Native North American Research Articles

Conifer Diet Choices Made by Mule Deer (Odocoileushemionus) of North Central British Columbia During a Cafeteria-Style Feeding Trial

The winter diets of northern mule deer are comprised predominantly of shrubs and trees. Included in winter diets are various species of conifers, some of which are important forestry and ornamental crop trees. Diet choices and feeding habits of mule deer utilizing conifer crops, however, have not been widely reported. Here, we document diet choices made by human-habituated mule deer from north central British Columbia during an exploratory cafeteria-style feeding trial using boughs of thirteen species of native North American and introduced European conifers. Mule deer consumed more biomass from exotic conifers (specifically pine) than from rarely encountered native conifers, and consumed the least biomass from those native conifers commonly encountered by deer in northern BC, a finding which appears to lend support to the Biotic Resistance Hypothesis. From most to least biomass consumed, deer selected Mugho pine, Scots pine, western hemlock, subalpine fir, Douglas fir, Norway spruce, Ponderosa pine, western white pine, lodgepole pine, common juniper, red cedar, black spruce, and hybrid white spruce. Analysis of Variance testing suggested that deer preferred to eat exotic Mugho and Scots pine and avoided eating commonly encountered, native black and hybrid white spruce. A relationship also existed between the biomass consumed and the number of bites taken by deer from each species, which generally indicated that deer took more bites from exotic and rarely encountered conifers, but not always. Our results suggest that northern mule deer, therefore, may be more likely to damage introduced pine and other exotics relative to native species planted in either ornamental or forest plantation settings when deer densities are high and/or browse resources are limited.

Indian Baskets of Northern California and Oregon by Ralph Shanks and Lisa Woo Shanks, editors

291 Reviews with cataloging Indigenous cultures on the other, compartmentalized the inherent flaws in the very program she carried out. She understood, for example, that Nez Perce allotments were not well suited for productive agriculture and would not provide the income for the allottees to pay taxes on their lands. Loyal to the system she helped envision, she advocated for minor changes and believed that “if it failed, the Indians themselves, still mired in the commitments to traditional ways of living and thinking, would bear the blame” (p. 305). The strength of Dividing the Reservation is the level of detail Tonkovich provides on Fletcher’s ideas and actions on allotment. The letters present Fletcher’s (mis)understanding of indigenous people’s viewpoints in striking and revealing ways. In Tonkovich’s 2012 work, Allotment Plot: Alice C. Fletcher, E. Jane Gay, and Nez Perce Survivance, she convincingly argues that the Nez Perce maintained their sovereignty through an adept understanding of allotment policy and cunning negotiation. Thus, combining her works together shows the individual agency of Indigenous and government actors during this period. Dividing the Reservation will interest researchers of the allotment period generally and Nez Perce reservation specifically. An accessible sourcebook, it will also serve teachers introducing their students to primary sources and the revelatory qualities found in analyzing personal correspondence. DAVID-PAUL B. HEDBERG Portland, Oregon INDIAN BASKETS OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA AND OREGON by Ralph Shanks and Lisa Woo Shanks, editors University of Washington Press, Seattle and London, 2015. Illustrations, maps, bibliography, index. 152 pages. $39.95, cloth. Indian Baskets of Northern California and Oregon is volume three in a series that includes Indian Baskets of Central California (2006) and California Indian Baskets (2010), the latter of which is a description of Native basketry traditions in the Golden State’s southern half. Like the previous titles, Indian Baskets of Northern California and Oregon presents an in-depth analysis of regional Native basketry. The text provides exhaustive commentary about the materials, techniques, and basket forms related to the creative expressions of a wide range of Indigenous people groups. The book is a boon for an array of audiences: basket artists, collectors and students of Native and craft arts, and regional historians among them. It is also a useful reference tool for libraries and museums. The degree of textual density, however, may prove off-putting for casual readers. In his introduction, Ralph Shanks pays homage to his mentor, the late Lawrence Dawson of the Phoebe Apperson Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. Dawson’s work is cited throughout the text, and he was undoubtedly a diligent and thoughtful researcher. Shanks cites the elder scholar’s study of regional twined basketry and his finding that the technique was shared by West Coast tribes, Bering Sea and Asian groups, and Japan’s Ainu people. Readers are told that Dawson “believed that the first baskets brought into North America were just two types of twined baskets,” and he concludes that “after its humble beginnings in Asia, twined basketry flowered in California and Oregon” (p. 6). Throughout the text, Shanks returns to that theory, and suggests that diverse Native weavers learned basket-making techniques as they migrated south through Oregon and into California. His assertions about the origins of Native North American peoples — consistently stated as facts — are surprising and unsettling in a text that often acknowledges cooperationandcollaborationwithNativebasket makers. If one embraces Shanks’s ideology, no credence can be given to Native peoples’ perspectives on their own origins. Readers whose interest may be limited to Oregon-made baskets will be disappointed in the treatment this text gives to the state’s Native basketry. Although it provides exhaustive discussion of baskets made by diverse Northern Cali- 292 OHQ vol. 118, no. 2 fornia people groups, Oregon basketry traditions — apart from those in the southwestern corner of the state and the Klamath and Modoc — are treated only in passing. Given the extended discussion of basket traditions that appeared elsewhere , the twining traditions of Wasco/Wishxam weavers, and the work of Native basket makers from the Willamette Valley and the central and northern Oregon Coast are all given short shrift. The Nez Perce and...

