The truth about Native American Sexuality-Carson Cherry

We as modern American’s have this image in our heads of how things use to be back in the day. We have different facets about the era that our parents and grandparents grew up in, the era when America was founded, and all the way back to when Native Americans were prominent across North American lands. When we think about Native Americans we think blood thirsty savage people who lived off of the land. Yes they did live off of the land but for the most part they were not blood thirsty animals. One topic that is rarely ever talked about within the Native American history is there sexuality. It is never talked about in history classes in grade school and was just introduced to me here in college. The truth about Native Americans and their sexuality is of surprise and is not what some would consider acceptable in today’s time. A taboo that was practiced by some tribes is polygamy. Polygamy was accepted but was sometimes hard for the man to provide for multiple women and the children they would have with these women[i]. A huge debate topic that we see in today’s time is homosexuality; homosexuality was also seen in Native American times. Native American people who were men who dressed up like woman and women who dressed up like men were called the two spirits. These two spirit people were said to be very important to the community. They were sometimes community counselors and helped with many different jobs that had to be completed within the communityⁱ. The two spirited people were not shunned or discriminated against in the community; they were looked at as almost like a third gender. Another topic that can be brought up for debate in an era is premarital sex. Back in Native American times premarital sex was not seen as a sin. When women were young they were allowed to experiment and have casual sex with different partners. You were not looked down upon if you were a female that was participating in premarital sexual activitiesⁱ. The points that were talked about in this blog are points that are also very prominent in today’s time. We in modern society think we are in an era where sex is more popular than ever and that it just now started. The truth is that sex and sexuality has had a huge part in society since the beginning of time and as we can see in this blog, even in Native American times.

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[i]Moore, Crystal. "Native American Sexuality & Sexual Violation in the Conquest of the Americas." January 21, 2014.

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/two-spirits/film.html

http://www.abbresciafineart.com/lostinthought.htm