“A lot of our tribal leaders have their minds blocked and don’t even know the history of Two-Spirit people,” said Steven Barrios, 54, who lives on a Blackfeet reservation in northwestern Montana, and who has been open about his sexual orientation since he was a teenager. Mr. Barrios cited a small and sometimes contested body of anthropological evidence that suggests that before the arrival of Christian missionaries, many tribes considered Two-Spirit people to be spiritually gifted and socially valuable.
October 07, 2006
Two-spirits gather
A Spirit of Belonging, Inside and OutThe occasion was the ninth annual Montana Two-Spirit Gathering, a weekend retreat here in northwestern part of the state for a few dozen American Indians who define themselves as embodying both male and female spirits. Many are refugees from the gay or lesbian bar circuit who are now celebrating an identity among themselves that they never knew existed, in a setting without drugs or alcohol. Some identify themselves as gay or lesbian; others as a third or fourth gender, combining male and female aspects.
“A lot of our tribal leaders have their minds blocked and don’t even know the history of Two-Spirit people,” said Steven Barrios, 54, who lives on a Blackfeet reservation in northwestern Montana, and who has been open about his sexual orientation since he was a teenager. Mr. Barrios cited a small and sometimes contested body of anthropological evidence that suggests that before the arrival of Christian missionaries, many tribes considered Two-Spirit people to be spiritually gifted and socially valuable.
“A lot of our tribal leaders have their minds blocked and don’t even know the history of Two-Spirit people,” said Steven Barrios, 54, who lives on a Blackfeet reservation in northwestern Montana, and who has been open about his sexual orientation since he was a teenager. Mr. Barrios cited a small and sometimes contested body of anthropological evidence that suggests that before the arrival of Christian missionaries, many tribes considered Two-Spirit people to be spiritually gifted and socially valuable.
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Writerfella here --
Interesting, as writerfella is held in high regard by his Kiowa people as Two-Spirited and as the last Kiowa Spider Medicine Man. But the differentiation is that writerfella is a surviving twin, his birth brother Wendell having lived less than 24 hours. By Kiowa belief, Russell then came into possession of his brother's spirit as well as his own. The capper to this is that the birthdate for Russell and Wendell was June 6, 1941, right in the heart of the Gemini birthsign.
Coincidentally, writerfella knew and corresponded with John Hawk Co-Cke` before he moved from Norman OK to Tulsa, and with Joey Criddle before he moved from Atlanta to Denver. How? By word-of-mouth, mostly, as they both contacted writerfella after hearing of his Kiowa roots and regard 'on the Indian grapevine.'
How, they both asked, had writerfella avoided ostracism and rejection by his own people? The answer was simple: the Spider Clan was and is the most highly-held family among Kiowas (Paddletys being the principal progenitors) and thus ostracism and rejection never happened. If anything, Kiowa people did all they could to show acceptance and approval for writerfella. That he served in the USAF in the Viet Nam era and returned as 'the wounded warrior' and then became both a writer and an actor, winning awards and fame, meant that writerfella had distinguished himself in his own people's eyes and that their approval and acceptance had been earned. It is an unusual status, to be sure, but it also is one that writerfella would not trade for that of anyone else. It's a happy medium and writerfella goes his merry way, very much satisfied.
All Best
Russ Bates
'writerfella'
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