We'wha

We'wha, a Zuni Lhamana (Two-Spirit), circa 1886.

We'wha (1849–1896, various spellings) was a Zuni Native American from New Mexico. She was the most famous lhamana, a traditional Zuni gender role, now described as mixed-gender or Two-Spirit. Lhamana were men who lived in part as women, wearing a mixture of women's and men's clothing and doing a great deal of women's work as well as serving as mediators.

We'wha is the subject of the book The Zuni Man-Woman by Will Roscoe. The anthropologist Matilda Coxe Stevenson also wrote a great deal about We'wha, and even hosted her on her visit to Washington D.C. in 1886. During that visit, she met President Grover Cleveland and was generally mistaken for a cisgender woman. One of the anthropologists close to her described her as “…the strongest character and the most intelligent of the Zuni tribe” (Roscoe, 1991, p. 29).

She was a cultural ambassador for her people, and performed the role of Kolhamana, the lhamana kachina of the Zuni. She died in 1896.

References

• Matt and Andrej Koymasky - Famous GLTB - Weiwha. Retrieved February 23, 2006. Former link discovered to be broken as of January 30, 2010, and new retrieved: New URL for Koymasky Weiwa page.
  Source listed at this reference: Aldrich, Robert & Wotherspoon, Garry, editors (2001). Who's Who in Gay and Lesbian History, from Antiquity to WWII. Routledge, London. ISBN 978-0-415-15983-8.

Sources

• Gilley, Brian Joseph (2006). Becoming Two-Spirit: Gay Identity and Social Acceptance in Indian Country. ISBN 0803271263.
• Roscoe, Will (1991). The Zuni Man-Woman. ISBN 0826312535.
• Two-spirit - T-Vox Retrieved January 30, 2010.