조음자질을 이용한 한국인 학습자의 영어 발화 자동 발음 평가

This paper aims to propose articulatory features as novel predictors for automatic pronunciation assessment of English produced by Korean learners. Based on the distinctive feature theory, where phonemes are represented as a set of articulatory/phonetic properties, we propose articulatory Goodness-Of-Pronunciation(aGOP) features in terms of the corresponding articulatory attributes, such as nasal, sonorant, anterior, etc. An English speech corpus spoken by Korean learners is used in the assessment modeling. In our system, learners' speech is forced aligned and recognized by using the acoustic and pronunciation models derived from the WSJ corpus (native North American speech) and the CMU pronouncing dictionary, respectively. In order to compute aGOP features, articulatory models are trained for the corresponding articulatory attributes. In addition to the proposed features, various features which are divided into four categories such as RATE, SEGMENT, SILENCE, and GOP are applied as a baseline. In order to enhance the assessment modeling performance and investigate the weights of the salient features, relevant features are extracted by using Best Subset Selection(BSS). The results show that the proposed model using aGOP features outperform the baseline. In addition, analysis of relevant features extracted by BSS reveals that the selected aGOP features represent the salient variations of Korean learners of English. The results are expected to be effective for automatic pronunciation error detection, as well.

Variation in polyphenolic profile and in vitro antioxidant activity of eastern teaberry (Gaultheria procumbens L.) leaves following foliar development

Seasonal dynamics in the polyphenolic composition, antioxidant activity, and their relationships during plant development were evaluated for eastern teaberry (Gaultheria procumbens L.) leaves, a traditional herbal medicine of North American natives. With the complementary UHPLC-PDA-ESI-MS3, HPLC-PDA-fingerprint, Folin-Ciocalteau, and n-butanol/HCl assays of methanol-water (75:25, v/v) extracts, the dried leaf samples harvested monthly across the growing season under Polish climate conditions were found rich in structurally diverse polyphenols (149.2–210.7mg/g DW) including the dominating salicylates (64.6–107.5mg/g DW), proanthocyanidins (53.0–66.8mg/g DW), and flavonoids (17.3–25.3mg/g DW), and the accompanying chlorogenic acid isomers (2.4–4.4mg/g DW) and simple phenolic acids (0.9–1.1mg/g DW). Among 28 detected analytes, gaultherin (64.6–107.5mg/g DW), miquelianin (14.6–21.1mg/g DW), procyanidin A-type trimer (5.5–9.5mg/g DW), and (–)-epicatechin (5.8–7.8mg/g DW) were the most abundant. The phenolic levels and antioxidant activity parameters in the DPPH (EC50, 15.0–18.2μg DW/mL; 0.95–1.16mmol Trolox equivalents/g DW) and FRAP (2.3–3.4mmolFe 2+/g DW; 0.86–1.26mmol Trolox equivalents/g DW) assays showed parallel seasonal trends with maxima in September and October. As the subsequent correlation studies confirmed the determinative impact of polyphenols on the leaf antioxidant activity and its seasonal fluctuations, the Fall season could be recommended as optimal for harvesting the plant material for medicinal purposes and cost-effective production of natural health products.

