Name

: Rizqi Amelia R. A.

Student Number

: 389088

American Folk Culture Final Examination

Gender Diversity in Navajo Culture and the Issue of LGBT in America

In the recent years, one cannot deny the emergence of LGBT issue in
different corners of the world, especially in the United States. As America
legalized the same-sex marriage in June 2015, many individuals who have
been hiding their gender and sexuality now declare it openly. Indeed, this is
cannot be done last year, where there still several states in America banned
the same-sex marriage. Although this decision earned pros and cons, the
rainbow groups celebrate this ruling cheerfully.
However, the acknowledgement of same-sex marriage actually does not only
exist since last June. In Native American culture, this tradition was commonly
performed in the society. Not to mention the same-sex marriage, they also
have acknowledge the other genders, aside of the common female and male
gender that is known in todays global society.
In many folk cultures that I have learned, the Native American culture is the
one that recognize gender diversity. Their specification of gender is different
from the old Western division of gender, which is male and female. According
to Toelken (2003), the Navajos distinguish seven or eight genders. However,
here I will take Wesley Thomas version that states five or six different
genders in Native American especially the Navajo culture.
The life that we live is represented in each of our own map of the world
(Lawless, 2011). This means that folklore has contributed to the map of our
1

world; it shaped our belief, principles, characters, and etc. In Native

American culture, folklore is the basis of their everyday life. Folklore
represented the norms that should be followed by the Native American. I
position Native American folklore like a kind of unwritten Holy Scripture that
contains all the teaching about life. But, instead of a holy scripture of other
religion that belief it contains the words of God, the Native American folklore
is the thoughts of older generations that believed for years or even
centuries. In this sense, the folklore that tells about the diversity of Native
American gender must be existed.
Thus, I want to relate the gender diversity in the Navajo tribe culture with the
issue of LGBT. I will use Vladimir Propps nature of folklore and Judith Butlers
theory of gender which I find relevant with this paper.
Gender Role in Native American Culture
Initially, the Native American still performed the gender equality and
acknowledged their gender diversity. The egalitarian relations of the sexes
were predicated on the cooperation of autonomous individuals who had
control of their productive activities. People of both sexes could achieve
positions of leadership through skill, wisdom, and spiritual power. Ultimately,
neither women nor men had an inferior role but rather had power in those
spheres of activity specific to their sex (Blackwood, 1984). But this tradition
changed after the Western colonized the New World. According to Denetdale
(2006), prior to Euro-American colonization, Native and Navajo women
enjoyed a significant amount of respect and autonomy in their societies.
Foreign ideas about proper gender roles have affected Native womens roles
and Western perceptions of them have just as detrimental. Native women
have suffered under colonialism, but they have continued to challenge and
counter gender oppression.
Ideological pressures of white culture encouraged Native American peoples
to reject the validity of the cross-gender role and to invoke notions of
2

"proper" sexuality that supported men's possession of sexual rights to

women. Communities expressed disapproval by berating the cross-gender
female for not being a "real man" and not being properly equipped to satisfy
her wife sexually. In effect, variations in sexual behavior that had previously
been acceptable were now repudiated in favor of heterosexual practices.
Furthermore, the identity of the sexual partner became an important aspect
of sexual behavior (Blackwood, 1984).
Gender Diversity in Navajo Culture
Multiple genders were part of the norm in the Navajo culture since before the
1890s. After that year, because of the exposure to the Western culture,
changes are happening in the Navajo culture. The Western thought that
there are only two kinds of genders influencing the Navajo culture as the
actions are taken to face the Native American. Since the Native American are
seen as barbaric, the government of America make it compulsory to the
Natives that they should send their children to the Western school and
separated from the other. This act was taken in order to detach the barbaric
habit of the Natives and be replaced with the Western values that more
civilized.
Because of the Western values and, which cannot be denied, the religious
that belief has imposed such kind of measurement towards the Native, many
Native people going discreet about their initial belief. The pressure indeed
still can be seen until today, although it is not as severe as before. However,
the pressures even violence often directed to the transsexual people.
There are five genders that are going to be discussed in this paper, as I have
mentioned it before. The first two genders are heterosexual man/ masculinity
and heterosexual woman/ femininity as acknowledge in the Western belief.
And since the Western belief emphasized in patriarchal social system, thus
the priority in society fall into males favor. In Navajo culture, this social
system is reversed in priorities. Female is the head of the household, and
3

