Two-Spirit Is Not a Trend. It’s a Return.
Reflections on Pride, Identity, and Sacred Remembrance
Happy Pride — Our Two-Spirit Relatives Are Sacred Medicine
Each June, rainbow flags bloom across cities and social media feeds, marking Pride Month with celebration, protest, and remembrance. It’s a time to honor the fight for LGBTQ2S+ rights and the people, past and present, who have risked everything to live and love openly.
But for many of us, especially as Indigenous people, Pride isn’t just about visibility or inclusion. It’s about remembering who we are. Before colonialism, many Indigenous nations across Turtle Island had words, roles, and responsibilities for what we now often call Two-Spirit people—relatives who carried both feminine and masculine energies, or who lived beyond binary gender expectations altogether. They were visionaries, healers, mediators, storytellers, medicine people, and ceremonial leaders. They were sacred. They are sacred.
Who Are Two-Spirit People?
The term Two-Spirit (or Niizh manidoowag in Anishinaabemowin) was first adopted in 1990 at the third annual intertribal Native American/First Nations gay and lesbian conference in Winnipeg. It was chosen not as a pan-Indigenous identity, but as a way to reclaim the language, culture, and spiritual roles that had been violently suppressed by settler colonialism, Christianity, and the residential and boarding school systems. Many communities had, and are reclaiming, their own distinct words and understandings. But Two-Spirit gives us a shared umbrella in the face of a Western world that tried to erase us.
In many Indigenous worldviews, gender was not binary. It was relational. Spirit-based. Community-held. And many Nations had roles for people who lived outside or between the expectations of “man” and “woman.”
Let me share a few:
🪶 Navajo (Diné) Teachings
Traditionally, the Diné recognized four gender roles. One of them, nádleehi, referred to male-bodied individuals with feminine traits. These relatives often served as healers, mediators, and ceremonial leaders.
🌾 Lakota & Dakota Teachings
The word wíŋkte describes male-bodied individuals who took on female roles. Wíŋkte were considered spiritually gifted, called upon for naming ceremonies and spiritual insight.
🌲 Mohawk Teachings
Though words vary, the concept of gender variance existed—some teachings speak of people whose roles didn’t align with settler ideas of gender, and who were respected as vital members of the community.
🔥 Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) Teachings
Two-Spirit people, niizh manidoowag, were seen as walking with both masculine and feminine spirits in balance. They were often trusted with healing, ceremonial, or artistic gifts.
This land remembers our Two-Spirit relatives. Even when their names were struck from history. Even when their roles were criminalized, pathologized, or made invisible. The land carries their songs in its soil. The rivers remember the footsteps of Two-Spirit medicine people gathering roots. The stars still recognize them as those who walked between worlds.
Our kin are still here. And they are medicine.
Being Two-Spirit isn’t just about identity, it’s about responsibility. About balance. About carrying teachings that are both old and evolving. Two-Spirit people don’t exist for spectacle or tokenism, and they don’t need to be folded into colonial gender paradigms to be valid. They exist in relation to land, community, and spirit.
I’m writing this not from the outside, but from within. As a Two-Spirit Ojibwe person, I carry these teachings as part of my own healing journey—and in deep kinship with those still finding language for their truth.
As we mark Pride Month, let’s go beyond inclusion. Let’s practice recognition. Let's honor the brilliance, beauty, and resistance of our Two-Spirit relatives, not just with hashtags or flags, but with action, solidarity, and space-making. Let’s protect them, uplift them, and follow their lead when they speak of what it means to live in right relation with gender, sexuality, land, and spirit.
Two-Spirit people are not new. They are not a trend. They are sacred. They are medicine.
And they remind us: Pride isn’t just a celebration. It’s a continuation of the old ways. A return to something our ancestors already knew.
Miigwech. And Happy Pride.
So, how do we show up as allies?
Being an ally, especially to our Two-Spirit and LGBTQ2S+ relatives, isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about being present, listening deeply, and doing the work with love and accountability.
Here are a few gentle ways to begin or deepen your practice:
🌿 Learn the history
Pride began as resistance. Two-Spirit roles existed long before colonizers came with their binaries and shame. Learn about the sacred roles our Two-Spirit kin once held, and are reclaiming today.
🗣️ Use inclusive language
Honor people’s pronouns and names. Normalize introducing yourself with yours. Uplift the term “Two-Spirit” when it's appropriate, and be mindful not to flatten or erase Indigenous identities within LGBTQ+ spaces.
🎧 De-center yourself
Listen more than you speak. Don’t assume all queer or trans experiences are the same. Step back so others can speak for themselves, without correction, interruption, or translation.
🎨 Support Two-Spirit and LGBTQ2S+ artists, writers, and organizers
Buy their books. Attend their events. Share their work. Credit their ideas. Invite them to lead, especially in conversations around gender, culture, and ceremony.
🚨 Speak up when it counts
If you hear transphobic, homophobic, or anti-Indigenous remarks, don’t let it slide. Whether it’s at work, in a classroom, or around the kitchen table, silence is not neutral.
🏡 Create safe and sacred space
Whether you're hosting an event or holding a talking circle, make sure it’s a place where Two-Spirit and LGBTQ2S+ folks feel safe, respected, and honored, not just “included,” but welcomed home.
🌎 Relearn what your ancestors forgot
If you’re Indigenous, gently ask Elders or knowledge keepers what your Nation once knew about gender, balance, and spirit. Many of these teachings still live, waiting to be remembered.
🌀 Understand it’s a journey
Allyship isn’t a destination, it’s a practice. One that includes mistakes, learning, repair, and growth. Be open. Stay teachable. Show up with love.
✨ To our Two-Spirit relatives: You are not alone. You are loved. You are sacred. You are medicine.
Always so insightful, Julie. I have a couple of questions, which may be silly, but I want to remain inclusive in writings and in conversations. To remain inclusive of everyone, is it appropriate to always include '2S' moving forward when mentioning other LGBTQ+ friends and allies?
Also, does this mean Indigenous people generally did *not* discriminate against each other based on sex, identity, orientation? If so, that's amazing.
Much of how we relate to our fellow human beings is bred into us by our parents and our society. We all need to have open minds and be willing to explore our differences as human beings and accept that we are all different beings. Many people refuse to accept that.
Your words prove that two-spirit humans have been around since the dawn of human existence. The people that are not willing to accept that, are the same people who have taken over the Republican Party and are running the country. I’m 71 years old and I have so much more respect for the indigenous humans as I continue to learn more and more about how they lived. I recently was given a book to read and I would like your opinion and Simon’s opinion on whether or not it’s credible before I read it.
The book is by Reader’s Digest, “Through Indian Eyes, The Untold Story of Native American Peoples”.