Native American LGBTQ+ People, 1528-1976, by Jonathan Ned Katz

These documents about LGBTQ+ Native Americans present years of testimony from a wide variety of observers: military men, missionaries, explorers, trappers, traders, settlers, and later, medical doctors, anthropologists, homosexual emancipationists, and LGBTQ+ activists.

In a few rare instances, the voices of LGBTQ+ Native Americans are heard.

This is adapted from Jonathan Ned Katz, Gay American History: Lesbians and Gay Men in the U.S.A. (NY: Crowell, 1976). The notes to these documents contain numbers of additional sources.

Published originally on OutHistory in 2011; last edited June 21, 2024.

Francisco Pareja: "Confessional," 1593-1613

The Spanish-born Pareja went to Florida as a Franciscan missionary to the Indians in 1595. He served at San Juan del Puerto (the area of modern Jacksonville) until 1616.

Pareja was by report a man of great sanctity and incredible zeal, with expert knowledge of Timucuan, the language of the Timucua natives, who lived on the Atlantic coast in the area between modern Georgia and Florida.

Pareja's Confesionario (Confessional) details those questions a priest should ask his penitents, translating these questions from Spanish to Timucuan. As the editors of Pareja's Confesionario say, he probably asked about that behavior he had observed or had good cause to think existed. Pareja's questions suggest, his editors say, that among the Timucuans "both female and male homosexuality occurred, with some special emphasis on boyish pederasty."

Lesbianism ("Mujer con Mujer")
Pareja's work also contains an early reference to Native American lesbianism. Under questions "For Married and Single Women" Pareja includes: "Mujer con mujer, has tenido acto, como si fuero hombre?" literally translated this reads: "Woman with woman, have you acted as if you were a man?" Pareja's recent editors translate this as: "By chance, have you had intercourse as if you were a man?

Pareja's questions continue:

For Sodomites

Have you had intercourse with another man? Or have you gone around trying out or making fun in order to do that?

For Boys That Are in the Custom of Doing This

Has someone been investigating you from behind?

Did you consummate the act?"[1]

References

Jonathan Ned Katz, Gay American History: Lesbians and Gay Men in the U.S.A. (NY: Crowell, 1976) pg. 286-287.

Francisco Parejas' Confesionario: A Documentary Source for Timucuan Ethnography, ed. Jerald T. Milanich and William C. Sturtevant, trans, Emilio F. Moran (Tallahassee, Fla.: Division of Archives ... Florida Dept. of State, 1972), p. 39, 43,48, 75. 76. I wish to thank Stephen W. Foster for informing me of this document.