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>>: Angela Camos: And again, welcome to the Two Spirit presentation.
We are the Alaska Region training and technical assistance center, which is hosting this webinar
on behalf of ANA and the topic for Two Spirit today. Our staff consist of Anthony Caole,
the regional director; myself Angela the Training and Technical Assistance manager; and in a
few days a new staff member, Charles Peele, our technology and E-outreach manager; as
well as a pool of professional consultants.
The Training and Technical Assistance centers of which there are four, one in each region,
provide free training in project planning, pre-application and post award. We provide
free technical assistance. And for those of you who have recently submitted, I'm sure
you have used some of that for your pre-application: the project planning and development, as well
as some assistance on-site during the time that you are managing your project, and some
unfunded and other grantee assistance. You can find information on our website at anaalaska.org.
We also offer some Google+ tools for communities in collaborating and sharing resources, both
nationally and regionally. And there's an opportunity to connect with the national ANA
website.
ANA is offering series of webinars. One currently happening now is the Evaluation Series. This
series will provide more information about evaluating and helping you achieve your community's
goals; debunking a few of those myths around evaluation; letting you know why it's really
important to choose reliable and valid evaluation measures; four stages of the evaluation cycle;
and how evaluation results can help build community support. The upcoming month for
this series are July 11 for part 3 and July 25 for part 4. Two additional series that
will be upcoming are the Sustainability Series: this will provide an understanding of sustainability
and methods to implement; and receive a certificate of completion at the end of the full series.
And the Project Implementation: knowledge for helping you implement your grant successfully;
and again another certificate. Each of these series, if you have completed all four parts
offers that certificate.
We're hosting this today in honor of June Pride month. June pride honors the 1969 Stonewall
riots in Manhattan. These were a tipping point for the Gay Liberation Movement in the United
States. Today many celebrations include parades, and picnics, parties, workshops, symposiums
and attracts million of participants around the world. Memorials are also held during
this month for the member of the community who have been lost to hate or *** and AIDS.
In 1995, a resolution passed by the General Assembly of National Education Association
included LGBT History Month within a list of commemorative month. The purpose is to
recognize the impact that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals have had on history
locally, nationally an internationally. And the Law Library of Congress has compiled guides
to commemorative observations, and the inventory and Presidential Proclamations related to
LGBT Pride Month.
With that I'd like to begin to introduce Harlan Pruden of the First Cree Nation. He will be
our presenter today. Harlan has been living in New York since 1994 and is co-founder of
the NorthEast Two Spirit Society where he works with New York's Two-Spirit LGBT Native
community. He is also one of the principal organizers of a National Confederacy of Two-Spirit
Organizations and was recently appointed to be an American representative on the International
Indigenous Working Group on *** and AIDS. In April 2013, Harlan was re-appointed to
Manhattan's Community Board 12 and is currently the only Native on a NYC community board.
After committing himself to sobriety 27 years ago, Harlan was the first person in his family
to attend college and now devotes his life to First Nations community organizing and
other progressive causes.
Welcome, Harlan. And I'll turn this over to you.
>>: Harlan Pruden: Thank you so much. I would like to take this opportunity first of all
to introduce myself. [Speaks in Native language] Harlan. I welcomed you in Cree. I am the co-founder,
as well as the council member for the NorthEast Two-Spirit society. And I first of all want
to wish everyone a happy Pride Month. I think every month should be Pride; and in my world
it is Pride every month. I also would like to acknowledge such a historic time in which
we are existing and living in today. As was noted in today's article in Indian Country
today where I was quoted that, "The Supreme Court's decision is an equalizer for today's
Two-Spirit married same-sex couples as it was before the colonizers came to this land.
It has now come full circle, and once again our relationships are celebrated and supported
as they should have been all along." And so it is with incredibly -- with a full heart
that I stand here today, as well as -- virtually stand here on the webinar to give this presentation
on Two-Spirits then and now.
But before I move forward I do have to say that I think the commissioner of ANA Lilian
Sparks, for her leadership and making sure that the Diversity Celebrations of June are
marked at ANA. Also Courtney Roy, and Lori King and Seh Welch, that were instrumental
in making sure that this webinar happened in June.
I have a lot of slides. I'm going to be buzzing through them really really quickly. And first
section is kind of like a Native 101. And I know that I'm probably preaching to the
choir, so I'm gonna buzz real quickly through them.
So this is a map of what we would call Turtle Island, you all would know it as North America.
And this was pulled together by Paula Giese. And you can see the major Native America nations
and/or people. And you can kind of see that the 49th parallel is clearly marked, but really
wasn't marked for us as the indigenous people of this land. And now this is -- and you're
familiar with this map -- is what we would call Indian countries today, with the green
areas being the reservations, the federal reservations. And also within this you'll
see that the 49th parallel is marked and like Canada is kinda like this sepia tone. But
what this map really kind of also represents is that many of the treaties were written
with two different languages, two different vocabularies. One was as sovereign nations
-- as first nations people we entered into an agreement and with the Federal government.
And the Federal government wrote into these treaties that much of these lands are held
in trust. And if you look at some of the treaties that the Federal government looks at us as
wards of the state, no different from child protective services if they go in and they
custody of children. And so there's this wacky dynamic, where we speak in a language of sovereign
people, sovereign first nations, indigenous people, and the Federal government looks at
us as wards of the state. And you can kind of see that it sets up this wacky dynamic
of relations. And how do you govern those relations?
