Nelson, Melissa K, “Getting Dirty: The Eco-Erotic of Women in Indigenous Oral Literatures”.

Barker, Joanne et al eds. Critically Sovereign: indigenous Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist
Studies. Durham: Duke University Press, 2017. pp229-260, e-class.

7
GETTING DIRTY
The Eco-Eroticism of Women in
Indigenous Oral Literatures
MELISSA K. NELSON

Physical bodies can beckon us toward a more complex understanding of how the
personal, the political, and the material are braided together.—Stacy Alalmo, Material
Feminisms

We do not come into this world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree.—Alan Watts,
‘The Book

Prelude
Some of my first memories are of eating dirt. Eating dirt with great joy. I felt
an intimate, sensuous, and, dare I say, “erotic” relationship with the physical
earth I consumed. Red rock on red tongue, slick, earth clay slowly sliding
down my throat, the tart tingle of metallic gravity and the delicious irony of
iron resonating with the core of my blood cells, like a lightning bolt to my
flesh and bones, Ingesting the world, “eating the landscape,” and enjoying the
original “soil/soul food” is a long and old tradition of many cultures around
the world, including many Native American cultures here on Turtle Island, writer Louise Erdrich says it so well in Love Medicine: “I'll be out there as a
especially among women with eco-erotic proclivities.? piece of endless body of the world feeling pleasures so much larger than skin
I also remember relishing as a child the curves on a piece of driftwood and bones and blood.”*
and even later and now feeling wooed by the smell and shape of buckeye Feeling inside this fluid, living entity of what we call “nature” does have
blossoms; getting aroused by the splash of ocean waves on granite rock, its consequences, as my sensuality often gets in the way of my scholarship.
stirred by the flying movements of a pileated woodpecker, intoxicated by But then again, my scholarship often gets in the way of my sensuality. It is a
the incessant power of a waterfall, caressed by the warm wind on top of a common conundrum, feeling the difference between the world of thought
desert mountain, or feeling a little sleazy by the penetrating clarity, color, and the world of my other senses, Do I read through that wetlands ecology
and twinkle of the star Sirius. Ail of these things arouse deep feelings in me essay or that classic piece on Zen Buddhism, or do I work with my hands in
till. They stimulate my senses and awaken a desire to be intimate, to be fully the garden repotting lupine and sage and revel in the smell of sweet-smelling
ive. These eco-erotic moments make me feel connected to something out- medicine plants and fresh dirt? Do I sit and pull black-and-white words from
iide and distant yet connected to my human skin. They remind me that lam full-spectrum thoughts or walk in a damp redwood forest to feel like a smal}
t semipermeable membrane and that life is filled with fluid attractions and mammal? There is a profound relationship between these different activities,
ntimate encounters, if we only allow ourselves to feel and experience them. As I stimulate many senses and decenter thought, I eventually illuminate
In the face of such sensuous ecological encounters, both ordinary and new cognitive pathways and storylines, I enjoy the challenge of precipitating
pectacular, I step outside the sense of myself as a contained being. I am no words from inner imaginings (and sensations) and offering them to the page
onger a solid center but part of an unending field of entwined energies. Iam to share with others for enticement, arousal, and critique: “The writing down
connecting to another, greater life force, embodied in dirt, the material soil of words is a relatively recent practice for the human animal. We two-legged
nd source of matter. Whether watching a simple brown sparrow bathing in have long been creatures of language, of course, but verbal language lived
mud puddle on a street or smelling the aromatic heat off a sage plant, these first in the shaped breath of utterance, it laughed and stuttered on the tongue
‘neounters stimulate, arouse, awaken, and excite me in profoundly mean- long before it lay down on the page, and longer still before it arrayed itself
ngful ways, They can break my heart open, take my breath away, make me in rows across the glowing screen.” Language used to be more like music,
hed tears, or force me to listen with the ears of my ancestors, In these mo- perhaps, spoken and heard in ephemeral moments rather than recorded as
nents, I often feel dwarfed, in awe, vulnerable, even shocked, And in the act “permanent,” future visual references, Here I make these offerings of written
fsex, I feel these same emotions—these vulnerable feelings combined with words as I grapple with the old stories of Native women loving other-than-
strange sense of authentic, surging power. humans and the new fields of Indigenous eco-erotics and queer ecologies,
‘The French call orgasm [a petite mort (the little death), where we can actu-
lly be relieved of being ourselves and disappear for an ecstatic moment. The
anskrit root meaning of the word “nirvana” means “extinction, disappear- Introduction
nce (of the individual soul into the wniversal)?? It is in these moments of In some vocabularies, these encounters would be intersections where emo-
isappearing and ego extinction in the sexual act that most of us find solace tional and erotic intelligences, biophilia, and eco-literacy come together.
nd bliss. This relief from our persona helps us get in touch with a deeper ‘These are encounters anyone can have anywhere on the planet; this is one of
ense of being—some would say, a larger sense of self; an ecological or even the reasons people love to travel so much, especially for “peak experiences”
cosmological self. at spectacular places. I believe that these fresh, often ahistorical moments
Likewise, eco-erotics is a type of meta (after, higher)-sexual or trans (over, of superficial arousal or stimulation are important and interesting but po-
eyond)-sexual intimate ecological encounter in which we are momentarily tentially problematic. I see that they can be linked to colonial desire and ex-
nd simultaneously taken outside of ourselves by the beauty, or sometimes otic romanticism in a way that is nearly opposite of what I want to explore in
ae horror, of the more-than-human natural world. This means we are poten- terms of stories about Indigenous peoples’ long-term, ancestral connections
ally aroused by anything, meaning “pan,” or all: pansexual. The Anishinaabe to specific places and particular more-than-human others.
 ‘The feminist scholar Stacy Alaimo writes, “Crucial ethical and political in many cases, extinguished, The history of colonial and sexual violence
possibilities emerge from this literal ‘contact zone’ between human corpo- against Native peoples and the imperial imperative of severing First Peoples’
reality and more than human nature.” In this chapter, I argue that these en- relations with land have had severe intergenerational consequences for the
counters at the contact zone of human and more-than-human can provide health of Native peoples and for the “well-being of the world.” It could also be
critical eco-erotic experiences that are conducive to embodying an ethic of said that this profound historical disruption of human-environment relations
Kinship so needed in the world today to address ecological and cultural chal- has led to the ecological and social crises we face today.
lenges. ‘This “contact zone” is the place that I call “getting dirty”—-a messy, I am committed to remembering these stories of relationship and re-
visceral, eco-erotic boundary-crossing entanglement of difference that awakening and embodying the metaphysics and praxis of Indigenous eco-
can engender empathy and kinship and a lived environmental ethic. I as- erotics. I believe it is our human birthright and, as Native people, we have
sert that this contact zone is facilitated and supported by communities that an additional responsibility to decolonize and reignite the spark of these an-
practice oral traditions about territorial attachment to ancestral places and cestral relations, According to Anishinaabeg prophecy, we are people of the
beings. Indigenous eco-erotics are maintained and strengthened through seventh fire (generation) since the time before colonial impact, and we have
pansexual stories, clan and family identification, and a trans-human concept a cultural obligation to restore our traditional knowledge and sacred ways,
ofnationhood. not only for ourselves, but also ultimately for all peoples and life. For me as
I suggest that this eco-erotic impulse is deeply human and part of a co- an educator, that translates into seeing how these Indigenous oral stories and
evolutionary pansexual adaptation not only for survival but also for regenera- the ethical insights they share about human—more-than-human relations can
tion. For survival itis key, as it encourages us to understand “carnal knowledge” be productively and creatively applied in academia and social movements
and the risks and opportunities of intraspecies encounters for mates and inter- and, specifically, in addressing the dire need to mend the human split with
species encounters for sustainable food. For regeneration, procreation is key our sacred Earth.
not only for our biological species but also for our imaginative and spiritual
capacities to be in intimate relationship with the more-than-human world, on
which we are completely dependent for life. We are always inside other be- Out of the Tipi: A Collective Resurgence of Indigenous Erotica
ngs and inside what the Kogi Mamas of Colombia believe is “the very mind ‘Today the topics of nature, sexuality, and Indigeneity are converging in some
of Nature itself” Other beings are always inside of us—bacteria, viruses, ‘That very exciting and novel ways and are showing up in academia, popular media,
s basic biology. But to truly feel the sensuous gravity of the life that surrounds environmental movements, and arts circles. Eco-erotics. Pansexuality. Erotic
as and is within us is an act of profound intimacy, vulnerability, and courage. ecology. Ecofeminism. Queer ecology. Ecosexual, Eco-porn. SexEcology.
