yah'wa

Quileute

Noun

yah'wa

1. two-spirit, transgender person, particularly one who wears clothing typical of the gender they identify as

References

• George Albert Pettitt, The Quileute of La Push: 1775-1945 (1950), page 171: "Flora was normal as a child and acted like other girls of her age, but [...] later she changed and tried to be a man. Jack Wynn, aged about twenty-five, was not strictly a berdache (yah'wa) for he did not wear women's clothing. But I was told (I did not meet him) that he tried to act as much like a woman as possible. He curled his hair and never wore a hat or used a gun. He liked to flirt with men and would have little or nothing to do with girls. He was known to have had anal intercourse with other men. He prided himself on being a good cook and on his ability to wash clothes; sometimes he tried to get men to allow him to wash their shirts."