These are states with populations over 100,000. I bolded and highlighted New York only because
New York City is the home of the largest population of urban Indians living in a US city. And
so many people don't look at New York as Indian country. However, it is Indian country. Actually
all of this land that we stand on today is Indian country. So I would also be remiss
on my part that I don't acknowledge the Lenape, that from this area we stand on their land
and we also have to honor those people in which that I stand on today. So these are
states that have high population of native people.
The diversity of Native people -- you know, there are 5.6 million indigenous Americans
living in the United States with another 1.3 million in Canada. And they're divided up
to about 1,166 recognized Native governments: approximately 600 in Canada and 596 here in
the United States. And there are roughly about 225 Native languages that are spoken in the
United States, with another 50 in Canada. But there are far more languages that are
no longer spoken because the people have -- they are no longer either able to speak or the
people themselves no longer exist.
So that concludes like the Native 101. And why I have to do that is before we can actually
enter into a dialogue or a discussion around Two-Spirit, is key to the concept of Two-Spirit
-- and I'll explain this more into the presentation -- is that the concept of Two-Spirit and the
identity of Two-Spirit does not make sense unless it's contextualized within a larger
Native American frame. Again, the concept of Two-Spirit does not make sense unless it
is contextualized within a larger Native American community and/or frame.
So, a little bit of history about the term Two-Spirit. So from beginning of time to a
little after first contact, within our own languages from those traditions and those
peoples and those nations that had a Two-Spirit history, we had our own word and our own language
that signified Two-Spirit people. And then a little after first contact to 1989, there
was the term berdache was used. And berdache, first of all is a French word, and it was
given to us by French missionaries. And French missionaries showed up and they were like
seeing these people that were wearing like a man's top, or maybe, and a woman's bottom.
And they were like, "This doesn't fit in to our dichotomy, or polar gender system of a
man and a woman." And so they were like, "Oh, I don't really understand this." And so what
they did is they went into the language and they found this Arabic-rooted word bardaj
that was spread throughout Europe, it was translated into Italian bardascio. It was
also translated into Spanish bardaxa. And then in around the 16th century the word was
translated into French and that's where we get the word bardache. But the Arabic translation
of the word is a young man or a boy who serves as another's succubus -- you all have to Google
that word 'cause it's crazy -- permitting sodomy to be committed upon him, or a passive
homosexual partner, ______ within sex.
And around 1989, 1990 to today, at the Third Annual International -- well, now what we
would call the Third Annual International Two-Spirit gathering, a grand council was
called and said, "Well, you know what? We hate this word berdache. One, it's French.
Two, it's not honoring of who we are as people." So there was much conversations and many many
rounds and finally they landed on the term Two-Spirit. And the attendees for that gathering,
they wanted a term that was reflective, that reflected the combination of masculinity and
femininity which are attributed to males in feminine roles, and females in masculine roles.
And there was a subtle -- there was a major difference and a shift that happened within
that that's harkening back that within the concept of Two-Spirit, yes it is looking at
*** orientation, but it is also a gender analysis. And that's where the definition
comes in as males in feminine roles, and females in masculine roles. And it is a harkening
back to our gender and gender diversity that happened in many traditional Native American
communities.
But before we actually dive into the difference between that I want to do a little bit -- Well,
no. What I would like to do is I will explain more the distinction between the *** orientation
and gender. But before I do that what I would like to do is to share with you, as I've done
this presentation around the country, I have collected probably about 180 terms within
our own languages, those pre-terms, you know, from the beginning of contact until berdache
and two-spirit came along. And so the next seven slides, is all of these words that I've
collected. And I could determine that although it says definition, it should be really loose
translations. And when I find native speakers I try to get them to actually get the heart
of the actual -- what does the meaning of the word mean. And I've collecting more and
more of these words. Where there's a word, there is a people. And where there is a word,
there is also history.
And of course you saw the Cree Nation, the best nation in the whole wide world. But we're
not alone. In other cultures that are outside of North America and/or Turtle Island, there
is a similar sort of concept that we would call -- that expresses gender diversity within
their own language. So, one afternoon I spent about an hour or two hours, pulling this slide
together. And this is by no means complete. You will notice here that although it has
Polynesia, there is no -- the Maori have a term for it; it's kind of like a similar to
Two-Spirit people. You know, there's the Indonesian, India with the hijra, that have a similar
sort of concept of this gender diversity that existed in these indigenous populations pre-colonization.
And I often say that this is my next project -- that once I finish organizing the LGBT
Two-Spirit community here in the United States, is I'll launch sort of an international movement,
and this is my work slide. So there will be more to come for that.
So I would like to drill down because I know that I've been using *** orientation and
gender. So what I would like to do is to get some definitions out of the way so that we
have a common language. So *** orientation refers to an enduring emotional, romantic,
***, and affectional attraction toward others, usually conceived classifiably according
to the sex of the person whom the individual finds attractive. "I, as an anatomical male,
find another anatomical male attractive." Internal dialogue, externalized with the traction,
that makes me gay. "I, anatomical male, find a female, an anatomical female attractive."
That makes me heterosexual. So it's an internal dialogue, but then it's expressed and it's
all around who do you find attractive.
Where gender is socially defined and dictates one's place and role within one's community.
So, how you make sense of that? You know like in the 1950's there was much more rigid gender
codes here in the United States. If you look at TV programs like Mad Men, you really kind
of see that gender breakdown, where it was socially expected because of history that
women were the caretakers, and men were the bread makers -- breadwinners. And we collectively
agreed to that. If we had a different history, we could have also agreed that women would
be the breadwinners, and men would be the caretakers. But because of our history, we
socially agreed. And you can kind of see that that's been broken down within the last 20
years with the advent of the Women's Right movement, and there's a blurring of what is
your role or expectation as a woman, and what is your role or expectation as a man.
