JoVonne Wagner
ICT
FLATHEAD LAKE, Mont. – The pews in the chapel were filled with all ages from youth to elders, some dressed in intricate lace blouses, others in gowns adorned with light-catching sequins and glimmering jewels.
A handful of people in the audience held huge cloth rainbow fans. Some used the fans to cool themselves in the August heat. Others used them to clap and hype up the participants.
Then came the performers to the stage. Some of them sang covers of their favorite songs including “At Last,” by Etta James and “Talking to the Moon,” by Bruno Mars. One contestant lip-synced and danced to “Smooth,” by Carlos Santana while another one did a comedy act dressed as a Native aunty. The talent/pageant show is a popular night among the planned events.
“This is medicine,” said Sergio Papa Ruark, who was the 2022 Mr. Montana Two-Spirit, a title he carried over the year to represent the Montana Two-Spirit Society.
Every year the Montana Two-Spirit Society raises money and puts on a five-day long gathering that focuses on educating, healing and celebrating Two-Spirit people as well as allies and members of the LGBTQ+ communities.
This gathering, hosted at the Flathead Lake United Methodists campsite, marked the 27th year of the society’s gathering. Societies from all over the nation traveled to the camp for the retreat to reconnect, learn and heal.
“It’s purpose is to encourage all people to heal from damage wrought by racism, sexism, ageism, colonialism, ableism, transphobia, generational trauma and homophobia and the negative impacts these have on health. As well as acknowledge and celebrate our heritages and cultural traditions,” according to the society’s website.
(Related: Photo essay: Montana Two-Spirit celebration)
Besides the Montana gathering, some other organizations and events that encourage Two-Spirit presence are the Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirits, or BAAITS located in San Francisco, and the International Two-Spirit Gathering.
The pageant portion of the night was the opportunity for the outgoing Mr. and Ms. Montana Two-Spirit to share their dances and talent performances while holding their title. It’s also the chance for the incoming candidates to introduce themselves.
Papa Ruark, Quechua, Indigenous to Peru, sat as the 2022 outgoing Mr. Montana Two-Spirit and performed a traditional Andean Peruvian style dance, similar to what his ancestors would have performed. This reconnection to his Indigenous roots is Papa Ruarks way of healing and remembering.
Papa Ruark, born in Lima, Peru, immigrated to Florida 13 years ago. He has since earned a Masters in anthropology with a focus in gender diversity from the University of Miami.
As an Indigenous immigrant to the states, he felt like he was in survival mode and lost touch with his own identity, as well as his cultural ties back home, he said.
It wasn’t until he found out Indigenous Two-Spirit communities exist from a Google search, he began his path to healing.
From attending his first Two-Spirit gathering, to running and holding the 2022 Mr. Montana Two-Spirit title, Papa Ruark reminisced on his own journey. He shared that his first time performing in a dress and makeup was at the Missoula pride variety show only two months prior.
To Papa Ruark, it was a full circle moment because the last time he did so was when he was 12, hidden away, dancing in his childhood home.
“I miss it, but I stopped doing it because I knew that that wasn’t accepted and I didn’t want to have issues with my family. So basically I stopped dancing traditional Peruvian music,” he said.
Before performing for Missoula Pride, Papa Ruark shared that he had a moment with his younger self, letting him know how far he has come.
“I did like a little prayer saying to myself, my little self, I said, ‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry I did this to you.’ and I kind of reconcile with my little me because I think I censored that little Sergio for so many years,” said Papa Ruark, “basically, I was like, this is for you.”
Being authentic and comfortable with identity was a theme which seemed to resonate with almost everyone in attendance, including the incoming 2023 Mr. Montana Two-Spirit, Morgan Wallace.
Wallace, Chickasaw, was named the new 2023 Mr. Montana Two-Spirit, but if asked a year ago if she would have ran, Wallace would have answered differently.
Wallace said that coming into the gathering this year, she knew she wanted to run for one of the titles but chose the Mr. Montana Two-Spirit title to show that she can be comfortable and secure with any way she chooses to express her identity.
“I’ve had a very difficult time in the colonial world hiding, you know, I have masculinity in me. It’s part of the Two-Spirit and it’s something I hide from because the colonial world tells me I have to, and I saw this as an opportunity to embrace that in a way that doesn’t adhere to colonial standards,” she said. ”I could be Mr. Montana and still be a woman. That’s what being Two-Spirited is all about, we don’t abide by those binaries and those laws that are presented to us and so that’s really the importance of that to me.”
Wallace believes that breaking colonial norms and being a part of gatherings like this one helps build the bridge to healing and recreating a place within the Indigenous community as a whole. Holding the title of Mr. Montana Two-Spirit with visibility adds to that.
“It hit me one day that this is the only life I have in this physical form, and I want my spirit to be as true as it can be whenever I leave,” she said. “There are kids just like me back home, just like my cousin back home and they need to see us so that they can do the same thing when they’re ready.”
Representing the Two Spirit crown
Wallace, along with the Miss Montana Two-Spirit 2023 candidate, Navi Ho, were both given the titles and crown at the end of the powwow that took place the third night in the camp’s dining hall.
The gathering’s Two-Spirit powwow is a staple where participants are able to wear their regalia from their respective tribes and participate in their traditional dancing in different categories.
Almost everyone joined in on the round dances, category dances and even the partnered “potato dance special,” where two dancers dance with each other with a potato wedged between their foreheads. Last couple dancing with their potatoes still in place won.
Miko Thomas, Chickasaw, is a veteran Two-Spirit gatherer who started coming to Montanas event in 2010. Thomas is also a Native drag performer who was crowned last year’s Miss Montana Two-Spirit, which came as a surprise.
