Native American

Native American Artist

b. July 26, 1932
d. November 3, 2005

“I’m an Indian painting Indians, and if it worked out for me, then it's all well and good.”

Rudolph Carl (R.C.) Gorman was a gay Native American artist best known for his paintings and lithographs of full-bodied indigenous women. The New York Times called him “The Picasso of American Indian Art.”

A member of the Navajo (Diné) Nation, Gorman was born in Chinle, Arizona, to a family “rich in artistic talent and creative spirit, but not in material possessions.” His mother was a devout Catholic. His father was a Navajo Code Talker and an accomplished artist and illustrator. They separated when Gorman was 12.

Gorman grew up with his extended family in a hogan, a traditional earth-covered dwelling. His grandmother, who served as his guiding light, nurtured his budding talent. To his mother’s dismay, Gorman’s earliest drawing portrayed a naked woman. He credits a high school teacher with the encouragement to become an artist.

Gorman briefly attended Arizona State College (now Northern Arizona University) before enlisting in the U.S. Navy in 1951. While stationed in Guam, he drew the wives and girlfriends of his officers and fellow sailors for a small fee, using photos for reference.

After the Navy, Gorman resumed his education. In 1958 the Navajo Tribal Council awarded him a scholarship to study art in Mexico City. There, celebrated painters such as Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros significantly influenced his style and direction.

Upon his return, Gorman moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to start his career. Initially, he earned more money as an artist’s model.

Gorman embraced San Francisco’s gay culture and moved to the Castro District with his male partner. After an acquaintance outed him to his family, Gorman wrote home: “I am a homosexual. It’s unfortunate only in that I myself did not tell you.”

In the 1960s Gorman opened the country’s first Native-American- owned art gallery in Taos, New Mexico. Celebrity collectors, including Elizabeth Taylor and Gregory Peck, purchased his work.

Gorman’s success rested on his iconic representations of large, hardy, mostly Navajo women. “My women work and walk on the land …” he said. “ They are soft and strong like my grandmother.” Once, when asked about his subject matter, Gorman replied, “It’s me. I am every fat, nude woman I draw.” Traditional Navajo culture recognizes four genders and embraces the interplay of masculine and feminine.

Gorman received the Harvard University Humanitarian Award in Fine Art, the New Mexico Governor's Award of Excellence and multiple honorary doctorate degrees. When he died in Taos, the governor of New Mexico had flags flown at half-staff. The New York Times published Gorman’s obituary.

Native American Youth Leader

b. June 11, 2000

“… The most controversial act I ever committed was being myself.”

Sherenté Mishitashin Harris is an indigenous Two-Spirit youth leader, activist and champion powwow dancer. An advocate for Indian visibility and positive cultural change through the arts, s/he overcame discrimination to break down gender barriers in traditional dance.
 
Harris is a member of the Narragansett Indian Tribe and comes from a large family of champion powwow dancers. As a teenager, s/he came to understand his identity as an indigenous Two Spirit, a term used to describe nonbinary gender and sexuality in indigenous communities. “People told me that if I was transgender, I would have known ever since I was young,” Harris noted. “But what does it mean to be a man or a woman? I identify both as a man and as a woman—but really, at the end of the day, I’m just being myself.”

Although Two Spirits were once considered sacred by the Narragansett Tribe, many Two Spirits today face numerous challenges, including exclusion from powwow circles. After coming out as Two Spirit, Harris, who had previously danced at powwows in the tradition of his father, began to embrace his identity by dancing in the tradition of his mother—a style performed by women.

To prepare for competition, Harris practiced daily for a year, despite what s/he describes as loneliness and a lack of assurance that s/he would be able to compete as his true self. When the time came to compete, s/he faced resistance from powwow officials who told the judges not to score his performance. Many judges were supportive and scored Harris anyway. Harris continued to persevere, placing fourth, then third, then second and, finally, first. S/he went on to perform as head-person dancer at the Dartmouth Powwow in 2017 and 2018.
 
As an artist and activist, Harris aims to “intertwine the stories of his cultural path with his Two-Spirit identity to evoke an emotion that sparks dialogue regarding ideologies that are too often silenced.” Harris’s work on indigenous language preservation was submitted as a part of a contest for the White House Tribal Youth Gathering, where s/he was invited and honored for his work in 2015.

Harris also attended the United National Indian Tribal Youth (UNITY) conference, where
s/he represented his tribe and sat at the first ever Two-Spirit workshop run by UNITY.

Harris studies at Brown University and the Rhode Island School of Design.

Native American Congresswoman

b. May 22, 1980

“Having LGBT people sitting in the room … as peers, will shift the conversation.”

Sharice Davids is the first openly gay congressperson from Kansas and the first Native American lesbian elected to the U.S. Congress. She is a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin.

Davids was raised by her single mother, Crystal Herriage, who served in the U.S. Army for two decades. The military relocated them several times before they landed in Kansas, where Davids attended Leavenworth High School. She earned her bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Davids graduated from Cornell Law School in 2010 and was admitted to the Missouri Bar Association the same year. She went to work as an attorney for SNR Denton, one of the world’s largest multinational law firms. Thereafter, she spent three years working in community development for the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

As a student, Davids took up mixed martial arts (MMA). She competed in the combat sport on and off as an amateur beginning in 2006 and became a professional fighter in 2013.
 
In 2016 Davids served as a White House Fellow, working under senior government officials in the Department of Transportation, during the turbulent transition between the Obama and Trump administrations.

In the congressional primary, Davids defeated five other candidates. Emily’s List, an organization whose mission is to elect Democratic women, endorsed Davids.

Her campaign focused on protecting and expanding core Democratic Party issues, such as  health care access, gun safety and opposing the far-right policies of President Trump.

In November 2018, Davids won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives by defeating Representative Kevin Yoder, a multi-term Republican incumbent with a significant campaign finance advantage. In addition to representing Kansas’ 3rd District, she serves on the Small Business and the Transportation and Infrastructure Committees.  She is the co-chair of the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus and the vice chair of the New Democrat Coalition, a congressional organization of capitalist pro-growth Democrats.

When she is not in Washington, Davids lives in Roeland Park, Kansas.

Transgender Native American

b. c. 1850
d. c. 1895

Sahaykwisa was a female Mohave Indian shaman (a healer with supernatural powers), who specialized in the treatment of venereal diseases. Scholars have limited information about her life. She was a gender-nonconforming lesbian, or hwame (a female who choses to live as a male), and often told people she had been turned into a man by white man’s magic. Sahaykwisa was also a hunter and an industrious farmer—jobs typically performed by men.

She is known to have been relatively prosperous, a good provider who romanced many wives. She also courted a married woman, which was commonplace among the Mohave. While it seems most people accepted her sexuality, she was routinely questioned about her gender. 

As rumors of her affairs circulated, Sahaykwisa faced frequent ridicule and humiliation for her masculine appearance. The women she married were often subject to mockery and rejection from men. 

Sahaykwisa may have posed a threat to males in her tribe. She was the victim of a brutal rape by the former husband of one of her wives. After the episode, she is said to have carried on affairs with men and fallen into alcoholism and depression. She was eventually accused of being a witch and murdered. Accounts tell of her drowning in the Colorado River. 

Her story has been used to examine the lives gays and lesbians in early America, most notably in Native American tribes where transgender and homosexual inpiduals were in some cases accepted. Although there are many accounts of gender-nonconforming indigenous people who lived openly and even happily, it seems Sahaykwisa suffered tragic consequences for simply being herself.