Being alive means that in every moment we are involved in the interpen- Queer Indigenous. Sovereign erotic. Erotics of place. Indigenous erotica.
stration of air, water, food, sound, smell, taste, and sight. Humans are com- The convergence of ecology and sexuality studies may seem like a spurious
dletely dependent on these numerous natural processes to give us life, and connection to some. For decades, the two fields have not been analyzed or
andigenous peoples of the Americas tell many stories that describe these theorized together except in the simplest Darwinian sense (ie, notions of
ntimate encounters with natural phenomenon and other-than-human. evolutionary sexual selection). To many of us, however, it is an obvious and
yersons: “Such narratives depict humans, animals, and other nonhuman fertile overlap. Nature is sex, sex is nature, and we are nature, Add Indigenous
reings engaged in an astonishing variety of activities and committed to studies to the mix and you have a potent and possibly “dirty” fusion of theo-
nutually sustaining relationships that ensure the continuing well-being ties and methods. The explicit subject of Indigenous eco-erotics is still on
of the world.’ These stories offer teachings about reciprocity, belonging, the fringe in academia (and in Native communities); yet the actual practice of
communal connections, and essential kinship bonds, it is very old and very common, just more tacit and often hidden or silenced
Tragically, these beautiful stories of embodied connection have been due to centuries of colonial oppression.
demonized and silenced by patriarchal, colonial, and Judeo-Christian ide- As Joanne Barker's introduction outlines, this silence is being broke with a
slogies, and these rich eco-erotic experiences have been suppressed and, plethora of new publications in the area of Native sexualities, with titles such
 as Queer Indigenous Studies, Sovereign Erotic, and Me Sexy."° These radical, re- ary biologist Stephen Jay Gould claimed, “We cannot win this battle to save
cent texts have opened up profound questions and discussions about previ- species and environments without forging an emotional bond between our-
ously transgressive subjects in fresh, insightful, and humorous ways. They selves and nature—for we will not fight to save what we do not love.”5
are a reanimation of the erotic intelligence embedded (and mostly dormant) Walking barefoot on the earth; drinking a cold glass of water; eating a
within Native worldviews, oral literatures, and practices. As Drew Hayden fresh summer peach; breathing in warm air—these basic, often unconscious
Taylor shares inMe Sexy, “Since that fabled age known as Time Immemorial, daily acts are not in fact mundane but are sublime and sensuous eco-erotic
we, the First Nations people of this country, have all been intimately familiar connections to the more-than-human world. If we truly felt this, in our guts,
with our delightful practices of passion, but for reasons unknown, members in our cells, would we continue to poison our soils and water? Mine our
of the dominant culture have other perceptions about said topics.” From mountains? Genetically alter our seeds? I think not. The metaphysics of eco-
the same great text, the Cree writer Tomson Highway provides a “reason” erotics teaches us that we are related to everything through a visceral kinship
for these other perceptions of Indigenous erotica. Highway claims that it and that our cosmo-genealogical connections to all life demand that we treat
is the Christian myth of the Garden of Eden, with its emphasis on human our relatives with great reverence and appreciation.'®
“eviction from the garden,” that disconnects some Eurocentric cultures from This topic is also important because it is an essential part of the decolo-
the human body and nature: “At that moment, the human body became a nization process. Decolonizing the “self” includes decolonizing our whole
thing of evil, and nature became an enemy." Highway claims that under this beings: body, mind, heart, spirit, and more. Decolonizing requires a fierce
myth, humans and the English language became disembodied, or only lo- reexamination of our colonial, and often sexist and homophobic, condition-
cated in the head. Native myths and languages, however, do not cut humans ing and an honest inventory of our pansexual natures and visceral connec-
off from nature and our bodily functions. In fact, they celebrate our fun and tions to the more-than-human world, Reclaiming our eco-erotic birthright
funny body parts and honor human sexuality as a sacred process, The very as human beings and Indigenous citizens requires a peeling away of the colo-
notion of “original sin” injects profound notions of shame into one's relation- nial and religious impositions of patriarchy, heteronormativity, internalized
ship with bodies and sexualities. ‘This religious teaching, although one of oppression, original sin, shame, and guilt (among many other idiosyncratic
many Christian myths and interpretations, was repeatedly and often zeal- layers), especiallyin relation to our bodies and our capacity for intimacy and
ously promulgated in American Indian boarding schools; thus, the critical pleasure. These beliefs are based on a fear of the wild and uncontrollable,
emphasis on healing from it for many Native peoples today. Other Native both in nature and in ourselves. After centuries of oppression, expressing the
scholars, such as Kim TallBear, are examining how “both ‘sex’ and ‘nature’ joy and diversity of our Native sexualities is truly an anticolonial, liberating
and their politics are at the heart of narratives and strategies used to colo- act. Questioning the internalized authoritarianism that denies and demon-
nize Indigenous peoples.” TallBear and I share an interest in “greening” izes our psychospiritual and animal closeness to “nature” is a decolonial and
Indigenous queer theory and investigating how Indigenous stories portray revolutionary act of survivance.””
social relations with nonhumans, Can there be a way to explore Indigenous eco-erotics that embraces the
Tam a Native ecologist, and I am deeply interested in the interrelation- science and poetry of it without falling into the binary of objectivity and
ships and theoretical synergy among ecology, sex, and Native cultures—or, subjectivity? To do this, we will need to create and use new theoretical
put more academically, among the fields of ecology, sexuality studies, and frameworks and decolonize nature itself. Stacy Alaimo has proposed the
Indigenous studies. I am interested in what an Indigenous environmental term “trans-corporeality” as a “theoretical site where corporeal theories and
sexuality study would look like. I may be presumptuous or horribly naive to environmental theories meet and mingle in productive ways.* Catherine
think that a “Native eco-erotics for dummies” manual could lead to a more Baumgartner, an independent researcher, is using biocultural neuroscience
sustainable future for all life. What if every human being—or, at least, a lot to explore “embodied ecologies.” Her objective is to “investigate and under-
more than at present—could awaken to their pansexual nature, to the fact stand the essential role of embodied sensory experience in human relation-
that we are living animals in sensuous interaction with the material fabric ships to the places and ecosystems we inhabit” Her work is showing how
of life that provides us with everything we need to survive? The evolution- critical it is to integrate sensory, emotional, cultural, symbolic, and other
aspects into an embodied sense of place. She is also exploring how place stories transcend many Western binaries such as past and present, original
attachment is key to human health and well-being; yet most people in in- and derivative, and so on. The Anishinaabe scholar Kimberly Blaeser says it
dustrial society have attachment disruption due to removal, dislocation, well: “Native stories are seldom about separate parallel existences but about
migration, diaspora, and general environmental degradation. The cultural intricately linked relationships and intersections.”*5
critic T. J. Demos says, “To ‘decolonize nature’ would suggest the cancella- Numerous Native stories explore these intersections and erotic contact
tion of this subject-object relation between humans and the environment, zones between humans and nonhuman others. The Métis artist and writer
the removal of the conditions of mastery and appropriation that determine Michelle McGeough writes, “Oral traditions often incorporated what Euro-
the connection between the two, and the absolution of the multiple levels of peans considered erotic elements;** In hearing and reading these stories, itis
violence that mediate the relation of human power over the world.” clear that a whole other level of Indigenous sexuality and “carnal knowledge”
Given these theoretical frameworks of trans-corporeality, embodied is happening that is deeply tied to tribally specific understandings of sover-
ecologies, and a decolonized nature, I envision an intellectual ecosystem in eignty, language, relationship, and place. These stories can reveal profoundly
which these different species of knowledge—ecological, critical Indigenous, diverse Indigenous epistemologies of pansexuality and visceral ontologies
and sexual theories and metaphors—can inform and inspire one another of intimacy. I believe that a deeper investigation into these stories can offer
for a deeper dialogue and greater understanding of the enmeshed relations fruitful ways to Indigenize queer ecology, “green” Indigenous erotica, and re-
humans have with one another and the more-than-human world. I contend claim Indigenous erotic intelligence that recognizes women’s (and humans’)
that this multivocal dialogue is essential for decolonization, liberation, and inheritance as pansexual, eco-erotic beings that have ethical obligations to
even the very survival of our, and other, species. As Barker states in this vol- our more-than-human relatives.
ume’s introduction, this collective work “anticipates a decolonized future of ‘These stories often demonstrate Indigenous women’ historically adopted
gender and sexual relations.” role as mediators of kinship with the more-than human world. In this tricky
territory of story re-interpretation and precarious “legibility,” Barker reminds
us that we must “grapple with the demands of asserting a sovereign, self-
Pansexuality in Oral Narratives determining Indigenous subject without reifying racialized essentialisms and
Human nature is a multispecies relationship.—Anna Tsing, “Unruly Edges: Mushrooms authenticities.’ Given these complications, many oral narratives describe in-
as Companion Species” terspecies and trans-species relationships and speak to both their promise and
One significant (and vastly underused) source of insights into eco-erotic their dangers.
According to numerous stories in Native American oral literature, Na-
questions comes from Native oral literatures, the “original instructions” or
metaphysical blueprints for many Indigenous cultures,” These oral narra- tive women have a propensity to fall in love with other-than-human beings.
