Indigenous Women—Our Responsibility To Our Transgender Kin
November 20 is TDoR—a day to memorialize those who have been murdered as a result of transphobia.
Monday, November 20, was International Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDoR) or, as some prefer to call it, Transgender Day of Resilience.
Since TDoR 2022, at least 33 more transgender or gender non-conforming people have been murdered in the United States and its territories.
November is also Native American and Alaskan Native Heritage Month in the United States.
It is a good time to acknowledge the European invasion and colonization of much of the Earth stole so much more than land from us as Indigenous peoples.
For most precontact cultures in the Americas, our trans relatives were celebrated.
But too many of my own peoples—Oceti Sakowin and Haudenosaunee Confederacies—adopted the misogyny, homphobia, transphobia and toxic masculinity the "Christian" missionaries beat into us.
Because of this, injustices, prejudice and violence has been allowed to go unchecked in NDN Country and throughout the Americas.
Since 2013, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) recorded the murders of 335 transgender and gender non-conforming people in the United States and its territories—most of which were Black/Indigenous/other people of color (BIPOC).
Exact numbers are higher, but many murders of trans people go unreported, misreported or victims are misgendered by authorities or even their own families making identification for reporting difficult.
Per HRC, in the last 12 months since TDoR 2022:
90.9% of trans/gender non-conforming victims were BIPOC
69.7% were transgender women
61.8% were Black transgender women
78.8% were under the age of 35
Of those with a known killer, 45.5% were killed by a friend, family member or romantic/intimate partner
51.5% were initially misgendered by police or in news reports
Indigenous Women Have a Responsibility to Speak Out
We—my peoples—were matrilineal and matriarchal cultures when colonizers arrived.
European historians failed to recognize this, recognizing only the matrilineal component of our cultures. They assumed a matriarchy would look exactly like their patriarchal monarchies, but with women holding all positions of power and rruling over all others with an iron fist.
But that's not what a matriarchy looks like.
All peoples had a vote in important tribal decisions like appointing council members, while the Council of Chiefs took care of the day to day.
But the Council of Women could override any decision if they felt it was not in the best interests of the people because our matriarchies recognized women as keepers of the culture.
Despite our heritage, the sexist, insecure patriarchy Christians forced down our throats in residential schools has been embraced by too many of our Wičaša (Men). The allure of power and never being accountable for your actions is too enticing for some.
We're slowly righting our path, but as Indigenous Winyan (Women), we can't leave ANY of our Sisters behind and we cannot allow our Two-Spirit relatives to be targeted or discriminated against.
As keepers of the culture, it is our duty.
We must be more than silent supporters. We must be vocal allies and advocates.
We must teach the next generations to hold our Two-Spirit relatives as sacred as our ancestors did.
We must teach them to think beyond the binary genders of colonization and Christian indoctrination to the 3, 5 or 7 genders recognized by our authentic heritage.
We, as Indigenous Winyan must separate our authentic selves from the fear, hatred and bigotry of the cultures and customs forced upon us during our physical and cultural genocide.
We must strive to turn the tide of violence.
As your Indigenous Auntie, here is my message for everyone in the United States for Transgender Day of Resilience:
Indigenous Heritage Month is an excellent time to remember that if you're homophobic or transphobic or support the marginalization of LGBTQ+ people in any way, you're not being a "traditional American" or a traditional Indigenous person.
You're being a colonizer.
Please take that Tataŋka čheslí (🦬💩) back where you got it from.
Say their names.
The following individuals lost their lives in the last 12 months to senseless violence against the transgender community:
We failed the original people . Have we learned anything?
Lila waste’ yalo. 😎