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Hey everyone, and welcome. 
Today we're going to talk about 

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something really fascinating. 
It's a part of history that 

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gives us a completely different 
way to think about gender. 

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A story that was almost lost but
is now being brought back to 

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light. 
You know, most of us grow up 

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thinking there are pretty much 
two options, male or female. 

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But what if that wasn't the 
whole story? 

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What if for centuries, some 
cultures saw gender as something

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way bigger, way more spiritual 
than that? 

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And that's where we're going to 
start. 

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Let's dive into what the term 2 
spirit actually means, because 

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it really challenges that simple
2 box idea of gender. 

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So what exactly is 2 spirit? 
Well, it's a modern English term

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that was actually created back 
in 1990. 

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It was made by native people, 
for Native people to describe 

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individuals in their communities
who don't really fit into 

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western labels like gay or 
transgender. 

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It's kind of like an umbrella 
term that connects who they are 

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today with a really long and 
important history. 

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Let's break that down a little. 
At its heart, 2 Spirit describes

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a person who holds both a 
masculine and a feminine spirit.

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And this is super important. 
It's not about who a person is 

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attracted to, it's about their 
spiritual identity and the 

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special role they have in their 
community. 

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It's an identity that really 
only makes sense inside of 

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Native cultures. 
So what was that role? 

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This is where the story gets 
really incredible because for 

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many, many cultures, being 2 
Spirit meant you held a place of

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deep honor and respect. 
Get this, in hundreds of Native 

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nations all across North 
America, way before Europeans 

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arrived, 2 spirit people weren't
just, you know, tolerated. 

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They were revered. 
They were seen as a bridge 

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between our world and the spirit
world. 

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Like they had a special balance 
and a deeper kind of wisdom 

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because they held two spirits 
inside them and they were 

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absolutely essential. 
They were often the community's 

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healers and visionaries. 
They were matchmakers. 

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They were entrusted with caring 
for children and maybe most 

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importantly, with keeping the 
tribe, sacred traditions and 

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stories alive. 
They were woven right into the 

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fabric of the community. 
But then everything changed. 

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That honored place in society 
came under a direct and brutal 

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attack. 
This led to a history that was 

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very deliberately and tragically
erased. 

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And the term that historians and
Native people use to describe 

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what happened is intense, A 
cultural genocide. 

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When European colonizers and 
churches showed up, they brought

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these really rigid ideas about 
gender and sexuality. 

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They saw these traditions as a 
threat, something that had to be

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completely stamped out. 
I mean, the shift was just so 

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dramatic. 
For centuries, you have two 

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spirit people as a respected, 
integral part of their cultures.

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Then, starting in the 1500s, 
this systematic effort begins to

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shame, to punish, and to 
completely wipe out these 

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identities. 
The violence and forced 

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assimilation left this deep, 
deep wound that people are still

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dealing with today. 
And that brings us to the 

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present. 
The fight today isn't just about

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digging up old history. 
It's about dealing with the very

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real, modern consequences of 
that oration. 

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Just think about it for a 
second. 

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When you lose generations of 
your own knowledge, outside 

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ideas start to fill in the gaps.
Some of the very views that were

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forced on native people, like 
strict gender roles and the idea

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that same sex relationships are 
wrong, started to take root in 

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some communities. 
And this isn't some abstract 

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idea from the distant past. 
A really powerful, painful 

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example of this conflict 
happened pretty recently in 

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2005. 
So in that year, the government 

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of the Navajo Nation, a people 
with their own rich traditional 

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history of multiple genders, 
passed a law that banned same 

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sex marriage. 
And as you can imagine, it 

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created this incredibly painful 
debate among their own people. 

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So you're left with this 
heartbreaking contradiction. 

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On one side, you have the 
traditional view where gender 

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diversity and the relationships 
of two spirit people were 

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respected. 
And on the other, you have a 

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modern law that reflects the 
exact same colonial values that 

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were used to try and destroy 
their culture in the first 

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place. 
Today, there's a fight led by 

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young Navajo activists to repeal
that law. 

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And that kind of leaves us with 
a final question to chew on. 

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This isn't just a story about 
the past, right? 

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It's about identity. 
It's about resilience, and it's 

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about the incredible power of 
history to shape our world right

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now. 
So knowing that gender diversity

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was once honored and celebrated 
in so many places, how does that

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change the way we look at 
today's debates and our own 

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definitions of who we are? 
It's definitely something to 

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think about. 
Thanks for joining me for this 

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explainer.