And I truly mean “other than human’: animals, plants, stars, even sticks
tives often appear as fanciful and poetic stories yet contain insightful “sci-
and rocks, Underwater serpents, coyote men, cloud beings, and even the
entific” observations about ecological patterns and political insights into
social patterns, These stories are deeply significant because, as the Chero- wind have also been gendered and sexualized characters with which Na-
tive women have carnal relations. These personified others have masculine
kee author Thomas King says, “The truth about stories is that’s all we are.”
and feminine qualities, like humans, and many variations in between this
Yet, there really is no “original” here, as stories are told, retold, interpreted,
changed, and transformed over time and place. There is a strange sameness oversimplified gender binary. Within many Indigenous worldviews, it is
and difference each time an Indigenous oral story is shared, much like com- common—dare I say, “natural” —for young women to fall in love with these
other beings: to marry them, make love, and live together as lovers and mar-
plex bird and whale songs.*# As the Okanagan writer Jeannette Armstrong
has stated, “Words come from many tongues and mouths and the land tied couples,
According to modern society's standards, this sounds Indicrous. It sounds
around them. I am a listener to the language of stories and when my words
form I am merely re-telling the same stories in different patterns.”** Native fanciful and downright dangerous, According to the late environmental au-
thor Theodore Roszak, the person who coined the terms “counter-culture”
and “eco-psychology”—the only references to “nature” in the psychologists’ traditional foods and language. She and her seventy-year-old daughters
bible, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (psm-IV) started speaking “Michif” and laughing hysterically! Once I got my mom to
are seasonal affect disorder and bestiality.”” “Funny how psychiatrists are stop laughing, I asked her to translate for me, and she said that the conversa-

set
absolutely inspired when it comes to mapping sexual dysfunction,’ Roszak tion had quickly tured to puns on oral sex.
writes, “but fail to chart the strong emotional bond we have with the natural References to “oral” traditions have led to many wordplays and jokes
habitat.”*8 Humans’ sensuous relationships with “nature” are often considered about kissing, oral sex, flirting, and the “hunt.” Erdrich writes that the word
amental illness. We see this message again and again from modern literature for flirting and hunting is very close in the Ojibwe language. This conjures
(eg. Equus) and contemporary comedians who regularly make fun of tree up the idea that although there are different forms of human desire, the de-
hugging and bestiality. sire for flesh in food and sex may have a similar core root. This alludes to the
Itis true that these traditional stories often do not end well for the women. dangers of the hunt (potentially getting hurt by the “prey”) and the ultimate
Torrid romances with nonhumans are dangerous business. Some women go satisfaction of the conquest of the hunted. This connection also gives new
mad; some die; some are banished to horrible circumstances. Sometimes meaning to the common term “carnal knowledge,” as with anything we eat,
they live happily ever after or make sacrifices to feed the nation. Often they consume, or have sex with, we are engaged in a similar interspecies or in-
create relationship agreements and covenants for a nation to follow. Many traspecies biological transformation of substance and energy with uncertain
live as most married couples, experiencing the usual ups and downs of rela- results: strength or sickness from the quality and metabolism of food; bliss,
tionship dynamics. So why are these interspecies stories so prevalent in Na- pregnancy, or sickness from the quality and communicability of the person
tive cultures, and what are their deeper messages? I assert that these stories “consumed” in sex. In eating food and in sex, two become one, even fora
provide critical insights about humans’ eco-erotic relationship with other moment.
than human beings and that stories about falling in love with a star or a bea- Interspecies and trans-species sex are common occurrences in Native
ver should be considered signs of intelligence about the ethics involved with oral literature. These stories often celebrate the various plants, animals, and
maintaining harmonious and resilient kinship relations. other living beings of a specific territory as teaching tools for educating the
In Animal Spaces, Beastly Places, Chris Philo and Christ Wilbert clearly young about the material environment that provides life—water, air, food,
vutline that human-animal relations are very important for human health medicine, clothing, shelter. Native taxonomies are quite sophisticated and
and often overlooked, They elaborate, “Stories of animals are especially valu- are often more complex than modern biology’s binomial system of species
able in helping their human tellers and hearers to develop their own moral identification.** These elements of the environment are considered animate,
dentities and psychological interiorities”””* In thinking through her relation- living beings, and important relatives that give life, so they are spoken about
ship with her dog Cayenne, the maverick scholar Donna Haraway writes with great respect and reverence, Thus, it is natural to refer to them with fa-
ibout “companion species.” In her Companion Species Manifesto (2000), she miliarity and humor as they embody human traits, both sacred and profane.
uticulates the profound and messy “significant otherness” of human-animal In many tribal creation stories, these different species connect, converse,
‘elations to reexamine species boundary constructions and naturecultures fight, and get together as commonly as humans do. In fact, they are consid-
ma technoscientific era.” The profundity of human-animal relations—and, ered “people” with their own individual and species sovereignty, yet they are
hus, human-nature relations—is finally getting some thoughtful attention, ai] interrelated through creation or what ecologists call “ecosystem dynamics”
ret Indigenous oral literature has always featured such multispecies and or “food webs”: eventually, everything eats everything, So much interspecies
sans-human interactions. co-mingling is going on. Other oral narratives speak about strange, zoomor-
In Native American and Indigenous communities today—and, I assume, phic, mythic creatures, such as Thunderbirds and other winged creatures;
throughout colonial history—there are many boisterous and hushed con- underwater serpents and strange water monsters; the Little People; Rock
versations that hark back to these stories with relished details about naughty beings and underground creatures, Even common, natural phenomena such
pleasures, affairs, and lust. I once tried very earnestly to interview a ninety- as the elements have agency and personality. These “trans-species” beings are
six-year-old elder from the Turtle Mountain Chippewa Reservation about also randy. They, like all these other people, enjoy pleasure and sex.
 Add to these types of sex the trickster character with his or her lascivious tical advice and metaphoric value. | invite you into these messy storyscapes
nature and ability to shape-shift. Tricksters can be transgendered, bisexual, to discern your own understanding about the meaning of these offerings.
polyamorous, and downright horny creatures. The So:lo scholar Jo-ann Ar- In re-telling human-more-than-human marriage stories, I first offer a
chibald writes, “The English word ‘trickster’ is a poor one because it cannot couple of short anecdotal stories to introduce the concepts and some key
portray the diverse range of ideas that First Nations associate with the Trick- elements. I then explore the bear marriage stories because it has global im-
ster, who is sometimes like a magician, an enchanter, an absurd prankster, plications. Finally, I delve into one extensive narrative: a very specific and
or a Shaman, who sometimes is a shape-shifter, and who often takes on popular tribal story from my own Anishinaabeg heritage that has also been
human characteristics.”*5 In many traditions, Trickster takes on a signifi- retold and published by contemporary Anishinaabe writers.
cant spiritual and sacred role. But “trickster’s amusing—and sometimes
frightening —licentiousness is a significant danger to the social fabric.”°* “STAR HUSBAND”
Given the fact that Trickster holds a sacred role and is also a transgressor “Star Husband” is a short story from the Kootenai tradition about a young
of boundaries, including gender and species boundaries, one sees a more woman who desires and marries a star* She is enamored with a particular
open understanding of the fluidity of self, gender, spirituality, and sexualityin star's beauty and wants the “little, nice” star to marry her, Her desire is so
these stories. “Getting dirty” is Trickster’s business, As King has written, “The strong that the little star hears her and takes her to the star world, She realizes
Trickster is an important figure. .. . it allows us to create a particular kind of that the little stars are the old men and the large stars are the young men, and
world in which Judeo-Christian obsession with good and evil and order and she ends up married to an old man, She finds herselfin a cold star world with
disorder is replaced with the more native concern of balance and harmony?” an old Star Husband away from her home country, and she cries. She “wished
Given Trickster’s wanderlust, gender fluidity, dirty nature, and shape-shifting upon a star” and literally got what she wanted, to marry the Star Husband.
ability, it is easy to understand how sex with an other-than-human being She realizes the foolishness of her desire and wants to return to her human
could occur and could be part of an Indigenous eco-erotic repertoire. With world, She is out digging roots with the Star Women, and they warn her not
this outline of interspecies, trans-species, and Trickster sexuality themes, we to dig too deeply by a tree. She does what they tell her not to do, and she digs
can now dive into some of the oral narratives, through the thin layer and sees her home and family down below. She makes
a ladder and lets herself down to Earth to reunite with her family. Her parents
are very happy to see her; they ask about what happened to her, and she tells
Retellings of Oral Stories them. The Star Husband realizes his wife is missing and is not coming back.
‘The stories in this [essay] about... the birth and death of naanabozho, that figura- ‘The young woman and her family go to bed. When they try to wake her in the
tion of a compassionate tribal trickster, have been heard and remembered by tribal
morning, she is dead. The Star Husband struck her down,
people in many generations; the published versions of these stories are various, and a
sense of contradiction is endowed in postcolonial literature.—Gerald Vizenor, Summer This is clearly a warning story about the potential consequences of
in the Spring, 13 womens desire, It dramatically demonstrates the “be careful what you wish
for” idiom, The girl is young and naive; she expresses her desire before think-
Writing about published oral literature is contradictory, at best. These ing about it. Her impulsiveness is enacted, but with dire results. It is unclear
“postcolonial literatures” have been spoken, performed, recorded, trans- whether she is punished for wanting something beyond her sphere or not
lated, transcribed, published, interpreted, forgotten, reinterpreted, remem- wanting the world she was in, These traditional warning stories often remind
bered, dismembered, misinterpreted, and re-written many times in different us of the consequences of not expressing gratitude for the place one finds
contexts and times. They are fragments of orality re-presented here as stories oneself in, This story shows us that impulsiveness and the desire for some-
of Native women’s connections to the more-than-human world. I have faith thing beyond our current world, something “foreign,” can be very dangerous,
that the seeds of these stories were once spoken and performed and passed indeed. It is also a precautionary tale communicating that if one goes to
on through listening, memory, and voice. Still, they are not unproblematic another world (beyond one’s boundaries) and tries to come home again,
“traditional” stories but fragments of perspectives that contribute both prac- things will never be the same. In fact, “coming home” may not be possible.
