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During the chaos of the past 460 years since De Soto
invaded our lands, Cherokee Two-Spirits have been
largely erased and hidden. It's as if the story of who
we are and our place in the world was woven into a
beautiful wampum belt. And then
hate's long knives
tore through
deerskin, sinew
Purple and
white beads flew
through air
thick with
smoke
from burning
townhouses
Beads scattered into
undergrowth
pushed deep
into feet-bloodied paths
Beads hidden
high in caves
by the escaped
Everything
sliced
into pieces.
We've internalized unbalanced power relationships
between men and women, between Two-Spirit people and
others. Our work as Two-Spirit Cherokees is to mend
these relationships and aid our communities in
healing. We must weave the pieces of our story back
together.
Given the brutal history of the past several hundred
years, it should come as no surprise that many Cherokees
have tried to suppress Two-Spirit people and histories,
or that many Cherokee Two-Spirits struggle with making
sense of who we are within our tribal traditions.
Sometimes all we have left are fragments.
But sit still.
Listen close.
Look: four white beads there in your right hand,
three purple beads here in mine.
We can travel back over
removal routes
gathering beads.
Some of us have large pieces of the belt.
Some of us only have scraps of singed deerskin.
But we begin
to remember
the pattern.
Come on all you Cherokee Two-Spirits!
We are assembled here to continue
our story.
Each of us
has a piece.
TAL'/TWO: DAKSI, DAKSI, DAKSI ALEGWUI/ COME ON ALL YOU
SHELL SHAKERS
Crickets hum a heartbeat rhythm under a hot Oklahoma
night. Women wearing turtle shell or milk can leg
shackles are called to dance. The figures of women are
silhouetted against the light of the sacred fire,
answering the call.
 At the Stomp Dance, we are called to the fire to sing,
to dance, to honor Creation. It is part of men's
responsibilities to sing songs, and women's
responsibilities to shake shells. Stomp Dances cannot
take place without shell shakers: our lifeways are
dependent on them. Brian Joseph Gilley's book
Becoming Two-Spirit: Gay Identity and Social Acceptance
in Indian Country mentions the fact that some
male-embodied Two-Spirit Cherokees are shaking shells as
a reflection of their place within ceremonial
communities and traditions (141-143, 2006). At this
particular time in our history Cherokee Two-Spirit
people of all genders are calling each other out of
hiding, out of the confines of white notions of who we
are. We are being called to take our place within our
communities, to "shell shake" our traditions in order to
restore duyuktv. The responsibilities we have as
male-embodied Two-Spirit Cherokees—to sustain our
lifeways and cultures—is like shell shaking. We have
the responsibility to restore and maintain duyuktv
through practicing Cherokee lifeways and ending
gender oppressions.
Two-Spirit liberation is part of a larger process of
decolonization. Many of the current conversations and
activism in both radical Queer and Trans communities as
well as mainstream GLBT movements tend to ignore the
colonial realities and contexts that are the center of
struggles for Two-Spirit people. As Native feminists
such as Beth Brant, Chrystos, and Andrea Smith have
pointed out, current systems of gender oppression and
homophobia in the Americas are part of ongoing
colonization and genocide against Native people.
Non-Native Queer movements often place sexuality and
gender as oppositional to heteronormative practices, and
with good reason. While similar politics certainly come
into play in Two-Spirit movements, the more central
argument that we are making is that our lives and
identities—including, but not limited to issues of
sexuality and gender—are integral to Indigenous
struggles for decolonization, self-determination, and
cultural continuance.
Taking this stance isn't a "mainstreaming" tactic, but
instead is a radical act against colonial mindsets and
empires that surround us, trying to dissolve our claim
on these continents. Two-Spirit people are not asking
our tribal communities to accept us as "just like"
straight gendered people. We are asking our communities
to remember who we, as nations, are. And, just as
importantly, we are asking our communities to imagine
who we want to be. Two-Spirit people can change patterns
in our communities that are damaging. We are looking to
our core values to imagine the places we should have in
our communities. Two-Spirit Cherokees are calling each
other out of shadows to participate in the rebalancing
of the world. And it is through living up to our
responsibilities as Cherokees, particularly as
Two-Spirits, that we "shell shake." We are insisting
that we have a place in the circle and that our lives
and work in the world is absolutely and uncompromisingly
necessary to the continuance of Cherokee traditions.
Daksi, daksi, daksi alegwui!
Come on all you shell shakers! Hurry! ... (continue reading)
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14 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!
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