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SAGWU/ONE: A CALL TO ASSEMBLE
On the White Path home
dark soil gifts our dances back.
Songs rise up like corn,
turtle shell shackles shake history.
White and purple beads weave us to remember
strength that gifts our dances back.
From our ancestors' bodies
we rise up like corn.
The White Path home
gifts back our dances.
Hope, rise up
like corn.
Come on all you Two-Spirit people. Hurry!
 n Oklahoma, Stomp Dance is a central ceremonial
practice for Cherokees and other Native people from the
Southeastern "United States." The Stomp Dance is
performed to maintain duyuktv—balance, truth,
justice—a central idea to traditional Cherokee
worldviews. Wilma Mankiller tells us, "There is an old
Cherokee prophecy which instructs us that as long as the
Cherokees continue traditional dances, the world will
remain as it is, but when the dances stop, the world
will come to an end" (29, 1993). This essay is modeled
on a Stomp Dance, based on descriptions by Cherokee
ethnomusicologist Charlotte Heth. Stomp Dances begin
with a call to assemble, and so I would like to call us
together, as Cherokee Two-Spirit people, to reflect on
and imagine what it means to be who we are.
Specifically, because of the nature of this collection,
I want to call together male-embodied Cherokee
Two-Spirits to think about the very important
obligations we have to rebalance gender systems through
working to end sexism, transphobia, and queerphobia in
our communities.
 As we assemble, I know that there are non-Cherokees and
non-Two-Spirit people who are also with us, listening to
this story. I would like to ask our guests to sit and
just listen from a distance, understanding that because
I'm speaking to other Cherokee Two-Spirits/GLBTQ folks,
that there are many questions, issues, and terms that I
won't be explaining here. And since I brought up
terminology, I would like to say to other Cherokee
Two-Spirit people that we need to remember that gender
systems before invasion and colonization were not the
same as they are now. While we subsume same-sex
relationships and gender "non-conformity" under the
umbrella of "Two-Spirit," it is difficult to say if
these identities were linked together in the past. There
are numerous experiences and identities that we shove
under terms like "Two-Spirit" or "Queer" or "GLBT." I've
heard several different terms to talk about these
identities in Cherokee, but I am going to use
"Two-Spirit" as my umbrella term here, 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. All of these terms and ideas are slippery and
complicated, but "Two-Spirit" carries with it a
particular commitment to decolonization and Indigenous
histories and identities that is at the center of this
particular telling.
This story—in the form of a Stomp Dance—emerges from
conversations and experiences with other Cherokee
Two-Spirits, as well as from other Native Two-Spirit
people. Over the years, my Cherokee Two-Spirit friends
and I have been imagining who we are through
conversations with each other and through a commitment
to decolonial projects. Cherokee Two-Spirit people are
currently involved in a complex process of asserting our
identities through strengthening memories of our past,
committing to who we in our present, and imagining who
we want to be in the future.
Because I weave wampum records, I find the metaphor of
re-weaving a wampum belt a useful way to think about
this particular point in the recovery, creation, and
maintenance of who we are as Cherokee Two-Spirits. While
many Cherokees have forgotten the importance of wampum
records, at one time they were central to Cherokee
diplomatic relationships, legal agreements, and
record-keeping. There are seven wampum belts that remain
important to Cherokee Stomp Dance communities, and they
are used to remember and transmit central religious
teachings. One of these belts depicts a white path
against a field of purple beads, symbolizing the
importance of walking duyuktv, of moving through
life on a path of peace, justice, and balance... (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