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TSO/THREE: FRIENDSHIP DANCE
Shell shakers begin shuffling out a rhythm as men in
cowboy hats and baseball caps sing. Some of us are
elders, some of us are young, some of us use canes. We
are all part of the circle.
Now that shell shakers and song leaders are assembled,
we can begin a Friendship Dance. The Friendship Dance,
like all performances during the Stomp Dance, reflects a
balance between genders, and I think that it is a useful
way to think about traditional Cherokee relationships
with gender.
 Before European invasions and concerted efforts by
missionaries to disrupt our culture, Cherokee gender
systems reflected duyuktv. Two-Spirit people in
the Southeast have been a target of colonial violence
since the Spanish invasion. Patriarchal Spain—
perpetuating an Inquisition in Europe and continuing the
Inquisition in the Americas—customarily murdered gender
non-conforming people. Women’s central place within
Cherokee life was looked at with fascination and
derision by European invaders, who mockingly labeled our
nation a "petticoat government" and misinterpreted
Cherokee female warriors as "amazons."
When European invaders and missionaries began toppling
Cherokee gender roles, all of duyuktv was
disrupted. Before this, women had jurisdiction over
their children, homes, and community agriculture. They
had authority over our homelands. Colonial powers, in an
effort to gain control of our landbases, toppled
Cherokee women's traditional roles as leaders and
diplomats and almost destroyed our matrifocal clan
system. Through violent enforcement of patriarchy,
gender relationships made a dramatic shift. Rather than
seeing the roles of men and women as always in
duyuktv, Christian European patriarchy enforced
ideas of male supremacy, rigid gender categories, and
sexuality as something to be suppressed and controlled.
I was recently talking with a Cherokee Two-Spirit friend
of mine about how Two-Spirit people embody duyuktv.
Two-Spirit people have an intimate relationship with,
and obligation to, duyuktv because of our
specific relationships with gender. Healing from our
history entails recognizing how damaging colonial gender
is to lives. We must claim gender as a Friendship Dance
that places us all within the circle of our communities,
rather than allowing gender to be site of violence and
tool of oppression. While masculine-identified
straight males may gain societal privilege because of
their genders and sexualities, we know that their gender
experiences are often filled with abuse and violence
from childhood in order to inscribe patriarchal
values—and a fear of stepping outside of them—onto their
psyches. Those of us socialized as male know the very
real physical, emotional, and psychological dangers of
that process. The internalization and manifestations
of patriarchy move Cherokees further away from
duyuktv, undermine struggles for decolonization, and
buoy the power of colonial regimes. Remembering who we
are as Cherokees entails unlearning colonial gender
systems.
As a male-embodied Two-Spirit, part of my work is to
move back and forth between different gendered spaces,
taking information about those experiences with me and
sharing them with others. People see me as countless
genders including a Queer man, as Gay guy who wears
skirts, a Queer woman, a straight woman, a drag queen, a
Trans woman, a Trans man, a transvestite, a
cross-dresser, an androgynous person, and a straight
man. Moving through these spaces has taught me that
most of them are deadly dangerous. One of the gifts of
experiencing gender from multiple angles is gaining
knowledge to work against sexism and gender regimes in
all of our communities. Transforming this knowledge into
radical, non-violent action against sexism and
transphobia is a Friendship Dance that helps restore
duyuktv to gender systems. As male-socialized
people, we are just as responsible for ending sexist
oppression as straight men. Seeing gender as a
Friendship Dance involves constant examination of the
ways we are both injured and privileged because of being
born male in a patriarchal country.
Native women have long called Native men to work in
solidarity with them against sexist oppression.
Male-embodied Two-Spirit people must answer that call
and aid in dismantling gender and sexual oppression.
This is part of our responsibility in restoring
duyuktv. We must shell shake and sing a Friendship
Dance to mend the damage done to Cherokee gender through
invasion, genocide, and removal.
NVGI/FOUR: STOMP DANCE
Our songs weave with
Cricket’s, with Turtle’s, with the songs of our
grandmothers and grandfathers. They sing of loss and
love, of our stubborn and gorgeous survival, of our
determination to continue.
 Stomp dancing is central to the continuance of our
traditions, and remembering who we are as Two-Spirit
people is a part of that continuance. When I meet other
Cherokee Two-Spirits it isn’t long before we are piecing
together bits of information that each of us carry about
what it means to be who we are. Through sharing our
stories, what we’ve taught ourselves, what we’ve learned
from traditionalists and elders, and what we have pieced
together from books and dreams, we create the living
archives of our history. We are stomp dancing our story
back to us.