they also the one that decides in important matter within the tribe. However,
not all of the Native American tribes are matriarchal. Some of them also hold
on the patriarchal system.
The next gender is called by nadleeh which often used as an example of a
supernumerary sex (Martin and Voorhies, 1975). The fourth gender is
masculine female and the last is feminine male. The belief and concept in
one culture also reflected in the language as well. That is why there are
terms that available in one culture and the others not. The language that is
used in Navajo related to the gender are a complex matter. According to
Thomas (1997), the term that used are categorized based on sex and age. A
13 years old female have different term with a 15 years old female. The
complete explanation will be explained in the following subtitle.
Gender Diversity in Navajo Folklore
Here is the Navajos folklore entitled Creation of First Man and First
Woman,
The first people came up through three worlds and settled in the fourth
world. They had been driven from each successive world because they had
quarreled with one another and committed adultery. In previous worlds they
found no other people like themselves, but in the fourth world they found the
Kisani or Pueblo people.
The surface of the fourth world was missed black and white, and the sky was
mostly blue and black. There were no sun, no moon, no stars, but there were
four great snow-covered peaks on the horizon in each of the cardinal
direction.
Late in the autumn they heard in the east the distant sound of a great voice
calling. They listened and waited, and soon heard the voice nearer and
louder than before. Once more they listened and heard it louder still, very

near. White Body God, god of this world; Blue Body, the sprinkler; Yellow
Body; and Black Body, the god of fire.
Using signs but without speaking, the gods tried to instruct the people, but
they were not understood. When the gods had gone, the people discussed
their mysterious visit and tried without success to figure out the signs. The
gods appeared on four days in succession and attempted to communicate
through signs, but their efforts came to nothing.
On the fourth day when the other gods departed, Black Body remained
behind and spoke to the people in their own language: you do not seem to
understand our signs, so I must tell you what they mean. We want to make
people who look more like us. You have bodies like ours, but you have the
teeth, the feet, and the claw of beasts and insects. The new humans will
have hands and feet like ours. Also, you are unclean; you smell bad. We will
come back in twelve days. Be clean when we return.
On the morning of the twelfth day people washed themselves well. The
woman dried their skin with yellow cornmeal. Soon they heard the distant
call, shouted four tomes, of the approaching gods. When the gods appeared,
Blue Body and Black Body each carried a sacred buckskin. White Body
carried two ears of corn, one yellow, one white, each covered completely
with grains.
The gods laid one buckskin on the grounds with head to the west, and on
this they placed the two ears of corn with their tips to the east. Over the corn
they spread the other buckskin with its head to the east. Under the white ear
they put the feather of a white eagle; under the yellow ear the feather of a
yellow eagle. Then they told the people to stand back and allow the wind to
enter. Between the skins the white wind blew from the east and the yellow
wind from the west. While the wind was blowing, eight of the gods, the
Mirage People, came and walked around the objects on the ground four
times. As they walked, the eagle feathers, whose tips protruded from the
5

buckskins, were seen to move. When the Mirage People had finished their
walk, the upper buckskin was lifted, the ears of corn had disappeared; a man
and a woman lay in their place.
The white ear of corn had become the man, the yellow ear the woman, First
Man and First Woman. It was the wind that gave them life, and out is the
wind that comes out of their mouths now that gives us life. When this ceases
to blow, we die.
The gods had the people build an enclosure of brushwood, and when it was
finished, First Man and First Woman went in. the gods told them, live
together now as husband and wife.
At the end of four days, First Woman bore hermaphrodite twins. In four more
days she gave birth to a boy and a girl, who grew to maturity in four days
and lived with one another as husband and wife. In all, First Man and First
Woman had five pairs of twins, and all except the first became couples who
had children.
In four days after the last twins were born, the gods came again and took
First Man and First Woman away to the eastern mountain, dwelling place of
the gods. The couple stayed there for four days, and when they returned, all
their children were taken to the eastern mountain for four days. The gods
may have taught them the awful secrets of witchcraft. Witches always use
masks and pray for the good things they needed abundant rain and
abundant crops.
Witches also marry people who are too closely related to them, which is
what First Man and First Woman children had done. After they, had been to
the eastern mountain, however, the brothers and sisters separated. Keeping
their first marriages secret, the brothers now marry women of the Mirage
People and the sisters married men of the Mirage People. But they never told
anyone, even their new families, the mysteries they had learned from the
6

