Caley Coyne, or Nenookasi, swept across the Minneapolis American Indian Center gym surrounded by dancers in sparkling shawls and jingle cones.
Laughter and song flooded New Native Theatre’s fourth annual two-spirit powwow — its first at MAIC’s revamped community space.
“For this powwow to be happening, and as a member of the LGBTQ community, it’s very eye-opening for a lot of people, including myself,” Coyne said.
In previous years, the powwow took place at the South High School field after New Native Theatre partnered with Jennifer Simon, director of American Indian education for the Minneapolis Public Schools. A downpour during the 2024 powwow spurred organizers to hold this year’s event indoors.
Deon Kirby, co-coordinator for the powwow and community engagement coordinator for the Indigenous Peoples Task Force, said the event’s presence at the Minneapolis American Indian Center reflects growing support for queer and two-spirit members of the Native community.
“I don’t think ‘queer’ has always been accepted,” Kirby said. “Even though in Native culture it is.”
The term “two-spirit” is a generalized term used in Native American communities to describe someone who identifies with both feminine and masculine energies, with the traditional belief that two-spirit people hold expertise in arts, hunting and healing due to the fluidity of gender expression.
While it’s often used as a shorthand for all Indigenous LGBTQ people, that isn’t accurate. Actor Lily Gladstone called attention to the distinction in an online exchange last year, when they explained that identifying as nonbinary is not the same as the culturally specific role of a two-spirit person.
Two-spirit people are believed to have both feminine and masculine spirits, differentiating the term from recent labels such as nonbinary due to the spiritual connection that the identity stems from. Most Indigenous groups have their own terms to describe two-spirit people and hold them in higher regard due to the power that comes with having both female and male attributes.
“Being Indigenous and two-spirit, it is a superpower,” said Kirby. “They say if you’re born two-spirit, then you’re twice as lucky.”
Kirby has started two-spirit potlucks at the Minneapolis American Indian Center recently and said he wants to see more support, advocacy and curiosity from both the community and allies. He said mixing both cultural identity and queer identity is ceremonial and something that is not out of the ordinary for Native people.
Providing a needed space
New Native Theatre began hosting a two-spirit powwow in 2021 after receiving funding to produce a play in collaboration with the Minnesota Two-Spirit Society. Rhiana Yazzie, New Native Theatre’s artistic director, said while narrowing down production options there was a realization that a two-spirit powwow is needed in the community.
“We’ve all been to 100 powwows,” Yazzie said. “New Native Theatre produces plays, what will be so different about producing a powwow? So that’s what we ended up doing.”
This year, the powwow was held on a weeknight to avoid a conflict with Twin Cities Pride weekend, which runs from June 27 to 29, and to accommodate local drum groups during the busy summer powwow season.
It wasn’t the only event at MAIC celebrating the community during Pride Month. Down the hall from the gym, the Two Rivers gallery held an opening reception Tuesday night for its “We Are Still Queer Show,” featuring Indigenous LGBTQIA2S+ artists.
Yazzie and Kirby said having events such as a two-spirit powwow, outlets to art and performing art as well as community engagement through organizations like New Native Theatre and Indigenous Peoples Task Force benefits Native youth and the visibility of two-spirit people and queer Native people in community. Yazzie said without two-spirit artists, Native theater would not exist.
“I think it’s important that, Number 1, we’re providing space to restore the culture,” Yazzie said. “And also sort of on a practical level, unfortunately because of homophobia in families in tribes, a lot of two-spirit people didn’t even have access to learn about dancing or making their own regalia because they may have had very unfriendly family members or they were in a community where they had to hide themselves.”
Coyne, who is Athabascan Yupik, has been fancy shawl dancing since she was 5, beginning when she was attending American Indian Magnet School in St. Paul, which hosts a drum and dance space for the community every Friday night. Coyne hosted a fancy shawl special for the two-spirit powwow while being one of the two head dancers for the event and said being trusted as a head dancer for an event that holds such importance means a lot to her.
“[It’s] just a place for people to be accepted and also a learning space especially if you’re an ally,” Coyne said. She said the powwow provides “moments where you can learn from each other, support each other, be there for each other.”
Arianna Nason, who is a member of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and is currently living in Minneapolis, said attending the two-spirit powwow brings her joy because representation should be a right.
“I sincerely believe that the biggest threat that Indigenous people face across the globe is our erasure,” Nason said. She said it’s important to celebrate “any way that we can be visible, and we can take up space that is centered in joy, that is centered in love.”
Nason said representation of two-spirit and queer Native people is long overdue in the Native community as well as mainstream society. She said Native people are entitled to visibility and are tired of asking to be seen for who they are and not only defined by their sexual or gender identity.
“I’m tired of asking,” Nason said. “I’m tired of telling, queer folks, queer groups, queer orgs, ‘Hey we’re two-spirit and Indigenous and we’re here.’ We’ve been here. This is our ancestral homeland and our current homeland and like, that’s never going to change.”