Biology and Life History ofAtanycolus cappaerti(Hymenoptera: Braconidae), a North American Larval Parasitoid Attacking the Invasive Emerald Ash Borer (Coleoptera: Buprestidae)

Abstract Atanycolus cappaerti Marsh & Strazanac (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) is a native North American parasitoid that has been found parasitizing late instars of the emerald ash borer, Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire (Coleoptera: Buprestidae), a serious invasive pest of ash trees (Fraxinus species; Oleaceae). In this study, we determined the longevity, weekly oviposition rate, realized lifetime fecundity, diapause pattern, and development time of A. cappaerti for late instars of A. planipennis larvae at 25 ± 1.5 °C, 65 ± 10% RH, and a 16:8 h L:D photoperiod in the laboratory. Our study showed that adults of A. cappaerti had a median survival time of 9 to 11 wk, and females lived approximately 2 wk longer than males. The weekly progeny production by female parasitoids peaked at 3 wk after emergence, with a mean of 5.4 progeny per female. Throughout their life span, females produced a mean (± SE) of 28 (± 3.07) progeny. Atanycolus cappaerti larvae molted 5 times to reach the 6th instar in silk cocoons in a med...

Impact of Harvest Time and Switchgrass Cultivar on Sugar Release Through Enzymatic Hydrolysis

Switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.) is a native North American prairie grass being developed for bioenergy production in the central and eastern USA. The objective of this study was to identify the impacts of harvest time and switchgrass cultivar had on sugar release variables determined through enzymatic hydrolysis. Previously, we reported that delaying harvest of switchgrass until after frost and until after winter resulted in decreased yields of switchgrass but it reduced the amount of ash and nutrients in the biomass. The current study used near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) to broaden an existing set of calibration equations designed to predict composition and sugar release variables of switchgrass. These updated calibrations were then applied to the full set of samples from a multi-year and multi-location switchgrass harvest-management study. Composition and processor sugar yields were significantly affected by location, year, cultivar, and harvest time, of which the time of harvest was the most important. Delaying the time of harvest until after frost or post-winter increased the concentration of structural carbohydrates from 500 to over 570 g kg−1 in the biomass and lignin content from 160 to over 200 g kg−1. Conversely, delaying harvest time lowered the amounts of ash and soluble sugars. The later harvest times also yielded more sugars following processing with yields increasing over 20% from the first harvest. Increased sugar yields are attributable to both increased concentration of sugars in the biomass upon harvest and reduced biomass recalcitrance. Based upon processed sugar yields, it is estimated that a biorefinery producing 76 million liters of ethanol per year would require 229–373 km2 of land cultivated with switchgrass.

Ethnocomputational creativity in STEAM education: a cultural framework for generative justice

In the United States, the disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (also widely known as STEM) attract very few African American, Latino, and Native (indigenous Alaskan, North American, and Pacific Islander) students. These underrepresented students might be more attracted to STEM disciplines if they knew STEM education’s extraordinary potential to circulate value back to their ethnic communities. For instance, underrepresented medical students, after graduation, are statistically more likely than white students to conduct research on health issues relevant to their ethnic communities. One of the most popular STEM reform movements that of STEAM (STEM + Arts) has done very little to help circulate the unalienated value of these ethnic communities. This paper describes “ethnocomputational creativity” as a generative framework for STEAM that circulates unalienated value in the arts back to underrepresented ethnic communities. We first will look at the dangers of extracting cultural capital without compensation, and how ethnocomputational creativity can, in contrast, help these communities to circulate value in its unalienated form, nurturing both traditional artistic practices as well as creating new paths for "heritage algorithms" and other forms of decolonized STEM education.

Some Recent Trends in the Linguistic Anthropology of Native North America

Although the languages of Native North America and the linguistic communities that spoke these languages once provided the key data for American anthropology's early agenda under Boas, linguistic anthropologists continue their study in a manner inflected to contemporary political economic realities and theoretical concerns. One area of scholarship that displays some continuity with earlier research is the study of Native American place-names, but even here contemporary researchers have explored the ethnographic surround of naming practices, including the multilingualism and multiculturalism of today's indigenous communities. Other research topics that have had less precedent include verbal art, language ideologies, and linguistic racism. Recent research in Native North American verbal art has advanced the appreciation of indigenous poetics but also developed a “critical” ethnopoetics that attends to a larger political economic context. Recent research on language ideologies has explored such topics as new patterns of language and identity and the role of ideologies in language revitalization.