Through another lens, this story could speak to the familiarity and even af- in these pansexual stories and contributes to a sense of ordinariness with
fection this people had for stars and could be a way to get young people to surprise and the unusual,
look up into the night sky with curiosity and attention.
“THE WOMAN WHO MARRIED A BEAVER”
“STICK HUSBAND” ‘There is a well-known Anishinaabeg story about a woman who married a
‘There is a particularly fascinating story about a Coast Yuki woman who mar- beaver; there are also many other stories about beaver marriages from tribes
ries a stick.>? Yes, a small piece of wood. In the story of “Stick Husband,’ a throughout the Great Lakes, upper Midwest, and Northwest." The woman
young woman lives with her grandmother, who is blind. The young woman lived with the beaver for a long time and had four children with him. He
helps her grandma by fetching wood and water, gathering food, and gener- eventually died, and she returned to the human world to tell humans about
ally taking good care of her. One day while out picking up wood the girl no- the importance of maintaining loving and respectful relations with the Bea-
tices a special stick. “What a pretty stick,” she thinks. Soon after that, the ver nation.
stick rolls up to her and starts following her wherever she goes. She kind of Like all of these stories, the story has many layers. It goes something like
likes it and develops a fondness for the stick. At night when she goes to bed, this: a young woman went out to fast for a vision quest, probably during
it rolls into her bed with her. The next morning she sees the stick roll out of her puberty time. While on her fast she met a human-looking person who
bed and come back with a dead deer, a rare and special gift of fresh meat. The spoke to her and eventually asked her to come live with him. She went to live
girl feeds her grandma this fresh meat and realizes she has to tell her grandma with him and eventually married him. He treated her very well, with good
what has happened. The grandma is very happy about the girl’s relationship food, shelter, and clothing. She soon was pregnant and ultimately gave birth
with the stick. At night the stick started to roll all over the girl: on her body, to four children, She then started to notice odd things about her husband
between her legs, everywhere. Soon she is pregnant and has a baby boy. She and finally realized she had married a beaver, She noticed that from time
then gets pregnant again and has a baby girl. The Stick Husband is good to to time her husband and children would leave their home, which she was
her, keeps her warm at night, and provides good food and shelter. forbidden to leave, and they would meet with a human being. When they
Here we see a young girl having a satisfying relationship with an animate returned from these outings, they were always rich with new items—kettles,
stick being. The grandmother approves, and they have a happy life together. bowls, knives, tobacco, “all the things that are used when a beaver is eaten.”
What is this story telling us about Indigenous eco-erotics, or what is possible ‘The woman soon realized that the beavers were going to the humans to get
for two women in the absence of a man? Is it suggesting that it is normal and these goods, but also to give them their fur; she understood that they were
healthy for a woman to be autoerotic, to satisfy herself sexually with a stick? being killed, but not really killed, because they would come back home with
Is this an Indigenous precursor to the “vibrator,” discovered in England in their gifts. After much exchange like this, the old Beaver Husband eventually
the 1800s? This story of Stick Husband illustrates woman's autonomy from died. The woman returned to the life of human beings and lived to be an old
human man and her ability to live well and satisfy herselfon many levels ab- woman. She often told the story of her experience being married to a beaver
sent a human man in her life. This Yuki narrative also illustrates the profound and always told people to be kind to the beavers and never speak ifl of them,
intimacy a woman can have with a stick, something the modern, industrial because then they would never be able to kill them: “And he who never
world would call an “inanimate” object but that, in the Yuki worldview, is speaks ill of a beaver is very much loved by it; in the same ways as people
a unique “person” with important qualities worthy of a relationship. ‘The often love another, so is one held in the mind of the beaver, particularly lucky
writer and publisher Malcolm Margolin comments on this story, “To live in then is one at killing beavers.”
a world in which everything was animate and had personhood was to live in ‘This story illustrates the important message of “carnal knowledge” of food
a world of endless potentiality. The most common objects around one were and the need to treat what we eat with great respect so it will keep sacrificing
filled with power, intelligence, and even sexual desire, making for a thor- itself for our nourishment and survival. It speaks to the necessity of reciproc-
oughly unpredictable and magical world.“° The unpredictability of nature ity in our physical consumption of other beings. It points out that to live, we
(even its unknowability in some cases) is an important teaching imbedded have to eat; to eat, we have to kill. How do we kill with care? With kindness?
 How is hunting like flirting? Insights into these questions can be found in given Indigenous kin-centric worldviews, the human-bear marriage stories
these human-animal marriage stories, This story also problematizes the usual seem fairly obvious, or expected, There are profound differences, of course,
narrative of the human predator hunting the beaver prey by opening up the between our two species, such as bears’ practicing hibernation and regular
possibility that the beavers were actually using the humans to meet their ma- infanticide, but humans’ mythical and spiritual connection with bears is
terial needs.4* This, sadly, did not happen historically, as the beavers were mysterious, strong, and enduring. There are many rich variations on the bear
driven nearly to extinction by the fur trade. But it is interesting that this story marriage theme, yet most human-bear stories feature a young woman and
alludes to beavers’ agency and this imagined reverse exploitation. This story a male bear. There are some stories, however, that include men who marry
could also be a rationalization for Native peoples’ internalizing and adopt- female bears.”
ing the new materialism of the frontier fur trade and colonial economy for Bear stories by nature are long, involved, diverse, and complicated. The
survival—that is, the beaver was a good exchange for the kettles, knives, king of the land deserves such time and respect. The power of the bear and
and other goods supplied by the fur trade. This story also indicates, like so the global diversity of his or her stories is found in many works.” I am not
many others, that women have a distinct role as mediators between humans going to retell one here.
and other beings and that they are fluid boundary crossers who can enter I do want to share one very interesting aspect of bear stories that I found
and maintain erotic intimacy and economic trade with nonhumans. in many that I have encountered: that bears should not be made fun of, espe-
cially their scat or waste. Bears’ waste often contains seeds from berries and
“THE WOMAN WHO MARRIED A BEAR” other forest foods and bones from salmon and other water and land animals
‘The story of “the woman who married a bear” is relatively omnipresent in and therefore is a critical part of the sacred food web. Bears’ “waste” is actu-
traditional cultures wherever bears are found, especiallyin the deep North." ally a critical part of life regeneration so should not be stepped in, jumped
Bear mythology, art, literature, and rituals are found around the world, and over, or made fun of in any way. Scat contains seeds and creates soil; seeds
one can find human-bear marriage stories throughout North America, South and soil contain and create the groundwork of life.
America, Russia, Siberia, Japan, Europe, and Asia.“* I tell a specific Kashaya
Pomo bear story in the conclusion to this chapter. There are bear clans, bear
dances, bear symbols, bear songs, and many extraordinary stories highlight- The Birth of Nanaboozhoo
ing humans’ deep relationship with bear nations, including Yup'ik and Cree My Anishinaabeg oral tradition has a very important creation story of how
of the north, Maidu in California, Lakota in the Northern Plains, Navajo in our trickster icon Nanaboozhoo was created, Of course, there are many dif-
the desert, and Seneca in the East. Regardless of culture or tradition, these ferent versions of this story, but the basic narrative goes something like this:
narratives speak to the profound closeness humans feel with bears histori- this is the story of how Winonah, the mother of our trickster cultural hero
cally and the exceptional reverence humans have for this powerful creature. Nanaboozhoo, was impregnatedby the West Wind Ae-pungishimook. In the
Some tribes and traditional societies have bear laws that say one can never North Woods of Anishinaabeg-Aki (Ojibwe territory), a young woman lived
eat the bear because he or sheisso similar to humans it would be like cannibal- with her grandmother. It was berry-picking season, and Nokomis, the grand-
ism, Most have profound messages that outline the moral codes for hunting, mother, asked her granddaughter to go to a particular patch to pick a pail or
coexisting with, and consuming bears in detailed rituals. Most Native bear two of June berries. She warned the girl to stick to business and just go there,
stories highlight how similar we truly are as mammals: we are omnivores; pick the berries, and return home before dark, In some versions, the grand-
our skeletal structures are very similar (especially in the hands and feet); mother/mother figure is very specific about instructing the young girl never
we share a walking style (plantigrade locomotion); we are highly intelligent to face the West Wind directly or to turn her back to it while urinating.*° The
and family-oriented: “The Blackfeet word o-kits-iks refers to both the human daughter politely accepts these instructions and goes out to the forest to col-
hand and a bear's paw.” Because of this uncanny likeness, some stories say, lect the berries. She has picked a good pail of berries but knew she should
humans and bears at one time were actually the same. Other narratives say pick more, Just as she sits down for a moment to pause (or pee), she feels a
that humans and bears spoke the same language, Due to this likeness, and strong wind whip up all around her. It is a very boisterous wind that starts to
pull at her clothes and lift her dress, She feels a warm, strong sensation under As the examples show, in some versions of this story the girl is nearly
her dress and then sighs and falls back onto the ground, feeling exposed and raped, This could be a precautionary tale about not listening to your
vulnerable, mother’s warnings about the dangers of men’s lust and power, and their dire
The Ojibwe scholar Gerald Vizenor retells this important story in Sum- consequences. It could also be a reinforcement of certain gender roles, how-
mer in the Spring. In his version, the girl is living with her mother, not grand- ever patriarchal or unjust they may seem to us now, Johnson interprets this
mother, and it is the North Wind, not the West Wind, that takes her. As he encounter in a metaphoric way. He says that the West Direction and the
describes of the scene, “While she was busily engaged gathering berries, the West Wind represent age and destiny. The young woman represents youth
giiwedin manidoo, in a very noisily and boisterous manner, came to her, took and innocence, It is an important life teaching that “age will always ravish
her in his arms and kissed her, fluttered her garments and then departed from youth.” In other versions of this story, the girl has more agency and enjoys
whence he had come. For some time the young girls was overcome with a the experience as a young woman can enjoy being seduced by a powerful
delicious feeling af joy and happiness and she reclined to rest." man—in this case the West Wind. In Johnson's version, Winonah bears four
‘The renowned Ojibwe historian and author Basil Johnson retells a less sons by the West Wind. The Wind, by its nature and definition, is an invis-
romantic and more violating version of this scene: “When Ae-pungishimook ible, immaterial force, Yet wind is deeply visceral and in the stories express
saw Winonab’s little moss-covered cleft, the coals of lust glowed in his loins, attraction, desire, and power in taking the young girl. This communicates that
and without prolonged foreplay or the recitation of sweet nothings, he cast more-than-human natural phenomena have great power and unpredictability
his loincloth aside and humped the girl then and there. When his fire had and that there are appropriate and wrong ways to interact with them, even if
petered out, Ae-pungishimook put his loincloth back on and staggered away, they are invisible.
