Native American Amazon Warrior

Here is a Tewa story, “Warrior Girl” (1928), from Jim Elledge’s anthology Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Myths: From the Arapaho to the Zuni (Peter Lang Publishing, 2002): Once, “where they were living, lived Pohaha- a girl would not mind her mother or father or uncle.” [Mr. Elledge provides a note indicating that, in Hopi-Tewa traditions, emphasis is placed on the maternal line of family, so "uncle" is a term indicating a family relationship exclusively on the mother's side. As Mr. Elledge explains, "The influence of the 'uncle' comes out clearly in this tale, as well as the relation between maternal family and clan."] This girl, Pohaha- “They were telling her to be a good girl, but she got angry quickly. Then they got tired telling her to be good, so they just let her go.” [Interesting how this story identifies surly, rebellious youth.]

So one day: Pohaha is grinding corn in an angry,  surly, rebellious manner, when “many enemies were coming close to the village.” Her uncle (mother’s side) goes to Pohaha and says that, because she did not mind them and “behaved like a boy,” she must go fight the enemies with the men.

Pohaha lets out a laugh: “HA! HA!” “I am very glad to go! I am anxious to fight enemies!”

She looks around; there is a rattle on the wall. She takes it down and begins to sing. She sings 4 times in the house. When she stops singing, she laughs: “HA! HA!”

She steps outside. She sings 4 times. When she stops, she laughs: “HA! HA!”

She started, and- kind of like Joan of Arc- men started following her. People said, “The girl of the Cottonwood Clan is going to fight!” Some laughed, but Pohaha went on, singing and laughing: “HA! HA!”

Before she engaged the enemies (I love this part): she lifted her dress 4 times to show them that she was a woman (take that, enemies). Then she attacked them, and killed them all. Then she went home.

The people were amazed. She wore a mask fearsome to behold: one side was blue, the other yellow, with savage teeth. “They were afraid of her, she looked strange, she no longer looked like a girl.” “When she went to war, she did not look like that.” But she kept on singing, ending her song with “HA! HA!”

She went into her house, and hung her mask and rattle, her bow and arrows, on the wall. “That is the way that girl became Pohaha!” [Elledge suggests, in interesting manner, that this name is derived from her call, "HA! HA!" combined with "Po"- meaning "wet"; meaning that she was often wet between her legs while fighting. This is the first of some oddly specific details that suggest that the story of Pohaha was originally a biography, turned mythological.]

Her uncles came to see her. They had been talking about her, thinking “that she must be a man.” Her oldest uncle said that, even if she was a girl, “she was a man, too.” They would put her in as Pota’i (war chief). Whenever enemies came, she must be the leader against them. She must watch for the people, guarding and protecting them. Her new duties apparently included the shamanic as well: “If any sickness comes, you have to drive the sickness away from the people. And consider that the people are all your children. Treat them right.”

After that, Pohaha was good, no longer acting as she did before; when it was necessary to go to war, she went first, and killed many enemies. When she died, she gave the people her mask, saying that she would therefore be with them forever: “The mask is me.”

That is why the Cottonwood people keep that mask. A great story, huh, about what (in LGBT lingo) is called an “AG,” for “Aggressive Girl.”