Medicine Dresses and (Trans)Vestments: Gender Performance and Spiritual Authority in Louise Erdrich’s The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse and Four Souls

ABSTRACTLouise Erdrich’s The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse and Four Souls, two of the later installments in her saga about a fictional North Dakota reservation, explore intersections between gender, ethnicity, and spirituality through cross-gender performances involving the assumption of gendered religious roles. In Last Report, the reservation priest Father Damien is also the former nun Agnes DeWitt, and in Four Souls, Nanapush wears his wife’s medicine dress during a tribal council meeting. These performances present gender identity and spirituality as deeply intertwined, aligning Erdrich’s fiction with beliefs in the sacredness of gender fluidity in many Native North American religions. Drawing from aspects of Ojibwe culture and theories of gender performativity, this article suggests that these characters’ transformations of Ojibwe and Catholic social norms work to create inclusive, flexible ways of accessing the spiritual that resist gendered religious hierarchies and either/or constructions of religious and cultural identity.

Sound-Triggered Production of Antiaggregation Pheromone Limits Overcrowding ofDendroctonus valensAttacking Pine Trees

For insects that aggregate on host plants, both attraction and antiaggregation among conspecifics can be important mechanisms for overcoming host resistance and avoiding overcrowding, respectively. These mechanisms can involve multiple sensory modalities, such as sound and pheromones. We explored how acoustic and chemical signals are integrated by the bark beetle Dendroctonus valens to limit aggregation in China. In its native North American range, this insect conducts nonlethal attacks on weakened trees at very low densities, but in its introduced zone in China, it uses mixtures of host tree compounds and the pheromone component frontalin to mass attack healthy trees. We found that exo-brevicomin was produced by both female and male D. valens, and that this pheromone functioned as an antiaggregating signal. Moreover, beetles feeding in pairs or in masses were more likely than were beetles feeding alone to produce exo-brevicomin, suggesting a potential role of sound by neighboring beetles in stimulating exo-brevicomin production. Sound playback showed that an agreement sound was produced by both sexes when exposed to the aggregation pheromone frontalin and attracts males, and an aggressive sound was produced only by males behaving territorially. These signals triggered the release of exo-brevicomin by both females and males, indicating an interplay of chemical and sonic communication. This study demonstrates that the bark beetle D. valens uses sounds to regulate the production of an antiaggregation pheromone, which may provide new approaches to pest management of this invasive species.

Isolated populations of Eurytemora americana Williams (Crustacea, Copepoda) in the White Sea rock pools—postglacial relicts or anthropogenic invasions?

Molecular-genetic study of isolated populations of Eurytemora in the White Sea showed its undoubted proximity to the native North American populations of Eurytemora americana, Williams 1906. Genetic tests show the recent colonization of the White Sea rock pools by initially small amount of individuals of E. americana. Existing published data on the presence of isolated Atlantic and Pacific species in the Arctic region are mostly explained by historical reasons: preservation of relict populations formerly inhabited the Holarctic and separated by processes of formation and melting of glaciers. Finding of E. americana in the White Sea allowed us to suppose a possible reason of formation of these isolates: transportation with ship ballast waters during the period of intensive cargo in the Second World War along the edge of the Arctic seas.

Marxism, indigenism, and the anthropology of Native North America: divergence and a possible future

The purpose of this article is to discuss the relationship between Marxist theory and the anthropology of Native North America. This includes a brief history of the origins, development, and application of Marxist theory in the anthropology and ethnohistory of Native North America, as well as a discussion of the theoretical and ideological tensions between Marxism, postmodernism, and indigenism in this regional context. That builds to a discussion of Rata’s (2000) concept of neotribal capitalism as an application of and innovation on Marxist theory to settler-colonial situations, and its superiority over postmodern/indigenist-derived theory and analysis in actually understanding and explaining the processes (re)shaping Native North America. The article concludes by emphasizing the need for Marxist theory and analysis for properly understanding contemporary situations within Native North American societies.

