"We Are Everywhere": Two-Spirit People and the Reclaiming of a Deep Past
Join Professor Greg Smithers to open new insights into histories of gender diversity and sexual fluidity in Native America. In 1990, a small group of Indigenous people left the Third Annual Gathering of Gay and Lesbian Indians in a buoyant mood. They had just concluded a conference in which they had coined a new name for themselves—Two-Spirit—and felt the tide of history turning in their favor. "We are everywhere," one delegate announced jubiliently. But what did it mean to be Two-Spirit? How did this moment, at the height of the HIV-AIDS pandemic, open new insights into histories of gender diversity and sexual fluidity in Indian Country? As we'll see, the 1990 gathering at Winnipeg became a portal into deep time and to vast repositories of historical knowledge once thought irretrievably lost.
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Other Experiences
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Tour: Custis Square Archaeology
Take a guided tour and talk with archaeologists in the field about the current archaeological investigations at John Custis IV’s four-acre home and early 18th-century gardens.
CW Admission
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Presentation: Two-Spirits in American Indian Life
Join a member of our American Indian Initiative as they explore the lives of two-spirit indigenous people who embody both female and male spirits.
CW Admission
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Presentation: To Paint for War
Discover the warfare of the Eastern Woodlands tribes and nations and its lasting legacy in the United States.
CW Admission