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2 DePaul J. Women Gender & L. 87 (2011-2012)
Normal for Whom? Gender Acculturation in Native American Communities

handle is hein.journals/dpjwglaw2 and id is 95 raw text is: NORMAL FOR WHOM? GENDER ACCULTURATION IN NATIVE AMERICAN COMMUNITIES Gender is so basic to our cultural coding that people often have difficulty accepting that women are not innately more timid or men more brazen. Gender is difficult to see while look- ing at only one's own culture; through comparative inquiry, however, gender reveals itself to be a social construct. When Europeans came to North America they found a popu- lation with completely different traditions and religious beliefs from their own. Among the differences were vastly disparate conceptions of gender and sexuality. European's social treat- ment of gender and sexuality is rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition; Native American cultures grounded their social opin- ions of gender and sexuality in their own religious teachings. Yet, today, when Native American communities confront issues of gender and sexuality in the context of gay marriage, tribal leaders respond like Christian Europeans. Is this just benign ac- culturation implemented through assimilation of the aboriginal population into western European, Judeo-Christian culture, or is it more specific and purposeful? Part I of this comment chronicles the events following Dawn McKinley and Kathy Reynolds' filing of a marriage application with their tribe in 2004. The tribal leadership's response shows the animosity towards same-sex couples present in the Chero- kee Nation of Oklahoma of today. Part II provides a brief sum- mary of the gender systems that existed in the aboriginal cultures of North America prior to European settlement, dem- onstrating how different these traditions were from the Judeo- Christian belief system. Part III discusses some of the major in- teractions between the federal government & tribes, particularly as those interactions demonstrate the federal government's po- lemic relationship with Native Americans' cultural heritage. 87

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