An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846–1873 . By Benjamin Madley

An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846–1873 . Lamar Series in Western History. By Benjamin Madley. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016. xi + 692 pp. Illustrations, map, tables, appendices, notes, bibliography, index. $38.00.) Prior to its nineteenth-century Euroamerican conquest, California was the most densely and diversely settled portion of the native North American West, with approximately 150,000 Indians. And yet by the time of the 1870 census, that number had plunged to just 30,000. Scholars have debated the reasons for this precipitous decline, with some citing starvation and disease as well as other forces of social dislocation attendant to the gold rush. But in An American Genocide , Benjamin Madley offers another explanation (one raised–if only obliquely–in decades past, though never pursued so doggedly): genocide. After reading his important and relentlessly grim … agraybill{at}smu.edu

Establishment‐Year Native Perennial Bunchgrass Biomass Yields

Weak seedling vigor of native North American perennial bunchgrasses may result in poor establishment‐season herbage dry matter (DM) yields (HY). Interseeding North American annual legumes as an N source during grassland restoration, pasture establishment, or bioenergy crop seeding might compound this limitation. Our first objective was to evaluate yellow Indiangrass [Sorghastrum nutans (L.) Nash], switchgrass (Panicum virgatum L.), and little bluestem [Schizachyrium scoparium (Michx.) Nash] first‐season HY in the southern Great Plains of North America. This took place in north–central Texas on a Windthorst fine sandy loam soil with no irrigation or soil amendments. Our second objective was to measure the effects of cross‐drilling native North American annual legumes smooth‐seeded wild bean [Strophostyles leiosperma (Torr. & Gray) Piper], trailing wild bean [Strophostyles helvula (L.) Elliott], and showy partridge pea [Chamaecrista fasciculata (Michx.) Greene] on bunchgrass first‐season HY. In the drier (340 mm) year, legumes failed to establish, while switchgrass produced 2410 and Indiangrass yielded 1980 kg HY ha−1 y−1. In the year with 687 mm rainfall, legumes had no negative effects (P > 0.05) on grass HY (5490 kg HY ha−1 y−1 for switchgrass) despite providing up to 49 through 1800 kg HY ha−1 y−1 (showy partridge‐pea with little bluestem; P ≤ 0.05 for year by grass × legume interactions). Our results indicate that these bunchgrasses produced harvestable HY during their establishment year and that simultaneously seeding annual legumes did not impair native perennial grass establishment while, in 1 yr, making potential N contributions for subsequent stand productivity.

Solidago gigantea plants from nonnative ranges compensate more inresponse to damage than plants from the native range.

Resistance and tolerance are two ways that plants cope with herbivory. Tolerance, the ability of a plant to regrow or reproduce after being consumed, has been studied less than resistance, but this trait varies widely among species and has considerable potential to affect the ecology of plant species. One particular aspect of tolerance, compensatory responses, can evolve rapidly in plant species; providing insight into interactions between consumers and plants. However, compensation by invasive species has rarely been explored. We compared compensatory responses to the effects of simulated herbivory expressed by plants from seven Solidago gigantea populations from the native North American range to that expressed by plants from nine populations from the nonnative European range. Populations were also collected along elevational gradients to compare ecotypic variation within and between ranges. Solidago plants from the nonnative range of Europe were more tolerant to herbivory than plants from the native range of North America. Furthermore, plants from European populations increased in total biomass and growth rate with elevation, but decreased in compensatory response. There were no relationships between elevation and growth or compensation for North American populations. Our results suggest that Solidago gigantea may have evolved to better compensate for herbivory damage in Europe, perhaps in response to a shift to greater proportion of attack from generalists. Our results also suggest a possible trade-off between rapid growth and compensation to damage in European populations but not in North American populations.

