Honoring Indigenous American Trans and Two Spirit People
Indigenous Americans have been an important, yet less frequently mentioned ethnic group throughout US history. This has created an overwhelming lack of regard to their values, uniqueness, and their truth.
Indigenous trans and Two Spirit people exist, and their stories, in their own words, need to be more broadly shared. The term Two Spirit was first used to describe Indigenous and LGBTQ+ people by tribe elders. Every trans person is not Two Spirit, and every Two Spirit person is not transgender. It’s a very unique concept that varies from each nation and each individual.
“Each nation has its own concept of gender and sexuality, and within our nations we exist as just normal people to some degree. We’re not seen as queer, we’re seen as our gender which has existed for hundreds and hundreds of years. Calling ourselves queer is trying to adapt to the concepts of gender that settler-colonial society has forced upon us. This is to say, we don’t always see ourselves as queer (I don’t at all), but it’s politically necessary to label ourselves as queer so that we have some way to push for our rights within settler-colonial society,” says Andrea, 23, a Two Spirit person from a recent interview.
Adhering to the labels set by settler-colonial society is something that many Indigenous American trans and Two Spirit people feel that they have to do for their own safety. Finding access to employment, housing, and other needed resources is an issue for all trans people, but for trans people of color the barriers are even higher.
The disproportionate rates of Indigenous women who are missing or have been victims of homicide is another indicator to the lack of safety among non-cis hetero male identified people within every group, but there is an added layer of vulnerability for non-white marginalized people. The violence and mistreatment that Indigenous trans and Two Spirit people are prone to is heightened by their lack of visibility. Even within the trans community, they are rarely mentioned in talks about equality and justice.
We can all play a bigger role in being inclusive in our language, broadening our understanding, and seeking ways to support Indigenous trans and Two Spirit people in ways that they distinctively need. Today let’s honor their elders who were bravely who they were, and allowed so many after them to move forward in the paths that they carved out.
