Thread by @FloweryFey

@BorderStories2 Hi everyone, my name is Joshua Bloom,and today I will be doing a thread called "Native American Gender Fluidity & the Lakota 'Winkte" People", discussing common 'third-gender' or two-spirit concept in various native american cultures #BorderStoriesPitt

To start off with, we should look at a deceivingly simple question: Just what is gender? most, likely associate it simply with the sex you are assigned at birth, however it is far from that simple. #BorderStoriesPitt 1/

Put simply, gender as we understand it is a complex web of various expectations, appearances, and general attitudes that may closely relate to one's sex as assigned at birth. #BorderStoriesPitt /2

However, especially among pre-contact Native American cultures, this was not the case. #PittBorderStories /3

Amongst various native cultures we can see what is commonly termed a 'two-spirit' individual by modern groups, those who are usually biologically male who take up female tasks and may wear feminine clothing. #BorderStoriesPitt /4

Although surviving documentation is sparing, these individuals can commonly be found in various cultures throughout North America, such as this Zuni Lhamana individual, named We'wha, who lived during the mid-late 1800s. #BorderStoriesPitt 5/

Generally speaking, these individuals were forced to act as a male following colonization, and the mere concept of being two-spirit was almost lost as those individuals had to be hidden from society at large. #BorderStoriesPitt 6/

This is common especially amongst the Lakota. The word Winkte, a corruption of an earlier term, once was simply an individual who was two spirit, however eventually came to be used in a derogatory manner similar to 'fag' amongst certain bands #BorderStoriesPitt 7/

This is not universal of course, and there are many bands where winkte individuals (who still may or may not wear women's clothes) have always been accepted, however this is far from univeral. #BorderStoriesPitt 8/

The purpose of the Graphic Novella I am doing is to explore the lives of Winkte People and their struggles. I hope to show this properly, and thank you for reading. I will be accepting questions now and sorry for the long time spent typing. #BorderStoriesPitt

For any who may be interested, here is a link to the drafts of some pages from my novella. they are far from the finished project as of right now, but I'm about half way there!
drive.google.com/file/d/1G85jvW…