leaving poor Winonah to manage for herself and to face the future alone. Wi- For contrast, I now share a contemporary version of this Native story that,
nonah rued the day that she had ever seen the Manitou and never expected on one hand, emulates many of the same plot points and character traits of
to see him again.” this Nanaboozhoo birthing story, but, on the other hand, flips some of the
The environmental philosophers J. Baird Callicott and Michael P. Nelson gender dynamics in what Vizenor called a “sacred reversal.” What follows
also retell an Anglicized version of this story: is a summary of one story that is part of the “Potchikoo Stories,” a series
of short stories by the award-winning contemporary Ojibwe author Louise
Now such was the way it was, for it was true that at the time heedful
Erdrich: Potchikoo is an Ojibwe man who is a modern Nanaboozhoo, as
was this woman who was a maiden. Never with men had she intimate
he has a difficult time repressing his hunger for food and women and often
association. But once on a time unmindful became the maiden; so
has to trick or lie to people to get what he wants. But in the end, his heart
when out of the doors she went and afterwards sat down facing the
is good, and he does try to help his community. He had an unusual birth,
west, then heard she the sound of wind coming hitherward. When she
just like Nanaboozhoo: his mother was taken by the Sun in a potato patch,
felt it, she was chilled there at the place of the passage out. Accordingly
and nine months later she gave birth to a potato-looking boy, Potchikoo. His
she quickly leaped to her feet. “o my mother, behold the state that lam
mother’s “pregnancy” was also unique in that his mother was impregnated
in? It may be that what you told me ofis the matter with me”
by the powerful sunlight, much as Winonah was impregnated by the Wind.
In some versions of the story the young woman picks more berries and then Potchikoo lives on the Chippewa Indian reservation in the Turtle Moun-
heads home. She does not tell her grandmother/mother until she starts tains in postcontact times, probably in the 1950s. He, like any good trickster,
showing that she is pregnant. In other stories she feels so distraught and sul- goes through many adventures, and Erdrich writes several wonderful short
lied she heads straight home and tells her grandmother/mother all about it stories and poems about his life and death. In one story, Potchikoo is out
tight away. And in yet other stories, her grandmother/ mother already knows walking in the woods when he sees beautiful smooth stones emerging from
what has happened to her, This “immaculate conception” or “trans-human mud. He finds himself drawn to the stones. He is quite attracted to them and
conception” ofa young Anishinaabe woman by the West Wind gives birth to is aroused by their smoothness. To him, the rocks resemble women's breasts.
one of our most celebrated cultural icons, Nanaboozhoo. He caresses them, fondles them, and grows sexually excited, The rocks are
located in a slough, and the warm mud starts to rise around the rocks. From a Western scientific perspective, specific gravity is highest in rocks
“When the slough rises to his crotch he enters an ambisexual encounter with or things rich in the element of iron. Blood is red because an iron atom is at
the mud and rocks.” In the end, he “makes love to the slough.” As a result the core of our blood cells, just like the iron core of the Earth, making gravity
of this sexual act, three rock daughters are born. One day they go to visit and attraction inescapable. Every free body is falling toward every other; this
their father and bug him, They end up crushing him under their weight and implies a universal force of gravitation as articulated by Isaac Newton and
accidentally kill him. But then he is magically and miraculously revived.” others. Indigenous and other peoples for millennia knew this modern “law
Here we see a man having pansexual experiences with stones and mud, of gravity” as a fundamental “natural law,” a life force of kinship, attraction,
He takes it beyond a multisensory experience into a definitive eco-sexual— and, according to Sakej Henderson's understanding of Mi’kmaq, deep love.
or, more accurately, geo-sexual—experience that results in the birth of three Abram continues, “The gravitational draw that holds us to the ground was
hybrid stone daughters. As Callicott and Nelson write, “Sex is not what these once known as Eros—as Desire!—the lovelorn yearning of our body for the
marriages (or encounters) are all about.”* So what are they about? I attempt larger Body of the Earth, and of the Earth for us. The old affinity between
to answer this question in the conclusion. gtavity and desire remains evident, perhaps, when we say that we have fallen
in love—as though we were off-balance and tumbling through air, as though
it was the steady pull of the planet that somehow lay behind the Eros we feel
Modern Science Confirming Indigenous Sexuality Knowledge toward another person.’® Avisceral, proprioceptive awareness of gravity is a
Many Native traditions refer to the Earth as a Mother. The co-sexual activist critical way to reawaken our eco-erotic nature, For Indigenous peoples mari-
Annie Sprinkles says we need to start thinking of Earth as a Lover? Western nated in diverse, creative, and sexy stories of “deep love” with nonhumans,
scientists have come up with the “Gaia hypothesis,’ based on the Greek story this sensuous definition of gravity is familiar,
of Gaia, which theorizes that the Earth is a living organism that is capable Similarly, the concept of magnetic force tells us that we are all filled with
of self-regulation.® Regardless of assigned gender or relationship, modern little magnets (electrons), but they exert a major force on us and others only
geology tells us that the Earth has a magnetic iron core, and gravity is one when they are lined up, or aligned. Also, magnetism, unlike gravity, depends
of the fundamental laws of nature, Things are attracted to each other; this is on specific properties of objects. ‘The interesting thing about the magnetic
an obvious statement but one that is uniquely reinforced by Native oral sto- force is that it can either pull two objects together or push them apart, de-
ries about human-more-than-haman marriage stories. As Westem science pending on the alignment of the magnets. In terms of eco-erotics, all of the
posits, basically the whole universe, including the Earth and us, is based on Earth (every ecological and cosmological element) has a gravitational pull
gravitational attraction and magnetism. It is about getting pulled into some- on us. This is the basic pull of life and fundamental desire for distant bod-
one’s orbit or pulling someone into your orbit, whether consciously or not. ies; it is a constant, perhaps unquenchable longing. Magnetism, however, is
Most of us take gravity for granted, yet it is a constant force between any a specifically strong yet fickle attraction that depends on mysterious align-
two objects with mass, and it provides our most basic needs and desires: ments, It can create an extraordinary allure, or “animal magnetism,” that draws
feet to earth (walking), mouth to apple (food), head to pillow (sleep), unlikely “people” together on an instinctive, unconscious level. It can then
and so on. As the eco-philosopher David Abram writes, “We now scorn equally repel these same two “people” or “objects.” This kind of magnetic
the ground. Gravity, we think, is a drag upon our aspirations; it pulls us attraction and repulsion on an erotic level provides the ingredients for tor-
down, holds us back, makes life a weight and a burden,” But gravity is a rid love affairs, lust, obsession, and heartbreak, the exciting ingredients often
fundamental force that affects all of life all of the time. I believe that many explored in poetry and literature,
Native peoples were historically aware of this force but spoke of it in dif Our senses are easily attracted and seduced by physical desire: the smell
ferent terms. For example, the Chickasaw law professor and Native science of fresh baked bread, the sight of luscious strawberries, the rare beauty of a
scholar James Sakej Henderson writes, “Kesalttimkewey (deep love) or kesalk person's smile, In the stories shared in this chapter, we see this gravitational
(spirit of love) is a Mi’kmaq concept for gravity, it is like dark matter gravity. attraction between the young woman and the star, a woman and a stick, the
Thoughts [snkita’suti] are like the stars or white light gravity.’ wind and a woman, an old man and smooth stones, and so on, Our senses
and the mysterious spark of erotic attraction become an undeniable force ity (and ability to fall in love without a sexual component) confirm some of
that brings people and energies together—sometimes like a light mist; at the fluid erotic relations Native women have in the various stories shared.