Why I painstakingly explain that and have to go into that is contemporarily, for the
Two-Spirit community is, yes, we're organizing LGBT Native Americans *** orientation,
plus the transgender community who are Native. But however, in a traditional setting, because
we were heterosexual normative -- there were just straight people -- many many nations
didn't have a corresponding word or concept for gay, lesbian or bisexuality. All we had
were genders, your role within your community. Some nations had three genders, some had four
genders, and some actually had six different genders. So, it is within that construct that
you have these different genders. Now I know that for the Cree Nation, we had four different
genders. And it was a social taboo for two heterosexual men to hook up and have sex within
their gender. It was also a social taboo for two heterosexual women to hook up and have
sex within their gender. The same taboo held true that you could not have two male-bodied
Two-Spirit could not hook up and have sex together within their gender. I, as a male-bodied
Two-Spirit person would take a straight man as my husband. My husband would do all of
the things that were socially expected, including having sex. But we would never think of that
individual, my husband, as being gay, or even bisexual. He was this heterosexual male that
was having sex. And so there's the rub and the tension, because yes, we're contemporarily
working with *** orientation LGB Natives today. But in a traditional construct we wouldn't
make sense of that because it was more about your role or your function within your nation.
And I'll explain some of the roles in a little bit.
Now, to drive this point even a little further as well as to demonstrate that this is not
*** orientation in a traditional construct. This is a painting by George Catlin, and it
was -- although the painting is called the Dance to the Winkta, it was the Sauk Fox,
this is a picture of the Sauk Fox Nation, and their Two-Spirit person would be called
I-coo-coo-a, and -- not Winkta. Winkta is Dakota word for their Two-Spirit people. And
you can see that within the Sauk Fox Nation there was a camp chief and a war chief, kind
of like a head of state and head of government. And it didn't matter how much the war chief
said, "We have to go to war! Those darn Crees have wronged us and we have to defend our
honor!" It wasn't until their Winkta said we will go to war on such and such time. So
that tells me that there was an immense amount of political power that was held by this office
of this gender, that they could overrule and veto a war chief, and/or the internal workings
from a camp chief. And on the eve of a battle, the Winkta, they would walk out into the middle
of the field or the I-coo-coo-a, and all of the straight warriors would do this elaborate
dance to try to catch the eye of the Winkta, so that they could have sex with the Winkta
pre-battle so they could have a little bit of that Two-Spirit spirit to go into the war
the next day. And these would be all straight-identified Indians trying to hook up and have sex with
another male-bodied person. But we would think of them as gay. They were straight warriors.
So I often think that this is really cool. And I think at one point we were at four different
wars, and so as a Cree male-bodied Two-Spirit person I was waiting for my dance to the Winkta.
[Laughter] Joking! Just teasing.
So what were some other roles of our Two-Spirit people pre-contact? So, for Two-Spirit people
we were mediators, like often there was many of our plain people, there was a woman's camp
and a man's camp. And if you were a woman, you were never allowed in the man's camp.
And if you were a man, you were never allowed -- Sorry. A woman was never allowed in the
man's camp. And a woman was never allowed in the man's camp. But if you were a blending
of two spirits, both masculine and feminine, you could have access to both of those camps.
So any time that there was some sort of ratio disharmony between -- or tension between those
two different camps, we as Two-Spirit people, we can go over to the woman's camp and go,
"Hey, what's going on? What's the story?" Go over to the man's camp, "What's happening?"
And go back and forth, and to restore balance. That was a role -- again, it's about your
role, your gender -- that was unique to us.
Similarly, Two-Spirit people -- that was on a communal level, for the camps, but also
on an individual level of brokering marriages, as well as dissolving partnerships and/or
marriages, on an individual level. So that kind of explains and shows the unique role
for us as Two-Spirit people, that shows that it's a social constructionist view of gender,
and how that there were multiple genders within our Native nations. We were also social workers.
Because we were so honored and respected we had giveaways. You know, if you have two blankets,
you have one too many. And so as Two-Spirit people, because they were so valued and revered,
when they -- they would get all of these gifts, and so they always had an excess of resources,
so they would distribute that. And making sure that everyone in the nation was taken
care of, because they would always have an excess of resources. Specific ceremonies,
like within the Lakota Nation, the highest honor that you can get in a naming ceremony
is to get your name from a Two-Spirit individual, a Winkte. And I know that Del First has resurrected
that ceremony for the Sioux -- the Lakota people.
Then there was also love potions and match makers, you know dissolving of relationships
and making of relationships. We played a significant role within the Sun Dance. We were holy people
that told the future and brought good luck and prosperity to our nation. Also the Puberty
Ceremony, peacemakers of nations, we joined war parties, and then we were also doctors
and medicine people. Now, this is an idealized list. There is not one nation that would have
this. Our roles differed from nation to nation to nation. And so what you would have to do
is go to a specific nation and ask what was the role of your Two-Spirit person, and you
would get that breakdown. And what I want to do is to show is that there are specific
things in which that we as male-bodied and female-bodied Two-Spirit people, that we provided
a service or role that was different than what a straight person could provide within
our nation.
So who were some of our Two-Spirit people of long ago? This is Osh-Tisch, who is Crow,
as male-bodied Two-Spirit person. And Osh-Tisch wanted to have a picture taken of how she
was going to meet her creator. And so it was taken in 1929. Next slide.
