Two-spirit folktales, legends about individuals who possess both male and female qualities, are included in the cultures of many Native American tribes.

Ala’yao, Guardian of the 12 Daughters

Ala’yao, guardian of female children in the land above, is one of the more delightful ones. According to the traditional beliefs of the Nuxalk Indians of the Canadian Pacific coast, recorded as early as 1898, Ala’yao is the supernatural name for this being who is said to be half male and half female. Ala’yao is also called sxints (alternatively rendered skheents), the Nuxalk term for a biological male who dresses and lives as a woman.  Two-spirit is a modern designation chosen by an inter-tribal group of Indian people to designate figures who would be considered transgender in Western culture.

It is said that Ala’yao dwells just outside the walls of Nusmata, the Nuxalk spirit realm. It is in Nusmata that the supernatural beings gather, where creation began, and where mortal spirits return to live after death. Outside these walls, individual spirits could come to choose the garment that will transform them into a particular animal or bird.

Nusmata is also where the twelve daughters of various supernatural figures in the lore of the Nuxalt people  are said to play. Called sxnxnesaxs, these pre-adolescent girls refuse to let any man approach them. It is Ala’yao’s role to play games with the girls and keep them safe from harm. As such, Ala’yao is described as the leader of the sxnxnesaxs.

One of the chief dangers of Nusmata is a lecherous old man named Sxaiaxwax. Black-faced and ugly, he lurks about waiting for an opportunity to steal one of the girls away. Sxaiaxwax can disguise himself as a girl’s lover to try and lure her into the forest. Whenever Ala’yao catches sight of the old lecher, the two-spirit scurries the girls to safety.

The Salmon and Berry Raiding Parties

The Nuxalk people also told stories about Ala’yao going on two different expeditions via supernatural canoes. The purpose of these expeditions was to fish and pick berries, key staples in their diet. Both expeditions had crews that consisted of a male captain, a group of supernatural birds, and Ala’yao.

The first of these expeditions, led by a man named Noakxnim, was reenacted every autumn in traditional Nuxalk culture. Their arrival on the Bella Coola River marked the beginning of the kusiut dances and the ceremonial season. The second expedition, led by a man named Winwina, was reenacted later in the ceremonial season. Considerably more detail is available regarding Winwina’s expedition.

Winwina awoke one morning, remembering a most vivid dream. Winwina dreamt that he had made war on the salmon and captured many of them. Telling his dream to the animals, six supernatural birds agreed to help him build a canoe and accompany him: bald eagle, hawk, raven, water ouzel, blue heron and cormorant.

Also aboard were Ala’yao, who sat at the rear of the large canoe, and four lazy clowns. Ala’yao was aboard because Winwina also knew the people needed berries as well as salmon and Ala’yao excelled at gathering berries. Winwina’s craft and crew was under the special protection of a female shaman named Kolxeta. Unfortunately, nothing else is known of this intriguing figure.

Like Noakxnim, Winwina led his crew in raiding parties against the salmon and berries. The successful raids of these expeditions were believed to assure a plentiful supply of salmon and berries the following year.

During their expedition, each of the supernatural birds captured a different type of salmon. Ala’yao’s task was to capture a variety of berries to bring back to the people: blueberries, huckleberries, strawberries and cranberries, to name but a few. Old Nuxalk men recalled that in the past the man-woman also brought back clover, fern roots, crab apples and other edibles. Winwina’s crew always returned with their bounty in January, on a night when the moon was full.

Upon their return, Winwina distributed the salmon, in male and female pairs, to the waterways so they might provide food for his people. And then he took all the different kinds of berries that Ala’yao had gathered, and scattered them across the hills and valleys so they too would grow plentiful.

Ceremonies Celebrating the Raid

In the preparations for the dance honoring these providers, Nuxalk men and women would carve and stain wood to resemble various types of fish and berries. The men carved the salmon and women carved the fruit, as picking berries was considered women’s work. Uninitiated boys were asked to identify the various types of salmon from these carvings and uninitiated girls the types of berries. Their success in correctly identifying these representations brought good luck in future fishing and gathering. The carvings were then thrown into a fire. At this point in the ceremony, one of the ritual dancers would stand up and sing a song honoring Ala’yao and his role in the land above as protector of young girls.

In the past, when impersonators represented Ala’yao in dances, they wore a mask that was meant to convey “a countenance midway between a man and a woman.” The mask of the hermaphrodite was among the relatively small number of masks that had been standardized and was easily recognized by the Nuxalk people circa 1900. Ala’yao could be recognized by his “peculiar nasal voice, intermediate between that of a man and a woman.” Many impersonators were said to have a hard time recreating the requisite nasal voice. It seems reasonable to suspect that gender-variant men among the Nuxalk people were chosen to enact the legendary man-woman, though informants didn’t specifically say so.

Two-Spirit Folktales and Everyday Life

Ala’yao was seen both as a figure of bounty and as a protector of girls who initiated them into their work and roles as women. Among the Nuxalk, the honor of being first berry picker was one of distinction for a woman. If she was to adopt such a role, the woman had to obtain a “professional” berry-picking name. One of these professional names, Lo’ya, was a derivative of Ala’yao. If a berry-picking name was given to a young boy, the name was said to be “hermaphroditized.” A boy so named probably became a two-spirit and joined the women in picking berries for the tribe.  It is known that Ala’yao was believed to be the one who influenced feminine boys to adopt a life of dressing and working as women.

There is a clear connection between Ala’yao’s legendary berry picking and the actual gathering work that two-spirit male to female women traditionally did in Nuxalk culture. While there’s nothing in the ethnological material to indicate whether these Nuxalk two-spirits also had a cultural role in protecting female children, it is interesting to note that cross-dressing men once served as protectors and initiators of young girls among the Inuit of Alaska, the Nuxalks’ not too distant neighbors to the north.

Among the Inuit, a man who dressed as a woman was called a choupan, and these individuals often became shamans. Once a choupan became a shaman, Elie Reclus  noted that “the tribe confide(d) to him the girls most suitable in bodily grace and disposition.” Thereafter, the Inuit two-spirit was responsible for completing the girls’ education, and training some of them to become seers or traditional healers. In an earlier time, the sxints of the Nuxalk people may have had a similar function.

The presence of Kolxeta as part of the raiding party may suggest a connection between female shamans and two-spirits.

While some of this is speculation, what is clear is how integrated two-spirit people were in both the legends and everyday life of the tribe. Winwina’s crew seems particularly meaningful in its inclusion of a culture hero, a female shaman, a two-spirit, and even clowns on the mission that was portrayed as critical to the subsequent survival of the people.

Mark Carlson-Ghost

Image courtesy of Pixabay

References

Boas, F. (1898). The Mythology of the Bella Coola Indians. Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History, vol. 2, 38-40.

Carpenter, Edward (1911). On the connection between homosexuality and divination and the importance of the intermediate sexes generally in early civilizations. American Journal of Religious Psychology and Education, vol. 4, p. 224 (citing Elie Reclus’ Primitive Folk, p. 70)

McIlwraith, T. F. (1948/1992). The Bella Coola Indians, Volumes One and Two. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. 1: 34-37, 45-49, 53-54; 2: 41-43, 57-63, 147-48, 179, 187-96, 265.

Roscoe, W. (1988). Living the Spirit: A Gay American Anthology. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, pp. 81-84 (reprints story from Boas, 1898).