other times like a crashing wave. If women's desires are “person”-dependent rather than gender-dependent,”
Our minds and creative imaginations are also seduced, but by a different and according to many Indigenous worldviews, other-than-humans are con-
type of attraction: by story and metaphor; by the ability to wonder, imag- sidered “people,” it makes complete sense that human women (and, surely,
ine, learn, and know. Stories stretch our minds and provide other types of men and other gendered people) could fall in love and have relationships
desire and fulfillment. Stories can demonstrate powerful types of yearning with “other” people such as stars, beavers, bears, wind, and sticks.
in the human spirit and expand our sense of self. One could say that all at- These Native stories, and some stories from modern Western science,
tractions are based on some form of gravity or urge to connect, The anthro- remind us that humans—as individuals, clans, nations, and species—are al-
pologist Edward T. Hall has said, “The drive to learn is as strong as the sexual ways entangled within complex ecologies and cosmologies and that humans
drive. It begins earlier and lasts longer.’ Others have said that the mind is are eco-erotic, pansexual animals. This is our birthright and our responsibil-
the greatest sex organ. No doubt, humans have an erotic mind, and with ity: to care for other life forms in respectful, reciprocal, and joyful ways. It is a
this erotic mind we are able to transcend species divisions and find intimacy sign of erotic intelligence that has meaningful implications for decolonizing
and connection with countless other-than-human beings. In all fairness to and re-Indigenizing our relationships with the natural world, one that feeds
gravity (and many modern people's feeling toward it), it is also important us literally and metaphorically.
to point out that Nietzsche and other existentialists correlated gravity with Native oral literature and its many stories about interspecies, trans-species,
“the grave” and even “the Devil,” and that there is an equal and opposite ex- and pansexual intimacy are not necessarily about the literal act of sex as we
istential force to intimacy that can pull us toward emptiness and despair.® experience it, although sometimes it could be. As James Mallet, a biologist at
‘These poles of intimacy and loneliness are also reflected in the oral narratives the University of London, has stated, “Sex with another species may be very
shared here, as one experience can quickly lead to the other, and this is the occasionally quite a good idea.””? An article published by Mallet in Nature
precarious nature of magnetic attraction. in 2007 noted that, on average, 10 percent of animal species and 25 percent
Regarding the topic of women's pansexuality and queerness, the devel- of plant species engage in “interspecies sex” in a process known as hybrid
opmental psychologist Lisa Diamond did an extraordinary study following speciation.” This occurs when two separate species mate and produce sexu-
one hundred women over ten years to understand and, if possible, determine ally fertile hybrid offspring that can evolve into separate species. Butterflies
their sexual preferences, Her conclusions state that women have an amazing and bears have successfully mated with other species within their own kind,
capacity for sexual fluidity within our own species.” That is, women can eas- blurring the species boundary and showing that interspecies mating can be
ily flow between the standard categories and identities of heterosexuality and successful for producing new life forms. Mallett states, “it might be worth
homosexuality over time and include other liminal identities such as bisex- throwing the dice every now and then to try for something really weird and
ual, transsexual, queer and “unlabeled.” According to Diamond's study, many see ifit works out.” Apparently, nature does play dice and experiment with
women apparently make little distinction between attraction to men and at- interspecies sex. This is something that Indigenous cultures clearly know
traction to women, and their love and desire are more context-dependent about with the theme of the trickster, and they communicated these possi-
than gender-specific. Many women also can enjoy long periods of celibacy bilities through their zoomorphic, shape-shifting, transformative stories and
or autosexuality with much contentment. images of eco-erotic affairs, Yet this understanding that some species did lit-
Diamond also points out how many women can “fall in love” with other erally mix with each other does not mean that humans should entertain this
women without having a physical attraction or sexual component. This emo- notion of actual sex with other species. ‘These stories tell us we should care
tional bonding is quite profound and includes the usual “love drugs” of the for and love these “others”—whether animal, plant, stone, stick, or star—
brain—dopamine and oxytocin—but does not necessarily spill into a physi- and do so with a sense of ethics and consent. The whole topic of bestiality is
cal or sexual aronsal.* Recent scientific studies about women’s sexual fluid- beyond the scope of this chapter, but it is clear that, “based on the literature,
bestiality—sexual relations with animals has been part of the human race was given the taste for Huckleberries.”* Creator then gave Bear a beautiful
throughout history, in every place and culture in the world.” Many cultures, song, and Huckleberry heard it and fell in love with the song, Creator gave
cluding Native cultures, have strict taboos against sexual relations with ani- Huckleberry its berries and made Bear taste them. Bear fell in love with the
nals, yet like all taboos, they often come from bad past experiences. ‘They taste of the berries. Huckleberry said, “Ifyou want to have my beautiful, tasty
also spark forbidden curiosity, as erotic desire is often fueled by the opportu- berries, you have to sing your most beautiful song for me every time you
aity (thought, fantasy) or act of transgression. want my beautiful, tasty berries.” Bear had a beautiful voice but got stingy
with it and did not always want to sing, Huckleberry warned Bear that ifhe
did not sing his song, the quality of his voice would get worse, and he would
Zonclusion not get his berries. Finally, Bear tried to sing his song, but only grunts and
fwe appreciate the foolishness of human exceptionalism, then we know that becoming ugly sounds came out. Huckleberry had warned him, but he did not listen.
s always becoming with—in a contact zone where the outcome, where who is in the Bear started to cry and throw a tantrum, rolling around on the ground and
vorld, is at stake.—Donna Haraway, Whert Species Meet
kicking up dust. Huckleberry felt sorry for him and finally gave him the right
n these extraordinary stories, sex with more-than-humans may actually to eat the berries, but he still had to sing his song, even in his ugly voice.
ometimes be about sex as we know it, but most likely, sex is a metaphor. Then humans entered the picture and loved the taste of the berries, too. Bear
sexis a symbol for intimate, visceral, embodied kinship relations with other warned them that they could not eat the berries or he would kill them. They
pecies and with natural phenomenon, The “sex,” the “intercourse” (from could eat the berries only if they sang his Bear song to Huckleberry, Huckle-
he Old French entrecours “exchange, commerce; and from the Late Latin berry agreed that humans had to sing Bear’s song to them before taking any
ntercursus “a running between, intervention”), is an emotional and ethi- of the berries or else “old lady Bear will drag you into the deep woods, and
al transaction, an agreement, a treaty of obligations. These often unspoken you'll never come back.”
greements arise out of the ecotone between the sovereignty of humans Humans made an agreement with Huckleberry and Bear. From that
and the sovereignty of other-than-human people. It is the “contact zone” point on, humans agreed to sing Bear's song for the Huckleberries, and
vhere carnal knowledge is exchanged and codes of behavior are learned or Huckleberry would provide its berries for medicine and food, Bear, too,
ostilled. As the Anishinaabeg political scientist Heidi Kiiwetinepinesiik could still sing his song and access Huckleberries, and since humans sang
‘tark has noted, “There is a rich body of scholarship that calls for us to seri- the Bear song, they could all coexist and benefit from the “beautiful, tasty”
vusly consider how nasratives, whether encoded in law or circulated through- Huckleberries.
ut the dominant society and embedded in the national consciousness, shape This story is about “carnal knowledge” in the sense of food rather than
nd inform how we understand ourselves and relate to others.” In other sex, but it is still a type of erotic partnership and includes many of the same
zords, stories create law, and law isa story. Barker affirms that this process is a elements of attraction, desire, “falling in love,” consumption, and agreements
vay of “narrating Indigenous peoples back into their governance, territories, and rules about how natural “people” are to consume one another, It outlines
nd cultures,” a sort of interspecies “treaty” among three distinct creatures that ultimately
For example, in a lovely short story from Otis Parrish of the Kashaya all want the same thing: to eat and be sustained as autonomous beings
‘omo Nation in northern California, we learn about the in-depth “treaty” yet acknowledge their essential interdependence with others. This story, and
etween the bear and the huckleberry and then the humans, This story, like others, shows us that diverse living beings can enter a contact zone” of recip-
aany, is communicated in a song yet outlines a type of territorially and trib- rocal relations with others in which all benefit. As the Potawatomie botanist
lly specific interspecies agreement. It is an example of what Barker calls “the Robin Wall Kimmerer has stated, “We are all bound by the moral covenant
volity of the Indigenous.’ According to the story, when Creator made the of reciprocity:’”” Beyond the utilitarian benefits of these interspecies trea-
vorld, he made it so that some of the plants and animals were paired off to- ties, this story also alludes to the fact that huckleberry bushes and bears can
ether, He gave “Huckleberry the right to be made for food and the Bear fall in love with songs and taste, both immaterial and material offerings. This
explicit acknowledgment of love and attraction to food and songis an essen- is currently being researched by contemporary female scientists, with sur-
tial part of Indigenous eco-erotics. The Jamaican writer and linguist Esther prising discoveries and intriguing theories,
Figueroa proposes that this trope of “romance” is also used strategically as Human pansexuality is queer and polyamorous within our own species;
a way for humans to pay attention and remember these instructions.”® it is also interspecies and trans-species. It alludes to the fact that our cre-
In terms of women’s unique role in forging ahead with these trans-species ative imaginations and animal bodies and senses can be aroused and stimu-
relationships, the stories certainly remind us that women have great curios- lated in erotic ways by other-than-human beings. I call this re-tIndigenizing
ity and complex desires. Cultural and ecological boundaries can be blurry at aur senses by relearning to listen, once again, to the languages of our four-
times, and it is often difficult to know when desires are healthy and benefi- legged, finned, and winged relatives, as well as those of our rooted and
cial and when they are dangerous and potentially destructive. In many ver- stationary kin: the plants and trees and stone grandfathers, Reawakening
sions of the Haudenasaunee creation story, it is Sky Woman's curiosity that all of our senses, including the metaphoric mind but especially our kin-
leads her to look down the hole in the sky and fall through to Turtle’s back, esthetic, visceral sense, helps us remember our primal intimacy with, and
creating Turtle Island. Where would we be if she had not followed her im- fluency in, the languages of the more-than-human world. It is what Abram
pulses rather than the rules? Native oral narratives show us the adventures, calls “becoming animal”—that is, “getting dirty” in a physical and meta-
benefits, risks, and consequences of following women’s desires, and trick- physical way.
