I recently spoke with a friend about Tony Gonzales, the young Native American gay man shot and killed by Wauwatosa police last year. My friend mentioned Beverly Little Thunder, a Two Spirit woman who will be presenting her oral memoir, One Bead at a Time, next week at Boswell Book Co. Little Thunder, a Lakota Elder from Standing Rock, S.D., has been active in Two Spirit spirituality for decades. In fact, she’s considered one of its leaders. Currently based in Vermont, she has created a center for indigenous women’s ceremony based on the Lakota model of community.
There’s a notion that Native American communities fully accept their LGBT members and always have embraced them as spiritually significant because they possess male and female attributes—hence their “two spirit” nature.
However, it seems to not always be the case. Little Thunder’s story tells of her rejection from the Lakota Sun Dance ceremony because she is lesbian. Like women aspiring to be Catholic priests, it seems as a Two Spirit woman, she trespassed into the very core of her peoples’ spirituality when she ventured into this otherwise male-dominated sphere of cultural life. Banned by the U.S. government in 1904, the Sun Dance was revived in the 1930s. It is one of the most important rituals (if not the most important) of the Plains Indians. It involves days of dancing and self-depravation. The dance symbolizes the continuity of life through death and regeneration. But, whereas a woman’s ordination to the priesthood is deemed “illicit” and “invalid” according to Catholic doctrine, it merely results in automatic excommunication. In Little Thunder’s case, her creation of a woman’s Sun Dance resulted in death threats and forced her to flee her Lakota reservation.
There is a greater backstory here. The existence of Two Spirit men and women in Native American culture can be traced back through the centuries. Thanks to the writings of white missionaries and explorers, references to them abound. But, as was their wont, the newcomers’ subjugation of America’s indigenous people also involved dismantling their culture. That process involved expunging native belief systems and forced Christian conversion. As a result, Two Spirit people fell into the sinful category of homosexuals. It seems Western Christian homophobia became a Native American norm.
However, more recently, in part due to the efforts of LGBT Native Americans like Little Thunder, the embrace of traditional values has been revived. Yet, within tribal communities there is still an ongoing and very complex discussion about the full range of Native American issues, including sexual diversity. And, because the Supreme Court decision to recognize same-sex unions does not apply to Indian lands, marriage equality, for example, is not yet universal among Indian tribes. In Wisconsin, the Oneida tribe recognized same-sex marriage in 2015. Others have neutrally worded marriage statutes or comply with the state’s.
Meanwhile, this year, Little Thunder’s Sun Dance was held in mid-July, beginning on the 15th. A timely coincidence…the memorial ceremony for Tony Gonzales’ death took place on July 16. His 30th birthday would have been celebrated a week before, on July 9.
Little Thunder’s engagement at Boswell Book Co. (2559 N. Downer Ave.) takes place on Friday, Aug. 19, at 7 p.m.