This is We-Wha, of the Zuni Nation. And We-Wha was like this really cool male-bodied Two-Spirit
person. And in your resource directory, Roscoe actually wrote a biography. And the name of
the book is Zuni Man-Woman. And it was published in 1991. You'll receive your resource directory,
it will be e-mailed to everyone later today, but within that there's an actual biography.
We-Wha was revered by the Zuni Nation, and on Cleveland's -- president Cleveland Grover?
Grover Cleveland! Grover Cleveland was so taken by We-Wha, brought We-Wha to Washington.
And We-Wha was like the toast of Washington. She was going to state dinners. And she was
going to ambassador dinners. And then the president said, "Hey, let me have my physician
do a physical on you." And so, We-Wha said, "Sure." So they pulled up We-Wha's tunic and
stumbled on the big old boy part. They were like, "You freak of nature!" And they ran
her out of Washington and, "Disgraced thing that we've been duped by this freak!" You
know, but We-Wha was just being We-Wha: a male-bodied Two-Spirit person that is Zuni.
So it's a really cool little biography if you wanna read it.
This is Charlie The Weaver and his friend, and it was taken in 1895. And you can see
that this is a perfect example of how -- obviously Charlie is from the Southwest -- is wearing
a man's top and a female's bottom, a skirt. And that was to signify that he -- she -- sher
was a blending of both male and female spirits; and it was externalized with his -- her dress.
Now, there is not a lot of historical documentation of our female-bodied Two-Spirit people. And
that's because a lot of the researchers, the anthropologists were white males and they
were just concerned about what was going on in the male community, at the expense of our
female. So but we do have a couple of examples. And this is a Quechan female-bodied Two-Spirit
person that's wearing traditional male Quechan attire. And it was taken in 1890.
This is -- Oops! Help me out. Thank you. This is Lozen and Dahtetse. Again Lozen -- this
is a picture that was taken with Geronimo, you can kind of see the train in the background.
This is when they were -- when Geronimo was defeated and was put in a train and was being
shipped down South somewhere. But Lozen and his wife -- this is a female-bodied Two-Spirit
person were a part of his -- Geronimo's band. And in some of the writings that we have found,
Lozen refers to Dahtetse as a wife and this enduring love that existed amongst them. Now
Dahtetse is a heterosexually identified woman that is in a relationship with another female-bodied
Two-Spirit person. Again driving home the point that this is not *** orientation
analysis pre-contact -- or even after contact.
These are two Lakota, one of them being Winkte. And they lived together until their '90s.
And the picture was taken in 1890. These are two Navajo boys. Oh! You know that slide in
the earlier part of the presentation where it talked about diversity? And I often say
that working within the Native community is like herding wild cats, because you can never
get 100 percent agreement on anything, because they are so different for so many different
nations. The Navajo, when you translate Two-Spirit into Dené, the language of the Navajo, it
means someone that is mentally crazy, not mentally sound. And so a lot of times the
Navajo people will not use the term Two-Spirit, 'cause they don't wanna say they're crazy
-- rightly so. So what they will actually do is to revert to their own language Dené
and how they would refer to themselves is Nadle. And so, really to be very mindful and
respectful of my Navajo brothers and sisters, for this presentation I should be saying the
Two-Spirit and Nadle traditions. And making sure that I'm always separating of the Nadle
from the Two-Spirit people, so I am not being offensive. But in a matter of time, I'm only
going to use Two-Spirit, but realize when I say Two-Spirit I'm really saying Two-Spirit
and Nadle traditions.
This is an unidentified Nadle. And it's obviously a touristy picture. Like, "Come, come. Let's
get our picture with this Indian." Right? And they're like, "Whoa! That's a big girl!"
[Laughter] And they were probably like, "Here, hold the baby!" But probably not realizing
that this was a male-bodied Two-Spirit person -- a male-bodied Nadle. And I don't think
that we -- so many people would know who are Nadle and/or Two-Spirit people were.
That all changed for Two-Spirit people during the reservation system. You can still see
that being played out today, that European and/or Western beliefs clashing with Native
belief systems. We also see that the Christian belief systems have been forced upon Native
people through the residential and boarding school experience. As well as Indian agents
incarcerated our Two-Spirit people. The cutting of men's hair and forcing them to wear men's
clothing, or girls to wear dresses, confirming our attire to the Western's two-gender system.
Intimidation, out-right violence from Church and government agents. Many leaders, elected
officials, chiefs, elders were reluctant to defend our Two-Spirit people. So that was
happening on one side of the spectrum: violence and hatred for our Two-Spirit people. On the
other side is out of love and respect for our Two-Spirit people, our elders asked us
to go underground. They would go to Charlie The Weaver and they would say, "Charlie, put
a pair of pants on. And shhh. We won't talk about you being Two-Spirit." But after two
or three generations of not mentioning or naming our Two-Spirit people, there was a
collective forgetting. But, on two spectrums, one out of hate and intimidation and violence,
and one out of love, brings us to the same point -- end point of this collective forgetting
of us as Two-Spirit people, that we were a part of the very fabric within our Native
nations. And so it is a two-prong sort of fight in which we as Two-Spirit activists
and leaders have to fight: one to undo the impact of colonization, and also to be mindful
and respectful and to reclaim that lost history, those lost words, those lost stories, and
wisdom, and teachings about us Two-Spirit people. And that is the work that is before
us Two-Spirit activists, as well as leaders.