Protonema suspension cultures of the medicinal moss Polytrichum juniperinum

The moss Polytrichum juniperinum was widely used by native North Americans and in traditional Chinese medicine to treat several illnesses including burns, wounds, bleeding, fever, kidney stones, and gallstones. This paper reports the efficient establishment of a protonema suspension culture of this moss and evaluation of key factors such as culture medium, trophic condition, initial pH, and inoculum size for increasing biomass production, which has scarcely been studied in this type of biological system. No significant differences were found for the maximum specific growth rate (μmax~0.09 d−1) and the total phenolic content between MS, Knop, and PPNH4 media, although an effect on tissue differentiation was observed. Growth rate in a mixotrophic condition was (μmax 0.27 d−1) three times greater than in autotrophic and heterotrophic conditions, reaching high cell densities (~11 g DW L−1). Moreover, simple sugars were secreted into the medium during the growth phase. P. juniperinum protonema cultures tolerated a wide initial medium pH range (4.5–8). The tissue growth index significantly decreased from ~7.7 to 1.9 with increased inoculum size (45–300 mg DW L−1) under photoautotrophic conditions. Similar responses were obtained under mixotrophic conditions with different sucrose concentrations (15–45 g L−1), but no responses to sucrose concentration and inoculum sizes were seen under heterotrophic growth conditions. Finally, this high cell density culture of P. juniperinum is suitable for further studies aimed at exploring and establishing a production platform for high-value secondary metabolites.

BRYOPHYTES, THE IGNORED MEDICINAL HERBALS OF THE BIOLOGICAL WORLD - A SEARCH AT NEYYAR WILDLIFE SANCTUARY, TRIVANDRUM, KERALA

Currently, the medicinal potential of bryophytes has received immense value in pharmaceutical industries and many phytochemicals have been isolated, characterized from this group. Native North Americans and Chinese are in forefront in bryological research compared to India. Traditional and ethnic uses of Indian bryophytes with description and illustration were seen in Hortus Malabaricus. Information about the medicinal use of bryophytes in terms of microbicidal, anti-inflammatory and antitumour are traced in developed countries. Despite, the long history of medicinal bryophytes used by tribal and local peoples their significant utilization in medicines is still scanty. Present report is an attempt to create awareness about this group of plants from Neyyar Wild Life sanctuary, Trivandrum, Kerala.

An 8000-year-old case of thalassemia from the Windover, Florida skeletal population

Thalassemia is a congenital blood disorder which destroys red blood cells at a faster rate than can be produced, resulting in anemia. Historically, this disease is found more often in Old World populations, such as Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian. The earliest reported skeletal evidence of thalassemia comes from the eastern Mediterranean (Atlit-Yam) and is correlated with early agriculturalists' exposure to malarial parasites. While there have been virtually no skeletal reports of thalassemia in prehistoric Native American populations, among the individuals from the 8000-year-old hunter-gatherer site of Windover, Florida there is a single potential case of the disease. A female in her early 20’s exhibits bilateral foreshortening of the humeri with indications of premature epiphyseal fusion. Both proximal humeri are medio-laterally compressed, the gleno-humeral joint surfaces exhibit medial deformation, and bones show expansion of the medullary cavity with increased cancellous bone growth. These characteristics have been reported as indicators of thalassemia in both clinical and archaeological contexts. Alternate diagnoses such as congenital dislocation or injuries during child birth are considered but fail to account for the full set of characteristics shown. Individual #76 may, therefore, represent the oldest reported case of thalassemia from a native North American skeletal population.

Diagnosis of Lobesia botrana (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) Using Real-Time PCR.

A real-time PCR assay is reported for identification of Lobesia botrana (Denis and Schiffermüller) collected in California. This assay multiplexes two independent TaqMan probe systems in a single reaction tube to reduce handling time and sample exposure to environmental contaminants. One probe system targets a segment of DNA located in the internal transcribed spacer region 2 (ITS2) that is present in the L. botrana genome but absent in native North American Tortricidae. The second probe system serves as a control for DNA quality by targeting a segment of the 18S rDNA gene that is conserved in L. botrana and all of the tested nontarget species. The assay successfully diagnosed 70 Lobesia botrana specimens and 95 nontarget specimens. No false-positive or false-negative results were observed supporting its application for identification of this pest in California.

Ancestors of two-spirits: Historical depictions of Native North American gender-crossing women through critical discourse analysis

ABSTRACTLetters written by Christian men of European origin during the sixteenth–nineteenth centuries contain brief descriptions of gender-crossing individuals among indigenous Americans. Although now considered ethnocentrically biased because of the etic positioning of their authors, these historical sources are invaluable because they offer a glimpse of the ancestors of modern-day two-spirits. An application of critical discourse analysis to three depictions of gender-crossing females from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries demonstrates that such women were favorably portrayed. These results differ dramatically from those obtained from my similar analysis of depictions of gender-crossing males. It also became evident that the three descriptions of gender-crossing women were not based on actual observations, but only on hearsay, which makes their use as primary sources questionable.