gods. Every four days the women bore children, who grew to maturity in four
days, then married, and on their turn had children every four days. In this
way many children of First Man and First Woman filled the land with people. based on a legend reported by Washington Matthews in 1897- (Erdoes and
Ortiz: 1984).
It can be seen that the hermaphrodite, the term used in Native American to
refer to the transgender people, had already contained in the folklore. The
hermaphrodite, which also called as two spirits and nadleeh, according to
Erdoes and Ortiz, is quite common to be appeared in the foklore aorund the
world. Two spirits itself is the spirit of male and female that contained in one
body. The Navajo believe that to maintain harmony, there must be a
balanced interrelationship between the feminine and the masculine within
the individual, in families, in the culture, and in the natural world (Nibley:
2011).
Historically Two-Spirited persons were commonly referred to as "berdache".
Berdache, originally recorded around 1704 in a memoire by Deliette, was a
French term synonymous with male prostitute. By the beginning of the 20th
century, it was a commonly accepted and proliferated term by persons of
European decent. Native Americans themselves however had their own set
of terms for this form of gender Queer: bote in Crow tribes, winkte in Lokota,
lhamana in Zuni, and nadleehi in Navajo cultures (Roscoe).
Specifically focusing on Navajo two spirits, the term nadleehi literally
translates to: "the one is changing". This definition serves as a basis for
multiple levels of fluidity. In one sense, it allows for two spirited people to be
seen as those who transport back and forth along gender lines. In another
sense, similar to modern views of transgender persons, it places two spirited
persons in a light where a transitioning is happening from one gender to the
other. The term "Two-Spirit" itself is meant to exemplify a constant state of
gender duality as opposed to one gender taking precedence over another .
7

For the Navajos, the two spirits people are unique. They were seen as gifted
people, not as people with psychological deviation. In many Native American
cultures, two-spirit traditions have allowed individuals to express alternative
gender inclinations by adopting the work, behavior, and dress of the other
sex. The presence of two-spirits signifies the health and balance of their
societies, for they are thought to combine powerful male and female forces
harmoniously within one person. Because of this internal balance, two-spirit
people are assigned unique cultural roles based on their spiritual gifts and
mediative skills: they are often artists, visionaries, healers, negotiators, and
marriage

counselors.

Unlike

Western

homosexuals,

two-spirits

define

themselves in terms of spirituality, work, and social roles: they usually show
childhood proclivities for the play, toys, work, and dress of the other
anatomical sex, proclivities that carry into adulthood. Although the selfexpression of two-spirits varies, there is a fun- damental social belief in the
innateness of two-spirit identity, an identity created by spirit for a specific
purpose that will benefit the community; once established, the naturalness
and value of this identity is not challenged (Prince-Hughes: 1999).
Another acknowledgement of gender diversity in Navajo can be seen from
the interview in the short documentary As They Are: Two Spirit People in the
Modern World (2009) via Estrada, where Naswood tells the story he learned:

I had heard a story from my mothers eldest sister, who

played the role of grandmother, if you will. And she had told
me a story that I remember, that I recall, that long ago when
the Navajo world [began], within the Navajo people, there
was a separation of the sexes, and that there was an
argument between man and woman. And then, at that time,
the men went to one side of the river and the women went to
the other side of a river. And, it was the ndleeh, it was the
8

more effeminate less masculine men, that brought the sexes

together, and that because of the ndleeh, our people
survived. If it wasnt for the ndhleehs, we wouldnt be the
people we are today.
From this interview, it is clear that the position of ndleeh in Navajo society is
important from the beginning. Although there are Navajo people today,
because of the influence of Christianity gender

