Left - HANDED BEARS & ANDROGYNOUS CASSOWARIES

Whole Earth, Spring, 2000 by Bruce Bagemihl

Animals are often symbolically associated with two-spiritedness, sometimes in creation myths and origin legends relating to the first or "supernatural" two-spirits. Among the Oto people of North America, for example, Elk is described as cross-dressing in several origin legends and is considered to be the original two-spirit; consequently, two-spirits in this culture always belong to the Elk clan. Hidatsa two-spirit "men" typically wear magpie feathers in their hair as part of ceremonial dress, symbolizing their connection to powerful holy women who are associated with magpies.

Bears play an important role in Native American cultures with regard to gender-mixing and inter-species sex. In a number of cultures that recognize two-spirit roles--the Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka), Kutenai, Keres, and Winnebago, for instance--the bear is seen as a powerful cross-gendered figure. In these tribes, bears are thought to combine elements of both masculinity and femininity, and they are also seen as mediators (much like the human two-spirit) between the sexes and between humans and animals. Their strength, size, and ferocity are considered quintessentially male, yet all bears are often perceived as female and referred to with feminine pronouns and terms of address regardless of their biological sex. Many of the prominent bear stories and ceremonies concern female bears, especially the omnipotent, life-giving "Bear Mother" figure who often engages in mythic marriage to, sexual intercourse with, or transformation into, humans.

In many tribes there appears a fascinating association between (of all things) left-handed bears and two-spiritedness. Strikingly, most bears of both (biological) sexes are thought by these tribes to be left-handed--a quality traditionally associated with the feminine in these cultures--and bear rites often require ceremonial activities to be performed with the left hand. In the Nuu-chah-nulth culture of Vancouver Island, for example, bear hunters eat with their left hands in order to identify with their prey, since bears are believed to reach for bait with their left paws. In tales told by contemporary Nuu-chah-nulth artist and storyteller George Clutesi, Chims-meet the Bear swats salmon with his left paw while his mother picks berries with her left paw. Left-handedness is even encoded in the structure of language: when speaking Nuu-chah-nulth, special affixes can be added to words to indicate that a left-handed person is talking or is being referred to. This "left-handed speech" is also typical of bears speaking in myths, stories, and jokes.

Many Native American tales, especially those involving a prankish trickster-transformer, depict characters and divinities as transvestites or transsexuals, or as inter-species, inter-sex, or same-sex enthusiasts. A male coyote may marry or have sex with a male mountain lion, fox, or other animal--sometimes even with a man--often by changing sex, mixing gender characteristics, or pretending to be a member of the opposite sex. In the Okanagan story "Coyote, Fox, and Panther," for instance, Coyote tricks a panther (mountain lion) into marrying him by pretending to be female. The presence of two-spirits is considered to have been decreed by Coyote in the Okanagan mythic past.