“Gender was, in many cases, situationally determined. “While the traditional roles of men and women were well defined, the Zunis viewed gender as an acquired rather than an inborn trait,” Will explained. However, this should not be interpreted as a statement about how We’wha might have identified, or illustrative of gender among the Zuni as a whole. This article will use she/her pronouns, except when quoting materials that chose differently, as that appears most common among those closest to We’wha. Books and articles about We’wha use a variety of pronouns.

In Zuni culture, Ihamana are male-bodied individuals who live, socially and culturally, as women. And instead of playing with other boys, he likely preferred the company and pastimes of girls.” “e might have initially donned a single article of women’s clothing at first, such as the bidonne, which was worn over the shoulders. During her childhood, “We’wha might have worn a much longer shirt than other boys and instead of tucking it into his trousers, left it hanging out like a short skirt,” wrote Will Roscoe in The Zuni Man-Woman.

We’wha and her brother were adopted by an aunt. We’wha’s parents died around 1853, likely during the smallpox epidemic spread by Europeans. We’wha grew up within this tension, as well as the continual threats from neighboring Navajo and Apache tribes. But in 1849, the year We’wha was born, change would be forced upon the Zuni by invaders more powerful than the others they’d faced: white U.S. They endured, practicing their religion and rituals with freedom, though in profound poverty. This Zuni tribe of the Pueblo people had been mostly unchanged for hundreds of years, having survived the conflicts between Mexico and Spain. This visiting princess, We’wha, was born in what would become New Mexico to a donashi:kwe clan (Badger People) mother and bichi:kwe clan (Dogwood People) father.

“She had gone alone to the store and selected her parasol and paid for it, just as if she had been accustomed to shopping in a large city all her life, though Washington is the first city she ever visited.” read “A Zuni Princess.” The article recounted, among other stories, the princess buying herself an umbrella after hearing some local women discussing a sale. On May 20, 1886, a headline in the National Tribune in Washington, D.C.

The zuni man woman by will roscoe