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We'wha

We'wha (1849–1896, various spellings) was a Zuni Native American from New Mexico. They were the most famous lhamana, a traditional Zuni gender role, now described as mixed-gender or Two-Spirit. Lhamana were male-bodied but performed primarily feminine tasks, wearing a mixture of women's and men's clothing and doing a great deal of women's work as well as serving as mediators.

We'wha is the subject of the book The Zuni Man-Woman by Will Roscoe. The anthropologist Matilda Coxe Stevenson also wrote a great deal about We'wha, and even hosted them on their visit to Washington D.C. in 1886. During that visit, We'wha met President Grover Cleveland and was generally mistaken for a cisgender woman. One of the anthropologists close to them described We'wha as "the strongest character and the most intelligent of the Zuni tribe" (Roscoe, 1991, p. 29). They are historically known mainly for their nonbinary gender performance. In the nineteenth century this status was called berdache, being anatomically one sex but performing tasks that were equated with the other (Roscoe, 1991, pg.29). During their lifetime, they came in contact with many white settlers, teachers, soldiers, missionaries, and anthropologists. One anthropologist they met was Matilda Coxe Stevenson, who would later become a prominent figure in We'wha's life. Stevenson wrote down her observations of We'wha, going on to state, "She performs masculine religious and judicial functions at the same time that she performs feminine duties, tending to laundry and the garden" (Suzanne Bost, 2003, pg.139).