The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in American Indian Traditions

example, the Kaska of Canada would designate a daughter in a
family that had only daughters as a boy. When she was small,
around five, her parents would tie a pouch of dried bear ovaries
to her belt. She would dress in male clothing and would function
in the Kaska male role for the rest of her life. Interestingly, if a
male attempted to make sexual advances to this male-designated
person, he was liable to punishment, because the Kaska felt this
violation would ruin the “dike’s” luck in hunting. 1
The Yuma had a tradition of gender designation based on
dreams; a female who dreamed of weapons became a male for
all practical purposes. In this the Yumas were similar to the
neighboring Mohaves and Cocopah, except the gender-role
designation was based on the choice of companions and play
objects of a young person. In such systems a girl who chose to
play with boys or with boys’ objects such as a bow and arrow
became a male functionary. Among the Mohave, another dreamculture
people related to the Yuma, the hwame, a term roughly
corresponding to “dike” in English, took a male name and was in
all respects subject to ritual male taboos vis à vis females, such
as avoidance of contact with a menstruating wife. The hwame’s
wife was not considered hwame but simply a woman. 2
In addition to these tribes, others that display a positive
acceptance of lesbianism include the Navajo (who considered
lesbians an asset), the Mohave (who thought that from the
inception of the world homosexuals were a natural and
necessary part of society), the Quinault, the Apache, the Ojibwa,
and the Eskimo. 3
In her brilliant, comprehensive gay cultural history Another
Mother Tongue: Gay Words, Gay Worlds , poet and writer Judy
Grahn devotes a large chapter to the existence of lesbians and
homosexuals as ritually and socially valued tribal members.
Citing numerous sources including Jonathan Katz, Sue Ellen
Jacobs, myself, Carolyn Neithammer, Arthur Evans, Edward