Re: MtMan-List: Mountain Woman/Hoyden

[AMM944 <AMM944@prodigy.net>]

Angela Gottfred wrote:
> 
> Blue Rider <blurdr@gte.net>> wrote:
> >One of the reasons I am interested in this is that many of the Plains
> >Tribes had a niche in them for gay  people.  I know that some Indian men
> >dressed and lived as women and often were shamans.  I understand that
> >some women dressed and lived as men, becoming warriors,etc.  I don't
> >know where to start in researching this. Can any of you give me anything
> >to help?  I sure would appreciate it.
> 
> And Jon Towns <AMM944@prodigy.net> wrote:
> >There was an Kootenai woman named Lodge pole woman returned to her
> >people and told them that her white husband had turned her into a man.
> >She wore mens clothes.   I know she took a wife and child hunted and
> >trapped like a man.  David Thompson used her as a guide and interpreter
> >for the trip down the Columbia River I think she went all the way to the
> >Ocean.  there is more but I'll let you to check out the book on page 137
> >of the book,  Sources of the River by Jack Nisbet.  published in 94
> 
> I recently read the following article (which Nisbet cites) :
> Schaeffer, Claude. "The Kutenai Female Berdache : Courier, Guide, Propetess,
> and Warrior", in _Ethnohistory_: vol 12, no. 3, Summer 1965. pp 193-236
> 
> Schaeffer's article focuses on a true "Mountain Woman": Qanqon, a Kutenai
> (Kootenay) woman  (She was also known as: Ququnok patke (One Standing Lodge
> Pole Woman) Kauxuma nupika (Gone to the Spirits), Qanqon kamek klaula,
> (Sitting in the Water Grizzly); whites called her Ko-come-ne-pe-ka
> (Alexander Ross), Bundosh (John Work), and Bowdash (W.H. Gray).
> 
> Qanqon married a voyageur named Boisverd in 1808. Boisverd & Qanqon lived
> together at Kootenae House (near Athalmer, BC, at the north end of Lake
> Windermere, in the Rockies) for about a year, and then they separated. When
> she got back to her people, she claimed that her husband had operated on her
> and turned her into a man. She also claimed to have spirit powers. From then
> on, she dressed as a man, carried weapons, hunted, and even courted and
> married a variety of women. David Thompson (Boisverd's boss at Kootenae
> House) ran into her and her 'wife' at Astoria in 1811, and told the PFCo
> people there that she was really a woman. Schaeffer documents the rest of
> her incredible history--too much to relate here--in the article. She was a
> remarkable woman, and as a result can be identified in a variety of journals
> for years afterwards.
> 
> Schaeffer includes Native traditions regarding her life, and talks about the
> possibility that her 'prophecies' as she travelled the Columbia River led to
> the Ghost Dance cult. She was killed by the Blackfoot on June 13, 1837.
> 
> Schaeffer also discusses berdaches (men dressing & acting as women) within
> the cultures of the Kutenai and neighboring tribes of the Eastern Plateau
> and Northern Plains, with particular reference to their actual sexual
> preferences. (They weren't all gay.)
> 
> Your humble & obedient servant, Angela Gottfred
> agottfre@telusplanet.net
Good one Angela I was being lazy and didn't want to type that long of a
letter.  I type all day on one of these things and I do more than I
wouldof thought.  I still would like people to read Nesbet's book.  I've
studied David Thompson for years and read everything I know about. 
There is an American Mountain Man Party around Northeast Washington and
Idaho panhandle.  Called The David Thompson party when I was first
sponsored the DT party was my party.  Thats what got me started on DT. 
Have you found any net sites on David T or any thing you might think I'd
like.