There is no way that we can talk about Natives unless we make peace and/or really understand
this picture. This picture is of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School that was opened in
1879 and closed in 1918. And it is where you get the statement, you know, "Kill the Indian
to save the man." Where there was this forced assimilation of us as Native people, where
our Native children were rounded up like cattle, put on to trains and shipped to these schools,
where they physically had their Indianness beaten out of them. And we can kind of see
also within Canada from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that there was unprecedented ***,
physical and spiritual violence that were perpetrated upon our Native children. It is
also where we really had our Indianness beaten out of us. So this picture is really where
my work is informed from because a lot of my work is to undo that which was taken from
us. And you can kind of see in the picture; you will see all the boys have short hair.
You also see there's some sort of military ranking on some of the sleeves of the little
boys. All the girls have long hair; they're all wearing dresses. And there's no place
in this picture for Charlie The Weaver. And so you can kind of see that in that forced
assimilation our Two-Spirit people were forced out of this -- or it was forced out of our
community. And that stigmatization of us as Two-Spirit people is from this picture. You'll
also see in the bottom, left-hand corner, the young girl -- one, two, three, fourth
over -- with her arms crossed. I love her. You know, her arms are crossed as like, "You
all can take my picture. But I am not letting you have me." It's these little acts of resistance
that have allowed us to exist and to actually live today. And for that I always -- I love
her, I don't know who she is. But it's those little acts of resistance that has allowed
me so that I can be here today to share these stories with you.
This is a PSA from what these residential and boarding schools. This is Tom Torino,
who is Navajo -- not Two-Spirit, or he might have been Two-Spirit -- or Nadle, we don't
know. But you can see on the left savage, uncouth, uncivilized. Then on the right, "Yay!"
You know, short hair, civilized, speaks English. And they were saying that they were -- and
these were their success cases for us as Native people. I myself look at this picture and
say, "This is where we have to go to undo this and then make peace, and to return that
which was taken from us."
Some defining characteristics for Two-Spirit people. You know, there's no way that we can
talk about Native people without talking about historical trauma or the impact of colonization.
Also how inter -- historical trauma bleeds into intergenerational trauma. You know, so
many people wanna look at that Carlisle School picture and say, "That's in the past! What
does it matter? That's like at the 1800's, right?" I will tell you that my mother was
ripped from the Budelek Indian Reserve, placed in a boarding school in Canada, where she
had the Indianness beaten out of her. She basically had a grade three -- a three year-old
Cree working language. And what did my mother do? She had three beautiful children, and
she beat the living crap out of us. She knew -- she did what she knew. And this is how
the historical trauma bleeds into intergenerational trauma and kicks off these cycles of abuse.
And another struggle with her own alcoholism and drug addiction; serial monogamy -- I cannot
tell you how many boyfriends she had. It was in this acting out. And I think that had a
lot to do with her upbringing in the boarding school. And then there has to be some sort
of peace and forgiveness as the son to my mother. But it really is that there's no way
that you can make sense of the Native American experience until you look at historical trauma
and today's residual intergenerational trauma that bleeds from that.
We are one of the only people that have to provide tribal and/or band membership when
we take certain funding. No other ethnicity is held to that criteria. If I write grant
for providing services to one-arm, gay, Jewish men living in South Brooklyn, no one would
ever say, "Prove that you're working with one-arm, gay, Jewish, Brooklynite." But if
we were to take money from certain funding sources, we have to prove that we're only
providing services to the 596 federally recognized reservations -- members of those nations.
There are many half-truths, misconceptions and stereotypes that pervade all aspects of
Indian life. And we have to start actually actively deconstructing those myths and misconceptions.
Like so many people wanna talk about the Mohawk steelworkers that built New York City. And
you see those pictures of the Mohawk steelworkers sitting on the steel girders. Yes, they were
brave. However, we've built up this myth and this misconception that they were fearless
of heights; and they were like one with the sky and one with the wind that made them fearless
of heights and they could build these amazing structures in New York. However, let's take
a step back. Who do you give the job to that has the highest fatality and mortality rate
to? The least valued within your community. Because if one dies, "Oh well, that's another
dead Indian." Not even a dead Mohawk, it's another dead Indian. These men were incredibly
courageous. However they weren't mystical or magical. They were taking the only economical
opportunity that was available to them to put food on their table, to be provider to
their families. We have to start looking at those stories and we have to start looking
at the reality -- and the harsh realities that those stories perpetrate. And start looking
at what is behind those stories.
Finally, we are such a small population, however precisely because our numbers are so small
and because we're indigenous that our community should be declared a top priority, for once
we are gone, we're gone. You know, everyone wants to look at ***/AIDS and nationally we
only make up less than one percent of the new cases of ***. However, in 2009, the Onondaga
Nation had three new cases of ***. So you're like, "Three? Big deal! That's not a big number,
right?" However there are only 2,000 Onondaga left in the world, 700 living on the reservation.
Three, if you look at the incident's rates, is sixty times greater than the national average.
And in that respect the numbers are not telling the appropriate stories, 'cause they all want
to look at Native Americans as one big monolith. But we're nations within nations and we're
small. But we have to start looking at and asserting our indigeneity. As indigenous people,
once we're gone, we're gone.
I know that I've been throwing up the term historical trauma, and so I just wanted to
make sure that we're very clear in defining what historical trauma is. First and foremost
it is created. This is not like super storm Sandy rolling in and wiping out the Rockaways.
This is created by legislation, as well as policy. And it is a combination of an immense
loss, of traumatic events that are perpetrated upon an entire culture. For Native people,
these include the loss of culture, language, land, people from diseases and war, ways of
life, ceremony, as well as family structures -- the core building block for societies and
communities -- and finally the displacement of our Two-Spirit people. That is what historical
trauma is and that is where the work has to take place.