Almost all of the Two-Spirit people I know are deeply
committed to carrying on our lifeways, reviving
traditions that have gone dormant if necessary. I
think that this is a logical path for Two-Spirit people
to follow. For example, I've had to search for what my
gender-sexuality has meant in the past so that I can
understand what it means in the present and future.
Through this journey I've become deeply invested in also
relearning our language, songs, dances, and arts. This
process of cultural revitalization, for all of us, is
like a stomp dance. It is through this work that we
rebalance the world.
Each Cherokee Two-Spirit must listen closely to
ourselves and remember what work we are meant to do in
this world. Some of us are deeply committed to the
Cherokee language. Others of us are invested in
learning and teaching particular arts. There are
Two-Spirit Cherokees dedicated to ceremonial
communities, and those who are uncovering our histories
through research and scholarship. Many of us work for
the well-being of our environment or fight against the
numerous forms of oppression that face us daily. Through
this stomp dance we ensure our survival. And, like a
stomp dance song, our actions call out to other
Cherokees who respond through their own singing and
shell shaking, spiraling around the center of who we
are... (continue reading)
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18 COMMENTS ON THIS ESSAY:
Siyo Oginali Wado for this great essay! While I am not a twospirit ,I too believe that acceptence of and re-intigration of two spirit people into our society is essential to the recovery of the harmony of all our people. I live in NE Oklahoma and have found it encouraging to see more open twospirits taking part in dances and ceremonies.I have yet to see any adopt the others clothes but have seen several participate in cross gender activities.I believe your comments on pre-colonializing (Round here we refer to it as de-Yoneging) our selfs to be pertinant to all Cherokee folks. Again Wado an Happy Trails, Jisdu
ᏏᏲ ᎣᎩᎾᎵ! ᏩᏙ for your comment. So glad to hear from another Cherokee supportive of 2spirit folks. And I *love* the term "de-Yoneging." ᏩᏙ for that!
Qwo-Li
I'm a non-Cherokees and non-Two-Spirit person, but I must say I enjoyed just sitting, watching and listening as you sing and shell shake. Very interesting experience. Tnx :)
Good post! Very interesting experience. Thanks :)
nice post!!!
as a two-spirit native jew i found myself telling everyone about shell-shaking. it shapes my metaphor when i preach gender preach. baruch hashmah.
I am almost ¼ Cherokee my granddad was almost full on my mother’s side. I am as I know it to be two spirited. I very much agree that America’s balance has been disrupted. In an odd way I feel my granddads blood is calling me to find out more and restore balance in my beautiful to be America. I know very little about Cherokee ways. I need inner peace. My granddad loved me very much and he died when I was 15. They took my granddad away when he was a small child. They sent him to school and college. He Converted to Christianity but he still had some of his Cherokee beliefs. I remember him doing stuff when I was a kid. I want to learn as much as I can about Cherokee spiritual beliefs. I want to relate them to modern day America. I feel many Native spirits still thrive in the America we now live in. If you know the tradition about bringing people from other tribes to the Cherokee tribe. I would very much like to know about them.
There's a proofreading error here--I want to make clear that I meant to write "Further, many Cherokee Two-Spirits (like most Cherokees) are Christians." not "Further, Cherokee Two-Spirits (like most Cherokees) are Christians."
My apologies!
Qwo-Li
Fixed it, hon! xoxo
Wa'do sugar!
Si-yo,
Wa-Do!!!!! Awesome article. Touched me very deeply. I am a Cherokee two spirited person, and I believe that in order to restore complete balance to our earth mother, the roles of the Two Spirited person must be restored. The two spirit concept is fairly new to me: Growing up in Northeast Oklahoma it was just "being gay" and I tried for years to keep that part of me hidden. Even after I quit hiding and "came out", and began to hear the term "two spirit" and began to learn a little about it, I didn't really think of myself that way. I still thought of myself as a "man who is attracted to other men". But the more I have become involved in our Ceremonial Ground, the more I am realizing that I am two spirited: I am naturally drawn to do things that are traditionally the role of the woman. Then i look at my life, and it is the same thing: I am an artist, and I make baskets, which there are "straight" men who weave baskets, however it is and from my research has pretty much always been the domain of the Cherokee woman. And it is like that in other areas as well, and the more I think back, I realize it has always been that way. The past couple of years its kind of been like a second "coming out" experience...lol. I have yet to shake shells, and am nervous about doing that because so many people around here are so conservative and I don't want to offend anyone. But maybe one of these days....
