The Berdache Spirit
by Wendy Susan Parker

In 1530, The Spanish explorer Cabeza de Vaca wrote in his diary of seeing "soft" native Indian males in Florida tribes dressing and working as women. Later, numerous reports by 17th century Spanish Conquistadors in the southwest, and 15th century writings by Catholic missionaries, French fur traders and British Colonists in the northwest confirmed the same phenomenon in other tribes. Cultural anthropologists later documented this "third gender" status in at least 120 other North American tribes and in numerous other cultures around the world.

They were named by Europeans as berdache" from the Persian "bardaj," originally a derogatory term meaning a passive homosexual partner usually a "pretty" or feminine young boy. Yet, Indian berdache are very different from the European view of "berdaj" as "sodomite heretics" as written about by the Crusaders invading Persia in the Middle Ages.

Instead, native cultures seem to embrace the notion of an opposite gender identity, different from one's anatomical sex WITHOUT any implied sexual preference. They were viewed by native tribes as having an almost Sacred" status for the most part. Indian spiritual philosophy not only accepts a "third gender" status, but almost encourages it. With few exceptions by some of the more warlike tribes like the Apache and Comanche, the berdache are found to comfortably coexist in almost every single North American tribe, especially in the midwest, great plains and the southwest. ... click for more