Next slide. What is actually being done? So, for us in the Two-Spirit movement, our elders
say that our culture is the cure. And I know that this is also backed up by Dr. Joseph
P. Gone, from the University of Wisconsin, that looks at culture as treatment, as well
as culture as prevention.
So what we look at is a kind of like wellness envisioned. One of our elders within the NorthEast
Two-Spirit Society is Lakota and there's that expression Mitakuye Oyasin, or all my relations,
or everything is connected, everything is related. And so we have built our program
and our work off of that expression. For us, what we see is there has to be a returning
to the Red-Way. And it has to be community-based where community is healing, and healing is
community. And it's also a holistic approach to healing. What we fundamentally believe
-- and this a shared belief with most -- I'm sorry, all of the Two-Spirit organizations
-- is that anything that increases cultural pride, increases self-esteem. And when you
have an increased self-esteem you have an increased self-esteem you have better decision-making
processes across the board. If you honor, and respect, and love who you are, you're
gonna take care of that vessel. So it's like negotiating safer sex, substance abuse, and
alcohol use, and diabetes, hypertension. But what we're trying to do is keep people up
to hear those positive messages by instilling greater cultural pride within -- for those
people.
So what is being done to bring back the Two-Spirit role? In 1975, Randy Burns in San Francisco
founded the Gay American Indians, the first group of its kind that started that -- kind
of really started the discussion. There are now 17 Two-Spirit organizations -- sorry,
16 Two-Spirit organizations in the country. And then your resource directory on page three,
it lists all of the organizations with their contact information and/or their website.
There are -- now Two-Spirit people are being included in a Diversity Celebrations, just
like today. And I was a part of that work, a part of that reclamation upcoming, and the
people that are listening on this webinar. There are drumming circles and/or Two-Spirit
drums that are coming online. There was one in Denver; there was one in Tulsa, Oklahoma,
the bevelin drum; and San Francisco has aired now -- or starting to form a Two-Spirit drum.
And there was also a coming back to the circle in reservations. The Montana Two-Spirit society
marches in the Blackfoot Nation parade each year, and the Blackfoot people stand and clap.
And so that does my heart really well to see that people are welcoming their Two-Spirit
people back to their nations. As well as national and international Two-Spirit gatherings that
are being held in Canada and the United States.
Here is a list of the Two-Spirit organizations that are also within the resource directory.
What does any Two-SS does? We have a three-fold mission. And one is to educate LGBT Native
and non-LGBT people about the role and who we are as Two-Spirit people, just like today
what we're doing. Increasing the visibility of the Two-Spirit community, and actually
that's our advocacy work. And that simply is like showing up at the Pride parade and
marching at the Pride parade. Or like this morning I was at a National Institute for
Health listening session and I was advocating for their research priority to actually have
a focus on the Two-Spirit community. So it's a part of advocating for us. And then the
big component is to build community, that's where the healing is community and community
is healing. And building that connectivity and making sure that is firmly grounded within
our community.
What does our wellness work look like? You know, bingo is huge in the Native community,
so we have posted bingo nights at the American Indian Community House. We've also done like,
"Learn to Powwow Dance." And we're going to be starting a new cycle about Powwow dancing.
Our funders, when we first started rolling out these posters, they were like, "Where's
the ***? Where is the prevention? Where is all of this stuff?" And I'm like, "We'll get
there." But at the heart of our work is to create spaces that say, "Come and celebrate
your Nativeness. Come and celebrate you Two-Spiritness." And then once we have them engaged, and it's
like -- and these are alcohol and substance abuse free events, there's none of that could
happen, people have to show up sober and clean. Once they start celebrating their Nativeness
and their Two-Spiritness, that's when we can then start talking and having those discussions
about safer sex, about substance abuse, linkage to care, getting tested, knowing your status.
But that doesn't mean anything unless you have someone that honors and respects who
they are as an individual in a community setting.
This is a picture of our First Annual Two-Spirit gathering. Thirty-two percent of the participants
were from New York. Folks drove from Oklahoma, flew from California, there were like 17 states
that were represented on our first gathering. This September, NE2SS creator willing, we're
still in fundraising mode, so we still have to raise some funds for this. But we are the
host committee for the 25th Annual International Two-Spirit Gathering that will be held out
on Long Island, September 18 to the 23.
Now, there is -- I've been like throwing out other terms and within these last two slides
-- it is these two slides that really kind of inform the work of many, if not all of
the Two-Spirit organizations in the country. This is a definition by Joseph Gone from the
University of Wisconsin that defines decolonization. And, "Decolonization is a simple -- is simply"
-- he says simply, it's not. "Is simply the intentional, reflective, and communal self-examination
undertaken by Native (and other formerly colonized) peoples in service to collective action that
finds continuity with the tradition (pre-colonial) past even as it charts a
purposeful, distinctive, and self-determined (post-colonial) future." And I think that
is where what we have to do is, yes, the day has passed that we will never have a Dance
of the Winkte anymore, but there are other roles in which that we can actually resurrect
and pull, and integrate them as we march forward together in present time. And so that is the
mission, and the work is to decolonize our people.
And then the other kind of work of the Two-Spirit organization comes from Alexandria Wilson,
who is Cree, and she is a professor of the University of Washington. The Cree, best nation
in the whole wide world. Talks about the coming out process, as well as the coming in process.
