and other Native people.
16. James Howard, Oklahoma Seminoles: Medicines, Magic, and Religion (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1984);
17. Jason Baird Jackson, Yuchi Ceremonial Life: Performance, Meaning and Tradition in a Contemporary American Indian Community (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2003).
18. The most common works that two-spirit men draw examples from are Williams, The Spirit and the Flesh, and Roscoe, Changing Ones.
19. Mark Mattern, "The Powwow as a Public Arena for Negotiating Unity and Diversity in American Indian Life," American Indian Culture and Research Journal 20, no.4 (1996): 183-201.