Two Spirit individuals and families
can be left in the fray when it comes to the Indian Child Welfare
Act. For Sandy White Hawk, that issue was addressed at the ICWA
Education Day, held June 4 at the William Mitchell College of Law in
St. Paul.
While she is uncertain of any overt
discrimination against Two Spirit people and families that seek to
adopt Native children, White Hawk said she knows there are many
prejudices toward Two Spirit people both within the Native community
and from outside. “I wanted to make sure that it doesn’t happen, we
educate people who serve Native children and Two Spirit people.”
The impetus for this year’s Education
Day came from conversations with members of the Minnesota Two Spirit
Society. “Several years ago, Reva D’Nova and I were stuffing
folders and having conversations. She was just telling me her story
as a transgender person. The more she talked, I thought this could be
a topic for Ed Day,” White Hawk said. In the interim, interest in
the topic piqued. “We got feedback from an evaluation, would we
consider LGBTQ issues. We asked Reva what would she suggest, she said
it would be a great idea. That’s when we met with the Two Spirit
Society. We wanted a historical perspective, prior to [Columbian]
contact. What happened to our Two Spirit culture and what do we have
today. Most of all, the overall goal was that we would eliminate bias
toward our Two Spirit families in terms of placement preferences.”
This education day featured Two Spirit
individuals and allies from across the area, including Florentine
Blue Thunder, Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Dr. Antony Stately, a panel
discussion with D’Nova, Nathan Taylor, Conan Comes Flying, Nick
Metcalf, and Lenny Hayes. An added perspective included Commanche
Fairbanks who spoke on his experience as a former bully of Two Spirit
people.
“I have this big, huge fear of
heights that has an effect on how my fear plays out,” Fairbanks
said. While visiting friends in Toronto, Fairbanks was jokingly
pushed close to the edge of the CN Tower and had a panicked reaction
to the push. “That was fucking gay,” he told his friends at the
time.
“That’s a term we use a lot. It’s
scary the terms we use in defense mode. I didn’t know anything about
Two Spirits, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender … I just didn’t
know anything.”
His story continued to illustrate how
bullying Two Spirit or perceived Two Spirit people was a result of
the abuse he received in his own life. “In 1978, living in
Minneapolis, alcohol and negative things were going on. My father was
abusing my brothers and sisters. He had this test, he’d pick me up,
throw me across the room and I’d have to land on my feet. If I
didn’t, I’d get whooped.”
Fairbanks said his father and brother
added to his ideas of the superiority of masculinity and the
inferiority of femininity, particularly as they related to LGBTQ
Natives. “My brother … the first time he started instilling a
belief system in my ind was on the football field. He stomped on my
chest and when I tried to stop crying, he said, ‘This is football,
don’t cry, you’re a man, you’re a boy, you’re not supposed to cry.’”
In addition, media portrayals and
cross-cultural biases played a part in his bullying. “A lot of
people I saw on TV were white families that were loving and accepting
and on the reservation, that was unacceptable. When you behaved like
that, we said you were acting white.”
Throughout his high school years,
Fairbanks continued to bully Two Spirit and LGBTQ-perceived people.
“I had a friend, he had the talk, the walk, the glasses and he said
he wasn’t gay but I teased him. If you acted a certain way, I was
going to point it out.”
But slowly, his attitudes began to
change as his life began to change. “I went up to Lac La Croix
(Canada). Up there, women were in charge. Women held ceremonies,
women encouraged me, women were amazing. I started loving my culture
again. Us in America are a little more colonized than they were.”
After the birth of his first son,
Fairbanks showed affection and attention but found only admonishment.
“His mother told me, ‘men don’t act like that, I give him love, you
teach him how to be a man.’”
Then, as he embraced his traditions,
he participated in social gatherings. “On the pow wow trail, the
gay guys took care of themselves better. I took that on. Not too many
Native men try to look pretty. The ultimate confidence booster was
when a Two Spirit checked me out.” After those experiences,
Fairbanks began accepting Two Spirit people and let go of his
prejudices to embrace them as part of his own culture. “ I started
switching my habits. I learned, ‘Place value on your life and your
life will show you what you are worth.’ Embrace the beauty and be
happy and yourself. We’ve been all programmed to believe a way
someone looks is beautiful and I started looking at myself that way.
How can I use that to benefit my life, my community and my family. As
long as I can see my own beauty and everyone else’s beauty.”
White Hawk expounded on the beauty of
the Two Spirit identity when describing Blue Thunder’s presentation.
“Florentine tells this incredible story that when he was a child,
there was a winkte [Two Spirit] man who lived in his community. This
man loved ribbons and loved to crochet and was always decked out and
everybody wanted what he had to give away. That’s the way it was for
Two Spirit people, traditionally.”
“That individual cared for and a
relative was put in his care. Next, that young man shows up, dressed
to the nines and everyone saw that. But the next thing you know, that
relative was taken from him, no one knew where he was taken. Years
later, that nephew was reunited with his uncle and Florentine said he
never saw anyone cry as hard as that young man did when he came
back,” White Hawk said. “During a time when that removal of us
was systematic, Two Spirit families were targeted. Today, there are
unconscious biases toward Two Spirit people.”
According to White Hawk, the immediate
response to this year’s ICWA Education Day topic on Two Spirit issues
were positive. “Everyone loved everything. Nick Metcalf’s
presentation on lateral violence, Lenny Haye’s talk, everyone loved
every aspect of Education Day and the information is so unique and we
don’t know of anyone doing it the way we’re approaching it. They
loved it.”
The ICWA Education Day was started in
2005 to foster understanding on the legislation, passed by Congress
in 1978. According to material provided by White Hawk, the purpose of
the act is to strengthen and preserve the Native family through
active efforts and tribal involvement in decision making. In Hennepin
County, similar to many government agencies across the country,
compliance with the act was haphazard. Beginning in the early 1990s,
a series of meetings took place involving the 11 Minnesota tribes,
the Minneapolis Urban Indian Community, the Hennepin County
Attorney’s Office and Hennepin County Child Protection.
As a result of these discussions,
three major changes were made to comply with the ICWA: first, all
child protection reports involving Indian children were assigned to
specific workers who reported to one supervisor; second, an ICWA unit
was created and composed of social workers and supervisors; and
third, specific juvenile court judges were identified to hear ICWA
cases.
White Hawk said that the inclusion of
Two Spirit individuals and families in this education day was so
positive that it will become an annual event to coincide with LGBT
Pride Month in June. She added that it came together as a result of
several organizations and agencies helping to sponsor and coordinate
the day. “I would like to thank Hennepin County Child Protection
Unit for sponsoring it. In the past, Ramsey County has also come
forward and supported our education day, financially. What that tells
me is that they’re recognizing work that’s impactful. The Minneapolis
Indian Health Board contributes as well, we’ve been very fortunate
that everyone is seeing the work that we do.”
PHOTOS
Top: Comanche Fairbanks tosses his
cap in the air and encourages participants to laugh as hard as they
can while it remains in the air.
Middle: Sandy White Hawk, left, and
Nick Metcalf, right, share a moment of laughter as the ICWA Education
Day addresses issues of the Two Spirit identity. White Hawk said the
topic will be a yearly event to coincide with LGBT Pride Month.
Above: Members of the Minnesota Two
Spirit Society (left to right) Lenny Hayes, Nick Metcalf and Reva
D’Nova.