In a similar vein, the belief was strong that no one should not resist spiritual guidance when lead to follow the berdache path (30). This, combined with a level of respect sometimes bordering on fear, lead to acceptance with blind faith that the berdache was indeed a gift to the tribe; someone to be honored and cherished.

Many tribes believed that the person was lead by a spiritual experience into the role. A boy was never forced into the role but rather was allowed to explore his natural inclination (24). They often went through some sort of ceremony to determine their path. Because berdaches were believed to have great spiritual vision, they were often viewed as prophets (42).

The following sentence seems to sum up the overall feeling of the Native American about differences among their people. " By the Indian view, someone who is different offers advantages to society precisely because he or she is freed from the restrictions of the usual. It is a different window from which to view the world."

In 1971, a Sioux shaman interviewed a winkte (berdache). "He told me that if nature puts a burden on a man by making him different, it also gives him a power" (42). The Zapotec Indians around the Oaxaca area in Mexico, staunchly defend their berdache’s right to adopt different gender and sex roles because "God made them that way."(49). The emphasis in defining the role is placed on the person’s character and spirit and not on the sexual aspects. 

Nearly all tribes honoring the berdache status had different names for the roles. Most sources used suggest using the specific name associated with the tribe and this was done whenever possible

The Lakota call their berdache Winktes. The Mohave call theirs alyha. Lhamana is the Zuni word for berdache as is nadleeh among the Navajo. There are literally dozens of others; most being variations on a general root word that is used in a certain geographic area (Roscoe, Changing 213-222). The berdache role also exists among peoples of the Southern American continent and various other places in the world as well. In Mexico, Zapotec people call their berdache ira’ muxe (Williams 49)..

Some Definitions

There are many definitions of being berdache. Some of the many found are listed below.

1) "Berdache has been employed to refer to special gender roles in Native American cultures that anthropologists have interpreted as ceremonial transvestitism, institutionalized homosexuality and gender variance/multiple genders." (Jacobs, Thomas and Lang 4).

2) "…..a berdache can be defined as a morphological male who does not fill a standard society’s man’s role, who has a nonmasculine character (Williams 2)."

3) In 1975, in their book, The Female of the Species, Martin and Voorhies wrote, "sex differences need not necessarily be perceived as bipolar. It seems possible that reproductive bisexuality establishes a minimal number of socially recognized physical sexes, but these need not be limited to two (Roscoe, Changing 123)."

4) In The Zuni Man/Woman , author, Will Roscoe describes the famous We’Wha as "a man who combined the work and social roles of men and women, an artist and a priest who dressed, at least in part, in women’s clothes (Roscoe, Zuni 2)."

Anthropologist, Evelyn Blackwood felt "The berdache gender is not a deviant role; nor a mixture of the two genders, nor less a jumping from one gender to its opposite, nor is it an alternative role behavior for nontraditional individuals who are still considered men and women. Rather it comprises a separate gender within a multiple gender system (Roscoe, Changing 123)."

Suffice it to say the subject is complex and often seems to defy description. There are common attributes, however. These vary from group to group, but a core set of four traits is shared.

Specialized work roles- Male and female berdaches are typically described in terms of their preference and achievements in the work of the "opposite" sex and/or unique activities specific to their identities.

Gender difference - In addition to work preferences, berdaches are distinguished from men and women in terms of temperament, dress, lifestyle and social roles.

Spiritual sanction - Berdache identity is widely believed to be the result of supernatural intervention in the form of visions or dreams, and/or it is sanctioned by tribal mythology.

Same-sex relations - Berdaches most often form sexual and emotional relationships with non berdache members of their own sex" (Roscoe, Changing 8).

The role of berdache was determined during childhood. Parents would watch a child who seemed to have a tendency toward living as berdache and would assist him in pursuing it rather than discouraging him. At some point, usually around puberty, a ceremony would be performed which would formalize a boy’s adoption of the role. One ceremony commonly practiced involved placing a man’s bow and arrow and a woman’s baskets in a brush enclosure. The boy went inside the enclosure that was then set on fire. What he took with him as he ran to escape the flames was believed to be indicative of his spiritual guidance to follow or not to follow the berdache path (Williams 24).

It is important to remember that Indians do not consider this role one that is a matter of personal choice. They generally believe that one who follows the path is following his own spiritual guidance. The important feature here is living a life true to one’s spiritual path. In most cases, a person assumes berdache status for life, but in the case of a nineteenth-century Klamath berdache named Lele’ks, the role was abandoned. He began wearing men’s clothing, acting like a man and married a woman. His reason for doing so was because he had been instructed to do so by the Spirits.