Apr 10, 2016
Dance to the Berdashe, print by George Catlin from the 1903 edition of his book North American Indians, written 1832-1839
In the 1830’s painter George Catlin depicted a dance honoring a Fox-tribe berdache, or i-coo-coo-a. He described him as “a man dressed in woman’s clothes.” An eyewitness to a similar Fox tribal event in 1902 said dance movements included “pretended love-making” between the berdaches and the tribesmen dancing with them.