1500s
Native Americans/Gay Americans in the 1500s
These documents about LGBTQ+ Native Americans present years of testimony from a wide variety of observers: military men, missionaries, explorers, trappers, traders, settlers, and later, medical doctors, anthropologists, homosexual emancipationists, and LGBTQ+ activists.
In a few rare instances, the voices of LGBTQ+ Native Americans are heard.
This is adapted from Jonathan Ned Katz, Gay American History: Lesbians and Gay Men in the U.S.A. (NY: Crowell, 1976). The notes to these documents contain numbers of additional sources.
Published originally on OutHistory in 2011; last edited June 21, 2024.
Native Americans/Gay Americans in the 1500s