Native Americans And The Two-Spirit Tradition
Thanksgiving in present day America is a mix of Native American autumnal celebratory traditions and traditions brought to the New World by colonists. The NorthEast Two-Spirit Society notes that there are roughly 400 indigenous Nations in the United States and 155 of those Nations have “documented multiple gender traditions” including those who are “Two Spirit,” or individuals whose spirits “are a blending of male and female.” Harland Pruden and Melissa Hoskins, Co-Chairs of NE2SS, write: “The Two Spirits’ mere existence threatened the colonizers’ core beliefs; the backlash was violent. Sketches, housed at the New York City public library, depict Two Spirit people being attacked by colonizers’ dogs.”