“I didn’t run for it because I usually emcee and host the shows and everything, so it wasn’t like I ran for the crown, but they crowned me,” Thomas said. “So it was like a surprise that the committee had decided I would be the new Miss Montana, and so when we did the powwow at the gathering that we usually do, I was crowned.”
Thomas’s infamous drag persona, Landa Lakes, helped emcee the talent show earlier in the weekend. They have been seen at powwows and other events including the Missoula Pride variety show earlier this summer as well as representing at the BAAITS powwow and much more.
Thomas shared what it means to carry the Montana Two-Spirit title around the country, saying that it feels personal.
“I think I used mine to really raise visibility of Indigenous people and also raise visibility of the fact that there is this Two-Spirit movement that does exist. So I went to like Stanford Powwow, which is a big powwow in California and is not a Two-Spirit powwow,” said Thomas.
They were able to represent their crown in many spaces and ways including New York City at the National Museum of American Indians.
Thomas shared what they believe is a key component to identifying as Two-Spirit.
“One of the things that I think really separates just LGBT or Indigi-queer too from Two-Spirit is once you say Two-Spirit, I believe that there really is a spiritual component to that. It means that there’s a connectedness. It means that you are not leaving your ways behind, but you’re retaining them and keeping them and going forward with them,” they said.
Youth council
The Montana gathering ran from Aug. 16-19. Events throughout the days included Indigenous movie screenings, panels on trans health, a Two-Spirit powwow, hand game tournaments, discussions on the recent state legislature, a history lesson on the Two-Spirit societies and elder and youth talking circles.
Ceremony and traditional practices are integral during the gathering, with a fire that is watched and tended after by volunteers, to an early sunrise morning pipe ceremony.
For elders and the board of the Montana Two-Spirit Society, incorporating these practices is a vital part of what being Two-Spirit is and teaching that to the next generations showed during the weekend.
This year’s gathering was significant because the turnout from youth presence was the largest the society has seen with around 45 teens and younger adolescents participating during the weekend, according to Steven Barrios who’s a co-founder and board member of the Montana Two-Spirit Society. Barros introduced themselves as Long Time Holy Rain.
Barrios, Blackfeet, commented on what bringing in all generations into their gathering means to the society.
“It just shows the work that’s being done among the Two-Spirit community in the societies all over the states and Canada our Native views, (they) really feel a sense of belonging now and they have places that they can go and meet other Two-Spirit views and connect and feel more like a family,” he said. “Hopefully, one day, I’d like to see just a gathering for the youth.”
Jet DuMontier, Salish and Kootenai, is one of the Montana Two-Spirit Society’s youth advisors. They recently graduated from the Two Eagle River school on the Flathead reservation where they were first introduced to the society.
“I’ve been able to truly find family here and I’m gonna get emotional thinking about it. But, you know, I feel like I’ve really found my community and like I’ve made so many new aunties and uncles and, just like cousins. I think it’s really important for different tribes to come together and learn each other’s ways,” they said.
DuMontier shared their plans for the fall and said they are starting school at the Salish and Kootenai College where they plan on studying tribal historic preservation.
“I’m going to learn how to preserve our history and also to preserve two-spirit history, ’cause like this gathering has helped me realize how important it is to preserve and to honor our Two-Spirit people and our Two-Spirit relatives,” they said.
DuMontier, along with other Montana Two-Spirit staff members Leo Thompson, Sheldon Clairmont and board member Hiram Calf Looking, hosted the gathering’s youth talking circle.
Teenagers primarily from the Native American Youth and Family Center were in attendance of the gathering and participated in the talking circle.
Calf Looking, Blackfeet, raised a point in separating themselves from non Two-Spirit events like powwows when youth participants suggested having more Two-Spirit events for urban Indigenous youth.
Calf Looking made sure to share that it’s still important in following traditional ways of doing but agrees that the powwow community still has work to do in terms of progressive inclusion.
Youth from NAYA also voiced their opinions about growing up in an urban setting they struggle with celebrating indigeneity back home.
Edwind Williams, Selawik and Tlingit, is a high school student with NAYA and was among the crowd in the youth talking circle. Later during the weekend, he shared what he’s taken away from the gathering, his first.
“I want to start dancing,” Williams said. “I’ve had different elders and different people talk to me about dancing and telling me that I should.”
This gathering was Williams first time participating in a powwow, he said the space that the gathering created made it feel safe and welcoming for him to join in.
“It was really fun and I had a community around me that I knew wouldn’t look at me differently because we’re all the same,” he said.
The society continues to grow
As the annual gathering was coming to an end, it’s been tradition to have a give away that everyone participates in and shares gifts and medicines with one another. It’s a chance during the weekend, for those to give thanks, share tears or gratitude and hug family members that don’t often see each other but this time of the year.
It’s also a time to look forward to the future.
The incoming Ms. Montana Two-Spirit, Navi Ho, Navajo, shared news of creating a group in Arizona for Indigenous Two-Spirit individuals and Papa Ruark announced he has made progress in establishing a Florida-based group for local and immigrant Indigenous people to come together.
Papa Ruark proudly shared that they had 12 people come to their meeting that was held earlier in the summer.
“It was painful to feel that disconnection and that emptiness in your soul, in your heart, in your mind,” Papa Ruark shared when visiting about his future plans for the next year. “I’m looking to create a space for Indigenous people of Florida, but also for Indigenous people of all over the continent who for any reason they moved to Florida and they want a place to feel themself.”
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