dualism, condemned the

existence of the ndleeh, most of the Navajos are still respected the ndleeh
in their society. Further, because many people associate ndleeh with
homosexuality, this issue has provoked a discussion about the matter
(Estrada:2011).
The Division of Gender in Navajo Culture
Navajo culture recognizes five genders:
1. Woman: the primacy gender of the Navajo is asdzaan, meaning
woman. The female gender is primary in Navajo origin stories, and it is
considered to be the most important gender. Even in the folklore,
woman holds the important position, for example the Earth Woman,
Changing Woman, and etc. Woman in Navajo culture tend to the
feminine works, such as cooking, weaving and tending children.
2. Man: Man, or as it is termed in Navajos as hastiin (man) is the second
gender in Navajo culture. Men hold the position as the chief of the
tribe. Man also tends to the masculine line of work, such us hunting,
building houses (hogan) and etc. From this it can be seen that the
social system of the Navajo is more balance than the Western culture,
since the woman and man have a different but equal responsibilities.
3. Ndleeh: the third gender category is ndleeh/hermaphrodite. This
term also often called as two spirits. Ndleeh is a Navajo term, and
hermaphrodite is a Western medical term. Western definitions of
hermaphrodites have been applied to Ndleeh. However, the term

hermaphrodite here is not always referred to double genitals as in the

Western medical term. The term hermaphrodite in Navajo referred in
double

spirits.

The

Navajo

view

ndleeh

as

individuals

who

demonstrate characteristics of the opposite gender. Individuals who

identify as ndleeh are further classified as female-bodied ndleeh or
male-bodied ndleeh. The third gender category of ndleeh reflects the
Navajo tradition of accepting gender diversity and rejecting the
concept of gender dysphoria or a dyadic system of gender (kqontarc,
2010). Ndleeh is a different term from the masculine female and the
feminine male gender. Ndleeh or two spirits is two different spirits,
feminine and masculine, that are contained in one body, either male or
female. However, the ndleeh people also tend to either of the sexes,
male or female. Ndleeh also often considered as alternative gender,
since they cannot be classified as masculine female or feminine male
or the transsexuals as we know it.
4. Masculine female: the fourth gender category is masculine female.
Navajo culture views masculine females separate from other femalebodied people because their role in society is difference from primary
gender women. Today, masculine females occupy some roles usually
associated with men. Historically, female-boded ndleeh had specific
ceremonial roles. The masculine females are different from women
because they are not involved in reproduction and their priorities are
different from women.
5. Feminine male: the fifth gender is the feminine male. Feminine males
identify with gender diversity, and they typically performed work also
performed by women. In the Navajo culture, the ndleeh, masculine
female, and the feminine male are socially acceptable. They often seen
as gifted people, especially the ndleeh (kqontarc, 2010).
In the realm of sexual relationship, many outsider or non-Navajo assuming
that these three last gender are homosexual. For the contrary, the point of
view of the Navajo is not the same. They see the ndleeh, feminine male and
10

masculine

female

are

having

heterosexual

relationship.

Further,

homosexual relationship is prohibited in the Navajo culture. The difference of

point of view here is interesting. In Navajo society, the masculine female
should be partnering with a feminine female, or woman. Also the feminine
male should be partnering with a masculine male, or a man. A feminine male
and feminine male relationship is categorized as homosexual, and this is
unacceptable in Navajo society. Navajo culture differentiate human from
gender point of view, not sexual point of view like Western culture.
LGBT in American Culture
The term LGBT, which stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender,
have many variations. Some people and sources add the queer word which
turns to LGBTQ; some also call it LGBTIQ, adding intersex in the term. Since
a long time ago, the LGBT people have always been oppressed in many
different cultures in the world. However, there are also cultures that accept
these genders and add it to their gender system aside of the common
feminine and masculine gender which often attached to its different sex,
female and male.
But since the same-sex marriage is legalized in America, this becomes the
key to open the door to American society. Many LGBT people become more
open to their sexuality. Since the day of the ruling, the wedding of the samesex people are held in many places in America. The legalization of same-sex
marriage in America also affects the LGBT community in the world. This
event was celebrated by LGBT from many countries, where they marched in
the streets and in front of government buildings (BBC, 2015).
Propps Nature of Folklore
In Propps Theory and History of Folklore (1984), it is written that folklore is
the first and foremost, the art of the oppressed classes, both peasants and
workers, but also of the intermediate strata that gravitate toward the lower
11