And there are many many stages and models for that coming out process. But the final
coming out process "is typically a declaration of an independent identity: a Gay-Lesbian-Bisexual-Transgender
person musters their courage and, anticipating conflict, announces their sexuality to a friend
or family member -- at the risk of being met with anger, resistance, violence or flat-out
rejection or abandonment". And for us as Two-Spirit people we do go through a coming out process,
and we do go through this what -- and we face challenges of this abandonment. But for Alex
Wilson and much of the work of the Two-Spirit organization, is to create a space for the
coming in process. Two-Spirit coming in process is "an Aboriginal person" -- she's Canadian,
but it means Native -- "an Aboriginal person who is Gay-Lesbian-Bisexual-Transgender comes
to understand their relationship to and place and value in their family, community, culture,
history and present-day world. "Coming in" is not a declaration or an announcement; it
is simply presenting oneself and being fully present as an Aboriginal person who is GLBT."
That is really kind of like -- speaks to the heart of what we try to do, is to create that
space, so that people can show up fully present and honoring of their Aboriginal and/or Native
identity, and their GLBT identity.
And with that what I'm going to do is -- we have like a couple of minutes, I just want
to buzz through some pictures of contemporary Two-Spirit people. This is a picture of the
Denver Two-Spirit Society. This is a Blackfoot Two-Spirit leader Steven Barrios and his sisters,
one of the leaders of the Tulsa Two-Spirit Society. Again a picture of the Montana Two-Spirit
Society, and that is the banner that they march behind each year. This is a picture
of the International gathering that was held in Montana a couple of years ago. And another
photo of the Powwow -- this is men's traditional dance competition that we had at that gathering.
This is a picture of the Tulsa Two-Spirit gathering and their drum. And once again I
have to thank you very much for your time, and for you to take the time to actually try
to learn about our Two-Spirit community. [Speaks in Native language]
[Round of Applause]
>>: Angela Camos: Thank you very much, Harlan. At this time we will allow Harlan to take
some questions and answers. I have unmuted the microphones and audio, if you would please
raise your hand and then Harlan will be able to choose you and take your question. To speak
please push the talk button, and please press it again once you finished answering your
question. This will help avoid feedback. Thank you.
You can also type your question in the chat box, should you not have microphone.
I see a few people beginning to type now.
You will need to hit 'enter' in order for your question to show up in the chat box.
>>: Harlan Pruden: Sure. So I see the two questions, "Will this presentation be available?"
I actually have an updated presentation that will be e-mailed out to all of the participants,
plus also the resource directory, flier that we call just the facts and also a copy of
the first ever Statewide Needs Assessment that was done by the state of New York and
their department of Health.
Mm, what was the other question? [Answered in the background] Yes, this webinar has been
recorded. And it will be posted to ANA's website and that link will also be shared with all
of the participants, for you all to share with you agency and/or community.
>>: Audience: I have another question. How long has the contemporary Two-Spirit movement
active __ ______?
>>: Harlan Pruden: Again, the contemporary Two-Spirit movement, the -- well, one, we
would say we never went away; we just kind of went under the ground. But really it was
with Randy Burns and the founding of the Gay American Indians that really kind of started
that consciousness raising, and articulation. And then it really kind of took off in 1990
with the formation and the term of Two-Spirit. And then from there we've been moving forward
with great guns. And we've had such amazing work within the last 18 months with the Federal
government. In your resource directory you will see a SAMSA, NACE -- Native American
Center for Excellence -- they do a monthly Two-Spirit webinar. There is also going to
be a Train the Trainer for a Two-Spirit trainer that is coming out of the University of Washington
-- sorry, the University of Iowa. To the CDC and their latest incidence and prevalence
fact sheet with the term Two-Spirit showing up in that. So, there has been some amazing
work, as well as some real cool headways. And even for me to be standing here today
at ANA and Children and Families services, and doing this presentation. You all are seeing
this roll out right before your eyes. And so this is kind of historic. And so there's
really cool stuff that's really happening today.
>>: Audience: [Inaudible]
>>: Harlan Pruden: Patty, thank you co much. If we don't get to all of the questions, I
will be sure to answer them and e-mail them.
>>: Angela Camos: And during this question and answer time, you can see the evaluation
on your screen. You can fill it out right on your screen and we would appreciate that,
'cause it helps us to improve in the future.
>>: Harlan Pruden: A question that I have from a participant in the room was whether
or not for the roles of the matchmaking, and/or the mediation between individuals, whether
or not that has been resurrected? I actually don't know the answer to that question. I
do know for the naming ceremony in Del First. I don't know whether or not that role has
happened. Although I'm sure that there are folks that are doing it, but probably -- I
don't know, so. But I will look into that, I'll ask around.
>>: Audience: [Inaudible]
>>: Harlan Pruden: Thank you very much, Carla.
[Silence from 00:57:50 to 00:58:35]
>>: Harlan Pruden: The Two-Spirit history, is there more acceptance for Two-Spirit people
within Native communities as opposed to the general acceptance for LGBT people? Again
is who you ask, and what you ask. There are many Indians that have adopted Christianity
as their religion. And the same narrow-minded, stigma and hatred that we see in the dominant
society within major Christian denominations -- not all denominations, but some denominations
- is also held and you hear that from Christianized Indians. Now if you go to a Traditionalist,
us as two-Spirit people we naturally ally ourselves -- because that's a part of the
reclamation and the restoring of our place of honor, is to work with our Traditionalists.