ster stories show how ambivalent and complicated our desires can be. In “Getting dirty” means we become fully haman by remembering and em-
these compassionate and often humorous narratives we are warned about bodying our trans-human animalness. This requires a decolonization pro-
lust, greed, and other overly acquisitive behavior. The woman-other mar- cess, because we must question and shed the conditioned beliefs that say we
riages make us aware of the permanency of change when some boundaries are more intelligent than, different from, or better than our animal nature
are transgressed. There are other stories, however, that go to the extreme to and other natural beings (ie, human exceptionalism). Our bodies are filled
warn against insatiable desire and overconsumption; these are the Windigo/ with intelligences that are faster than and beyond the intelligence of our cog-
Wetiko, or cannibal, stories, These stories show, in gruesome ways, that un- nitive brains, Reawakening these intelligences and our intuitive and imagina-
checked desire will lead to greed and cannibalism and a hunger so desperate tive capacities reconnect us to the natural world in ways that can engender
and dark that one becomes a monster. The late Lenape scholar Jack D. Forbes reciprocal coexistence. The Mohawk scholar Dan Roronhiakewen Longboat
linked colonialism to this Windigo spirit.” reminds us that imagination is a place, It is not the exclusive domain ofhuman
These rich stories of independent women also allude to the patriarchal consciousness, and “spiritual and intellectual integrity is achieved on Turtle
control wielded historically in some tribal nations—for example, that women Island by the interplay of human and more-than-human consciousness”®
could be the property of their fathers and husbands and that they needed to This critical interplay of consciousness is mirrored and expressed in these
be watched, controlled, and warned about the consequences of transgressing place-based pansexual stories that outline crucial interspecies agreements
patriarchal rules and protocols. But many tribal nations were equally matriar- and a trans-human concept of nationhood.
chal or women-centered. In these cases, these stories could speakto women’s ‘These Native stories outline the fertility and fluidity of Indigenous imagi-
ability to define their own rules and protocols; to test and break taboos (in nations and remind us that we are always human animal, one of many, made
many cases without severe consequence); and to be self-sufficient, produc- up of dirt and stardust. Gravity is unavoidable. Magnetic attractions are ever
tive, and happy without a human man or with other-than-human husbands present, when the mysterious alignments occur, All life depends on other
and partners. These narratives also illustrate that women have a profound life for survival, regeneration, and celebration. The Indigenous eco-erotics
connection with the natural elements—wind, water, soil—and with plant evident in these oral narratives remind us that humans (and all life forms)
and animal species and sticks and rocks. This is not meant to imply the old, are capable of profound intimacies and transformations ifwe embrace rather
essentialist “woman as nature” trope. It is simply a comment on the diversity than repress our fundamental desires and the permeability of our conscious-
of relations women have in these stories. It could also speak to a unique as- ness. Embracing our eco-erotic nature helps us recognize the generosity of
pect of women’s psychology and fluid sexual behavior that (as noted earlier) creation, and our part in it, so we can truly embody an ethic of kinship.
 33. At the urgings of First Nations leaders who demanded the Residential Schools
NOTES Settlement Agreement, Canada instituted a Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Epigraphs: Stacy Alaimo and Susan Hekman, Material Feminisms (Bloomington: to help support the healing “trath and reconciliation” process of Native peoples from
Indiana University Press, 2008); Alan Watts, The Book: On the Taboo against Knowing the abuses they experienced in residential school. See http:/ /www:trc.ca/websites
Who You Are (Visalia, CA: Vintage, 1989), 83; Anna Tsing, “Unruly Edges: Mushrooms /trcinstitution/.
as Companion Species,” Environmental Humanities 1 (November 2012): 141; Gerald 14. Kim TallBear, “Indigeneity and Technoscience,” blog, http://www:kimtallbear
Vizenot, Summer in the Spring: Anishinaabe Lyric Poems and Stories (Norman: University om.
of Oldahoma, 1993), 13; Donna Haraway, When Species Meet (Posthumanities). Minne- 4s, Stephen Jay Gould, Eight Little Piggies: Reflections in Natural History (New York:
apolis: University of Minnesota Press 2007, 244.1. W.W. Norton, 1993), 40.
2. By “erotic” I mean the “ambiguous space between anxiety and fascination” and 16, Sadly, this perspective is anathema to the prevalent paradigms ofthe day. Many
the heightened holistic arousal of connecting with an “other”: Esther Perel, Mating in political and religious ideologies insist on a type of sexual purity and control of
Captivity: Unlocking Evotic Intelligence. New York: Harper Perennial, 2007, 18, Eroticism women and reproduction that amputates healthy eroticism from daily life. Repres-
is playing on the edge of self and other, certainty and uncertainty, security and danger, sion and denial become the norm, with global capitalism exploiting this void with
power and surrender. bypersexualized marketing strategies, pornography, and, worse, criminal sex traffick-
2. Eating dirt is a long and old tradition and is technically known as “geophagy.” ing and slavery.
Many Native American cultures historically practiced this, especially women, and w. “Survivance” isa critical term in Indigenous studies, It was used by Gerald Vizenor
still do: Carol Diaz-Granados and James R. Duncan, Rock-Art of Eastern North to emphasize both survival and resistance and emphasize a “renunciation of dominance,
America: Capturing Images and Insight (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, tragedy, and victimry” (Vizenor 1999, vii).
2004). See also Marc Lallanilla, “Eating Dirt: It Might Be Good for You,” anc News, 18, Alaimo and Hekman, Material Feminisms, 238.
October 3, 2005, http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Diet/story?id=1167623&page=3; 19, See http://embodiedecologies.moonfiuit.com,
Enrique Salmon, Eating the Landscape: American Indian Stories of Food, Identity, and 20. T.J, Demos, “Decolonizing Nature: Making the World Matter,” Social Text (no
Resilience (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2012). vol./no, found online (March 8, 2015), http://socialtextjournal.org/periscope_article
3. See http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=nirvana. /decolonizing-nature-making the-world-matter,
4. Louise Erdrich, Love Medicine (New York: HarperCollins, 1993 [1984]), 287. 21, Melissa K. Nelson, Original Instructions: Indigenous Teachings for a Sustainable
5. David Abram, Becoming Animal—An Earthly Cosmology (New York: Pantheon, Future (Rochester: Bear & Company, 2008).
2010), 27. 22, Thomas King, The Truth about Stories (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
6, Greg Cajete, Native Science: Natural Laws of Interdependence (Santa Fe, NM: Clear Press, 2008).
Light, 1999); Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More than 1Q 23, See David Rothenberg, Why Birds Sing: A Journey into the Mystery of Birdsong
(New York: Bantam, 2005); Stephen Kellert and E. O, Wilson, The Biophilia Hypothesis (New York: Basic, 006); David Rothenberg, Thousand-Mile Song: Whale Music in a Sea
(Covelo, CA: Island, 1995); David Orr, Ecoliteracy: Educating Our Children for a Sustain- of Sound (New York: Basic, 2010).
able World (San Francisco: Sierra Club, 2012). 24, Jeannette Armstrong, “Land Speaking,” in Speaking for the Generations, ed. Simon
7-Alaimo and Hekman, Material Feminisms, 238. Ortiz (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1998), 181.
8. Alan Ereira, dir, From the Heart of the World, documentary, 38c Worldwide, Lon- 25, Kimberly M. Blaeser, “Like ‘Reeds through the Ribs of a Basket’: Native Women
don, 1990. Weaving Stories,” in Other Sisterhoods: Literary Theory and U.S. Women of Colour, ed,
9. Jalie Cruikshank, The Social Life of Stories: Narratives and Knowledge in the Yukon Sandra Kumamoto Stanley (Urbana: University of Ilinois Press, 1998), 268.
Territory (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1998), xii. 26, Michelle McGeough, “Norval Morrisseau and the Erotic,’ in Taylor, Me Sexy, 59.
