12. Pre-Colonization North America
The term “two-spirit” for an individual who does not fit the binary gender norm was created by indigenous Americans in the 1990s to put a word to a concept that has existed in numerous tribes since before colonization. Many tribes recognized that gender was fluid and celebrated members of their tribe who didn’t fit the binary, esteeming them as storytellers, oral historians, matchmakers, and potters. Some two-spirit individuals wore female clothing while appearing outwardly male, which was noticed by Spanish colonizers when they ventured west in the 1700s.
One Spanish explorer described the two-spirits, saying,
“I have submitted substantial evidence that those Indian men who, both here and farther inland, are observed in the dress, clothing, and character of women – there being two or three such in each village – pass as sodomites by profession… They are called joyas, and are held in great esteem.”
The Spanish colonizers called them joyas, meaning jewels, due to the bright and colorful nature of their dress. Some two-spirits engaged in prostitution, although this was not stigmatized by the tribes as two-spirits were afforded sexual rights that other tribe members were not. The Spanish colonizers, on the other hand, held the traditional 18th-century Christian view of prostitution, and gender fluidity, as profoundly immoral and worked to put an end to both practices.