But as a Native outsider, if you go to a Traditionalist and ask him about Two-Spirit, they would be
really really hesitant to sharing that. Again, that's probably about -- like out of the intimidation
and fear, many people who are not -- like out of protection and love they don't wanna
talk about it also. So who you ask, and how you ask it, you're going to get radically
different questions -- sorry, different answers and different data.
>>: Audience: [Inaudible]
>>: Harlan Pruden: Sure.
>>: Audience: [Inaudible]
>>: Harlan Pruden: That is a -- the question was, "Because we work in a highly urban area
like New York City, are we going to expand out to reservations?" So Sharon De, who I
believe is still a participant in the webinar. Sharon De and I went to North Dakota and South
Dakota, and we did four two-day trainings. And the training is listed on the resource
directory on the last page. And it was for folks that are working in Native treatment
centers. And it was a training of how to provide more culturally appropriate services to the
Two-Spirit people that present at their agency. We did one training in Bismarck, North Dakota;
Grand Forks; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; and Rapid City, South Dakota. And we trained about
70 people. And people really wanted more information. And really want to create a safe space for
people that are accessing services on their agency. Out of those two trainings, I'm proud
to announce that at Rosebud Reservation on July 26 it's constructing an entire day conference
built on -- around Sharon and I. And so, this is a first time for myself that I will be
going to a reservation and doing a training. And we're also working with the Ho-Chunk Nation
in Wisconsin. And they wanna a training on their reservation too. So, there was some
-- again, we're standing at a really cool time within Two-Spirit activism, and Two-Spirit
community organizing, in that we're going onto reservations. And that is really striking
at the heart of the community. And so it does -- again, with such a full heart there's a
really amazing work and amazing support that is happening. And so we're just building upon
that, and trying to capitalize on it so that we can really affect change for our Two-Spirit
people that are living on reservations, as well as off reservations. But is really from
internal leadership, like Marceda from the Black Bear -- Eagle Bear from the Rosebud
Reservation that is clearing the path for us to come onto the reservation. Or, Lorry
from the Ho-Chunk Nation. So really looking at those requests, and then finding the money
to support that work so that we can go to reservations. We've yet to actually identify
a funding source for both of those trainings. But I do know, that one way or another, Sharon
and I are going to be on the Rosebud Reservation come July 26 for this conference.
>>: Audience: [Inaudible]
>>: Harlan Pruden: So the question was, "How do we work and engage the LGBT community to
counter the eroticization of us as Native people, both men and women, male-bodied and
female-bodied?" And that's the hardest.
>>: Audience: [Inaudible]
>>: Harlan Pruden: Oh, and then "the overlap between our organizing effort and the LGBT
organizing effort". So the first part is definitely doing and having grounded conversations like
we had today around this, and laying up the history, is a way to do it. Although -- and
you know, in the gay community if you have someone -- guys that are only attracted to
Asians, we call them rice queens. I know it's not a nice term. And we have like a lot of
these things that are like, we identify people of rice queens and all that sort of stuff.
In the Native community, guys that fantasize Native guys, we call them dream catchers.
[Laughter] It's just -- it's a fun joke. But, what we try to do is to really try to increase
the history. The other thing is we do try to find that intersectionality of like de-stigmatizing
that we kind of stand in union with our LGBT brothers and sister in the fight for equality.
And then there is a big dissidence or rub in that we are saying that for the Two-Spirit
identity it is only for Native people that can claim that term, so we wall-off that term.
Because if everyone and anyone can claim that Two-Spirit term, then my job as a Two-Spirit
community organizer is almost impossible, because how do I -- you know, if someone that
shows up and presents that they're German-American, how do you restore or reclaim their -- [Laughter]
So it doesn't make sense. And so what we try to do is wall-off and separate those other
things.
The other thing that there is a major rub, and it also speaks to today, in this day that
we are actually marking, and that's June's Pride Month, and the day -- Liberation movement
starting in Stonewall in 1969. Which always strikes me as so incredibly odd that there's
this movement that's fighting for equality, yet at the same time they have never gone
back to seriously analyze or to try to figure out a time in which that on this land people
who engage in same-sex relationships have full citizenship, full equality, acceptance,
and we're part of our community. And so -- and that is -- we are on that LGBT community of
questioning their entire historical land, or claim that the gay liberation may have
started for the non-Native people in 1969. But for us as Two-Spirit people, it started
in the beginning of time, for us. And so there is -- we have to always counter those stories,
and I think that if we continually contextualize the LGBT movement on this timeframe of like
either 1948 with founding of the Mattachine Society by Harry Hay, or the Stonewall riots
in 1969, that's colonizing our history. And we have to decolonize that. So that speaks
to the rub, as well as looking to those intersections in which that we can actually join and partner
with the larger LGBT movement. But I will say that a big challenge for the Two-Spirit
community is the Native community doesn't count us, the LGBT community doesn't count
us, and as a result there's such little research or analysis of who we are as Two-Spirit people.
And so we have to be -- again, it's a two-prong fight, or battle and advocacy efforts of working
within the LGBT movement and working within the Native community.
So I think that is it. So I would like to thank you very very much for taking the time
for today's discussion. All my contact information is online, if you would like to ask me a question,
shoot me an e-mail and I'll be more than happy to answer any question, or provide any additional
information. Thank you very much, once again. [Speaks in Native language]
[Round of Applause]
>>: Angela Camos: Thank you again Harlan for that incredible, incredible presentation,
so very informative. Again I would like to ask folks to please fill out the evaluation
form before you leave the room. I hope you all enjoyed the presentation today. Have a
wonderful, wonderful day. And join us for the other series coming up from ANA.
[End of Audio]