Didn't mean to type all that. Just wanted to say what a great article this was, and how much it touched my heart.
Ki-la,
Mike Dart
Cherokee Artist
While I know it is the nature of our world to catagoize everything - I never have bought into the idea that I am two-spirited. I am of one spirit, but that spirit is many things. I believe in the traditional ways (be it noted the traditional ways that I grew up with, as opposed to the traditonal ways which in a broader scope as belonging to all Cherokee people). My traditional upbringing tought me several things about being a gay person. One, that I am unique and empowered and embodied by a special gift; two, in order for that gift to remain unique and to reach its full potential I would be given attention by our family medicine person; third, I would have several 'treatments' from age 7 until that Medicine person died; fourth, and lastly, I would be who I was born to be, and that is that. If you want to call me gay, that is okay. I don't mind if you call me two-spirited, but I will cringe a little when you do. The only catagory I have is my nationality: Cherokee. I'm not convenced that as Cherokee we need to adopt the modern identity of "two-spirits." Why, for me it is because I am a tradtional Cherokee, and I know my responsibilities, my roll, my lifeways, and from that I understand myself. I have no need to expand myself to others and their expectations that I will "be" or "act" in a certain way. I'm a Cherokee - my story ends there. The rest is collatoral mataerial to support that fact. Wado Sgi (p.s. No offense to Mr. Qwoli; and, this is very well written)
siyo ToTiDi,
I agree. A lot of don't use the word "two-spirit" to describe ourselves, and I'm not suggesting we should. I'm using it as a umbrella term "knowing that not all of us use this term for ourselves any more than all of us use any of the other terms available to us in English." Wado for telling a bit of your story!
Cherokee Two-Spirit people
the cherokee have many rituals
turtle winds firewalker
cherokee indianer
Siyo. Aya gesv, Gatsanula Wahya dawado tsalvktanv. Vsgwusgini Tsigiduwagi, Tsitsalegidv, nole nudale udanted aya gesvi.
Hello. My name is Jason Lowe. I am from Northeast OK. I am Cherokee, and I am a two spirited individual. I have recently started shaking shells at my ceremonial grounds in Kenwood, OK and havent been happier. I feel that this is my place in our ceremonies and am proud to do it. It took a lot of gutts, but I had the backing of Three medicine men and our ceremonial leaders. It is through their support that I keep on being true to myself as a Cherokee Two Spirited Individual. Wado!!!!!!
siyo Jason,
That's great! Say siyo to those folks for me, they're good peeps.
to whom it may concern,
my name is and i am half cherokee sence i was about 9-10 years old i knew that i was attracted to other men and didnt know what that ment but as i got older i learned that the term was gay i did try and hide it bye haveing a girl friend but decided that i couldent lie about who i was anymore so i came out with being gay to my family at first they didnt understand but eventually found room in their hearts for understanding and acceptance, i dont know much about my cherokee heratige but am takeing it into my own hands to find out everything that i can so it dont get lost the only thing i know is that my great aunt orphie was able to talk to see hear and sence spirits and i have been able tyo see hear feel and talk to spirits at a young age as well. so as i was doing research on my heratigei found out that we were once called to spirit and that gave me a sence of happyness and relief that their was a name for people like me among the cherokee and surrounding native american tribes i really do think that we need to get reconigzed once again..
thanks for opening my eyes
very truly youres
sean-michael edwin priesing
Wow! Very interesting... I have just been getting into the Native American ways of life.. I am by record 1/512 Cherokee on my mothers side... however, on my fathers side my great grandmother was the granddaughter to a Cherokee Chief... so the story goes anyway... so she was hlaf blood which makes me morelike an eigth... You can really see it in my Dad and my brother but I am more white with blonde hair and blue eyes... Would I be accepted into the tribe or rejected for being white more than red?.. I am a two spirit person as well and have never felt a blonging to any path in life but have always been interested in Native American Ways... I also feel that Two Spirited people have a gift... I believe I have one however I don't know how to access it and use it... I have seen spirits since I was very young and have dreams that come true... Is this something in my head or something real to build on? I have so many questions and don't know where to turn or who to talk to about any of it... My brother fell in with the Lakota people in Cali and I have seen him transform from an angry bitter person to someone pleasant to be aroound and he seems to have alot of knowledge of thier ways but I would llike to stick to the Cherokee ways... If anyone can help me please email me at robwood74@gmail.com The young man that spoke of shaking the shells from Kenwood.. I'm in Pryor and would really appreciate it if you could get ahold of me and maybe stear me in the right direction to begin my journey... Thanks for hearing me out everyone! Rob