
Context of the following poem: It wasn’t until Europeans took over North America that natives were forced to adopt the ideas of gender roles. For Native Americans, there was no set of rules that men and women had to abide by in order to be considered a “normal” member of their tribe.
People who had both female and male characteristics were viewed as gifted by nature, and therefore, able to see both sides of everything. All native communities acknowledged the following gender roles: “Female, Male, Two Spirit Female, Two Spirit Male and Transgendered.”
Poem by David Clark Done |
What is in a name?
Would not a rose
By any other name
Smell just as sweet?
Among the “Original People”
There were many tribes
Who assigned many names
in many tongues to describe
The five genders they thought
Nature bestowed upon the world.
Male, female, two spirit males,
And two spirit females,
Plus some transgender souls.
Many tribes held that before a child
was born it came before the
Creator and could choose
Between the roles, picking
The one that suited its kind,
There was no moral gradient
Assigned to love or sex!
A two spirit being could be born
A male and live a female life
Or be born a woman but
Live a manly life!
A person was judged by
the content of their character
And the life they lived doing
Deeds uplifting others!
“Two spirit souls”, meaning males
With female spirits or females
With male spirits were a “gift”
Because they could see the world
Through the eyes of both genders,
And so were given great respect
Allowing them to become the shamans,
The medicine men, or the keepers
Of the tribe’s oral history.
Believed to be gifted
with high intellect,
while possessing artistic skills
It was thought they had the
Highest capacity for compassion,
Possessing all the traits needed to
Stand tall in the creators’ grace.
For the “Original People”
It was crucial that the gifted
Ones, the “Two Spirited” ones
Be allowed to live according
To their “natural” Impulses
Without interference or judgment.
To do otherwise was a crime
Against the way of things.
Then the invaders, the Jesuits,
And others gained possession
Of the land, claiming it, in the name
Of distant Kings and Queens.
The “way” was “Given to Sin”
So they erased it from
History, imprisoning its followers
and enforcing gender roles.
The invaders occupied the land
and when the fighting stopped,
The “Original People” were gathered
Onto small plots of land.
Their children were forced to attend
Government schools, their
Languages were banned,
“The five genders” concept was
purged from memory
And persecution reigned!
All those who had once stood
Before the creator
as the “gifted” were shunned,
And forced from the tribe by the
Over lords of moral certainty
Who enforced the Christian code!
The land of the “Original
People” vanished and those
Who were “two Spirits”
were condemned
To live on “reservations”,
In internment camps,
where the old ways,
expired and died.
More on the history of 5 genders and the story of the Native American two-spirits can be found here:
https://www.the-numinous.com/2016/07/06/native-american-two-spirits