social classes. The oppressed classes here, we may add, also the ndleeh or
the so called LGBT in the Western term. Estrada (2011) even called this term
in her journal as LGBTQ2, which stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual,
Transgender, Queer and Two Spirits. Folklore here is belong to the oppressed
classes, because it does not exist in the other classes. In higher class, like
the elite, the one that exist is high literature, classical music, poem, and etc.
as it is stated in Propps, For peoples who have reached the stage of class
society, folklore is the output of all strata of the population except the ruling
one; the latter's verbal art belongs to literature .
As the folklore written above has no author, it can be assumed that the story
that contain in it has become a common agreement since it still existed
which means the people still telling it for generations. And since the ndleeh
also represented or even existed in the folklore, peoples acknowledgement
towards them also clear, since such kind of folklore is still existed today.
Still from Propp, he states that like genuine art, folklore possesses not only
artistic perfection but also a profound message. From this it can be
concluded that, the existence of ndleeh, as it is depicted in the Navajo
folklore is not to be condemned. In contrary, just like man and woman,
ndleeh also have their own position in society, along with their own
responsibilities. Everyone can live a balance and equal life, as long as they
intended to have it, and want to work it out. Such a harmony in life like the
old Navajo society is actually not an impossible feat.
Nadleeh and LGBT have the same stance in here. LGBT people have always
been targeted as the oppressed class, even in America, although their union
has being seen as official in front of law. They still receive critique and bully
from many sides, despite of their effort to fight for their rights and social
acceptance.
Butlers Gender Theory

12

Judith Butler is one of the celebrated postmodern feminist. Her thoughts are
influenced by Michel Foucault and Simone de Beauvoir. She argues that the
notion of universal patriarchy has failed to settle the gender oppression that
happened in the world. In her book Gender Trouble (2007), she states that
whatever biological intractability sex appears to have, gender is culturally
constructed: hence, gender is neither the causal result of sex nor as
seemingly fixed as sex. The unity of the subject is thus already potentially
contested by the distinction that permits of gender as a multiple
interpretation of sex. Butler here explains that gender is not dependant on
sex because sex is biologically fixed and gender is not. Since gender is
culturally constructed, it is floating in an individuals psyche, whether it is
female or male, or even mixed of them both, just like the Nadleeh case in
Navajo culture.
In addition, Butler also claimed that To choose a gender is to interpret
received gender norms in a way that reproduces and organizes them anew.
Less a radical act of creation, gender is a tacit project to renew a cultural
history in ones own corporeal terms. This is not a prescriptive task we must
endeavor to do, but one in which we have been endeavoring all along.
(Judith Butler, 1987). Influenced by Simone De Beauvoirs view, Butler
believes that since gender is not dependent on the sex, then gender is
chosen by an individual after intermingle with the society - which makes
gender is culturally constructed.
I think Nadleeh, masculine female and feminine male can be fitted into
Butlers view of gender. In Native American culture, the children will show the
early signs of their gender and the society will accept the shown gender and
acknowledge it as official through a ceremony (Blackwood, 1984). Especially
Nadleeh, which is a special case, since they are both masculine and
feminine. Since Butler emphasized that a human should be regarded by their
gender, not their sex, the existence of nadleeh is get along well with Butlers
perspective.
13

Conclusion
Nadleeh, masculine female and feminine male outside Navajo community
are known as LGBT. However, there are several things that make them
different. In Navajo culture, people are regarded by their gender. A
relationship considered heterosexual if the union consisted of feminine and
masculine, or nadleeh with either of feminine or masculine gender, does not
matter what their sexes are. And a union of female/female or male/male is
considered homosexual, does not matter what their sexes are. But in the
LGBT community, the union betweeen female and female or male and male
is common and acceptable within the community.
But with using Vladimir Propps nature of folklore, I found that both the
folklore, especially regarding nadleeh in Navajo culture and LGBT are belong
to the oppressed class today. Although maybe someday, there will be times
when LGBT are not being oppressed anymore and able to fuse with society
(whenever that is), in todays situation this theory can be fitted to the
discussion. The same conclusion I also found with Judith Butlers gender
theory, that the third, fourth, and fifth gender in Navajo culture have the
same perspective with LGBT. That Butler emphasized gender than sex, and
that an individual is free to present whatever gender he/she has to the world.

14

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