The
history
of
gay
identity
on
the
North
American
continent
is
totally
absent
from
the
educational
system
of
the
United
States,
and
until
recent
years,
the
travails
of
the
American
Indians
have
been
reduced
to
the
myths
of
the
bloodthirsty
Injun
or
the
noble
savage.
With
“Two
Spirits:
A
Story
of
Life
With
the
Navajo,”
gay
authors
Walter
L.
Williams
and
Toby
Johnson
deftly
unveil
the
great
histories
of
gay
people
as
seen
through
the
mythic
and
cultural
expressions
of
the
Navajo.
The
novel
is
set
shortly
after
the
end
of
the
Civil
War,
when
Will
Lee,
a
white
Virginian,
runs
away
from
home
upon
being
discovered
naked
with
his
best
friend
by
his
stridently
religious
father.
Will
joins
up
with
the
Office
of
Indian
Affairs
and
heads
out
West
to
his
new
post
at
Fort
Sumner,
New
Mexico.
The
Navajo
were
forced
to
live
in
the
parched
desert
surrounding
Sumner
after
the
U.S.
Army
drove
them
from
their
ancestral
lands
in
what
is
now
northern
Arizona.
The
tribe
remained
at
the
fort
as
prisoners
from
1863
until
1867
when
they
were
restored
to
their
homelands.
While
there,
Will
falls
in
love
with
Hasbaá,
a
“two
spirit”
shaman
of
the
tribe.
“The
Navajo
as
well
as
many
other
American
Indians
honored
people — who
we
today
would
call
gay — as
spiritually
gifted,”
says
Johnson.
“They
were
understood
to
possess
both
the
spirit
of
a
man
and
the
spirit
of
a
woman.”
Two
spirit
people
usually
displayed
signs
of
gender
variance
by
dressing
in
clothing
that
was
opposite
of
their
biological
gender
and
engaging
in
activities
that
were
nontraditional
for
their
gender.
They
held
a
spiritual
position
of
honor
within
the
community
and
worked
as
healers
and
intermediaries
between
the
human
and
spirit
worlds.
“The
way
America
thinks
of
homosexuals
is
not
as
spiritual
leaders,”
says
Johnson,
61.
I
think
in
the
long
run
it’s
more
important
that
gay
people
change
how
we
understand
homosexuality
than
it
is
how
we
get
straight
people
to
change
their
minds
about
it.”
THE
AWAKENING
OF
gay
consciousness,
one
of
the
book’s
central
themes,
is
nothing
new
to
the
writings
of
either
author.
Johnson’s
nonfiction
works
“Gay
Spirituality”
and
“Gay
Perspective”
have
become
classics
in
the
queer
spirit
genre,
and
Williams,
currently
a
senior
professor
in
the
gender
studies
program
at
the
University
of
Southern
California,
wrote
a
seminal
book
on
the
two
spirit
phenomenon
titled
“The
Spirit
and
the
Flesh:
Sexual
Diversity
in
American
Indian
Culture.”
Both
writers
seamlessly
weave
their
academic
backgrounds
into
the
fabric
of
Will’s
and
Hasbaá’s
story.
Surrounded
by
the
culture
and
myths
of
the
Navajo
people,
Will
begins
to
embrace
his
sexuality
as
a
vehicle
toward
liberation,
happiness
and
a
deepening
sense
of
empowerment.
“One
of
the
great
mythological
patterns
is
that
people
become
heroes
not
because
they
set
out
to
be
a
hero,
but
because
they
got
drawn
into
it
because
of
personal
drive,”
says
Johnson.
“Those
personal
drives
are
more
sexual
most
of
the
time.
In
writing
a
gay
story,
we
wanted
to
be
more
open
about
the
sexuality.
Researchers
like
Williams
have
determined
that
two
spirit
shamans
regularly
engaged
in
same-sex
eroticism
and
even
married
their
paramours.
“Same-sex
marriage
is
as
American
as
apple
pie,”
Johnson
laughs.
“On
American
soil,
there
has
been
same-sex
marriage
for
5,000
years.
It’s
the
Christians
who
came
along
and
objected
200
years
ago.
They’re
the
new
ones.”
