Native American And First Nations Gender Identities Essay

One of the difficulties in studying and assessing the effects and causes of changing terminologies and beliefs regarding Native American and First Nations gender identities is the incredible variety between both the histories of different tribes and the individual’s understanding of personal identity. It is a frequent and recurring problem in academia surrounding minority groups, whether they be racial, ethnic, sexual, or gender minorities, that the voices of actual members of the group being studied are ignored. What they are saying can be sterilized, particularly when the researcher is not a member of the group. The reality of the emotional and practical reasons for terminology used by these individuals cannot be understood without direct input from their voices, and as such five different perspectives regarding identity and terminology taken by Native American individuals are represented here. These examples are taken from blog posts regarding various topics surrounding the se ideas, and the tribes represented include the Navajo, White Bear Clan, Cree, Metis, and Mi’kmaq people. While each of the five have different relationships to their Native ancestry, all five individuals take a perspective regarding the use of the term two-spirit. While all five take a positive stance on the use of the word, applying it to themselves, their understanding and emotional attachment to the word varies. For Navajo individual Jae Burbank, the discovery of being two-spirit came after plansShow MoreRelatedThe Influence Of Social Change On My Life1721 Words   |  7 Pagesstruggles, and livelihoods. Once you put on the sociological glasses though, the picture begins to clear and we seem more alike than when you were blind. You begin to sharpen in on our similarities of social changes, gender problems and how the world perceives us, and our out-of-the-home identities we struggle to hold. 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