Indian Blood: HIV and Colonial Trauma in San Francisco's Two-Spirit Community

by Andrew J. Jolivétte

Overview

Finalist for the 2017 Lambda Literary "Lammy" Award in LGBTQ Studies

The first book to examine the correlation between mixed-race identity and HIV/AIDS among Native American gay men and transgendered people, Indian Blood provides an analysis of the emerging and often contested LGBTQ "two-spirit" identification as it relates to public health and mixed-race identity.

Prior to contact with European settlers, most Native American tribes held their two-spirit members in high esteem, even considering them spiritually advanced. However, after contact - and religious conversion - attitudes changed and social and cultural support networks were ruptured. This discrimination led to a breakdown in traditional values, beliefs, and practices, which in turn pushed many two-spirit members to participate in high-risk behaviors. The result is a disproportionate number of two-spirit members who currently test positive for HIV.

Using surveys, focus groups, and community discussions to examine the experiences of HIV-positive members of San Francisco's two-spirit community, Indian Blood provides an innovative approach to understanding how colonization continues to affect American Indian communities and opens a series of crucial dialogues in the fields of Native American studies, public health, queer studies, and critical mixed-race studies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780295998503
Publisher:	University of Washington Press
Publication date:	06/01/2016
Series:	Indigenous Confluences
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.80(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Andrew J. Jolivette is professor and chair of American Indian studies at San Francisco State University. He is the author of Louisiana Creoles: Cultural Recovery and Mixed-Race Native American Identity.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xiii

Chapter 1 Indian Blood: Two-Spirit Return in the Face of Colonial Haunting 3

Chapter 2 Two-Spirit Cultural Dissolution: HIV and Healing among Mixed-Race American Indians 31

Chapter 3 Historical and Intergenerational Trauma and Radical Love 47

Chapter 4 Gender and Racial Discrimination against Mixed-Race American Indian Two-Spirits 60

Chapter 5 Mixed-Race Identity, Cognitive Dissonance, and Public Health 76

Chapter 6 Sexual Violence and Transformative Ancestor Spirits 91

Chapter 7 Stress Coping in Urban Indian Kinship Networks 108

Chapter 8 Two-Spirit Return: Intergenerational Healing and Cultural Leadership among Mixed-Race American Indians 124

Notes 141

Bibliography 145

Index 153

What People are Saying About This

Irene Vernon

"Indian Blood makes a significant contribution to the field as the first major work on Native Americans, HIV/AIDS, mixed-race identity, gender and sexuality, and the urban environment. The scholarship is superior."

Renya Ramirez

"This excellent book helps to fill a huge gap in the Native studies literature about mixed-identity gay men and their struggles with multiple oppressions."

Editorial Reviews

"A welcome addition to the small but growing health literature about gay and transgendered mixed-race Native men, the work stands as a significant contribution that will certainly initiate further discussion, debate, and empirical investigations. Highly recommended. All academic levels/libraries."

Choice