Two-Spirited First Nations Pre-Contact Era

The term two-spirited has been influenced by the first nations meaning to express a range of non-normative sexualities and gender identities. But now the term two-spirited has been added on to a long list of identities including queer, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and transgender.  The idea of two-spirit has roots in a historical understanding of third gender roles in pre-colonial Native American societies. Many pre-contact Native peoples had a conception of a gender role that was neither male nor female (Herdt 1994). After colonization the aboriginal people became less welcoming of the two-spirited members, something that they were so fond of before but because it turned into something “so ugly” they forced the members to form their own communities outside of their own tribes and they would enter into a larger city with more two-spirited aboriginals and queer white people. But the two-spirited natives weren’t only frowned upon by their own people but also the white queers. They weren’t considered the same. Past and present assimilation policies continue to affect the lived experiences of two-spirited persons (pedneault 2009). Residential/boarding schools contributed to eroding the viability of third-gender roles as a social institution among Native people. The schools’ operations were segregated by sex according to European understandings of a gender binary (Miller 1996, p. 420; Williams 1986, p. 180). So not only were the two-spirited natives turned away from their own people but also the people who were already trying to change their culture. The two spirited aboriginals had a rough time getting accepted by anyone but them selves. The Christian European mission tried to “civilize” the agenda of the racial and name calling but it wasn’t until later that it was accepted, and still to this day it is still frowned upon in some cultures and by some elder people. 

Two-Spirit People: Urban Aboriginality and the Remaking of Traditions

Joel Pedneault

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- Lorie-Anne