Most people probably do not know that Native American / Indigenous communities welcomed and honored LGBTQ people for centuries before Europeans forced bigotry and religious persecution upon them. We asked Southern Cheyenne Marlon Fixico to help us understand the Native American TWO SPIRIT (LGBTQ) people and the history that genocidal conquerors nearly destroyed.
Can you tell us about yourself and your background?
My name is Marlon Fixico, aka Marty. I’m 61 yrs old and born and raised in Oklahoma. I am an enrolled member of the Southern Cheyenne by way of the Cheyenne & Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma.
I am equally at home in an urban or rural setting. I was raised in both indigenous traditional ways and in the fundamentalist Christian traditions. I spent close to 30 years living in Washington DC but now live in rural Idaho near the Shoshone-Bannock Reservation with my children and grandchildren.
My ex-wife is a Shoshone-Bannock tribal member along with our children and grandchildren.
I have been involved with LGBT Indigenous and Two Spirit organizations since 1983. Presently I am working with the International Council of Two Spirit Societies organized in 2015.
Europeans and their religious descendants have struggled with gay / LGBTQ acceptance for centuries. Will you explain to us Native American TWO SPIRIT history?
The best information resource on Two Spirit History is from author Will Roscoe. He has done extensive research and published several books on traditional teachings and historical persons who lived extra-male/female roles within tribal societies.
In a summary, tribes who still have stories passed down of pre-colonial contact have histories of persons who took on well-accepted traditional roles within the tribal societies that were not strictly male or female oriented. I use the word “roles” because it best describes how Two Spirit persons were part of their tribal societies.
Our identities were not about who we had sex with as much as it was about the duties we took on to best serve the tribe. Each of us have unique gifts and many with spiritual insights that we are able to use to contribute to the well-being of our people.
How are TWO SPIRIT peoples accepted / treated today within Native American communities?
With the invasion of European imperialists and their failed genocidal policies, eventually attention turned to destroying our traditional mindset towards sexuality and spirituality and forced adoption of Christian fundamentalism. All this led, among other things, to the forgotten value of and prejudice against those born with extra-male/female identities, now called Two Spirit people.
In 1975 was the beginning of the re-establishment of the Two Spirit identity when the first gay native organization formed in San Francisco, Gay American Indians. Up until late 70’s and early 80’s we were called Berdache by anthropological academia. Read more via Gay Travelers Magazine