10. Queer Indigenous Studies: Critical Interventions in Theory, Politics, and Literature, 27. American Psychiatric Association, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Qwo-Li Driskill, Chris Finley, Brian Gilley, and Scott Morgensen (Tucson: University Disorders, 4th ed. (Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association, 2000).
of Arizona Press, 2011); Sovereign Erotics: A Collection of Two-Spirit Literature, Qwo-Li 28. Theodore Roszak, “Ihe Nature of Sanity” Psychology Today, Vol. 29 (1), January ,
Driskill, Daniel Heath Justice, Deborah Miranda, and Lisa Tatonetti (Tucson: Univer- 1996, 22.
sity of Arizona Press, 2011); Me Sexy: An Exploration of Native Sex and Sexuality, Drew 29. Chris Philo and Christ Wilbert, Animal Spaces, Beastly Places: New Geographies of
Hayden Taylor (Vancouver, BC: Douglas and McIntyre, 2008). Human-Animal Relations (New York: Routledge, 2000), 24.
1, Taylor, Me Sexy, 2. 30. See Donna Haraway, Companion Species Manifesto: Dogs, People, and Significant
12, Tomson Highway, “Why Cree is the Sexiest of All Languages in Taylor,Me Sexy, 38. Othemess (Chicago: Prickly Paradigm Press), 2003.
 31. “Michif” is a language spoken and an identity expressed at the Turtle Mountain Images of the Bear (Lanham, MA: Roberts Rinehart, 2002); Paul Shepard, The Sacred
Chippewa Reservation and other Métis communities in North Dakota, Montana, Paw: the Bear in Nature, Myth, and Literature (New York: Penguin Group/Arkana,
and Manitoba, Canada. The word comes from “Métis,” meaning mixed-blood French 1992) .
Indians, and the language is a mix of Plains Cree, Ojibwe, and Erench: see Peter Bakker, 47. See Rockwell, Giving Voice to Beat, 2.
A Language of Our Own: The Genesis of Michif, the Mixed Cree-French Language of the 48. See Franz Boas, Folk-Tales of Salishan and Sahaptin Tribes (New York: American
Canadian Metis (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997). Folk-Lore Society, 1917), 198-200, quoted at http://www pitt.edu/~dash/animalindian
32. “The same Chippewa word is used both for flirting and hunting game, while Ahtmlasahaptinbear.
another Chippewa word connotes both using force in intercourse and also killing a 49. See, eg, D. A. Clark and D. S. Slocombe, “Respect for Grizzly Bear: An Aborigi-
bear with one’s bare hands”: R. W. Dunning, Social and Economic Change among the nal Approach for Co-existence and Resilience,” Ecology and Society 14, no. 1 (2009): 43;
Northern Ojibwa (1959), quoted in Louise Erdrich, Jacklight (New York: Henry Holt, and Boaz 1917; Rackwell 2002, Pastoureau 2011, Shepard, 1992 cited above.
1984). 50. Interestingly, in some interpretations of the birth of the Greek god Eros, he
33. Luse the term “species” loosely here because it is a Eurocentric social construct. was also born to a West Wind father: see http://wwwheoi.com/Ouranios/Eros
Although it is usually taken asa solid concept in biology, it has been questioned -html¢Birth.
recently asa fixed category: see Donna Haraway, The Species Companion Manifesto: 51, Vizenor, Surnmer in the Spring, 101.
Dogs, People, and Significant Otherness (Chicago: Prickly Paradigm, 2003), On the 52. Basil Johnson, The Manitous: The Spiritual World of the Ojibway (Minneapolis:
exciting new field of “multispecies ethnography” see, e.g, Kirksey and Helmreich, Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2001), 17.
“The Emergence of Multispecies Ethnography,” Cultural Anthropology website, 53-J. Baird Callicott and Michael P. Nelson, American Indian Environmental Ethics—An
June 14, 2010. https://culanth.org/fieldsights/277-the-emergenc multispeci
e-of-es Ojibwa Case Study, 79)
-ethnography. 54. Johnson, The Manitous, 238.
34. This system was interestingly based on Karl Linneaus, a Swedish botanist in the 35. Dean Rader, Engaged Resistance: American Indian Art, Literature, and Film from
eighteenth century whe learned a lot about plants from the local, Indigenous Saami; Alcatraz to wat (Austin: University of Texas Press, 201), 142.
see “The Expedition to Lapland,” http://wwwlinnaeus.uuse/online/life/s_4.html. 56. Erdrich, Jacklight, 78.
35-Jo-ann Archibald, Indigenous Storywork: Educating the Heart, Mind, Body, and 57. See Louise Erdrich, Original Fire: Selected and New Poems (New York: Harper
Spirit (Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2008), 5. Perennial, 2004), 35-$4.
36. Franchot Ballinger, Living Sideways: Tricksters in American Indian Oral Traditions $8. Callicott and Nelson, American Indian Environmental Ethics, 120.
(Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2006), 88. 59. See Annie Sprinkles, “Eco-Sexual Manifesto,” http://sexecology.org/research
37. King, Thomas. One Good Story, that one: Stories (New York: HarperPerennial, -writing/ecosex-manifesto,
1993), xi i. 60, James Lovelock and Lyn Margulis, ‘Atmospheric Homeostasis by and for the
38. Donald Frey, Stories That Make the World: Oral Literature of the Indian Peoples of Biosphere; The Gaia Gypothesis,” Tellus 26, nos, 1-2 (1974): 2-10.
the Inland Northwest (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1999), 160-62. 61. Abram, Becoming Animal, 27.
39.Malcolm Margolin, The Way We Lived: California Indian Stories, Songs, and Remi- 62. James Sakej Henderson to the author, personal e-mail, April 20, 2015.
niscences (Berkeley, CA: Heyday, 1992), 91. 63. Abram, Becoming Animal, 27.
40. Margolin, The Way We Lived, 91. 64, Edward T; Hall quoted in Peter Senge, Schools That Learn: A Fith Discipline
41. See Bruce M. White, “The Woman Who Married a Beaver: Trade Patterns and Resource (Redfern: Australia, Currency, 2000), 4.
Gender Roles in the Ojibwa Fur Trade,” Ethnohistory 46, no, 1 (Winter 1999); 109-47. 65, See Jack Morin, The Brotic Mind: Unlocking the Inner Sources of Passion and Fulfil-
42. White, “The Woman Who Married a Beaver," 110. ment (New York: Harper Perennial, 1996).
43. White, “The Woman Who Married a Beaver,” 0. 66, Nietzsche connects gravity to the Devil, writing, “Especially... [am hostile
44, White, “The Woman Who Married a Beaver,” 111. to the spirit of gravity, that is bird-nature:—verily, deadly hostile, supremely hostile,
4§. See A. Hollowell, “Bear ceremonialism in the northern hemisphere” (American originally hostile! Oh, whither hath my hostility not flown and misflown! And when
Anthropologist 28[1]: 1-175, 1926); and Joseph Campbell, The Masks of God: Primitive I saw my devil, I found him serious, thorough, profound, solemn; he was the spirit
Mythology (New York: Viking Press, 1959), 339. of gravity—through him all things fall”: Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spake Zarathustra
46. See Bruchac, Native American Animal Stories (Golden, CO: Fulcrum Publishing (New York: Dover, 1999), chap. 55.
1992); Michel Pastoureau, Bear: History of a Fallen King (Cambridge: Belknap Press: 67. Lisa Diamond, Sexsial Fluidity: Understanding Women’s Love and Desire (Cam-
20u1; David Rackwell, Giving Voice to Bear: North American Indian Rituals, Myths and bridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008).
 68, Diamond, Sexual Fluidity, 29-20.
69. Diamond, Sexual Fluidity, 173.
70. Mallet quoted in James Owen’, “Interspecies Sex: Evolution’s Hidden Secret?,”
National Geographic News, March 14, 2007.
71. Mallet, James, Hybrid Speciation. Nature 446, 279-83 (March 15, 2007).
72. Owen, “Interspecies Sex.”
73. See Hani Meletski, “A History of Bestiality,” in Bestiality and Zoophilin: Sexual
Relations with Animals, edited by Anthony L. Podberscek and Andrea M. Beetz, Anthra-
2008 Series, (Oxford: Berg, 2005): 1-22.
74. See Etymology Dictionary, http://www.etymonline.com,
75, Jill Doerfler, Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair, and Heidi Kiiwetinepinesiik Stark,
Centering Anishinanbeg Studies: Understanding the World through Stories (East Lansing:
Michigan State University Press, 2013), 262.
76. Otis Parrish, “Healing the Kashaya Way,” in Healing and Mental Health for Native
Americans: Speaking in Red, eds. Ethan Nebelkopf
and Mary Phillips (Walnut Creek,
CA: AltaMira, 2004), 123.
77. See Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Scientific Wisdom, Scientific Knowl-
edge and the Teachings of Plants (Minneapolis, MN: Milloweed, 2013).
78. Personal communication with Esther Figueroa, August 17, 2014. See Figueroa,
Limbo: A Novel About Jamaica. Arcade Publishing, 2014.
79. See Jack D, Forbes, Columbus and Other Cannibals (New York: Seven Stories
Press, 2008).
80, See Joe Sheridan and Roronhiakewen, “He Clears the Sky”; Dan Longboat,
“The Handenosaunee Imagination and the Ecology of the Sacred,” Space and Culture 9
(2006): 365.